The State of eBay

[LEHR]

I first joined eBay in 1997. Up until 5'ish years ago I was still checking eBay 5-6 times a day and was still buying and selling all the time. Now, with the search engine being jacked up, the museum prices, high (IMO) seller fee's, and the fact that eBay not only allows but forces me to accept ridiculous returns, I've completely stopped selling on their platform and my purchases have gone from an average of 1 a day to 2-4 a month. Like others have said, you can still find quality items at fair prices at times, but I've found this to only be through the auction format. I never really use the Buy It Now feature anymore.
With REA now doing the Encore auctions I'd rather consign to them, ship one box, and have ZERO headache.

[jingram058]

From what I can tell, based on the things I look for and buy, and talking to my friends who also are into these old things, eBay is taking something that worked and ruining it. For a multitude of reasons. No one I know buys or sells there much anymore. I am the last of the holdouts, but even I admit it's become difficult. Nothing lasts forever.

I will add that the cards I have bought lately have come from sellers who do have an eBay presence but also have their own web sites (such as Kit Young Cards) and from sellers on this forum.

[h2oya311]

Originally Posted by jingram058

From what I can tell, based on the things I look for and buy, and talking to my friends who also are into these old things, eBay is taking something that worked and ruining it. For a multitude of reasons. No one I know buys or sells there much anymore. I am the last of the holdouts, but even I admit it's become difficult. Nothing lasts forever.

I will add that the cards I have bought lately have come from sellers who do have an eBay presence but also have their own web sites (such as Kit Young Cards) and from sellers on this forum.

I feel like there’s a Yogiism somewhere in there. Something along the lines of: “no one goes there any more…it’s too crowded.”

[ricktmd]

Seems almost uniamous. Being a seller on ebay sucks and their return policies terrible. Why they even have 14 day returns when they offer a bypass. 30 day return ( plus 15 working days to ship back) . Just push the button that says "doesn't match website description, or bought by mistake." Allowing bidders to withdrawal bids on auctions is outrageous. All this an ebay customer service claim is they trust their buyers to be honest. Seriously?

As a buyer the difficulty to search has taken the fun out of looking at ebay. There still are hidden gems amongst the countless overpriced items

[JollyElm]

"He who controls the spice 'search function,' controls the universe."

[Leon]

Wow, reading the comments is a little eye opening. While I have bought on there, I haven't sold on there in years. I didn't realize it had gotten that bad.
.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Leon

Wow, reading the comments is a little eye opening. While I have bought on there, I haven't sold on there in years. I didn't realize it had gotten that bad.
.

Maybe it has for prewar baseball or even baseball in general, but for other card categories it remains the go-to place. You simply cannot beat the audience.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Maybe it has for prewar baseball or even baseball in general, but for other card categories it remains the go-to place. You simply cannot beat the audience.

Memorabilia has simply dried (been collected) up some over the years, I think, totally apart from the other issues noted. But there's really no alternative on that side, either, so good stuff still pops up from time to time, and bargains still to be had.

[edtiques]

I bought a lot of pins on ebay for $39.00 and they're worth probably $300. Well, the seller canceled the sale and refunded my money. He told me he "misplaced" the pins. That didn't sit well with me. I looked at his feedback and saw there was someone who left neutral feedback because he canceled that guys auction too within the last month. I looked at the item he canceled and it was a zippo lighter worth probably $120 or so but sold for $45 in an auction. I looked at his other sales and he was getting top dollar for everything. He knows the values, he's an antique dealer. He wanted to get full value for his items. He knew those two items went too cheaply, so he canceled the sales. That's a violation of ebay's selling policies. It's also just a very weaselly thing to do.
I reported him. People who do that shouldn't be selling on Ebay.

This is the message I sent him:

I don't believe for a second that you "misplaced" those pins. You feel like you didn't get enough for them so you cancelled the sale. Maybe you should start them at a price that's more acceptable to you to begin with, that way you don't have to cancel sales. Not that hard to figure out. Personally, my reputation is worth more than a few dollars so I would honor the sale even though I know I could get more for the item. But, that's me and apparently not you. I'm guessing you also "misplaced" that Vietnam lighter that you cancelled the sale on earlier this month too. You've earned the negative feedback I'm about to leave. This is my first time leaving negative feedback after thousands of transactions. Learn to do better.

[Northviewcats]

Originally Posted by edtiques

I bought a lot of pins on ebay for $39.00 and they're worth probably $300. Well, the seller canceled the sale and refunded my money. He told me he "misplaced" the pins. That didn't sit well with me. I looked at his feedback and saw there was someone who left neutral feedback because he canceled that guys auction too within the last month. I looked at the item he canceled and it was a zippo lighter worth probably $120 or so but sold for $45 in an auction. I looked at his other sales and he was getting top dollar for everything. He knows the values, he's an antique dealer. He wanted to get full value for his items. He knew those two items went too cheaply, so he canceled the sales. That's a violation of ebay's selling policies. It's also just a very weaselly thing to do.
I reported him. People who do that shouldn't be selling on Ebay.

This is the message I sent him:

I don't believe for a second that you "misplaced" those pins. You feel like you didn't get enough for them so you cancelled the sale. Maybe you should start them at a price that's more acceptable to you to begin with, that way you don't have to cancel sales. Not that hard to figure out. Personally, my reputation is worth more than a few dollars so I would honor the sale even though I know I could get more for the item. But, that's me and apparently not you. I'm guessing you also "misplaced" that Vietnam lighter that you cancelled the sale on earlier this month too. You've earned the negative feedback I'm about to leave. This is my first time leaving negative feedback after thousands of transactions. Learn to do better.

Ouch. This story really hurts. Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous dealers on eBay, however, I don't really think that this is the norm.

I buy and mostly sell on eBay, and I love the platform. I make about 100 sales each week on eBay and 70% of the sales are from repeat customers. I can see where it is difficult to find great buys on eBay. The search engine is not easy to set up to look for deals, and the prices are mostly at full retail. So, if you are looking for bargains on prewar cards, eBay is probably not for you. But there are a lot of collectors, that don't have the access to card shows. Or they don't want to buy large lots of cards and then try to sell the cards that they don't want. They are willing to pay more to get exactly what the card they want. These are the customers that eBay is catering to. We would have a lot less people enjoying the hobby if eBay was not available.

As a seller, it does take some effort to create listings and deal with the occasional problem buyer, but for the most part if you treat the customer the way that you would like to be treated, you don't have many problems. Overall, eBay's fees are reasonable for what you get. They do allow you to display thousands of items in your store for a small monthly fee. You are only charged the final value fee if the item sells. The fee structure does make it difficult to discount off the listed price when you take in the actual cost of selling the item. I don't sell at shows, but I'm sure that the vendors at shows have to deal with the costs of travel and setting up a booth. In any case, people always complain about the high cost of cards at shows, too.

In my opinion, although eBay is not perfect, I'm happy that eBay is here, and doing well.

Best regards,

Joe

[bcbgcbrcb]

I list a lot of $50-$500 cards on eBay. My take on things currently is if you are priced at and keep up to date with recent comps, you stand a good chance of moving a good percentage of your stuff within a few months of listing it. If you price at 2021 levels, you sell next to nothing. But, that is no different than the current state of card shows either. No one knows better than me what it is like to grudgingly list your cards for sale taking significant losses but if you are in that position, that’s what you have to do. Otherwise, don’t blame eBay/buyers for your lack of sales, it’s your own fault.