eBay Mess

[paul]

This is beyond unbelievable. It does not make browsing for prewar cards more difficult. It makes it impossible. There are literally 200,000 "baseball cards" on ebay now. I do not have the time or patience to browse through 200,000 cards, mostly post-2000 to find the prewar cards I'm looking for. And I can't even imagine someone looking for post-2000 cards has the stomach to wade through everything else.

I've been on ebay since 1998, very actively buying. No more. And not because I'm mad. It's just impractical now. It's like going to a thousand flea markets and hoping that you'll find what you want.

I am also cancelling all my current auctions on ebay. Again, not because I'm mad. I just can't expect to get anything close to the value of my cards. Who the hell is going to find them unless they do a search for the specific card I'm selling? This is, pardon my French, totally f'd up. I cannot imagine that ebay will last more than a month with this system. At least not for sportscards. Maybe buyers of golf carts prefer one category.

[paul]

Well, I just cancelled my auctions. I only had two running. Here is the message I sent to most of my bidders (slightly different for the other card). I couldn't send it to all of the bidders since ebay has a limit of 5 messages per day that you can send to your bidders. (Who knew?) So they'll get the message tomorrow. What a bunch of crap.

Dear Bidder,

Thank you for bidding on my E95 Mathewson. I apologize, but I am cancelling all of my ebay auctions. The reason for this is that ebay has complete changed the organization of its entire websites. Effective today, ALL BASEBALL CARDS ARE NOW LUMPED TOGETHER IN A SINGLE CATEGORY OF 200,000 CARDS! As a result, collectors of pre-war baseball cards will not be able to find my card unless they are willing to wade through 200,000 cards. I had no idea this change was coming, and never would have listed my card if I knew that my card would not be targeted specifically to likely buyers. That's why I picked the "pre-1930" baseball card category -- a category that has now disappeared.

Again, I apologize for the inconvenience. You can reach me at pstewart@kmob.com. Thank you for understanding.

Paul

[caramelcard]

Just called ebay as well.

They said that this is their new policy. I can no longer sell cards on ebay after this change.

What a bunch of douchebags.

Rob

[painthistorian]

On the PSA community board, a few posted that we are antiquated on the way we search for items(by category or graded/non graded)...what they and e bay fail to realize is that most of the collectors that buy vintage cards(pre 1970) do not want to waste time filtering thru all the shiny stuff, reprints, magazine cutouts and even many do not want 1960's and 1970's cards which are abundant compared to pre war cards and probably those shiny guys really do not want to see prewar cards in their searches. It is true if you want a specific card with specific tags such as 1933 Goudey Ruth, you can search that way but so many of us may bid on other 1930's cards because they are all in line 1930-1939 category....Many only want graded, many only want non graded but at least there was a separation that was distinctive, now you have to search for cards with 200,000 related items, have fun!

This probably does not have an answer unless everyone that buys and sells no matter how large or small calls ebay and lets them know that we do not want to eliminate the category search and refuse to do anymore transactions on e bay.

Frequency and #'s are the only thing they might understand......do not get discouraged, call your friends and tell them, keep calling e bay....

[Vintagedegu]

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[ncinin]

I have a question concerning the new EBAY category changes.

First of all, please understand I am not saying I support the new category changes and am not looking for an argument. While these changes are not optimal I do not see where one would quit selling on EBAY.

I buy and sell on EBAY. When I am looking to buy cards I don't go on a blind search for cards. Do most people blindly search for baseball cards on EBAY where they have no focus of what they are looking for?

For example I look for graded 1960's, 1950's, Play Ball, Goudey, etc. I just performed EBAY searches for 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth, 1933 Goudey Ott, 1933 Goudey PSA & 1915 Cracker Jack. Granted reprints popped up as well, but many did before as sellers of reprints put them in category of original cards.

Take the E95 Mathewson in an earlier post for example. If someone is seriously interested in buying a E95 Matty, they would search for E95 Mathewson or E95 (maybe they are working on a set). I just searched for E95 and clicked on cards and see 43 cards available for sale from that set.

I just don't see buyers in the past blindly searching pre-1930 baseball cards and seeing a E95 Mathewson and having an epiphany that they need a E95 Matty and placing a high bid on the card or outright purchasing it.

The same with 1950's & 60's cards. I would think most people would search for 1955 Topps or 1955 Topps PSA or some similar search.

I see where doing general searches for cards trying to find cards selling too cheaply, etc would be a problem or if you sold lots that contained multiple years, etc.

I am for leaving good enough alone, but on the other hand I do not see these changes (if they indeed permanent) killing one's ability to sell cards on EBAY.

What am I missing?.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by ncinin

I have a question concerning the new EBAY category changes.

First of all, please understand I am not saying I support the new category changes and am not looking for an argument. While these changes are not optimal I do not see where one would quit selling on EBAY.

I buy and sell on EBAY. When I am looking to buy cards I don't go on a blind search for cards. Do most people blindly search for baseball cards on EBAY where they have no focus of what they are looking for?

For example I look for graded 1960's, 1950's, Play Ball, Goudey, etc. I just performed EBAY searches for 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth, 1933 Goudey Ott, 1933 Goudey PSA & 1915 Cracker Jack. Granted reprints popped up as well, but many did before as sellers of reprints put them in category of original cards.

Take the E95 Mathewson in an earlier post for example. If someone is seriously interested in buying a E95 Matty, they would search for E95 Mathewson or E95 (maybe they are working on a set). I just searched for E95 and clicked on cards and see 43 cards available for sale from that set.

I just don't see buyers in the past blindly searching pre-1930 baseball cards and seeing a E95 Mathewson and having an epiphany that they need a E95 Matty and placing a high bid on the card or outright purchasing it.

The same with 1950's & 60's cards. I would think most people would search for 1955 Topps or 1955 Topps PSA or some similar search.

I see where doing general searches for cards trying to find cards selling too cheaply, etc would be a problem or if you sold lots that contained multiple years, etc.

I am for leaving good enough alone, but on the other hand I do not see these changes (if they indeed permanent) killing one's ability to sell cards on EBAY.

What am I missing?.

Bottom line, it leads to fewer hits and fewer eyes on your auction. Most buys on Ebay are impulse buys.

Anybody who has sold on Ebay for any amount of time knows it only takes two interested bidders to drive an item up to an acceptable level. Take out the possibility of even one less possible bidder seeing your auction and I could see how this would scare a lot of sellers.

[paul]

There are a few cards that I specifically search for on ebay. But I find most of the cards I buy by browsing a category, usually pre-1930. I think a lot of people do the same thing. That was one of the great advantages of ebay. Sellers could target buyers looking for a specific type of thing, and buyers could look at only those specific things.

My E95 Matty is a great example of precisely the kind of card that would never be found through a search. Most E95 Mattys are very expensive. So a lot of people who don't have a lot of money would never bother to search for one. They will spend their time looking for Goudey Hubbells or T206 Crawfords. They just assume they can't afford an E95 Matty. But mine is a PSA1, and someone who likes old cards might decide to give it a shot if they are browsing the pre-1930 category.

Also, a lot of people buy a card because they have some vague interest in it but only want it if it's a good deal. I do that a lot by browsing categories. Now all those bidders are gone. I wouldn't be thrilled selling my Mathewson to a guy only looking for a bargain, but it's better than selling it only to the very few people who are specifically looking for an E95 Matty that week. And maybe someone really wants an E93 Matty, but he sees my E95 with a nice front and a miserable back, and he decides to go for the relative bargain.

Another good example is the E card of Wagner in a throwing pose. I'd like one. This pose probably appears in 6 or 7 sets. So now I have to search for all of them. But this is also a card that is very expensive and I'd only want one similar to my E95 Matty -- massive back damage, or maybe even slightly trimmed. I've been looking at ebay for years and still haven't found one that's the right balance of looks and price. And it's just not worth the effort to do a search for this specific card every week when the chances of finding one that I can want and afford are low. Particularly if I have to do similar searches for hundreds of other cards. I already do about 40 "out of category" searches every week. I'd hate to have to do a couple hundred more. It's so much easier to browse one or two categories every week.

[Frank A]

All of my buys in the pre 30's cat. are from browsing. I collect no 1 set or player. Browse every day and bid on several items I liked. Now, it is not possible to do, therefore I will no longer try. Tell me that is good for the seller. NOOOOOOO. What a shame that ebay has no clue as to sports cards.

[danmckee]

Dearest NCININ, I don't do a blind search when looking for cards, I search pre 1930 and the 1930's category. Anything newer than that does not interest me in the least. Is this a blind search? Well maybe to a point but it is also very specific to certain era's. That option has been taken away.

Go Amazonbay!

[19cbb]

Wonder how coin collectors would react if eBay merges every subcat under COINS.

Nothing like browsing through hundreds of Zimbabwean and Iranian coins while looking for some silver Quarters!

[jonincleve]

ncinin, with all due respect this is how it affects the sellers. by the way this is my first official thread post, be kind. i collect cleveland indians pre-war among other things. with the pre-1930's category i just look through and see what shows up. as a buyer i am not looking for a specific card, just a team or just something that strikes my fancy. i might be looking at t206 cards and a e90-1 bradley shows up. i was not looking for that specific card but i put a bid in anyway.

as a seller now on ebay of a e90-1 bradley card a buyer would either have to search for THAT specific card or wade through all the other cards to find it.

this is a very bad development for sellers of vintage material. why would i want to list an odd ball type card on ebay right now, there is no reason because it would get lost.

take care
john

[jcmtiger]

As a buyer this does not bother me. I only search for Old Judge Detroit, so that is no problem, except there usually are none available. As a seller this might cause problems, we will see

Joe

[iggyman]

I'm constantly searching items on eBay looking for pre-war and post-war bargains, I like to consider myself a consummate baseball card flipper. Since 1998, I've been crossing the line between dealer and collector. It's not an exclusive club, since eBay facilitated the buying and flipping of stuff. For the past few years, eBay has kept tinkering with its product and I've just rolled with the punches. They want to go to a "buy-it-now" mode.....Great! As a seller, I've hit on some great deals searching buy-it-now items and as a buyer, I've used this format to make some easy profitable sales. In unison with paypal, they want to screw the seller and make it totally safe to make a purchase. Great! This affords me the opportunity to take more chances then I care to remember with eBay purchases. I didn't think eBay could ever make a change that I couldn't adapt too. From my perspective, this latest change to the sports category is really a hum-dinger.


Will this category change stop me from selling cards on eBay? Yes! To my great regret, I'm done with the true auction format. Buy-it-now, the B/S/T section, and auction houses are the only viable alternatives.


Will this category change stop me from buying cards on ebay? Yes! On two fronts. First of all, since I'm constantly flipping cards and then using those profits to actually buy cards I need. I will soon reach a tipping point; if I can't flip the cards in a timely fashion at some point I have to stop my purchases. Secondly, although this new format will make it easier to find bargains. A prospective buyer will have to devote alot of time searching for cards/bargains and time is something I don't have at a premium. Looks like, I will hit my mid-life crises quicker then I thought!

Lovely Day...