Giving up on Ebay?

[teetwoohsix]

It sounds like ebay needs to appeal more to the sellers again,lower the fees and please both sides-sellers & buyers.

It sounds like only the sellers have negative issues with ebay.And without the sellers,what do you got?

[smtjoy]

To me BIN's are one of the biggest issues with ebay and I hope it's something Leon and Matt are looking into on their site. It's a tough area thou as BIN's have their place and I have done very well with mine on ebay but I also hate to see them over and over for years.

I think a lot of it goes with the fees charged, I was putting anything extra I had as a bin when it was $.03 a month, now that bin prices are going up I am removing all cards priced less than $10 or marking them lower to sell. Im sure this will clear up a lot of the low priced BINS but im not sure what can be done with the expensive overpriced ones as I'm sure many dealers dont mind paying $2 a month to list a $6000 card for $9000.

[Fuddjcal]

Originally Posted by teetwoohsix

It sounds like ebay needs to appeal more to the sellers again,lower the fees and please both sides-sellers & buyers.

It sounds like only the sellers have negative issues with ebay.And without the sellers,what do you got?

you have dealers buying the very very few nice items at auction and then putting them in their store for double & triple the price. That is the environment that EBAY created for themselves. It just takes all the fun out of it for the buyer. As a part time seller for fun, it doesn't take too many beatings at auction for it to lose it's luster, so part of me can understand the Buy it nows. Most of them though are just are a great place for people to have a private showing of their collections because they can't sell anything at outrageous prices, when they don't deal and want "ALL THE MONEY" on every deal. The over inflated buy it nows are so funny they make my side hurt.

Thanks E-bay for chasing all the buyers and sellers of auctions away with your feedback polices (hated retaliatory negatives so at least they stopped that) and your ever changing fee structure that I would need to be an Actuary to figure out.

[barrysloate]

I don't know how Leon and Matt can prevent those BIN's, even though I agree they clutter up a site. The only thing you can do is make them prohibitively expensive.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

I don't know how Leon and Matt can prevent those BIN's, even though I agree they clutter up a site. The only thing you can do is make them prohibitively expensive.

Just as mentioned above....the way the fee structure will be for sales vs BIN's is the way you get people to act in a certain way. For the most part people (myself included) are coin operated. We do what makes the most fiscal sense for us. Matt and I are discussing ways to make it fair for everyone. We certainly don't want the museum approach of ebay but at the same time we need to have an environment that is conducive to selling any way you want to.
There has been one late 1800's womens baseball cabinet, listed at $4200, for about 3 yrs (so it seems) on ebay. The thing is probably worth $50-$100. If it was cost prohibitive to list it, after the 50th time, the seller wouldn't do it. One other thing.....Matt informs me that after the beta that we hope to do soon, we might have to close down the site again for a short period of time, to do some updates. No doubt it will be well tested when we get to production. regards

[barrysloate]

One of the ideas I have for BIN's for a new site would be to make the fee nominal for say the first ten days. If the item is reasonably priced, there's a good chance it will sell during that time, and it allows a seller to set a price he can live with. After the ten day period, or whatever you choose, it then starts to get expensive, just enough for the seller to consider lowering his price or taking the listing down.

[iggyman]

The only nugget I can add to this "buy-it-now" debate is the simple fact that in eBay's infancy. The buy-it-now format did not exist. When, eBay first started a bunch of auctions had a reserve (or at least that is how I remember it...). The reason sellers had reserves was because bidding was a hit or miss proposition. So, if you think that from a buyers perspective the buy-it-now format is a pain, reserves are no fun either and in my opinion are actually worst. I wish Matt and Leon all the best, but right now despite the termites, buyers can be found by the bushel on eBay. It remains to be seen if they will come en masse to Grand Slam. But just in case, some "Grand Slam" sellers will probably seek some refuge either with buy-it-now or via reserves. Hopefully, the elders at Grand Slam do not make selling too difficult with 110 commandments.

Lovely Day...

[chaddurbin]

like barry i've never had a problem buying/selling on ebay...actually 4 out of 5 i get higher prices on ebay than what i ask on the board (that means there are still lots of people out there unaware of this place)...of course with all the fees and restrictions it sucks to be a seller, but for buying there's no better place. if you can wade through the mess there's still a decent amount of cards and once in awhile a few nice ones. you're practically covered up the ying-yang with the buyer's protection, paypal, or cc etc.

at least initially i don't anticipate seeing a e223 g&b welch or even a $300+ card on GSB w/o some type of reserve or bin (feel free to prove me wrong guys...)

[darkpoet]

"at least initially i don't anticipate seeing a e223 g&b welch or even a $300+ card on GSB w/o some type of reserve or bin (feel free to prove me wrong guys...)"

I'll list a $1000 card with a one dollar minimum bid the first week the site opens and will ship insured to the winning bidder for free.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by darkpoet

I'll list a $1000 card with a one dollar minimum bid the first week the site opens and will ship insured to the winning bidder for free.

It is much appreciated. To a certain extent, our success is going to be related to how many sellers are willing to do something like this - the more sellers that are willing to take a leap with us, the more buyers will come, which will boost sale prices, which in turn will encourage more sellers, and so it goes. Also reassuring to sellers will be the fact that even if their lot hammers at 90% of what it would have done on eBay, they're still pocketing approximately the same amount.