eBay Mess

[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.

[Dustanh1]

I just ran my normal t206 (psa,sgc) search and only got 800 something cards. Nothing out of the ordinary. While I don't think this will affect my buying too much, I doubt I ever list anything for sale on ebay again. I did also email them a long message, so hopefully it helps.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by Dustanh1

I just ran my normal t206 (psa,sgc) search and only got 800 something cards. Nothing out of the ordinary. While I don't think this will affect my buying too much, I doubt I ever list anything for sale on ebay again. I did also email them a long message, so hopefully it helps.

Dustan,

The thing you are wrong about is that this WILL affect your buying, a lot! The reason is that many sellers will stop using Ebay as their marketing arm, because of the reduced number of views. If the sellers move, it will impact what you have available to buy.

Any decrease in bidders will lead to a decrease in sales. That will lead sellers to go elsewhere.

[Dustanh1]

Jim, that makes sense and after thinking about it a bit further, I do see your point. A worse overall product will eventually show its effects, even though my search ran today produced similar results. I will wait and see what happens a few months down the road. It only makes sense that less sellers means less cards available for sale that I would like to purchase.

On another note, Ebay sent me a reply within 10 minutes of my email to them. Here it is in all its glory:

Thank you for writing to eBay Customer Support.

Your suggestions are very important to us and will be treated with our
full attention. Our product development team is working to read, discuss
and process the input that we get from our members; therefore, we will
not be able to respond to your message.

To avoid any possible misunderstandings, we must advise you that any
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be non-confidential and non-proprietary.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please do not respond to this email. Any email sent as a
response to this Acknowledgement will not reach us.

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Well, I'm glad we got that cleared up. Just another reason that I won't sell anything on there again.

[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

[Mark]

I am now selling 10 cards on ebay and was about to list another 70 over the next month, but now I am cancelling the auctions and holding off. This move by ebay is idiotic. As I told the lady at ebay, ebay is now like a Walmart in which you go in looking for a wrench and never see any other products. She was very sympathetic and after a long hold said that her coworkers agreed. She said she would put my complaints in a suggestion box, along with my phone number. I urge everyone who wants to sell another card on ebay to call and to ask to speak to someone on the listing team.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by 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

I've always searched by individual card as well, but this still seems like a ridiculous move since obviously a large number of people do search by category.

[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...

[Jacklitsch]

If you want to find graded cards the following search parameters work great:

190* SGC This search will pull up all 1900-1909 SGC graded cards.

191* SGC This search will pull up all 1910-1919 SGC graded cards.

Substitute PSA for SGC and PSA only graded cards will appear.

[ibuysportsephemera]

Originally Posted by Jacklitsch

If you want to find graded cards the following search parameters work great:

190* SGC This search will pull up all 1900-1909 SGC graded cards.

191* SGC This search will pull up all 1910-1919 SGC graded cards.

Substitute PSA for SGC and PSA only graded cards will appear.

You beat me to it...I was going to post the same thing about the *. It is a great trick that someone taught me many years ago and has saved me a ton of time searching on eBay.

Jeff

[paul]

I don't know why ebay has any categories anymore at all. Why not just lump everything together in one big category? No one can possibly browse the "baseball card" category of 200,000 cards. So, card collectors have no choice but to do a word search. So why bother having categories at all?

By the way, some word searches will be very ineffective. Try searching for "Old Judge" and see how many 2008 and 2009 Topps cards pop up. If only there was some way to screen out post war cards from the search ...

[nolemmings]

As a buyer, I'm concerned with any tactic that chases sellers away. Otherwise though, I am pretty much unaffected, as I very seldom search by subcategory anyway (and believe it or not, in addition to some specific sets and players, I'm also a type collector).

As noted, a search with wildcards (asterisks) works tremendously. In addition to the searches by decade (at least for graded cards), type in 193* Goudey and you'll get the whole panoply of sets by that company for the decade, and perhaps even a stray companion piece. And once in Sportscards, type e9* and you'll hit a bunch of the caramel sets. I have a mild interest in several sets from 1928--the ice cream sets, r315, w502, exhibits, etc. I type in 1928 and I get 200 or so hits, only about 15% of which are useful, but it really doesn't take that much time or effort to gaze past the irrelevant stuff, especially if you change your settings to view 100 items per page. Same if you type in Gehrig--there might be mostly listings for non-cards and things of no interest to you, but it doesn't take long to get used to quickly scanning the thumbnails and separating the wheat from the chaff.