What happened to ebay????????????

[Gary Max]

We have been doing a little down sizeing and posting a few things for sale over on ebay. Talk about being slow, I have a Pro Banner Display listed that has been up for 6 days and it has only had 10 hits--- no bidder or watchers. My starting price is 10% of what a new one cost.
What happened.

[Scott Shepherd]

You might have a tough time selling that. You can buy a pop up frame, like that, WITH the graphic for about $1,300, new. That comes with a case as well. Without the graphic, your market is very very small and there is a TON of trade show stuff floating around out there that no one can get rid of. I know a couple of companies that have vast areas full of those type things, left over from the booming days of trade shows. They all just gather dust now.

[Gary Max]

I checked these out at thier web site and they are priced at $2,300---its a three piece set but I think you are right about being able to sell them. Guess I need to figure out where to buy the graphics at and use them myself.

[David Weaver]

I think sales are probably down on ebay a little bit just because there's nothing to float them along right now. I've been selling stuff on ebay just because I don't care too much what I get for it, but I noticed that where I used to sell stuff starting at a penny and get a decent price, I've been getting closer and closer to just starting to throw away half the stuff I'd put up (like mismatched moulding planes, etc).

The stuff that always brings the people to bid, though (like lie nielsen tools, etc) still sells well, and I'm sure that kind of stuff always will - if the number of bidders halves for that kind of thing, there are still tons of folks bidding and they'll bring the prices up. It's the routine stuff where going from 4 bidders in a week to 1 or 2 really nails you.

The amount of rotating garbage on the site has really multiplied since they changed their police from moderate listing fee and moderate final value fee to no listing fee and steep final value fee. It'd be nice to see them flush everything on the site every 3 months just to clean it up.

[Gary Max]

I listed a bunch of DVD's last month and only half of them even got a bid-----I lsited them for free but it was still a waste of time. Heck I could of been working on my beauty sleep.

[Brian Elfert]

I don't see many used items on Ebay anymore. I don't know if buyers are staying away because of that or not. I know a lot of used item sellers quit using Ebay because the fees have gone up to a level where it isn't worth the seller's time.

I search a lot on Ebay and buy a fair bit there too, but mostly for new stuff.

[David Weaver]

I saw someone call it "retail-bay" a couple of years ago. That's, I guess, about what it's turned into. I get more new stuff on it than used, too, there isn't a lot of good used stuff, and if there is good used stuff, sellers list it for ridiculous BIN prices, because there's no cost to them to list something that won't sell. That's why I'd like to see them go back to listing fees, because it would get rid of all of the retail-bay listings that people will leave up for months or even years.

It'd be equally nice if someone started up a new auction site that didn't allow the sale of any new goods, and didn't have any BIN prices or listings that weren't guaranteed to sell by a given date.

[Gary Max]

I agree that the super store sellers really killed the Auction side of ebay. I remember back 10 years ago I could sell big turning blanks as fast I could cut them up, now they beg for $5.00 bidders.

[Jeff Monson]

I think the "hurry up world" is killing ebay, seems most dont want to wait till an auction ends. They want it now, as in "buy it now".

[Dennis Peacock]

I've seen a LOT of stuff on eBay sell for MORE than what I could buy the piece for locally. Higher than normal Retail prices is not what I go to eBay for. Basically, I don't do eBay any more...because I can buy item X cheaper from a local or an online business.

[Don Buck]

I visited a friend last week who used to sell hundreds of items on ebay each month. He said with the down economy that he had been plagued with professional scam buyers who would purchase his items (antiques, coins and marine parts) only to file a "item not as described" claim from the buyer. Paypal (ebay) would automatically withdraw the sale proceeds from his account and he had to prove the item was as described (he lost all claims - how do you prove what was actually in the box?). Often the buyer would return a completely different item such as a magic marker which weighted the same as the valuable civil war item sold and shipped (he lost the sales proceeds and the item). Recently he sold a late model outboard motor only to have the "item not as described" claim. He had to pay $141 to get his motor returned and when returned the lower unit had been swapped and the carberator and other parts were missing. His claim to ebay fell on deaf ears. Apparantly ebay doesn't feel sellers protection is worth offering. Heck, we can't even leave negitive feedback on fraud buyers. I called ebay yesterday asking what buyer support they can offer and told me to ship with some confirmed delivery method (doesn't help on "item not as described") and to read the sellers page. I for one will look for other venues to sell until ebay comes up with some sellers support. IMO the high rates that ebay charges and the seller's risk are not worth using ebay.

[Jeff Nicol]

I used to sell a lot of items on e-bay, but I just got to busy with other outlets locally and through word of mouth with my turning tools etc. I go on and look at a few things that I am looking for to see if there is a deal on a BIN or a good used item. I won't bid until the last 5 minutes to see if it goes out of my price range. I have found outher auction sites that sell specific type items like industrial tools, surplus items, or local government auctions that usually have things for a decent price and there are not as many bidders as on the bay. I have checked out Etsy for a lot of different things but you are limited to handcrafted or vintage items, but I see some other things now and then on there too, but there is no bidding you just pay the price they are asking.

It is a tough deal to try and sell things with the economy the way it is, so we have to be thankful for the things we can get sold.

Good luck,

Jeff

[Matt Meiser]

I think the "hurry up world" is killing ebay, seems most dont want to wait till an auction ends. They want it now, as in "buy it now".I pretty much only buy using buy-it-now because I don't feel like waiting several days, trying to be there late in the auction to bid at the last second, only to likely be beat by a piece of software. I think that's what's killed eBay. And it's getting rarer and rarer that I'm better off buying on eBay anyway since total price on Amazon is usually lower if you don't count the price of our Prime membership.

That said, I have bought 3 smaller items on eBay for a lot less than i could have anywhere else in the last week or so and two are even used (lightly.) All were buy-it-now and I paid less for the two used ones than others I was watching on auction sold for!

[Bryan Morgan]

Its quicker and easier to sell stuff on craigslist, and you don't have to pay ridiculous fees. That, and who has money to buy anything these days? I think people are trying to pay their mortgages and feed their kids rather than buy used stuff on ebay...