i began using ebay back in 1998, before they offered stock options. you could say, because of the amount of auctions i had (100's), i was someone who helped ebay grow. back then, it was truly the best place to sell things online, and get real market value for what you had. unfortunately today, ebay is not what it was back then. it's filled with fraud on both sides; the sellers and the buyers. you know what they say; screw me once shame on you. screw me twice shame on me. screw me three times and i'm an idiot. well, i was screwed more than 3 times and decided i would never use ebay again. the biggest reason for that is, their use and endorsement of paypal. as a seller, i was burned a couple of times by using paypal; lost what i sold and the money. as a buyer, i had no recourse for refunds for misrepresented items...that was back in 2004 and i never went back. i refuse to have anything to do with them, paypal or ebay, because they didnt care about their sellers misrepresenting themselves and they didnt care about the buyers who got ripped off. and its kind of sad really, because ebay is so popular and i have so many things i could be selling. i've not been to ebay in years but i hear horror stories all the time about people being ripped off by paypal, and ebay stays out of it. i wonder how many people are aware, that paypal is not a bank. i never liked the idea that a company, thats not a bank, was handling my money. back when i first started on ebay, every single auction i had, was postal money order only. not many complained. from what i hear today, you can't request that anymore in your descriptions (maybe i'm wrong on that?) but what i do see is, there seems to be a growing number of people who are finally beginning to see, that simply sitting in your chairs and clicking your payments away, or accepting immediate payments with paypay, is not always the best way to handle the sale. i wish, i wish people would "stop" using paypal and put them out of business. complaints do not seem to be doing anything to stop what they do. didn't ebay buy paypal a few years ago? that might be why ebay and paypal seemed to be so supportive of each other and do nothing to stop what they do. is there any other auction site out there today, that takes what ebay used to be, and brings it today, without all the fraud involved? i'd really like to know, because i am a true fan of the $1 auctions, even on $100 items...ebay was a great place back when it first began. but today, it's out grown it's welcome. would someone please create a site that represents what ebay used to be, for the individuals and not the businesses? i've not seen one yet that has the same popularity that ebay had. i'd really like to see them go out of business. they took a good thing, and their greed ruined it.