Thank you, all, for your replies. I appreciate the information.
I received the chargeback on Saturday, and I am out about $250.
I wound up in the emergency room, then hospitalized for a day because of this. Things haven't settled, but I'm fairly certain that my $8,500 deductible will be met. So, yes, this experience of a lying buyer cost me just under nine grand.
I have about $30,000 of musical instruments which I was going to list, so ebay lost about $4500 in commissions on those. This experience and these comments convinced me to NOT use ebay for any sale over a hundred bucks. In many cases, I will just send things directly to the landfill, which is the opposite of what ebay is supposed to be all about.
I received lots of comments about buying insurance. The ebay shipping system does not allow for that, so that requires a separate purchase with the shipper.
I go back to the days before PayPal, where we got the Buyer's contact information and arranged things between ourselves. I never once got burned in those days. As much as the responders seem to appreciate all this falderal, I have not found it helpful and IT COST ME MONEY, TIME, AND STRESS.
So with all of this, I'm out for any sale over a hundred bucks. Even then, I will first turn to other fora. I recently spoke with someone in the know regarding ebay who said that the user base has shrunk to just over one million people. I doubted that, but now I don't.
Thank you all, once again.
John Zwolanek
Madison, Wisconsin
