I've heard that ebay is planning to abandon the auction format and go to direct selling like Amazon.com. Not sure when that's gonna happen, but everything that irritates you all about ebay will be disappearing soon.
I like the sound of that. Nothing but 30-day buy-it-now listings, and payments strictly by credit card or Paypal. Suits exactly what I use Ebay for.
I do have to take you to task on that for a few reasons, Andy.
First off, that's called Half.com
Amazon.com has sellers who offer used and new and I'll use them as a comparison to eBay if I'm looking for something that I could find on both sites.
As an example, I recently won a copy of comic Ranxerox 2 in hardback for $10 on eBay. The closest, at the time, that I could find on Amazon in equivalent condition was $40 or more. Now why would I want to pay 4 times as much for something I could possibly win in an auction format for much less?
I realize that for people who use Paypal and credit cards there is a certain convenience to it. I prefer to use a credit card when I can as it is just easier for me.
There are, however, people who don't have credit cards or Paypal accounts; believe it or not. There are also times when a credit card is not feasible; perhaps because the seller does not have a Paypal account (some still don't; they've either been grandfathered or have have their account suspended) or they don't want to pay Paypal's extortion fees.
My Paypal account was suspended, so I can no longer do business with the elite who only accept Paypal.
Many of the Paypal only sellers might as well write as a disclaimer "the only thing that matters is that I get paid as quickly as possible; whether you get screwed is of no concern". Many sellers aren't far from that with their requirements for payments in the shortest amount of time and everything that the buyer will do for them, without a mention of what they will do for the buyer.
There is a business principle of 'the customer comes first'; that went out the window some time ago with many (not all) eBay sellers. eBay has largely become a place for sellers who are too incompetent to run a business on their own; so they do it on eBay.
Of course, dealing with collectibles, it is difficult to maintain a loyal base of customers. On Amazon, Half.com, Barnes and Noble, etc., where there are many sellers whoring the same items, customer service becomes key. I've maintained dealings with certain sellers on Amazon, even if they were a little higher than another seller, simply because I've dealt with them before and have come to know to what to expect from them.
Collectibles take a different path as they would not be collectibles if everybody had them. You are likely not to be dealing with the same seller very often as you are looking for collectibles and not shopping sellers. I have two sellers form whom I have bought radios before, they deal largely with radio equipment, they know their stuff, and they have provided excellent service. I have not bought from them again, though I do look through their stores; they earned that by being good sellers, though that is rare for repeats in collectibles.
If eBay switched to a Half.com format (why?...they own the damn site), I would be looking for another auction site rather than buying from that group of sellers for what they think something is worth.
eBay has changed quite a bit over the years. When I first joined eBay, it was largely people selling stuff they didn't want anymore or taking up space in their basements and garages. When you bought from someone, they left you feedback when they received payment and you left them feedback when you got the item.
Over the years, eBay has become littered with the same resellers who were taking over the flea markets; changing it from a place where you bought someone else's junk to a place where someone is trying to whore the same item you could buy at a dollar store for a dollar for 4 to 8 times as much.
Feedback went from a cooperative device to something sellers held hostage requiring you to leave feedback for them first, and creating a lot of false feedback left for fear of retaliation.
Although taking away the option to leave negative feedback for buyers may have fixed that, I feel that is unfair to sellers as it takes a tool away from them; this is, after all, an auction site, not Amazon.
Just a few random thoughts, feel free to ignore me (
).
