Well, God still knows what He’s doing. I had a couple questions on my eBay auction over the night. One person I made contact with earlier in the week said he wanted to use it in his photography business. I googled his name and found out his “photography business” was the adult industry. I did not want this computer to be used for that, since it was originally purchased to be used for ministry. I’ve done several videos for my church on it, and I wanted it to continue to be used for what it was dedicated to do. I prayed and believed God would line up the right buyer that was going to use the computer for ministry.

So about 45 minutes ago, I get a “Your Item Has Sold” email from eBay. Yay! Then about a minute later I get a message from the buyer, introducing himself as the pastor of a church in California and that he was buying it so his church could start making videos.

Praise the Lord!

In the end, I am going to pay eBay and PayPal a total of $182.48. Ouch! But… I am so very grateful that the computer sold so quickly. I’ll have enough left over to buy a great laptop and then some. God’s good.

Someone at the Justice Department needs to look into how people are being gouged by ONE company handling both the auctions and the ONLY sanctioned online payment service offered by eBay.

To list my Mac Pro on eBay, it cost me $37. When it sells, its going to add on another $60-70 in “final value fees.” THEN if the buyer isn’t local (please be local, please be local), and they pay via PayPal (also owned by eBay), that will be ANOTHER $70 in fees paid to them.

$37 to list
~$70 based on the final auction bid
~$70 for PayPal's cut
-----
$177 in fees!

That’s equal to the entire six-month insurance policy quote I received on a travel trailer we’re looking into buying.

I think eBay has lost its person-to-person charm. I have used eBay since 1999 when it was in its infancy. It was SOO much better back then. It was a time before every company in the world decided to cash in on the eBay craze. Nowadays its really hard to find items that are sold by actual PEOPLE and not businesses. Personally, I wish eBay would have developed a completely separate business-postings site (ebayscams.com, for example) and left eBay as a strict person-to-person exchange. What it is now is not what it once was, and I miss the good ole’ days. Wow. I’m only 32, and I’m talking about the “good ole’ days.”

But, where else is there to go? Yahoo! gave up on auctions. The other auctions sites have at most a hundred users or so, if that. Sounds like a monopoly charging whatever it wants because it can to me.