How does payment/shipping work on Ebay?

Did ebay trade work better before all of the new rules?

• It seems to me, like that people tried to do honest business in the beginning, when there were no rules - only feedback. Ebay welcomed everyone, and the feedback either encouraged or scared away bidders. In the hundreds of transactions I did, buying and selling: everyone was nice, and i never felt ripped off, nor tried to rip anyone off. Now it seems as if the feedback is meaningless and the rules are still growing while everyone you deal with is trying to rip you off, and thinking that it is ok, since they beat the rules, or since that the rules allow them to rip you off. Feedback has to be positive now, and paypal offers buyer protection, and it has become meaningless, while the whole site seems to becoming rougish to me. Is there another site that operates the way ebay used to. It seems that it would be quite simple to write one, and that it would work better than the new ebay, just like the old ebay did. Just have buyers and sellers with small sell fees, where the seller's reputation is based on feedback, and paypal can be used if they will co-operate, or use money orders like we did before ebay, and in ebay's early days before paypal in newsgroups, and in our own trade operations. Has someone already done this (what is the web adress?) or am I going to have to do it?

• Answer:

  I think it was better. I used to sell a lot on eBay but became disillusioned with all the new rules.