Support the little guys

[calicorecordsandcds]

Why don't the big companies i.e. the ones with 100s of thousand of listings stop with the auto pricing and driving the prices down so low that the small businesses cannot sell here.  Why do you have to be the bottom price all the time.  And whats up with multiple listings by same seller on same item to drive other sellers off front page?  And whats up with multiple accounts for selling?  Avoiding Ebay fees?  Greed is an ugly thing.  I would be happy to not have to be fighting auto pricing and to share the bottom price with every person listing item imagine that our profit imagine would skyrocket for all of us.  Yes you would have to share the buyers but, you would make much more a copy.
I have seen that the ones guilty of being price **bleep** are the big time companies at least in the music departments.  Some are Distributors that sell B2B then price out the very people they sell to online.  Greed.
I wish ebay would step in and put some limits on these companies so they can still make sales but, not strangle the little guys.

[vintagecraze50]

Adding that the one’s that do still list on here use it for advertising more than anything because I hardly ever see them actually selling anything significant on here in the sold section. Just paying the store fee or whatever to get the listing up for advertising.

[johnrj1226]

Those  big companies were little guys too once upon a time.   Put  the efofort into the 3 Ps & a D (Price, Product, Promotion and Distribution aka as the Marketing Mix - that I  learned in my business classes in the mid/late 60's .  It has been updated to the 4 Ps and is now referred to  as the Marketing Matrix. This is a continuum process that the Japanese call "Plan - See -Do"  that process never stops as "things" are always  changing and you  gotta lead, follow or get out of the way - Lee Iacocca. -  who is that you might ask -, think the 1964  Ford Mustang and Chrysler turn a around in the late 1970's/ early 1980s.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Iacocca

Here is an  incite into the 4P's, that I spent 41 years following in my carrier and my entire life in personal self  development - it  worked for me but it some times takes BST (think a top level song group that started out in 1967)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood,_Sweat_%26_Tears

No body is going to do it for ya but reading and listening/observing helps a lot.

[johnrj1226]

One more thing - Personally I never used a computer of any kind until I was a half century  of age.  Was issued my first laptop computer - had to learn Microsoft Office - Word, Excel, Power Point, etc (was give an 1 hour formal training program).  Then 10 years later SalesForce.com.  My choice was to learn it asap or get out of the way - 'cause if you ain't changing you are getting further behind.  Accept changes and make them work for you and then you can grow.    6 years later I hung up my career spurs - but still learning..even from my 3.75 yo Grandson

[toysaver]

"Why don't the big companies i.e. the ones with 100s of thousand of listings stop with the auto pricing and driving the prices down so low that the small businesses cannot sell here."

Your last new listing was June 8th???  I guarantee the 'bigger' businesses you compare yourself are not greedy they just work harder.  They buy CDs every day and they list CDs every day.  They do not have a 9-5 other job.  This is what they do to feed their children and survive.   If you want to make more profits spend 10 hours today, tomorrow, the next day and all next week buying and listing with some time for shipping.

"And whats up with multiple listings by same seller on same item to drive other sellers off front page?"

They have multiples of the same item to sell and make a different listing for each one based on condition.  That's integral to the pricing and reselling of books, music and movies. 

[mandisattictoyz]

The great thing about eBay is great pictures and great customer service can outweigh the lowest prices.  But if you can’t compete then why complain.  Isn’t it literally why we live in a free country.  You have the ability to do the same thing others are doing but you choose not to.  Take out some business capital and go out and do the same thing.  You can get all kinds of business capital, between PayPal, ebay capital, whatever else you choose it’s out there.  Instead of taking all the time to complain about the people that actually made it and have a stable business, make your own.  It won’t happen overnight, but I bet you can double or triple your sales and inventory in a month if you try

[bashort]

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@richard1rst wrote:

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@the_fancy_fox wrote:

I get around it by selling items the big sellers don’t sell.

BINGO !!!!!!!!!!

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This is the key to success on ebay. Find a niche that is underserved.

[bashort]

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@calicorecordsandcds wrote:

Why don't the big companies i.e. the ones with 100s of thousand of listings stop with the auto pricing and driving the prices down so low that the small businesses cannot sell here. 

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Correct me if I am wrong but as far as I know there are no auto repricers on ebay, that is a Amazon thing.

I do not see how a autopricer would work on ebay, it works on Amazon because everyone uses the same catalog page

[onlinecentral]

Twenty years ago, people were downloading music for free on websites like Napster. Then the Apple store began offering legal downloads for $0.99 cents. We are now living in the on demand, streaming era.

It is time for you to exit the media category, which is obsolete. Go back to the drawing board, revise your business model and offer different items in other categories. I have abandoned categories and then moved on to other ones over time. It works fabulous.

[chapeau-noir]

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@onlinecentral wrote:

Twenty years ago, people were downloading music for free on websites like Napster. Then the Apple store began offering legal downloads for $0.99 cents. We are now living in the on demand, streaming era.

It is time for you to exit the media category, which is obsolete. Go back to the drawing board, revise your business model and offer different items in other categories. I have abandoned categories and then moved on to other ones over time. It works fabulous.

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With only a handful of listings, the OP is selling multiple CDs/media per day - they're doing pretty darned well.  As is media (I sell DVDs almost as fast as I can get them here but particularly on another site). I'm not sure what the problem is, TBH.  But having the right selection does make a big difference in media.

[stainlessenginecovers]

@itscalledapostingid   "Are you suggesting ebay put some sort of limit on how low an item could be priced?

That would be illegal"

@calicorecordsandcds   "That is not at all what I am suggesting............read again"

Actually, that is exactly what you were suggesting:

From your opening post:  "I wish ebay would step in and put some limits on these companies"

Not all things are designed to be sold by everyone and there have ALWAYS been the 'big guys' with much more buying power that can get XYZ for less than the average person. 

[chapeau-noir]

Media can be tough because it's one of the easiest things to list and is very easily obtainable - these huge book and CD sellers can buy by the gaylord (or even truckload) for next to nothing.  Media is far from obsolete and in fact is very busy, but the problem with the entire category is that there is a *lot* of unsalable stuff amongst the desirable items.  A selective seller will do very well in the category and in terms of ROI will outsell the 'big guys' who work on volume and probably end up with a ton of dreck, but it's not very easy.  OP seems to be finding the salable items.

The problem is price point.  But I've sold media on and off for years and can say that smaller sellers can outwit larger sellers because we actually offer more in our listings, and that includes personally inspected items. I've gotten some awful messes from those giant sellers because they simply don't have the ability to check each thing they list and still offer the prices they do.  It really isn't a zero sum game.

[doc-holmes]

That's not how a free-market economy works. If you want prices controlled, but not by ebay, there's only one option left...the government (AKA the people). That sounds a lot like a political system just about everyone says they hate, but a shockingly large number seem to actually, secretly like. 

[chapeau-noir]

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@doc-holmes wrote:

That's not how a free-market economy works. If you want prices controlled, but not by ebay, there's only one option left...the government (AKA the people). That sounds a lot like a political system just about everyone says they hate, but a shockingly large number seem to actually, secretly like. 

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ROFL - man, you've got that right!

[farmalljr]

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@calicorecordsandcds wrote:

You totally missed the point of my conversation.  But ok great you sell for $9 shipped with free returns if I meet that and we both sell for 9$ shipped with free returns we share the price.  I was not asking anyone to raise prices.  I was simply saying the price Who$% are killing the little guy case in point I could run you down to the $5 range on the CD you mentioned.  How would that be for you?  I won't though because I know that there are others like yourself that are trying to make a living.  The big big companies don't care in fact they are out of control right now.  When distributors are selling on Ebay for $2 more than I can get an item B2B wholesale that is just wrong.

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You don't understand business. This is why you seem so confused. Those "big guys" are selling hundreds and thousands of items, that you claim they are "undercutting" prices on.  They have a volume model. You obviously do not understand it. Wal-Mart's whole model IS volume.  Yes, they run off the small sellers. 

You know why? Because people want their stuff CHEAPER. People are not loyal to small business, they are loyal to their own wants and desires, even if it ends up screwing them over in the end. So if you are going to sell the same stuff the big guys are selling, you better learn how to compete, or become irrelevant. OR just maybe you should sell stuff the big guys are NOT selling. 

[whatmorefabric]

I sell fabrics that are hard to find,  unique and at a decent price.

I do not even try to compete with the big guys.