My Vision for Ebay Heaven for small Vintage /Antique and even small entrepreneurial sellers

[tomuchstuff5]

Image you hit the home page of Ebay and its working, you see this inviting door that offers you the Ebay Original or Classic experience. You click on it and low and behold opens this new world unseen by many of todays buyers, but a fond memory for some that are still here. Many would like to share this experience, but's not here anymore. ;(

There's a search box at the top. You enter you search term a like old pottery mixing bowl and there they are 800 of them, so we add blue and narrow it down. No bike, clothes, dolls, cd came up, so it went pretty fast finding our mixing bowl. 😉 You message the seller and they assure you they can have to you at your location in a week to 10 days, properly packed. You let them know you are looking for the pitcher too. They add it to their list for you and will let you know if they come across one or they see one on here through another seller. I know this seller will work with me if there is something wrong with my bowl when it arrives because we have a relationship and they are my go to for items I want to find and I trust them. I recommend my friends because my experiences have been good. 

That was easy. Now lets pop over to discussions where collectors are comparing collections and discussing whats up for auction. Sellers are discussing finds and not technical glitches , fraud and false INAD returns. 

Somewhere someone starts a conversation of whats the rarest varation of glaze on a particular pottery. A place to educate others about history, what a great home with a community feel. A new buyer just popped in, they are welcomed. A new seller lists and they have mistakenly placed a reproduction up as new , so we educate and encourage research before posting. 

Time to order those couple of items I need for the house that I know a small seller I have dealt with before offers from her home. I know its a little more, butI like knowing she is going to put a little note in thanking me for my business and wishing me well for the holidays. I like to help her in her business too. She refers her friends to our site when they are trying to locate something. 

There is a market for virtually anything, if the person in need can find it. Used to be Ebay was the one place you could count on. 

Dam, I don't mind those fees now, Well maybe the ones for shipping,,,, really hate the FVF shipping fees.

  Ok, I know. I just woke up 😞  

[gracieallen01]

I'm glad I'm not the only one on here who is delusional.

(Yes, and I inhaled, too)

[18704d]

"In other words...you want the ability to find what YOU want, not what ebay wants you to want.

---------------

But if you took a few Marketing courses, you'd understand,

That buyers don't always (rarely) know, why they are buying something...

what real Need they are fulfilling by that purchase.

You don't buy a sports car at age 40, because you want to drive fast,

you buy it because you want everyone to Think, you "Live Life Fast"

There's a hundred other examples.

So when you put in a search criteria here for a specific item you want...

Of Course eBay knows what you Really Want

Right?

Lynn

[tomuchstuff5]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@tomuchstuff5 wrote:

There's a search box at the top. You enter you search term a like old pottery mixing bowl and there they are 800 of them, so we add blue and narrow it down. No bike, clothes, dolls, cd came up, so it went pretty fast finding our mixing bowl. 

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I just did a search for pottery mixing bowl under Best Match.

I checked the first 400 listings and they were all pottery mixing bowls. 

There were no bikes, no clothes, and no CDs. 

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And I just got a result with best match on sterling charm and free ship, GD and free returns were not  first, cut in half with us only. I am flipping back and forth between different features right now.

Didn't test the pottery bowl, was theoretical. Just tried it and glass kitchen chef came up first, however was a new listing that probably didn't quite get sorted in yet, no biggie because everything after it was pottery mixing bowl. I'll take it. 

[tomuchstuff5]

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@18704d wrote:

"In other words...you want the ability to find what YOU want, not what ebay wants you to want.

---------------

But if you took a few Marketing courses, you'd understand,

That buyers don't always (rarely) know, why they are buying something...

what real Need they are fulfilling by that purchase.

You don't buy a sports car at age 40, because you want to drive fast,

you buy it because you want everyone to Think, you "Live Life Fast"

There's a hundred other examples.

So when you put in a search criteria here for a specific item you want...

Of Course eBay knows what you Really Want

Right?

Lynn

---

Starting to sound like some form of cyber subliminal advertising 🙂

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

While I would love to have a simplified back to basics search for vintage collectibles, I would never give up buyer protection. I remember the days of sending a check and getting nothing back. If the buyer negged the seller the seller would neg them back.

There are too many scammers on the internet these days to go back to trusting sellers. Unless Ebay is going to vet each and every seller by hand. What about hijacked accounts? Sellers who die? There is too much risk.

[gramophone-georg]

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@18704d wrote:

"In other words...you want the ability to find what YOU want, not what ebay wants you to want.

---------------

But if you took a few Marketing courses, you'd understand,

That buyers don't always (rarely) know, why they are buying something...

what real Need they are fulfilling by that purchase.

You don't buy a sports car at age 40, because you want to drive fast,

you buy it because you want everyone to Think, you "Live Life Fast"

There's a hundred other examples.

So when you put in a search criteria here for a specific item you want...

Of Course eBay knows what you Really Want

Right?

Lynn

---

It doesn't matter why I want to buy the sports car. That's none of eBays business. 

Just show me the sports car when I search for it.

[gramophone-georg]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

While I would love to have a simplified back to basics search for vintage collectibles, I would never give up buyer protection. I remember the days of sending a check and getting nothing back. If the buyer negged the seller the seller would neg them back.

There are too many scammers on the internet these days to go back to trusting sellers. Unless Ebay is going to vet each and every seller by hand. What about hijacked accounts? Sellers who die? There is too much risk.

---

I've never seen as many scammers as I have been seeing SINCE eBay has been wanting me to trust eBay. Look around the boards. They are full of scams way more than they ever were. Is the $20,000 combine listing still running?

[tomuchstuff5]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

While I would love to have a simplified back to basics search for vintage collectibles, I would never give up buyer protection. I remember the days of sending a check and getting nothing back. If the buyer negged the seller the seller would neg them back.

There are too many scammers on the internet these days to go back to trusting sellers. Unless Ebay is going to vet each and every seller by hand. What about hijacked accounts? Sellers who die? There is too much risk.

---

I believe MBG is a good thing. Don't disagree there at all. I think it leads to a false sense of security on International transactions. 30.00 purchased received INAD most likely will cost 40.00 to send back with tracking to use MBG so it is a waste there. Buyer is either going to lose money all together or pay twice as much for that 30.00 purchase to get a second attempt to get a working or right item. 

I know there have been bad sellers and sure there are still more. Currently we have a bad time with scammers on the other side. Unfortunately sellers cannot vet them. 2 party feedback would only be fair if neither parties feedback were revealed to the other until both had been left. Like a silent auction where nobody at all knows what the top bid is going to be until all bids are revealed ( might be another auction option for Ebay to test, TOTALLY SILENT BIDDING) . That would be fun wouldn't it. 

What I am saying is when you have a continuing or potential continuing seller/buyer relationship there is a more human touch or rapport . Seller does not see you as someone that clicked a button and is potential scammer and buyer knows the seller a little better. Buyer knows seller maybe able to help find other items they want and Seller wants buyer to come back and buy more. Less likely to have problems working out a remorse buy or misunderstanding about a description successfully when its not just clicking buttons. Builds trust , leading to better customer service and buyer confidence. MBG is there for backup. 

I do not  know if you sell or not but the returns situation is a nightmare in vintage. Not bad if its a small easy to pack light item, but a heavy item or complicated pack.... oh, dear.  So much of society is hooked on your clothing type retailers and brick and mortar stores with free returns. If a seller and buyer know each other it is less likely that a buyer will make a remorse buy and then claim that there is something wrong with item. This causes a seller to have to pay shipping to buyer and back from buyer. This could be twice the cost of item, and a sale wasn't even made. Granted it is a small percentage I deal with because I have a no returns policy. It is not that I won't take a return (Ebay doesn't have to force me) This is just to discourage them. I Would rather have buyer be sure they want the item instead of them thinking they can just return it. Almost always return will state INAD instead of changed mind or found for less. This takes what would have been a 20 sale with a profit of maybe 10 dollars into a 30.00 dead loss. That's if your item travels well on the way back. Thank Goodness this is a tiny percentage , it would only take a few to ruin a weeks sales. 

Sadly scammers are on the Internet and things do happen to people. MBG does a good thing there for buyers. 

[gracieallen01]

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@18704d wrote:

"In other words...you want the ability to find what YOU want, not what ebay wants you to want.

---------------

But if you took a few Marketing courses, you'd understand,

That buyers don't always (rarely) know, why they are buying something...

what real Need they are fulfilling by that purchase.

You don't buy a sports car at age 40, because you want to drive fast,

you buy it because you want everyone to Think, you "Live Life Fast"

There's a hundred other examples.

So when you put in a search criteria here for a specific item you want...

Of Course eBay knows what you Really Want

Right?

Lynn

---

Wanna bet?    I did - and because I wanted to drive fast.

And, at 75 I bought a faster one - because I wanted to drive faster!  

[nawlinsron2]

Got a **bleep** in Marketing, sistah...

Rule #1...if you don't have want the customer wants, they'll shop elsewhere.

[coolections]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

While I would love to have a simplified back to basics search for vintage collectibles, I would never give up buyer protection. I remember the days of sending a check and getting nothing back. If the buyer negged the seller the seller would neg them back.

I always wonder when I see these "visions" of two Ebays. Is that what they are visioning; one with buyer beware no returns, and the other is with returns ? I see no reason for the two separate Ebays. When a buyer searches they can narrow the search to new or used. The vintage items are obviously used and I have never had a problem searching used items.

[nawlinsron2]

Apparently, my abbreviation for Bachelor of Science got BLEEPED
This belongs in the Hall of Shame for Overreach

[gracieallen01]

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@coolections wrote:

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

While I would love to have a simplified back to basics search for vintage collectibles, I would never give up buyer protection. I remember the days of sending a check and getting nothing back. If the buyer negged the seller the seller would neg them back.

I always wonder when I see these "visions" of two Ebays. Is that what they are visioning; one with buyer beware no returns, and the other is with returns ? I see no reason for the two separate Ebays. When a buyer searches they can narrow the search to new or used. The vintage items are obviously used and I have never had a problem searching used items.

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One thing to keep in mind when thinking about 2 ebays is that the one with vintage and antique things has items that people 'want'.  They aren't things that people 'need'.

People tend to scam less for things they 'want'.  Things that they need - tennis shoes (oh, excuse me 'athetlic shoes', iphones, cosmetics, etc.) they are going to need to continually replace and it doesn't matter if they are the real thing - just so they LOOK like it.

Things they 'want' - something from childhood, something they became fascinated with growing up, whatever - are something they will keep and find, generally, worth paying for.

There is a very large difference between 'product' and 'MINE!'.

(personal opinion - your mileage may vary)

[coolections]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@tomuchstuff5 wrote:

There's a search box at the top. You enter you search term a like old pottery mixing bowl and there they are 800 of them, so we add blue and narrow it down. No bike, clothes, dolls, cd came up, so it went pretty fast finding our mixing bowl. 

---

I just did a search for pottery mixing bowl under Best Match.

I checked the first 400 listings and they were all pottery mixing bowls. 

There were no bikes, no clothes, and no CDs. 

---

I just checked and they are all pottery mixing bowls except one and that is because the seller lied and wrote pottery in their title.

[gramophone-georg]

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@coolections wrote:

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@luckythewinner wrote:

---

@tomuchstuff5 wrote:

There's a search box at the top. You enter you search term a like old pottery mixing bowl and there they are 800 of them, so we add blue and narrow it down. No bike, clothes, dolls, cd came up, so it went pretty fast finding our mixing bowl. 

---

I just did a search for pottery mixing bowl under Best Match.

I checked the first 400 listings and they were all pottery mixing bowls. 

There were no bikes, no clothes, and no CDs. 

---

I just checked and they are all pottery mixing bowls except one and that is because the seller lied and wrote pottery in their title.

---

You mean the one that's the very FIRST one offered as a 'Best Match'? It figures eBay would pick THAT one to lead the pack, especially given that it has the keywords out of order where the rest on that page do not.

There's no reason for that other than search manipulation by ebay. sorry.