The eBay Monster...

I'm not sure what motivates companies to turn on their patrons, but eBay's done it again. When eBay first started it was a great place to buy and sell: it was cheaper than running an add in whatever local newspaper one has available, and it caters to a far larger audience. Then, at the time it was only about $0.15 to place a basic add. The fees have since doubled, and will soon nearly triple.

I recently received a friendly notice from some chump up in the CEO's office of eBay, claiming that he was, in fact, the CEO himself (which we all know is a load of rubbish). This letter claimed that eBay usually likes to adjust their fees each year and that this year, like all other years is no different. Of course, that means the fees are still going up rather than down, and there's a lorry-load of claptrap double-talking associated with the reason behind it all. Then, who needs to read that far into anything sent out by the eBay propaganda machine; we all know the real reason is greed.

As you've all noted in past, and even at present, I've listed things through eBay before. I will even be listing some things in the near future, but I can't say that I'll be doing business with them after I've finished off that which I've already planned. I'm looking into new options: New auction sites, my personal website, and possibly internet consignments are a few, but I must admit, I've not found anything too terribly promising. Further, even after I've found a new place to sell my ill-gotten loot, I'll likely still collect using PayPal, which, as most people know, is eBay owned.

Something here seems to ring a bell. A distant memory pawing at my kitty mind. Something about people becoming slaves to propaganda and losing themselves to the machine. Something rather 1984ish. Or, if you're a Futurama fan, Momish.

I guess I'm a hopeless optimist, but we felines frequently take the optimistic view on matters. I can't help thinking that sooner or later eBay is going to eat so much of it's merchant's profits that it will choke itself into an abysmal demise. Then, I suppose that is an unrealistic expectation. I mean, we all thought it would eventually happen to Microsoft, too; but they managed to strangle most of their competitors, ethically or otherwise. I'm sure eBay isn't above engaging itself in ethical absenteeism. Virtually no heartless corporation is.

Then, I guess I can't solely blame the heartless corporate demons. It's easy to blame them, but the fact of the matter is that consumers choose to be used. Sellers don't have to stay at eBay; but they do it because they're frequently too lazy to research their options, or once they've researched them they feel that they're hopeless. Buyers don't have to buy at eBay, but they do it because they're sheep to the marketing shepherds. The bottom line is that humans thirty years ago probably wouldn't have put up with such shenanigans. Humans, and sad to say it, felines, have become soft. They like taking what's handed to them, because it eliminates the need to think.

I say! I just had a startling thought! Purrhaps I'm not an optimist at all! Purrhaps I'm just annoyed! I'm annoyed at the way humans run things, at the lack of fairness and decency, at the level of complacency in the world, and at the way I'm fed late on Saturday mornings! Yes, if there something we felines are even better at than optimistic thinking, it's the harboring of annoyance; and I can think of nothing more annoying than paying through the whiskers for a service I could get from somewhere else if humans, and dare I say some felines, would only tear free of the propagandistic tentacles of the eBay monster and shop elsewhere!

Yours Purringly,
W.C. Humphries II (Mr. Fleez for short.)