Ebay sucks for selling. However, for buying, it can’t be beat.
My mom is an old school Ebayer. She has had a small home business since 1999 on Ebay selling mostly small antiques (jewelry, clothes, dishes, etc).
She says that Ebay has "flatlined" because there are way too many people on there now. When she started in 1999, there were 2 - 3 million listings on Ebay. She says now that there are 137 million.
If you know what you’re doing, selling on eBay is not a problem. I suspect a lot of these complaints are from people who have no idea what they’re doing.
I didn’t see anywhere in here that maybe the lack of sales was due to the poor economy and the gargantuan amount of uncertainty Obama’s policies are injecting into the economy for all businesses and consumers.
I quit using eBay when it went to crap a few years ago. Too many rule changes, too anti-gun, and too much protection of bad sellers. Plus, I hate PayPal.
What makes it worse for buyers is that there is no way to permanently opt out of foreign listings, that I have been able to figure out. Every time you do a search, you have to go to the left-hand side and re-search US or North America only. It is maddening. I am not going to buy anything from a Chinese (or Thailand) vendor. Period. The only place I might even consider buying from outside of North America is the UK, and an irresistible opportunity to do that hasn’t come up yet. Like much else in our world, the Chinese have screwed up something that used to work just fine.
Ebay was cool when it was a collection of mom and pops that typically policed themselves. I haven’t visited in years, though, as it has become one gnarly mess that looks more like scammers than genuine buyers and sellers.
They died from their own popularity.
listings from eBay China (whose sellers pay no fees and consequently flood the site with unlimited listings of the same items)
Does anybody know why sellers from China are getting a break like this?
I’ve never had much luck with eBay. When I buy something, it’s often a scam. When I sell something, it always goes for 99 cents.
I would never ever never consider buying OR selling on ebay or any other listing site. I just don’t trust any of the Moe, Larrys or Curlys who use them.
Name your favorite Ebay alternative auction site!
Selling on Ebay is the absolute worst place to try to sell your product. There is so much to choose from that you get next to nothing for your stuff if you even get a bid at all. You cannot leave a negative for a buyer no matter how bad the buyer is. The buyer however can leave a negative for a seller no matter if its the truth or not. They remove your listings for practically nothing yet let scammers continue and tell you tough if you get took by one. Suppose you find an item at an estate sale and it is marked on the bottom. You list it and call it by whatever brand name is on it, then someone complains that it is a copy, ebay doesn’t even investigate, they will just remove everyone of your listings and ban your account and keep everything you have in your Paypal account. My daughter is one of the most honest decent people there is and she has so much trouble trying to sell collectibles. Ebay used to be a really good place to sell, not anymore.
I gave up on eBay 2 years ago. Was a powerseller with 12,000+ feedback. Fees kept increasing and rules kept changing, then the stuff mentioned in the article. Took note, and realized I was no longer really making any money.
The$3000 a month they got from me is now a thing of the past.
In the early days eBay was loaded with items everyday people inherited or dragged out of storage in their attics, closets and cellars and put up for auction at reasonable prices. Sort of like the early days of Flea Markets.
And now, just like local Flea Markets, there are fewer and fewer of those sellers and more and more “store front” and “power” sellers pushing the same foreign manufactured junk as 100 or 1,000 other sellers.
the last few years, ebay hasn't been much of a resource anymore. I commonly find the things I'm looking for cheaper elsewhere and from a reputable business with much lower risk of getting hozed.
I've gotten ripped by a few sellers over the years, and ebay, regardless of their advertising, is not there to back you. I even purchased one item (an aimpoint sight) that was advertised as "brand new condition". when it arrived, it was super-glued together. 3 months of waiting and emailing back and forth and ebay AND paypal sided with the seller... and provided no reasoning behind such an idiotic decision.
Another incident was when I paid for an item along with 45.00 for 2-day shipping. I received the item via postal mail 37 days later (From Texas). Again, ebay and paypal were absolutely no help.
I highly recommend you spend your money elsewhere.. unless you simply like the thrill of doing high-risk things with your money. It's just not worth it.
In the end, I've had to file with my credit card company and forcefully retrieve my money every single time... and they are a hassle to deal with too.
For the sellers there were fees upon fees upon fees added to every sale . . . and fees for items that do not sell (you really have to know what you are doing) And the ironic thing about it is the fact that the seller does all the work . . . eBay just sits in the background collecting their piece of the pie.
Every now and then I go on eBay to buy something (mostly used photo equipment) but I haven't sold anything on eBay for close to 7 years now. It's just not worth my trouble.
I have a very nice diamond engagement ring to sell, but don’t want to list it on Ebay.