Ebay? We hardly knew ya!

[caledesi]

I have been dealing w/ Ebay since its inception. Yeah, I would buy AND sell. Used to go to garage sales on Sat and Sun and scarf up all the things that were hot. (Small, cheap to ship - light and small, unless there were "hot" things like one-piece phones...which I bought for $1 and sold for $75....the good ol' days.)

And now, Ebay is totally commercialized. Makes me sad. No private sales and the shipping is ridiculous.

Any other auction sites that are like Ebay when it first started?

BTW, I used to pull in about $200/week going to garage sales etc, and posting stuff. Not anymore. It is really disgusting.

Any ebay thoughts out there?

[johnnie]

1. I was going to try to sell on it

But it seems like it isn't worth the trouble any longer.

[ReadTomPaine]

2. What do you mean by "no private sales" on eBay.. not sure if I follow.

Sorry!

RTP

[FloridaPat]

3. I'm confused. I thought anyone could sell anything on Ebay. Last I

checked. It looks like there are mostly private sales.

[onager]

5. A little background on that.

disclaimers: I've been selling on eBay since 1999 as a strictly "private" vendor. I do it as a sideline to my hobby, scale model building and collecting. In that little area, there are still many private vendors.

Howevah...

It figures that we would be seeing more stores, etc. In the past few years, eBay has made a concerted effort to hook more commercial vendors. Especially with the eBay Stores thing.

A friend of mine manages a local hobby shop. For the past 3 or 4 years at the big Chicago Hobby Show, eBay has put on a full court press for hobby shop owners. This includes stuff like free meals and all sorts of enticing offers to sign up for an eBay Store.

My friend hasn't done it so far. When he wants to dump some old stock on eBay, he just gives it to me and I put it up. Ditto when his customers have stuff they want to sell. I put up their model kits and charge them 20% of the gross. This includes writing the ads, taking digital photos, and handling the accounting for the sale.

It works out pretty good. The prices people will pay for stuff constantly amaze me.

[saltpoint]

4. I've only popped in there once in awhile.

Does eBay have any serious competition -- like other on-line auctions?

[Floogeldy]

6. A very poignant question

If EBay fucks up, someone else will fill the void. Assuming Congress minds it's own business.

B-)

[onager]

7. I've known of several competitors...

Serious? Nah, not really. At least one of them dropped a ton of money and TRIED to be a real competitor.

This was a consortium of AOL and a couple of other companies, 4 or 5 years ago. They put this thing together with the express purpose of a run at eBay. Note that it took THREE companies combined to feel confident enough to take on eBay.

How do I know they had a ton of money? Because they had teams of marketing people working the Geek-Meets devoted to scale models. They had a pretty snazzy booth, and laptops constantly connected to the sites so passersby could try it out. In my day job I've done this sort of marketing, and it isn't cheap: travel, hotels, rental cars, shipping the booth and other materials, etc. They also bought full-color, inside-cover ads in the hobby magazines.

Scale modeling is a pretty small business niche, and I can only assume they put on the same effort in other areas.

Apparently it failed miserably. They allowed sellers to stop the auction immediately if the bidding reached their desired price. I'm not sure that was a good idea.

I'm seeing full-color ads right now for an auction site devoted strictly to model cars and related items. Haven't checked them out yet.

[caledesi]

8. No, what I am saying is in the beginning, when Ebay lst started

there were mostly private sales. That has all changed. Now you have alot of commercial sites, dumping the stuff that wouldn't sell.

Case in point: My nephew, who I turned on to Ebay about 5 years ago, used to go to auctions every Sat (spend 8 hours there)and sell during the week. His wife, who worked from home used to put the stuff up. They made over 50K/year for almost 3 years. They have closed bec they cannot compete anymore. The corporations buy up the stuff and sell it.

Believe me, I know ebay as a seller and buyer and I have really seen the change.

I am not saying there are bargains; there are, but considering what it USED to be...it has changed drastically especially in terms of shipping. I have worked for companies, and as anyone knows, a lot of the "beer money" is made in shipping. They overhcharge...plain and simple.

I still shop at ebay, but it's not the same. :(

[Hardrada]

9. What did they sell?

I sell books on eBay and feel sales are slower now. I am not sure why but I don't know of any corporations buying up books at auction.

[caledesi]

10. Books? I don't know why. Wish I could help you.

What I do know is that books are not all that valuable. So, I dont know. Depends on what a "profit" means to you.

I really don't see however, how corps can interfere with books.

[Hardrada]

12. What then, in your experience, do they interfere with?

Just curious.

[Book Lover]

18. I do bookselling on Amazon

and sales haven't gone down like eBay has, FWIW.

[mitchum]

11. I don't understand what you mean by "the shipping is ridiculous"...

since the seller sets the shipping price (along with USPS, UPS, FedEx or whoever)

I am very lackadaisical about selling, but I still make out very well (considering how little work I do)

Books can be quite lucrative if one knows just what to sell

[caledesi]

13. The shipping in the "old days" was exact..in other words

No one tried to scam you on the shipping. If the shipping "2nd day priorty was a flat rate" well okay that was cool. Now the shipping (take a look if you don't believe me) is grossly inflated. In other words, if the cost of what an item weighs etc, it used to be honest.

Now, they have included "packing and shipping fee".. (remember I worked in sales) is totally inflated. 15 dollars to ship an item that weights about 3 lbs....that is what I mean about outrageous.

[ReadTomPaine]

15. Anything endorsed by Dick Cheney becomes questionable, it seems. n/t

[mitchum]

16. But I am "guilty" of inflating the shipping cost...

and no one seems to have a problem with that. It increases my take since eBay doesn't get a percentage of the shipping fee (like they do with the final auction price) I just post items with a lowered opening bid, and bidders seem to bid accordingly. I am also very upfront with what I will charge to ship the item to the winning bidder. To my mind, this seems to be an understanding that has developed between sellers and buyers. I don't feel guilty about this, since I don't sell necessities. No one really "needs" my merchandise :)
I'm not shilling for eBay (they are the ones who are getting gouged with my technique)

[housewolf]

14. Ebay's changed a lot

It's become great for buyers (if you can find a seller who doesn't rip you off for shipping) but it's become HORRIBLE for sellers. There's so much competition that the prices have dropped to where a seller can barely make a profit except on really high-demand, low-supply items. It's almost understandable why sellers pad the shipping - for many, that's where their profit is.

It's sad, what's happened. Ebay used to be the greatest thing going.

[SoDesuKa]

17. Depends on What You Buy

There are still lots of bargains to be found on E-Bay. I buy computer parts that are super-pricey if you buy them from the manufacturer. And I bought a new kitchen knife for $30 less than the stores.

I'm talking about total price. I don't care how the seller breaks it out. You can call it "shipping" or "donation to the RNC," it's still part of the total price.