It's amazing to me that we can no longer leave any negative feedback about a buyer, yet they can rob seller after seller blind.

I sold an item to an individual with over 1000 feedbacks (all positive). After I shipped the item, I looked at their feedback left for others and noticed negative after negative (chargeback after chargeback) about almost anything.

On the surface, this ebayer is the ideal buyer, yet they're a nightmare.

To add insult to injury, there is no way to protect yourself against these sorts of buyers. Neither Ebay or paypal allow cash only (aka e-checks) as payments.

Ebay has been good at protecting the buyer, yet have totally abandoned the honest seller, whom they generate revenue from.

Looks like the only way to protect yourself is using Craigslist or even C.O.D.

Companies like ebay and paypal are a prime example of what's fundamentally flawed and dangerous with the TEAcracker / Loonitarian mindset.

They demonstrate exactly what happens -- time and time again -- when the government 'stays out' and corporations are allowed to crush 'we the people' using a contract and their sheer size. Welcome to Ron Paul's ideal America...

Whereas, other advanced large government nations with consumer protection agencies have these same crooks by the balls and tell them how it's going to work.

We have no protection at all as sellers.

Everyone that has ever sold on ebay have run into these problems where buyer opens a dispute, wins (even though you have the proof), buyer gets money back and keeps item.

You could get a merchant account and link that to your ebay account that way you would not have to deal with paypal anymore.

Step away from paypal and never look back and it will be the best thing you will ever do. You can still use ebay with a merchant account.
So there is still the whole feedback scam to deal with on ebay but at least you'll be protected with a merchant account and have the e-check option.
I signed up with merchantinc a few months back and have never once missed paypal.