eBay - Wild West
Dave99B
Posts: 8,702 ✭✭✭✭✭
Many of us have lamented about how eBay has lost it's excitement, at least when compared to the early days. Seems like these days you see the same widgets/dreck listed over and over and over. Or you see nice coins listed at 50% over price guide. As the great B.B. King would say, 'the thrill is gone'.
My last four 8% eBuck promos have gone unused, which is sad. Couldn't find anything. Bummer!
Looking at eBay stock, it's been DEAD MONEY for 5 years....it's gone nowhere. Flatlining.... Might as well leave your money under the damn mattress.
Something has to change! I wish they would add a new auction area that requires listing items starting at .01 cent, with no reserve. Cut fees in this new area to the absolute bone. Call it the Wild West This would give me a reason to at least go look again. We need a change. I can't take it anymore!
Rant over -
Dave
Comments
Thank you ebay for being the most awesome, wonderful place on earth to buy and sell coins. You are the best on the planet for coin collectors who want to put effort into the hunt.
Ebay even allows one to build an awesome business from NOTHING with just hard work and knowledge.
Ebay is better than ever today.
You know, you can buy more than coins on ebay. When I can't find a coin to buy under the promo I can always finds something I was gonna pick up at the store. . . and always at a cheaper price after earning the bonus bucks. The last time it was hot tub chemicals and supplies.
No Way Out: Stimulus and Money Printing Are the Only Path Left
I buy the thing I would of drove to the Mall to pick up. I just cant see myself shopping in those anymore. By the time I get into the mall, I am ready to head for the exit.
Best place to buy !
Bronze Associate member
I used my bucks to buy none coin items, once in a while I can used bucks to buy coin but it is getting harder and harder to do that now.
I use my ebucks to buy inventory.
This one was "free" with the last ebucks certificate.
I have no issues with the existing areas. Leave them there; same price structure, format, etc. Simply add a third tab.
Auction / Buy It Now / Wild West
Life is about choices, baby. Come on eBay, give me a reason to come back!
Have fun,
Dave
(Stifling yawn)
Referring to the ebay bashing threads?
Or that you are missing just how awesome ebay is?
Well, for most collectors, errors aside, there is no more "hunt", there are fixed prices (well the junk silver coins sometimes have auctions). Like Dave, I remember the exciting earIy days of Ebay. I started collecting exclusively because of Ebay. Auction wars were common on almost every nice coin. There are no more auction wars, or auctions for the most part. We now have Eternitycoin that has somehow managed to buy up every cleaned and problematic coin in the western hemisphere and now lists it at full retail.
Every once in a while there is something decent. I think David Kahn is the only consistent dealer that lets coins roar in a true auction. Heritage is where I buy my coins now.
Ebay has been mismanaged since Meg Whitman departed over a decade ago. The will end up in the junk heap alongside Montgomery Ward, ToysRus and Sears.
Too bad as they were a vibrant and exciting place to start or expand a business. For the first several years Ebay truly provided a level playing field and a simple and easy to understand and use platform. Integrating Paypal was a brilliant and valuable for the buyers as well as sellers.
Seems that success was uncomfortable to management, so a mishmash of promotions and discounts, along with doubled and tripled seller fees made for a nightmarish experience that sent the casual seller to full service auctioneers for the same or lesser cost.
Spinning off Paypal was a poorly thought out move to appease greenmailer Carl Icahn, but will be the penultimate nail in the figurative demise of Ebay.
I could not even sell a nice GSA CC for 199.00 tonight....no bids. Not a dog either.
bob
Error coins might sell well on E-Bay because they are an area of collecting most coin collectors have limited interest in. I only rarely ever see error coins for sale in coin auctions during my travels. E-Bay might be the only game in town for those collectors.
Most collectors I sell to on E-Bay want to buy at a price point 10 to 20% under Grey Sheet bid. Most of the things I buy are in that range as well. After paying fees to buy and then fees to E-Bay to sell my take is pennies.
People asking 50% more than bid without outstanding color or rarity are pissing into the wind. These are the coins that get re-posted month after month. OP is right that a shake up would be helpful. Unfortunately, a coin starting at .1 that costs a hundred bucks might be bid to $20 two minutes before it closes. Most Sellers know they're going to lose their a$$. Why would I want to put myself through that?
What the market needs is lower commissions and more collector interest...........a rising market. People spending their disposable income on the garbage the mint sells doesn't help the cause.
1879?
I just hate it when I forget about an auction in my watch list and it ends at a price lower than I would have paid.
Life gets in the way sometimes.
Collector, occasional seller
Well, if I forget how awesome eBay is, you will remind me.
Believe it or not, collectors and dealers somehow managed to conduct business before eBay (the glittery, warm and fuzzy- kittens-doggies-ice-cream cones-rainbows all combined into one great pulsating package, filled with love, goodness and benevolence that is the greatness of all things that ever were or ever will be) existed.
yeah, how'd you know? Guess everyone thought it was too cheap to bid, 'eh?
bob
i maxed out at 500 e bucks 45 days before the quarter ended, so I never bought anything for 45 days. I never got the last e bay bucks promo because you have to be a active buyer. I don't even use best offers selling anymore because most people on e bay want something for nothing
Great ideas original poster! I wish there was a “fresh listing” area or search that cuts out relisted items. I am personally tired of filtering through the 1,000 overpriced nickels sitting dormant for over 2 years. Ermagerd!
https://www.autismforums.com/media/albums/acrylic-colors-by-rocco.291/
Agree regarding a fresh coin search option.
I remember those 'early days' of EBay. Some nice coins at nice prices and few, if any, pirates. Things change ARCO and in this case not for the better.
You know, I have been thinking the same thing for just about as long. Several recent bucks offers went unused and when I got my last bucks award at the beginning of this month it took me until 2 days ago to find something I wanted that was reasonably priced and I was searching every new NGC and PCGS listing every day, often multiple times a day. There are still pleasant surprises here and there, but the dry spells are winning.
I would agree that Ebay isn't as "exciting" as it used to be for various reasons. However I think it's still pretty good, and i still enjoy it.
One thing I'd like to see is a seller search based on feedback, particularly on auctions. When i'm looking for an item to try to get a good deal on it, I hate scrolling thru these mega-seller auctions with their shilled bids which I have no desire to partake in their charade.
Ebay was a lot of fun in the early years....Never sold there, but bought stuff all the time. Not just coins...The coin market on ebay now is dicey.... lots of fakes and bad pictures. I still purchase other products though, still good deals and hard to find items. Cheers, RickO
Everyone would benefit from a "Time on market" indicator.
The overpriced stuff would be far easier to surmise from that one element.
IMO, sellers would lower prices faster to increase sales and thus.... commissions to eBay.
I give coins away there. Sorry you missed them.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
Thank you for the coins, I took great photos of the coins I got from you, Then doubled the price and sold them in a few days.
Ebay is so Awesome.
You have a new bid sir!
https://www.autismforums.com/media/albums/acrylic-colors-by-rocco.291/
I know how you feel but, in truth, had you bid you still very well may have lost the coin anyway. Who's to say how high the successful bidder would have gone had you been in the game? In any event, this is a big part of the reason I use a snipe program. Set and forget.
Smitten with DBLCs.
I can see both sides of the argument, a lot of times, searching for a deal is a waste of time sifting through lots of overpriced listings, however, once in a while I turn up something wonderful for a screaming deal. You just gotta be there right when the listing goes up!
My YouTube Channel
You too?
Why don't we just give them to each other, lol