The Death of eBay
If eBay were a person I’m sure it would that the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Here is what I mean.
As an auction site, eBay is hitting the skids. More and more activity on eBay is just stores with Buy It Now buttons.
I think the reasons are these:
- The novelty of the auction system has worn off
- eBay has jacked around the sellers so much recently with rule changes
- eBay has increased fees significantly since starting
- About the only way to sell much is to have a merchant account with PayPal, so now they take a cut too
- Shipping costs have sky rocketed thanks to this country’s lack of a comprehensive energy plan
- Other auction sites have sprung up to try to get a piece of the action
- People want it now
Personally, I have found that selling perfectly good computer components on eBay is hardly worth the trouble anymore. You have to start the bid at $0.99 in order to get bidding started, then a single bidder can walk away with the item for that price and I’m left having to package it up and take it to the Post Office or FedEx and stand in line to ship it off.
If you want to make sure and not let it go for $0.99, you can set a reserve; but eBay soaks you plenty for that option. And if it doesn’t hit your reserve price you’re out the money anyway.
Any kind of auction takes bidders, and eBay just doesn’t seem to have them like they used to.
Maybe a stalled economy will change that some.
Check out uBid.com
Or go to eBay
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Please post a comment with your thoughts or experiences with eBay
