Sure, there are ways to skirt the regulations -- for instance, my URL is on every board I sell, and is clearly visible in the listing images. I suspect that eventually this will draw attention, and end up with my listings removed or my account suspended. The root of the problem is that eBay blatantly does not care about supporting small DIY hardware projects. I guess they're focusing on trying to compete with Amazon or something. Hopefully it gets more people to alternate venues. Tindie also has other things going for it -- for instance, the international shipping rate calculator actually *works*. I've never once had eBay correctly calculate combined international shipping, even though I've set up rules and rates for it. I always end up having to give a non-trivial refund to the buyer. For example, eBay recently charged a buyer around $60 to send five of my 48T02 repair modules to France! I suspect that part of the "international shipping is hard" bit on eBay is to try and push sellers toward using the GSP, where they make a little more money. Thanks, Jonathan On Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 3:46 PM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
yes, I was thinking something like that, list both places and figure out a creative way, maybe put into the photos a hint where to get more info. b
On Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 3:16 PM, William Dudley via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Here's an idea.
put up an auction for each item.
In the description, put "search for glitchwrks on tindie for documentation".
Bill Dudley
This email is free of malware because I run Linux.
On Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 2:59 PM, systems_glitch via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
All,
I'm moving all of my open source hobby kits/projects to Tindie. I received a nastygram from eBay last night that I needed to remove all external links to my project descriptions and GitHub repos or my listings would be deleted. What good is selling a bare PC board without a link to the documentation and design files?! Anyway, my Tindie store can be found at the following address:
https://www.tindie.com/stores/glitchwrks/
So far, Tindie seems to be better in all ways than eBay, except for of course viewership. Hopefully people will use it rather than shying away from an unknown. The focus at Tindie is DIY/hobby/maker projects, often open source, and often one hacker's hobby efforts. At least the "suggested items" will likely be relevant :)
I did call eBay's customer service, and after wasting an hour wading through tech support hierarchy, I did get a non-call-center manager who understood the problem, but basically said, "your business is important to us, but not *that* important" -- he admitted that not having links to documentation basically made my eBay listings useless, but also admitted that there are no exceptions because eBay is scared someone will sell a $10 item outside of eBay once in a while.
Thanks, Jonathan