What is the life-cycle of an eBay shop?

RFW

keaton wrote: »

There needs to be pretty much a carbon copy of the old eBay, where anyone can pretty much sell anything they want with it fair for not just the buyer but the seller too. Thing is it would need a heck of a lot of money behind it, I keep hearing that ebid, bonanza & 11 main are all getting bigger and better and will soon rival eBay, I hope its true, one site should not have a monopoly over the internet.

Ebid has been the same size pretty much for ever, it doesn't grow. 11 Main is going for pre approved sellers and going on a very slow approach to the US market initially. Bonanza doesn't look much, but I know little about it. Google are putting the money into "shopping", which should be having an impact in August.

I was in contact with someone who was starting a marketplace in the UK last autumn. They seemed to be doing everything right and I was considering helping them but there was nothing left in their pot to get me on board, a few months later and they seem to have disappeared.

An old style Ebay auction site is, in my opinion, no longer possible for anyone to do even if they wanted to.

sequence

I don't know why people always want "the old ebay". It really wasn't that great. I much prefer ebay in it's current form. If only they could fix all of the bugs, and get more buyers, it would be almost perfect.

keaton

sequence wrote: »

I don't know why people always want "the old ebay". It really wasn't that great. I much prefer ebay in it's current form. If only they could fix all of the bugs, and get more buyers, it would be almost perfect.

So are you a fan of the DSR rating system & the defect system?

Whats are your thoughts on how easy nearly always sides with the buyer and often lets them rip off sellers?

mrcol1000

keaton wrote: »

So are you a fan of the DSR rating system & the defect system?

Whats are your thoughts on how easy nearly always sides with the buyer and often lets them rip off sellers?

To be fair they don't always. If you can prove delivery then you will win non delivery cases.

It also is easy to see the sellers viewpoint all the time if you are a seller. Imagine you buy something, it never arrives. You claim non-delivery. Ebay then tells you that the seller said they sent it, you must be lying and you can kiss goodbye to your £20.

Ebay needs buyers and sellers but if buyers do not trust Ebay and feel they will be ripped off then they won't use it. It will then be like selling on EBid. All these sellers keep saying how bad it is to sell on Ebay and they aren't selling anymore. Yet Ebay seems to struggle on with these handful of sellers who throw their toys out the pram and refuse to play anymore.

sequence

keaton wrote: »

So are you a fan of the DSR rating system & the defect system?

Whats are your thoughts on how easy nearly always sides with the buyer and often lets them rip off sellers?

Yes, I am. It's implementation isn't perfect but overall it's a better solution than the previous. Again, sellers will get ripped off from time to time, but yes overall it's beneficial to ebay to protect it's buyers. Sellers are 10 a penny, buyers are not, and they need looking after, even if that means some sellers get scammed.

soolin

keaton wrote: »

So are you a fan of the DSR rating system & the defect system?

Whats are your thoughts on how easy nearly always sides with the buyer and often lets them rip off sellers?

In the good old days though negs and neutrals were handed out almost as a default form of communication - now negs and neuts are rare.

keaton

sequence wrote: »

Yes, I am. It's implementation isn't perfect but overall it's a better solution than the previous. Again, sellers will get ripped off from time to time, but yes overall it's beneficial to ebay to protect it's buyers. Sellers are 10 a penny, buyers are not, and they need looking after, even if that means some sellers get scammed.

I can see where you're coming from and yes the buyer should be looked after but so should the seller, eBay seem to have less and less respect for sellers going more towards big companies,

Sellers are the bread and butter of eBay, I have trouble seeing why they seem to dislike there sellers so much.

I understand buyers should be able to trust the seller, but tricking the buyer into opening a case when they simply wanted to ask a question (a major thing many sellers are unhappy with) is just unfair.

If the buyer opens a case the seller should be allowed to correct the issue without defect, only if it goes to eBay as the seller is unhelpful should it be a defect.

Brooker_Dave

sequence wrote: »

I don't know why people always want "the old ebay".

You could buy whatever you wanted and sell whatever you wanted, and we all earned well out of it.

Now only ebay earns well out of it.

keaton

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

You could buy whatever you wanted and sell whatever you wanted, and we all earned well out of it.

Now only ebay earns well out of it.

Exactly, as a buyer old eBay was just fine, you knew who not to buy off if they had too much negative, you could chat to sellers and not feel like they would be punished for doing so and if the item never turned up you contacted seller or eBay.

Now eBay seem to want to sellers how to sell, even though eBay themselves don't ( until they get on board with aegis if rumors are to be believed).

EBay should just leave sellers to sell and only be punishing those sellers that are genuinely screwing people over.

ballisticbrian

Funny thing is, when I posted this, I mainly had in mind not the changes coming through the pipeline from eBay HQ (which I know is the subject of much debate and disgruntlement on this site), but the sustainability and profitability of an eBay shop in light of the harsh realities of competition and the constant flood of new sellers.


I don't know what the answer is as online retailing is still in it's infancy.


The problem of sellers undercutting one another by pennies and the buyers inability to actually see the quality of an item is a harsh mix.


In my opinion, it leads to the continual downward push on quality and will only end up with eBay being the equivalent of a slight seconds and damaged goods shop, and sometimes downright dangerous.