In case my lovely Citizens haven’t noticed, I am now updating my account on Twitter. In the upper right hand corner of the blog you’ll find my last two updates, but follow me during the week as I eat out someplace, go to an event, or have the burning desire to speak to my Citizens immediately.

New toy to geek out with! Yay!

At the risk of sounding like your old Uncle Fred, who complains about the “youth of today” and how he walked to school uphill, both ways, in the snow, with no shoes – I have to say that I was using eBay back when there were very, very few things listed in 1997. I was so excited to find the site – I think it was through Geocities, actually – and knew it was going to be big. (Your Czarina is a bit of a geek. In college I was using Telnet and Usenet. And Gopher. If you don’t know what any of that means, you don’t have the girl geek disease.)

I was a devotee for a long time. I purchased a good amount of our wedding supplies from eBay, and quite a few old books and antiques. Unfortunately, in the last couple of years, your Czarina has been hoping and wishing that someone would start a competing service.

Ebay is simply unfair 1) to sellers, because the fees are absolutely outrageous, 2) to buyers, because the site has become so cluttered with counterfeiters and rip-off artists, and 3) they force everyone to use PayPal, and PayPal sucks. I have experienced all three of these categories and it was deeply unpleasant.

First, I have tried to sell things, and, while I have managed to sell one or two things, eBay’s sale percentage fees came to a substantial amount of the purchase. They continually raise these fees. Then, if you throw in PayPal fees, and shipping fees, it rapidly becomes not worth it to sell. I can pass some of the cost on to the buyer, but do that too much and you won’t be selling anything.

Second, as a buyer, I would love to be able to purchase handbags without having to go through an elaborate authentication process. An entire subforum on The Purse Forum is dedicated to the vagaries of buying on eBay, and the site has detailed information as to whether a bag on eBay is authentic or a nasty copy. I’m not going to get into the ethics of counterfeit bags here (at least today) but your Czarina is against them. I also got ripped off once. I bought a Tod’s bag that was supposed to be authentic, and the seller had lots of positive feedback, but instead it was lousy copy. I wasn’t sophisticated enough at that time to know exactly to what extent bags are faked. Today they are faked down to the zippers. When I brought it into the Tod’s store on Oak Street to be fixed, I read it in their faces: it was fake. I was very embarrassed and that was the last time I bought anything of any value on eBay.

I also like to collect pretty but mismatched teacups. Last year, the last teacup I bought was hideous and not at all as described. And that was the last time I bought anything on eBay. It just isn’t worth the risk, trouble, or money.

Third, PayPal sucks and good luck ever getting decent customer service if something goes wrong. You can find the stories and mine isn’t that much different.

BUT – insert angels singing here – someone heard me and started a new online auction service that’s growing by the day. Meet Bonanzle. It is much easier to use, much easier to find things, and as of now, fees are very, very low or nonexistent. You can even import your feedback from eBay so you aren’t starting all over in the reputation arena. Bonanzle has a little more of a social media aspect to it; you can IM your seller and everyone has a “booth,” including yours truly.

I’m sure some people will disagree with me and say that eBay is still worth it. But for what I need it for, it isn’t. Since customer service and technology that serves YOU instead of enslaving you is what I’m all about here, I’m all about Bonanzle instead. Check it out.