Quite often I see negative comments,insulting terms like evil-bay,and a dismissal of E-Bay in general ......and i'm wondering why...
Personally,I think it's great thing..........Sure they gouge you for fees when you sell stuff,but business is business innit ? Have to make a profit..
Where else can you sell and buy goods from the comfort of your own home ?..make some money for your self, or get some obscure item that you'd never see in the shops...Cd's ,old films, Instruments...anything !!
So.... whaddayareckon...do the good people here ( and the bad ones too ) like E-Bay ?
Tell us something.: Mostly producer of the Wooden Flute Obsession 3-volume 6-CD 7-hour set of mostly player's choice of Irish tunes, played mostly solo, on mostly wooden flutes by approximately 120 different mostly highly-rated traditional flute players & are mostly...
I think a lot of the complaining comes from people with a long history on eBay. In the early days, they charged a small insertion fee, a 5% (or so) final fee, and otherwise stayed out of the way.
Then came PayPal, which was bought by eBay, who proceeded to all but ban any other form of payment - and charge you for two separate fees on the same transaction. The fees steadily went up. And a lot of regulation came along as well - buyer protection, seller protection, return policies, detailed star ratings, multi-tiered seller categories, etc. Not all bad things by any means, but a shift of control over the transaction from buyer-seller to buyer-EBAY-seller, and a lot more energy spent on compliance. About a decade ago, I sold something for about $2.00, got a check, deposited it, sent out the thing, and a month later got the check back from my bank with a $20 bounce fee. That wouldn't happen today with PayPal. On the other hand, unscrupulous buyers and sellers have worked out their ways to game the current system (the discussion boards are a veritable Soap Opera Channel of treachery and despair).
It's also very off-putting that every time they hike their fees, they send out an email saying that they're lowering the fees (e.g. "We're lowering insertion fees by 5 cents!!!!!" Final fees go up 75%). They "encouraged" offering free shipping by applying the final fee to the shipping charge - so if you sell something heavy for $50 but it costs another $50 to ship, you're paying double the fee.
The market has also been swamped by large-scale sellers who flood the site with countless duplicate items - try searching for a whistle, and look at all the Susato knockoffs you have to wade through, even though they represent just a few distinct items. Musiciansfriend and Music123, owned by the same parent company, each offer the same items for the same price, and on it goes with all the big box/online retailers. All this makes it harder to find that unique item.
And then there's the frustration that there's no better alternative. Amazon charges more in fees, on average. Other sites like bonanzle don't have nearly the traffic. So eBay uses its position to maximize profits, as all corporations do.
I offer all this as an explanation, based on my experience buying and selling for a dozen years or so (I don't sell for profit, mostly just unload books/cd/movies/etc that I don't want anymore, in order to fund the new ones). Given that I'm still an active user, I'm hardly anti-eBay. But I get the frustrations that have grown among people who've been around a long time. There are a lot of other gripes people have, some legit, others petty, but it all boils down to a lot of people feeling like they're paying more for the privilege of working harder for a less enjoyable experience.
I'm a HUGE fan of eBay. As I've mentioned before, I found my wife via eBay-- really. I sold her a bass recorder there, but before the sale we communicated back and forth a bit about some concerns she had. After the sale we communicated some more and to make a short story even shorter, we fell totally in love.
As a huge bonus to the story, I live in upstate NY and Charlene lived in Michigan. Now, by this time I was an internet pal of Glenn Schultz, but I never really expected to meet him in person. However, on our first visit back to Michigan to visit Char's family, I simply HAD to drive the extra hour to meet the Thin Weasel himself which ultimately led to my learning whistle making from him..So yeah, I'm pretty partial to eBay
Oh-- the lathe I use to make whistles came from eBay too!
I, too, am a long time eBay-er, and I, too, kinda dislike all the changes that have happened as it has grown.
I can remember looking at it every day for certain specialty things, and not having to wade through tons of mass marketed stuff. Now, a search can take forever because you have to keep adding words to NOT include in the list, etc.
I haven't looked at eBay for months. It's just gotten too big. I haven't sold on it in years - it's gotten too cumbersome.
I do use PayPal all the time and think it's a wonderful thing. When we talked a festival organizer to use it for reservations, her attendance grew by a huge amount.
I have bought ( a lot ) and sold ( a little ) on ebay for many years. I think you have to consider a lot of things to decide if the fees are too high. They are higher than they used to be but not necessarily too high under certain conditions. I had an item that I wanted to get rid of and offered it for sale at yard sales in two different towns for $100. No takers. I put it on ebay and it brought nearly $900. Even after paying fees I am much better off. Another item I tried to sell for $25 at various yard sales and flea markets I set up at for two years. No takers. I put it on ebay and it brought $265. Of course, ebay isn't the place to sell everything. For many items the shipping is more than the item is worth so it is virtually impossible to sell them on ebay. But for unusual items that benefit from a wide market ebay works well.
A flock of crows can bring an eagle down...but it doesn't make the eagle any less.
One of the big knocks against Ebay is that for many collectibles, it is the venue of choice to move fakes. The flood of fakes, mostly made in China, has damaged many hobbies. For example, in a lawsuit Tiffany estimated that as many as 90% of Tiffany marked items sold on Ebay are fakes. Ebay, for the most part, pays lip service to the problems, and actively fought the Tiffany lawsuit and won the case. Many collectors think that the company doesn't care as long as the fees are paid.
Interesting replies folks..thanks for your input...seems as though e-bay gets a general ..
At the moment,I'm using it to get rid of 'stuff that clutters my life'....and hopefully make a few bob as well.....which I'll probably use to.....buy some stuff off E-Bay ..
Great story from you too Paul.....you must be a very happy e-bayer..
I have had ongoing ads on ebay for 10 years or more. With regard to "my ebay" and all of the ebay accounting screens, I simply ignore them, and I tell my customers that it is OK to do the same. After receiving notification of a sale on ebay, I contact the person by email, offer optional payment methods if they haven't already made a paypal payment, and finish the transaction by email, which I feel is a more personal way of doing business. I don't sell out of the country through ebay anymore because of the red tape, but I do mention in my ad that I do international sales, linking my website.
Tell us something.: Mostly producer of the Wooden Flute Obsession 3-volume 6-CD 7-hour set of mostly player's choice of Irish tunes, played mostly solo, on mostly wooden flutes by approximately 120 different mostly highly-rated traditional flute players & are mostly...
Doug_Tipple wrote:I have had ongoing ads on ebay for 10 years or more. With regard to "my ebay" and all of the ebay accounting screens, I simply ignore them, and I tell my customers that it is OK to do the same. After receiving notification of a sale on ebay, I contact the person by email, offer optional payment methods if they haven't already made a paypal payment, and finish the transaction by email, which I feel is a more personal way of doing business. I don't sell out of the country through ebay anymore because of the red tape, but I do mention in my ad that I do international sales, linking my website.
All of which are violations of the eBay policies you agreed to, and for which you can be banned from using their site.
Doug_Tipple wrote:I have had ongoing ads on ebay for 10 years or more. With regard to "my ebay" and all of the ebay accounting screens, I simply ignore them, and I tell my customers that it is OK to do the same. After receiving notification of a sale on ebay, I contact the person by email, offer optional payment methods if they haven't already made a paypal payment, and finish the transaction by email, which I feel is a more personal way of doing business. I don't sell out of the country through ebay anymore because of the red tape, but I do mention in my ad that I do international sales, linking my website.
All of which are violations of the eBay policies you agreed to, and for which you can be banned from using their site.
I am a long-time ebay buyer and seller (small scale) with a 100% feedback rating. This means that I have not abused the system, in my opinion. I have paid the ebay listing and selling fees and have made no effort to channel sales away from ebay. I treat all of my ebay customers with respect. I only contact the buyer by email after the sale has been made using the email address that ebay provides me. Offering to accept payment by check or money order, while not approved by ebay, is a service to my customers who do not want to give their credit card number or their personal bank account to paypal. However, I am guilty of not reading through the pages of legalese when I check the "I agree" box, and there has to be a large number of people just like me in this regard.. The fact that I do place a link to my website on my ebay description page is a practice that many big-box sellers are obviously doing (approved or not), along with listing their 1-800 telephone number, which I don't do. I think that ebay would welcome a million new users who are as conscientious as I am. Ebay has become a success from sellers like me who have something to sell that people want to buy.
Doug_Tipple wrote:I have had ongoing ads on ebay for 10 years or more. With regard to "my ebay" and all of the ebay accounting screens, I simply ignore them, and I tell my customers that it is OK to do the same. After receiving notification of a sale on ebay, I contact the person by email, offer optional payment methods if they haven't already made a paypal payment, and finish the transaction by email, which I feel is a more personal way of doing business. I don't sell out of the country through ebay anymore because of the red tape, but I do mention in my ad that I do international sales, linking my website.
All of which are violations of the eBay policies you agreed to, and for which you can be banned from using their site.
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