Is Ebay On The Down Side?

[jack grebe]

I find more and more that less and less bids are being placed on my items. people wait till the last minute to bid?????WHY:confused:

[Lew Barrett]

I'm not too active on e-bay, but have a few transactions under the belt. invariably, if it's a desireable item, there's always somebody who sneaks in at the last minute, and aces you out by a buck or two. There's also bidding software that does the same thing. So, I guess people are learning not to bid the item up too early; just makes it more expensive.
On a different facet of the same general topic, I'd rather buy locally if at all possible. I find the e-bay process loaded to the benefit of the seller, and that prices on many items are no real bargains This I view as a poor bet as the buyer's recourse is frequently limited. In other words, if I don't get the benefits of a store (see before you buy, easy returns, some real service) I believe items, even quality items, should then take that into account and be discounted accordingly. On e-bay it seems that this is rarely the case. I know there will be those people who say they bought a perfect Powermatic planer for $3, but that is not my experience. Maybe the worm is turning. It should. It's a blind auction in every way, and is loaded with pitfalls for the buyer.
Lew

[S/V Laura Ellen]

There are many reasons:

there is a long time to bid (7 - 9 days), so there is no rush to enter a bid.
bidding early drives up the price
sniping software allows your bid to be placed at the last moment
many similar items are listed, more that one change to winThe bidding profile that is emerging , is because it is the profile that will get the lowest price for a product.

[rbgarr]

What kinds of things are you selling? I talked to one of the Ebay placement guys. They write your ad, take pictures of it, list it, store it, ship it, etc., for a % fee. They perused what I wanted to dispose of, used their specialized software to bring up past auction prices for similar items, bidding histories, effective descriptions and reasonable reserves. They did not want to carry anything that was unlikely to bring $75 or more- wasn't worth their time. They did a good job for me- no hassle.

[Concordia...41]

Ditto the above. eBay has created a system that is eating itself....

If I know exactly what I'm looking for, and I have the time to shop (review seller feedback), bid, wait, hope, then I go to eBay.

I can't describe it any better than to say that it has gone from a gloriously huge flea market where bargains were to be had (and money to be made) to a snarled up racket designed to benefit eBay / PayPal.

Edited to add that I had one of the "selling services" list a lot of my Lenox stuff. Three+ months later, I'm still waiting on my $$$ - less fees, etc. Per a phone conversation this weekend, apparently after listing fees, etc. I've got about $148 coming from $700+ in items sold.

[brad9798]

I sell about 200-300 bucks a month on ebay ... I LOVE it ... but then again, it is typically stuff that would otherwise be trashed or donated, etc.

I do BUY a LOT of things off of ebay too ... MANY, MANY great deals if you know what you seek.

[willmarsh3]

I talked to someone recently who sold stuff on eBay. They said it was usually the case that something is put on bid for a week or so to gain visibility. The bidding action doesn't heat up much until a couple of hours before the close. The reason the price gets high is, obviously, because some fool somewhere decides he or she wants something badly enough to pay top dollar for it. I think it happens whether they bid manually or use a program to do it. It only takes one. I believe that strategy has evolved independently of specific eBay policies.
I have a bin of stuff I want to sell on eBay. It's on my project list so it will probably happen sometime in the next six months or so.

Will.

[brad9798]

I typically use 'BUY IT NOW' option ... then, I get of my stuff for a reasonable price for ME and the buyer.

[Noah]

There seem to be a few different types of stuff on Ebay:
1: New items ( some sold just above wholesale)
2: Standard used items that come up regularly
3: Rare stuff...if well listed goes for a fortune, or poorly listed and goes for a song.

As a buyer you need to know what you want and keep looking for it. I picked up a pair of broze Murray winches for $65 each, and if I don't use them on one of my boats I will sell them for $400 or so (hopefully).

As a seller I usually make out well. You need to take the time to list out exactly what you are selling, find the right keywords, etc. If you do these things well you can really make some cash. Marine stuff in general tends to go for way more than it should. I'm planning to sell a pile of different anchors that I have which will probably bring in over $1000, though I have less than $200 in them purchased locally. If done right it's more than beer money.

[pipefitter]

I swear it's a contest. I do the buy it now as well if it is at a substantial savings over retail. I saw a used fishing reel that I saw here at southeast liqidators for 20.00 go for over 100 on ebay.It cost slightly over that new.

[michigangeorge]

I always try to sell my items during the winter- people spend more time on the computer when it is nasty outside. I have also seen outragious pricing on many items lately. The market for vintage marine hardware is small and most buyers knowledgeable. But! If you really need that one trinket for your toy- it is worth $$$$.

[Ken Hutchins]

I'm a last minute, in fact less than a minute buyer. Bidding early just jacks the price up, I only bid on items I really want, spend the time before final to research the item and value, establish my limit.

[Joe ( Cold Spring on Hudson )]

My wife is a good ebay player. Me I do not have the patience, I want something I want it now !!!!! I'll drive 50 mi if they have it in stock and I can pick it up and I will pay retail for it.

Funny ebay story I was searching for doors for my 1976 jeep. Saw one on ebay. The smart alex that placed the items placed them individually. So you had to bid on the right door separately than the left one. I told my wife what I was willing to pay for both doors, and she handled the bidding. Sure enough the last minute a bid came in to beat mine. But since there was a time difference between the left and right door and she saw that the same guy was bidding on both. She made a last minute HUGE bid on the other door, forcing the guy to way over pay to get BOTH doors. ;) Oooooh she is a mean shopper :D

[james burt]

along the same line,
found a seller, selling glass cufflinks with a sailboat painted underneath
they always went for $50 or $60 dollars, i could never win one,
one day he had about a dozen listed, i picked the lowest bid, put in my bid and won, but the person would always outbid me. (last minute, sniper). found out that the seller was logging in as a buyer and raising his own prices, then would try and get the 2nd highest bidder to ante up, would threaten to use the dreaded ebay police.
i mainly use it ti look for things close by that i can drive over and check out. heard to many horror stories about them getting your check and never get the merchandise.

[Lance F. Gunderson]

Be aware that there is a great deal of fraud on Ebay, and the owners don't seem to care much about it. I buy and sell classical guitars on Ebay sometimes and have uncovered many false ads; usually the "seller" doesn't actually have the item, or is "phishing" for e mail addresses and personal information. PayPal is also corrupted; never trust it. Try to make contact with the seller by phone, and get a snail mail address and confirm it. If the seller has lots of positive feedback the chances are better that it's legit, but not gauranteed by any means. Caveat Emptor!

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

My personal rule is - ebay is for fun.

No bids for an amount that I can't afford to write off to experience (in my case, this equates to roughly fifty pounds, or say eighty dollars).

I tend to look for hand tools and boat bits.

I cannot say that I have been disappointed, and very often I have been delighted.

There is a difference between the two markets, though - the interest in things like spare rotators for Walker Excelsior logs (yes, I did get one!) is absolutely tiny.

When we come to the staples of British yachting, like Avon dinghies and Seagull outboards, the market is wide enough for a stable pricing to exist, although these are above my personal price limit.

The interest in old hand tools is much wider and is generally well informed. In my experience you don't get any bargains in things like old Stanley planes, although, in the UK, I can still pick up pre-1917 Disston saws for five pounds.

In the old hand tools side of things, there are a number of dealers who are often very good, and some who might not be. The best bargains come from private sellers. Buying tools for use, rather than for collecting, I am not interested in originality or "patina"!

[martin schulz]

1. only idiots bid before the last seconds. When I enter my larges bid 10sec before the end and it's the largest bid nobody will have a chance to outbid me.
2. Yes we do also use ebay as a selling/advertising platform for new products. Usually when we sell one item via ebay we get mails asking if we have some more products.

[Concordia...41]

Well, if you don't count the $700+ of my stuff that a local yahoo listed, sold, and for which I haven't received the $$$s (this ain't over boys), I've only lost $6.25 where I've bought an item and the seller evaporated.

A lot of folks have lost a whole lot more....

[Meerkat]

You also have absolutely no privacy on eBay - they have an "open records" policy for every 2-bit LEA that comes along.

[Concordia...41]

Here we go again with Margo on her soapbox, but you have no privacy on the web. Period.

Case in point - divorce matter our firm is handling, we represent the wife, husband claims little or no income. He does however have a website and peddles books and CDs via a PayPal account :D

A simple third party production subpoena (proper notice to husband's counsel of course) to PayPal and TADA! Heck, not only did they provide the records on disk, they sent a set of instructions on how to decipher their activity spreadsheets. :D

I expected to see a few hundred dollars in income (CDs were $15 each), but like everything linked to his PayPal account - emails (from other PayPal users regarding items sold), log in times, ISP tags, AND records showing where he used his PayPal debit card and links to all the purchases he made :eek:

Our people's stuff was pretty small potatoes, but in a high-stakes civil or divorce action to open a window like that! :eek: :eek: or :D (depending on your position)

[Meerkat]

Well, I was the one that raised the privacy issue and my chest is flatter and I don't have red hair... (closer examination will reveal additional differentiating details...) ;)

It's been reported that LEA's don't even need to bother with a subpoena.