Ebays days are numbered

wullieb1

I think alot of the problem is "I got it from eBay" syndrome.

Don't get me wrong i use eBay, alot, and i always do my homework before i bid on aything from eBay. If i can buy it cheaper elswhere then i will. I will not exclusively buy from eBay.

As an example i recently purchased a mobile phone from a well known high street store for just over 100 quid. I done my usual cheacking on eBay and found that these phones were still going for between 120-150 quid. I mean cmon why pay the extra for it.

grex9101

wullie, i think a lot of people still get caught up in a "bidding frenzy" for things when they could well get something cheaper. maybe this will die out over time

Spilt_Milk

Yeah thats true.

I needed a new gear knob for my car and saw one on ebay the other week - the bidding went crazy it went for thrirty quid more than the price of it new from the manufacturer.

But that's the nature of any auction wether its online or not. Bidding frenzies are common place.

seabiscuit_2

there is still magic in ebay bidding wars - those who dont / cant be bothered to check the retail value of items

and there are still bargains to be had - i can find things half the price or less then shops / internet discount shops on ebay

and conversely ive sold things recently i bought from ebay for up to twice what i paid

the moral is - always check prices fully before bidding and dont get carried away and oh yes - pick items that are still popular BUT arent flooded out like mp3 covers :rotfl:

lush_walrus

Personally, I think if Ebay does demise it will be due to the fraudulant activity on there and sellers getting fed up with it. I had a bad experience recently, and since then I have been asking around friends, and checking on here and Im certainly not alone. Too many nasties on there for my liking, its all too easy to buy, sell and pretend that you havent received something when you have. So for me, its all over before it begun!

Contains_Mild_Peril

Fraud on eBay is one of its main problems, and a reason why some people prefer to buy or sell lesewhere even they're not making/saving as much money. EBay will still collect a minimum of 15p listing fee for every listing, regardless of whether or not the item sells, so if sellers for certain items outnumber buyers it's not going to hurt eBay too much until the ellers realise that they're wasting their 15p's (or more). When they do, fewer items will be listed and equilibrium will be restored, even if it's hard to make a profit because items often attract only 1 bidder each. Some private sellers rarely list, don't research much and will list without realising that the market is somewhat saturated.
I think eBay will always (at least for many decades to come) be the place for buying and selling specialist items such as Spilt Milk's synthesisers. There's not much danger of the marketplace becoming flooded with rareties.

Jolly_2

Is ebay the only auction site on the web?

soolin

Jolly wrote:

Is ebay the only auction site on the web?

It's the only one that has any real activity. There are a few others, ebid springs to mind and I know that several regulars on here signed up there a few months back but I'm not sure they had a great deal of success.

Soo

Contains_Mild_Peril

EBay is so well-established as the leading online auction site that I can't really see it succumbing to competition from other sites: it's just so much bigger than the rest combined. However, logically, at least some of the smaller ones should be able to gain a foothold. Since it's well known that far fewer people use other auction sites, customers will start browsing them looking for bargains without competition from other bidders. If they find such bargains, word will spread, more customers will come and this, in turn, will encourage more sellers to list there, thus the sites will be able to eke out their teensy market share.
Ebay don't have a complete monopoly, but their market share is so colossal they almost might as well have.

soolin

Contains_Mild_Peril wrote:

EBay is so well-established as the leading online auction site that I can't really see it succumbing to competition from other sites: it's just so much bigger than the rest combined. However, logically, at least some of the smaller ones should be able to gain a foothold. Since it's well known that far fewer people use other auction sites, customers will start browsing them looking for bargains without competition from other bidders. If they find such bargains, word will spread, more customers will come and this, in turn, will encourage more sellers to list there, thus the sites will be able to eke out their teensy market share.
Ebay don't have a complete monopoly, but their market share is so colossal they almost might as well have.

There is however less competition to ebay than there used to be as the smaller auctions fall by the wayside. Even fairly large auction sites like Freeserve auctions (where I started out) sold out to ebay in the end as they just couldn't get any buyers. I recall the 'good' old days of Freeserve auctions, tens of thousands of items listed and maybe 1 item selling in every few hundred, if you were lucky. The problem was they didn't charge a listing fee so everyone listed junk and anything worth buying was hidden in pages and pages of worthless toot.

There are some tiny auctions that have been around for years, check out http://www.friday-auction.co.uk/ , sometimes you get as many as 100 items listed on there at any one time.

Soo