Silly Ebaying

[Nitomor]

There is so much shill bidding going on with ebay at the moment also. I have bid on a few items where the seller has contacted me offering me the item that just sold for my bid +1, for my max bid!! Unreal. I tend to go more for buy it now and make offer ads if I'm honest.

[XV Pilot]

I too have developed a profound distrust for the EBay auction process. These days I only use it for buy-it-now items from EBay "shops".

[Nobbi1977]

If it is more than you will pay then don't bid more. eBay is no longer a place of bargains but it is still a wealth of diversity or product.

[svenb]

My silly ebaying NIB Ford Focus WRC purchase has arrived

......... minus wheels and tyres

[chevelle]

Wouldn't it be great if everyone only got 1 bid on an item, like a silent auction where you put in a number that you think it's worth and highest bid win's or the seller put's a B I N price

Also I have just listed 12 items on the bay & reading this tread is like watching Air crash investigation shows before taking a Flight

[Hibernaculum]

I too have developed a profound distrust for the EBay auction process. These days I only use it for buy-it-now items from EBay "shops".

Yep. Agreed.

My 2 cents.

As a seller...

In the early days of eBay (1998-2005) I always listed items for sale as auctions, with a $1 start price. I swore by this method. More than half the time, you'd get more than you were expecting for your items. Hence overall, it was worth the risk.

In these latter days of ebay (2006-present) I never list items for sale as auctions. Amazing really. But it's just not worth it anymore. eBay has changed, not just in our hobby, but in all areas of collectibles. Most things you list for auctions, end lower than you expect. There is a real risk you will throw money away.

You can read huge threads on the eBay forums from people complaining that "nothing sells anymore". There are several causes for this: higher fees (therefore higher prices), too many items listed, too much chinese junk and commercial sellers flooding ebay. etc. etc.

As a buyer...

IMHO eBay is still a place you can find some bargains. Mainly because it is still the single place that most items are listed for sale, and inevitably with lots of listings, some are listed cheaper than others. But also, when some people still make the mistake of listing items as auctions, those things often go cheap. Sad (for the seller), but true.

Overall...

eBay has gone from being the most wonderful online trash and treasure mall in the early days. To being one of the world's worst companies today.

Far too busy with their shareholders and big-picture profit graphs, to care for the little people selling their wares.

They have skewed search algorithms toward commercial sellers. They have allowed a tsunami of cheap chinese junk to flood the site. Fees have gone from 4% a decade ago, to 10% (plus 10% on shipping). They are spectacularly out of touch with the needs of the casual garage sellers, who were the foundation of site's success.

e.g. A simple thing. I rang eBay support a few weeks ago to explain that their postage calculator is completely out of touch with Australia Post's actual posting options (the two systems are supposed to be the same, otherwise, what's the point?). e.g. Australia Post allows you to post quite large boxes. eBay's postage calculator when using Australia Post, simply doesn't work with boxes above a medium size. Even boxes the size of Tamiya kits don't calculate properly for the buyer - they just throw a "contact the buyer for postage" message. This problem has been live on the website for YEARS. The support staff I spoke to acknowledged it was a problem, but they had no idea if it would ever be fixed. They wouldn't even log it as a fault report.

The nature of second-hand-online-trade is skewed toward the incumbent player. Without buyers, sellers won't list. Without sellers, buyers can't buy. Out of habit (and established audience) everybody still uses eBay. We're all addicts, and eBay is the crummy dealer we always fall back to.

The only silver lining in all this is: as the years have passed, people have become more and more comfortable with bypassing eBay entirely and just using Paypal to directly buy goods. Who needs eBay's "honour system" of ratings any more? Paypal buyer protection basically covers you. And I'm happy to say I now sell more items privately, than I do via eBay. And I'm sure a lot of you guys are the same - either selling to friends, or using trading areas etc.

[whahooo]

I´ve started to buy Tamiya mini 4WD Offroad jr. models....

...do i need them? No....

...am i fascinated of the functionality of them? No...

...are they a real super fun project do build? No...

But they are "cute" near the big Tamiyas on the shelf, also i have 5 micro Losis and a lots of parts, so i could make them RCable and fun to drive.

Also i`m not able to not watch Youtubevideos of them:

[Wez-li]

Interesting valuation on an Avante these "bidders" have...

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=252119883699

[Dojo Dave]

So I became blinded today by my want to win rather than my need to have. The culprit a super blackfoot. After paying $!#/ for it I realized it will need tyres. And I don't want it as a black foot I really just want the chassis for a beetle... and then it's already built which removes my favorite part and I could have bought the MB rere for what I'm going to have to spend making this right. Oh well.