Back to Basics

[klassic*kids]

eBay was once the king of auctions: That's what built the site's name,  that was the ingenious of it all.  Now with 'buy it nows' eBay has lost it's lacklustre and has become just another ecommerce lost in the shuffle of amongst countless others.  

Am I the only one who believes eBay should get back to the basics and become an auction site again?  Do you believe that could/would build the site back up again and make a marked improvement in sales?

[dhbookds]

I do NOT believe going back to an auction only site would increase sales.............Obviously, the site now overwhelmingly depends on BIN/fixed price for most of its sales so to change it back would elminate all the sellers who are successful at that......

Buyers and sellers who want auction only......Now only have to click on the auction tab and they will be in "their" world.........but for many (not all) sellers, they have found sales there are not productive enough so they add in fixed priced stuff........

Seems to me, we have both worlds.......

[fern*wood]

Too many of the items listed today would never work in the auction format.  They have a pretty set price point and people know it and buy it now.  Most are too impatient to wait for an auction to end.

It is best, in my opinion, to have both.  Even when I do list something at auction (mainly to use my store listings up) I only get one bid if any.  If the store had free BIN on auctions, or I wasn't too cheap to pay for it, I would probably do better.   Rarely do I have an item that an auction is the appropriate method to use and it actually gets bids.

[megadestroyers]

I've done auctions 99.99% of the time, since the 60's.  Ok.  Maybe it was the 90's.  Made most of my "fortune" 😆😆😆 buying auction items, before pics were required, etc. 

Personally, I enjoy the adrenalin rush of auctions.  ebay, maybe not so much.  These days, though, auctions are pretty much BINs anyway given some of the concepts missed by those listing with that format, ie starting price.

[newview]

One of the primary reasons I don't  do auctions is the proliferation of non-paying bidders. Until eBay addresses that pervasive problem, I'm perfectly happy to list my items Fixed Price Immediate Payment Required.

[luckythewinner]

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@klassic*kids wrote:

eBay was once the king of auctions: That's what built the site's name,  that was the ingenious of it all. 

I do not think eBay abandoned auctions ... I think buyers abandoned auctions.

Now that the internet is ubiquitous and most people in the world understand how ecommerce work, the auction format is a terrible fit for 95+% of the items being sold online. 

Returning eBay to an auction site will not bring back the 1998 buyers. Those people are much smarter now.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

Auctions are live and well in my vintage collectibles category.

The other thing I shop for is gently used clothing. I really hate waiting a week to buy a shirt. However I have been outbid on a lot of shirts lately so they're obviously working for some.

[coolections]

No matter how much you would prefer buyers bidding on auctions, it is not going to happen in the clothes category. Other categories are doing great with auctions but it has to be the right type of items.

[goodluckselling]

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@klassic*kids wrote:

eBay was once the king of auctions: That's what built the site's name,  that was the ingenious of it all.  Now with 'buy it nows' eBay has lost it's lacklustre and has become just another ecommerce lost in the shuffle of amongst countless others.  

Am I the only one who believes eBay should get back to the basics and become an auction site again?  Do you believe that could/would build the site back up again and make a marked improvement in sales?

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Well lets see,  eBay has had BIN in place probably more than 15 years before your selling account started here. 

Your thread sounds like it belongs in the archive file from 17 years ago.

[klassic*kids]

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@coolections wrote:

No matter how much you would prefer buyers bidding on auctions, it is not going to happen in the clothes category. Other categories are doing great with auctions but it has to be the right type of items.

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I have two clothing items with bids on them right now.   

[klassic*kids]

@goodluckselling  I was a buyer on eBay since 2000 under a different id: I remember auctions clearly.  Auctions are what eBay what it is was.  Now that eBay is just another ecommerce site new items with bins it can't compete with sites like Amazon and should just stop trying -- it shows in their stock price.

[nowthatsjustducky]

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@klassic*kids wrote:

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@coolections wrote:

No matter how much you would prefer buyers bidding on auctions, it is not going to happen in the clothes category. Other categories are doing great with auctions but it has to be the right type of items.

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I have two clothing items with bids on them right now.   

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I just had a look at your solds.  You likely would have sold them just as easily and possibly at a bit higher price if you had done them fixed price.  Single bid under $15.00 sales for stuff like that does not speak well of auction format.

Granted, I have a bunch of little misc 99 cent items up (Heroscape Army cards, temp tattoos, gumball machine stickers, and American Spirit Tribute to the Endangered vignette cards), but those are items that I would rather not waste a monthly FP listing on, and are in a category that qualifies for a store's monthly auction allotment; and are effectively afterthought items anyway.

[klassic*kids]

Hi Ducky,  I actually wouldn't have gotten more for an item with a bin as once I establish the price for something it stays the same whether listed as bin or auction.

I, too, use auctions as they are included with my store -- I just wish it would be back in the days when there was vigorous bidding.  It's what made eBay eBay. 

[ebacoder]

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@klassic*kids wrote:

I, too, use auctions as they are included with my store -- I just wish it would be back in the days when there was vigorous bidding.  It's what made eBay eBay. 

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I do mostly fixed price listings because I find that I get more money this way.  I have done some auctions for items where I'm unsure of the value.  But as others have mentioned, it's annoying that someone wins the auction with a bid at the last minute but doesn't pay for a few days.

I agree that most people are not patient enough to wait 7-10 days for an auction.  Auctions were exciting in the 90s when many people were getting onto the internet for the first time and it was fun for them.

[retrose1]

I used to think like you do OP, but I analyze how my business is working out for me and make changes on a regular basis and right about the time Donahoe took over was the time that I understood that auctions were only for specific categories on ebay.

When internet shopping was new, people were willing to try and do anything to get in on the trendy stuff, just so they could brag that they got it on ebay.  Now that anything can be bought and delivered in less than a week, buyers have been taught that they don't have to wait for most merchandise.  So new merchandise and common stuff will languish in auctions unless the seller is willing to sell it dirt cheap.

 Compound that with ebay manipulating search results and showing other, cheaper, items after the buyer has bid, bought and/or won and item means that the buyers will show no loyalty to the item they have loosely contracted to win and will abandon, not pay or demand a cancel once ebay shows them something else better, faster and cheaper than what they have in hand. 

And ebay will show all types of items in the basic search results, auctions, BINs, new and used.  So buyers are getting what they might think is new and soon but will bbe disappointed when they find out that it is used and in a week.  One of the reasons I advocate that ebay divide the site into specific shopping sections.

A buyer that sees an auction sellers cheap item and thinks they bought it will not bother to wait 6 days when ebay shows them other listings that are equally as good and ebay tells them they can have it in their hands before those 6 days are over.

And ebay's MBG that makes buyers lazy basically tells me that I am not going to risk my vintage at all on ebay.  The buyers ebay has cultivated in the past 10 years want it new and want it now, they are mall shoppers.  And mall shoppers do not have an understanding that vintage stuff is not made or sized the same as the stuff they are used to at the mall.  For example I have a gorgous deadstock 50s dress that is sized 26 1/2 and has a 36 inch waist, that is a snad waiting to happen on ebay if a mall shopper sees it.

But there are some things that can work as auction on ebay.  Not trendy collectibles that have a loyal fan base are the best.  Everything else as an auction is a risk as most of the buyers do not search ebay every day and so might miss them.