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Has eBay dried up?

Started by Robot Man,

61 posts in this topic

VintageComics

VintageComics

Posted
Posted

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?

 

My man, just a reference to your eBay feedback should be enough to build confidence. A few people who know you (like me) will also probably stop in and say hello and build some encouragement.

 

If you want to have a sales thread, just follow the rules (ie provide shipping prices, book prices, pictures and payment options and don't offer the books anywhere else online at the time) and you should be golden!

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jimjum12

jimjum12

Posted
Posted

Sorry bro, but the responsibility is entirely yours, and you're a smart enough dude to realize it.

 

eBay, like most large corporations make their 'rules' so deep and large that you almost need a lawyer to navigate them.

 

And once you're in bed with them they change the rules on you and ask you to agree to the amendments, all which tie your hands behind your back.

 

I don't blame Jimbo.

 

..... thanks, Roy. As to Fifties, he's actually right, too...... it's just that I don't want to do business with an entity that necessitates the need for such caution and scrutiny..... receiving the 1099 in such a delinquent fashion seemed kind of like an 11th hour shenanigan .... almost offensive in nature....kind of like a sucker punch. I'm a big fan of transparency, and this wasn't. GOD BLESS....

 

jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

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rjpb

rjpb

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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

 

You can deduct all your selling expenses and purchase costs against net sales. Throw in a few other business expenses, and if it was almost a break even year, you should have been able to make it a break even one, and paid little or no income taxes on the sales.

 

A potentially bigger headache would be if the state decided you owed state sales tax on all those sales.

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rjpb

rjpb

Posted
Posted

I still find stuff on ebay, but it's a much tougher search than it used to be. I wish there were an easy way to filter out dealers though. I get tired of having to type -DVD and -"comics book" in the search bar. Even some the sellers I buy from flood the listings too much for my taste, I understand the economics of it, but scrolling through scores of continually relisted books from mycomicshop and DTA can get old. I will say that DTA's grading seems to have tightened up somewhat ( though there are still some head scratchers), and is at least willing to consider best offers.

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jimjum12

jimjum12

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I rarely sell in state for some reason.....it's not planned that way, just how it is. I'm thinking of phasing out of selling soon.... but I like doing it. GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

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jimjum12

jimjum12

Posted
Posted
I still find stuff on ebay, but it's a much tougher search than it used to be. I wish there were an easy way to filter out dealers though. I get tired of having to type -DVD and -"comics book" in the search bar. Even some the sellers I buy from flood the listings too much for my taste, I understand the economics of it, but scrolling through scores of continually relisted books from mycomicshop and DTA can get old. I will say that DTA's grading seems to have tightened up somewhat ( though there are still some head scratchers), and is at least willing to consider best offers.

 

I've only dealt with DTA in the last year..... but I've always been happy. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

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Robot Man

Robot Man

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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?

 

My man, just a reference to your eBay feedback should be enough to build confidence. A few people who know you (like me) will also probably stop in and say hello and build some encouragement.

 

If you want to have a sales thread, just follow the rules (ie provide shipping prices, book prices, pictures and payment options and don't offer the books anywhere else online at the time) and you should be golden!

 

Thanks Roy. Actually I wouldn't be too concerned with anyone here in GA. It's the "other guys" I'd be more concerned with. I don't seem to have the time anyway these days. Good to see you at Terry's show!

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Silver Surfer

Silver Surfer

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Posted
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 (shrug) 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?

 

Only if they hang out in Comics General. ;)

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tabcom

tabcom

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Has eBay dried up?

 

Yes.

 

Economic stability has made sellers complacent about offering quality collections on ebay. Back in 2008-09 I found some great early DC GA comics.

 

Today, like a retiree playing nickel slots, I still check my saved search tab several times a day. Without the gratification I once received five years ago.

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fifties

fifties

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Posted

Compared to 1998 when I first got on The Bay, and going forward several years until I had bought most of what I was after, maybe 2005 or so, yes, I've found a very definite present day paucity of good PCH material as compared to back then.

 

One explanation might be that collectors have absorbed most of the desirable (cost wise as well as collector valued) issues from other collectors or dealers.

 

The very sought after covers in PCH, such as illustrated by Steve Ditko, or extremely gross depictions, as well as specific issues from Mr. Mystery and Weird Mysteries, as two examples, have simply gone through the ceiling monetarily, and priced many of us out.

 

And the grading...WTH, so many books seems to be graded very liberally as at least a half grade higher than they rightfully should be, as compared to the way grading used to be done.

 

And then there's CGC slabbed books. Once someone slabs, it seems like the asking price skyrockets, even though (correct me if I'm wrong) the slabbing & grading themselves only costs $25.00. And when collectors or -now we have investors- actually pay these "inflated" prices, it legitimizes this aspect of the hobby by substantiating the inflated "value".

 

I recognize that CGC slabbing has a value in certain instances, where preservation and independent grading are of prime concern, but I just don't see it as contributing anything beyond lining the sellers pockets when used with garden variety late '40's crime/early '50's horror books (which then can't be read). Near mint grade, sure, but simply VG or less?

 

I have found that the alternative to eBay, where I have been doing some buying recently, is simply with certain on-line dealers. Where I live there are no conventions or shows.

 

I would go to the monthly convention at the Shrine Auditorium near the USC campus in Los Angeles many years ago, but the Golden/Atomic age dealers began to become few and far between, with the majority of the show going for toys and later-published comics, so gave that up a good ten years ago.

 

Rant over.

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vaillant

vaillant

Posted
Posted
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.

[…]

 

^^

 

Although there are still a good number of sellers which see how this is harmful for sales and foreign customers and thus opt out of it.

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cousin itt

cousin itt

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Posted

You can block sellers. Create a search via advanced search that searches on something you normally search on, and block those sellers in that search. You can also block keywords, so, if you hate, say, walking dead, you can do a block on "walking". Bookmark that search, and just click on that bookmark whenever you want to do that search again. To add additional blocked sellers or keywords, just look at the url of your bookmark to find your previously blocked sellers and keywords and add in the newly blocked sellers and keywords in the same syntax. Then throw out the old bookmark and bookmark your new url.

 

And, yes, I have found ebay has gotten very dull lately. Although a very nice startling 49 came up with a low BIN recently. I was suspicious and spent what turned out to be too much time researching the seller. When I finally decided to take the risk, it turned out someone else had already bought it, just seconds before I was ready to do so.

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GoldenPRGuy

GoldenPRGuy

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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.

 

I'm late to the game due to a work trip but have some downtime here at 35k feet... I'll try not to repeat anyone. I do the daily check too, and some days I enjoy it, some I don't. When Mile High and DTA auto-relist it's painful to scroll through thousands of books I've already seen. Thing is, even if eBay has dried up (which I agree it has), and even if there are alternatives, I can't stop looking. Call me optimistic but there are far to many attics and basements out there to turn away from the first place people will go when it's time to clean house. "You know mom and dad, you should eBay all that stuff in the attic!" is far from over. "eBay" is like Kleenex. I grew up in a small town outside Philly and spent much of my childhood combing through the at the antique malls between Reading and Lancaster. I used to use my finger to make an x in the dust on certain items to see how many years I could come back and see that x. It was always the same until the days when it wasn't. It was always boring till some guy would pull up to the open back tables and throw a box of comics out for a buck a piece filled with the "precious"! I too have just called it quits on many nights, but I've still scored many great books (some recently). Just saying, it mostly sucks these days, but as a collector I'm hooked.

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vader318-migration

vader318-migration

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Posted
Actually I received a notice from them stating the 20K or 200 system

 

You keep repeating this over and over again and it's wrong.

 

It's NOT "or" its "AND". That's one hell of a difference

 

You sell two items a month and clear $10k, no one is going to fark with you. On the other hand you sell 20,000 a month for $1/each you'll get the 1099.

 

It's as simple as that.

 

Yet another reason why low markup, high volume sucks as a business model.

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jimjum12

jimjum12

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Actually I received a notice from them stating the 20K or 200 system

 

You keep repeating this over and over again and it's wrong.

 

It's NOT "or" its "AND". That's one hell of a difference

 

You sell two items a month and clear $10k, no one is going to fark with you. On the other hand you sell 20,000 a month for $1/each you'll get the 1099.

 

It's as simple as that.

 

Yet another reason why low markup, high volume sucks as a business model.

 

..... my whole rant about the 1099 was probably off topic anyway.... but I got one for a little over 5K in sales and maybe a few dozen sales...... so the whole 20/200 thing just struck me kind of like a bait and switch. Either way, my story has run it's course. As far as eBay drying up..... in regards to Fifties and Robot Man..... the material they chase is so scarce that when eBay opened up the gates to a Nationwide market it seemed like there was plenty of availability ... but those items were always relatively scarce and a lot probably HAS dried up..... what's left now is the material priced at market resistant price levels..... by sellers who realize once they sell, replacement of that inventory is very iffy. Even that stuff sells slowly over time. What has been a learning experience for me is to filter in "Sold" items in comics and then filter "Highest priced first" . GA sales are scant until one gets down to the 2K range..... it's mostly SA Keys and OA above that with a few exceptions. Down at the 1500 level I start to notice more non keys and lower grade stuff. I collect mainly Atlas books and those I just do a weekly "Sold" search and I do notice a few items that I missed and would have liked to have snagged. It's not like the old days when you really needed to check new listings several times a day to catch the frequent listings of cool stuff. Ebay is still a great place to buy and all the rules do seem to have created a safer environment with much better buyer confidence. GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

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Robot Man

Robot Man

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Actually I received a notice from them stating the 20K or 200 system

 

You keep repeating this over and over again and it's wrong.

 

It's NOT "or" its "AND". That's one hell of a difference

 

You sell two items a month and clear $10k, no one is going to fark with you. On the other hand you sell 20,000 a month for $1/each you'll get the 1099.

 

It's as simple as that.

 

Yet another reason why low markup, high volume sucks as a business model.

 

..... my whole rant about the 1099 was probably off topic anyway.... but I got one for a little over 5K in sales and maybe a few dozen sales...... so the whole 20/200 thing just struck me kind of like a bait and switch. Either way, my story has run it's course. As far as eBay drying up..... in regards to Fifties and Robot Man..... the material they chase is so scarce that when eBay opened up the gates to a Nationwide market it seemed like there was plenty of availability ... but those items were always relatively scarce and a lot probably HAS dried up..... what's left now is the material priced at market resistant price levels..... by sellers who realize once they sell, replacement of that inventory is very iffy. Even that stuff sells slowly over time. What has been a learning experience for me is to filter in "Sold" items in comics and then filter "Highest priced first" . GA sales are scant until one gets down to the 2K range..... it's mostly SA Keys and OA above that with a few exceptions. Down at the 1500 level I start to notice more non keys and lower grade stuff. I collect mainly Atlas books and those I just do a weekly "Sold" search and I do notice a few items that I missed and would have liked to have snagged. It's not like the old days when you really needed to check new listings several times a day to catch the frequent listings of cool stuff. Ebay is still a great place to buy and all the rules do seem to have created a safer environment with much better buyer confidence. GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

I can appreciate your last statement about a safer environment but at what cost? Less sellers offering quality product. The rules are so stacked against sellers that they have left in droves. Thus less product for buyers. The feedback is a prime example. Sellers are virtual victims to buyers who can call all the shots. Being forced to use PayPal only basically. Any minor infraction and a seller is blackballed or heavily penalized. The fees are steep. These are some of the reason that product has dried up. Still the premier site to buy and sell but I for one use it less and less as both a buyer and a seller...

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fifties

fifties

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Posted
GA sales are scant until one gets down to the 2K range..... it's mostly SA Keys and OA above that with a few exceptions. Down at the 1500 level I start to notice more non keys and lower grade stuff.

2K? 1500? We're on different worlds, brother. ;)

 

When I was actively buying, it was -and pretty much still is- for 10-40 dollar books for the most part. I think that I've spent $250 on one book just a handful of times.

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jimjum12

jimjum12

Posted
Posted
Actually I received a notice from them stating the 20K or 200 system

 

You keep repeating this over and over again and it's wrong.

 

It's NOT "or" its "AND". That's one hell of a difference

 

You sell two items a month and clear $10k, no one is going to fark with you. On the other hand you sell 20,000 a month for $1/each you'll get the 1099.

 

It's as simple as that.

 

Yet another reason why low markup, high volume sucks as a business model.

 

..... my whole rant about the 1099 was probably off topic anyway.... but I got one for a little over 5K in sales and maybe a few dozen sales...... so the whole 20/200 thing just struck me kind of like a bait and switch. Either way, my story has run it's course. As far as eBay drying up..... in regards to Fifties and Robot Man..... the material they chase is so scarce that when eBay opened up the gates to a Nationwide market it seemed like there was plenty of availability ... but those items were always relatively scarce and a lot probably HAS dried up..... what's left now is the material priced at market resistant price levels..... by sellers who realize once they sell, replacement of that inventory is very iffy. Even that stuff sells slowly over time. What has been a learning experience for me is to filter in "Sold" items in comics and then filter "Highest priced first" . GA sales are scant until one gets down to the 2K range..... it's mostly SA Keys and OA above that with a few exceptions. Down at the 1500 level I start to notice more non keys and lower grade stuff. I collect mainly Atlas books and those I just do a weekly "Sold" search and I do notice a few items that I missed and would have liked to have snagged. It's not like the old days when you really needed to check new listings several times a day to catch the frequent listings of cool stuff. Ebay is still a great place to buy and all the rules do seem to have created a safer environment with much better buyer confidence. GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

I can appreciate your last statement about a safer environment but at what cost? Less sellers offering quality product. The rules are so stacked against sellers that they have left in droves. Thus less product for buyers. The feedback is a prime example. Sellers are virtual victims to buyers who can call all the shots. Being forced to use PayPal only basically. Any minor infraction and a seller is blackballed or heavily penalized. The fees are steep. These are some of the reason that product has dried up. Still the premier site to buy and sell but I for one use it less and less as both a buyer and a seller...

 

.... I've really had my best luck with long time dealers and collector to collector sales here on the boards. I just contribute regularly in the threads for material that interests me and get to know the other enthusiasts and often snag undercopies and "heads up" alerts to books that don't ever make the mainstream. A lot of the tougher stuff has gravitated towards auction houses and will likely continue in that trend. If the Internet Sales Tax becomes such that sellers owe sales tax to EACH State that they sell in it will have a profound effect on Internet Commerce..... a HORRIBLE idea IMHO..... but that swerves into Political discussion which is discouraged here. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

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