A lot of people have asked me to weigh in on eBay’s new authentication system and I’ve held my tongue for a bit as I haven’t yet experienced it. I’m hesitant to list anything lately because it just lo

A lot of people have asked me to weigh in on eBay’s new authentication system and I’ve held my tongue for a bit as I haven’t yet experienced it. I’m hesitant to list anything lately because it just looks like more hoops to jump through. I can tell you, the one thing that I always loved about eBay was that it was strictly a Peer 2 Peer marketplace - there was very little middleman involvement. This, obviously, has it’s pros and cons… 
 
Ever since I’ve been buying and selling shoes on ebay (20 years!), I’ve really only had a handful of *bad* experiences. I think I might have purchased two pairs of fakes *unknowingly* through the years...the first was a pair of Fire Red V’s that I purchased back in 2005 and the @niketalk_com community couldn’t even tell whether or not they’re fake...and the other pair was some Space Jam XI’s I purchased in 2006, which I promptly got a refund for as soon as I contacted the seller. 
 
I’ve had a few issues with people NOT advertising their shoes in the appropriate condition, though, so that was actually the impetus for me to create the Sneaker Grading Algorithm that I created (Shoemetrics).  
 
Overall - these experiences have made me a more discerning buyer and a more discerning seller. I know what to look for now. I know what to stay away from (vague descriptions or shitty pics). I know how to list shoes in a way that makes the buyer happy (undercut your own prices and your buyer will almost ALWAYS be happy). And I know how to appropriate list a pair of shoes (point out each and every flaw, no matter how miniscule).  
 
So this new eBay thing...I get why. It’s for those that don’t know any better. But...for me...it just doesn’t sit right with me. I prefer a marketplace built with trust in mind and I really feel like any time there is a singular point of authority, there is the opportunity for the abuse of that authority. I am not for the authoritarian mode of commerce. I am for the community mode of commerce. To me, it’s just consumers becoming lazy - again - outsourcing their logical capabilities to people they wouldn’t even give a dime to in real life. But...I suppose...we’ll see how this pans out.