eBay

inthepastcollectibles · ‎01-08-2018

I have been selling on eBay since 1997, this id shows since 2004. As so many people have said, I remember eBay when it was fun, now it's a chore and a headache. I, personally, started to see the decline when Donahoe took over as CEO and he rebuked the resale market in search of Amazon's "shiny, new and mass produced". I remember several years of mass exodus of sellers and eBay's response was not to change their model, but a steady increase of fee hikes and micromanaging of seller's accounts. ebay WAS a great company, but now it is becoming increasing irrelevant in the marketplace, because eBay has throw away what made it great.

The resale market place is set to quadruple over the next 5 years, yet eBay has opted to be Amazon and it CANNOT compete with Amazon marketplace. Does eBay offer streaming video, prime shipping, streaming music or the many other services provided by Amazon that eBay does not offer. I have heard people say Amazon costs more in fees AND are more selective about who can sell there, but they can and vendors don't mind, as long as it continues to bring in buyers. Other startups have capitalized in this time frame, picking up pieces of eBay's marketplace that eBay has neglected and/or discarded. Examples of this are Ruby Lane, Etsy, Poshmark, Bonanza...etc. They have taken components of eBay and made them their "niche" area and these companies are thriving.

eBay started out as a community and it was (for the most part) a tight community. Poshmark and Etsy have taken on this sense of community and made it a base for making their company stronger. eBay was the site you could find those things that are out of the ordinary, no longer in production or out of stock, old (vintage) and antique and the unique. Ruby Lane, Bonanza and Etsy now claim these venues. Little by little, eBay has given up on what brought buyers to their marketplace and it seems (to me) eBay doesn't know how to reinvent that wheel, so it keeps throwing good money after bad. I ask sellers, what makes eBay really anything any more that you can't find elsewhere and isn't eBay living on past glory that is fading over time, as other sites pick up eBay's pieces?

I know I am probably preaching to the choir for many sellers, but after all the time I have been on eBay, I do believe I am throwing in the towel.....as so many other sellers (I use to know) have done. I know there are sellers on here that will be perfectly fine with this and wish me the best of luck, and although I will appreciate the well wishes, I want to remind sellers on one final and pivotal point. Many non-corporate sellers were also big buyers and the back and forth of buy/selling between eBay id's has greatly diminished. Sellers that were buyers were far more cordial and understanding of other sellers, because they sold themselves. You could build reputations and rapport in these types of transactions, not to mention many times eBay earned double the fees in both the purchase and resale. Some sellers don't realize that eBay is thinning the slice of the pie even if right in this moment they (the seller) is doing ok or at least surving. It reminds me of the old joke of the 3 passengers on the plane and they had to lighten the plane by a passenger at a time, until the last passenger realized he was alone and was going to go to, because there was no one to stand up for him.

In any case, I would like to say I miss the old days when a basic store was only $9.95 and the cost to list in a store was .02/.04 cents. I miss Dutch auctions. I miss when a piece of toast that look like the imprint of the Virgin Mary sold for $50,000 AT AUCTION and purchased by a hotel on the Vegas Strip or a pregnant woman auction off her belly for someone to advertise on. This last two items brought a lot of free advertising for eBay and brought buyers to check out the site and to look for other things too! I miss when eBay was more of a free enterprise system and eBay was "simply a venue" and not the micromanaging bumpkin it is now. I will NOT miss eBay as it is now and I will not be back once I leave as either a buyer or a seller, because I take it personally how I have been treated over many trying years.

sandmansales · ‎01-08-2018

ebay was never about branding. Just following, copying and making money. You can still find unique items here. You just have to wade through the Chinese counterfeits to get there.

The novelty of the Internet is dead and the 'good ole days' long gone. Now it's just a tool, a means to an end like everything else until the next sheep-like craze comes along.

~Why be a second rate version of someone else when you can be a first rate version of yourself~

retrose1 · ‎01-08-2018

As a seller, ebay's business practices suck so bad my news years resolution is that if i can sell it someplace else, ebay will never see it.

As an observer of business, ebay's business model is amazing. I mean look at it. ebay has successfully convinced (brainwashed) a large majority of sellers that ebay is the only place to sell on with buyers, and that everything ebay does is good for them. And the Stepfords never bother to realize that everything ebay does is good for ebay first, good for buyers next and maybe good for sellers as a unintended consequence.

AND ebay has managed to see to it that the sellers are paying for just about everything - in some cases twice. The sellers will often pay for a store, then pay to list, then pay some of the highest fvfs on the net and the ship fee gouge AND they are powerless to stop ebay from injecting other listings onto their listings. ebay doesn't care, after all, ebay will get paid if the buyer buys a different ebay listing and/or get paid in per click ads.

As a business model, I'll bet that most short term companies would like to emulate it. But that practice is only for short term profits, in the long term this business model will drive away it's customer base and eventually run out of replacements as the poor reputation catches up with them.

(*Bleep*)

sandra* · ‎01-08-2018

I think I too am throwing in the towel. I've been buying on eBay since 1999 and selling for 3 or 4 years. I was already getting super iritated by the bazillion listings for Chinese **bleep**, so bad that it's getting difficult to find some of the things that I'm looking for. And now I've had two bad selling experiences (fraudulent SNAD claims, can't wait to see what I get back this second time). eBay used to be really cool and fun but has become a cesspool. I believe I will move to other sites for both buying and selling.

castlemagicmemories · ‎01-08-2018

@retrose1 wrote:
As a seller, ebay's business practices suck so bad my news years resolution is that if i can sell it someplace else, ebay will never see it.

As an observer of business, ebay's business model is amazing. I mean look at it. ebay has successfully convinced (brainwashed) a large majority of sellers that ebay is the only place to sell on with buyers, and that everything ebay does is good for them. And the Stepfords never bother to realize that everything ebay does is good for ebay first, good for buyers next and maybe good for sellers as a unintended consequence.

AND ebay has managed to see to it that the sellers are paying for just about everything - in some cases twice. The sellers will often pay for a store, then pay to list, then pay some of the highest fvfs on the net and the ship fee gouge AND they are powerless to stop ebay from injecting other listings onto their listings. ebay doesn't care, after all, ebay will get paid if the buyer buys a different ebay listing and/or get paid in per click ads.

As a business model, I'll bet that most short term companies would like to emulate it. But that practice is only for short term profits, in the long term this business model will drive away it's customer base and eventually run out of replacements as the poor reputation catches up with them.

Retrose, you have a way with words...and the Stepfords!