Thread: Are the glory days over for Ebay??

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At one time I was an Ebay-a-holic, both buying and selling. When I needed money to fund one of my little projects I would unload some of my stash of car and boat stuff, and when I needed something I would find it on Ebay and buy it. I have no idea how many thousands of dollars have flowed either direction over the past 4 years, but it would probably make me sick if I really knew the answer.I also used it as a source of entertainment, putting in various terms, like Rat Rod, Hot Rod, Project Car, etc., just to see what was being offered.

But I rarely look at Ebay any more, and I kinda have a sneaking suspicion I am not alone. For one thing, I think the new format stinks. When you start to type in a search word, a list of suggested words pop up and sometimes take over the field. Then, once you do pull up a category the items are no longer arranged in the nice chronological order they once were, they now have some stupid screen with all the items spread out across, like one of the Ebay stores would have once had. Also, if you pull up a car for sale ad it is so big you have to scroll down then over to read the whole thing.

I understand there is a new CEO at Ebay, and these changes are the result of his input. He was also the one responsible for doing away with negative feedback, so you can only put in positive feedback these days. That change really scares me, as if there weren't enough scams on there already.

I think Craigslist has them scrambling, and it is sure a whole lot cheaper. By the time you add in posting fees, feature fees, final value fees, Paypal fees, etc, you end up making about 60 percent of what you sold the item for. Now I see Ebay has some legal problems, something about a class action settlement. Sure wish I could get back the $ 80 X 3 that they charged me for ONE boat I sold ONE time a few years ago. I finally gave up trying to get a human being to talk to, so I threw in the towel.

What do the rest of you think?

Don

My wife has been a member since 97 she has over 5000 positive feedbacks, one person left her a negative by mistake and e-bay would not take it off. She was there when pay pal would give you $10 or $15 when you would sign up. E-bay bought pay pal, they keep changing the rules to fit their profits. If you read the comments people are upset. E-bay is dictating how people will buy and sell. My wife will not and has not used pay pal her items were too small to pay high fees so she is leaving, and she is looking at other auction
sites

Richard

I agree. My son and I both bought and sold lots of stuff over the years. No more and has been a year since we've done anything there. There are some good things starting on Amazon. I've been doing that along with Craigslist. Used to check eBay daily. Now maybe a few times a month if that. I refuse to use PayPal so no reason to shop there. Hopefully other venues will open as eBay fades into the sunset.

i used to purchase alot of different things from ebay. from car parts to christmas items. but once i saw that people were charging more for the shipping then the item cost just to get a higher price i stoppped shopping on ebay. i use craigslist. you can go look at the item and talkto a real person. ebay has really gone down hill.

Tend to agree, E Bay used to be fun but with format changes, fee hikes etc a lot of sellers seem to be packing up shop and I'm even doubting whether I'll ever put anything up for sale there again.

To me it seems that E Bay had a pretty winning formula and as I remember a few years back was posting a pretty healthy profit at the end of each year.

Instead of keeping customers happy and leaving things alone it seems that changes were made to increase an already decent prophet margin at the expense of the customers resulting in a real potnetial for end result of pricing themselves out of the market.

Wonder what place in line for a government bailout they'll have?

Can't disagree with anything that has been said. I was addicted to Ebay for awhile too. Sold most of my airplane stuff on there, and bought a large percentage of the hot rod parts for my projects. In the last 12 months it went from a torrent, to a trickle. They have managed to nickle and dime the sellers to death. With no sellers, you won't need buyers. Didn't know a new guy was at the helm. Maybe he's one of those CO's that have a need to make changes, because he in charge, and he thinks that is what is expected of him. I think it's called, 'being promoted beyond ones capabilities'. Sniper

I just posted some items, and they didn't sell. Quite surprising too... industrial motor drivers ( inverters ) brand spanking new, listed for about 20% of new cost and free shipping too? Just don't understand why they didn't sell. Anyway, what I DO understand is that the listing fees were about $2.50 each and when I first stared ebaying, listing would have been about $.75 each. That is a way huge jump. No wonder people are ditching them for other auction sites. I also agree that the CONSTANT format change is ANNOYING.

Been using Evilbay since 97 but not so much lately. I must admit I did snag some play tickets for the wifey's anniversary 2 weeks ago. They were E tickets so I waited until the end- the last day- day of show & he removed the reserve (or get nothing for them) & snagged them for $40.00 for the pair. Face value was $87.50 each. Printed the tickets & off we went.
Don't sell anymore but I still occasionally hunt.

I still use eBay, not as much as I used to. I steer clear from the guys running "eBay businesses". I found that their prices aren't usually much better than locally.

Well, it is a constantly changing entity. If change doesn't set well with you then you probably want to stay away from ebay. I do think you can still choose the old format on motors, I did and still have it but if I go to other catagorys it is the new and blue.
I have just started back browsing after a 3 month hiatus. My garden and other interests have kept me occupied, plus the lack of $$ to doidle away. Also selling drops off bad from the end of June to about now so I haven't been listing anything for a while either.
Also Maybe after all these years most buyers finally figured out that there just aren't many bargains on ebay anymore.

Ah yes, the glory days of Ebay...Bought the first car ever sold there, a 1974 MGB convertible out of Hanford, Ca. $800 for the car, another $350 (remember those days boys and girls) to ship it door to door.....Gave it to the wife so she had a toy for the summer. Got offered $4,800 (rust free California cars were not that plentiful on the east coast back then) the rest was history...Sold the second ever car (first Mustang) on Ebay, a 1966 Mustang convertible needing floors,torque boxes, inner and outer rockers, and lower quarters to a now good friend in Norway......Made another profit far too good to be true......Rode the wave and the market for the next 8 years buying and selling, made a decent sideline living off of it.....Saw the writing on the wall two years ago and got out while I could, dabbling here and there with maybe 4 cars a year instead of 4-6 cars a month........Now I only use it when I feel the need, less than 7 transactions in the last year, most of them with me buying small items (owners manuals, blank keys, etc).....Will I go back to what I was doing before, perhaps, but not until I see the market hit bottom again........



Bill S.

I agree...The recent change in the car sales pricing has killed it for me.. Seems like every time they change it, it is for the worse.. I too now check craigslist regularly..Lots of rif raff and BSers on there though so ya gotta be savy.. Plus ads are only good for a day or two at best because they get buried fast..Hey, it's free, what do you expect?

I don't sell on Ebay, but I do buy some stuff.. bought an AM radio transmitter the other day, $15, but shipping brought it to $34, I don't mind paying that because I'v never seen the AM transmitters b4, only FM.. and all my cars have AM Radios

Hehe, there was a funny thread on the HAMB a little while back about AM radios. This guy said a young girl who lives next door came over to his house with a car AM radio in her hand and wanted to give it to him because "she knew he liked old music." Evidently, she somehow thought old music came out of an AM radio!! Never did find out if she was a blonde.

Don

Just incase you didn't know it’s been said that e-bay owns 25% of craigslist. They tried to either buy Western Union (bid pay) or receive a fee from Western Union but they couldn't so e-bay discontinued letting sellers link to accept Western Union (bid pay) as payment on the sellers listing page. What got my wife and others upset was that e-bay is stopping all forms of payment other then paypal. No checks or money orders. The fees also got too large. The new policy was to take effect the first of October but since so many people have complained they have extended the policy for sellers to accept money orders or checks until after Christmas.

If you would like to learn more go to the home page on e-bay and look at the upper right corner and click on Community. Then look on the left side for discussion boards; click on that and you will see several boards discussing what is happening. The one called “soapbox” gives lots of info into what is going on with the e-bay site right now. Lots of people are filing complaints with their state attorney’s office for unfair trade practices as far as trying to make sellers accept only paypal. E-bay started out as a good way for the average person to make a few extra bucks but they got too greedy IMHO.

Richard