The State of eBay

[STL1944]

Originally Posted by Topnotchsy

eBay has gotten worse in silly ways.

Others have mentioned a number of them:
- Items sit for years. No cost for listing means no incentive to lower prices or remove things that you have up and are not in a rush to sell
- Ruined search - I have no idea what is actually going on when you search particular words, but it certainly is not pulling up items with those words. They removed the askerisk option years ago which was a massive help and it has gotten worse and worse
- They started allowing people to send offers to others who viewed the item, even if the item is not watched. Another example of pushing items in front of people that they likely don't want.

All that said, it is still a platform that occasionally turns up gems. A large percentage of my collection comes from eBay over the years. In the last few months (which has been a very good stretch by eBay standards for the last few years, I've won around 10 auctions, each of which was a reasonably difficult item to find. (I do have a number of collecting focuses, so there are more options out there for me.)

This may be well known (apologies if it is), but regarding eBay search, I have -had some- success using " " in my search.

For example I just searched: 1953 Bowman Psa 8 (using auction listings). The results were from 1953 Bowman cards, but none of the first five listings were PSA 5

If I search: 1953 Bowman "PSA 5", both the listings are PSA 5.

Of course, this doesn't always work and sometimes I literally have to search: "1953" "Bowman" "PSA 5" to get what I want to see.

[Hankphenom]

For me the biggest difference between eBay now and a few years ago is that for about 20 years I could make a living dealing in vintage memorabilia with eBay a primary source of inventory. Even though I was a bottom-feeder on most items, I won enough at a good enough price to keep my show inventory stocked with some basic things that I knew would move, in addition to the occasional big hit on something that fell through the cracks for some reason or because it was in my wheelhouse of knowledge of a niche area or two. That all stopped being the case somewhere around ten years ago, but by then it was time for me to retire anyway, so it was OK. No way I could do that today. For a number of reasons that have been discussed here, there are just a lot fewer vintage, and in particular rare, items available to pick up on eBay these days. I still have a number of categories I scan just about every day, and still manage to pick up some very cool stuff from time to time, but it's more a matter of serendipity than anything else, and that suits me fine at this stage.

[Schlesinj]

I generally do not sell much, but listen to random Podcasts about the hobby. I am sure I am not speaking to the right crowd, but does anyone see Fanaticscollect taking over more vintage? I know they grabbed a major player in Burbank exclusive off eBay, so will frustrated eBay sellers move if the platform is better/cheaper etc.

I believe they have some rules in place to try and not make it a museum.

https://www.cllct.com/sports-collect...exclusive-deal

[90feetaway]

And on authentication...I get the shipping to authenticator thing but should consider raising the threshold for graded at least for sellers with 100+ historical sales ?
Seeing my card shipping to California only to come back to the end customer in a nearby state after 2 weeks seems inefficient to me.

[Topnotchsy]

Originally Posted by STL1944

This may be well known (apologies if it is), but regarding eBay search, I have -had some- success using " " in my search.

For example I just searched: 1953 Bowman Psa 8 (using auction listings). The results were from 1953 Bowman cards, but none of the first five listings were PSA 5

If I search: 1953 Bowman "PSA 5", both the listings are PSA 5.

Of course, this doesn't always work and sometimes I literally have to search: "1953" "Bowman" "PSA 5" to get what I want to see.

I'm familiar with it and use it frequently, but it does not solve all issues unfortunately.

I cannot fathom why years ago, eBay removed the wild card (*) search. This allowed you to search auto* for example and get autograph, autographed, autographs, auto etc. Now they have just tried to make the search pick up more things, and it picks up completely irrelevant items.

It's still the place to look because the sheer number of sellers means that there can be gems that turn up any time. And selling elsewhere remains challenging (though I still have some success on Facebook). But the moves they have made are baffling.

[Rich Falvo]

I notice lately that eBay searches often return items from different years than specified in the search terms. Search for 2014, get 2020. I took a few examples and thoroughly searched the listing to see if my search term was hidden somewhere, but no.

[obcbeatle]

I joined eBay around 1998, for buying primarily. I don't sell too much, mostly just to help fund my colleting habit. Every year or so I do check to see if there are any good alternatives for selling collectibles. I haven't seen any yet. Back around 2010 when I had to quit my job due to a health problem, I developed my own e-commerce website and sold mostly sports cards. I continued to sell some cards on eBay just to compare. After about 2 years I discontinued my e-commerce website because I realized I just couldn't compete with the sheer volume of "eyes" eBay gets on it's auctions/stores. Even with decent SEO and some marketing of my website. E-commerce security also became way too time consuming, in my efforts to try to protect the customer database associated with my e-commerce website. So I returned to just selling on eBay. I've used Craigslist for some bigger items, but that became too stressful worrying about being robbed, or something worse. I haven't tried Facebook marketplace yet, but that seems a lot like Craigslist. So since about 1998, I have not seen any real good alternatives to eBay. eBay has dominated the e-commerce collectibles market for over 25 years, which I find surprising since e-commerce has been so dominate during this technology revolution. And particularly since the pandemic. I understand that Amazon & eBay, etc. got in early, which really, really helped. But I feel like there must be/have been some really creative minds and start-ups during this period who can/could have broken this monopoly. Perhaps the plethora of auction houses picked up a lot of the collectibles buyer/seller market. I've never purchased via an online auction house as most seem to cater to the affluent, add their buyer premiums and I believe it is too costly for the average Joe, IMO. Perhaps the AI revolution will change some of this. But I'm not optimistic. So, am I missing a real good alternative to buying/selling collectibles on eBay? Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place?

[CardPadre]

Originally Posted by obcbeatle

I haven't tried Facebook marketplace yet, but that seems a lot like Craigslist. So, am I missing a real good alternative to buying/selling collectibles on eBay? Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place?

Yeah the actual Facebook Marketplace is not great at all, but there are some good Buy/Sell/Trade Facebook groups that are well established with a lot of members. Can find ones specific to a sport or just “vintage” in general as far as cards go.

[ajjohnsonsoxfan]

Highly recommend this facebook group for any cracker jack collectors

https://www.facebook.com/groups/crac...rdsmarketplace

[Musashi]

Originally Posted by obcbeatle

I've never purchased via an online auction house as most seem to cater to the affluent, add their buyer premiums and I believe it is too costly for the average Joe, IMO.

Try looking at the smaller and mid sized auction houses. Sterling, Brockelman, and The Collector Connection will all generally have a large selection of affordable lots to go along with the big, expensive cards.

[Vintagedeputy]

I’m a reseller in my spare time. After being on eBay many years ago, I took a long break from buying and selling there…and I mean years. I would occasionally buy some thing there if it was something my kids were looking for but for the most part, eBay was forgotten in my house. Until recently, I started back at eBay and have been disappointed with how poor my sales have been. I have a wide variety of things that I pick up and my prices are very fair, I feel. I even leave the make an offer feature open on just about anything because most of the stuff I buy at such low prices and even if someone offers under what I’m asking, I’m still making a profit. That’s my only complaint so far is the lack of sales.