eBay

inthepastcollectibles · ‎08-20-2018

Pulled up this article regarding eBay and I found it interesting and thought to post it here for other sellers to read.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4200479-facebooks-next-big-opportunity-ebays-worse-nightmare

I particularly found this paragraph of interest:

Facebook with nearly 1.5 billion daily active users, it has nearly ten times the reach of eBay’s 175 million "global" active buyers. eBay makes most of its money charging fees to act as the middleman for buyers and sellers. Facebook’s business model is all about advertising, as 98% of the company’s revenue last quarter came from ads.

It reminded me of the "good old days", when eBay claimed it was "just a venue" and let buyers/sellers interact between each other, instead of micromanaging everything. Having been on eBay at that time, I remember it when eBay had a much more "hands off approach". I also liked the fact Facebook is not trying to charged for everything (unlike eBay) and is more of a communal approach (like eBay use to be).

I do know one thing, which is that many people are concerned about eBay's future as a marketplace and some wishing eBay would be bought out or another company emerge to take its place. Facebook is just the place for the wheel to be reinvented and God knows Facebook has the means and whereforall to do it.

stuff4divas · ‎08-20-2018

@inthepastcollectibles wrote:
Pulled up this article regarding eBay and I found it interesting and thought to post it here for other sellers to read.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4200479-facebooks-next-big-opportunity-ebays-worse-nightmare

Thank u for sharing.

Finally light at the end of ebay's dark tunnel.

stuff4divas · ‎08-20-2018

This is the comment I found of interest:

Facebook could attract more than 25% of eBay’s GMV. As a seller, why would you stick with a company with 175 million sellers and a 10% fee if you could market to over 2 billion users with a lower fee, or none at all?

inthepastcollectibles · ‎08-20-2018

Exactly my point and build your brand/store around friends and make new friends too! I guess this is why seeking alpha titled it the way it did.

richards*rock*collection · ‎08-20-2018

Probably not good for me I don't want to sell anything to my Facebook friends who I consider my friends and so forth, I mean they are people I know in the flesh so this won't work for me....

2013monicatheresa28 · ‎08-21-2018

Amen!

dirk12955 · ‎08-21-2018

As an old dinosaur that does not use Facebook, Maybe somebody can enlighten me.

Ho does a seller offer his goods on Facebook? What's involved? Does a seller need a website?

I've never used Facebook. I thought it was a "Chat" and share venue.

jimw1776 · ‎08-22-2018

I'd like to know too. I'm in different f/b "rooms" but I don't know how sellers get paid, and how far the listings go.
I'll ask someone in one of the rooms

mutualfriendships2012 · ‎08-22-2018

I find it interesting that people wouldn't want their friends to buy from them....just seems a little sketchy to me?

As for Facebook, you have to work at it. I use FB to promote my store and sell off stuff that doesn't sell here. I post in groups as well as my own buy/sell/trade group that I started a few years ago. I don't put a lot of work into to, as it would take a lot of work to do it and money to promote my page and my eBay store through buying ads.

This article makes FB look like a better alternative, but if you aren't willing to learn all new platforms, spend hours and hours promoting and spend money to buy ad space and be much more engaged with your clients, then you aren't going to find it profitable. You will also need to sell enough to make it feasable for shippers to offer you discounts, pay for your ad space, pay percentages to CC prossesors and your time. You are also going to find a lot more competition over there, (especially for used items), since so many people use the groups to sell items locally that will be much cheaper than you can offer to ship it for.

Since a number of people in this forum seem to complain that eBay isn't doing anything for them, yet they are not willing to do for themselves, I don't think FB is ever going to be a market for them. It's twice the work for 3/4 of the earnings at best right now. Plus, word of mouth on FB is VERY loud and uncontainable, so if you are not selling Grade A new or used products, it only takes a few folks to reach millions about not so hot products. So, if you think feedback is unfair here, you haven't seen anything until you have seen a **bleep** off mom blackball the lady who sold her a stinky used baby blanket. Trust me, I have seen people hit rock bottom for selling low par items due to a few torrid customers.

Maybe, a few years down the road, FB will have a marketplace that's more like eBay/Amazon, but for now, it's more of a local selling platform for used items, vintage, furniture, auto parts and tech stuff that do not require shipping. Most of the groups that sell shipped items are a very small buyers venue and a very large lookie lou forum.

fine_find · ‎08-23-2018

Now I'm curious. What 'rooms' are you talking about? Are you in some type of chat room?? Enlighten me as to where you are when you are in these 'rooms' and how do you get there?

I also have avoided Facebook but maybe I should rethink this. Instead of posting pics of myself I could post pics of my things I have available for sale. Now there's an idea that just might work. 🙂

1fishlady · ‎08-23-2018

wickedgecko · ‎08-23-2018

All very true in my experience.

calistas_closet33 · ‎08-25-2018

I’ve had luck with following the buyers..realized it’s not me, but ebay.. so it’s more work to diversify but keeping eggs in a basket that someone is chucking your eggs out of is not worthwhile. I still do sell items here, just now am about 50/50 but have 10x more listings here because I already had posted, so the opportunities exist, and ebay basically is saying “don’t let the door kick you in the a$$ on the way out”..I’m a small seller, but was selling 185k in 2017 here, less than half of that now, and it will keep declining as I cannot focus on one platform nor will I pay more fees for less of everything..