Mike, I have a different slant on this.

(1) It's a "buyer's market" on eBay, and in general now, on the common and moderately common stuff. IT IS SIMPLY A CASE OF SUPPLY OUTSTRIPPING DEMAND. And with eBay, more and more things are becoming common, and prices are falling on those items. This is because there are much more non-collector amateur (any household today) and professional sellers than there are collectors of anything. Before eBay, a lot of collectibles were thrown out because the homeowner didn't know what to do with the stuff or didn't want to bother. Some of the stuff was sold to pickers and then to dealers, and it was difficult for the dealers and collectors getting together. Today everything is different: the homeowner can clean out his attic and easily put the stuff on eBay for the fun of it if nothing else. Many such sellers don't even care much about the profits -- they like the action. This makes for a buyer's market -- lower prices, etc.

(2) With eBay and PayPal, the buyer is king -- the helpless seller is at the buyer's mercy. That is, if the buyer acts wisely. His great weapon is the credit card charge-back! He should always try to buy with PayPal using credit card-funded payments. Additionally, eBay and PayPal favor the buyer and help the buyer, probably because they fear a negative press (which loves buyer sob stories) and because contented buyers create eBay's monopoly marketplace. Once there is a great mass of buyers, the sellers will be drawn like a magnet and learn to accept the fraud against them as a statistical cost of doing business. One thing that is terrible about this is that a buyer nobody knows/with no reputation can lord it over a reputable seller with years of experience and great feedback. The eBay-PayPal system makes it easy for a buyer to defraud a seller. To give just one example, the buyer can claim/lie that the goods received were not as advertised (significantly different), and in effect he can keep the merchandise and get his money back (via charge-back if no other way). To me it is awful that the seller can't really force his own terms. He can't make insurance truly "optional" -- no matter what he states in his auction, he is responsible for delivery. In effect, he is forced to pay for delivery confirmation along with insurance, or absorb all the risks. Of course, he can demand a high shipping and handling charge from the buyer, but that discourages sales and is wasteful economically . Enough.