• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Is it Time for Buyers to Drop EBay?
1 1

Started by comicinvestor-migration,

85 posts in this topic

underthebigw

underthebigw

Posted
Posted

I have to agree with you, at least on as far as my personal collection needs are concerned. I gave up on ebay a couple of years ago, with the exception of one or two dealers. I realize it has unparalleled selection at any given time, but I've found that cons are far and away more economical and allow me to get more books for the same amount of cash. On any given day, I may not come home with the exact books I wanted going in, but I:

[*]haven't paid postage [*]don't have to worry about crappy packing [*]don't have to worry about shipping damage [*]find bargains (almost non-existent on ebay any more) [*]AND I know what I'm getting (not a given even on CGC books-I don't care what anyone says--bleedthrough and yellowing covers don't exist on NM books)

 

All in all, shows are more enjoyable and you never know what you're going to find in some bozo's bargain box (right, Dan).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
grayzr

grayzr

Posted
Posted

I have noticed weird bidding activity on eBay over the last few years, much more then usual. especially when it comes to CGC key books.

Books are bid up higher then buy it now prices on the same book in the same grade by CGC, makes no sense at all. 

If you then do some detective work by look at the bid history things get even more obvious, its a shilling mans game.

I know shill bidding has been a problem on eBay for ever but it seems to be out of control now.

I see auctions over FMV within the first day or 2 of an auction starting. How impatient are these jokers?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jcjames

jcjames

Posted
Posted (edited)
23 hours ago, grayzr said:

I have noticed weird bidding activity on eBay over the last few years, much more then usual. especially when it comes to CGC key books.

Books are bid up higher then buy it now prices on the same book in the same grade by CGC, makes no sense at all. 

If you then do some detective work by look at the bid history things get even more obvious, its a shilling mans game.

I know shill bidding has been a problem on eBay for ever but it seems to be out of control now.

I see auctions over FMV within the first day or 2 of an auction starting. How impatient are these jokers?

Seen that happening for years, often from the same sellers. Some sellers just get WAAAY more bids and prices than almost everyone else on book after book after book for fairly common stuff.

I always wonder if I'm watching an online comicbook-selling version of a 3-Card Monte street-scam, where everyone around is paying and winning - but they're all in on it except the mark. Not quite shill-bidding, maybe several sellers agreeing to bid up each other's stuff and they just keep passing the same money around until a mark buys one and that pays for it all.

 

Edited by jcjames
Link to comment
Share on other sites
grayzr

grayzr

Posted
Posted
23 minutes ago, jcjames said:

Seen that happening for years, often from the same sellers. Some sellers just get WAAAY more bids and prices than almost everyone else on book after book after book for fairly common stuff.

I always wonder if I'm watching an online comicbook-selling version of a 3-Card Monte street-scam, where everyone around is paying and winning - but they're all in on it except the mark. Not quite shill-bidding, maybe several sellers agreeing to bid up each other's stuff and they just keep passing the same money around until a mark buys one and that pays for it all.

 

I mean how many people fall for these type of scams? How many times can a seller shill up and hold the book, pay the fee and then have to still sell the book?

Its all very confusing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
justafan

justafan

Posted
Posted

I may give FB and Instagram buying/selling a shot.  Just received the ebay selling changes update email yesterday.  It's bad enough the fees are killing the sales prices but now they are being forced to charge sales tax on some states with more on the way.  I don't know if they tell you up front what the sales tax charges are before you buy but I just had a sale where I as the seller didn't get to see the total tax until I invoiced the buyer.  Most states have a sales tax and they will all likely require ebay to charge.  Only Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon don't have state sales taxes.  Hawaii and Alaska having the lowest sales tax under 5%.

While I support the case for charging sales tax if you have a physical presence in those states, I don't really see how this applies to an online only seller selling to a customer in a state where you don't have a physical presence let alone a hobbyist that does low volume or less than a few $k in sales yearly.  The argument that it isn't fair to brick and mortar stores doesn't work if what you are selling is not new merchandise or is not typically common for a lot of B&M LCS.  Not really ebay's fault if states are passing laws requiring this but it pushes the little guy over the edge.

If paypal is forced to do this as well then it's game over for that argument until something else comes along.

The other change coming that kills me is the changing of all fixed price sales durations to a mandatory Good 'til Cancelled setting which will auto-renew/extend all unsold listings after 30 days.  Yep, so if you are not an ebay store seller and only get 50 free fixed priced listings a month and then get a promotional 200 fixed priced listings and you go ahead and list more than 50 items, you have to make sure that you delist any that are over 50 listings before their normal 30-day expiration or they will continue and charge you their normal fixed price listing fee for any over 50 that you still have.

As a buyer if I'm having to pay sales tax on my purchases and it doesn't show up until I'm at the checkout page, I am going to either have to pre-calculate sales tax to get a true price estimate or adjust my best offers/bids accordingly.

From a seller's perspective I figure some sellers factoring in the sales tax into the price to account for the sales tax adjusted offers/bid buyers will be putting in. 

and so on...

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
1 1
Go to topic listing