The State of eBay

[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.