Death of a small-time Salesman

One of the things that really sucks about being in middle school is coming to the realization that having money is fun and that you're too young to do anything. I remember getting involved with eBay back in 1999.

Yes. That would put me at about age 13. They didn't require a credit card to gain membership, all you had to do was sign up and all I had to do was alter my birthday to 1981. You did need a credit card to sell things and after my dad repeatedly denied me the use of his credit card, I just resorted to the credit card of my eldest sister. My ability to sell on eBay opened up monetary doors for me. I didn't have to wait until my birthday, Christmas, or New Years for money from my relatives, I could make my own money. I was able to sell a set of video tapes for $50, just in the nick of time before VHS tapes pretty much lost all of their value and it became hard to sell them at $0.50 each. I was able to raise about $200 selling my figure collection to get money for college. Money came in all forms, it was nice when it was immediate, through Paypal, but it was also nice receiving checks, money orders, and cash through the mail.

I'm glad I started selling then and that I have some kind of history now because this modern eBay definitely makes it hard to make an honest buck these days. Paypal is basically the only option for payment both ways, receiving and sending. Paypal hold your money for a certain number of days forcing new sellers to front the money to send packages. I don't know who they're catering to, but it's not the little guy, that's for sure. Maybe it's because I've lived in Austin for so long that I appreciate local business. It's kind of depressing going through eBay and not even seeing crude home photos of junk that people don't want anymore. I know a lot of the new regulations had to do with bad seller practices and is seems that sellers are being punished with the new feedback policy and Paypal money holds, consequently, buyers are now instigating bad practices as well, but a business wouldn't dare punish the buyer. What happened?