Has eBay dried up?

[Robot Man]

I was doing my daily "new today" GA grind on eBay last night. After a page or two of auctions I just got bored and shut it down. I used to see like 8 pages of 200 books every day and more on Sunday. There was more stuff than I could afford to buy. Now days, I'm lucky if I open 2 or 3 auctions up per page. Lots of cheap junk, decent stuff but with very high opening bids and once in a while a gem or two. These are usually on Sunday when Adam Anderson is listing. Or, an "estate sale" find but I usually don't trust those too much. I stopped looking at "buy it nows" for the same reason about a year ago.

 

I used to sell some comics on eBay but have for the most part given up. Low ending results, high fees and too much eBay police. I do sell other collectibles with some sucess on occasion. So I have a pretty good idea as why there are less sellers. eBay has run them off. What happened to Sparkle City? They came on like gangbusters with low starting bids on slabbed books. Then they started listing raw books that looked pretty marginal comparing their listed grades and the photos. Now, I hardly see them at all. Don't get me going on DTA's "auctions"....

 

As an average mid grade reader collector I have found it very hard to add to my collection any more. Lots of competition and not much to buy. Conventions can be OK but not a lot of out of state dealers come to the west coast any more. Websites are a waste of time as well. Where does the average schmoo get any comics any more. Please don't bother mentioning Heritage, Comic Link, Comic Connect ect to me that is a rant for annother time.

[ciorac]

I still buy on eBay a fair amount. And there is usually something I need on there.

 

I sold some items on eBay last year and had fantastic results. Offered them here on the Boards first, and found no takers. Put them on eBay at no reserve and got more than I was asking for here by a pretty wide margin

 

Use your network. I find more books, and collections, that way than any other way. Never a shortage of raw comics being offered to me at any given time.

[jimjum12]

I pretty much quit using eBay as a selling venue a few years ago when they sent me a 1099 for around 5K in sales after being led to believe it was 20K or 200 transactions for the threshold. I do not work for them nor provide services to them and this forced me to begin treating what had always been a hobby as a business...... otherwise I'd have owed the IRS 28% of the 5K even though that was basically a break even year.... which most are. I've mostly been a raw collector and I find grading there from 90% of the sellers to be too loose for my tastes. I do still buy there from time to time.... but I prefer dealing with professionals rather than the 50 foot tall pimp that eBay has become. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[Griff]

I've found Midgrade books at mint prices seem to be the norm for what I collect on Ebay. sure there are books I want but with low res pics and prices out of the park I usually pass.

 

Last year I bought 1/3 of the Don Winslow books I wanted in mid/high grade for 10-20 bucks a piece. same books now sell for 50-75 a piece..... those sellers can bite me.

[ComicConnoisseur]

People are discovering gold and silver age comic books are very rare compared to coins and baseball cards.

A 100,000 print run is very rare compared to coins minted in 10s of millions or baseball card printed in the millions.

That`s why I always got a kick out of people saying 100 to 1000 certified comics in the census is common.

It`s not compared to other hobbies.

Golden age comics are very rare compared to coins and stamps of the same era.

With the comic movies continuing to break records we will find those old comics are getting taken out of circulation like never before.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

If Ebay had deliberately set out to destroy their market base they could not have done a better job.

 

They gull most US based sellers into using a shipping program that automatically bills international buyers for bogus import charges. Fully 20% on top of the sale price.

 

In the books magazine section, they cap shipping at $5 anywhere in the world.

 

As for sellers, the principle of the bigger fool has seemingly run rampant.

 

There is no joy or excitement in seeing the same stock endlessly recycled at top market BIN prices.

 

I think a fundamental problem is that unless you track a specific listing, you don't see what has sold - only what hasn't.

 

And what hasn't by inference is undesirable.

[Johnny545]

I pretty much quit using eBay as a selling venue a few years ago when they sent me a 1099 for around 5K in sales after being led to believe it was 20K or 200 transactions for the threshold. I do not work for them nor provide services to them and this forced me to begin treating what had always been a hobby as a business...... otherwise I'd have owed the IRS 28% of the 5K even though that was basically a break even year.... which most are. I've mostly been a raw collector and I find grading there from 90% of the sellers to be too loose for my tastes. I do still buy there from time to time.... but I prefer dealing with professionals rather than the 50 foot tall pimp that eBay has become. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

Did they ever explain why they 1099'ed you?

[jimjum12]

Because I elected to create an eBay Store and in the fine print there was something about different criteria for those accepting Merchant Cards..... which I'm not sure exactly when or if I agreed to accept them. As soon as I closed out the store, the 1099's stopped...... ironically, a fairly significant part of that year total were sales of other people's items at no profit to myself. It really pissed me off, as I received the 1099 about 1 week before April 15th...... luckily I owed a small tax bill already and had procrastinated on filing. I'd say to sum it up, I began using eBay because it was so easy and hassle free.... somewhere along the way they decided to redefine our relationship in a way that I found most unacceptable. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[Johnny545]

Because I elected to create an eBay Store and in the fine print there was something about different criteria for those accepting Merchant Cards..... which I'm not sure exactly when or if I agreed to accept them. As soon as I closed out the store, the 1099's stopped...... ironically, a fairly significant part of that year total were sales of other people's items at no profit to myself. It really pissed me off, as I received the 1099 about 1 week before April 15th...... luckily I owed a small tax bill already and had procrastinated on filing. I'd say to sum it up, I began using eBay because it was so easy and hassle free.... somewhere along the way they decided to redefine our relationship in a way that I found most unacceptable. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

Got it, thanks Jim.

[Silver Surfer]

More often than not I think you risk getting hammered on EBay if you are a seller because they simply do not have the same audience that they had 5+ years ago. Great place to buy and find a deal but I'm sure that a bunch of GPA lows are being set on EBay via open auctions these days [unless your SparkleCity].

[Mmehdy]

E-bay has declined every year...you cannot trust the seller, who knows if the book really exists or its a swipe from a Ha.com auction.....

 

you really cannot take it seriously, the best way to buy a book is in person....SDCC, Wonder con and a whole bunch of flea markets and collectors shows....E-bay should change their name to Done-bay

[Sqeggs]

I was doing my daily "new today" GA grind on eBay last night. After a page or two of auctions I just got bored and shut it down. I used to see like 8 pages of 200 books every day and more on Sunday. There was more stuff than I could afford to buy. Now days, I'm lucky if I open 2 or 3 auctions up per page. Lots of cheap junk, decent stuff but with very high opening bids and once in a while a gem or two. These are usually on Sunday when Adam Anderson is listing. Or, an "estate sale" find but I usually don't trust those too much. I stopped looking at "buy it nows" for the same reason about a year ago.

 

I used to sell some comics on eBay but have for the most part given up. Low ending results, high fees and too much eBay police. I do sell other collectibles with some sucess on occasion. So I have a pretty good idea as why there are less sellers. eBay has run them off. What happened to Sparkle City? They came on like gangbusters with low starting bids on slabbed books. Then they started listing raw books that looked pretty marginal comparing their listed grades and the photos. Now, I hardly see them at all. Don't get me going on DTA's "auctions"....

 

As an average mid grade reader collector I have found it very hard to add to my collection any more. Lots of competition and not much to buy. Conventions can be OK but not a lot of out of state dealers come to the west coast any more. Websites are a waste of time as well. Where does the average schmoo get any comics any more. Please don't bother mentioning Heritage, Comic Link, Comic Connect ect to me that is a rant for annother time.

 

Sparkle City certainly had a lot of great GA books when I first started following their listings a couple of years ago. They pack great and ship fast. I would win a couple of books on Sunday night, pay Monday morning, and get the books either Tuesday or Wednesday.

 

But ... I usually had to pay top dollar. Typically more, I think, than if the books had been listed by one of the auction houses. The raw books they have been listing lately certainly look overgraded to me, although they use big scans, so a buyer should be able to judge for himself.

 

eBay is a shoot in that you have a chance of picking raw books up below FMV, but you are running the risk of inaccurate grading, missing centerfolds, and other undisclosed problems.

 

DTA is funny. Sometimes he seems amenable to reasonable best offers and other times he has the automatic rejection set pretty close to his (nosebleed) prices. Been doing if for decades, though, so I guess it works for him.

[jimjum12]

E-bay has declined every year...you cannot trust the seller, who knows if the book really exists or its a swipe from a Ha.com auction.....

 

you really cannot take it seriously, the best way to buy a book is in person....SDCC, Wonder con and a whole bunch of flea markets and collectors shows....E-bay should change their name to Done-bay

 

..... for me, it's 99% acquisitions from reputable dealers, longtime friends, Auctions, and most importantly.... these very boards. Things have changed so much since those Creation Cons from the 70's..... if some one would have told me then that I'd be transacting with folk in Toronto, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, and Madrid without leaving my living room.... I'd have told them to cut back a little on the Star Trek...... eBay who needs 'em......? GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

 

.....Paypal ..... however (thumbs u

[Dr. Love]

Because I elected to create an eBay Store and in the fine print there was something about different criteria for those accepting Merchant Cards..... which I'm not sure exactly when or if I agreed to accept them. As soon as I closed out the store, the 1099's stopped...... ironically, a fairly significant part of that year total were sales of other people's items at no profit to myself. It really pissed me off, as I received the 1099 about 1 week before April 15th...... luckily I owed a small tax bill already and had procrastinated on filing. I'd say to sum it up, I began using eBay because it was so easy and hassle free.... somewhere along the way they decided to redefine our relationship in a way that I found most unacceptable. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

Got it, thanks Jim.

 

Yes, my frantic research was heading in that direction. Really good to know about this in advance, thanks for bringing it up. The threshold is a game changer, and I predict with a reasonable degree of certainty that it will get progressively lower. Payments received through PayPal is the first level of reporting, as it's easily accessible for data mining and captures the very extensive transactions of Ebay.

 

If you sell a comic and take payment through PayPal, as many of us do on the boards, the choice won't be to report the income or not. Ignorance of the law won't get us too far - the downside at best will be fines and back interest charged, at worst the charge of fraud and do you know how expensive a tax attorney is?

 

The only two choices if income is easily traceable are taking the income as a hobbyist vs as a business. Best get up to speed on the subject now, it is involved and tricky.

[1950's war comics]

People are discovering gold and silver age comic books are very rare compared to coins and baseball cards.

A 100,000 print run is very rare compared to coins minted in 10s of millions or baseball card printed in the millions.

That`s why I always got a kick out of people saying 100 to 1000 certified comics in the census is common.

It`s not compared to other hobbies.

Golden age comics are very rare compared to coins and stamps of the same era.

With the comic movies continuing to break records we will find those old comics are getting taken out of circulation like never before.

 

 

Agree, actually newly listed golden age comics are down to a trickle,.its mostly the same ones over and over,... boy I would hate to be the person listing a comic immediately before the same weekly mile high listings which can last four pages , I wish there was a way to delete or ignore mile high listings

[jimjum12]

Because I elected to create an eBay Store and in the fine print there was something about different criteria for those accepting Merchant Cards..... which I'm not sure exactly when or if I agreed to accept them. As soon as I closed out the store, the 1099's stopped...... ironically, a fairly significant part of that year total were sales of other people's items at no profit to myself. It really pissed me off, as I received the 1099 about 1 week before April 15th...... luckily I owed a small tax bill already and had procrastinated on filing. I'd say to sum it up, I began using eBay because it was so easy and hassle free.... somewhere along the way they decided to redefine our relationship in a way that I found most unacceptable. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

Got it, thanks Jim.

 

Yes, my frantic research was heading in that direction. Really good to know about this in advance, thanks for bringing it up. The threshold is a game changer, and I predict with a reasonable degree of certainty that it will get progressively lower. Payments received through PayPal is the first level of reporting, as it's easily accessible for data mining and captures the very extensive transactions of Ebay.

 

If you sell a comic and take payment through PayPal, as many of us do on the boards, the choice won't be to report the income or not. Ignorance of the law won't get us too far - the downside at best will be fines and back interest charged, at worst the charge of fraud and do you know how expensive a tax attorney is?

 

The only two choices if income is easily traceable are taking the income as a hobbyist vs as a business. Best get up to speed on the subject now, it is involved and tricky.

 

... any advice on this is always welcome...... I don't mind paying my way or my fair share.....I just don't care for being thrown under the bus by some self serving political Ogliarch...... GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

 

[Robot Man]

When I'm lucky enough to "win" an auction. (I love that word "win". I didn't "win" anything, I was just the insufficiently_thoughtful_person who paid the most) I have for the most part been satisfied. I am not the average target buyer on these boards. I like 'em raw, lower to mid grade and readable. My expectations are not as high. If I really wanted to pay through the nose for a high grade book, I'd buy it slabbed. So a decent photo and bit of a description usually suffices. I have found most sellers to be pretty reputable on eBay.

 

My problem, is there are a whole lot more people like me that just want a decent readable copy than the nose bleed crowd. I am also a pretty advanced collector and what I'm looking for has a lot of competition. So when anything cool comes on in an affordable grade, I've got stiff compettition.

 

I hate to wait a couple of times a year to buy books at cons. I don't usually see much I really want and usually resort to box diving hoping to find a treasure which I do often because most people are pretty lazy.

 

My kind of stuff has just dried up on fleabay.

 

I guess I need to spend less time here and more time digging my own boxes...

[Silver Surfer]

E-bay has declined every year...you cannot trust the seller, who knows if the book really exists or its a swipe from a Ha.com auction.....

 

you really cannot take it seriously, the best way to buy a book is in person....SDCC, Wonder con and a whole bunch of flea markets and collectors shows....E-bay should change their name to Done-bay

 

..... for me, it's 99% acquisitions from reputable dealers, longtime friends, Auctions, and most importantly.... these very boards. Things have changed so much since those Creation Cons from the 70's..... if some one would have told me then that I'd be transacting with folk in Toronto, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, and Madrid without leaving my living room.... I'd have told them to cut back a little on the Star Trek...... eBay who needs 'em......? GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

 

.....Paypal ..... however (thumbs u

 

These boards are still the best. I'm sure I have bought and sold the majority of my books over the last 10 years from here.

[jimjum12]

Try the WTB section here..... I've had some luck. A boardie may very well have what you want and be more than happy to make it available. I'd certainly also be happy to keep an eye out for you at the few shows I go to each year....and I've turned up some cool stuff for friends.... as well as vice versa...... GOD BLESS......

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

..... "we get by with a little help from our friends....."

[Robot Man]

E-bay has declined every year...you cannot trust the seller, who knows if the book really exists or its a swipe from a Ha.com auction.....

 

you really cannot take it seriously, the best way to buy a book is in person....SDCC, Wonder con and a whole bunch of flea markets and collectors shows....E-bay should change their name to Done-bay

 

..... for me, it's 99% acquisitions from reputable dealers, longtime friends, Auctions, and most importantly.... these very boards. Things have changed so much since those Creation Cons from the 70's..... if some one would have told me then that I'd be transacting with folk in Toronto, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, and Madrid without leaving my living room.... I'd have told them to cut back a little on the Star Trek...... eBay who needs 'em......? GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

 

.....Paypal ..... however (thumbs u

 

These boards are still the best. I'm sure I have bought and sold the majority of my books over the last 10 years from here.

 

Ya know, I really hadn't thought about that. I used to look in there as a lurker wishing I could buy some stuff. But, since I started posting I kinda forgot about that. Maybe I should take a look. Since I'm new here, I probably shouldn't sell there for a while. As I have no track record here. (I do have 4200+ pos on feebay).

Don't you call guys who sign up and start selling right away a "troll" or something?