Is Ebay Dying?

[Ukiah]

Posted this on another site...but wanted see what folks here think.

I"m looking for thoughts about Ebay. Like everything (look at Myspace for example)...internet life cycles occur and I'm wondering if you think Ebay's life cycle is on the down side. I have a tendency to believe so.

As a card collector, there is not the variety and the amounts in the past. I only put a few things up when it is free cuz I hate the feeBay/paypal combo thingee. I usually have pretty high grade and desirable vintage cards. Not only are they not usually selling, they are not even getting looked at.

Other evidence. If you were doing well...why would you offer 5,000 Free listings. Remember when they used to charge 25-cents PER item. That was ok when they would sell...then the economy wounded collecting...and probably a lot of other stuff.

Ebay is NOT selling like they used to. You can look at the stock prices all you want, but based on personal performance and observations, I think it is very much waning.

Your thoughts?

 

[rotorob]

I've noticed that new "rare" (hate that word for new stuff) usually sells pretty well. Vintage that is ungraded does not, I think mainly many collectors have felt burned when winning a NM auction and the grade is really more like an EX.

No hard research behind the above statements, but personal observations.

 

[Ukiah]

that's what I'm looking for. Remember, often times Perception Is Reality. But not always...it just seems that way.

OH..and another way I try to avoid that grading thingee...cuz we all are sensitive to different stuff...is to give GREAT detail. I try to do so. I don't say it's "Nm" or "look at the scan". I don't buy that stuff.

 

[DaClyde]

I think the establishment of several potential rivals to eBay's sports memorabilia business is finally taking hold. BidStart, eCrater, COMC and even Amazon are slowly expanding their respective chunks of the market.
It was a real pity Yahoo couldn't be bothered to fix the problems in their online auction and marketplace sites, rather than just shutting them down.

 

[rangersfan1982]

People would be able to sell a little better on eBay if they didn't screw people on shipping prices...$3.00 for 1 base card? No thanks.

 

[brewerfan34]

I think from a card collectors point of view ebay is not as strong. As pointed out rival sites have taken a bite out of ebay, espically when looking at fees and how the seller is at nearly a complete disadvantage in disputes. For other areas I feel that ebay is still as big as ever.

Recently I stayed over night by a buddy's house and in the morning his wife was on ebay. I asked her if she was shopping for anything in particular. She told me she spends a couple of hours on the site "just shopping" for anything from household items to CD's and DVD's.

Also, a customer of mine told me a story. Him and his wife have been married for awhile and instead of just throwing things out they started listing them on ebay. This is a couple with no experience with a ebay store and just started listing old retail flyers, dishes, christmas orniments, etc.. and were making some really good money.

I think ebay probably has peaked in terms of a coolness factor but I can not seeing it going anywhere soon. As long as there are shoplifters and people willing to buy stolen merchandise ebay will be around.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

 

[GotMelky]

I agree for mainstream stuff, it has definitely slowed down. New and hot items still do okay, but I prefer to sell elsewhere anyways now because I lose around 15%-20% off what the total (including the shipping) is.

 

[valediction]

I think over time, sites like ebay become their own worst enemy. I'm not sure this can be avoided. What made ebay great is also what is hurting it. When ebay first started getting big, it was a collectors dream. Anything you want was there any time you wanted it. Want a box of 1990 Leaf? You'd find a dozen listings for each series. I remember going to a series of three card shows in a 2 week span in the mid 90's looking for 1992 Bowman singles, the usual suspects, Piazza, Ramirez, Thome, Garrett Anderson, etc. I found 3 dealers with a Piazza, one with a Manny, and that was it. get on ebay and suddenly I had choices of all kinds, professionally graded, raw, 2-25 count lots of some players, it was a dream come true, but at the same time it's only a matter of time before people see nothing as tough to find anymore. Before ebay I had to hope to find one at a show/shop, or call as soon as I got my copy of SCD and hope the people that paid hundreds of dollars to get their subscriptions next day aired to them hadn't gotten there ahead of me. Today, between checkoutmycards and ebay, I see 52 Mike Piazza 1992 Bowman cards listed. Part of the reason I wanted that card was because it was tougher to find, it wasn't as mass produced as other sets of the day. When there are 52 available at a time when the demand is relatively low, how many will suddenly pop up when it gets close to election time for him, or after he is announced as a HOF'er?

Vintage is always tough online. People grade differently. I much prefer to buy my raw cards in person, and once professional grading got popular, the hairs started getting split so fine that some totally unknown guys bad day could cost you hundreds of dollars. Even dealing with honest sellers with the best of intentions can be frustrating if we have different opinions. buy cards, wait for it to get to me, open up package, get frustrated at card being less than what I was expecting, email seller, wait for reply, send card back, get credit back, repeat search. Was it just a one time mistake that got through his system or does he just overgrade compared to me? The internet makes it harder to read tone and attitude, and grading can be a touchy enough subject face to face.

Ebay being a publicly traded company has the added burden of always expecting to grow, and realistically, there is only so much you can do to grow a business like that. there comes a point where just getting more listings every month becomes almost counterproductive when the sellers are getting more frustrated because the items are selling for less than they used to. More auctions mean more servers, more maintenance, more policing, more expenses. I don't think ebay is dying, it just got so big so fast there is just no way to sustain that kind of growth, so it has to keep trying different methods to find what works best, just like our hobby itself.

 

[hatesgoats]

This hobby has always been a reflection of the market in general to me. Too much overpriced crap= selloff... I see tons of cheap stuff out there and at one of the LCS' I go to he is practically giving new stuff away. He has a box of FReeStuff for kids (supposed to be) and it is full of cards from 1986 till 2000. He quit other sports all together only does baseball and is considering rather than buying directly from Topps , buying from a distributor instead. He does not like the way Topps forces him to buy being an HTA Store. He is changing with the flow of things and now does alot of EBAY and COMC deals.
He is in a unique position as his store also sells sporting goods specialising in bowling. He says one day both sides of the store will do well at the same time. Right now sporting goods is doing well and cards are not. He mentioned to me and I see it that vintage will always hold a market share, it is part of my history and childhood. Even in bad times it sells. I agree with those who said grading is a subjective thing and I prefer to send high res scans and be over descriptive if there is such a thing. I forsee some issues with grading coming. I do believe this auto authentication stink going on culd be a real punch in the eye for EVERYTHING that company touched...but that is a whole nother ball of wax. I quit using ebay cause of the fees and as a buyer the shipping rates.

 

[Tim Carroll]

Other evidence. If you were doing well...why would you offer 5,000 Free listings. Remember when they used to charge 25-cents PER item. That was ok when they would sell...then the economy wounded collecting...and probably a lot of other stuff.

As stated above by valediction, I don't think there is any possible way to avoid becoming so successful that you are "taken for granted." Ebay isn't new anymore, and collectors seem to take for granted when things were hard to track down. Sellers stop listing things when they know there are 50-100 of the same thing at the same price point. Living back in Mississippi during the late 80's and early 90's was hard on a collector - no card shows for miles, and the only card shop within 200 miles only had singles of local players, past and present. Ebay helped me expand my collection, and it helped me generate more money for cards that I would otherwise not have the audience to sell to.

In the statement of yours I have highlighted above, I would have to point out that ebay is really not giving someone 5,000 free listings. Word it how they like, but with the final value fees being so much higher than in the past - it is brilliant marketing. They simply allow dealers/collectors to list much more stuff on their site - without the upfront charges. As soon as something sells, BAM! That's when the profit is made. As a seller and a buyer, I like that concept much better than the "pay $.35 upfront to list anything." Sellers started realizing there was no money to be made in listing items 3/$1.00 that might not even get the opening bid. There is too much risk in listing a massive amount of items at $.25-$.35 per. Even if you sell one high-end card, it would take all of the profits from that sale just to cover the expenses of listing the junk that you still owned. Ebay caught on that the listings were down, so they made it more logical - only pay for the items that sell. Sellers obviously win because of the lack of risk involved in listing lower-end junk cards, and buyers win because it increases the amount of options. All of this results in more sales, and more sales mean more final value fees. Ebay gets their money regardless of if it is upfront or at the end. It's kind of like the s&h thought "$1 for the item and $3 s&h is the same thing as $3 for the item and $1 s&h." I think that move may actually help ebay extend its life on the internet.


Tim

 

[Ukiah]

WOW..there are some SUPER great thoughts here. I feel proud to have let the brains of other Americans exude the brilliance that we have..LOL. Seriously...great thoughts and thanks.

 

[mrmopar]

I will stick to my observation that the good stuff sells consistently, regardless of what state ebay may be in currently. Good stuff may be defined differently by different people, but the items that are not common and of higher quality will always find a buyer.

A 1955 Bowman Mantle, for example, will always sell and even though the dollars may be down compared in the past for a card like that, it still reflects a real market attitude towards the card. Using a previous post, a 1992 Bowman Piazza is not in the same class. I believe what you are seeing with Piazza is a carry over from when it was more scarce. The same can be said for current players who were once smoking hot. Why are Strasburg autos still listed for several hundred dollars? Speculation is still holding strong, that is why. In the end, they will even out, but it may take a while, much the way owners of 92 Bowman Piazza cards aren't ready to let go to the fact that they aren't as rare as once thought.

As far as the free listings go, it could be compared to card shows. There was once a time when you had to pay admission to every decent show. Now, you'd be lucky to get paid attendees at even the largest of shows. The listing fee money was gravy for ebay and that money is starting to dry up. They have to get more items sold, so they can make up for it in final value fees. My guess is that they are doing fine, but every company wants to squeeze more out over time and I'm sure the corporate execs at ebay are no different.

 

[ThreeLions]

I used to like Ebay, both as a seller and a buyer, but now I will only use it to buy value and sell items worth $5 or more. As mentioned more than once on here, the shipping charges can get extortionate. Ebay are trying to battle that by adding a Final Shipping Fee on the seller. I see that as no more than an unlawful tax on my mailing costs which have nothing to do with Ebay and the costs were accepted by the buyer remember!

Recently I have had two great finds to help with my inventory on COMC (which opened today BTW) but I also basically gave away a Steve Garvey UD Retro Gold card after Ebay nickel & dimed me to death.

If Ebay is, indeed, dying I don't think I'll be sending flowers to the funeral .... they'll probably just find a way to hit me with a "Commiseration Fee" anyway.

DAVE

 

[Fenn2kb]

I think that Ebay is just adjusting to the state of the world economy, and realizes that it sucks to have to pay a ton of money before you can even try to sell something, and is trying to work with sellers better to get them to advertise their stuff more on their site.

For example, i never tried listing any of my items at 9.00 or 30.00, because of the damn fees. Now that they removed those, i think they are going to make alot more since pple don't have to pay a buck or two just to list their items.

 

[valediction]

I used to like Ebay, both as a seller and a buyer, but now I will only use it to buy value and sell items worth $5 or more. As mentioned more than once on here, the shipping charges can get extortionate. Ebay are trying to battle that by adding a Final Shipping Fee on the seller. I see that as no more than an unlawful tax on my mailing costs which have nothing to do with Ebay and the costs were accepted by the buyer remember!

Recently I have had two great finds to help with my inventory on COMC (which opened today BTW) but I also basically gave away a Steve Garvey UD Retro Gold card after Ebay nickel & dimed me to death.

If Ebay is, indeed, dying I don't think I'll be sending flowers to the funeral .... they'll probably just find a way to hit me with a "Commiseration Fee" anyway.

DAVE

Did you really like it for buying low dollar cards? I never did. I remember buying a 1981 Topps Coca Cola Phillies set that was $1.29 to win and $2.50 to ship, and a 1996 Leaf Hats Off Barry Larkin insert to finish off a set, and the $1.29 card was an additional $1.99 shipping and that was in the late 90's early 2000's. Just didn't seem to make sense for it even back then.

 

[ThreeLions]

Did you really like it for buying low dollar cards? I never did. I remember buying a 1981 Topps Coca Cola Phillies set that was $1.29 to win and $2.50 to ship, and a 1996 Leaf Hats Off Barry Larkin insert to finish off a set, and the $1.29 card was an additional $1.99 shipping and that was in the late 90's early 2000's. Just didn't seem to make sense for it even back then.

I didn't say I bought low dollar cards necessarily. My last two purchases, the ones I referred to, were lots of about 10 and 15 cards. Including shipping each card worked out at around a dollar apiece for cards valued $10-15 each. I always budget the shipping in to my final bid amount.

DAVE

 

[Ukiah]

In regards to the shipping...It costs $1.71 JUST to ship 1 card in a padded envelope and that does not include the cost of the padded envelope, top load, ebay fees etc. So I don't mind paying $2.50 cuz that's the cost of doing business. If someone wants to pay just .50 cents for postage to be sent in an envelope, that's fine. But those are sent through machines and could be creased. Low grade cards are fine and I do that on Sportlots...but I don't get more than a quarter per card if it sells anyway.

Just thought I'd drop that in.

 

[mintman2]

I believe ebay IS declining and some competitors are making headway but I don't believe it has anything to do with the exceptionalism of the competition. Ebay's demise/decline, imo, is directly attributable to their own actions and greed.

Historically, whether it's great countries or companies, like the british empire or Harley Davidson, they aren't taken down by outside forces but rather from the inside out. Ebay is just following the same path. What a shame for an entity that was once a trailblazer. Of course that IS the path.

 

[greyminis]

I still buy on ebay, but selling is tougher given the fees. I collect numbered A&G cards and have noticed the quantity of listings from day one were less than they have been in the past. I don't know if this has to do with ebay fees and alternative selling venues, or just the ****** economy in general, or collector burnout on a specific release that is in year six and counting or all of the above.

I also have been discouraged by ebay's continuing policy of trying to limit contact between members. When I first joined ebay you could see who was bidding on cards you had interest in and I actually made some good friends contacting other collectors. After all, card collecting is a hobby and having a circle of friends who also enjoy the hobby is part of the whole process for me. That's why a site like this one is truly great!

 

[David K.]

Right now.....theres a general decline because of the lack of jobs....but as soon as it pick up....ebay should be back. Best regards, David