eBay Mess

[Buythatcard]

The categories are back! I just went to do a search and they are all there. Maybe someone actually listened.

[painthistorian]

as of 8:50 NY it is NOT working even w/ refresh, overall categories are still lumped, just searches are more refined, you cannot list items by decade.

keep calling e bay every day-

[gabrinus]

not fixed.....just more useless categories.......pre 1930 where are you?? anyone want to spend all day searching through hologram cards?? no more rare items like the Old Put I lucked across years ago when the seller did not list it that way.....no more blue back crofts when the seller does not list it that way......oh well.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by Matt

Jim - it's not fixed - they just changed around the site to look more like the category browsing, but it's still using the same "Item Specifics" information, as you can see, only 64,000 listings will be missed when browsing that way...

I think this might be all the "fixed" we're going to get for a while. I didn't say it was back to the way it was, just that they expanded the sub-categories.

I don't sell on Ebay, so I'm not tuned in to everything you have to go through to list, but my understanding is that the "Item Specifics" info requires more attention to detail by the seller in the listing set-up, but if it's done well, random searches should work OK.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by gabrinus

not fixed.....just more useless categories.......pre 1930 where are you?? anyone want to spend all day searching through hologram cards?? no more rare items like the Old Put I lucked across years ago when the seller did not list it that way.....no more blue back crofts when the seller does not list it that way......oh well.

They may not have a "Pre-1930" category but you can search for multiple years by checking the box next to each year you're interested in (1929, 1928, 1927, etc., all the way back to 18xx). Once you do this search, click "Save this Search" and you don't have to do it again.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Jim VB

I think this might be all the "fixed" we're going to get for a while. I didn't say it was back to the way it was, just that they expanded the sub-categories.

I don't sell on Ebay, so I'm not tuned in to everything you have to go through to list, but my understanding is that the "Item Specifics" info requires more attention to detail by the seller in the listing set-up, but if it's done well, random searches should work OK.

This issue really wasn't/isn't effecting searches that much - it effects browsing - people want to sit on the 1930's category and watch all the interesting stuff that comes in. There was a very cool Mordecai Brown flip book that was listed last week by a board member; I don't think the year is even known and I doubt most of the people bidding have a saved search for "Mordecai Brown Flip Book." They were browsing the category and saw it. I don't think it would pull in 1/3 of what it did if listed now.

And again, as I pointed out, by using the item specifics, you're still missing 70k of the 200k listings.

[painthistorian]

Hi Net 54-

I just finished my 5th call...each supervisor is more robotic than the prior, each one says to me , this is the first time they have heard any complaints, as has been stated over and over, please turn up the heat, KEEP CALLING, keep e mailing........no search method will replace browsing era categories........

This is the only opportunity we will have to get this browsing method back, era categories, lots, sets etc.....all now lumped together without EXPLICIT CATEGORY SEARCHES and with all of ebay lame changes, this one should make ALL SELLERS of any item realize that they are now going to have FAR LESS eyes on their products which means, less to offer you COLLECTORS. When those that have quality merchandise now ONLY WILL SELL/LIST WITH THE GREAT GUYS (major auctions), the collector and the dealer are BOTH hurt....we have no alternative at this time as much as we want to be positive, you will now have very little offered thru e bay and will have to pay buyers fees to auction houses so collectors, dealers and hobbyists large and small...KEEP IN E BAYS FACE and hurt them in their pockets.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by Matt

This issue really wasn't/isn't effecting searches that much - it effects browsing - people want to sit on the 1930's category and watch all the interesting stuff that comes in. There was a very cool Mordecai Brown flip book that was listed last week by a board member; I don't think the year is even known and I doubt most of the people bidding have a saved search for "Mordecai Brown Flip Book." They were browsing the category and saw it. I don't think it would pull in 1/3 of what it did if listed now.

And again, as I pointed out, by using the item specifics, you're still missing 70k of the 200k listings.

Not trying to be difficult here, but your complaint is that, last week you found a flip book, which was incorrectly listed in the Pre 1930's baseball card category, and now you wouldn't find this mis-listed item?

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Jim VB

Not trying to be difficult here, but your complaint is that, last week you found a flip book, which was incorrectly listed in the Pre 1930's baseball card category, and now you wouldn't find this mis-listed item?

Yes you are

I have no complaint - I think this latest eBay change will end up being great for everyone.

I think the seller of that item, which doesn't fit neatly into any of the "item specifics" categories and was listed as correctly as it could have been, would now not get 1/3 of what he got.

[jbsports33]

I agree with Jim (VB), I just tried searches and on the left side there are many options you can play around with including years, lots, packs. Trust me I am not happy with the change and emailed them twice already, will call asap too. I just think there are ways around the changes eBay makes and my search only was about 10-20 min more. I am sure I can cut that time down as well and I search almost all sports cats not just cards. I am disappointed, but I can work with it and the search is almost the same, just need to click a few more buttons with each sport. Keep calling, it will not hurt because they did mess up and did not think about sellers and buyers that have built in searches.

Jimmy

[paul]

Buythatcard needs to tell us his secret.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by Matt

Yes you are

I have no complaint - I think this latest eBay change will end up being great for everyone.

I think the seller of that item, which doesn't fit neatly into any of the "item specifics" categories and was listed as correctly as it could have been, would now not get 1/3 of what he got.

OK. I agree. Sellers of oddball items may have to work a little harder to have their item be randomly "found."

Sellers of more mainstream items may have to work a little harder to be sure their listings are accurate in their use of item specifics.

And browsers may have to be just a little more creative than we were to create search/browse categories that fit our desires.

But... it's better than it was this morning, albeit worse/different than it was two days ago.

[painthistorian]

many of you have good responses regarding refining searches and that is important HOWEVER....

Browsing is different than searching and many of us browse and find era related material by era categories... what makes NO sense is collectibles such as coins still have easy to navigate & selling sub categories by era, US, foreign gold, US, professional graded & non graded (different wording, same thing) and they are a similar type rare collectibles with recent shiny junk too, but they are not MIXED TOGETHER...you can still search for lots or singles and not be lumped together. Their categories were NOT changed, ours were.....why? If e bay was to benefit on a profitable level for this stupidity, why destroy the cards categories and not do same w/ coins?

I can still browse gold coins and get a single search for all gold coins but if I want to find all Mickey mantle cards 1950-1959 graded(PSA,GAI,SGC BVG) etc. in one search (which I could last week), it will be Mickey Mantle reprint garbage mixed w/ good cards, graded mixed w/ non graded, now the search MUST be refined or you will lose the ability to "browse" not search.

Sellers are going to lose 1/2 of their watchers, we see our results last two days and it is way down from comparible watchers of similar items this month.

It just makes no sense from any point of view.....

[paul]

The worst part is that they didn't screw up the other categories. That means they will get only a minimum number of complaints -- probably a number similar to the number of people who read this board. There just aren't that many prewar collectors out there. So it will be much tougher to get them to change.

I originally thought these changes were across the whole website, and I was about to invest heavily in selling ebay stock short. With only cards affected, it probably won't make a difference.

[Buythatcard]

I might have spoken to quickly when I said teh categories were back.

I can see the categories when I do a refined search. I was not able to do that over the past 2 days. It looks the same to me as it did before we had these problems.

But, I still cannot choose any subcategories under baseball when listing new items.

So, it's still a mess.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by painthistorian

many of you have good responses regarding refining searches and that is important HOWEVER....

Browsing is different than searching and many of us browse and find era related material by era categories... what makes NO sense is collectibles such as coins still have easy to navigate & selling sub categories by era, US, foreign gold, US, professional graded & non graded (different wording, same thing) and they are a similar type rare collectibles with recent shiny junk too, but they are not MIXED TOGETHER...you can still search for lots or singles and not be lumped together. Their categories were NOT changed, ours were.....why? If e bay was to benefit on a profitable level for this stupidity, why destroy the cards categories and not do same w/ coins?

I can still browse gold coins and get a single search for all gold coins but if I want to find all Mickey mantle cards 1950-1959 graded(PSA,GAI,SGC BVG) etc. in one search (which I could last week), it will be Mickey Mantle reprint garbage mixed w/ good cards, graded mixed w/ non graded, now the search MUST be refined or you will lose the ability to "browse" not search.

Sellers are going to lose 1/2 of their watchers, we see our results last two days and it is way down from comparible watchers of similar items this month.

It just makes no sense from any point of view.....

Actually, it does; here's another conspiracy theory to chew on: ebay wants to be rid of the auction format and has been doing things to favor fixed price sales for quite some time. Perhaps chopping out the browsing contingent is part of that strategy--drive the prices down on auctions and force everyone to go to fixed price listings to protect their suddenly much larger downsides.

[danmckee]

I agree with Larry, Matt and Adam. No searching can accomplish what the browsing of an era category did. The flip booklet with no year in the title is a great example, Matt is correct, listed now, that book brings $50 to $75 as many would not have seen it.

I also think Adam is on to something: Ebay is really pushing the direct sale and no auctions. This loss of sub categories will cause loss of revenue for sellers and for them to list with BIN's.

All sellers will do the inventory dumps.

Also, there are doctored fakes popping up like crazy now and the report item feature hasn't worked for 2 days.

Amazing!

[barrysloate]

Adam makes a good point, but I've been wondering: why does ebay want to get rid of the auction format? Why is a fixed price site to their advantage? Is it too costly to run the auction software?

It's easy for us to sit here and say ebay is really stupid to make the changes they have made, but the fact is a good deal of thought is put into these decisions. And it is done because the company believes it will make them more profitable. But why? That's what escapes me.

[Rich Klein]

Because in "fixed sales" mode EBay would have a higher percentage of high volume sellers instead of the Mom and Pop sellers who do auctions.

It's much easier for a business to deal with a smaller number of "distributors" then it is to deal with a large number of "retailers".

Rich

[mintacular]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Adam makes a good point, but I've been wondering: why does ebay want to get rid of the auction format? Why is a fixed price site to their advantage? Is it too costly to run the auction software?

It's easy for us to sit here and say ebay is really stupid to make the changes they have made, but the fact is a good deal of thought is put into these decisions. And it is done because the company believes it will make them more profitable. But why? That's what escapes me.

Just b/c this decision has been made doesn't mean eBay it works for the consumer or that their "research process" was conducted accurately. There are many companies (like Enron) that make poor decisions and pay for it--getting too big can contribute to MORE errors, not less.

There are two options of what happened here in my opinion:
1) Some wonk in corporate has no idea how collectors search/buy cards & proposed this reconfiguration to save $ on server space, etc.
2) This was a strategic & deliberate choice to kill off auctions/small sellers in their continued transition to fixed BINS/stores

I'm leaning towards option 2 at this point. The consequence of this change will immediately kill penny auctions which no doubt hurts the big seller who offers the same product in their stores, but at a higher price. Also notice the new seach options which allows you to easily search for specific sellers. To me, this option further confirms my suspicions regarding WHY this change was implemented.

[barrysloate]

Responding to Rich and mintacular, who both made good points, I guess the auctions are in some ways not as profitable as the fixed price format. It would seem like both large corporations and mom and pop sellers could live together harmoniously, as there's a need for both of them. So why not let the auction business grow too, even if they want to draw more attention to the bigger retail sellers?

I know that vintage baseball cards comprise maybe 1/10 of 1% of all ebay sales, so I don't think they are losing too much sleep over our issues. But for that reason alone, why not just leave it be?

[painthistorian]

If e bay wants to rid the auction format and that was their purpose, WHY DID THEY KEEP THE SUB CATEGORIES FOR COINS???????

You can still separate and BROWSE graded and non graded coins, I just think they wanted to consolodate categories as their "efforts to improve the e bay experience" and there was no one at e bay that really understood the severity regarding baseball card era categories...it does not mean they are not intending to long term go to a BIN/best offer/best match structure...it would be more evident if every collectible category was destroyed like cards were.

[mintacular]

From my last 10 years of experience on eBay, these changes usually fall like dominos--cards this week, coins next month, etc. I am still hoping this is one bad dream.

If not, I hope a new site that specializes specifically in sports cards, etc. can swoop in & offer a better alternative. eBay is clearly out of touch with how collectors shop and is too big for its own britches.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Actually, it does; here's another conspiracy theory to chew on: ebay wants to be rid of the auction format and has been doing things to favor fixed price sales for quite some time. Perhaps chopping out the browsing contingent is part of that strategy--drive the prices down on auctions and force everyone to go to fixed price listings to protect their suddenly much larger downsides.

This theory makes a lot of sense. If you get all of your sellers paranoid that buyers won't find their item, they are all going to start listing items as Buy it Now to make sure that they don't take a huge loss on their item because nobody saw it.

[D. Bergin]

I think the answer is simply a case of too many cooks spoiling the stew.

Too many salaries, too many people with input into the decision making process, too few people with actual experience using the platform.

I think the descent began years ago when Ebay first went from a private company to a public company.

The stock went crazy and with it came unrealistic expectations of continued growth in feeding the Wall Street machine. Dumb decisions were made in the chase for short term profits and eventually Ebay decided they wanted to become the company whose ass they were metaphorically kicking for years and years...........Amazon!!

Ebay keeps saying "auctions are dying"................that's because they have been killing them off themselves!

When Ebay began it was nothing more then a few people..........a server and some fancy software.

Ebay doesn't keep any inventory.............overhead should be nill. Every one of these poor decisions creates more overhead for them and in turn more pennies they are obligated to suck off it's users to meet demand from it's stockholders.

Pretty soon the vampire's going to run out of blood to suck.

I'll be rooting for Leon.

Meanwhile..............I've got some items to list on Ebay!

[WarHoundR69]

Leon if you do start an auction site here, please include NonSports cards.

[barrysloate]

As much as I've supported Leon with the idea of starting an auction site on Net54, the fact is no one can compete with the audience ebay reaches. It is simply remarkable, and probably the best thing about it.

When I was at my peak of selling on ebay, probably 2-3 years ago, the number of new names and new bidders I would get was extraordinary. And that in turn led to high prices realized. A site similar to ebay, hosted here, would only get a fraction of the views. So that would concern me.

[Matt]

Barry - you are correct as that has always been the issue with eBay competitors. But with people generally leaving eBay in chunks due to their decisions over the past year, and then sports-collectibles-specific folks leaving in droves over this mess, added with the fact that a significant percentage (vast majority?) of pre-war card collectors are already on this site, I think there is a good chance for success.

[barrysloate]

Matt- I agree that now would be an opportune time to start a new auction site. People are angry and looking for an alternative.

[tbob]

Originally Posted by mintacular

The consequence of this change will immediately kill penny auctions which no doubt hurts the big seller who offers the same product in their stores, but at a higher price. Also notice the new seach options which allows you to easily search for specific sellers. To me, this option further confirms my suspicions regarding WHY this change was implemented.

Bingo!

[tbob]

The only thing that ebay concerns itself with is money. Why should they care how we feel, as collectors, about this idiotic new move? I think the only thing that would make them change their mind is a boycott by sellers and buyers. Perhaps, as Barry says, the money derived is a drop in the bucket but 1% of ebay revenues is 1% of ebay revenues and some bean counter is going to notice. Maybe giving them a "Black October" for cards would do some good and convince the miscreants to change things back. Who knows?
In the meantime I have to shake my head at some of the responses on this board. It appears very obvious that each one of us who calls or writes is dealing with one different person each time. It's too bad they don't have a single person or group of people you can complain to who would see that the complaints are not singular in nature but shared by a large group of people.
It just p.o.'s me that I have a feedback of over 6500 and have made them a lot of money through the years (and Paypal too) and yet I am treated like someone who collects string.

[iggyman]

Originally Posted by Matt

Barry - you are correct as that has always been the issue with eBay competitors. But with people generally leaving eBay in chunks due to their decisions over the past year, and then sports-collectibles-specific folks leaving in droves over this mess, added with the fact that a significant percentage (vast majority?) of pre-war card collectors are already on this site, I think there is a good chance for success.

I don't think a vast majority of prewar collectors use this site. I have no idea what the percentages are, but I would bet it doesn't even reach the 50% plateau. No disrespect intended, this is just my personal opinion based on years of buying and selling on eBay. It doesn't make me an expert. All I know is that over the years a few of the buyers names have stayed the same, but (as Barry mentioned) most are constantly new.


At this present time, I would welcome any viable "baseball card" alternative to eBay. Actually, I'm jumping at the bit for it! To become really successful an ebay competitor would have to attract the hard core collector (easy to do) and the casual one (not so easy). I'm a small fish, especially when compared to Barry during his "heyday", but I've made a few sales to "whales" (which are always nice when they are biting). However, it has been the housewife purchasing an anniversary present, or the guy who just likes old stuff, or the collector in Japan.....these are the people who have consistenly given me the most bang for my buck. I'm not sure how you duplicate that?

Lovely Day...

[sagard]

I think adding a cards section to "Vintage Sports Memorabilia" might be the easiest solution for Ebay and the group here.

Ebay made the move because even though many browse the pre-1930 category, I'm sure VERY few browsed by the literally dozens of other categories and sub-categories in the main cards section.

[ibuysportsephemera]

I think that the problem with eBay wannabees was that they just imitated eBay and tried to pull off an identical site with tons of categories. The reason why I think that Leon has a chance (although a small one..I admit) is because it will be specific to one category and he has experience in the auction business already. JMO.

Jeff

[Potomac Yank]

If you don't stand together ... You get what you deserve!

See post # 146 .....

[bobafett72]

As Ebay moves towards an Amazon.com type of model. Inevitably they will get rid of auctions entirely as they theorize that auctions were "just a fad" I find that thinking ridiculous. People love Ebay, especially collectibles folks. Auctions are so much more fun than BUY IT NOW garbage.

cheers
Leo

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

As much as I've supported Leon with the idea of starting an auction site on Net54, the fact is no one can compete with the audience ebay reaches. It is simply remarkable, and probably the best thing about it.

When I was at my peak of selling on ebay, probably 2-3 years ago, the number of new names and new bidders I would get was extraordinary. And that in turn led to high prices realized. A site similar to ebay, hosted here, would only get a fraction of the views. So that would concern me.

Yep, there is just no competition for ebay...I've auctioned a few items on the BST and they just don't go for what I can get on ebay...I even tried to auction two sports related tins on the BST and nobody even posted the minimum $25 bid so I took them to ebay and combined they sold for $180...I had a $50 BIN for them on BST and there were no takers. I think the only way a dedicated auction service on N54 works is if Ebay gets rid of the auction format completely.

[Jay Wolt]

Originally Posted by bobafett72

As Ebay moves towards an Amazon.com type of model. Inevitably they will get rid of auctions entirely as they theorize that auctions were "just a fad" I find that thinking ridiculous. People love Ebay, especially collectibles folks. Auctions are so much more fun than BUY IT NOW garbage.

cheers
Leo

Don't know why eBay thinks it has to choose to be more like Amazon and less like eBay (in its heyday)
Why can't it take advantage of both venues instead of choosing to lean towards one format?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Yep, there is just no competition for ebay...I've auctioned a few items on the BST and they just don't go for what I can get on ebay...I even tried to auction two sports related tins on the BST and nobody even posted the minimum $25 bid so I took them to ebay and combined they sold for $180...I had a $50 BIN for them on BST and there were no takers. I think the only way a dedicated auction service on N54 works is if Ebay gets rid of the auction format completely.

The little do it yourself auctions on our BST are supposed to be mainly for fun and lower end items. That's not to say you can't try anything you want but it is mainly for fun. I sold a few sub $100 items as I didn't care what they brought.

With the newer auction proposition that I/we are considering, it's the real deal. It won't be rinky dink and it will be run a heck of a lot better than ebay (which won't be hard to do). Of course we won't have the audience ebay does. Hardly any site except Amazon does. There will be ways for sellers to protect themselves while running higher end, as well as lower end, auctions. Hey, the worst thing that can happen is it doesn't work out. Since I have always wanted to try it I am sure I/we will. Except for a link on Net54baseball.com it won't be affiliated with this forum too much. As I said before everything on the board is staying the same...same BST, same categories, no cost for anyone unless you want to advertise etc.......regards

[Buythatcard]

Hey Leon,

Will this proposed auction site have categories below Baseball?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Buythatcard

Hey Leon,

Will this proposed auction site have categories below Baseball?

No Howard, I was thinking we would just have 1 category called "Sports and everything else too".....that should narrow it down in an ebay-like way.

[painthistorian]

Leon- I say it is time to make a stand!...I have 5000+ names on my mailing list from 11,000 e bay transactions since 2004, I will give that to you, you can mail a notice/letters/brochure of a prototype NET54 card/memorabilia auction site and it should be all collectibles sports , properly defined and categorized plus non sports cards...also have to get PSA/SGC/VCP/ etc. all are who are affected in some way from this e bay decision, to get aboard. We are all affected by this e bay direction even if you do not buy on ebay . Collectors, dealers, occasional e bay glancers, show promoters, grading services, etc., all need to realize the severity of e bay's directives and I will donate the first customer list for you when you are ready. I want to be one of the first to defy this debacle and try something that can really work, hope everyone is up for a challenge that will be to the hobby's benefit in the long run and hopefully wishing is now....Larry.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by painthistorian

Leon- I say it is time to make a stand!...I have 5000+ names on my mailing list from 11,000 e bay transactions since 2004, I will give that to you, you can mail a notice/letters/brochure of a prototype NET54 card/memorabilia auction site and it should be all collectibles sports , properly defined and categorized plus non sports cards...also have to get PSA/SGC/VCP/ etc. all are who are affected in some way from this e bay decision, to get aboard. We are all affected by this e bay direction even if you do not buy on ebay . Collectors, dealers, occasional e bay glancers, show promoters, grading services, etc., all need to realize the severity of e bay's directives and I will donate the first customer list for you when you are ready. I want to be one of the first to defy this debacle and try something that can really work, hope everyone is up for a challenge that will be to the hobby's benefit in the long run and hopefully wishing is now....Larry.

Hey Larry
Sounds great. I am not sure how long it will take for the real auction I am looking at doing, but it will happen. I will take you up on your offer too. We are a bit of a ways out though. We are looking at a way to potentially get sniping on a site other than ebay but that is the obstacle right now. I/we (Matt is my partner on this venture) have contacted another programmer that has an idea of how to do it but it's not an immediate solution...it will take a bit of time....My guess is 30-60 days but hopefully less. Rome wasn't built overnight.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by Leon

The little do it yourself auctions on our BST are supposed to be mainly for fun and lower end items. That's not to say you can't try anything you want but it is mainly for fun. I sold a few sub $100 items as I didn't care what they brought.

With the newer auction proposition that I/we are considering, it's the real deal. It won't be rinky dink and it will be run a heck of a lot better than ebay (which won't be hard to do). Of course we won't have the audience ebay does. Hardly any site except Amazon does. There will be ways for sellers to protect themselves while running higher end, as well as lower end, auctions. Hey, the worst thing that can happen is it doesn't work out. Since I have always wanted to try it I am sure I/we will. Except for a link on Net54baseball.com it won't be affiliated with this forum too much. As I said before everything on the board is staying the same...same BST, same categories, no cost for anyone unless you want to advertise etc.......regards

Leon, I didn't mean to imply that it would be "rinky dink"...I just don't think any auction site will compete with ebay until they finally turn out the lights. They are just that entrenched...I have a feeling that whatever you set up the first time someone runs a true auction without a reserve and it goes for less than they expected that they'll either do the same thing they do on ebay which is to set a reserve or a ridiculous BIN. A site like yours is going to attract a lot of card dealers and card collectors..one element it won't have is the clueless or casual seller who actually does find a stash of OJ's at an estate sale or finds a stash of Clement Bread cards in their attic. That is/was the true beauty of ebay.

[paul]

I'm not sure I see the need for any organized boycott. I'm not going to use ebay much any more, if at all, because it's pretty useless. I think most collectors of prewar cards will reach the same conclusion. So ebay will simply die on the vine for vintage card collectors.

The problem is -- if they didn't screw up the other categories, ebay won't even notice. The sellers of shiny new cards (as well as the sellers of pots and pans and whatever else people buy on ebay) will keep buying and selling. Ebay won't even be keeping track of the former pre-war categories anymore. So they won't even notice the difference.

[mintacular]

Leon--Though I'm new to the site, as a collector I can tell you that there is a need/demand for a simple yet professional site that caters to collectors. Even if the auctions were BINs for now until traffic picks up, I think a site like this one could meet the needs of niche collectors. Clearly eBay has lost its "true north" and will never be the final answer passionate collectors are looking for.

Maybe it sounds like a pipe dream but Carnegie didn't become a steel magnate overnight--it had to start with an idea and a drive to follow through. Either way, you have my support and if/when you get serious about launching an auction site, I would be glad to help in any way I can. Good luck-Pat

[barrysloate]

Leon and Matt- although you guys are still in the planning phase, Dan made a really good point. If your new site is relatively cheap, and dealers are allowed to place reserves, you are going to be filled with thousands of overpriced BINs, and cards that will never sell. That's the one thing about ebay that just about everybody hates (except the guys listing these unsellable lots), and I'm sure that's not the look either of you want.

So you need to come up with a format that allows for a real auction environment, not a long term parking lot for overpriced inventory.

[GoldenAge50s]

EXCELLENT point, Barry!

[Matt]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Leon and Matt- although you guys are still in the planning phase, Dan made a really good point. If your new site is relatively cheap, and dealers are allowed to place reserves, you are going to be filled with thousands of overpriced BINs, and cards that will never sell. That's the one thing about ebay that just about everybody hates (except the guys listing these unsellable lots), and I'm sure that's not the look either of you want.

So you need to come up with a format that allows for a real auction environment, not a long term parking lot for overpriced inventory.

I too never liked the ridiculously overpriced BINs, though I can't say they detracted that much from my eBay experience - if given an option between having them as true auctions vs having them as BINs, obviously we'd all want them to be true auctions, but we're probably dealing here with having them as overpriced BINs, or not having them at all. Keep in mind we need to minimize seller risk to attract sellers, so allowing sellers to set reserves/BINs they are comfortable with is important. Not sure how to automatically distinguish between a reasonable BIN and an overpriced one, even though we all know it when we see it. Certainly am open to any solutions to that issue...

[paul]

I always hated the overpriced BINs. But, to their credit, ebay implemented a feature that allows you to select auctions only. That was a godsend.