Ebay has lost it's way. What to do.

jago25_98

I remember back in the early days how ebay really got our attention. You could sell next to anything back then. Used panties, breast milk, whatever.

It was great because before that point the everyday person just didn't have access to this size of market.
It was a revolution and actually I think it has done a lot of improve our lives and bring the price of things down actually. It also allowed people to buy things they wouldn't have been able to before. That's an important thing to remember as well as the price action for moneysavers.

Unfortunately this free market has and is being eroded. Increasingly small sellers are frequently complaining of preference to bigger sellers. There is a large swathe of things you can no longer sell and many of them make absolutely no sense at all why those restrictions are there. Also, judgements on the anticompetitive nature of Paypal with ebay in the USA have not reached the UK and as such the market for competition in payment processors here remains artificially restricted reducing both service and increasing costs.
Further, listings are being automatically scanned for trigger words. "Hate paypal" is one example - if you write this you will be heavily penalised. Understandable .... but this scanning will continue with more false positives and it's only getting worse.

I morn the loss of ebay heavily.

The market is becoming less of a bizarre for ordinary people and more of a meta-supermarket. This is not what Britain needs right now. We need access to the cheapest things. What we need is the ability to efficiently trade with one another freely and uninhibited. We cannot afford pay to restrict things in order to reduce crime or good taste - we cannot afford to pay that hidden massive expense right now. Can you believe me when I say that even a cursory look at economics both now and in the history both recent and ancient we can see that wealth flows to liberal areas and away from bureaucracy and regulation.

As a buyer you are shielded from all these things. So imagine this, dare to dream:

Imagine there was a competing site called "Compare the auction".
When you search for what you want the results on ebay as listed side by side with other sites.
Due to the increased competition of these the prices are vastly reduced. Verified and unverified sellers are marked out but you have the choice to take the risk if you want to. You can see results from different sites across the globe.
You can also choose to pay using Paypal or PerfectMoney or Skrill or a Bitcoin escrow provider and as a result this saves you a further 5% in costs.
You buy whatever you want and you can see items that would normally be restricted on ebay listed on other sites across the world. You are also allowed to search for a sat nav for your car by searching for TomTom. You can choose to go with a unverified, possibly fake TomTom if you like but the main thing is that you were able to use the word that you wanted to find a sat nav which in plain English is called a TomTom. Or a Hoover. Or Perspex. Or Selotape. That is, trademarks which have entered the dictionary in everyday use are reclaimed from censorship for your use as a customer but it is your option if you want to use the word that way or not.
Then you also have dutch auctions too.

Markets have brought peace to the world throughout history. This is one example where I think the market needs support. The shortcomings of ebay have led to competitors but these have only made in roads in specialist areas.

Etsy. Mercadolibre. TradeMe. CraigsList. ebid. Gumtree. QXL. Bonanza. Webstore. Amazon. Bivver. Bitmit. Google Checkout stores. Oztion. Preloved. Vivastreet. Swapz. mvptraders. Loot. Bivver.

Many of these are useful but ebay is still impossible to avoid for most things being sold. They are all a victim of economy of scale. They're just too diverse. You can't search for the same thing at 20 sites... and ebay just keep on buying up any competition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_eBay

What is needed is a way for people to have their own site with a liberal scope for payment but at the same time something that unifies. Any competition against ebay needs some help.

I think this subject is much more important than it first appears.

Jfalc

Yes, you are right in many points. For this reason I prefer Alibaba instead of Ebay now. It's popularity is growing fast.

RFW

Success and growth will always cause change. You appear to want Ebay to be less successful and mould to your way of thinking.

Whatever you did with Ebay there will now always be a large section of people that aren't happy about it.

Several of the Ebay competitors you mention pre date Ebay and several are no longer trading.

Apart from that I'm not really sure what you are talking about, it appears to be to move Ebay back into being a less successful business with no profits ('selling cheaper goods', 'no restrictions') and one that consistently breaks laws.

usa1

I think you are right. For some reason my products sell better on Vivastreet then eBay. I think eBay wants big commercial sellers, not the 99p ones.

I will try Alibaba too

soolin

I am surprised that anyone considers ebay favours business sellers over private ones, as a business my 'private' registered competitors get free listings and a different returns policy - I on the other hand have to pay for all my listings and indeed from next month my basic auction listings will be doubling.

By all means look at Alibaba, it is not the same type of business at all- mainly far east selling fakes and with quite a poor reputation. Also remember that without paypal your buyers may well not want to risk buying.

I have sold on other sites, I still have a presence on Amazon although my goods are not suitable for that site so I cannot expand that opportunity. I also have an ebid account which has been in the UK longer than Ebay- but there are no buyers there. In the past I have held accounts with about 8 other auction sites, all of which have either folded or been taken over by ebay.

ballisticbrian

I agree with a lot said, however, the need for rules and regulation is clear as well. Do you really want every seller spamming your search results or adding "50 shades of grey elvis Olympics London Harry Potter" to the end of every auction listing?

soolin

ballisticbrian wrote: »

I agree with a lot said, however, the need for rules and regulation is clear as well. Do you really want every seller spamming your search results or adding "50 shades of grey elvis Olympics London Harry Potter" to the end of every auction listing?

Good point, the argument for not using paypal is also one that worries me. Yes I would like the opportunity to remove the 'right' to use it for my collected items, but as a buyer if a seller was not using a safe method of taking my payment, one that gave me my rights under UK law- then I would walk away.

RFW

usa1 wrote: »

I think you are right. For some reason my products sell better on Vivastreet then eBay. I think eBay wants big commercial sellers, not the 99p ones.

I will try Alibaba too

Have you been on Alibaba? No problem with it, it can be useful, but it isn't a free for all, sell any old tat for 99p site, quite the opposite.

custardy

ballisticbrian wrote: »

I agree with a lot said, however, the need for rules and regulation is clear as well. Do you really want every seller spamming your search results or adding "50 shades of grey elvis Olympics London Harry Potter" to the end of every auction listing?

yup,or in my case
if i am looking for a bike frame by distance (a regular occurrence for my 'habit')
The first 9 pages are filled with listing for bearings by a seller who constantly lists them in the frame category
even worse he lives just up the road from me!

RFW

ballisticbrian wrote: »

I agree with a lot said, however, the need for rules and regulation is clear as well. Do you really want every seller spamming your search results or adding "50 shades of grey elvis Olympics London Harry Potter" to the end of every auction listing?

I never liked the title but it was a great movie;)

soolin

RFW wrote: »

Have you been on Alibaba? No problem with it, it can be useful, but it isn't a free for all, sell any old tat for 99p site, quite the opposite.

I assumed there is a different site to alibaba than the one I am registered on.

All I get is Mega sellers offering me 1,000 items for 30 cents each with shipping quotes from China. Is there a small auction site as well then where UK sales are possible for private sellers?