The State of eBay

ricktmd · #1 04-21-2024, 01:05 PM

Yes that is a fact. An ebay search usually returns items that have nothing to do with your search . The items likely come from people who pay ebay promotional fees.

It is also a fact that listing an item has become more difficult and time consuming. They also tweak the listing process regularly. Items do sell and there is no similar site to change to and they know it

Rich Falvo · #2 04-21-2024, 03:35 PM

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one having trouble with search results. I have some very specific saved searches and a few of my searches often get results that don't exactly match.

Exhibitman · #3 04-21-2024, 04:09 PM

I think the lack of quality listings is mostly due to the fee increases and hassle of listing. When my real cost approaches 20% why would I DIY eBay list when I can consign instead?

Vintagedeputy · #4 04-21-2024, 05:43 PM

I�ve bought a couple of things, but haven�t sold on eBay in many many years. Probably won�t ever again. I loved it in the beginning when you could just sell your personal property without government interference. It�s a mess.

Topnotchsy · #5 04-22-2024, 02:07 AM

eBay has gotten worse in silly ways.

Others have mentioned a number of them:
- Items sit for years. No cost for listing means no incentive to lower prices or remove things that you have up and are not in a rush to sell
- Ruined search - I have no idea what is actually going on when you search particular words, but it certainly is not pulling up items with those words. They removed the askerisk option years ago which was a massive help and it has gotten worse and worse
- They started allowing people to send offers to others who viewed the item, even if the item is not watched. Another example of pushing items in front of people that they likely don't want.

All that said, it is still a platform that occasionally turns up gems. A large percentage of my collection comes from eBay over the years. In the last few months (which has been a very good stretch by eBay standards for the last few years, I've won around 10 auctions, each of which was a reasonably difficult item to find. (I do have a number of collecting focuses, so there are more options out there for me.)

hammertime · #6 04-22-2024, 04:18 AM

Part of the issue with the search is all of the "item specifics" they've added over the years which gives sellers multiple opportunities to shoehorn in extra keywords, etc. That's compounded by the fact that many sellers list their items by copying existing listings.

LEHR · #7 04-22-2024, 07:10 AM

I first joined eBay in 1997. Up until 5'ish years ago I was still checking eBay 5-6 times a day and was still buying and selling all the time. Now, with the search engine being jacked up, the museum prices, high (IMO) seller fee's, and the fact that eBay not only allows but forces me to accept ridiculous returns, I've completely stopped selling on their platform and my purchases have gone from an average of 1 a day to 2-4 a month. Like others have said, you can still find quality items at fair prices at times, but I've found this to only be through the auction format. I never really use the Buy It Now feature anymore.
With REA now doing the Encore auctions I'd rather consign to them, ship one box, and have ZERO headache.

STL1944 · #8 08-24-2024, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Topnotchsy

eBay has gotten worse in silly ways.

Others have mentioned a number of them:
- Items sit for years. No cost for listing means no incentive to lower prices or remove things that you have up and are not in a rush to sell
- Ruined search - I have no idea what is actually going on when you search particular words, but it certainly is not pulling up items with those words. They removed the askerisk option years ago which was a massive help and it has gotten worse and worse
- They started allowing people to send offers to others who viewed the item, even if the item is not watched. Another example of pushing items in front of people that they likely don't want.

All that said, it is still a platform that occasionally turns up gems. A large percentage of my collection comes from eBay over the years. In the last few months (which has been a very good stretch by eBay standards for the last few years, I've won around 10 auctions, each of which was a reasonably difficult item to find. (I do have a number of collecting focuses, so there are more options out there for me.)

This may be well known (apologies if it is), but regarding eBay search, I have -had some- success using " " in my search.

For example I just searched: 1953 Bowman Psa 8 (using auction listings). The results were from 1953 Bowman cards, but none of the first five listings were PSA 5

If I search: 1953 Bowman "PSA 5", both the listings are PSA 5.

Of course, this doesn't always work and sometimes I literally have to search: "1953" "Bowman" "PSA 5" to get what I want to see.

Hankphenom · #9 08-25-2024, 10:14 AM

For me the biggest difference between eBay now and a few years ago is that for about 20 years I could make a living dealing in vintage memorabilia with eBay a primary source of inventory. Even though I was a bottom-feeder on most items, I won enough at a good enough price to keep my show inventory stocked with some basic things that I knew would move, in addition to the occasional big hit on something that fell through the cracks for some reason or because it was in my wheelhouse of knowledge of a niche area or two. That all stopped being the case somewhere around ten years ago, but by then it was time for me to retire anyway, so it was OK. No way I could do that today. For a number of reasons that have been discussed here, there are just a lot fewer vintage, and in particular rare, items available to pick up on eBay these days. I still have a number of categories I scan just about every day, and still manage to pick up some very cool stuff from time to time, but it's more a matter of serendipity than anything else, and that suits me fine at this stage.

Topnotchsy · #10 08-25-2024, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by STL1944

This may be well known (apologies if it is), but regarding eBay search, I have -had some- success using " " in my search.

For example I just searched: 1953 Bowman Psa 8 (using auction listings). The results were from 1953 Bowman cards, but none of the first five listings were PSA 5

If I search: 1953 Bowman "PSA 5", both the listings are PSA 5.

Of course, this doesn't always work and sometimes I literally have to search: "1953" "Bowman" "PSA 5" to get what I want to see.

I'm familiar with it and use it frequently, but it does not solve all issues unfortunately.

I cannot fathom why years ago, eBay removed the wild card (*) search. This allowed you to search auto* for example and get autograph, autographed, autographs, auto etc. Now they have just tried to make the search pick up more things, and it picks up completely irrelevant items.

It's still the place to look because the sheer number of sellers means that there can be gems that turn up any time. And selling elsewhere remains challenging (though I still have some success on Facebook). But the moves they have made are baffling.

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