The Angriest eBay Seller in the World

As an intermittent eBay seller and buyer myself, I found this post from Techdirt especially interesting:

"Plenty of eBay users have stories about situations when they clashed with someone at the other end of a transaction, whether it was over the terms, something misleading in the description or some other point. However, it appears that some eBay buyers have come across an amazingly angry eBay seller -- who seemed to turn nasty with no provocation at all. When potential buyers emailed him with questions, he turned around and sent them incredibly angry and threatening emails, and then started calling and harassing the buyers (who apparently left their phone numbers). The threatened buyers complained to the police, who did nothing, but a news organization tracked down the guy who claimed that if he got upset at potential buyers, it was only because they threatened him first."

Yikes. And I thought I had some weirdo sellers. The sad thing is that this guy is still on eBay; they don't have a great system in place to kick out people like this, because all you have to do is come back under another nickname.

Here's a few tips I learned from being an eBay seller and buyer:

• Be professional. There are real people behind the computer screens and while sometimes it might be tempting to pitch a fit, it is really not worth it.
• Read the ENTIRE listing. Mr. Web Search is infamous for not reading the fine print, which is why after he was doing the happy dance for winning a USB cable for .01, I pointed out to him that shipping was a whopping $25. And yes, sellers can get away with this, because you enter into a legal agreement of sorts when you bid on an item; which basically means that you have to buy it unless there's a really, REALLY good reason you shouldn't.
• Read the feedback. It always floored me when I would go to the eBay seller message boards and people would be upset about the fact that a buyer with -3 feedbacks had the audactity to steal their money. Or the other way around, when a seller with something like 83% feedback amazingly enough does not follow through for a good transaction. eBay's feedback system is there for a good reason. Use it and you'll rarely go wrong.

Related: If you'd like to find more auctions on the Web, check out my list of the best online auction sites.