Recently I've noticed a trend for EBay members to suggest making a transaction outside of EBay. I guess it's the natural tendency for people to try to get a bargain and, indeed, this is the main reason EBay exists in the first place. However, without being too melodramatic, "What does it profit a man to gain the world but lose his soul?"

First, let me say that most of my sales are outside of EBay with customers that I work with on a regular basis here in the Pittsburgh, PA area. I started using EBay to sell excess inventory and to add a little extra income to my bottom line. I don’t direct any of my local customers to shop my Auctiva Store on EBay nor do I suggest to any potential EBay bidders that they might do better if they went outside of the EBay market.

Like many other EBay sellers, I started out buying things on EBay. I’ve found it to be an excellent source for many things that I use both personally and in my business. In fact, most of the hardware for my file server came from various vendors on EBay and I have occasionally turned to the EBay market place to find items that I can not find anywhere else.

I think EBay is a wonderful tool to reach potential customers that I would otherwise never have the opportunity to sell to. While some may argue about their fee structure, you can not dispute the fact that they, like every business, need to make a profit. I will not consider ending an auction early to give someone an unfair purchasing advantage nor will I consider questions about “my best price” after an auction has ended with the item unsold. The item was listed on EBay and they deserve to get compensated for their service.