eBay Boycott and Alternatives

[coinman1794]

I did all this to help cut costs before they announced these crazy new policies, so you have to cut me some slack! I didn't know anything quite as extreme as this was going to happen. Also, I intend this type of website to be a temporary solution until something better opens up.

 

My reasoning at the time: While ebay was becomming a problem, prostores was the best website hosting company I'd found...and it was not my first try. I had to cancel a site through yahoo because it was inadiquate, much less powerful, and twice as expensive. At the time, I also liked the fact that I could upload lisitings straight from ebay.

[physics-fan3.14]

Just saw an article on CNNMoney about this whole issue.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/06/smbusiness/ebay_alternatives.fsb/index.htm

[DC Dawg]

I did not want to start a new thread, but there are people who are getting really peeved over this.

 

First, did you know that as part of this, PayPal will hold your payment for up to 21 days if you get a negative? I am not sure this is true and I cannot find where it was mentioned. This is truly scary... they are out to hurt the seller!

 

Second, the boycott is picking up steam. There are a lot of protest sites out there and some YouTube videos. I was sent to GREEDBay Protest Victoriously blog, which has links to the videos. I like the imagery of the one near the top using Gordon Gekko from the movie Wall Street.

 

Oh well... it's been a nice run. It's time to find a new place to make money.

 

Scott

[Conder101]

I know the new fee schedule says they can hold your money for up to 21 days in certain circumstances, but as far as I know they have never clarified just what those circumstances are. Which means at this point, they can do so at their whim to anyone for any reason.

[gmarguli]

I know the new fee schedule says they can hold your money for up to 21 days in certain circumstances, but as far as I know they have never clarified just what those circumstances are. Which means at this point, they can do so at their whim to anyone for any reason.

 

Don't worry, it'll only happen in the rarest of rare circumstances - about 5%. Only 1 in 20 transactions will they hold your money. I'm sure they're not doing this to make interest off the money. After all, what kind of interest could they make by holding about $400 Million (5% of sales) in other people's money for 3 weeks?

[Conder101]

Probably not enough to make up for angry sellers, only about $690,000 to $1.15 million. Enough to raise the bottom line about .02% (assuming your sales figures are correct.)

[World Colonial]

I will not boycott eBay on either the buy or sell side. I do not sell enough for it to make a difference and when I need to, they are still the best outlet for the cons I list which are all world coins. There are a small group of regulars that do most of the buying of the better material in the series I collect.

 

On the buy side, there is no other regular option for what I collect. I have recently found a few dealers who occasionally carry what I collect in the quality I want, but the pickings are really meager. I would estimate that at any goven time for my series, my collection is better than literally almost every single dealer in the world. And this is not because my collection of South Africa and Spanish colonials contains the rarest or most expensive issues, but simply because the stuff is not available in high grade.

[Dwaine]

Well, I have done my part to help with the boycott. I removed all my auctions last Sunday and have not visited Ebay one bit this past week. I am trying out the NGC marketplace.

 

Just wanted to bring this back up to the top to see how others are doing on this boycott.

[Hepcat]

Scott B:

 

I also have been looking around at alternatives.

 

I've seen so many full fledged dealers become nothing but Ebay jockeys that I have to ask:

 

1. Do you operate a store?

 

2. Do you advertise in coin magazines?

 

3. Do you publish and mail a catalogue out to previous customers and prospects?

 

Those are three alternatives. I wonder how many of the sellers complaining about Ebay's new fees have tried any of those, or previously did but opted to take the easy Ebay route and now find that they have little choice but to dance to the piper's(Ebay's) tune?

 

 

 

 

 

[jgrinz]

I'm already Boycotting them.....and its not only because of the fees, its also because of the feedback changes.

 

 

I started coinzip to help people find coin clubs, coin dealers, & coin shows.

 

With the recent ebay changes, I figured I would have to find another place to market my numismatic goods. Since the core site was getting decent traffic I figured an online auction service could enhance the site.

 

My main concern is to provide a cost friendly market place for sellers. Sellers are the key, they provide the main attraction, the goods being sold.

 

CoinZip is offering the online auction service FREE for 1 year. After the 1 year trial the only fee will be $3.99 a month for sellers, no matter how many items you have listed.

 

 

Alan Stullenbarger

 

Customer service is top notch too

 

[DC Dawg]

Scott B:

 

I also have been looking around at alternatives.

 

I've seen so many full fledged dealers become nothing but Ebay jockeys that I have to ask:

 

1. Do you operate a store?

 

2. Do you advertise in coin magazines?

 

3. Do you publish and mail a catalogue out to previous customers and prospects?

 

Those are three alternatives. I wonder how many of the sellers complaining about Ebay's new fees have tried any of those, or previously did but opted to take the easy Ebay route and now find that they have little choice but to dance to the piper's(Ebay's) tune?

 

There is nothing wrong with "Ebay jockeys" as long as they adhere to the ethics and guidelines of the ANA and PNG--even if they are not members of either.

 

1. No.

2. Yes, I have placed classified ads for specific items.

3. No.

 

However, I have been looking into a number of things including those. One alternative is to open an online store and use something like Google checkout to process the orders. Advertisements and Catalog processing would be done online. But that's pending.

 

Scott