The Inevitable Demise of eBay....

[rdwyer]

If eBay sold only BIN's, their profit would drop 99%.

[drc]

Perhaps they could completely separate the auctions and sales, and not intermingle them.

[Shouldabeena10]

How in the world could a company that basically manufactures nothing, produces nothing, and delivers nothing, run their business into the ground so badly?

The "eBay system" has got to be 99% automated, so outside of management you're basically just employing tech's, R & D, marketing, and some customer service reps to keep the thing running.

Just thinking about the millions of auctions running on eBay every day, 24/7, and the % of money they make off of all their fees ... you'd think it wouldn't be possible to sink that ship. Unintentionally, at least.

[drc]

I describe eBay's recent ways as follows: They had the world's best and biggest auction house, so they decided to change that.

[rdixon1208]

The internet (primarily ebay) has made collecting so much easier. Many long-term collectors have posted about how much easier it is to find cards. I wonder if this easy access has led to more and more people collecting pre-war over the last few years...and more and more peolple holding their cards (less auctions) while they build there collections.

[slidekellyslide]

I'm liking the new free listing format.. List something for .99 cents and it's a free listing..if it sells ebay takes 10%, if it doesn't sell then I'm out nothing. I have a ton of items like postcards, ephemera and photos that I would never list if they didn't have free listings like this. That may clog up some categories, but it shouldn't bother those that do specific searches. Last night I had 4 stereoview cards end at about $1,000 that I would have been happy if they'd sold for $10 each...I had no clue they were worth that much and I never would have wasted the listing fee to try them at $9.99 each. The downside to listing .99 cent items though is that I had a postcard sell for the opening bid and I have to ship it to the Netherlands.

[Exhibitman]

I've run across a few $0.99 openers with $9.00 mailing costs lately.

FWIW, I think 10% to sell an item still is a good deal. An auctioneer will take twice that at least (BP + Comm), if your consignment is accepted at all.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I've run across a few $0.99 openers with $9.00 mailing costs lately.

FWIW, I think 10% to sell an item still is a good deal. An auctioneer will take twice that at least (BP + Comm), if your consignment is accepted at all.

I'm assuming the $9 shipping charge is out of line for what they're auctioning? and I agree that 10% is not bad...and almost everyone pays with paypal so that ups it to 13%. Of course anything I'm listing for 99 cents is something that I probably wouldn't have listed and it would have filled up a box in my basement.