What NOT to do as an eBay Buyer (1)

Lesson #1: if a seller does not have the "make an offer" button on their listing, DO NOT MESSAGE THEM TO MAKE AN OFFER.


I'm selling Japan/DokiDoki Crate mix boxes right now on eBay, with some extra items thrown in from Asia/the 80's. They're mix boxes, lots, meaning you do not get to pick what you receive. You can tell me if you like or dislike certain things in general, and I'll try to accommodate, but it's not a "pick what you get" listing.

I even have this detailed in my listings (in bright red to make sure folks see it) as such:
I do not barter or split auctions!

This means what it means: I don't accept offers if the listing doesn't have that button, nor do I sell "part of" one auction for "less". Okay. Now that's out of the way, on to one of the many messages I received about this popular listing.

Message #1: Hi, buy any chance can you do $25.00 for the listing? I will buy right away! Thanks🙂

I ignored this and did not reply, as I'm losing money on these anyway to sell this low and paying the shipping completely out of pocket. It's an actual bargain at the cost. (I updated my listing eventually to add info about this and ask that people kindly do not ask for lower prices as I'm damn near being harassed by a lot of kids). The next PM came as follows:

Message #2: Hi, if I buy this could I have all this stuff, Pokémon Purple plush, hello kitty stamp, loom the loop, some sort of candy, both hoppe charms, somiko garshi stickers, sushi sticky notes, washi tape, breadu squishy, rillakumma squishy and the slipper squishy. Thanks! Let me know if you don't I have the stuff I want in the box. Thanks

I blocked the buyer from bidding on my auctions. Many buyers are shocked this happens to them. I will try to explain why this happened from my (the seller's) point of view.

This buyer:

1 - ignored my very bold, red-colored statement of "I do not barter", which tells me they cannot read or pay attention to details

2 - ignored the general idea about the auction "a lot" of "mystery" things, some of which are depicted in the photos but I clearly explained that the photos were NOT the only things available

3 - asked me to cheapen a deal that is already listed at too cheap for me to make my money back on a lot of these things

4 - misspelled a ton of things, appearing illiterate, in their haste to demand what they wanted

5 - demanded I do what they want, when I have what they want

6 - asked for all the most expensive things they saw in the photos (again, I have lots more that's not pictured)

These warning flags tell me that they most likely will not understand the nature of the listing, and it may lead to them screaming they want their "money back", to screw me out of everything. It has the feeling of a too-young teenager that is demanding while thinking that adding a "thank you" makes it okay to insult me. I need money to pay bills. I will not make money off of these; I need to clear space in my home, and I thought it would be fun and make others happy.

When you sell for a long enough amount of years, you get a cold feeling about the buyers that will cause trouble the moment they contact you. This one had "I'm going to screw you over" written all over them - even if I had caved in and given them even more money's worth of items in their box.

Cultural Appropriation & Halloween

*sigh*

Okay, so on my Google news cards today was a story about Halloween, so I clicked it. The article poo-pooed the "leftist" society* that is screaming that kids that aren't Hawaiian can't be Moana for Halloween because it's - you guessed it -- "cultural appropriation". It's stealing from their culture and it's the worst thing ever.

Oh, and that's NOT the rant, folks, ha! Of course! Because, while I believe this is bullshit PC crap (she's a freaking Disney Princess character for god's sake, let the little girls look up to her and want to be her for Halloween)... the article turned sour. It started off just fine, as I despise people that get too politically correct. There's a thing as taking stuff too far, and if a white girl wants to be a Samoan Princess, then you all should be thrilled that the little white girl WANTS to be her, because she doesn't see that the character has any difference to her. It's how we want society to move - as a whole, not seeing colors, sexual orientation, gender, etc., as anything that separates us. We are all human.

So I'm thinking, 'okay, huh. This seems to be something I agree with...'

The asshole writer says that if he wants to dress up as Harvey Weinstein it's okay.

[ *insert facepalm image here* ]

I mean, I'll defend your desire to do as you wish to the death, sir. Don't get me wrong. But there's a difference between wanting to dressing as someone you look up to although your culture is different and dressing as someone who has destroyed the lives of countless people while remaining of the thought that their lives do not matter.

Dressing up as him to make him look bad, ie., a social commentary on how much of a monster he is... eh. That's a different story. But I think this moron meant actually going as the man who is unrepentant about the terrible things he did.

Again, if you want to be an asshole, that's up to you. But I would hope that whatever party you go to the folks have the common decency that you seem to lack, and boo the shit out of you.




* wik: honestly, the way we split ourselves up is ridiculous, there's not just "black" and "white", "left" and "right" people - and that's the basic problem, and for another rant

* also wik: by the way, I'm dressing up as a sea cow for Halloween! Hooray!