After reading all these threads I wonder about both sides of the issue. I only buy, tried to sell some things but to much of a headache, rather sell them locally on craigslist.
Ebay is like any other business. If you have a local business and someone buys a receiver and trys to hack it and brings it back saying it doesnt work what are you going to do? How are they going to react to your decision based on the transaction. Call BBB, not use you again etc.
Sellers and buyers both need to have the capability of explaining the transaction. When I buy I look at the sellers ratings. I see how many negatives they have and decide if it is worth doing business with them. i.e. they sell 1000 a month have 3 neg a month and see that it is a problem with the buyer. Buyers need to have the option of leaving feed backs on how they received or if they didn't receive the merchandise. I have had some bad experiences with Ebay from sellers who actually committed fraud. Sells 14 high dollar items and doesn't send anything out and used bidpay. Made about 6000 dollars on all of them. Emails for the first week, phone turned off after that.
I like the idea of a more specific feedback system. I don't mind sellers waiting for my feedback, but if I don't get what is expected, can't be rectified, and then leave negative and they leave it because they were not honest with thier listing then there is a problem. Maybe all negatives should go to a dispute prior to being issued, or the option to.
There are alot of good sellers and buyers on ebay, and some fraudulent people. I use it quite often and enjoy the process. If I think shipping is to high, I don't bid. If I think that the price is to high, I don't bid. If they don't take paypal, or credit card. I don't bid. There has to be some common ground that ebay, the seller, and buyer can come to to rectify this problem that they are creating.
I agree with lower fees on initial auction prices. Maybe there should be a flat rate to sell. Why should a seller have to start an auction at 99 cents to keep the initial fees low, and then have to put a high enough reserve price on it to cover paypal and ebay fees.