Who Has Left Ebay?

[Orioles1954]

After being a member for 17 years and nearly 3000 positives with only 2 negatives....ebay placed a hold on my funds AFTER a recent batch of 50 auctions and without telling me. After the last order is shipped I will no longer be requiring their services. Who here has left ebay and has it negatively affected your selling or collecting endeavors?

[vintagetoppsguy]

I left eBay as a seller a long time ago. I very rarely list anything (maybe 12 items all of last year). I still use it as a buyer every day.

[39special]

I havent used ebay for about 5 years.And don't plan to anytime soon.I get most of my cards/memorabilia from the B/S/T,different internet sites,local shows,and flea markets.Mostly the B/S/T on here.

[bbsports]

I was a huge seller of T206 cards on e-bay since 1998, till 5/1 of last year when I forced to close my e-bay store. Before 5/1 of last year, e-bay took 4.5% in fees after the first $50.00, then decided to get greedy & raise the the store prices & take a flat rate of 9% in e-bay fees. The usual mark-up for a dealer is 15%. Including paypal fees, e-bay was taking 11.5% including a store fee. To make 3.5% profit was not worth keeping your e-bay store open. I'm doing most of the work & e-bay is taking most of the profits. As a dealer, what would you do?

[toledo_mudhen]

Been an eBay member since June of 96 and stopped earnestly selling about 10 years ago. Still a buyer on a daily basis - might sell a dozen items a year.

So eBay will, at some point, be a facing a huge problem in that many sellers will be gone as there other means to sell items - not the least of which is this forum. The eBay pricing model, to me, is ridiculous for the small/occasional seller. There will always be the Probsteins, etc - but they have pretty much squashed the smaller guys out.

Way to go eBay - you have managed to take what was once a great venue and turn it into a huge money grabbing corporation where nothing matters but the bottom line.........

[KCRfan1]

I always look at Ebay and am an active buyer. I also check the BST section, and when something catches my eye I will try to purchase.

[Jason]

I only use eBay when my cards don't sell on the BST.90% of the time I lose money.And USPS just raised they rates yesterday so that's more cost to ship now on top of eBays high fees.

[3-2-count]

I use it solely as a venue to buy anymore. To many other good resources to choose from when one wants to sell. My hat's off to anyone who still does! I can only imagine the frustration.

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

I shop there pretty regularly but usually find better stuff in the BST. Plus I would rather deal with fellow collectors.

[kcohen]

You can say THAT again!

[ullmandds]

I use it less and less for selling...it is still the place to go to sell my odds and ends(non vintage baseball card stuff) and pottery.

I still buy on ebay periodically.

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

I use it less and less for selling...it is still the place to go to sell my odds and ends(non vintage baseball card stuff) and pottery.

I still buy on ebay periodically.

What type of pottery do you collect?

[g_vezina_c55]

I am member on ebay since 1999

I don t sell on ebay 10% in fee + paypal fee + a lot of idiot buyer on it.
I check everyday as a buyer . Rarely find good deal.
Ebay is now a BIG WALMART with a lot of overpriced buy it now item.
The buy it now/best offer selling option destructed ebay long time ago ...

I remember the good old day when the only option of ebay was .99 cent auction... and reserve price.

I use the BST section for find goudey for my set and now i also look at auction house. I rarely find corect priced card on ebay

[slidekellyslide]

I still use it to sell 100's of items per week...the fees do suck, but there is no comparable place to sell the variety of items I sell so I'm stuck with it.

They are much more seller friendly than they were just a year ago...I got two negatives removed from my account with a 5 minute phone call. One was a lady in Texas who did not receive a postcard, tracking showed they tried to deliver, she contacted me and I told her they tried to deliver it so she should contact her post office...she emailed me back to say that her mailman knows nothing about it and she demanded a refund. I told her to open a case through ebay and that they would refund her through the protection plan...this was not good enough for her as she wasn't going to open a case for 7 measly dollars, so she left me a negative. I called ebay and they got rid of it. I still called her local post office to try and track down her postcard...they found it, I emailed her to let her know...she told me it wasn't worth sending her 80 year old husband to the post office to pick it up.

The other negative was from a guy in Wisconsin who returned a cast iron bank to me and claimed it wasn't cast iron...My shop is closed on Monday and that's apparently when they tried to return it to me, they left no note in my mailbox so I had no idea...the guy just left a negative and I couldn't get him to give me a tracking number for his return shipment...finally got the info out of him and got the post office to deliver the package, refunded him and asked him to remove the negative..he refused, but ebay still removed it for me when they saw the trail of emails with this guy.

edited to add: I did use our BST last week to get rid of a few items and they sold immediately and for what I think was a better price than I would have gotten from ebay...If I sold only cards I think our forum would be my first outlet for them.

[rjackson44]

It's fee bay net 54 rocks never had one issue here selling or buying

[glchen]

Last week when I was on vacation, I saw that there was a chargeback to my paypal account for a card that I sold on ebay for $300+. The tracking said that the card was delivered to my office, but since I was on vacation, I couldn't confirm it. I got back yesterday, confirmed that the card was returned safe and sound, and then logged into paypal to resolve the case. However, I saw that the Paypal case had been closed that morning, and Paypal would no longer allow me to refund the buyer. I called Paypal, and they said that they had already refunded the credit card company for the chargeback, and that I could keep the proceeds, and resell the card on ebay again!

[Tim Fritz]

I've been on ebay since 1997 and haven't sold anything in the past 3 years. I used to sell only a few items each month, but the fees and rules (negatives) starting outweighing the positives. I now sell straight to other collectors or to a few dealers that I've gotten to know over the years.

I'm still a frequent shopper on ebay as my financial overlord (wife ) can attest to.

[ALR-bishop]

I have a feedback level of 1500 + , all of it as a buyer. I have never sold anything on ebay. When I first started buying I felt sellers had too much of an upper hand and often used the threat of negative feedback as a tool to cover shoddy business practices and or product. Over time the pendulum has, in my opinion, swung too far in the other direction, and now dishonest or unscrupulous buyers can make doing business on ebay miserable for even good sellers.

As a buyer that concerns me because as stated here, I know many good sellers who will now not sell on ebay, and that is a big negative for honest buyers who depended on that market to find stuff they needed.

[edhans]

I stopped selling when they demanded that sellers accept electronic payments. I still buy on occasion.

[MyGuyTy]

Originally Posted by g_vezina_c55

I remember the good old day when the only option of ebay was .99 cent auction... and reserve price.

Oh those were the days.......I started "Ebaying" in 1997/1998 and almost every damn card imaginable was available at auction (majority of them raw). Many did have reserves, but a lot of them didn't. Prices were a dream come true compared to today's overinflated market.

Tons of rare cards to be had on the cheap. I remember picking up a damn near mint E92 Crofts Cocoa Cobb for just around $900. Five years later it was an $8,000 card (like a dummy, I ended up relisting it for a $500 profit shortly after I bought it). I also remember a very nice raw E90 Joe Jackson (would later grade a 4), that sold for $3,000, again a few years later it was almost $30,000. That's when Ebay was really the only outfit on the net for vintage collectors to come together to buy and sell.......Wish I could go back in time, lol.

[Runscott]

My stuff sells much better on ebay, even to Net54 members who could be saving ebay fees by purchasing through my web-store. So I really can't leave ebay ... yet. The situation I just described indicates that some people feel more comfortable buying through ebay. My fees are covered by the higher prices, and the ebay store costs less than my website, so I have no problem with it, except out of principle.

David, I will follow your lead as soon as it makes financial sense.

[insidethewrapper]

I usually only list when the initial listing fees are free. EBay now charges 10% of the selling price as a final value fee and paypal is under 3%. You should get around $87 for a $100 item. You also get 20% off the final value fee if you sell a lot. Not many options available.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

I usually only list when the initial listing fees are free. EBay now charges 10% of the selling price as a final value fee and paypal is under 3%. You should get around $87 for a $100 item. You also get 20% off the final value fee if you sell a lot. Not many options available.

Mike, that's all true, but I can assure you - there are plenty of collectors out there who will pay the extra 13% for stuff that Net54 folks won't touch at much less.

We bitch about ebay, but we are barely a drop in their pre-war bucket.

[tschock]

Ebay has its place. For me it's with oddball items. While it might be nickel and dime to some, where else can I reach such a wide audience to be able to sell Frank Pitts AFL benefits package, a 1960s Detroit Lions championship glass, a 1924-25 Spalding Woman's Basketball rulebook, a set of 9 NFL metal coasters, and the 1969 ALFPA Progress Report that details the meetings with the NFLPA regarding the merger (all of which came as part of a baseball/football card auction lot). It's not auction house grade material by itself, but it gets me some cash that I can then funnel back into the B/S/T here for what I really want.

[toppszl1]

I do not have a problem with the bay yet, it's the d__n USPS, I'm currently selling right now on the bay and I have 2 messages that my customers are not getting the mail!!

Craigslist?--lol

[Bpm0014]

I left eBay. I sold my old iPhone overseas and to make a long story short, I was the victim of fraud. And Paypal has the balls to ask me to reimburse them $110!! Over 500 transactions without a flaw, but I will never do business with eBay or Paypal again (unless Paypal agrees to waive the $110 they are billing me).

[glchen]

Originally Posted by Bpm0014

I left eBay. I sold my old iPhone overseas and to make a long story short, I was the victim of fraud. And Paypal has the balls to ask me to reimburse them $110!! Over 500 transactions without a flaw, but I will never do business with eBay or Paypal again (unless Paypal agrees to waive the $110 they are billing me).

This is why many ebay sellers refuse to sell to overseas (or even Canadian) buyers.

[novakjr]

I don't use it as much as I used to.. At one point, I did 100% of my buying there. I also don't use it the same way that I used to either. Personally, I'd prefer use the BST here, or comc.com. Ebay however, does still have a lot of great items, that don't pop up in a lot of other places. There are still plenty of great deals to be had, so it just sees silly for me to completely abandon it.

On the selling side, I've never sold much, but have been contemplating it. Ebays constant changes are probably the main reason I keep procrastinating when it comes to selling. I really don't feel like jumping through their hoops..

[moeson]

After about a five month hiatus, I listed a few cards this week. Miraculously, eBay restored my top seller ranking and discount. Seems like a mistake or are their sales hurting a bit?

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Runscott

... there are plenty of collectors out there who will pay the extra 13% for stuff that Net54 folks won't touch at much less.

We bitch about ebay, but we are barely a drop in their pre-war bucket.

Absolutely true. There are so many collectors who never heard of N54 but who cruise eBay daily.

I tend to divide my selling depending on what I am offering. If I am selling baseball cards, I definitely go elsewhere than eBay first. The BST here is a great resource, but not my go-to on lesser cards because I still have to set the price and fulfill the orders. For items under $200 it isn't really worth my time to do the listings, fulfill orders, etc., if there is a low cost outlet I can use readily. I have been very pleased with the job Lee Behrens has done and the results Lee has gotten me with consignments to Sterling. It costs me 2% above eBay for slabbed cards, 12% more than the BST here [I simply will not do PayPal gift deals, so I pay the 3% if I sell here], which is well worth it to me to avoid the time and headaches. However, for the more esoteric stuff, eBay still has the customer base, so I still sell there. Like it or not, feebay remains the best retail venue for much of what I deal in. I've been busting up vintage boxing sets and accumulations and got next to nothing done here but everything I've offered thus far has sold through eBay.

That said, eBay is a particularly problematic venue in terms of seller security and fairness. I realize that there were sellers committing fraud but the pendulum has swung way too far the other way. eBay has a $hitty set of rules for selling. Yeah, I said it. I try to limit my risks by avoiding overseas transactions except through the eBay overseas shipping program, by using eBay postage to generate their mandated tracking, etc. The buyer bias eBay has makes retail dealing more costly, difficult and risky, but still beats wholesaling or letting a bigger AH lump my stuff into dealer lots. Plus, it is fast cash flow if that is a consideration. I sold stuff that closed last weekend and already have the money in hand.

[4scuda]

Ebay recently held funds for a $150 item a buyer opened a case on. I told the buyer I would refund the money, just send it back. The jerk had already resold the item so he sent me a box of just newspapers. I had to talk to two different customer service people for a half hour before I got them to unfreeze my money.

That being said, 13 percent is still cheaper than other venues I sell at. I'd like to sell more on net54 but people are sometimes too cheap. I had a guy offer $60 for a 57 topps wrapper that sold on ebay for over $200.

[kamikidEFFL]

very rarely sell on there but i do buy stuff from time to time on there. But i have no found other places to purchase so I try to stay away when I can

[ls7plus]

This is all very, very interesting, as I periodically buy on E-Bay, but have never personally sold an item through that venue. My experience as a buyer has always been completely satisfactory.

Best to all,

Larry

[bobbyw8469]

I had a guy offer $60 for a 57 topps wrapper that sold on ebay for over $200.

LOL....not to knock net54, cause I love it here, but I ran into the same thing. Was told "Hey - I'm a collector!", as though that justified him lowballing me. I'm a collector too, but I don't expect to pay $60 for a $200 item!!

And then you have the other extreme on Ebay. Offered VCP average for a BIN/OBO Killebrew rookie. The guy already had a very high price on the card. He countered with $5 off his sky high price! Thanks, but no thanks buddy! I ended up winning the one last night thru an auction house, a half grade higher, for less money!!! ROTFLMAO!!!!