The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
When Ebay first came out, it was an amazing tool. Putting up items lying around your house, old items, or even new items for sale and having people bid on your stuff for money. Those people would even pay for the shipping and Ebay would keep a small fee from you. Later on, Ebay would allow most users to start their own stores, and plenty of people found their calling and made enough money to make a living. Then Ebay did something that I sarcastically call the most useful feature, because with it, you can’t even afford a cup of coffee, nor can you redeem it for real cash. What is this awesome feature they have? The Ebay Bucks Certificate.
For those of you who have had the pleasure to hold a credit card or be a member of some exclusive benefits club where you might pay a small fee per year in order to get benefits such as discounts, coupons, or an occasional complimentary free hotel stay somewhere after a rebate or with just the purchase of the flight, you already know that behind the scenes, the places that offered the discounts and coupons are trying to bring in more business, and the hotel stay is a hope that you spend money at the hotel and in the surrounding areas. For this stuff, there really may not be a catch, except the fact that you are paying an annual fee on your credit card and wracking up points. Some credit cards are much better than others. Nonetheless, a good credit card usually offers some incentive for you to keep spending your money so they can continue making money off of you and ultimately, supposedly, your helping boost the economy.
With the Ebay Bucks Certificate, you have to spend thousands of real dollars in order to earn a few Ebay Bucks. Only then can you – if Ebay allowed it – get a cup of coffee. In 2012, the CEO of Ebay, John Donahoe, earned $29.7 million. What did the average Ebay registered member earn? $1.30 of Ebay Bucks. I’m just making up the number, but I’m sure it’s no where near what the CEO made. All of Ebay members registered combined did not earn that much in Ebay bucks. You could probably sell your soul and earn more in Bitcoins than Ebay would ever give you. Seriously though, spend your Ebay bucks or else Ebay will take it and make more money! Win-win for Ebay since if they were not really worth anything in the first place, except a ploy to get you to spend more money on Ebay.
I’m not blasting Ebay for being a horrible company. Ebay has done wonders. I’ve bought and sold many products on Ebay. Whenever I am looking for a good deal, to get something used but working, or just a cheap product, I always turn to Ebay. But this is not to say that Ebay Bucks are completely worthless, useless, and when I get this in my email, I delete it. Sure, I could redeem it at some point. But it usually has a lifetime of one month and I don’t shop on Ebay enough to redeem it. What is $1.30 going to do for me anyway? At checkout, Paypal asks me if I want to donate and I always donate $1 to some charity organization.
So with that — I grant Ebay the Award of the Most Useful Useless Feature a website merchant could offer. I’m sure hardly anyone uses it and by the time they do, it’s already expired.
Thank you Ebay. Thank you for nothing.
PS: I have not bought anything from you in over a month, so I’m guessing I better redeem that coupon above before it expires though I really do not want anything at this time. Guess I’m going to lose out on my $1.30.
