The Inevitable Demise of eBay....

[JP]

For years I've had a daily eBay search of which "psa t206" auctions are ending that day. Of course I exclude all of the outrageous "buy it nows" that dealers use to showcase, rather than sell, their inventory..

Filtering out the buy it nows, as of this moment, 9 P.M. Pacific, there are scheduled to close 10 PSA t206 auctions on Thursday, 2 on Friday and only 13 on Saturday (7 of which are from Net54's own Larry!) The next 3 days only have 25 auctions of PSA graded T-206s. Back in the day, you had at least 100 closing every day. What has happened?

I have to think that part of it must be contributed to people not wanting to compete with the current auctions....as prospective buyers have a lot of cash tied up in potential winning bids. But I think the biggest factor is those "showcase dealers" that I was referring to earlier. They make up 92.2% of the total listings! That means you have to sift through 100 "auctions" just to find 7 or 8 REAL auctions. Why can't there be a "buy it now" eBay and a completely separate auction eBay site? This is just TOO MUCH!!

[jb217676]

I agree with JP. Ebay should only have auctions. Here's to Larry, keepin' ebay alive with his auctions!

[HRBAKER]

I think that a lot of people don't want to sell in a perceived down market for more "common" pre-war items like T206s. Plus ebay has made it economical for sellers to clutter the listings with all of the "store" or fixed-price inventory and they get lost. I think I can actually see some dust starting to accumulate on some of Buy It Nows, they have been on there so long.

I would be willing to bet that I spend 25% of the time trolling/searching ebay that I did 2-3 years ago.

[JP]

The 200 T-206s I sold in auctions there last month did fine....I think it'd be a whole different story if they were for sale now. BST only for me for as long as I can take it.

[mcap100176]

Ebay isn't going anywhere. While this niche baseball card market might not be as good as it once was, the company is making money. Both, as it seems on its auction/buying business and then on its PayPal holding.

Just read the first two pages of the below.....

http://files.shareholder.com/downloa...ngsRelease.pdf

[JP]

I may be reading it wrong, but it looks like their profit in 2008 was $1.8 billion and in 2009 was $2.4 billion, but $1.4 billion of that 2009 profit was the one-time sale of Skype. That means that their auction income dropped by 50%? And that's with fees being raised?

[lharri3600]

thank you thank you thank you

Originally Posted by jb217676

I agree with JP. Ebay should only have auctions. Here's to Larry, keepin' ebay alive with his auctions!

[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.

[t210scouts]

While I have not been following the pre-war cards for that long I have been looking on ebay for other items that I collect. I've noticed in the past year that there does not seem to be the number of items there once was. Lots more of the buy it now but for auctions - down. I also look for stamps and 19th century images and for what I'm looking for there's been very little this year. Either everyone is selling elsewhere or they are holding on to the items and hoping for a better market to sell.

[smtjoy]

I agree a lot less auctions now then back in 03-07.

My recent auction sales thou have been very strong, not sure if its because there are less auctions or that people are feeling better about the economy or what but my sales prices are up. Hope the trend continues as I have a lot of stuff I have been holding back waiting for the market to trend upward.

[lharri3600]

all points are valid. however, i believe ebay has done one hell of a job at loading the gun and pointing it at themselves and pulling the trigger. the new fee structure has forced auction listers (like myself) to pay $15.95 per month to open a store. without the "store", final value fees on auctions are outrageous! short term will make them think they are doing well. long term will have them scratching their crooked heads asking "what happened". little do they know they have done well driving sellers to different venues. i'm leaning toward what jp stated 54 and 54 only.