(Topic ID: 258301)

What has ebay become?

By Pinsforfun

4 years ago


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    #1 4 years ago

    I just did a search on ebay for "pinball machine" within 100 miles of my location. All I found was a bunch of machines listed with what I would say are high minimum starting bids. High prices with, "or best offer" and high buy it now prices. Not one machine with a low starting bid you could actually bid on. Heck not one machine even had a bid. What happened to ebay being a auction?

    #2 4 years ago

    Higher starting price guarantees higher final purchase price. Ebay fees based on final value. They dont make much on that 99 cent pinball machine that slips through every once in a while. Ebay will often suggest a higher start price when you make the listing.

    25
    #3 4 years ago

    Ebay has become a reseller marketplace - period. Very few individuals just selling off their stuff. Mostly virtual stores, retailers and folks who buy stuff at garage sales, etc. to flip for more money.

    It isn't even a shadow of what it once was.

    #4 4 years ago

    I was a Seller for 15 years, it has been proven that Auctions starting at 1 dollar actually sell at a higher price. People have no faith in the process anymore, they want more than its worth as a starting price and hope some sucker bites. Granted, I was not selling Pinball machines but moved a lot of big ticket items with the simple Auction method. Greed takes over and bidding wars begin, with constant sniping at the end.
    Businesses also use Ebay as free advertising, listing items at astronomical prices but making it very obvious where they can be found away from Ebay. They have no intention of selling through the System.

    #5 4 years ago

    ePay’s policies of always giving the buyer the option of screwing the seller mean you’d have to sell a lot of volume to make up for it. I would never sell on ePay. OfferUp has been working better than Craigslist in the Phoenix area.

    #6 4 years ago

    I buy far more than sell on eBay (general items, not pinball machines)

    With PayPal and ebay fees, along with buyers taking out shipping and now taxes (added by eBay) of the cost...it has become a cesspool

    #8 4 years ago

    Ah, the good old days of eBay. Now, with zero insertion fee listings, what's the worry if your item doesn't sell? It didn't cost you a thing.

    Every now and then, a machine will come up with a seller that understands pricing and auction FOMO. Those sell, no problem. (Unless it is Dirtbike Carl. Those seem to sell several times before they sell.)

    #9 4 years ago

    In addition to pinball stuff, I also collect/buy/sell film props. I tried facebook for a few months, but facebook has so many arbitrary rules about what is/isn't allowed that half of what I list is automatically removed and appeals are automatically rejected. Any attempts at trying to get a real person fail as well. I also had very little luck actually selling anything. So, I found that it's not worth my time to create a marketplace ad on facebook unless I just to link to an ebay listing.

    Craigslist is...well...craigslist.

    ebay...is at least a marketplace, even if they take a big bite out the price, so you have to bake that fee into the selling price. But, stuff does sell.

    For pinball parts, I usually list on pinside first, then on ebay.

    #10 4 years ago

    As an occasional seller, ebay just has an overwhelming amount of (competing) stuff for auctions to be that effective. For auctions to be effective, you either need to be a well-known regular seller or have a highly desirable item that gets attention from outside of ebay.

    So, most of my listings are buy it now OBO. That usually results in a price I'm satisfied with.

    #11 4 years ago

    eBay is fine. They went through some bad times when they thought they could keep raising fees and doing whatever they wanted with no consequences. They backed off of a lot of that when many of their sellers moved to Amazon. Now the same is happening with Amazon and a lot of sellers are starting to move back to eBay.

    eBay is wonderful if you play the game right. You get at least 50 free listings a month even without a store. Final value fees are reasonable for things under $1k. They do have a maximum fee cap, but it's way too high for something like a pinball machine. As a buyer, it's not hard to earn $2000 a year in eBay Bucks. That's free money! They do so many 10% bucks promotions and the occasional 10-15% off one item promotion that great deals exist.

    The good old days weren't that good. I used to sell music CDs. They didn't have a catalog and you were only allowed one picture per listing. If you wanted to say what was on your CD, you typed in all the tracks yourself. If you wanted more than one picture, you hosted them elsewhere and linked to them from your item description. The only thing good was that postage was 1/3 of what it is now.

    The marketplace as a whole is a minor miracle. Could you imagine 20 years ago that it would be possible to sit at home and make 6 figures or more a year buying and selling stuff online? With a little ambition and a lot of hard work, you can make more as a high school dropout than most people with degrees make. I work a full time job as a software architect, but thanks to eBay and Amazon, I'm going to be able to retire 20-25 years ahead of schedule. That doesn't suck.

    #12 4 years ago

    A place to buy auto parts from the other side of the country much cheaper than if I go to the local dealer or auto parts store.

    #13 4 years ago

    I don’t sell, but do end up getting good deals now and then when buying items. One just has to devote a bit of time to determine if the item your interested in really is the best price around. Lately it’s been gifts for my son (barely used matchbox car case with 50+ cars included for less than $20, LEGO sets from China at super prices, a new in box RockemSockem set from 2003 with a real metal neck unlike the current production ones with a plastic neck for $14). Research takes time but I find it fun in a way when I score a deal.

    #14 4 years ago

    I actually hate the bidding process. So much wasted time. I rather just pay a price I am happy with and be done with it.

    #15 4 years ago

    I feel like ebay has been this way since about 20 minutes after it got popular. It very quickly switched from "I'm going to list some stuff I don't want anymore and see if I can make a few bucks," to "I'm going to list some stuff I don't want anymore and put it at ridiculous prices and see if anyone bites." You can still find some deals, but it takes a lot of digging. Most of the people who put pinballs on there have zero idea what they have, and think it's a super valuable collectible just because it's old.

    #16 4 years ago
    Quoted from VALIS666:

    I feel like ebay has been this way since about 20 minutes after it got popular. It very quickly switched from "I'm going to list some stuff I don't want anymore and see if I can make a few bucks," to "I'm going to list some stuff I don't want anymore and put it at ridiculous prices and see if anyone bites." You can still find some deals, but it takes a lot of digging. Most of the people who put pinballs on there have zero idea what they have, and think it's a super valuable collectible just because it's old.

    If you know what you want and what you'll pay for it, set up an automated search to check for it every X minutes and send you an e-mail when it gets listed. The best deals sell fast.

    #17 4 years ago

    This sounds like a business opportunity. We need a new auction site! Someone go do this, make a few billion $, and start a new pinball company!!

    #18 4 years ago

    We should all switch over to that other online auction site! Whats the name of it again?

    Ebay is the gold standard for hard-to-find items. Ya there is a lot of bullshit on there since it went corporate 20 years ago, but its still THE spot for used goods.

    #19 4 years ago
    Quoted from Russell:

    This sounds like a business opportunity. We need a new auction site! Someone go do this, make a few billion $, and start a new pinball company!!

    ebay had the advantage of basically being the first one on the block and became well-known and popular as the Internet grew up. It would be incredibly difficult to recreate that perfect storm.

    If you search for ebay alternatives, there are a few, but they aren't really well-known, even less so to the average person. ebay is kind of the universal gold standard for selling stuff on the Internet.

    #20 4 years ago
    Quoted from ForceFlow:

    ebay had the advantage of basically being the first one on the block and became well-known and popular as the Internet grew up. It would be incredibly difficult to recreate that perfect storm.
    If you search for ebay alternatives, there are a few, but they aren't really well-known, even less so to the average person. ebay is kind of the universal gold standard for selling stuff on the Internet.

    Go ask MySpace how the first-mover concept worked out.

    #21 4 years ago
    Quoted from Russell:

    Go ask MySpace how the first-mover concept worked out.

    ebay entered the picture in 90s. So did amazon.

    MySpace wasn't really the first on the scene--they were preceded by a couple others. Something trendy rarely stays popular for too long before people move on to the next shiny thing. Even facebook isn't really the most trendy these days compared to other social media/networking sites.

    On the other hand, something that provides a tangible service that doesn't get outmoded and/or changes with the times generally sticks around, a la ebay and amazon. eCommerce is a pretty solid backbone service of the Internet.

    #22 4 years ago

    If you zoom out a bit, it is clear that the most popular internet services change over time.

    #23 4 years ago
    Quoted from Russell:

    If you zoom out a bit, it is clear that the most popular internet services change over time.

    Man I forgot altavista completely. No idea what a Yandex is.
    My heart was warmed when the porn sites made there way in, although the fact that dogpile never made it in made me a little sad.

    #24 4 years ago
    Quoted from phil-lee:

    I was a Seller for 15 years, it has been proven that Auctions starting at 1 dollar actually sell at a higher price.

    Agreed. I always start at $1 no matter how valuable, it always reaches the desired bid value and always sells.

    It's people who set a minimum bid of the average sell price that have stuff just sit.

    #25 4 years ago

    What’s the best amount of days to set an auction for? Longer more exposure = better?

    -1
    #26 4 years ago

    In a word, obsolete!

    #27 4 years ago
    Quoted from benheck:

    Agreed. I always start at $1 no matter how valuable, it always reaches the desired bid value and always sells.
    It's people who set a minimum bid of the average sell price that have stuff just sit.

    It depends. Some people don't want to wait until it ends and want to buy it now like they can on Amazon or have FOMO. If there are only a few interested in you item it might not have a bidding war and sell for that much. Sometimes I use buy it now and other times I start at a dollar. Depends how available the item is from other sellers.

    I've sold close to 100k in items on ebay and its great for resale. I recently came across some of my older toys from the 80's and 90's and already made $400 on them. Not sure where else I could get that kind of money that easily.

    #28 4 years ago
    Quoted from Russell:

    If you zoom out a bit, it is clear that the most popular internet services change over time.

    AOL Hanging in there like Herpes!

    Also...no idea what Yandex or Baidu are....

    #29 4 years ago
    Quoted from VALIS666:

    I feel like ebay has been this way since about 20 minutes after it got popular. It very quickly switched from "I'm going to list some stuff I don't want anymore and see if I can make a few bucks," to "I'm going to list some stuff I don't want anymore and put it at ridiculous prices and see if anyone bites." You can still find some deals, but it takes a lot of digging. Most of the people who put pinballs on there have zero idea what they have, and think it's a super valuable collectible just because it's old.

    This is what ALL marketplace formats turn to

    -1
    #30 4 years ago

    eBay still exists?

    #31 4 years ago
    Quoted from loneacer:

    eBay is fine. They went through some bad times when they thought they could keep raising fees and doing whatever they wanted with no consequences. They backed off of a lot of that when many of their sellers moved to Amazon. Now the same is happening with Amazon and a lot of sellers are starting to move back to eBay.
    eBay is wonderful if you play the game right. You get at least 50 free listings a month even without a store. Final value fees are reasonable for things under $1k. They do have a maximum fee cap, but it's way too high for something like a pinball machine. As a buyer, it's not hard to earn $2000 a year in eBay Bucks. That's free money! They do so many 10% bucks promotions and the occasional 10-15% off one item promotion that great deals exist.
    The good old days weren't that good. I used to sell music CDs. They didn't have a catalog and you were only allowed one picture per listing. If you wanted to say what was on your CD, you typed in all the tracks yourself. If you wanted more than one picture, you hosted them elsewhere and linked to them from your item description. The only thing good was that postage was 1/3 of what it is now.
    The marketplace as a whole is a minor miracle. Could you imagine 20 years ago that it would be possible to sit at home and make 6 figures or more a year buying and selling stuff online? With a little ambition and a lot of hard work, you can make more as a high school dropout than most people with degrees make. I work a full time job as a software architect, but thanks to eBay and Amazon, I'm going to be able to retire 20-25 years ahead of schedule. That doesn't suck.

    Let me know if you ever put your methods in a book,I'll be the first inline to buy it!

    -1
    #32 4 years ago

    Whats Ebay?

    #33 4 years ago

    Had better success with Craigslist this year, figured out how to use it. EBay can pound sand. They are reporting to the IRS your sales, used to be flea market/yard sale items were not taxed. Thats the way it will continue in my neighborhood for 2020, there are alternatives.

    #34 4 years ago

    Ebay for many items is STILL cheaper than Amazon. I still use Ebay for a lot of things, but I haven't sold much on there since early 2000's. Although I did just sell an old empty video game box on there for $200 to some guy in Hawaii....so it does have it's uses.

    #35 4 years ago

    Zablon which video game box? I collect old computer video game software

    #36 4 years ago
    Quoted from ralphs007:

    Let me know if you ever put your methods in a book,I'll be the first inline to buy it!

    A lot of the big money is in arbitrage. I know dozens of items I can sell on Amazon for $250-500 that I can get on eBay for $75-150. Some turn up on eBay once or twice a week, others just once every couple months. I have automated searches set up for about 200 items that alert me when they get listed in my price range.

    I also sell some stuff I got from the manufacturer a few years ago. Those things generally bring in a steady $5-10 profit each, but I'm leaning more and more towards the higher priced items that are profiting $100-200 each. Less work and more money.

    Most stuff on Amazon is gated now and it's tough to get approved to sell there. I sold used music CDs for about a decade there. Now if I try to list one it says I haven't been approved in the music category (not that there's much money in CDs anymore). You need invoices showing large purchases and many categories cost something like a $2000 fee to apply to sell in. It gets tougher every year, and you have to follow the rules absolutely. A suspension there lasts a lifetime and you can't just open a new account.

    #37 4 years ago
    Quoted from phil-lee:

    Had better success with Craigslist this year, figured out how to use it. EBay can pound sand. They are reporting to the IRS your sales, used to be flea market/yard sale items were not taxed. Thats the way it will continue in my neighborhood for 2020, there are alternatives.

    Anything sold for a profit is taxed, whether it's sold on Craigslist, yard sales, eBay, Amazon, etc. You have to do something like 200 transactions and/or $10000 in sales for Ebay/Paypal to report it. Even if they do report it, if you're selling personal items for a loss, just claim your cost basis and you won't owe anything. It's not an Ebay thing, it's a tax law thing.

    #38 4 years ago
    Quoted from BradVR4:

    zablon which video game box? I collect old computer video game software

    Daggerfall foil box.

    #39 4 years ago

    Loneacer I know. Thanks anyway.

    #40 4 years ago

    I started on eBay in 1999. Back then it was mostly collectible stuff at auction. I entered a search for "chain saw" as I had just bought a log home in the woods looking for a used one. ZERO were listed. Today it's 24,802 listings. Back then you paid mostly by mailing the seller a money order or check and waited till they got it and shipped your purchase. Paypal came on then and if selling, they would insert a paypal pay tab into your listings once a day after linking your eBay seller account. So yeah, it's come a long way.

    Fees have increased but so has the exposure of the brand. They are trying to mimic Amazon with guaranteed delivery which as a seller they forced on me to continue as a "top rated seller". But after 15,000 sales over the years, I still sell there.

    #41 4 years ago
    Quoted from tomdrum:

    I started on eBay in 1999. Back then it was mostly collectible stuff at auction. I entered a search for "chain saw" as I had just bought a log home in the woods looking for a used one. ZERO were listed. Today it's 24,802 listings. Back then you paid mostly by mailing the seller a money order or check and waited till they got it and shipped your purchase. Paypal came on then and if selling, they would insert a paypal pay tab into your listings once a day after linking your eBay seller account. So yeah, it's come a long way.
    Fees have increased but so has the exposure of the brand. They are trying to mimic Amazon with guaranteed delivery which as a seller they forced on me to continue as a "top rated seller". But after 15,000 sales over the years, I still sell there.

    What's your store? I Will look it up

    #42 4 years ago

    There are only 2 good things about Ebay when it comes to pinball
    1.It captures a wider audience
    2.If you live in a dry area(No pins aval.) is sometimes the only place to go if you are not willing to drive hours or hundreds of miles to pickup a pin.
    our hobby has grown and people(non pinheads) who come across a pinball machine no matter what condition or title think they have struck a jackpot and want top dollars.I can't stand it when people say "well according to Ebay this game is worth much much more".Ha! i once saw a local ad about a stern playboy pin for sale and i called the owner and asked how much she wanted for it?She said 10,500 because it's a rare game and because Hefner passed away and no low ball offers.I simply told her that was waaay too cheap and it's worth double that amount and she thanked me and said "I wish we had more honest people like you in this world"...Click...Hahaha!!!!

    #43 4 years ago

    I sell a lot of crap on Ebay, mostly Star Wars rare merchandise. The sales fees are like crazy, but its the only way to really reach the masses. When I was selling my old plasma tv ,no bites, but then a guy from Canada saw it on Ebay, and had a company come crate it and take it from my house with no hassle. There is no way to get that kind of sale on local classifieds or that craigs list.

    #44 4 years ago

    eBay is good for reaching a wider and new customer base. It’s bad for fees, but you can compensate by charging more relative to what you charge elsewhere. We’ve generally had a good experience buying and selling on eBay.

    #46 4 years ago

    I am very happy with the online markets and thier competition with each other. As a book buyer for instance I used to haunt bookstores hoping to find what I wanted.

    Now what I want is right there. Granted, it takes away the fun of the hunt. But I do both. Online and local.

    But say in the case of most books, online buying is my preferred method.

    I check Amazon, eBay for the best deals. Now all I need is more money...

    #47 4 years ago

    Ebay has become what any business in the open market place has become.

    #48 4 years ago

    In 2004 I was a broke student and came across an auction on eBay for 3 full rolls of subway restaurant stamps. (Back in the day, 8 stamps would get you a free 6 inch sandwich and 16 stamps would get you a free footlong; as long as you purchased a small drink)

    I ended up paying $80 bucks for them and ate subway sandwiches everyday for 6 months. The stamps were discontinued a year or two later.....I wonder why? Lol

    #49 4 years ago
    Quoted from ImNotNorm:

    In 2004 I was a broke student and came across an auction on eBay for 3 full rolls of subway restaurant stamps. (Back in the day, 8 stamps would get you a free 6 inch sandwich and 16 stamps would get you a free footlong; as long as you purchased a small drink)
    I ended up paying $80 bucks for them and ate subway sandwiches everyday for 6 months. The stamps were discontinued a year or two later.....I wonder why? Lol

    Due to counterfeiting

    #50 4 years ago

    I have my seller preferences set as US only, no returns, and a few other things to avoid scammers.

    That way those conditions are baked into everything you sell and eBay takes your side if a buyer violates them.

    EBay is great for finding vintage NOS ICs and things like that. I have a new design Commodore 64 PSU en route, could have ordered direct from the guy but eBay gives me a bit more confidence.

    There are 61 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 2.

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