Probstein Leaving Ebay on Oct 23, Starting Snype

[Lorewalker]

Originally Posted by JustinD

I’ll wait and see, but in my mind any competition for eBay is good in my book. The treatment of sellers and the fees on fees has been and continues to be ridiculous.

The fees are not horrible if you have a store and jump through a few hoops BUT paying the FVF on the sales tax that we do not collect, as a seller, is total BS.

And now with their slowly implementing the new policy of withholding funds until the item is delivered makes selling there less enticing.

[Fred]

Is the business model that people send him the cards and he sells/auctions everything as a one man show? The concept is interesting. It won't be like those brutal AH endings. Lots close one by one with that interesting extended bidding rule. As long as the auction lots are staggered and don't all close at the same time as AHs do, then it could work. The only thing that seems off is the income.

In sports collectibles, eBay currently charges a 13.25% seller’s fee plus an extra 2.35% for items selling for more than $7,500.

Under the current formula, a seller of a $9,000 item on eBay would make $7,433. With Probstein’s snype, that same item at the same cost would net the seller $8,730.


Something doesn't add up with those numbers. 3% net to Probstein and the rest to the seller? That must be one very efficient web presence. If the commission is around 3%, I wonder how much business that's going to drum up. I'm sure there will be other things that will increase the overall fee beyond 3%.

Crash and burn? Break even and have to increase fees to 6%? Huge success? This should be interesting to watch.
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[FromVAtoLA]

The article says Snype has 35 employees. He has $100M+/yr in Ebay sales so I suspect he has a similar number of employees helping him manage that volume and many will migrate to the new venture.

Originally Posted by Fred

Is the business model that people send him the cards and he sells/auctions everything as a one man show?

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Will be curious if BIN listings will be allowed, and if raw cards and autographs without the all-powerful TPA blessing will be permitted.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by Fred

Is the business model that people send him the cards and he sells/auctions everything as a one man show? The concept is interesting. It won't be like those brutal AH endings. Lots close one by one with that interesting extended bidding rule. As long as the auction lots are staggered and don't all close at the same time as AHs do, then it could work. The only thing that seems off is the income.

In sports collectibles, eBay currently charges a 13.25% seller’s fee plus an extra 2.35% for items selling for more than $7,500.

Under the current formula, a seller of a $9,000 item on eBay would make $7,433. With Probstein’s snype, that same item at the same cost would net the seller $8,730.


Something doesn't add up with those numbers. 3% net to Probstein and the rest to the seller? That must be one very efficient web presence. If the commission is around 3%, I wonder how much business that's going to drum up. I'm sure there will be other things that will increase the overall fee beyond 3%.

Crash and burn? Break even and have to increase fees to 6%? Huge success? This should be interesting to watch.
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Those Ebay numbers are not right. It is 13.25 percent on the first $7500 and then 2.35% on everything above that. So the total Ebay fees would be $1029.

[premiercardcollectors]

Originally Posted by Gorditadogg

Those Ebay numbers are not right. It is 13.25 percent on the first $7500 and then 2.35% on everything above that. So the total Ebay fees would be $1029.

Unless you have an eBay store and then the 13.25% is on the first $2500.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Lorewalker

The fees are not horrible if you have a store and jump through a few hoops BUT paying the FVF on the sales tax that we do not collect, as a seller, is total BS.

This has long been a huge bone of contention with me. The bigger question: is this even legal? My layman's logic says no, but perhaps somebody reading with more familiarity on the laws pertaining to this might care to explain it better.

Where I live, a recurring problem has been restaurants applying sales tax to tips when the customer pays with debit or credit. That's another one.