Regards,
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?
@vintageantique77 Good post, great topic ... not a simple answer and not all eBay's fault.
Regarding the two items in specific you mentioned, I've seen them both at numerous live auctions and in numerous quantities ... old telephones: it seems that unless they are a rare color or style they sell for dirt. sold slides: these are usually with someone's old slide projector ... the slide projectors might drive the price up a little but the slides do not seem to have much value.
Anyway, the other issue is the internet browser industry and who has the best algorithm to find and return items in Search. At present, Google has the best Algorithm based on the vast amount of data they accumulate of not just items for sale but services as well. The large browser companies have the ability to block out or displace smaller companies with the shear amount of data they command in the market place AND can manipulate WHAT they return to Buyers in Search. Here in the US there is no "regulation" of this type of situation or manipulative activity whereas the UK has already progressed to creating a government regulatory branch that oversees how browser firms operate on the internet AND if the playing field is level to allow smaller OR new companies the ability to break in to the market ... sort of like an anti-monopoly government group.
One thing that has been determined is that most Buyers purchase or commit to a service company from the first page of items returned in a search. The general thinking is they trust the internet and assume it has returned the best items on the first page.
The above is a very simplified explanation of somethings that are going on around the world as it relates to e-commerce, search engines and browsers.
Another interesting point about ads on web pages is this: I, like many other people, thought that ad placement was based on the company who pays the most for the advertising space when in reality, the browser firms tend to look at ad "quality" for placement opposed to who paid the most for advertisement.
You're on top of it 😉
I listed a bunch of vintage 60's slides once and they got up to 160$. I was floored. I then researched the buyer, and she was selling bulk listings of photo slides that she either didn't like, or didn't need. Her listings sold groupings of random photos for 50$+ a listing....
I listed a bunch of vintage 60's slides once and they got up to 160$. I was floored. I then researched the buyer, and she was selling bulk listings of photo slides that she either didn't like, or didn't need. Her listings sold groupings of random photos for 50$+ a listing....
