Resetting the Balance of the eBay Marketplace

[Earl Davis]

Personally I would pay more for eBay if the mom and pop sellers would get pushed out of there. I have been a proponent of taxing ebay sales so that only professional sellers or professional collectors would use it.

 

That is the craziest thing I've ever heard concerning EBay.

 

Why in the world would buyers go to EBay, if it's populated only by businesses and professional sellers? EBay made its name by being the "World's Largest Flea Market", and I see the recent push towards more of a "retail envrionment" to be one of their largest pitfalls for the future.

 

Most people go online to EBay in order to get "deals" and "pick the gold from other people's garbage", not to get 25% off retail from some POS refurb DVD player that arrives DOA. I get so sick of all the big retailers on EBay, with thousands upon thousands of POS listings, that I hardly shop on there anymore and I'm nostalgic for the old days when everyone sold their junk on EBay.

 

Cutting the Average Joe sellers out of EBay is the long-term problem, not a solution.

 

JC, I have agreed with very few of your posts in the past, but you are RIGHT ON THE MONEY with this one!

 

Very insightful post.

[ComicSupply]

What I meant by the mom and pop sellers is more directed at people who really don't know what they are selling and give the market a bad name. Misrepresentations, dead products, etc, etc.

 

People that know the hobby or know about whatever they are selling are a good thing for the market. I mean, lets be honest. We have all been screwed on ebay.

 

We all thought we were getting a good deal only to find out the comic was torn, or ripped on the back. Water damage, mouse turds, etc etc...

 

If there was an air of professionalism that people were to stick by then I think people would buy more. I used to spend hours on ebay looking for items and finding things to buy.

 

However, sometimes I waited weeks to even hear from the sellers about payment, then had to wait weeks more to get the items. Smaller part time sellers have full time jobs with families and sometimes they don't understand that we want what we bought just as fast as they cashed our checks.

 

If eBay could make a system of rules that everyone had to follow about representing the product well, shipping the product fast, and paying fast I think it would create a more professional tone and more buyers would come to it.

 

I agree 100% about the POS listings and that was what I was referring to with that. I think that if people had to worry about their reputation or overall sales then listings would be accurate and service would be reputable.

[scottish]

What I meant by the mom and pop sellers is more directed at people who really don't know what they are selling and give the market a bad name. Misrepresentations, dead products, etc, etc.

 

People that know the hobby or know about whatever they are selling are a good thing for the market. I mean, lets be honest. We have all been screwed on ebay.

 

We all thought we were getting a good deal only to find out the comic was torn, or ripped on the back. Water damage, mouse turds, etc etc...

 

If there was an air of professionalism that people were to stick by then I think people would buy more. I used to spend hours on ebay looking for items and finding things to buy.

 

However, sometimes I waited weeks to even hear from the sellers about payment, then had to wait weeks more to get the items. Smaller part time sellers have full time jobs with families and sometimes they don't understand that we want what we bought just as fast as they cashed our checks.

 

If eBay could make a system of rules that everyone had to follow about representing the product well, shipping the product fast, and paying fast I think it would create a more professional tone and more buyers would come to it.

 

I agree 100% about the POS listings and that was what I was referring to with that. I think that if people had to worry about their reputation or overall sales then listings would be accurate and service would be reputable.

 

Just to be fair. I have had just as many BAD transactions with professional sellers (read retail AND ebay) as I have with every day Joes.

[dzminn]

 

Just to be fair. I have had just as many BAD transactions with professional sellers (read retail AND ebay) as I have with every day Joes.

 

Exactly

 

The charm of ebay once was the possibility of finding a good deal. The chance of this happening if only "professional" sellers inhabited the marketplace would be nil.

[Larry_LMB-migration]

This might be the wrong forum,but I have recently noticed a small trend where sellers say they are in the UK,yet ship from the US. Is there a fee difference that might explain this?

 

Sorry if this has been answered - IIRC, you can charge the customer all of the Paypal fees in the UK. You can't in the US.

[richnerd]

This might be the wrong forum,but I have recently noticed a small trend where sellers say they are in the UK,yet ship from the US. Is there a fee difference that might explain this?

 

Sorry if this has been answered - IIRC, you can charge the customer all of the Paypal fees in the UK. You can't in the US.

 

welcome to the forums

[Dick Pontoon]

 

Just to be fair. I have had just as many BAD transactions with professional sellers (read retail AND ebay) as I have with every day Joes.

 

Exactly

 

The charm of ebay once was the possibility of finding a good deal. The chance of this happening if only "professional" sellers inhabited the marketplace would be nil.

 

Well, I'd say next to nil. There's always the pro sellers with low opening bids that you might get lucky on if nobody else is looking for that particular book that week.

 

But it would be a great loss to lose the mom and pops and I would not want to see it happen; I've gotten many a great deal that way.

[joe_collector]

Just to be fair. I have had just as many BAD transactions with professional sellers (read retail AND ebay) as I have with every day Joes.

 

I've had worse - just look at NeatStuff if you want to see the "Future EBay" CS is talking about.