Market Saturation: is there a cure for this plague?

[vintageantique77]

I assume this theme is a horse long ago dead and thoroughly beaten, but I'm feeling social, and want to talk about it with my fellow sellers. Several items I occasion to selling - vintage telephones, vintage photo slides, etc... Have seemed to reach a point of market saturation on eBay.  Just several years ago, some of the items I had listed would have been snapped up in a second, and now they sit for weeks, sometimes months before getting a single watcher. What is the solution to this saturation? How has it impacted you as a seller? Do you think eBay will experience a resurgence in the near future?

[cashvaluerecovery2011]

Millenials can have collection albums on their phones of vintage stuff without paying a dime. Coin and card collecting as example is slowly dying.

Also market saturation i have found usually means ebay is saturated while other markets are not. I just move my stuff elsewhere and do good.

[chapeau-noir]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

The one thing that made Ebay great is that anyone can be a seller. The one thing that makes Ebay bad is that anyone can be a seller. That's why we're at the point we are today.

Yes, everything is flooded, and that's great for vintage buyers, but not so much for vintage sellers.

The gate has been opened, the horse has escaped and he ain't coming back, thanks to the internet.

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Tell that to all the sellers stuck in 1999 who refuse to adapt and want eBay to revert backwards. Without the mega sellers and the new items this place wouldn't stay afloat. This is a large publicly traded company and you can't go that far back focusing on inventory that's saturated in a market with declining demand.

Could some other company pop up as a market for vintage that is selective about sellers they approve based on the quality of items and listings? Yeah, I can see the potential for that to work on a small scale. Sellers won't see sales like they used to be when selling online was something very few attempted and everything posted at auction sold on the first go with multiple bidders. Not for no-longer-hard-to-find vintage items, at least.

Today anybody can download dozens of apps with a touch of the screen, all dedicated to selling. Anybody can flood the market with the contents of their house, their grandpa's house, whatever. We even have apps to give stuff away for free just to get rid of stuff without putting it in the landfill. Buyers choices are limitless.

There's no going back no matter how much people beg eBay. Adapt to the current market or move on. People don't have to like the choices but life is full of lousy decisions.

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Agree.  AFAIK Ruby Lane is such a site - I used to sell on there around 1999, but I recall it being curated and continues to be, and Ruby Lane is not trying to become a mega-billion dollar corp.  eBay's business plan for the last 10-11 years seems to have been based on ego - CEOs who take it personally that they're not the biggest dog in the street. 

As for rolling back to 1999 again, yeah, it's as big a fallacy as thinking that someone will "step in" and "replace eBay". 

[hurryagain]

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@byrd69er wrote:

I was at an estate sale this weekend. I heard a dealer say what I've been saying for years....People don't want this bleep anymore.

She was about to close her shop due to the antiques market taking a nose dive over the past few (or more) years.

I went to another estate sale yesterday. I confirmed to myself....I don't want this bleep anymore either.  Nice stuff, but nothing interested me at all. I didn't spend a dime.

I'm ready to have a pair of pickers return to my home soon to let them have at it. Get this bleep out of here.

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@byrd69er 

Thank you for confirming what I had said in a post about 3 months ago.  The millennials in particular are a generation that is not into collecting "stuff"...they are into collecting experiences.  They would much rather shell out the bucks on a great dining experience, travel, adventure...my sis is a millennial and she is very much this way...she thinks antiques are interesting and beautiful...but in a "not for me" kind of way.

They are socially and ecologically minded.

I love the things of the past...there is such grace and beauty in many of those items that are lacking today.

Even their canned goods...look at the labels 100 years ago...wow, how beautiful compared with what is on the shelves today, and that's just some every day item that one tossed out.

[iart]

Ebay should stop encouraging what I call the Status Sellers, people who sell a few items a year without knowing how to list, price, pack and ship. They drive prices down, flood the markets and often tarnish ebay's reputation as an on-line garage sale (even more).

But the best way to end saturation is to sell more. Advertise, fix the annoying glitches, stop with the major changes until they've been thoroughly tested and start listening to experienced sellers.

[chapeau-noir]

I'm really interested in what's up for this site - with Wenig out there's going to be a shake-up of some kind.  I'd like to see a more focused, simplified direction for eBay, including a more solid IT structure.

[wastingtime101]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

I'd like to see ..... a more solid IT structure.

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Hear, hear!

[earlyant-77]

Tell that to all the sellers stuck in 1999 who refuse to adapt and want eBay to revert backwards. Without the mega sellers and the new items this place wouldn't stay afloat. This is a large publicly traded company and you can't go that far back focusing on inventory that's saturated in a market with declining demand.

So you're OK with saturating the market with cheap chinese junk instead of quality antiques which doesn't saturate the market? Or repops from india and china(which is why i refuse to sell overseas)?

Hit a good live auction, either online or on site, of antiques, primitives, antique/vintage toys and trains and then tell me how auction are dying how those companies won't stay afloat ...............

[penguins_dont_fly]

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@bach4231 wrote:

I’m also wondering how vintage does in the global market? Back in the day, I knew eBay sellers who sold a lot of American vintage to Asian and European markets. 

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Japan used to be my big international location ... that has tapered off (but still there).

Australia was good for me too ... until the automatic 10% GST went into effect.

Lately, my higher-end vintage and antique dishware and crystal is going to Korea.  It seems that the market for that kind of stuff is growing there.

[dhbookds]

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@earlyant-77 wrote:

Tell that to all the sellers stuck in 1999 who refuse to adapt and want eBay to revert backwards. Without the mega sellers and the new items this place wouldn't stay afloat. This is a large publicly traded company and you can't go that far back focusing on inventory that's saturated in a market with declining demand.

So you're OK with saturating the market with cheap chinese junk instead of quality antiques which doesn't saturate the market? Or repops from india and china(which is why i refuse to sell overseas)?

Hit a good live auction, either online or on site, of antiques, primitives, antique/vintage toys and trains and then tell me how auction are dying how those companies won't stay afloat ...............

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saturating the market with cheap chinese junk instead of quality antiques

I've never understood that statement which alot of sellers make.  I search for vintage stuff all the time......never see Chinese stuff..... and I don't use the "used" filter.

[penguins_dont_fly]

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@dhbookds wrote:

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@earlyant-77 wrote:

Tell that to all the sellers stuck in 1999 who refuse to adapt and want eBay to revert backwards. Without the mega sellers and the new items this place wouldn't stay afloat. This is a large publicly traded company and you can't go that far back focusing on inventory that's saturated in a market with declining demand.

So you're OK with saturating the market with cheap chinese junk instead of quality antiques which doesn't saturate the market? Or repops from india and china(which is why i refuse to sell overseas)?

Hit a good live auction, either online or on site, of antiques, primitives, antique/vintage toys and trains and then tell me how auction are dying how those companies won't stay afloat ...............

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saturating the market with cheap chinese junk instead of quality antiques

I've never understood that statement which alot of sellers make.  I search for vintage stuff all the time......never see Chinese stuff..... and I don't use the "used" filter.

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I think it depends on the category.

There are a lot of Brand New "vintage style" and "retro" items listed in some cats (like clothing).

[vintageantique77]

The funny thing is that much of these vintage items that we remember - being from the 60's and 70's, were made in...well....China or Taiwan. I believe this was the beginning of when things were taking off over there. There was still some "quality" to items...but definitely not today! You do see some knock offs, but they are so obvious that only an idiot would take the bite.

[ifyouloveit]

My last vintage dish sale also went to Korea. Interesting.

[penguins_dont_fly]

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@ifyouloveit wrote:
My last vintage dish sale also went to Korea. Interesting.

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It may have something to do with the "Newtro" trend

https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/global-trend-newtro-south-korea 

Although I don't see any millenials going so far as to buy a $500+ covered vegetable bowl (my last Korean Sale) ... but who knows LOL

[gamersbaystore]

That market saturation drives down prices to nothing too. This is exactly what I've seen happen with video games and blu-rays. Because sales are so slow, the value of my games have plummeted. Games I used to sell for $40 are now like $10 or less on average. I look up almost any game and there's like 50 copies for sale, its just not good. And no, it didn't used to be this way.

[uncseniorsportsfan]

Tell that to all the sellers stuck in 1999 who refuse to adapt and want eBay to revert backwards. Without the mega sellers and the new items this place wouldn't stay afloat. This is a large publicly traded company and you can't go that far back focusing on inventory that's saturated in a market with declining demand.

I don't think it is a question of sellers being stuck in 1999 and refusing to adapt.  To me the problem is that eBay has almost completely abandoned its roots for the saturated marketplace of new and made in China merchandise which is Amazon's domain.

While it's true that companies must diversify and change to grow  - they can't sacrifice what made them unique in the process.   AND they must maintain their infrastructure which eBay has failed to do.    eBay should have divided the used/vintage market from new merchandise over a decade ago - as they did previously with eBay Motors 

What once seemed unique and rare when ecommerce and eBay was in its infancy  is less so today.  While what is collectible is changing all the time - that doesn't mean it is a saturated and declining marketplace.   While the baseball card market may have declined - other sports memorabilia have become more collectible. 

I try to avoid market saturation by listing items that don't have much direct competition, and I also list 3-4 items as a lot rather than just a single item - in part because of the high cost of shipping.    

Market saturation is less of a problem than search issues.