What happened to people making offers and asking questions on ebay?

[perezfan]

In the "good old days" of eBay, asking questions of the seller was common and even expected. The vast majority of sellers were happy to provide prompt answers to any questions/concerns a prospective buyer might ask.

Fast-forward to today, where it is 30/70 (at best) that you'll even get a response. And if you are graced with an answer, it is typically rude, terse or a non-answer. What has happened to people's ability to communicate?

Recent example... We all know that a card graded "3" could or could not have a wrinkle/crease that fails to show up on a provided scan. I personally don't collect cards with creases, and like to request that the seller look at the card (typically if it's graded 2 - 4) to let me know.

You'd think I was asking for the moon. A few sellers will still respond with no issues, but most either ignore the request completely or reply with something like "I'm not a professional grader".

I did not realize you had to be a professional grader to hold a card under a light and disclose whether there's a crease. We've gotten to the point where 99% of sellers' descriptions simply state the number grade and nothing else. At what point did TPG became the word of God?