Ebay and Paypal continue to surprise me and other ebay community members.

This past year, our local military support group collected 182,000 blank greeting cards and 3200 books for our BOOKIT program for all branch services in the Middle East, Asia and European field stations, including USO's.

BOOKIT provides donated books in good condition, some paperbacks, but a lot of hardbacks so that a soldier can pass it forward to the next reader. In the back of the book are postcards, which a soldier fills out, sends to us, and we try and fill a bookit need for them in future. Once they receive a free book from us, they pass it around. That is how BOOKIT works. Our postal donations are from the sales of the books I sell here on ebay, and is greatly appreciated by our men and women in uniform.

Our Greetings group began when we realised that soldiers in the field could not get good PX service in the card dept. All the good ones were gone or just gone, so we began collecting blank greeting cards, all kinds for our soldiers, which we send out once a month in boxes to the chaplains and medical personnel so they can distribute to soldiers in good and bad health, to contact families, friends, etc. Did you know that a soldier has to PAY for his own CARDS at a px? Unthinkable! So, our group, Greetings 4 Troops collect where ever we can, like yard sales, flea markets, stores going out of business, personal donations.

I recently donated a box of books to a hospital in Germany where many of our wounded are taken fresh from Iraq, and received a lovely thank you note, from one of my ebay buyers. I had sold him a book on diesel engine repair a year before, and here he was, writing to tell me that he had lost his arm, but was determined to become a diesel engine mechanic when he got out of the Marines. What bravery, tenacity, courage! It does make you think about how you affect people you sell books to.

Communication... Ebay and Paypal communicate with me on a daily basis, surveys and questionaires abound in my inbox, but I don't complain. How else can they identify the good and bad if they can't ask. I have been offered other places to sell books from, but I prefer Ebay, because they are international, and frankly their rates are cheaper for me, and thats valuable info for my sales.

Any problems with ebay? For me, no. Recently though, for a buyer, yes. An ebay buyer in fact, who didn't read the listing for a book, didn't confirm an isbn#, bid anyways, didn't follow my instructions for the listing, made demands outside of Ebay, and hence, I had to refund his money in full, and block him. After which I received more emails and threats from him. I have handled this over to Ebay and will see what happens next. I am sure I had a hand in this as well, possibly something in my listing that made him turn into a CRAZED Ebay Buyer... However, his feedback is bigger than mine, with over 50  negatives. I've not been on as long, and have only 2 negative. I wonder though how Ebay feels when they have to waste time with my problems instead of working on bigger fish!

How does ebay affect your life?

Heather

I am quickly approaching my first year with Ebay.

For most of this year, its been a learning experience and after meeting other sellers and buyers, I am glad I am here, even years after it began, and was cheaper to list, etc.

With so many new ways to list, and upload pics, and turbo list, having a chance to have a store, etc. I really enjoy ebay and am glad I am here.

I have tried other online book selling sites, and didn't receive the financial rewards that i have with Ebay.

Recently I had a buyer who felt I wasn't honest with them, sold them a book that wasn't as it appeared. After a month of haggling back and forth, a claim against me was denied and because of all the things I was asked to do by ebay and paypal, I believe its one reason why I won the claim.

I want to thank both customer service depts in Ebay and Paypal for their assistance in this recent nightmare. They stayed in touch, and offered both email and phone assistance.

One of the things you have to consider when you sell anything anywhere, even at a flea market, in store, out of the trunk of your car, is that you have to have a respect for the conseguences of your actions. Someone might not like what you sold them and you have to work it out, resolve it somehow, without making it a personal issue.

Yes, it was all a headache for a month. I went through various likes and dislikes of the buyer, myself for being duped, ebay, paypal and even blamed George W. Bush(lol)

In the end, here I am, alive and well, and back to feeling good about selling on ebay, and making some money to help with my life.

I hope the journey via ebay and paypal are positive paths for me, for a long time to come.

I welcome you're reflections

Heather