The State of eBay

[Exhibitman]

eBay seller policies are so punitive and unfair that eBay relocated from CA to UT, where policies that are blatantly illegal under CA commercial law are much harder to prove. My column on it:

https://adamstevenwarshaw.substack.c...seller-penalty

I got into 'below standard' status nearly a year ago because of a blown set break and I have barely sold on eBay since as a result. I am hopefully back to normal fees next month.

The tax stuff is a canard. The real issue is that eBay has raised its fees to the point that listing there for less than museum prices isn’t worth the hassle. I’ve sold hundreds of cards with auction houses over the last year instead of on eBay and the results have been very good. eBay works best now for obscure things and lower priced cards that need to be sold as singles rather than lumped into an auction house grab bag.

[ricktmd]

While I left a scorching post about the difficulty of being a seller on ebay with no rights, I believe being a buyer on ebay still is fruitful. While not as good or plentiful as it used to be there are good items that can be purchased below market value if you spend the time looking. Ebay has destroyed the category search and ease of finding good items. It requires what I refer to as ebay mining. You have to dig with clever word searches and techniques to find the rare treasures. I still find good stuff, it's just harder.

I agree with Adam. Ebay is punitive to their sellers in the ways he describes in his blog and additional ways. The 30 day ebay return policy is a happy button that is similar to Amazon or Macys. Amazon and Macys policies and business model is fine with their money. Ebay offers the same policies with my money. Buyers ignore the sellers' policies as they don't matter. I have received 3 returns in the last two months. All for fake reasons and ebay sides with low feedback moronic buyers with fake claims even past my return deadline. Claims of damage or doesn't match sellers description is used to get free return shipping on my dime. I actually lose money. Ebay loses nothing . When I get the item back and there is no damage, item works fine etc I can get a homework assignment from ebay to request my 15.00 of shipping returned which may or may not happen. The amount of time it takes to track and follow up isn't worth 15.00. I am out the time it takes to do the listing, handling the return, packaging time and materials relisting and shipping again. I laugh when I call and they say thank you for your 25 years . The seller has no rights. There is no dispute process as they don't allow it. I will say selling baseball cards aside from the fees is usually hassle free but I prefer selling elsewhere like the board or Auctions Houses that appreciate the consignments

[Lorewalker]

It is an unwelcoming experience being a seller on eBay. You have little recourse and even if you want to complain, after the thank you for being with them for XX years, your call is routed to someone in another country who truly does not give a shit and is likely working for 20% of what they would have to pay someone doing the same job in the states.

A few of my favorite things:
1) Not being able to leave negatives to buyers who do not perform.

2) eBay's refusal to ban someone after chronically not paying.

3) The bullshit returns policy that is usually nothing more than buyer's remorse or an inability to flip the item they bought and the leniency and ease with which they give buyers the ability to lie about the reason for the return.

4) As Adam points out ya have to be virtually 100% right in each sale transaction from start to finish or risk serious infractions that last for an unreasonable amount of time.

I am sure it is less abusive when you get to where PWCC got or Greg Morris or Probstien123 are but that I am able to navigate the uneven playing field when I sell is strictly luck. If I sold there regularly I am sure that would have a very short life there.

[Fballguy]

All of the complaints against eBay are 100% spot on and I agree with everything stated. But all of those factors have been in place for years and ebay, until the last year or so, was still a place I could find good stuff pretty frequently.

Something more recent changed all that and I think it has to be the new reporting requirements. I agree that people are likely selling elsewhere but for my niche...pennants...they aren't showing up elsewhere. It's like people just stopped selling altogether. Either that or I already bought them all.

[Leon]

I think a whole lot of this inactivity is due to the 1099s. I don't want to have to deal with selling something I don't know what I paid for, and try to put a cost on it.

Originally Posted by Fballguy

All of the complaints against eBay are 100% spot on and I agree with everything stated. But all of those factors have been in place for years and ebay, until the last year or so, was still a place I could find good stuff pretty frequently.

Something more recent changed all that and I think it has to be the new reporting requirements. I agree that people are likely selling elsewhere but for my niche...pennants...they aren't showing up elsewhere. It's like people just stopped selling altogether. Either that or I already bought them all.

[nwobhm]

Originally Posted by Leon

I think a whole lot of this inactivity if due to the 1099s. I don't want to have to deal with selling something I don't know what I paid for, and try to put a cost on it.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/02/12/...s-reports.html

[D. Bergin]

I sell much less on Ebay then I used to and reporting requirements have nothing to do with it. I've been reporting my Sales on Ebay since 1998 or so (as I also do when I sell stuff on Net54), regardless of their requirements. I just assumed all that could be tracked if they wanted to, anyways.

Also has nothing to do with return or feedback policies, which I learned haven't really affected me over the long haul.

Listing takes twice as long as it used to for unique items, requirements for item specifics is a pain in the ass. I used to be able to just type out very detailed descriptions, and a search engine that used to actually make sense, would be able to find your item easily, through either a Title or a Title/Description search.

The search now is awful. They've prioritized making people sift through pages and pages of unrelated stuff, rather then picking out the very specific terms I've thought hard about putting in my listings, so the right people find my items easily.

They've also made it harder for me to put my unique spin, graphics and stamp on my listings, by prioritizing "Specifics", over an actual, well thought out and professional looking "Description".

I've tried using their "AI" tool to write descriptions, and it was almost comical how much more time it took me to go in and edit the inanities that it would spit out for me.

Item categories have been bastardized to become almost indistinguishable, in the search to complicate things with "Item Specifics".

Attempts to integrate combined shipping into your shopping cart has become a complete mess, whether it be with auctions, or BIN's. I spend an inordinate amount of the trying to get shipping policies to "match up", until I just throw my hands in the air and go "F#%k it!". It is what it is, and I'll deal with it when it becomes an issue.

And the fees......they go up up up, even when they don't go up. They just figure out something else to ding you for, and pretend it's still the status quo. Every time I get a payout now from Ebay, I scratch my head and go to myself "That's it...they must have made a mistake?".

They claim their fees are in the 12.35% in most categories (15% in Books and Magazines for some damn reason). Then there's the monthly store fees to get those rates. Then there's the fact they take a full final value fee cut out of Shipping Costs/Tax Collection/VAT Collection for overseas customers...and you discover that heavyish piece of memorabilia you sent to Washington State/Louisiana/Oklahoma/Ireland/etc..., cost you 20%+++ what you sold it for.....and they did exactly zero work for you, outside of providing a simple software platform for you. (ok ok, they did the incredibly generous task of collecting and reporting the sales taxes for me from other states, since they no longer wanted to just be a "venue", and wanted ME to also be their "Brand", for the bargain basement price of a 12%-15% vig, of revenue that I don't see at all.)

Also lost my meager 10% discount on final value fees (though that only applies to the item itself, and not the final value fees on the shipping and tax charges), when I lost my "Powerseller" (groan) status, because I didn't have enough "transactions". Had plenty of revenue to meet the requirements, but apparently Ebay is more impressed if you have (200) $10 transactions, then if you have 50 $100 transactions. Also, I'm pretty sure I discovered, if a single buyer purchases/wins 5 different things from you, and you ship those items to them in a combined package, that only counts as (1) transaction in their reports.


Sigh! Rant over.

Fini!

[Lorewalker]

Originally Posted by Leon

I think a whole lot of this inactivity if due to the 1099s. I don't want to have to deal with selling something I don't know what I paid for, and try to put a cost on it.

But these same people could be using any number of eBay consignment companies to sell the same stuff. Those consignment companies, so far, are not required to issue 1099s. I could see the day where they will be required to and I could also see that to expanding to auction houses. Then what? Maybe we will all go back to putting ads in the newspaper and doing all of our sales at shows.