Ebay is dead for me

soolin

RFW wrote: »

Not just the fact of not wanting to buy them and hoard them, they used to hold and increase in value. Someone who paid £200 for a box set of videos or DVDs may very well find they aren't worth £10 now, it doesn't encourage collectors or casual buyers.

I have a lot of aquintances in the sci fi circuit and still get contacted by people to help them sell on their collections. Many scrimped and saved believing these items would be their pension- and I find it hard to say it is worthless.

Even Star Wars stuff mint in boxes that many TV programmes talked up to be the antiques of the future - now worth pennies- people made the mistake of thinking because one or two action figures or collectables were worth money (and still are in some cases) that they all would be.

At auction no more than 2 months ago I saw an entire set of Star Trek binders, lovingly collected insert by insert over years- the collector probably paid well in excess of £1500 for them , now going unsold at £7. I have advised my friends who collect to sell anything now that still has a value before it drops further. This old stuff means nothing to the young generation- what do they want with the original Star Trek items?

I still make mistakes myself, I bought a whole load of framed stills and film cuttings from the original Star wars (can't think what they are called- but basically a single piece of film with the associated still) beautiful frames and I paid pennies for them. Turned out that even at pennies I overpaid, so I have a couple on the wall in a spare room and I sold the rest of for their frames basically.

In fact I am still chatting to someone via Facebok messages (and must get back to them!) about something they paid over £500 for at a charity auction . This is their nest egg, the actor had died very young and suddenly and this was a one off unique item . The collector is now at an age where they are looking to turn their assets into cash with a view to early retirement due to redundancy- and frankly I can se eno market at all for this item, it isn't that it is too expensive (he is hoping for several thousand) but that no one has a clue anymore who this actor was- and care even less.

campdave

Sales down about 20% on normal this week - though they are steady during the day and overnight, but evenings are really quiet.

Best match seems to have changed in my area - ebay has newly listed items coming above items with many more sales, and there are a few "private" sellers flooding the listings with the free listings they get which is pushing other listings down. I can udnerstand a boost for auction visibility but sticking newly listing items near the top of best match defies the description.

I sell mostly to teenagers and students, I always see a dip in the summer and putting some of this dip down to revising instead of shopping. I've been investigating web hosting to start my own shop, and probably will open one over the summer.

hubb

Well it's too dramatic for me to be a natural fall off. Compared to last years it's like a switch has been flicked from on to off. EVERY auction I have in private selling has NO sales. Ditto for business. My prices are the same as they have been for badges in the last 2 years. If my feedback was dodgey I would understand but it's 100%

Ebay is dead !

RFW

hubb wrote: »

Ebay is dead !

Based on your experience of selling badges? I'll ask again, how do you know your badges are still popular if you aren't selling any?

Strapped

I put my prices UP drastically this weekend, and had my strongest sales for ages. :huh: Sometimes I don't understand ebay (not that I'm complaining).

RFW

Strapped wrote: »

I put my prices UP drastically this weekend, and had my strongest sales for ages. :huh: Sometimes I don't understand ebay (not that I'm complaining).

Depends what you're selling but increasing prices is often a surprisingly good tactic.

$0.02billion down on estimates, down to the UK badge market
http://tamebay.com/2013/04/ebay-revenue-blamed-on-uk-under-performance.html

Brooker_Dave

RFW wrote: »

Depends what you're selling but increasing prices is often a surprisingly good tactic.

$0.02billion down on estimates, down to the UK badge market
http://tamebay.com/2013/04/ebay-revenue-blamed-on-uk-under-performance.html

Ebay always blame others for their own shortcomings.

Meddling with the platform is the reason their revenue is down.

ballisticbrian

I haven't read the whole thread - attention defficit, but it's a quiet time of year guys, went in the post office yesterday (Monday) and there was silence, and I'm suprised there wasn't a howling wind and the occasional tumble weed flying by.

lindseykim13

Mines pretty good and steady if i'm honest, I do notice though that some sellers are still charging the royal mail prices and are not bothering to search out the cheaper options so that might be in my favour.

Lifeforms

Not from a seller, but as a buyer of anything and everything on ebay I just find it such a frustrating experience.

I struggle to find things that I would before. I search and get irrelevant results, or a mishmash and therefore get a huge amount of items that is not what I wanted, or want to trawl through. Prices on things are stupid like plus sized clothing. You can still get a few bargains if you can whittle your way through the gumpf, but otherwise some stuff I see dearer than the original price, and often worn, not new. Or magically new with washed out washing instruction labels, and no shop tags.

I give up with using it to find stuff. Before I'd search for anything I needed because it was cheaper than buying in a store, even with postage, or easier to get, but I cannot get around the search to give me what I ask for. The things I'd use to make it more relevant has been taken away, like * on words, and for the life of me, when I search in the bar, why do I get auctions back with nothing in common, or does not have the search words in the auction titles.

There is also so much carp on there as well, predominately coming from china, or far east which often I don't want to buy, or wade through. By using an uk site I expect UK results, and don't want to have to spend 10 mins going through all the options to find the results that are appropriate.

I dunno if this is my lacking in searching, or I just don't have the desire to trawl ebay any more, but it kills me from buying on it, and more often I'll amazon stuff now, or google shopping it, even from other sites.