Survey: If you could change EBay....

[antiquefootball]

If you could change EBay to better suit your needs specifically as a buyer or seller of sports collectibles, how would you?

Chris Hornung
www.antiquefootball.com

[ooo-ribay]

As a buyer, I sure liked when it was easy to contact winning bidders who may have won lots with multiple items. That said, I totally get why they tightened that up.

Paying a seller's fee on postage is ridiculous.

I'm to the point that I dread doing my searches because ebay has become such a buy it now of brand new stuff. Most of my Giants collectibles are no more than 70 years old but I'll bet my searches only turn up 1% that is even 25 years old.

[thecatspajamas]

Do away with free listings, with the possible exception of 99-cent no reserve auctions.

[pgellis]

No more Buy It Now. Everything needs to be an auction. No more "storefronts".

[CW]

All auctions, no buy it now option, bidding history shows the user ID, and sellers can leave negative feedback. Also, make fees about 7.5% for the seller and allow sellers to freely accept check and MO as payment.

So yeah, basically go back to the way it was in 1998.

[baseball tourist]

Getting rid of sellers fees on postage and allowing sellers to leave negative or mediocre feedback.

[antiquefootball]

Hypothetically, could an alternative to EBay exclusively for vintage sports collectors with low fees be successful? Would it improve your ability to find what you want if most of the sellers are other collectors, or is part of the appeal of EBay the possibility of finding items that others miss?

I agree that buy it now items make EBay more like a store than an auction site, but could you convince sellers to use a new site during its initial start up if it wasn't mostly buy it now or moderate minimum bids?

[hawaiian bam bam]

its no secret ebay wants to be the next amazon(buy it now with free shipping), they have wanted this for years so i seriously doubt buy it now will ever go away as ebay is trying to compete with amazon for the #1 spot.

[ooo-ribay]

You can hardly ever find desirable memorabilia with BIN, but it CAN happen. BIN is also handy when buying non collectible stuff. I had also thought of having two ebays (vintage auctions and new BINs) but some sellers are convinced their 2008 SGA item is somehow vintage and desirable. I sure do miss the garage sale feel of the old eBay. You could find some great stuff last century!

[irv]

Originally Posted by antiquefootball

If you could change EBay to better suit your needs specifically as a buyer or seller of sports collectibles, how would you?

Chris Hornung
www.antiquefootball.com

Make shipping to Canada reasonable, or completely do away with Global shipping which also adds an import fee on top of it.

Fairly new to E-Bay and bidding, BIN etc so I can't comment on anything further.

[sbfinley]

It's actually a "PayPal" issue, but I wish granted return times were based upon the type of item you purchase. Three months is a laughably absurd amount of time to be able to return a collectible item and the system is abused by buyers as a free investment. All you have to do is make a purchase, spend two months trying to get a profit and file an "item not as described". I won't sell modern cards on eBay for this reason, if the prospect falters you can expect a return.

Originally Posted by antiquefootball

Hypothetically, could an alternative to EBay exclusively for vintage sports collectors with low fees be successful? Would it improve your ability to find what you want if most of the sellers are other collectors, or is part of the appeal of EBay the possibility of finding items that others miss?

It's been attempted by a collection of notable hobby members and it failed because sellers stayed away. It would take a massive company with plenty of capital to take on eBay at its game because without a massive media push and a gauranteed level of buyers then sellers will be fearful of losing bad. At that level, however, you are just dealing with another eBay.

[baseball tourist]

Originally Posted by irv

Make shipping to Canada reasonable, or completely do away with Global shipping which also adds an import fee on top of it.

Fairly new to E-Bay and bidding, BIN etc so I can't comment on anything further.

Amen. Global shipping program is criminal in the rates they charge.

[Abeabe]

Would like to be able to put more characters in title. If the bin was taken away, you would see reserves on many more auctions, that's for sure.

[Mark70Z]

I liked it when you could view the bidder ID's and also search them as well. At least that way I could see who's collections the items are in if I came out on the loosing end.

Also, don't like all the BIN; like when it was an auction site.

[cfhofer]

Agree with most above. Here are a few others..

- Allow seller option to extend auction 10 minutes from last bid.
- Buyer feedback automatically positive if payment received on time. Buyer can therefore be more honest on transaction.
- All bidder/seller communication regarding a live auction is made public.
- eBay assumes ultimate responsibility for customer satisfaction.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by cfhofer

Agree with most above. Here are a few others..

- Allow seller option to extend auction 10 minutes from last bid.
- Buyer feedback automatically positive if payment received on time. Buyer can therefore be more honest on transaction.
- All bidder/seller communication regarding a live auction is made public.
- eBay assumes ultimate responsibility for customer satisfaction.

Really like this: All bidder/seller communication regarding a live auction is made public.

Would keep all the scum from making off ebay offers to the seller and hopefully keep the scum sellers from pulling auctions and cancelling bids to sell off eBay.

I am not a fan of all the rules eBay has added but they got put there because of people trying to get around paying eBay their fees. I am guilty of it also. Back in the day I would list an item at the least I would take for it and then contact everyone who bid offering one to them at their bid price cutting out eBay even though I used their services to make the sales.

[gashouse34]

Do something...anything to punish non paying bidders appropriately.

[RichardSimon]

You should be able to post negative feedback on buyers who do not pay.

[irv]

Originally Posted by baseball tourist

Amen. Global shipping program is criminal in the rates they charge.

It is definitely criminal, no other word to describe it!

After it was brought to my attention, and now seeing this under the card for sale, I don't even open the link anymore as I know, in a lot of cases, the shipping will be more than the actual card.

"Customs services and international tracking provided"

I am not sure how many "sellers" are aware of it, but if I were to guess, most don't?
I am not a seller so I have no idea why some choose it over others but I can only assume, when they sign up as a seller, this is an option that likely stands out and therefore they choose it unknowingly the pitfalls of doing so?

I can't help but think E-Bay or whoever is making out like bandits on the backs of those who use this shipping option?

[RTK]

Originally Posted by antiquefootball

If you could change EBay to better suit your needs specifically as a buyer or seller of sports collectibles, how would you?

Chris Hornung
www.antiquefootball.com

If everything was legit, no fakes and forgeries.

[perezfan]

Address the shill bidding problem, rather than pretend it fails to exist.

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Address the shill bidding problem, rather than pretend it fails to exist.

Ebay has addressed it, by, in my opinion, encouraging it.

[perezfan]

Good one... Sadly, you're spot-on!

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Good one... Sadly, you're spot-on!

I have forwarded to Ebay indisputable evidence of Ebay sellers of GFA-certed (Stephen Rocchi) forgeries employing shill bidders, and Ebay simply turns a blind eye to it.

[irv]

"May Not Ship To Canada"?

Either, yes you do, or no you don't, not "May" please. (unless I am missing something?)