The Corner Penthouse

This is another in a series of articles about eBay, who covers up the shady business practices of its sellers, while turning its feedback system into an utter joke. I will do my best to inform the public about eBay's scummy practices and the bad sellers that operate on the platform, so other buyers can avoid them. The issue I will be writing about today has happened to me twice so far, with the latest being from a seller operating under the eBay ID: yos5335

The first time this happened was in May 2024 when I purchased the Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal Xbox 360 game from seller "corork7", who never shipped out the item and never responded to any messages about it. For all intents and purposes, the seller was "dead" and their eBay account was left open when it should have been closed. It took me over two weeks to get my money back from eBay. I never wrote about the incident here on The Corner Penthouse, even though I should have. Now that it happened again a year later, and took even longer to get my money back from eBay, I felt that this issue needed to be addressed.

On July 2, 2025 I purchased a Ghostbusters Afterlife (2021) Japanese Chirashi advertising flyer from Japanese eBay seller "yos5335". It was priced at $3.00, plus $3.00 for international shipping, and $0.52 for New York tax ($6.52 total), which is a price I could not pass up.


After a few days, I messaged the seller to find out when the item would be shipped out and if I would get a tracking number for it. I never received a reply to the messages I sent on July 7th and 9th. Mind you, during this timeframe, all of the other items I ordered, including other Japanese Chirashi advertising flyers from Japanese sellers, were all shipped out. Some of those sellers even messaged me to let me know they were shipped, whether it was with tracking or not. After a week, when I never heard from "yos5335", I suspected that I was dealing with a "dead" seller. That being a seller whose account has been left open, and whose inventory is still listed and could be purchased, but who isn't actively managing the account.


Having remembered what happened last time, when it took WEEKS for me to get my money back, I wanted to avoid that from happening this time. So, on July 11th, I submitted a "cancellation request". If eBay was run properly, this "cancellation request" should have allowed me to have the order IMMEDIATELY canceled since the seller never marked the item as "shipped" after five business days. eBay's e-mail stated that "we've informed the seller that you'd like to cancel this order" and that I "should hear back from the seller by July 15, 2025". I knew that I would NEVER hear back from the seller, but I still had to wait an additional four days.


So what happened on July 15th? I expected to be able to get eBay to cancel the order and refund my money. That's what good customer service would be. eBay doesn't have that. Instead, on July 15th at 2:05 AM Eastern, eBay AUTOMATICALLY DENIED MY CANCELATION REQUEST! Mind you, seller "yos5335" never replied to the request, which should have given eBay reason to automatically approve it. Instead they did the opposite. In eBay's e-mail, they falsely claimed that "we couldn't cancel your order because it's too late to cancel. You should receive your order by July 18, 2025." I knew that I wouldn't, but eBay does not allow me to start an "Item Not Received" case until TWO WEEKS after I placed the order!


Meanwhile, On July 12th, after submitting the "cancellation request", I left negative feedback for "yos5335". I forgot to take a screenshot of it, but it was something to the effect of: "THIS SELLER IS NO LONGER IN BUSINESS. The seller never sent out the item, never canceled the order, and never respond to any messages about it. The seller is likely DEAD. I had to get eBay involved to get my money back." On July 15th, after getting eBay's "Your cancellation request has been declined" e-mail, I decided to check the feedback page for "yos5335", and was surprised to find that my negative feedback was COMPLETELY REMOVED! Not just the text, but the rating as well. It's as if I never left it. So, eBay is deceiving perspective buyers into thinking that "yos5335" is still actively running his business. I've written many times before about how eBay's feedback system is a joke. This is just another example of that.


As for getting my money back on this unshipped item, eBay would not let me start the "Item Not Received" case until July 19th at 3:00 AM Eastern (which is Midnight Pacific Time, where eBay headquarters is located). Yes, I had to wait TWO AND A HALF WEEKS just to START the proceedings to get my money back. It gets worse, as eBay STILL delayed things by making me wait ANOTHER WEEK (to July 25th at 3:00 AM Eastern) to escalate the "Item Not Received" case so they would get involved and actually give me my money back.


Let me restate this in big bold letters: I ORDERED AN ITEM ON JULY 2ND, IT WAS NEVER SHIPPED OUT, THE SELLER NEVER RESPONDED TO ANY MESSAGES, AND I HAD TO WAIT UNTIL JULY 25TH TO GET EBAY TO GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK! That is fucking insane! If a seller hasn't marked an item as "shipped" (and submitted tracking information) within five business days, a buyer should be able to have the order canceled and their money refunded immediately. The buyer should NEVER have to wait OVER THREE WEEKS to get a refund when it's clear that the seller is non-existent. Furthermore, to weed out "dead sellers", eBay should require all sellers to have to verify themselves every month by clicking on a link. If they don't respond, their account should be put on hiatus. If they don't respond after three months, their account should be closed.


I still have no idea why the negative feedback I left on July 12th was removed. It stated that the seller is either dead or no longer active on eBay, and did not ship out the item and reply to messages, which is 100% true. People need to be aware of this fact so that they do not buy from this non-existent seller. The similar feedback I left in May 2024 for "corork7" (for the unshipped Looney Tunes game) is still there, so that proves that there is nothing about my feedback for either seller that goes against eBay's rules.


In a really telling sign of things, I re-ordered the Ghostbusters Afterlife (2021) Japanese Chirashi advertising flyer from a different Japanese eBay seller on July 11th. It arrived on July 24th - the day before eBay let me get my money back on the unshipped one from "yos5335". Meanwhile, as of this writing, Yos5335's account is still open and listing 89 items for sale; including one more of these Ghostbusters Afterlife flyers. Since my negative feedback was removed a few weeks ago, I can't re-post it warn people not to buy from him.