The Inevitable Demise of eBay....

[autograf]

Yep.....all my dozens of searches are now screwed up. Not a HUGE deal to separate auctions from BIN's but different. I'm slooooowwwwllllyyy getting used to it. I think eBay exists solely just to change crap when they really don't need to. They had a great business model and they just keep striking out while updating things that such a miniscule minority of people would even care about. I also think they have cow-towed to their legal department so much that the whole system is about useless. It's like they have malpractice insurance and they have to change EVERYTHING just to be compliant. Still tough to find somewhere else that has any real amount of the stuff we're looking for though.......

[JP]

The real problem with eBay is that they let auctions like this happen. No way does that person have that card....and no feedback in forever, so obviously a hijacked account!

[4815162342]

Well, he had a "smooth etopps transaction"!

[Boccabella]

eBay isn't going anywhere. While collectors of the type of material found in this forum have options, most of the rest of the collectors/dealers who handle less rare or more modern material simply don't.

For all of its "issues" and tweaks, eBay is still a very effective way for millions of average people to buy and sell. If eBay's "demise" is so imminent, who's replacing it? Whatever better models are out there have a LOT of work to do to get to their level.

And don't forget...if you take your cards off eBay, you also lose the periphery..that is, the eyes of people who may not be die-hard collectors but for one reason or another decide to bid on your item.

[M's_Fan]

eBay has pushed the "Buy it now" model to sellers in order to compete with Amazon, and many sellers are signing on because they are always leary of dumping their cards at low prices in a recession.

As eBay buyers become more sophisticated, they will learn to use the "auctions only" tab, and sellers will be forced to sell at auction or not.

Consider when the internet first came out, people clicked on all sorts of advertisements. Now studies have shown internet users don't even see the banner advertising on the sides. Ebay buyers will adjust, and this trend will die down. Ebay will remain the trading ground, and the auction houses reserved for high-end product....

[bcornell]

There's an easy explanation, although it sucks for collectors.

Collectibles are fundamentally different than commodities, because the supply & demand of the two are completely unalike. eBay is now religiously focused on commodities, the stuff that everyone knows the 'value' of. BINs makes sense for this stuff - if I want a DVD or an appliance, I know what I'm willing to pay and I don't want to wait 3 to 7 days to find out if I won it. I want it now.

Unfortunately, they've blanketed the whole site with the same model, and this hobby has suffered for it. We're now stuck with collectibles that have crazy BIN prices because the sellers have no idea what their merchandise could realistically sell for, or they're horribly greedy, or both.

It's nearly killed the site for collectibles. And for those who always say that "eBay doesn't care", you're now correct.

I fully agree with Boccabella that eBay isn't going away. Bringing together buyers and sellers is a hell of a lot tougher than most people imagine. eBay has done that.


Bill

[yawie99]

Originally Posted by bcornell

There's an easy explanation, although it sucks for collectors.

Collectibles are fundamentally different than commodities, because the supply & demand of the two are completely unalike. eBay is now religiously focused on commodities, the stuff that everyone knows the 'value' of. BINs makes sense for this stuff - if I want a DVD or an appliance, I know what I'm willing to pay and I don't want to wait 3 to 7 days to find out if I won it. I want it now.

Unfortunately, they've blanketed the whole site with the same model, and this hobby has suffered for it. We're now stuck with collectibles that have crazy BIN prices because the sellers have no idea what their merchandise could realistically sell for, or they're horribly greedy, or both.

It's nearly killed the site for collectibles. And for those who always say that "eBay doesn't care", you're now correct.

I fully agree with Boccabella that eBay isn't going away. Bringing together buyers and sellers is a hell of a lot tougher than most people imagine. eBay has done that.


Bill

Well said. I suppose I'm still grateful for the presence of a relatively democratic marketplace like eBay, but the site's shift away from the auction model that made it such a great venue in the first place has probably sucked as much vitality from the hobby as has the flagging economy.

[JP]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

Well, he had a "smooth etopps transaction"!

Reported it and barely was able to fit this in under the limitation of characters in the description of complaint:

"If that seller can provide you with a picture of that card with today's newspaper, I'll eat my hat."

[pscolgrafs]

Ebay is not going anywhere. They really don't care about the pre-war people. It is a small fraction of their sales and every single time a new auction company threatens them, they crash and burn.

It's eBay's world. It has an invisible monopoly and we have to agree by their terms. I have a friend who has a 100% feedback and his dashboard is cluttered with high marks (around 4.9). He is called away and is late on one auction and his dashboard star for...Shipping...decreases to 4.6 and he gets eBay warnings when he logs in. Does that make sense?

That $9 shipper guy will get low stars and that same warning if he continues to be in the shipping business.

Nothing eBay does make sense and I HATE the fact that they didn't separate auctions from stores from the get go. The only people that like this are those who start everything off at $1 and hope to get a $1 for a ten Mike Scoscia First Day Covers or an autographed index card by Joe Pepitone.

[mintacular]

I don't see how anything that has happened to eBay is "inevitable". In fact, just the opposite....the title of this thread should have been the "evitable" demise of ebay :

[quinnsryche]

Unfortunately ebay is still the best option for purchasing items difficult to find elsewhere. Other than the big auction houses, who most normal collectors can't even afford the buyer's premium, a limited few decent web sites and the scant local show, where can the average collector add cards to his collection? There are hundreds of thousands of cards of every type available to all types and levels of collectors, that's pretty cool. This site is a great option, but you can't always get what you want here (I know, I've tried) and we're not only talking about rare or scarce stuff. I'm not sticking up for ebay or the way they run their business, I'm just pointing out that it is a viable option for a great many people (buying and selling).
Just my opinion, take it or leave it.