Why would ANYBODY choose to sell on eBay anymore?

[RockMyAmadeus]

I joined eBay 14 years ago on Oct 31. Back then, it was very, very simple to set up an account and sell. You didn't need credit card this, bank statement that, Paypal account this.

 

Granted, it needed fine tuning.

 

But now?

 

Just for fun, because they kept sending me free listing opportunities on my Buying account (not my Selling account, which is irritating enough), I decided to sell a few things there, too.

 

Hoop after hoop after hoop after hoop.

 

I sold an item, and the funds...all $20 worth...won't be "available" to me until Oct 27.

 

Why would anybody in their right mind sell something and then have to wait 3 weeks to get it?

 

I've also hit a "selling limit" of apparently about $100 worth of listed items. Not sold...just what they're listed at.

 

Yes, I understand that eBay is plagued with fraud. But that's THEIR problem, that they have now foisted on to new sellers.

 

For the life of me, I don't understand how eBay stays in business. They have been, and continue to be, the very model of how to do things wrong in business without really trying for over a decade and a half now, and yet...they're still here.

 

I guess frontloading your legal dept is what passes for good business practice these days.

[Walkerfan]

I still get some nice stuff on Ebay, once in a while, but they certainly have declined in recent years. The Golden Age of Ebay circa 2000 is GONE---likely for good. It is MUCH WORSE as a seller than a buyer---no doubt.

[newprepper]

A while back I started selling military stuff, did pretty well with it, then I decided to sell a bunch of other I had laying around, CD's and such, right away, they started that 3 week spoon with me, because I was not selling my normal stuff. What kind of spoon is that? I thought they wanted you to sell stuff. I have 100% feedback, top rated seller etc, I complained repeatedly for about 6 weeks, they finally relented and I don't have the hold anymore. But I wish there was something better

[mkman123]

ebay was great back then.....simple and easy to buy and sell. Now its very complex with so many issues that I don't do ebay anymore. I can find anything I want via this forum and ats and online sites like felds, tomBs, etc

[Walkerfan]

Ebay seems more like a place to advertise your items but do the transaction elsewhere. It offers great exposure but most buyers and sellers both know that they can do better OUTSIDE of Ebay.

[ldhair]

I don't know of any better way to sell off low value coins. Hope someone will post it if there is.

[World Colonial]

It's what happens when someone has a monopoly or in this instance, a limited one.

[physics-fan3.14]

I look at Ebay, and usually when I see something I like I email the seller and offer to complete the transaction outside of Ebay. They usually jump at the chance - it saves them all the ridiculous fees, and they offer me a good discount because of it.

[newprepper]

Those days are ending now that they instituted to fee for ending listings early, they also just put out a msg saying no email addresses in messages

[JStull]

Ebay seems more like a place to advertise your items but do the transaction elsewhere. It offers great exposure but most buyers and sellers both know that they can do better OUTSIDE of Ebay.

 

Well it certainly would be less headaches if everyone did their transaction outside of eBay. And no stupid or ridiculous reasons for SNAD either.

[Brol]

Will they detect email like this m y e m a i l a t y a h o o d o t c o m ? (without spaces)

 

[newprepper]

Will they detect email like this m y e m a i l a t y a h o o d o t c o m ? (without spaces)

 

good question, sellers can always revise prices also, make them so high nobody buys it

[MarkFeld]

Why would anybody in their right mind sell something and then have to wait 3 weeks to get it?

 

Because they prefer that, to waiting even longer to receive their money if they consign to a major auction house.

[e1cnr]

I periodically sell on eBay, because you can not beat the ease of exposure.

 

Meg Whitman started the switch from online auctions to online marketplace years ago. Think of it as the biggest shopping mall in the world. Many sellers in many categorys made that switch and basically are a specially store without storefront overhead.

 

Yes there are many more eBay/PAYPAL expenses now than when they started, but it is also much easier as a seller.

 

There are still some very good deals on eBay, but you need to be able to search them out. Most fixed price items in the US Coin area are definitely high retail.

 

Even though eBay is doing many things to alienate buyers and sellers, it will be quite awhile before anything cuts deeply into their market share.

[Nutmeg Coin]

Ebay offers the kind of exposure sellers need to get more than wholesale. If you avoid their paypal and shipping linked systems, yes you will have to wait longer for payment but still less than most auction companies. I started there with currency--no place else I was aware of offered what ebay offers for quickly listed auctions and fast payment. And their anti-fraud measures seem to be very aggressive these days. You just make a mistake or two in a listing and people will be all over you and you have two choices at that point, deal with the flack or delist and revise. Good system for many items, just look at their market share!

[RockMyAmadeus]

Will they detect email like this m y e m a i l a t y a h o o d o t c o m ? (without spaces)

 

Yes. I lost a $200 sale because eBay kept blocking all attempts at e-mail. Everything I tried, it just deleted like it didn't exist.

 

I don't mind paying eBay's fees...they are, after all, how the buyer connected with me in the first place...but once the listing is over, my contract with eBay is done, and I no longer am obligated to sell the item through them.

 

But they've almost entirely disabled it.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Ebay offers the kind of exposure sellers need to get more than wholesale. If you avoid their paypal and shipping linked systems, yes you will have to wait longer for payment but still less than most auction companies.

 

Sure, but auction houses have to deal with shipping, packaging, listing, staffing to deal with both buyers and consigners, advertising particular auctions...all things eBay does not. Since the entire middleman part of the process is missing, they should be much faster by default.

 

I do well by eBay (when they bother to have free listings), and like I said, I've been around for 14 years.

 

But the things they make sellers do now...it makes no sense. I would never have sold a thing on eBay if I had to go through all of this.

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

Why would anybody in their right mind sell something and then have to wait 3 weeks to get it?

 

Because they prefer that, to waiting even longer to receive their money if they consign to a major auction house.

 

I'm not quite sure what percentage of sellers on eBay have material worth sending to an auction house, much less would even consider, or are even aware of, major auction houses as a means of selling their items, but I suspect that percentage is fairly south of 1/100th of 1%.

 

After all...I'm not quite sure what Heritage would do with size 5 infant booties...come to think of it, I'm not quite sure what Heritage would do with my AG 1910-S Barber half....

 

[Nutmeg Coin]

OK, I'll say do not sell type gold on ebay unless you want to be hosed by the fees. I ran a $20 Saint that sold at a good market level but then I had to pay the 9% seller fees, etc.. It would have been a lot better as a "buy it now". But I'm a newbie there. Could someone clue me into the 10 biggest risks of selling on ebay? Please don't leave that for my "Halloween special"!

[e1cnr]

one risk -

selling gold bullion - depending on where you live, there usually is someplace that will give you a couple percentage points back of melt or you can call/send to APMEX

 

plus as a seller of this on eBay, there always is a risk of chargeback, claim of non-delivery, or returns if the value of gold drops in next couple weeks

 

 

silver usually not as bad, unless very large volume

[RockMyAmadeus]

I just sold a 2012 proof AGE 1 oz for $2,000. After eBay and Paypal took their cuts, it was down to $1853. Spot that day was around $1785. Mint price is $2035.

 

Did I do ok? Would I have gotten more elsewhere? Probably not. Did eBay deserve that $150+ fee? No. But where else was I going to sell it? At a coin shop, they would have paid me spot. So I made $65 for my effort.

 

It's a balancing act.

[newprepper]

You left out one important fact, how much did you pay for it? Saying you made 65 dollars implys you paid spot price on that day for it.

[RockMyAmadeus]

You left out one important fact, how much did you pay for it? Saying you made 65 dollars implys you paid spot price on that day for it.

 

All that matters is what I would have gotten from the only other immediately available source to me, a local store, versus what I got for it selling it on my own.

 

I could have gotten spot at more than one place. So I made $65 more doing it myself than I would have the only other way that was fairly quick.

 

Do you know of any place where I could have immediately gotten more than spot...?

[newprepper]

The only other place you might have done better is the big dealers like silvertowne, or monex, the places that sell online, I don't know, but they list their buy prices. I also don't know if they only buy back what they sell. Have not looked into it

[Nutmeg Coin]

I sold one the other day to a buyer who was paying $90 over spot, Apmex is paying more than on eagles, business strikes, around $50 or a little more. That's box and papers not certified.

[Nutmeg Coin]

one risk -

selling gold bullion - depending on where you live, there usually is someplace that will give you a couple percentage points back of melt or you can call/send to APMEX

 

plus as a seller of this on eBay, there always is a risk of chargeback, claim of non-delivery, or returns if the value of gold drops in next couple weeks

 

 

silver usually not as bad, unless very large volume

 

What's this infamous "chargeback" that I hear about?

[newprepper]

I think when a buyer puts in a complaint or return paypal automatically debits your acct til the dust settles

[James_OldeTowne]

I've despised eBay for about the last three years now. It's a completely irrelevant company to me any more, and will be for as long as I can predict. The only time I end up on eBay is when a search randomly sticks me on their site.

 

Honestly, I wish the company would go bankrupt, to be replaced by a useful new version.

[JIM F.]

Ebay is great. If you don't like it, don't use it.

 

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

Ebay is great. If you don't like it, don't use it.

 

 

As usual in life, it's not really that simple.