Model Railroading > Has ebay Slowed Down?

I am practically giving used items away on ebay and not getting any bites. I never had that problem before. And ebay has been constantly sending me messages to improve my sales. That was not very frequent in the past either. Has ebay peaked out?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/14 09:58 by wabash2800.

Like everything it ebb and flows, no pattern that I can make out. For two months I couldn't give stuff away, now I don't have enough pockets.

I'm in Europe. I see quite a few things I'd like to bid on but the extreme International Priority Shipping, coupled with a totally unrealistic custom charge levied before shipping often puts me off. $25 shipping plus $40 customs on a $10 model? Considering the value of postage is often less than half this, that means either some expensive packaging - usually a cornflakes box and plastic Walmart shopping bags - or the sender lives across state from his nearest postal Office. I regularly get parcels from elsewhere. If the values less than about $100 customs here don't bother.
Where qre the extra charges going?

Has eBay Slowed Down? I started dieing years ago what is left today is a shell of its former self. I use to sell on Ebay all the time , but Ebay today you could post 10-20 items and you would be lucky if you sold one a week. They had a great thing going, and the economy was/is a factor but a lot of what killed Ebay was self destruction.

It appears to be dying down to me too. I've watched Ebay pretty regularly for items for the past 5-6 years and during the past year, I've noticed a stark lessening of items showing up in searches - fewer choices - at least the items I have been searching. I still see good deals come up so it's worth keeping watch.

At the same time, there has been an increase in some items priced above MSRP, sometimes double MSRP or more (obviously due to the change in re-listing policies which allow people to re-list items and crazy prices - which IMO just wastes everyone's time including the sellers - I guess if they have years to re-list items and are just hoping for a "one-off"...

I stopped selling on Ebay when I found selling worked well enough on yahoo groups such as the Rio Grande SIG or HOI, HOswap and HOexchange. Sure, occasionally an item could get bid up high on Ebay but the fee's have driven me to simple but basically effective methods. I still buy on Ebay now and then, but as mentioned, I'm finding fewer and fewer things - which I guess is good for my wallet as money is getting tighter!

Cheers, Jim Fitch



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/14 11:16 by SPDRGWfan.

I think it also depends on what you are selling. If you have a highly desired item, which comes up on eBay rarely, you'll do just fine in moving it at a good price. If you are selling worn out junk that can be had most anywhere, it's not going to move. It isn't much different than a local "real time" swap meets ... where you see guys lugging the same crates of overpriced junk that they haven't sold the past 10 years of a given show, but still bring it anyway ... and at a higher price than the year before!

I think higher fees may only be part of the problem. Add in a large number of "snipers" who want the absolute rock bottom price, and it is no wonder sellers don't list as much as they used to. Why practically give decent stuff away, when you can move it for a few bucks more at a train show?

It has only slowed down when I'm selling something, good or bad. If I'm bidding on a bucket of dog crap, people can't wait to outbid and snipe me out of it.
Of course, there are very few things I bid on, old Frisco steam negatives or basket case brass steam and stuff like that.
They're out to get me.

I think it depends on what you are selling. Some items are hard to find and you will get bids. Ebay shot themselves in the foot when they raised the fees and then took a cut of your shipping charges too. I know lots of people who no longer sell on ebay. I also think as the other people have replied that free sites like HOswap and others have become the sites to list on. Why pay ebay when you can sell for free.
On the downside some new models have come out like the California Zephyr or Coast Daylight passenger cars and they have killed the brass passenger cars of the same type. Why buy a brass model and then have to paint, decal, windows and interior when you get a ready to run model.

steamdiesel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ebay
> shot themselves in the foot when they raised the
> fees and then took a cut of your shipping charges
> too.

Had more sellers remained honest, and not jacked up shipping fees to avoid eBay's charges, the policy wouldn't have changed.

Too many people were selling items for pennies on the dollar with Buy It Now, with huge shipping fees to skirt the final value fee.

Can't say I blame eBay for that one.

They should bring back the (re)listing fee (I believe they got rid of it...been a while since I sold anything). There has to be motivation to sell on the seller's part for the buyers to think they have a chance at a good deal (the reason they're even going to eBay in the first place). Seeing a bunch of the same listings over and over again at or well above retail completely defeats this and I think this may have reduced the number of potential customers/visitors.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/14 21:11 by tehachapifan.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It has only slowed down when I'm selling
> something, good or bad. If I'm bidding on a
> bucket of dog crap, people can't wait to outbid
> and snipe me out of it.
> Of course, there are very few things I bid on, old
> Frisco steam negatives or basket case brass steam
> and stuff like that.
> They're out to get me.
Be greatful your not bidding on old SP steam…it's brutal out here.
Chris

BadyinMacfadyin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm in Europe. I see quite a few things I'd like
> to bid on but the extreme International Priority
> Shipping, coupled with a totally unrealistic
> custom charge levied before shipping often puts me
> off. $25 shipping plus $40 customs on a $10 model?
> Considering the value of postage is often less
> than half this, that means either some expensive
> packaging - usually a cornflakes box and plastic
> Walmart shopping bags - or the sender lives across
> state from his nearest postal Office. I regularly
> get parcels from elsewhere. If the values less
> than about $100 customs here don't bother.
> Where qre the extra charges going?

Living in Canada and eBaying since 2000, I have to agree totally. We are faced with the same ridiculous "international" shipping charges quoted by ebay/Pitney Bowes, from sellers who have opted for that service. I buy a lot of slides and have seen shipping and customs charges as high as $20 for a $5 slide that can be mailed from the USA to Canada for a buck fifteen. I refuse to bid on anything from sellers who use this service. If I want the item bad enough, I contact the seller and question them about the high shipping cost, which they are always unaware of to see if they will ship cheaper. If not, they loose a potential sale to me.

2nd problem now with ebay are the numerous crap listings for stuff that never sells, that ebay allows the seller to re-list for free. I'd say 50 to 75% of the items listed under the categories I search for fall are these repeat listings. What is particularly aggravating is that ebay allows the Florida Chickenwarhawk to rip off peoples images, then realists and sells poor digital copies. He has flooded every railroad with these which takes plenty of time to scroll through looking for the real photos and slides during my searches.

I agree, the relisting fee would move a lot of crap off of Ebay. I recently sold a selection of unneeded cars and prices were generally at or above what I expected. Some Athearn RTR cars went for way more than I expected.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

The amount of stuff that is wrongly described is also on the increase.

Take a gallon of house paint and decorate a Model Power boxcar using a yardbrush does not make a "custom" model

I have my pet peeves with ebay. For one, too many fees. Listing fee, final value fee, paypal fee, fees on shipping costs. It all adds up. It approaches the cost of putting something on consignment in the hobby shop (when we had one).
For a while, I was selling old negatives and would ship them in an envelope first class mail. I lost my seller's status because I wasn't using their shipping and leaving a tracking number. No matter how many times I tried to explain to those meatheads that a first class stamp has no tracking number, it fell on deaf ears.
I've managed to pick up some brass bargains over the years on ebay, but they are few and far between.
Another pet peeve is the clown that lists something RARE! Usually an item that is over running the market like a PFM ATSF 2-8-0 of which thousands were made.
The fact that it reaches worldwide makes it the 800 pound gorilla in the room unfortunately. I've shipped many items around the world, including a Loco Cyclopedia to Moscow. Wish there was a better way.
Amazon?

And the mention of local hobby shops always gets me, they folded because of the people in the hobby who went on line to a garage operation with no overhead or employees. That's why you cant sell your stuff at the local shop. I would say that what you are trying to sell on ebay is like most of the train swap meets, either too expensive or no one wants it. At the local swap meets there are hundreds of cars that never sell no matter what the price is as no one wants the old stuff due to lack of detail. I buy off of ebay all the time if I can afford it, ON3/ON30 cars. Most are bid up out of my price range some where double of what they cost new. Scratch built items can go for double what factory made goes for if its rare or built very well. What people can afford or want drives ebay selling, it costs them to provide the service to you. Not everything in life is cheep or free.

My experience as a buyer is that it indeed ebb and flows. Plus, unlike in its earlier days, there are now places like Craigslist where one can list things.

For example, one can be searching for an HO Atlas AEM-7, and come in at one point and find like 10 listings for the model as well as spare parts. A month later, there is almost nothing. Several months later, there's again a wide selection.

bioyans Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> steamdiesel Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Ebay
> > shot themselves in the foot when they raised
> the
> > fees and then took a cut of your shipping
> charges
> > too.
>
> Had more sellers remained honest, and not jacked
> up shipping fees to avoid eBay's charges, the
> policy wouldn't have changed.
>
> Too many people were selling items for pennies on
> the dollar with Buy It Now, with huge shipping
> fees to skirt the final value fee.
>
> Can't say I blame eBay for that one.


So you go after the offenders to solve the problem. Punishing everyone, including the honest sellers, is childish.

As a buyer it's becoming a bigger pain to buy anything. Paypal is now Paypal credit and in spite of over 100 total transactions and dozens of PayPal purchases, they want me to now re-apply for credit. This is in spite of having 3 years payment history with them and a whopping credit line of $500. So I said f-them and tried to pay for an item with a credit card I already had and guess what, I could not find the place to attach a new credit card on my ebay account. (Those greedy jerks are likely flexing their monopoly power against the banks (or us) but making it harder to transact business in the process). In the end I had to pay for a pricey brass car with cash which I was not at all happy with. It will change my buying habits, it will mean buying only small items until they fix these issues or once again make it easier for me to pay the way I want to.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/14 12:36 by 91liberator.