I don't use eBay anymore because its hard to list an item and deal with all the emails about it. Instead, I buy stuff on Amazon much easier at about the same price without all the aggravation of bidding. If I want to sell something, like a book, I can list it on Amazon and sell it without answering a billion emails and typing up a big description.
Amazon is kicking eBay's ass.
We at HN are not at all representative of Americans. Everyone in that room had at least one college degree, and the average earnings were probably $100K. Even then, they weren't buying online.
I understand that they want to expand their market into new goods, but given that they have vast competition in that area, why hurt the revenue stream that they had a virtual lock on?
Indeed. Isn't it ironic that eBay used to be a community of people (many of which were buying and selling at the same time) and just as social media started ascending, eBay moved in exactly the opposite direction - towards a warehouse model that pissed off the little people who were selling things to clear out their attics.
I am so annoyed at them that I have literally given stuff away rather than sell it on eBay. Right now as a retail site, they are a dead man walking, no matter what their uniques and cash-flow is. I can't see Ebay lasting another 3 years in its current model.
On the plus site, etsy.com seems to have done a great job picking at least one niche of the old eBay market (handmade goods).
eBay used to save you a crapload over other web stores. Now the difference is so tiny, that there is no reason to take the risk with eBay
Go search for any product you like on eBay - the overwhelming majority of the results are new items, from large-scale eBay dealers, using the Buy-it-now feature instead of real auctioning.
In this case eBay has simply become another webstore - and Amazon has had third-party sellers for quite some time also. As a webstore, Amazon's brand name is considerably more powerful than eBay. Not to mention Amazon takes payment on your behalf as a trusted entity - which is more than can be said for the money order and PayPal-based payment system of eBay.
Oh, also, so many eBay listings lowball the selling price and then destroy you on shipping. This is the primary reason why I stopped using the service - it was too much work having to figure out exactly how much it would cost to get it shipped to me. Amazon third-party sellers are locked to certain shipping rates.
You could start a grass roots movment and have people sign an online petition that says they will boycott ebay and use your service instead. There's enough people that are tired of ebay's overpriced fees that they would probably sign the petition and create some internet awareness.
Is this crazy talk?
Ebay is too much hassle, and afaik Craigslist is only local. Any ideas?
Does anyone know if any up-and-coming startups that are trying to take ebay's market? I'd be glad to support them.
Ebay was so awesome when it was the wild wild west and you had to actually email back and forth with buyers and sellers to establish a repoire before you trusted them. It baffles me that a smaller auction company has never really risen from Ebay's apparent ashes. I really had my money on Gbay for a while...
Between Ebay, Craigslist and Amazon (who charges say a 15% fee to sell video games), I'll get the most money in my pocket selling on Amazon and that is bullshit.