As a buyer and now seller on eBay for over 20 years things have changed a lot(for the better mostly). Sellers used to get away with not mentioning defects but eBay has changed their returns policy several times over the years and now it favours the buyer heavily. There are people who take advantage of that and it can be very frustrating if you think you have listed any potential problems with an item, especially second hand, spent a lot of time photographing it and describing in your own opinion what you think the condition is(I know there are also a lot of sellers who describe items as C9, and most of us wouldn't give it a 6!!) only for a buyer to state the item is not as described due to something else you either failed to mention or missed. so saying something is in used condition or please look at the photo's can be an easy way of stopping the few people who take the pee and try it on. BUT recently I opened a second account as a precaution due to a warning about an item I had made an offer on and the seller taking it off when I arrived to collect. The new account must be set on some sort of automatic set up as the format is different than my old account when I sold something. When you start selling "in Used condition" is automatically in the description section, eBay put this in automatically, so maybe the sellers are just happy to save time as it is already in the description box. It could also be a way for eBay to reduce the number of returns as they also loose out on the sellers fee when a return is accepted. They have also changed the format for when you return an item, the initial list of reasons they display for the return( changed mind, found cheaper ETC) are not reasons sellers have to accept a return for, you have to click on an extra tab to get the " not as described" or " Wrong item sent" options, which is shitty because if you accidentally click one from the first list, then tough, you cannot go back and change your option,
As buyers we are covered if a defect is hidden from us or not mentioned as there are things you cannot see in a photo, such as the seller smoking forty a day for the past 10 years and the items are pretty much useless as I really struggle to get the smell out( any tips would be great) Personally I still think it is a great buying and selling tool but I am old enough to remember how frustrating it was trying to find Star Wars toys at Toy Fairs
