Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Ebay is thining out. Where have all the sellers gone?

techound1

techound1

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 3, 2006
1,977
7
Ebay has turned into a bit of a fraud-fest for used computers and both sellers and buyers seem to be fleeing like rats from a ship. Where have the good sellers gone (I know some are still there, but selection is really down from even a few months ago)? Or, where are you now looking for used computers and odd accessories? I'd love a centralized place to go for parts and other used stuff and I'm missing my fix :p
 
They have been hurting lately, eBay that is. I've been reading some articles that says they are losing traffic fast, not sure why though.
 
High fees.

Stupid people falling for phishing scams = hacked accounts -> high number of fraud.

Unable to give chronic bad user negatives = unable to detect bad users.

Craigslist = free. Cash in hand works much better.
 
Alot of sellers were upset when the implemented the new feedback rules. If a buyer pays withing 7 days, there is no possible way the seller can give any feedback but positive.
 
You may be right. I was thinking about this the other day and thought it was me just being spooked by all the scammers. But if others are noticing it too maybe it is getting worse. It seems like ebay is over run with bad apples. Its hard to do anything anymore. Its not just the sellers its the buyers too. Im not dealing with Ebay any more for large items. Only items worth less then 50 usd.
 
I know whyest they go, but not wherest they go...

(and craigs list is great if you live near a major metro area; in the boonies, not so much...)
 
Taxes

Some states a collecting tax now on money you make on ebay and I know a few people who stoped selling because of this. I think it's wrong for most people to have to pay taxes on things they sell on ebay at least when they are reselling there old items. I see it like this, I work and I pay taxes, I buy something and I pay tax with money that was already taxed to get a item, then when i dont want it anymore and I sell it at a loss, I have to pay tax on the money that I got from selling a item I took a loss on which i paid tax on with money that was taxed already. It is like how many times do we have to pay tax on the same thing.
 
NinjaKid said:
Some states a collecting tax now on money you make on ebay and I know a few people who stoped selling because of this. I think it's wrong for most people to have to pay taxes on things they sell on ebay at least when they are reselling there old items. I see it like this, I work and I pay taxes, I buy something and I pay tax with money that was already taxed to get a item, then when i dont want it anymore and I sell it at a loss, I have to pay tax on the money that I got from selling a item I took a loss on which i paid tax on with money that was taxed already. It is like how many times do we have to pay tax on the same thing.
Click to expand...

Technically if you have a garage sale, you should pay taxes on your profits. I live in Michigan the kicker here is Used Cars. No matter if its private or commercial sale, I have to pay taxes on it. If a car lasts for 4-6 owners, they are cleaning house on the taxes.
 
I know a couple of people who stopped using eBay last October when they decided to make PayPal the only acceptable payment method. The two people I know do not have, nor want to utilize PayPal's services (and the accompanying service fees) and have previously done all their business with money orders.

Now that eBay has decided that money orders are not acceptable for the "safety" of buyers they have pulled out. Interesting that while they claim it is a "safety" issue for buyers that they also own PayPal so they are getting fees two ways with no options for sellers to avoid that.

EDIT: BTW- one of them even got some auctions pulled by eBay for simply saying something like "email me for possible alternate payment menthods" in the auctions without saying that money orders or checks were accepted.:(
 
techound1 said:
I know whyest they go, but not wherest they go...
Click to expand...

I used to buy/sell a lot of model trains on eBay, but not so much anymore. One guy set up a Yahoo group for selling train stuff- mostly fixed price sales; and from all indications it's going well. No fees and you can accept whatever type of payment you want. The list is heavily moderated and abusers/bad sellers are quickly banned. It's turned into a nice alternative for me.
 
Old Muley said:
I used to buy/sell a lot of model trains on eBay, but not so much anymore. One guy set up a Yahoo group for selling train stuff- mostly fixed price sales; and from all indications it's going well. No fees and you can accept whatever type of payment you want. The list is heavily moderated and abusers/bad sellers are quickly banned. It's turned into a nice alternative for me.
Click to expand...

If you don't mind could you give us the name of that particular Yahoo group? I'd like to take a look at it and see how a successful group like that is handled for another hobby I have. Thanks.
 
am I the only one that saw this as an obvious imminent thing? Once the company went public it was obvious is would eventually start raising prices. I remember when selling stuff on ebay cost you pennies...
 
I still sell on ebay and have 2 powerseller accounts - one is for computer gear and the other for music related hardware/software. The main reasons sellers are dissatisfied is not so much the fees (they actually reduced the listing fees) - but how they pamper buyers so much.

Ebay seems to forget that sellers make up ebay - ebay runs because of fees it collects from sellers and yet they seem to treat every seller as though they were fraudulent. Granted, there are fraudulent sellers on there, but they are everywhere! Ebay, ioffer, craigslist, you name it!

This feedback issue was something that really irked me. I used to sell macbook pros (unibody) for $1799 - and 1 out of 5 customers (After receiving it) would ask 'Can you load photoshop on it?'.. and I would reply in the negative.. obviously because I am not going to deal in piracy.

As a result, I would get threatened with a negative feedback if I didn't comply. This really irritated me and I would get back to the buyers letting them know that I could take a copy of that mail and send it to the BSA - and they backed off. But, this whole sellers-cant-issue-negative-feedback really, really bothers me.

Another irritant is PayPal. They NEVER look at the details of a claim to see if the buyer is at fault. They automatically assume the buyer is an angel, and the seller the devil. Unless ebay and paypal start being fair.. I see the values of these companies dropping.
 
eBay just plain sucks. A lot of unscrupulous sellers there. I left positive feedback for a seller but never got any feedback left for me in return. When I messaged the seller about it she said it takes her 4 weeks to do so. Well's it's been 3 months. :rolleyes:
 
Music_Producer said:
..... how they pamper buyers so much.

....they seem to treat every seller as though they were fraudulent.

.....I would get threatened with a negative feedback

..... this whole sellers-cant-issue-negative-feedback really, really bothers me.

Another irritant is PayPal. They NEVER look at the details of a claim to see if the buyer is at fault. They automatically assume the buyer is an angel, and the seller the devil. Unless ebay and paypal start being fair.. I see the values of these companies dropping.
Click to expand...

AMEN to that!

I Sell Paintings / art mostly... So Etsy is where i've gone. I do still maintain my Ebay account... but I almost never list there. I think i'd rather just sell my electronics to people i know... Or give them to some one who can use them. Ebay is the Devil in my book!


GG
 
A lot of people are trying to just use they're own website after building years of customers on eBay.

Some are trying to sell on the Ranch, which is kind of re-inventing the eBay wheel and doesn't have much traffic.

A lot flat-out got run out of town by high-discount power seller like those sons of b....I mean, buy.com's eBay store.

I think the quick answer is they aren't selling elsewhere, they just went belly up.

EBay has had 0% growth for a couple years now, this carebear attitude toward buyers was supposed to ramp up new ones...somehow...but just ended up backfiring on them. With the discounts the huge power sellers get for the volume they do, we smaller power sellers just can't compete, it's that simple.
 
I use to sell a lot of electronics on ebay. To be short I don't like the seller treatment.
 
Not being able to leave bad buyers a negative feedback, as others have said..was really the tipping point for me. I still sell on there, but only things i have to.

What incentive does a buyer even have to pay for the item? All we can do as sellers is hit them with a "non-paying bidder" strike which takes 2 weeks to accomplish.

So if I try to sell an item, and the buyer flakes - I have to wait 2 WEEKS before i get my fees back and can relist. If I don't wait this time, and the buyer pays out of nowhere (which has happened), i risk getting a negative feedback if I've already sold the item.

Ebay has really crippled sellers rights. Not to even mention all the new fees and shipping price requirements.
 
sickmacdoc said:
I know a couple of people who stopped using eBay last October when they decided to make PayPal the only acceptable payment method. The two people I know do not have, nor want to utilize PayPal's services (and the accompanying service fees) and have previously done all their business with money orders.
Click to expand...

And that's going to be all for me and eBay too, partly because of the need to economize. I have used PayPal on eBay in the past, but I let the account lapse around November last.

Also as other posters have mentioned the selection of goods has diminished, and the bargains to be had there are being surpassed by local vendors at least in this neck of the woods.

I remember the steals to be made as a buyer around the turn of the century if you were a little patient and had some knowledge of the target market. It was like cruising auctions and yard sales without the effort. That just doesn't happen anymore.

And I can sympathize with the sellers too, especially lately.
 
I used to sell a few things on eBay, but have given up due to their policies. Almost 2 years ago now, I sold an old MacBook and basically never got paid and never got the MacBook back due to their poor seller protection policy (they always favor the buyer). More recently, I tried selling another MacBook on eBay only to find out that PayPal holds your payments unnecessarily until they can verify that the goods were delivered and signed for (even more in favor of the buyer). As a result, I will no longer sell on eBay. Selling used on Amazon has worked well for me lately. I can only assume that many people feel the same way I do.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back