OT: ebay blames the economy for it's poor financial results

[TheShadowKnows]

You/I/We all say the same mess every time eBay comes up around here:

 

eBay should go back to the way it was, yada yada yada.

 

Well - why don't we shut the fark up and pool our resources, find some coders and make a site "like it used to be". Gawd knows we can find some out of work programmers these days...

 

Who is gonna rope this goat?

 

Relief may be closer than you think.

Whats up Royce

 

What's up Dennis?

Whats up Mike?

Trying to lay low and keep the :takeit:'s to a minimum, so I can pay off my debts

Not buying any gems?

[JohnT]

I'm going to take a contrarian view here--as I usually do when the subject of Ebay comes up.

 

I think Ebay's problems are primarily due to the economy. I don't buy the notion that Ebay should be thriving as people suffer economically and look for bargains. I believe what is happening is the economy has tightened everyone's wallets and sellers aren't getting near what they hope for from items they sell. When that happens, sellers do one of three things:

 

1) They put things up for sale but not for auction (BIN).

2) They put things up for auction but have opening bids that are at or near their desired price, because they don't trust a pure auction anymore.

3) They stop selling things.

 

This creates a vicious cycle. As deals dry up buyers stop frequenting Ebay, and sellers become even more reluctant to put things up for sale in the original Ebay format...i.e. auctions.

 

 

[VintageComics]

Ebays problems started when the starting upping their fees and losing transparency for the bidder. Ebay should be more busy in this economy but it is not. Ebay starting losing sellers before the economy crashed recently.

 

R.

 

[JohnT]

Ebays problems started when the starting upping their fees and losing transparency for the bidder. Ebay should be more busy in this economy but it is not. Ebay starting losing sellers before the economy crashed recently.

 

R.

 

Why do you think they should be more busy in an economic collapse?

[lotemo]

My ebay buying and selling has decreased. I don't like some of the changes they've made but my decrease in use is due more to having found most of the comics and records that I've wanted.

 

In theory, they could or should be busier in this economic downturn because ebay is a good way to earn extra money when one needs quick cash.

 

I think that they've ruined that potential with their punitive treatment of sellers, i.e. you can receive negative feedback but can't give it.

 

I'd like to see them get back to their roots but of course, they became so big, every governing body in the world wanted ebay to police every transaction, which killed the whole free market concept that they started with.

 

Google could be a contender against ebay but in reality, I'd just like to see ebay get back to what worked: show user id's, give feedback, and let the buyer beware.

[Designer Toast]

You/I/We all say the same mess every time eBay comes up around here:

 

eBay should go back to the way it was, yada yada yada.

 

Well - why don't we shut the fark up and pool our resources, find some coders and make a site "like it used to be". Gawd knows we can find some out of work programmers these days...

 

Who is gonna rope this goat?

 

Relief may be closer than you think.

Whats up Royce

 

What's up Dennis?

 

Hey, it's late in Oregon. shouldn't you old Oregon guys be asleep?

Bite me

 

Bite me, too.

 

[lizards2]

You/I/We all say the same mess every time eBay comes up around here:

 

eBay should go back to the way it was, yada yada yada.

 

Well - why don't we shut the fark up and pool our resources, find some coders and make a site "like it used to be". Gawd knows we can find some out of work programmers these days...

 

Who is gonna rope this goat?

 

Relief may be closer than you think.

Whats up Royce

 

What's up Dennis?

Whats up Mike?

Trying to lay low and keep the :takeit:'s to a minimum, so I can pay off my debts

Not buying any gems?

 

Right now, I'm paying for them......, much more difficult to wrangle....,

[General Zod]

Note to self: Check any future potential Bunky Bros. books for pee stains.

 

I've been buying less because the amount of decent books has dropped way off, and haven't been selling due to the myriad bad changes and smaller audience.

 

Bingo.

 

The Chinese dragon is eating its tail. I'm a buyer on eBay and I'm buying less. Not because I want to, but because sellers are leaving and there's less quality left for me. Not that it's a completely terrible thing because we've got good sellers here on the forums, but every once in a while I can't find what I'm looking for. And some of the tougher books, well, they go up on BIN ComicLink-like prices these days. The average buyer doesn't want to haggle for a fair price, come on. These sellers want to set the market, not let the market determine the value.

[VintageComics]

Ebays problems started when the starting upping their fees and losing transparency for the bidder. Ebay should be more busy in this economy but it is not. Ebay starting losing sellers before the economy crashed recently.

 

R.

 

Why do you think they should be more busy in an economic collapse?

 

More people needing cash by liquidating assets and belongings. With jobs being lost people will start to sell everything they have that is non-essential.

 

(thumbs u

 

When was the last time we had a tough go of things economy wise?

 

 

[joe_collector]

Potentially the worst decision EBay made was taking punitive action against NEW sellers, as in they need to have a "waiting period" before getting their money, Paypal holds can be instituted, there are limits on what they can list, how much, and in what areas.

 

All this was supposedly done to curtail scam artists with new Zero accounts, but it's also limited the "Hey, I just found a pile of old BA comics and I'll list them on EBay" type sellers who may come across a collectible here and there. Some of those were fun to search for, and I got some nice deals in the past.

 

There are no more of those sellers joining EBay, just huge Chinese shops selling hundreds of thousands of "dollar store" items with a 0.0000001% sell-through rate.

[G.A.tor]

when we started our business (selling action figures and vintage toys) back in 1995, there was no ebay...it was all sales through trade publications (talk about expensive) and shows (also expensive)...

 

in 1996 on AOL, I started selling... I believe that was the tip of the ebay start up of ebay for me...

I registered in 1997 and from 1997-1999, I sold thousands of items on ebay...

 

by 2000, print ads were already going the way of the dinosaur and our website was starting to capture much of the business I had spent the previous 5 years developing...

 

2000-2006 I rarely sold on ebay (though I would buy)... I liked the "auctions" and had a chance to win...and if I sold, I knew the fees were minimal, and since we took credit cards direct, I seemed to have an advantage of most of the "mom and pop" check/mo sellers...

 

then Paypal came along...I resisted at first, due to fees they charged, but now, am happy I take it, as the majority of ebay folks use it...

 

2007, I decided that I had accumulated about $100,000 of "extra" figures and toys through the years that just didn't sell through for me on our site (more supply than demand)... so, I jumped back on ebay as a way to "clear" out old inventory...

 

told myself I would list 50 diff items each week, and hope to avg $10-20 an item and create $500-1000 of "cash" each week (since the product had long been paid for )...

 

well, 2007 was GREAT, and 2008 was pretty good... those 50 items a week actually averaged $26 for me, and I generated an extra $1300 a week for the past 2 years...

 

now, late 2008 I did see a "slow down"... I saw change, I saw many auctions go by the wayside for BIN's...but, that said, I am still selling my 50 or so items a week... the $100,000 of product I thought would take me 2 years to sell (at $1000 a week) has actually only been cut in half, and it generated over $135,000 for me)...

 

so, even if I only get my $500 a week now on ebay, I am still very thankful that there is an ebay, for otherwise, I would still be sitting on $100K of "dead" merch, that instead, has sold and sold very profitably for me and continues to do so!

 

now, I start every item at 99 cents with no reserve, so I think that helps too (sometimes you hit a home run, sometimes you strike out, but I cost average, so all is good)

[kahml]

Potentially the worst decision EBay made was taking punitive action against NEW sellers, as in they need to have a "waiting period" before getting their money, Paypal holds can be instituted, there are limits on what they can list, how much, and in what areas.

 

All this was supposedly done to curtail scam artists with new Zero accounts, but it's also limited the "Hey, I just found a pile of old BA comics and I'll list them on EBay" type sellers who may come across a collectible here and there. Some of those were fun to search for, and I got some nice deals in the past.

 

There are no more of those sellers joining EBay, just huge Chinese shops selling hundreds of thousands of "dollar store" items with a 0.0000001% sell-through rate.

 

eBay's new motto: "If it ain't broke, fix it until it is!! "

 

Larry

 

[Aces]

 

 

This is something you could apply across the Board in countless Organizations.

If it ain't broken, then don't try to fix it.

 

But they always do...

 

That's what SEARS thought in 1979 before Wal-mart bashed their head in with new technologies.

 

SEARS decided "not to fix it".

 

 

I've been with Sears for over 20 years, that is only the tip of the iceberg.

 

 

There was a book we read in business school called THE BIG STORE that documents the decline of SEARS. People don't remember this, but they were a GIANT. In the late 1970's, they were #1 and were bigger than #2, #3, #4 and #5 combined (as I recall from the book).

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mom used sears for everything back then. Our christmas wishlist from made from the catalog. She ordered clothes and about everything else from the catalog stores that used to have a front desk area the size of a shoe horn with a big back room of special orders they got in. You would pay and pickup

 

Yep.

[Aces]

Potentially the worst decision EBay made was taking punitive action against NEW sellers, as in they need to have a "waiting period" before getting their money, Paypal holds can be instituted, there are limits on what they can list, how much, and in what areas.

 

All this was supposedly done to curtail scam artists with new Zero accounts, but it's also limited the "Hey, I just found a pile of old BA comics and I'll list them on EBay" type sellers who may come across a collectible here and there. Some of those were fun to search for, and I got some nice deals in the past.

 

There are no more of those sellers joining EBay, just huge Chinese shops selling hundreds of thousands of "dollar store" items with a 0.0000001% sell-through rate.

 

eBay's new motto: "If it ain't broke, fix it until it is!! "

 

Larry

 

And then blame the economy.