Is Mercari and Others Eating Ebay’s Lunch?
How can Ebay continue to raise fees for sellers while traffic and sales decline and so much competition is out there?
Example For Sellers:
Mercari sellers pay 0% fees. Cash out fees: $2.00 per direct deposit or $3.00 per instant pay transfer.
Ebay sellers pay $0.35 after free insertion fees and in most categories minimum 13.25% - 15% FVF plus store fees, promotion ad fees, and other upgrade fees.
Example For Buyers:
Mercuri buyers pay 2.9% + 0.50 payment processing fee.
Ebay buyers pay 0% fees.
137 comments
dogofwar777
·2 years agoI sell my stuff to people who share the same interest. Sometimes we meet up and other times I mail it. I pay no fees and get my money immediately. I refuse to sell here or anywhere else.
keziak
·2 years agoI am not sure why you read this board if you do not sell here?
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoThat's fine and more power to you, but I'm not sure of your purpose in posting this on a regular basis.
sapphire_studio
·2 years agoI used Merari's new tool to cross list all your eBay listings on Mercari. It seemed to make my eBay sales Skyrocket. Like the bot that took the data registered as a ton of new views and then ebay pushed my listings. Or maybe Mercari people came over to buy here with no fees because I do have the same store name. But I sort of doubt that is the case. Here are my impressions and page views. I ran the bot two days ago and havent listed anything new on ebay:
 
baydealz
·2 years agoEat it, eat it, eat it....I can't list them all, but even Craigslist has more integrity than ebay. Ebay apparently doesn't know economics, but they are increasing fees as volume goes down to try to compensate. That just reduces volume, revenues and profits, which they'll try to compensate with more fees - a death spiral in the making. Aside from economics, this was all predicated by their blatant attack of one side of the trade balance (buyer/seller). I've complained that they have been trying to be Amazon (superior customer service, buyer guarantee, free returns) for years, but IT'S NOT THEIR BUSINESS, they are just a conduit. Sellers are their customers. So they've screwed the sellers as far as they can, who simply rather take their toys and go home, and they want more.
This is becoming an awesome business school case study. Now we know how to sink intermediary companies: 1) refuse to allow feedback by one side of the transaction, 2) do everything to benefit and foster theft by that other side of the transaction, 3) Increase fees and regulations to alienate that first side of the transaction even more, 4) automate everything and close off all interaction with the side who provides your bread and butter, 5) allow competition to find the cracks and move in an disrupt this former leader by getting that balance right. The number of opportunities they are losing due to these game is amazing.
mam98031
·2 years ago@baydealz
I missed something. What fee increase on Ebay has their been recently?
Amazon is a vastly different site. Ebay doesn't compare itself to Amazon, it is members that continue to compare it to Amazon and say that Ebay is doing it. I've been selling on Amazon for years. You and I are having vastly different experiences on Amazon as a seller. Customer Service for sellers in my experience is worse or at least as bad as Ebay's.
All sellers on Ebay that offer 30 day or higher return policies with seller pays shipping, is offering free returns. Amazon is no walk in the park for a 3rd party seller, at least not in my experience. Another little fact for me on Amazon I have to charge more for my items because the fees on Amz are higher. Some things I sell like hot cakes on Amazon and not on Ebay others it is the other way around.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoAt this point I think Mercari is eating Mercari's lunch.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoMercari may not be but Temu and Ali Express are cutting into the buyer pool although the company has some questionable business ethics but I guess that all depends on your perspective, everything probably looks fine from the companies perspective and they are beyond the reach of any US government agency/organization. The same goes with AliExpress.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoTech companies are notorious for over-hiring and then laying off.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoJune 23rd:
eBay stock YTD: +21.4%
NASDAQ index YTD: +17.84%
S&P 500 index YTD: +14.57%
DJIA index YTD: +3.88%
Mercari stock YTD: -21%
sumsum70
·2 years agoMy most lucrative buyers are coming from the ticker symbol META, YTD +41%.
Would eBay be up 21% without stock buybacks, eliminating 1000 workers the scam of PL?
I did sign up for Mercari a month or so ago and post a couple of items at eBay price minus 15%. Seems like a waste of time for the stuff I sell.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoMy most lucrative buyers are coming from the ticker symbol META, YTD +41%
I restricted my answer to the OP's question about Mercari vs. eBay.
META has a huge social media platform, and Amazon has a huge cloud computing business. Because those companies have substantial income outside their third-party-reseller offerings, their stocks probably do not accurately reflect investor attitudes about just the third-party resale portion of those businesses.
Would eBay be up 21% without stock buybacks, eliminating 1000 workers the scam of PL?
The stock market is not very good at answering hypothetical questions. But it does provide some evidence of what actual investors think about the Mercari compared to eBay.
mam98031
·2 years agoIs that holding true for all the other companies that had that many layoffs this year as well? Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Meta, etc.
sumsum70
·2 years ago"That many layoffs" is not apples to apples when your list of companies dwarfs eBay's number of employees by factors of 5 (meta) to 160 (amazon).
But it doesn't matter. My own numbers and experience tells me eBay is losing and I'm fairly certain Mercari has nothing to do with it.
frankenhobbit
·2 years agoI actually did read through the whole thread. I guess my question is this.
If eBay had a check box where when you created a listing, you could select whether the buyer or seller pays the fees, which would you select?
I know I wouldn't choose 'buyer pays'.
ebay will never do it, given their focus on buyer experience, but it would allow them to straddle the fence, so tp speak.
Oh, and I would take 1% of $10B over 4% of $1B every day,
*_forum_id_*
·2 years agoBottomline for me is that sellers can deduct all fees associated with selling from their taxes.
Last I checked, buyers can't deduct fees associated with buying from their taxes.
amysncfinds
·2 years agoYes we can deduct all fees on taxes but with that is puts you under the microscope for the IRS to look at you further since I have been on ebay for over 20 years I have been auditted 3 times what are the odds and each time my stuff was correct and on point but how many others are that lucky? It is horrible because when I take the deductions out and my cost I am not about even or slightly in the red because I am paying taxes on stuff I already paid taxes on and I am not passing that on to my customers so it is a lose lose situation for me.
mam98031
·2 years agoWow that is a lot !!! Have they shared with you what is causing it? It can't be a random selection at this point, there is something that is calling your account to their attention for audit.
It is not because you are doing the right thing by claiming the sales on Ebay as income. That isn't it. You are suppose to claim all income. There is something else going on. You really should ask if it happens again as it is unusual to say the least.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoGreat reasons why I don't sell what Walmart does.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoI hear ya!
Walmart is but one example. See for years on end supply chain has counted on authorized delist channel sellers. Amazon called them "Anchor Tenants" back in the day. uBid, Onsale, Overstock.com etc all basically that authorized business to consumer channel. It's one the big reason you would see say at uBid everything starting bid at $7. For example we'd prior generation motherboards for PC's and even if we sold that $100 motherboard for that $7 we were only at a loss of $8, obviously that didn't happen often. Those mainboard be basically 6 months delisted, so still quite useful.
Most these business to consumer sites killed themselves off via fierce competition and as that happened Amazon sucked them in as did eBay. Back in the day you'd even some of the retailer delist sold right here, Best Buy etc. get banner placement at say eBay. Those arrangements with manufacturers keep the unsold, open box etc. product from coming back to the manufacturer (or distributor) towards the price protection (credit) towards new merch. Sort of a win win, they make exclusive arrangement.
This now is happening more and more whereby the retailers via the Internet are integrating those delisted products as blow out deals online. They are using centralized warehousing to do so and helping manufacturer supply chain move unsold product. I don't know how much that erodes those authorized delist resellers who do use Amazon and eBay, be interesting question.
But you get the point, the retailers are evolving how online commerce can operate. Traditionally they completely ignore the delist channels. Aside all of it they are better at evolving the technology. You can get notifications on mobile devices, partnerships with cellphone providers is another thing beginning to shape up. There is all this 3D technology being worked upon whether succeeds or not is of question. But the point is Supply Chain can readily think outside the box, make new boxes whereby third party marketplaces really don't have that luxury. They'd need to evolve the entire transacting mechanisms from ground up.
Now towards that end as I'd said some moons ago in a different thread there is a solution IMHO! We designed it way back when with Amazon in mind, The Auction Mall. Can call it whatever. But point being it's an extensible hybrid commerce platform conceptually designed around the common mall in many ways. Thus is has a natural evolutionary curve even towards 3D shopping should it come to bare.
Its a hybrid of commerce concept taking into account merch types, localization and not, live auction floors, search, browse and even advertising in a variety of forms. Obviously it represents a considerable change from anything that exists online. That's not to say there are not issues with the concept. For example Amazon's CMO told my ex that every retailer online is going to be very displeased by it.
Why? Well it puts mom and pop into a more known type shop environment with consumers and gives them a highly professional appearance. Bob's clothing look like Macys instead of for example what is here or Mercari or even Amazon third party sellers. Yet Bob's operating out of shipping containers. Her response to that was, "Well... Macy's is in Malls. Macy's can be in this mall."
Yea well... "We're Amazon we're not into platforming competitors." Understandable.
They snatched the reverse price mechanism or so she says. I've never been sure but she said they did. What I do know is after the presentation we rode free, no fee's and they allowed us to use our re-pricer as long as we didn't sell it to any other sellers or sell the entire application to some other operation.
I think the concept is still valid today and for the foreseeable future. Back in the day she presented it to chamber of commerce folks and everyone was WOW'd by it. Next thing I know local venture capitalists are all a go, "Lets do it!" I'm like wait what? Huh? Who? Me? Oh there's my dream be anchored to this Mall stuff for the rest of my days? Nooooo thank you. Eat, breathe and drink eCommerce? I'd rather eat dye and _h_t! LOL.
But Chapeau change is always on the horizon. Perhaps in 10 years we've a large microwave where we place an order, atoms are scrambled and presto my underwear appears in the box. Oh yes... I take a medium rare LOL.
amysncfinds
·2 years agoI have been on here for 20 plus years and it is not what it use to be trust me. I have been forced to sell across 5 other sites to try to keep moving stuff and this change in Mercari cause a nice uptick for me. I am curious to see how it goes from the the beginning of the year to now 77 of those days have been with out a sale on here and this is the worst it has EVER been. I can't say that for my other pages.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoOh... And you need compete against it all. That's reality like it or not, its the truth.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoMercari didn't go zero seller fee's in attempts to attract small third party sellers. They've done so to try and attract anchor authorized resellers as its those sellers who bring home the real bread and butter no matter if its eBay or Amazon, Walmart etc. These are the authorized supply chain channel delisted, surplus, wholesale, reclamation on and on sellers.
If they are able to attract enough of them with zero fee's I'd find it likely they'd toss off all supply chain unauthorized sellers and go into Business to Consumer direct commerce. It's a reasonable gamble given the environment of commerce currently and possible regulatory measures looming both in the USA and globally.
Mercari currently sits as an adjunct site for sellers and competition across the Internet between open marketplaces and big retail is heating up to boil pitch. You saw this several years in a row now where retailers are changing their ways and third party sellers suffer sales. Last Holiday season perfect example, sellers all over, here, Mercari, Posh etc expected very good times but the banner times were with retailers both online and offline. There is simply NO WAY any third party sellers can compete against optimized manufacture supply chain, its not possible. This is whats changing, been changing and I've been reading about it now for three+ years.
Back in the day I was in authorized delisted supply chain and aside from others in same, there is just no way, no way whatsoever, not a chance, no way, nil, nodda anyway thrift, yard sale, retail arbitrage sellers even hope to compete. Its not possible. Talking David versus Goliaths whole family, friends and neighbors.
Walmart completed the largest automated warehouse ever last year nearly strictly devoted to delisted merch.
Whats delisted?
Delisted merch is stuff that has passed its shelf life and is replaced with new merch in retail. Its not surplus, its not wholesale nope. Its stuff in retail warehouses, back rooms, manufacturer and/or distributor warehouses that was/is all consignment product and LIABILITY to the owners of the product, say Levi's. That stuff is going to get BLOWN OUT for at least 75-90% of MSRP to AUTHORIZED DELIST supply chain resellers. The MAIN GOAL is recover cost of manufacturer. NOW... AFTER those blowouts wane the rights holders may move it to surplus channel OR they may destroy it... Key point here is once the delisted sales END it is now all LOSS, aka: Not recovering cost of manufacturer.
Delisted merch authorized sellers have ALWAYS been the backbone of eBay, Amazon etc. They are the sellers who continually perform and make great money doing so. They ALWAYS have merch, they don't hunt for it, they get lists to buy from quite regularly, every week or two weeks. Many the rights holders have terms... minimums, on and on as contractual agreement. For example, they dont want "ME" selling back into retail at all. Delisted means "Off shelfs for retail consumption" as the rights holders are looking to drop all support, its delisted. They dont want a consumer walking into my store and buying Bose Speakers that have been delisted as 1. They want drop support and 2. They have new product replacing it.
NOW due to Covid things have changed. Retailers caught in the lockdowns who looked at the web as a side hustle are not doing so anymore. They are in fact using the delisted channels to offer incredible deals all the time to consumers who have finite resources.
So people here for ages have thought, "Well who's eBays competitors? Amazon, this one, that one Mercari, Etsy..."
I got news, Walmart is no different than Amazon now except their business model is ever better than Amazon's with Walmarts massive freighting logistics, pick up/return in store and much much more.
If I walked to eBay's Board Room and announced, "Hey Walmart's not an eBay competitor" they'd laugh me out the place. 110% guaranteed.
Atop all this sellers who are scratching for the sales end up heading over to Poshmark, WhatNot, this one and that one... This further erodes sales here.
The entire of commerce on the Internet has "grown up" since covid and continues to grow up. Now its just like you own a store inside a co-op and all over near the co-op are retailers. Walmart moves in Super Store. People are spending money at Walmart and thus dont have the money to spend at you're co-op like they did. This is how Walmart has for AGES impacted businesses around them even if those businesses are not competitors because people spend more discretionary income at the Walmart Super Store, they've finite money. The exact same thing is now happening on the Internet, the big boys have come to play hardball against ANY places selling merch and they have huge advantages one of the biggest being consignment.
Sellers buy things with hard cash. Retailers consign merchandise, they buy it, what doesnt sell gets returned for credit towards new merchandise IN FULL, called Price Protection. No third party seller can compete against that, its not possible.
So now big retailers JUST LIKE WALMART are establishing or have established centralized facilities to sell delisted merch online at blowout prices.
Supply chain has the money, power, authority and ability to evolve ecommerce and thats exactly what they are doing. Its not a secret, representative associations of the rights holders talk about the stuff all the time and have for years.
Anybody in third party ecommerce going back 25 years could see writing on the walls. EVENTUALLY the big guys squeeze the small guys out. Covid gave the big guys all the reason in the world to ramp that up and in utilization of AI making it ever so cost effective to do so. Automated warehousing, Ai applied to logistics and more. That's not the future, its already here. Third party sellers don't have those options, they essentially have what they had 20+ years ago... There is no ability to truly evolve third party marketplaces and everytime anyplace tries some sellers benefit and others scream. Third Party Marketplaces exist within walls where there is only so much can be done to evolve things. Not the case in supply chain, tons of areas to evolve things and thats exactly what they are doing.
american-photography
OP2 years agoThank you all for this very lively discussion.
Your opinions, experience, and feedback really help make a better informed decision.
bluejarboutique
·2 years agoI left Mercari because of the buyers fees. No one wants to pay a fee on top of the item’s price, tax, shipping and then I have to pay to get a deposit?! No way. I never used their instant payment & was fine waiting for a deposit.
I will gladly take eBay over Mercari.
mam98031
·2 years agoBut the sellers have been required to lower they pricing to accommodate for the buyers now having to pay the fees. Doesn't it all work out the same?
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoMercari had been running listing specials (list 30 items in three days and get a $15 off coupon, for instance) - I know they're trying to grow their listings. My brother sells on there, too - just house and family items here and there, good items, but he's an occasional casual seller and I think there's a good percentage of Mercari sellers that are very casual. Mercari wants more sellers who are listing lots of stuff to grow their buyer base. Yes, they were also giving coupons to buyers.
nuclearomen
·2 years agoditch or whatever, when the change was made and i was switched over (for me, was of the early one, I was in the 2nd or 3rd round, which was still early for the switch) i didn't like it, there were still issues with money transferring now and then and had things they had to "iron out" still but for majority it worked well, since I actually like it, it's been reliable, fast (24hrs it's in my bank) and rarely any issue for longtime now. PP it was in your account but if you wanted the cash had to go to ATM or transfer it from PP to your bank which took few days, MP is quite nicer IMO. I still use PP otherwise though.
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoOne of the ,possibly unintended, consequences of the switch from in-house Paypal payments to in-house Managed Payments, is security.
Sellers now must have their bank accounts in the country in which they register. And provide secondary indentification. For US-based sellers that includes SSN for tax purposes.
Previously with PP, a credit card was basically enough, and eBay did not know when the money would be removed or where it would go.
So a scammer could use a throwaway card to pull in the money, and then either use it to buy on another site or transfer it to their babushka back in Murmansk. (Yes, I know about the 30 day Hold on new accounts).
With MP even a dormant account cannot be revived without SSN and bank information. Just that much harder for the Nigerian scammer to hijack the late seller's account.
brightlightbookseller
·2 years agoNo, no one else is eating eBay's lunch. Mercari and FB Marketplace are great places to list stuff you don't actually want to sell. Amazon has far more restrictions on what you can sell in the first place. eBay is relatively unique as a venue still, and still has far more visitors than most other sites where you can sell collectibles in particular.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·2 years ago@brightlightbookseller
I think the problem ebay faces is that COLLECTIVELY, the competition is hoovering up a lot of the sort of stuff ebay has been known for: vintage, collectibles, used stuff. Younger buyers ---where the growth is---are gravitating towards those sites rather than ebay.
It isn't so much that ebay is rapidly losing this stuff, and just shrinking down to nothing, it is that ebay's growth should be coming from all this stuff that is not coming here. ebay has been struggling just to prevent a serious decline, but it has been unable to really grow its GMV ...yet the fact that millions of dollars worth of this stuff is selling on these other sites is the evidence that ebay COULD be growing , IF it could figure out how to attract these sellers and buyers.
Ebay isn't on the verge of collapse, but ebay is mostly treading water, and that is not sustainable for the long term. At some point ebay is going to need to really start growing again.
mordecai8614
·2 years ago$10B in profit for 2023 is "treading water"
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques
I wish I was treading water
mam98031
·2 years ago@mordecai8614
Who had 10B in profits?
mordecai8614
·2 years agoMy bad, meant revenue
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoI suspect part of the problem is that eBay sellers are older than sellers on other newer (and perhaps more "nimble") sites.
It seems generally agreed in this thread at least that eBay is a good place to sell collectibles.
But.
What a Boomer like me might think 'collectible' and what even GenX thinks collectible are wildly different.
I read a lot of decorating magazines.
What Boomers bought second-hand was 50 year old stuff when Granma went into the Home.
Stuff made in 1920 or earlier. EastLake, golden oak, Mission. And fancy china and sterling silver and crystal glassware.
What is in the decorating magazines now is 50 year old stuff . Eames, MCM, atomic clocks and lamps, Marimekko. Even shag rugs are making a comeback.
But we Boomers don't have that. We are trying to peddle our crystal glasses and Tiffany lamps.
Tastes change.
A local 'antique' store when we moved here sold mostly pre-WWII furniture, including a lot of 18th and 19th century pieces. That was 10 years ago. Today more than half their shop is filled with MCM and Danish teak. 1970s furniture. With Memphis and postmodern sneaking up on them.
carlmarxx
·2 years agoIf ebay stayed out of managed payments and pushed harder on being the place unique hard to find items Venue and did a new deal with paypal . And Not a cheap copy of amazon and pushing luxury good's to small mark of buyers that have deep pockets for them . Also the folks running site never wanted to be the merchant of record in the 2019 meeting with Goldman/Sack's 5th ave bank . Adyen has forced ebay to remove 24+ category's since 2021 .
yuzuha
·2 years agoNo way. eBay ditching PayPal was one of the best things they've done.
mam98031
·2 years agoThey did not "ditch[ing]" PayPal. The shareholders wanted the company spun off and the shareholders made good money off that as well has were given stock in PayPal.
mam98031
·2 years agoI personally do not have any issues with Managed Payments. I don't find it a copy of Amazon's money process. Amz is much slower at getting the money to my bank account by about 2 days.
FYI, Paypal wanted out of the contract with Ebay to be their Money Processor because it was too restrictive for them. They wanted to expand into other sites that Ebay wouldn't allow. And they have since the contracted ended in June of 2020.
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoWhatever happened to Wish? They were a Big Deal and then a sarcastic meme last year.
stainlessenginecovers
·2 years agoah...Mercari. The 'Yugo' of the 'internet selling world'.
sumsum70
·2 years agoI didn't bother reading the 4 pages of replies as I know this kind of topic brings out the propaganda squad.
I don't know anything about Mercari, but I can say it definitely seems like "and others" is eating eBays lunch!
mam98031
·2 years agoYou are jumping to conclusions without even taking the time to read the info provided here. If you read the thread, all of it, you'd see this isn't true.
slippinjimmy
·2 years agoIf "and others" includes Temu (I don't think they have been specifically referred to in this thread) then it's absolutely true.
Temu may not directly affect eBay sellers in the vintage, used, collector type categories but in terms of taking a big bite out of the eBay total GMV it's a serious threat. In comparison Mercari is just a tiny annoyance.
The other site to watch is Shein (basically fast fashion/clothing), some estimates put their GMV at $40b for 2023
The big question for the "big 3" (Amazon, Walmart, eBay) is if those lost buyers still come back for the stuff that is not available from Temu, Shein et al or will they have spent all their money on trinkets from over there.
As for Mercari, they remind me of the failed Alibaba attempt to make inroads in America (anybody remember 11 Main?). Both were dominant in their domestic markets but could not gain traction in the US.
mam98031
·2 years agoAll very good points to be sure and I agree with you, there is the most danger for sites like Ebay.
Some just are so excited about Mercari's fee structure change since most sellers won't have fees, they think it is a huge success in just 30 days for some reason. When the facts are simply that it is way too soon to tell. Wishful thinking is in play here big time.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoYou didn't read the thread and know nothing about Mercari...I'm not sure where you're going with that.
sumsum70
·2 years agoYou didn't read the thread and know nothing about Mercari...I'm not sure where you're going with that.
Well let me make it more clear for you:
1) I didn't need to read the entire thread to know that the title would bring out the defenders of eBay. I chose not to wade through all of the drivel.
2) I have never attempted to use Mercari even though I have heard of it and have heard of it's recent fee changes. It has never seemed like a place that my items would sell on. I could be wrong, but haven't tried it yet. In other words, I don't know if Mercari is eating eBay's lunch.
3) Over the past several years, eBay has become more like the China junk mall. Well, someone found a way to be a better China junk mall and advertised heavily to make sure everyone knows it. Temu is absolutely eating eBay's lunch.
4) Regarding some of the products I sell, I started using FBMP and get more sales that way than I do on eBay. I pay no fees and my buyers get lower prices. If it's working for me, I guarantee you it is working for a lot of other sellers. I don't know if FBMP is eating eBay's lunch, but it is definitely taxing their fries.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·2 years ago@sumsum70 I think the OPs question was centered on Mercari's recent fee change, and whether it would force ebay to take similar action. As I said in my answer, I think it is way too soon to say whether the fee change will really be successful for Mercari or not. I personally think, by the time things shake out, we will find it hasn't been the disaster some Mercari sellers are predicting, but I'm not sure it will be quite the success Mercari is hoping for either. So: ebay will watch and respond if necessary, but so far, I think watching is the extent of ebay's response.
All that said, if we treat the question more broadly: are ebay's competitors having a serious impact on ebay's business? My answer would be "yes". ebay is far from dead, but many of its younger, nimbler competitors are gaining ground rapidly. It is possible that no one site will "replace" ebay, but collectively, millions and millions of dollars worth of items, especially in ebay's former sweet spot of pre-owned and vintage, are being sold elsewhere. Not too many years ago, those transaction would have been here.
If Wenig had not insisted on competing with Amazon, but instead had concentrated on solidifying ebay's position as the Number One site for used, etc, ebay would be MUCH stronger today. But Wenig spent years wasting time and Iannone has spent way too much time and focus on his pet Focus Categories and generating ad revenue.
Just one example: I just saw that one of the speakers at last year's ebay Open (and I think an Up and Running grant recipient) announced her first WhatNot Live show coming up. ebay has had its carefully controlled version of Live Auctions for a while now, but average ebay sellers who would like to do live auctions have little choice but to take their business elsewhere.....waiting for ebay to release this tool to the rest of us is an exercise in frustration.
ebay hasn't really released a new Focus Category in ages. It feels like they are completely unsure of what direction they are now headed---but as long as they keep talking happy talk about AI, they can maintain their stock price...for now.
Obviously, I have no inside information, but it feels like management is floundering, unsure of their direction, and , even if they have decided to place more emphasis on a c to c business, they don't seem to have a clear idea how to do that. Sellers have been providing good advice about that for years, but ebay simply ignores it.
ebay is basically maintaining its own status quo, but the growth in pre-owned is happening all around ebay, not so much ON ebay. And, having bowed out of the Amazon contest, pre-owned is where ebay needs to make its mark. ebay is the "OG" (as the kids say) of pre-owned ecommerce, but Wenig frittered that advantage away, and Jamie has done all too little to secure it.
Only time will tell whether ebay can actually start to grow---really grow---- again.
dolcetreasures
·2 years agoThe amount Chinese counterfeits on eBay has started to increase recently. Just search “polo Ralph Lauren†you’ll see all the “Asian market Polo†which is another way of saying “fakeâ€, all coming from Flushing. I can visibly see the items are fake. It’s impossible to compete with those prices, I can’t even buy these items for that price discounted with employee pricing.
Same goes for all the counterfeit Ferragamo wallets coming from Hong Kong. eBay just lets these sellers prosper peddling their fake merchandise because it sells by the droves.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoThe amount Chinese counterfeits on eBay has started to increase recently. Just search “polo Ralph Lauren†you’ll see all the “Asian market Polo†which is another way of saying “fakeâ€, all coming from Flushing. I can visibly see the items are fake. It’s impossible to compete with those prices, I can’t even buy these items for that price discounted with employee pricing.
Same goes for all the counterfeit Ferragamo wallets coming from Hong Kong. eBay just lets these sellers prosper peddling their fake merchandise because it sells by the droves.
The problem has been compounded by the worldwide proliferation of the counterfeit items. It's as easy to find counterfeit items from US and European sellers as it is to find them from Chinese sellers.
mam98031
·2 years ago@sumsum70
1. What? Why does Ebay need to be defended? You are assuming something that isn't happening on this thread.
3. What does that have to do with Mercari and their changes in fee structure?
4. That is fantastic. So waste your time posting on a subject you know nothing about and simply don't care about?
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoThanks for verifying my initial impression.
american-photography
OP2 years agoI’ve read all your responses and appreciated the viewpoints and feedback.
I am not currently selling on Mercari but just wanted to see what everyone’s opinion or experience was with the site and others and what you think.
Thanks for the comparisons and insights, please continue this discussion if you like as I do like to hear what you think.
mam98031
·2 years agoSome seller can get too single minded when they are trying to select a site to sell on. It is NEVER all about the fees.
Ebay is not the cheapest site out there, but they are also not the most expensive. If your goal is to lower your selling fees, then you can find a site to do that for you. You may not get as many sales, but you can certainly find a place to post your stuff. It all depends on your goals.
Very few sellers on Ebay pay insertion fees. Ebay is very generous in their fee listings they offer. Sellers just need to learn which is the best way for them to post listing for the best bang for their bucks. I haven't paid an insertion fee in many many many years.
Ebay per transaction fee is not 35 cents. It is 30 cents on $10 and below and 40 cents on sales over $10.
FYI, Ebay sellers with stores get a little discount on their FVFs. It is one of the perks of a store Basic and higher.
Comparing to Mercari is tricky right now since 30 days ago today they changed their fee structure to something that has never been tried before on sites like these. So there is simply no way of knowing yet how this will work out for Mercari as it is a drastic change.
Now sellers that listings posted as of 3/27 on Mercari and did NOT lower their rates by at least 10% still have to pay the selling fees. So while Mercari doesn't have fees for the seller [except to get their money] on listings starting on or after 3/28, Buyers do have to pay them. And the rates on Mercari are remarkably close to what they are on Ebay.
I've read lots of buyers do not like this change on Mercari. Sellers aren't lowering prices like Mercari intended, so buyers are paying more.
You aren't comparing apples to apples nor have you given this huge social test by Mercari any time to gather data on if it will even work out for them. None of which will be known for a few months at least.
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoIt's been my observation, in over 35 years selling by mail order, and "mail order" is what eBay and Mercari are until teleportation is invented, that buyers want to see what the price is and hate paying more than they were told it would be.
That's why sales taxes** are disliked.
That's why people hate tipping. They feel forced to subsidize wages the employer should be paying.
That's why buyers detest shipping fees.
If I buy on eBay I can choose a $100 item that has Free Shipping, and know the price right away.
If I buy on Mercari that $100 item will cost $102.90 plus 13% sales tax, plus shipping, plus 50c transaction fee, plus processing fee *.
I don't know how much it will cost. Too confusing.
KISS.
*Post 35 @luckythewinner
**In Europe those taxes are part of the asking price. This would be difficult with over 200 tax entities dealing with online sellers.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoMercuri buyers pay 2.9% + 0.50 payment processing fee.
I tried to buy something on Mercari, and I was charged a transaction fee in addition to the payment processing fee. The total fees amounted to 10.65% of the total payment.
Is Mercari and Others Eating Ebay’s Lunch?
Mercari's GMV in 2023 was barely 10% of eBay's.
retrogames10000
·2 years agoIt is my opinion that this is a temporary maneuver by Mercari.
I sell video games, I have one thousand unique Super Famicom games listed on eBay right now. That is more unique games than Mercari has in total on Super Famicom. I am not unique on eBay, nor the largest yet.
eBay has the strength of true diversity of product and items. Mercari has leftovers that cannot fetch the same prices as eBay.
I believe that this move by Mercari is to get many many sellers and new items, and in two years they will begin to make policies that favor the buyer instead once they have a captive seller audience.
gamersbaystore
·2 years agoebay can do whatever they want, but at the end of the day they are going to lose to Mercari!
Logic would say zero fees is a better bet for anyone in the e-commerce realm.
I'm sick and tired of giving ebay all my profits, they take 25% of the sale on average, leaving me with little to nothing once everything is said and done. The store subscription isnt worth it anymore either.
Mercari was smart enough to realize its the products being offered that translate to potential sales and growth.
Despite the ebay cheerleaders incessant lying, Mercari has plenty of traffic and I am getting plenty of sales there. In fact, my traffic on Mercari is easily 5X the traffic I get on ebay.
Half of my listings on ebay havent had a view in months, some no views at all, dont have this issue with Mercari.
nuclearomen
·2 years agoall that isn't true for all sellers, but I'm not going to say right, wrong, or otherwise...really i don't care either way to be truthful. I use to complain like lots of others about ebay and fees and this and that, until came to realize that things aren't all ebays fault and instead of working myself up getting angry blah blah blah I seen advantages where others see faults and took those advantages, my sales have remained consistent here, and growth is finally coming back past several months, more buyers become repeat buyers etc... Mercari was OK for the time I spent there but nothing to brag about, pure pocket change amidst the paycheck here. Again - for myself, not every experience will be identical of course.
You likely did well there because you sell gaming (or use to) and I've been through that market there and here, the grass is sometimes better there for that category, but you also need to consistently barter with buyers there also, here you don't. Glad to here someone has achived good results there, none the less.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·2 years ago@nuclearomen One thing I've noticed over the years, and @gamersbaystore posts are just one example: If a seller is doing well and is happy on a platform, he tends to believe the platform is doing fine. If he is not doing well on a platform, he tends to assume the platform is sinking. And , if he makes any effort to examine the platform's state, he picks and chooses whatever he can find that supports his viewpoint.
Not everyone does this, of course, but enough people do it that it is worth recognizing that it is a common error many people make.
I have not tried selling on Mercari, but my impression is they have found the American market challenging, and I think they have not ---yet---met with the level of success they were hoping for. But I'm not someone who feels they are doomed or that they will not be able to grow their business here. I am also not someone who thinks ebay is there only competitor. They face many of the same issues all ecommerce companies face, and that includes the fact that there is more competition than ever.
Like you, I have plenty of complaints about ebay. I feel the company has wasted many opportunities over the years, and continues to make mistakes while the competition continues to grow. I have plenty of suggestions I wish they'd consider...
But, despite my view that they should and could be a much stronger company than they are, I also think they remain a strong company and are likely to remain a viable enterprise for quite a long while.
My advice to sellers is what it has always been: find what works for YOU, and go with that. There are plenty of opportunities, online and offline...and plenty of competition that will continue to make reselling both very challenging and potentially very lucrative.
I'm glad @gamersbaystore has found something that apparently works well for him. Others have found other sites work better for them. This is not a one size fits all kind of business.
nuclearomen
·2 years ago@my-cottage-books-and-antiques
true, those examples are not wrong. I'm not saying (and never have lol) the platform is greatest and enter whatever otherwise. I'm saying people complain and blame ebay for whole universe of things that in reality has nothing to do with ebay. More so, dislike yet those continue to remain on the platform despite how terrible it is. Now I'm not everyone else, yet, waste time being somewhere that's so bad to me is senseless.
There are quite a few things I don't like about this platform and the way it's ran, but I don't blame them entirely when sales slow either... use to, guilty of that in the past.
Yes, i agree, and have said same thing in the past. In all truth, it doesn't matter WHERE one sells, it's if what seller is doing is working where ever they are.
nuclearomen
·2 years agoMercari does have fees, who ever told you they have 0% fee needs to stop smoking whatever they are smoking!
But as to are they eating Ebay's lunch - no where nears! Sites like Mercari seem to be this great place, but then you quickly learn how sales are only few and far between from your ebay activity, fees aren't any break and majority of buyers there want everything free and mail you 20 times about price.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoThey transferred seller fees onto buyers in the last few weeks.
nuclearomen
·2 years agoi haven't been there in sometime, a year maybe...account still there just never go. In any case, transfer to buyer whatever, still fee, and selling there is horrid. In 30 days I had 62 ebay orders, 1 Mercari, as example, I'll stick here.
gamersbaystore
·2 years agoThere are no fees for sellers on Mercari other than a $2 fee to cash out, or if you havent updated your listings from before March 27th. You can simply edit and add a line of text, its updated, no fees.
I have not been charged a red cent in fees for any of my recent sales there.
nuclearomen
·2 years agoyeah, was told already above, though no fee seller but buyer is still a fee, and items costing buyers more money is never good. There are some items / categories that do well on Mercari, I sold quite a few collectible gaming related items there, not my primary business though here is and after 2 or 3 years there there is no comparison, thousands more orders/dollars made here, hands down, in my case, Mercari is waste of time.
gamersbaystore
·2 years agoTo each their own. I am tired of being robbed by ebay to be honest. ebay's incessant greed is unreal.
Mercari has not been a waste of time for me. I make 100% of the sale, get 5X the traffic, its easier to list items for sale, and buyers dont have 30 days to rent your stuff for free like they do on ebay.
I kept having to jack up my prices on ebay because of all the ridiculous fees. There's nothing left by the time ebay gets done feeing us to death.
Traffic and sales on ebay are down the tubes, this platform is failing and it shows.
yuzuha
·2 years agoYour problem has nothing to do with eBay, it's that you're trying to sell items that sell for next to nothing to begin with. Physical media is a dying category UNLESS you're selling either 1) cult movies/TV shows that aren't available in streaming format, 2) boxed sets of full series, or 3) collector's editions of movies/TV shows that come with all sorts of special extras that are only available as part of the collector's/special editions.
an-57470
·2 years agoBunk.
They most certainly do.
Buyers have 180 days to “rent your stuff for freeâ€.
It’s called a chargeback.
Mercari’s (and Poshmark’s) 3-day policy is toothless.
gamersbaystore
·2 years agoMercari does not allow chargebacks. You initiate a chargeback on Mercari, your account is terminated on the spot. You have no clue as to what you are talking about. ebay tolerates fraud, Mercari does not.
mam98031
·2 years agoNot allowing Chargebacks and doesn't tolerate Fraud are two completely different things. Mercari can NOT disallow Chargebacks. If they did, then they would not be allowed to accept credit card payments. You may want to read their TOS.
https://www.mercari.com/us/help_center/topics/trust/policies/terms-of-service/
an-57470
·2 years ago100% provably and completely FALSE.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoThere's also a discrepancy:
Example For Sellers:
Mercari sellers pay 0% fees. Cash out fees: $2.00 per direct deposit or $3.00 per instant pay transfer.
Ebay sellers pay $0.35 after free insertion fees and in most categories minimum 13.25% - 15% FVF plus store fees, promotion ad fees, and other upgrade fees. No cash-out fee except for instant transfer.
None of the highlighted items are essential. Also, Mercari does have a promotional program. Like Poshmark's, it's expensive and doesn't work very well.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoI sell on Mercari and what's curious is that when they did charge sellers the fees (up until very recently), they weren't even that consistent. I found myself paying slightly different amounts on the same item amount - ? Seemed a bit more than just a rounding error, too.
ETA: Oh, and the sales completely stalled. I wasn't going to drop my prices because the buyers are going to pay fees - Mercari has a lot of haggling and I knew right away that buyers would demand discounts and best offers "because I have to pay a surcharge on this...and what site charges buyers to shop?" And I see their point.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoRight. Sellers on Mercari deal with more low ballers and hagglers. Do not need that. They will not pay fair prices for merchandise on there. Waste of time even diversifying inventory there.
nuclearomen
·2 years agoi said this earlier in the thread, you can make sales there but spend 20 rounds of messages bartering with buyers who want to chew you down to nothing, vs never a message here (or rarely) just pack and ship, no need to waste hours/days going rounds with someone of price when in the end they get maybe $5 off and you priced your item for that $5 anyways knowing anyone who may buy will be messaging for lower price.
yuzuha
·2 years agoYep, that's exactly why I threw in the towel after about two months. I would have items listed for $20-30 (and I should note that these same items sell right here on eBay for my asking prices with zero haggling) and people would ask me if I would take $5 or $10 for them.
theteamsetguy
·2 years ago@american-photography ,
Do you currently sell on Mercari also? If so, how are your sales since they made the change? My prediction is they will get flooded with new sellers because they like the idea of not having fees. The pie will get split up amongst more sellers.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoThat’s great, more sellers and NO SALES. ALSO their buyer base is the Temu kind bargain hunters and low ballers. No thanks. Sticking with ebay.
solidguitar1961
·2 years agoMercari is also charging the buyers 10% transaction fees. I don't think buyers are going to like paying the fees.
american-photography
OP2 years agoThey charge 2.9% + $0.50 payment processing fee for buyers, that’s it.
solidguitar1961
·2 years agoThey are not being very transparent.
american-photography
OP2 years agoYou are right, good point.
Though from a sellers point of view, it is still much more profitable to not pay any or very little fees. Wouldn’t you want to keep more of your money and let the buyer incur those fees?
Most auction houses charge winning buyers (not sellers like Ebay) anywhere from 13% up to 30% after winning an auction, so it is still reasonable.
solidguitar1961
·2 years agoIt would work out the same . If you go to an auction house that charges a 20% buyers premium and your item is worth $100 you will only get an $83 bid .
yuzuha
·2 years agoYeah, I really don't understand why people think that the buyers paying the fees = them getting more money. If a buyer is only willing to pay $100 for an item, they're not going to buy it if it's priced at $100 and then there are fees on top of that.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoNot to mention that an auction house that traditionally charges purchase fees and Mercari buy/sell marketplace are two different animals.
ETA: So now my stuff just sits there. Thanks, Mercari.
redmodelt
·2 years agoThen add sales tax on top of that!
dryophelia
·2 years agoWhen I was involved with the auction houses here, the buyers paid a premium and the consignor also paid a fee.
The house was getting money from both parties.
mynewfindstore
·2 years agoYes I don't think the buyers like this at all. I am getting less sales there now and I keep sending offers but very little takers. Unless you are willing to lower your prices significantly, sales are going to decrease. They also want sellers to use their balance to shop on the platform. Problem is, the one time I tried to buy something there, it never got shipped and I had to ask for my money back. This really has discouraged me from shopping there.
baydealz
·2 years agoMaybe, but it's more transparent and markets tend to push prices to equilibrium regardless. Prices will migrate to just below ebay prices to compensate and it all works out.
mam98031
·2 years agoI think you are assuming that. The fees on Mercari are close to what they are on Ebay, it is just the buyers that are paying most of those fees on Mercari now. It actually should work out overall to end up being just about the same profit margin for sellers on either site.
hartungcards
·2 years agoMaybe Mercari wasn't able to afford to buy their own lunch.
baydealz
·2 years agoBut it wasn't ebay's lunch in the first place. Mercari and others will have a climb to get more eyeballs, but as more sellers migrate their and position and price themselves appropriately, more buyers will go there and they pursue critical mass, while ebay pursues a death spiral - it just happens. BUT, it didn't need to.
mam98031
·2 years agoI agree, it is likely that a lot of sellers will give Mercari a try due to the fee structure. But if the buyers don't like this new structure, then those sellers aren't likely to be selling. Not only does Mercari need their current active buyers to accept this dramatic change, it needs to attract new buyers to accommodate the growth in sellers.
Only time will tell if this experiment is going to work. It only started on March 27th. So next year at that time we should have a good idea if it is going to work or not.
quicksilverdiecast
·2 years agoThat is because they keep letting sales get blocked...the shopping cart is the main issue of the problems.
Ebay has so many strings attached to the cart that it no longer lets a buyer request a new total for the items in his cart., The seller is not advised by ebay that a buyer has a cart wanting to check out and the buyer has no idea the seller is unaware., and with ebay blocking and adding NOT combining totals the shipping on anything more than 1 item gets doubled with each item added...to the point where only a fool would pay that much shipping, and since the seller (who is unaware) does not respond eventually the buyer abandons the cart and walks away...lost sale for the buyer and seller., and lost ebay fees....now multiply that times all the sellers on the platform for just one day collectively., and you will see the amount of fees lost due to ebay stupidity is very considerable...so when ebay cries poor and wants to raise fees more just point to the cart and say fix it and you will generate a lot more fees without sticking us sellers with it....
boomersbiz46
·2 years agoYou are absolutely correct. I put in my description (even tho most people don't read it) that I combine shipping for multiple purchases if possible. When a buyer wants to purchase more than one item, I explain that I recalculate the shipping (manually) and refund any excess. So ebay collects their percentage on both shipping fees and I have to refund the excess shipping. So why would ebay fix the "cart" problem when they can make extra dollars off of the shipping. Multiply that by millions of transactions. This has been a problem for years and I bet it is not on their project list with a target date to fix.