Wednesday, July 19. 2006The rise and fall of eBay
About two years ago I started using eBay to satisfy my hunger for books. I love reading books, and when a friend recommended to try eBay because it's a "cheap and fun way of buying books", I became intrigued and tried it. Turned out, eBay was a paradise for book lovers indeed. Every week I would buy one book, mostly English language literature which is hard to obtain here in Germany. I bought from private auctions exclusively, and with a bit of luck and good timing rarely paid more than 1 or 2 Euros per book. Usually, after two or three days I would receive my little package in the mail. I was in heaven.
Those were the good times. Nowadays, things look drastically different on ebay.de:  "Sofort & Neu" means "Buy now & Unused", and this is the heart of the problem: There are hardly any real private auctions left on eBay. Instead, the majority of auctions are really just sales, mostly from commercial book traders. As you can see, the prices are often ridiculously high: 28,90 Euro for one book, you'd think the thing was printed on gold. At this point it's easier and cheaper to just go to Amazon and buy the book there. Whatever happened to private auctions? Once upon a time eBay was synonymous with "The internet auction house". Nowadays, it's just a shopping marketplace. I want my old eBay back. Trackbacks
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There are tabs on the top to show all articles, only auctions of only "Buy now & Unused" items. Maybe that helps a bit. But yes, it becomes more and more a shopping marketplace.
I know this is an old post but I think it is worth re-visiting since a lot has changed in the past 2 1/2 years. eBay has been destroying themselves due to bad decisions on new rules and regulations as well as not protecting the buyer or seller. The latest "shot to the foot" was not allowing sellers to give buyers bad feedback. eBay has forgotten who butters their bread. They nor Paypal make their money on the buyers. Not one dime, they load their pockets from the sellers paying the high fees. The fee's have gotten higher and the service lower. I had been an eBay independant seller since 1996 as was my brother-in-law. We both this past year stopped selling and cancelled our accounts. I have many, MANY horror stories of getting ripped off as a buyer and seller. Although eBay and Paypal claim to be safe and secure, they are far from it and when something does in fact happen (which is will if it has not yet), eBay's response is "get in touch with your local authorities". I did and they laughed... they said "what are we supposed to do with someone that did not send you an item but stole your money from Canada?" If eBay does not start using their brains and remember who butters their bread, it will be the death of eBay soon enough.
Mark
I share your concern, eBay seems to be shooting itself in the foot at every turn. But don't despair. People like you and me (and the private sellers) will vote with their feet. It won't take eBay's bean counters long to realise it's all going south and the commercial traders will be moved to a marketplace where they belong. If they don't the old eBay will find a reincarnation under a new name and management. Keep reading! Pip pip Chris Proudlove www.WriteAntiques.com
Well I hope they will change, otherwise we'll have to look for alternatives. The problem is, electronic auctions are only useful with a huge community of buyers and sellers. eBay is the biggest site by far, so I think it's a chicken-and-egg problem for new auction sites.
As for eBay, a friend of mine pointed out that they're probably making their money either way, so they just don't care. But as you said, hopefully this strategy will backfire one day, forcing them to change.
Hey, Mark, did someone at Ebay pay you to write this justification for their recent price raises to Store sellers. My business just got 60% more costly to run for the same sales...My books are generally $1.99 to 3.99 and while I may or may not sell what you want, others just come to the site and buy...without waiting 6 or 7 days. This pretty much works with the albums and CDS I sell as well. And while I am not a 1 cent seller, I am pretty normal in rare and used items....if you can buy any of the 11,000 items I sell at Amazon, be my guest, but I doubt, anyhow if all the sellers leave ebay, you can bet, it will business as usual at high prices. These weren't invented by --dirty word here - commercial inventory sellers...it's called supply and demand...Somone must think the books are worth the gold or they won't sell...simple as that. So, I can't agree with you being a buyer and seller on ebay has just become a total waste of my time. Back to retail where I can see a person across the country and deal with him or her as a human being, not an electronic entity who has nothing to offer but a good price....We shall see what ebay becomes after this latest move, good luck to you...Russ
booklooker.de may work too. There are fixed prices however so it's not as much fun as ebay.
Thanks for the tip! The site looks promising, although the prices seem a bit high overall. Anyway, interesting resource.
Ok, I'll act as the troll here
 I honestly don't see this as a problem. You can filter out the "fake" auctions fairly easily, and you can even specify a price range if that's what troubles you.I don't think "professional" sellers are responsible for the diminishing amount of private auctions; I'd say that has more to do with average buyers getting fed-up with snipers and the "postage cost" scams, and giving up with Ebay altogether for those reasons. Less "small" users == less private sellers, so the "pro" sellers stand out more.
Try buchpreis24.de - they list the best price of used books you can get in germany (and they include new ones as well for foreign-language books that are not price-bound) from places like booklooker, abebooks, used ones on amazon etc. Oh, they check ebay as well.
eBay reads your blog apparently:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060720/ap_on_hi_te/earns_ebay_2
Both buying and selling on eBay have changed dramatically. As sellers, we are just a small part of the eBay exodus. eBay has shot iteself somewhere above its feet. There are lots of other auction site picking up where eBay has failed. We are looking at eCrater.com and eBid.net for our business. Best of luck. There's some really good sites. eBay just isn't good for buyers or sellers anymore. They are making too much money to change-but that's very likely to backfire.
Hi, I agree with you entirely, all is not as it used to be at ebay. You may wish to browse at Ebid.net, which is mainly private sellers and there are many books on sale.
Regards Les Smith |
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