Hello, I share this not looking for sympathy, but as a warning in hopes it will prevent others from having to deal with a situation like I’m dealing with right now.

I’m a very occasional seller on eBay, mostly computer parts that I don’t need anymore because I’ve upgraded to something new.  I’ve never had an issue until my most recent transaction.

The buyer alleged that the GPU he bought from me was defective.  The screen shots he sent clearly did not indicate a hardware issue, it was a software issue.  He wanted a return through the eBay money back guarantee as I always mark my sales no returns to avoid such nonsense.

I responded that there was no evidence of a GPU defect, and went so far as to explain what was actually going on and provided links to how to fix it.  No response.  The only options I could see in the return section of the EBay website were to agree to the return or offer a partial refund.  Neither were what I wanted to do, so I informed eBay that I would not be agreeing to the return and why.

In the end they ruled against me and told me they would be refunding nearly $1000 to the buyer from my account.  While I vehemently disagreed with their findings (and complete lack of actual investigation), I figured I would just get the card back, confirm it works fine, and resell it elsewhere.

But now, the option to accept a return is gone, and reading through their polices it looks like because I didn’t initially agree to a return the buyer may not need to ever return the GPU to me.

The only thing I could find to do was appeal their ruling and use that to express my disagreement but state that I want the GPU back before I am charged any money.  I’m waiting to hear back from that but have very low confidence in a good resolution. 

I’m beside myself, it’s bad enough needing to deal with an unexpected $1000 bank account withdrawal, but now I might not even be able to get the item back to resell it.

I’ve messaged the person asking them to return it, but why would they willingly if eBay is saying they don’t have to?

Next step will probably be to get a lawyer to send a demand letter.  I half expect this is a kid based on the games he couldn’t get to work so maybe his parents seeing an envelope from a law firm will smarten him up quickly.

In the end, I’ve potentially got a very expensive mistake on my hands, and I’ll never use eBay again.  I’d urge everyone here to use caution if you’re going to sell flightsim gear or computer components on eBay.  While they claim to have seller protections, it’s clear that the protections are strongly weighted in favour of the buyer.

32 minutes ago, regis9 said:

...........  In the end, I’ve potentially got a very expensive mistake on my hands, and I’ll never use eBay again.  I’d urge everyone here to use caution if you’re going to sell flightsim gear or computer components on eBay.  While they claim to have seller protections, it’s clear that the protections are strongly weighted in favour of the buyer.

Totally sympathise.  I've had mixed experiences selling on eBay in the past year.  I sold a processor and later a graphics card, both at sensible prices, and had quick sales with no issues, and positive responses from both buyers.  

I then sold a high end motherboard which was in perfect condition when it left here, in its original box, complete with protector over cpu socket. I have been building my own computers for more than 30 years, and know how to look after the components.  So I was not happy, when a day after the board was delivered, I had an abusive email from the buyer, claiming I had sold him a faulty board with pin damage to the cpu socket.

It was clear to me he had been careless, either with removing the protective cover, or when fitting his own cpu.  However this was impossible to prove, despite me having taken close up photos of the board, in perfect condition, before and during packing it. 

I knew the cpu socket was undamaged when it left here, but the only option from eBay was to accept a return and a full refund to the buyer who had caused the damage.  So I was left well out of pocket.

47 minutes ago, regis9 said:

Next step will probably be to get a lawyer to send a demand letter

I stopped using eBay for the reasons you outline above.  Doesn’t really matter if you say “no returns”, the buyer always has the right to refund and simply list “item not as described”.

In this case it was a Car audio system with foldout display with GPS, navigation, etc.  (about $2000) … the buyer wanted a refund saying the system would not power on and claiming the installer says it’s defective.  So I asked for contact information for his installer so I can let them know what they need to do per manual (this unit required two power sources, one always-on source and one switched source).  eBay said the wants to ship it back and funds refunded as well as me paying for return shipping … since it was escrow deal that was that (shipped to Florida so was around $45).

I did eventually get the unit back from the buyer (they have X number of days to provide eBay with proof of shipping number).  Because the buyer gave a bad review of my account, I went to the trouble to produce a video of the unit working (post return) and how it requires two power sources.  Didn’t matter at all, eBay don’t care, buyer doesn’t care.  Fortunately the transaction only cost me shipping (both ways so I was only out about $100).

My other experience with eBay was selling a Mackie control surface (motorized mixer).  The buyer received it and claimed it wasn’t working on his Mac.  I told him the manual goes over how to setup the Mackie so as to work on a Mac and you need to set the Mackie into a specific mode for Mac and the audio software being used … sent him details on how to do it.

He came back saying … drum roll … “item not as described”.  Again no returns but I knew that was pointless and the buyer wanted a refund.  So I agreed to return and then nothing … the buyer never provide any return shipping information to eBay so eventually the escrow funds were deposited into my account.  What probably happened is that he did actually figure out how to setup the control surface with his DAW and elected to keep it and not communicate.

I stopped using eBay, just way too much risk/hassle.  I now use craigslist and always face to face local sales, have been HUGELY successful with craigslist and met some great buyers along the way with similar passions.

My advice, don’t waste your time on a lawyer, simple threatening letter will cost you $550-$1000 and the letter has no real legal clout behind it … just an expensive scare letter.  

Rob.

Thanks for those responses, great illustrations of how awful of a platform eBay is.  Hopefully others can benefit from our experiences.  I’m honestly at a point where I’ll keep everything I replace stored as a backup until it’s really obsolete then I’ll chuck it. Not worth this headache and giving someone else the satisfaction of a free RTX4080.

A couple of other alternatives if you don’t want to sell are:

1.  Give it away and get donation tax credits

2. Donate to a school or other institution … you’ll be amazed at how much joy you can bring to someone else less fortunate.  I did this recently with a coworker, gave him one of my older computers (Intel 7900X + 3TB SSDs, 64GB RAM, nVidia 3060) and he gave it to his son who was thrilled and could play games he couldn’t play before.  So your old equipment/tech can be someone else’s treasure.

For your 4080, I’d still try to get a hold of someone at eBay and escalate … you should be getting your GPU back … ask them how long they have to provide shipping notification. 

Edited October 29, 2025Oct 29 by SayAgain

Those are great ideas, sometimes it’s easy to forget how much happiness what seems old to me could bring others.  If there’s a positive I can draw from this mess, that’s it.

I’m going to keep hammering eBay on the return too.  Unless the buyer did something to it, I know it’s perfectly fine.