Time To Say Goodbye To eBay?

morganedge

londondealer wrote: »

Somebody bigger and better will hopefully come along and give eBay a run for its money.

I've been hoping that for a while now!

I'm another one on the verge of quitting Ebay.
I'm not a business, but for quite a while now, i've been in the fortunate position of being given rather expensive brand new, branded clothing items free of charge! (usually just 1 or 2 items per week or fortnight)
I thought it would be a great little side income to sell them on Ebay, but my God.... I agree with all of your points.

The Ebay fees take the biscuit.
Buyers can get away with murder, and outright scamming people.
The world is getting stupider and stupider. Non-payers, people being unable to read etc...
Postage costs are through the roof!

I'm in the process of making my first facebook sale as we speak (£150 leather Jacket from topshop)

I'm not quitting Ebay just yet, but am winding it down

StevieJ

It is mostly cheaper to buy on Amazon.

prowla

Funky_Bold_Ribena wrote: »

I had one buyer, who messages me after they received their parcel,asking why I had put stamps on the item, as it had said 'free postage' in the listing.

Some mothers do indeed have 'em.

That is funny!:)

RFW

londondealer wrote: »

Somebody bigger and better will hopefully come along and give eBay a run for its money.

No one bigger and better would use the Ebay business model, it isn't that good a proposition. Their customer service is appalling but to be good would probably end up costing them too much and put the fees even higher.

Facebook seems to be working for some, but if it starts getting bigger they will need to start policing it which will mean costs which will be passed on in fees. Google started payments and ended up being more expensive than Paypal.

Niche sites will keep popping up and that remains the best way to compete with Amazon and Ebay.

Brooker_Dave

londondealer wrote: »

Somebody bigger and better will hopefully come along and give eBay a run for its money.

Alibaba is bigger than ebay and amazon combined:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2012/09/09/alibaba-exec-brags-sales-better-than-amazon-ebay-combined/

have to hope that they'll launch a european auction website.

virgil_tracy

anyone remember Yahoo ? that was a great auction site , and there were no fees .

... and then ebay bought them up

RFW

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Alibaba is bigger than ebay and amazon combined:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2012/09/09/alibaba-exec-brags-sales-better-than-amazon-ebay-combined/

have to hope that they'll launch a european auction website.

The Chinese domestic market is much different to anything they could do in Europe. They do already have Europe sites but struggle to get the sellers (probably because it's difficult to find pricing). I can't see that they would be any cheaper or less strict with sellers than Ebay or Amazon?
I don't know much about Alibaba but I believe they make all sellers wait for payment until buyers confirm receipt.

Mistral001

Ebay started as an auction site, but is now mostly just retail (by it now). My guess is it is 1/5 auction and 4/5 retail.

Ebay should either go auction-only or at least have a separate site for auctions in my view. In business terms its unique selling point is the auction bit. Ebay forget that at your peril I say.

Brooker_Dave

RFW wrote: »

The Chinese domestic market is much different to anything they could do in Europe. They do already have Europe sites but struggle to get the sellers (probably because it's difficult to find pricing). I can't see that they would be any cheaper or less strict with sellers than Ebay or Amazon?
I don't know much about Alibaba but I believe they make all sellers wait for payment until buyers confirm receipt.

What are their european sites called?

RFW

Mistral001 wrote: »

Ebay started as an auction site, but is now mostly just retail (by it now). My guess is it is 1/5 auction and 4/5 retail.

Actual listings are much closer than that, revenue is and almost always has been different.
The free 99p personal auction listings keep the auction side pretty high.
Auctions aren't that good a money spinner, only as a hook to get people spending. Ebay have always been consistent in knowing they need to keep auctions going and won't be stopping them.