Posted By:
IggyEBay as we knew it, is dying, but it's going to be a slow deliberate process. It is still the "alpha dog" of auctions. In no other online venue (outside of major auction houses) can a seller maximize his total sales. Sure, you could put some cards on the B/S/T board, or perhaps create your own web-site. But, for the most part your card is only reaching the veteran collector looking for a bargain or a real good price. So you better have sweet prices, or your item isn't selling and if it does sell.....well, sometimes a few weeks later you get to see how much more it sold for on ebay. A third party site is also an option but if you read the article, it mentioned how ebay has 90 million active users. Currently, no third party site can touch that number.
As to the cause of its death, I would agree with both David and TBob. The changes are at the root of the problem, fraud is also a turn-off, plus as was mentioned, almost everybody is sniping. Consequently, as a seller you have no idea until the last few hours/or seconds if your item is going to sell for a fair price. It is not for the faint of heart and definitely not fun from a sellers perspective. I'm also convinced that it is harder to find legitimate bargains. Which was part of the fun in the old days (5 to 10 years ago) and made browsing entertaining.
Lovely Day...