Looking for alternatives to selling on eBay

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

Huh?! How so?

Not sure if this question was a joke. I’ll proceed assuming it’s not for now, although you can taunt me later for not understanding Canadian humor, eh?

But the issue is that eBay searches often return a long list of irrelevant nonsense. So you either have to wade through a long list of unrelated items, or you have to spend a lot of time refining your search parameters, and hope that you don’t accidentally exclude some items that you really want included.

There was a time not long ago when it wasn’t so terrible. But it’s really gone downhill in the last year or two. I assume it’s because they deliberately adjusted how the search function works. I also assume it’s because they wanted to make it better, although my experience has been the opposite.

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by raulus

Not sure if this question was a joke. I’ll proceed assuming it’s not for now, although you can taunt me later for not understanding Canadian humor, eh?

It was a straightforward question. I don't understand why you would think otherwise.

[timn1]

I imagine it's because the shortcomings of ebay's search functions seem painfully self-evident to the poster (and to me). My impression is that they've gotten worse over the years rather than better, probably because ebay is trying to force users to view a larger number of pages before they find what they're looking for. For example, there used to be a dedicated search available for pre-1942 baseball cards - not any more.

Originally Posted by Balticfox

It was a straightforward question. I don't understand why you would think otherwise.

[Leon]

Tim, my friend, you know the answer to anything crazy that eBay does, is to make more money. You would think they would quiz collectors and dealers about what they want, but I doubt they ever have. One of my more recent purchases from ebay, below. Personally, I still buy a fair amount on our BST too....

Originally Posted by timn1

I imagine it's because the shortcomings of ebay's search functions seem painfully self-evident to the poster (and to me). My impression is that they've gotten worse over the years rather than better, probably because ebay is trying to force users to view a larger number of pages before they find what they're looking for. For example, there used to be a dedicated search available for pre-1942 baseball cards - not any more.

[timn1]

Yep, that's it, of course - yet as you say, once in a while something worthwhile still shows up, and we actually spot it. Not like in the ebay golden age c. 2003-2007 or so, though

Originally Posted by Leon

Tim, my friend, you know the answer to anything crazy that eBay does, is to make more money. You would think they would quiz collectors and dealers about what they want, but I doubt they ever have. One of my more recent purchases from ebay, below. Personally, I still buy a fair amount on our BST too....

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by raulus

Not sure if this question was a joke. I’ll proceed assuming it’s not for now, although you can taunt me later for not understanding Canadian humor, eh?

But the issue is that eBay searches often return a long list of irrelevant nonsense. So you either have to wade through a long list of unrelated items, or you have to spend a lot of time refining your search parameters, and hope that you don’t accidentally exclude some items that you really want included.

There was a time not long ago when it wasn’t so terrible. But it’s really gone downhill in the last year or two. I assume it’s because they deliberately adjusted how the search function works. I also assume it’s because they wanted to make it better, although my experience has been the opposite.

I hear about this so much on this forum but do not experience it. Like Baltic, I'm in Canada, so perhaps this annoyance is limited to Americans. I use ebay.com and ebay.ca and this doesn't happen.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Back to OP's question.

Regarding Facebook Marketplace & Facebook groups:

Use Marketplace more for cheaper, pedestrian listings that will appeal to a broad audience. Also, this is a good place to list larger/bulkier items that would not make sense to ship. Batches of hobby supplies such as Ultra Pro pages, boxes, top loaders, etc. are good for Marketplace. Monster boxes of junk wax are a biggie, too.

With Facebook groups, do some searching and find the best groups suited to your interests. Then, further refine these searches to cherry pick the groups that appear to have the best group moderation and least kooky members (that last point being akin to rediscovering Noah's Ark).

There are next to no blocking features as on eBay which save you from dealing with lowballers and tire kickers, and Facebook brings out the worst of them. No automatic decline feature if somebody offers five cents for your 1933 Dusenberg. Be prepared for a lot of wasted time and general annoyance. You will be hearing from a lot of people who apparently only started learning how to type in English in spite of it being their first language. Also, nobody is interested in paying anywhere near what something is actually worth unless it's a super high demand item. Few people seem to bother properly reading your description. Things like "PRICE FIRM" and "NO TRADES" are routinely ignored. You'll be offered to swap their $20 item for your $1000 item, or $150 for your $2500 piece. The only thing that can be done is to individually block their incoming messages via Messenger if you don't wish to spend any more time dealing with them. It honestly feels like every buyer on there is playing that asinine game of trying to turn a red paperclip into a three bedroom house by always getting the better end of the deal.

There have been upsides, however. If you are willing to put in all that time dealing with the riff-raff, you can occasionally (and I mean very occasionally) make a great, longstanding connection with a buyer or seller who approaches being rational! I value the few decent contacts I have made through this, so it all depends on how much time you're willing to invest and how much patience you have in dealing with the public. Hey, at least it's free. Then again, I wouldn't pay a dime to use it.

[Snapolit1]

eBay gets my items before literally tens of millions of eyeballs. Around the world. Just sold a card to a dude in China. No, I’m not interested in some 50 miles nearby Facebook group. Not interested in any aspect of Facebook.

[jingram058]

I agree with raulus. eBay searching is horrendous, with sponsored highlights and totally irrelevant items. I used to love eBay. Constant "improvements" and tinkering have ruined it. For me. Of course there's always those who disagree.

[obcbeatle]

Thank you for all the replies so far. So I see that the Facebook groups are either public or private. Looks like the private groups have fewer participants then the public groups, so perhaps I'll join and try to sell a few things in a private group first. Maybe less noise in the private groups, than public? As for the eBay search, I was mostly referring to more recent mods eBay seems to have made that render a lot of sponsored listings and such that fill a page search with a lot of irrelevant search results. And, the fact that I have to save a crazy amount of searches using a crazy amount of special characters, just to accurately search for a handful of collectibles. I guess the sheer amount of items listed on eBay plays a role. But search in eBay renders a lot of noise. It's eBay's platform, so they can do whatever they want to enhance their bottom line, but sometimes it feels like it is impacting me as a buyer AND seller. And yes, I too have routinely sold internationally with eBay, so I understand their market is huge. I posted here earlier this year that I thought the time was ripe for someone to compete with eBay. I believe e-commerce tech/security is much more robust now, so hopefully some startup will have some success entering the market. Or perhaps many more will flourish eyeing specific markets. I may be naïve but I do believe if enough people get frustrated with the eBay's and Amazon's of this world that someone else eventually will enter the market with some success. Not saying it will be easy, and it will surely take some time. But to my eye's eBay is going in the wrong direction, particularly for sellers. Monopolies suck. But only my opinion.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Maybe less noise in the private groups, than public?

Not in my experience. It's the same old things as I described. You just have to answer a very simple question or two ("What is your favorite team?", "What is the third letter in 'baseball'?") and agree to their terms before a moderator accepts you into the fold.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by obcbeatle

Monopolies suck. But only my opinion.

Monopolies are no fun, unless you’re the monopolist.

At the same time, I’m not convinced that the label fits, particularly in our world. eBay has been losing a lot of consignments to the more traditional sports card AHs, and my sense is that trend has accelerated bigly in the last few years. Partially from self inflicted wounds. Probably also partially from tax reporting rules that impact eBay but not the AHs.

If anything, the demise of eBay as a serious place to buy cards, and particularly auctioned cards with low starting bids, has been the bigger issue.

Naturally, your place in our world may be a wrinkle that makes it difficult to play in the AH space. Or maybe you’re concerned that the AHs don’t offer a compelling value proposition for your stuff. All of which could definitely be true.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

I hear about this so much on this forum but do not experience it. Like Baltic, I'm in Canada, so perhaps this annoyance is limited to Americans. I use ebay.com and ebay.ca and this doesn't happen.

Search 1914 Cracker Jacks, you'll get 1915s, 1990s reprints of Mike Piazza, stupid algorithm additions, and all sorts of irrelevant results. Not my idea of a good time.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Search 1914 Cracker Jacks, you'll get 1915s, 1990s reprints of Mike Piazza, stupid algorithm additions, and all sorts of irrelevant results. Not my idea of a good time.

"1914 Cracker Jack -1915 -1990 -reprint"

You're welcome

[theshowandme]

Originally Posted by Snowman

"1914 Cracker Jack -1915 -1990 -reprint"

You're welcome

Wish this worked with auction house software.

Would love to immediately discard the endless wave of T206 cards moving through every auction.