Lionsault's top 10 Reasons ebay won't be around in 5 years

Lionsault_100 · Nov 5, 2005

I thought this would be an intresting idea for a thread, and If the Mods don't think this should be allowed, please delete this!, basically for the next 10 days i'll be counting down my personal 10 reasons ebay won't be around in 2009/10 (in it's present form).. I guess each reason people can discuss each reason, disagree, agree , etc-

so here comes to ceremonial first pitch.

Steadilly raising fees

Ebay has been nickel and diming the life force of their community (the seller), and it's really been picking up since around 2001, where they are at now a quarter minimal fee (1 cent starting auction), and higher percentages.

With free auction sites such as yahoo starting to break through the ice, how can ebay compete when others like yahoo are essencially offering the same service for free?

I figure it should take about 5 years for the sellers (then the buyers will follow NOT the other way around) to smarten up and start looking for alternative selling venues.

tom10167 · Nov 5, 2005

Do you honestly think Yahoo would stay free if they were as large as Ebay?

As a seller, Ebay is incredible, you can sell ANYTHING on Ebay and get top dollar for it, where else is that true?

Ebay is the definition of capitalism. It is awesome.

four4875 · Nov 5, 2005

ebays name will drag it along for more than 5 years.... theres plenty of sellers that dont mind the nickel and dime more it costs to sell sometihng when they're still making a decent chunk of profit from the sale themselves. when it gets to where it costs $20 to list sometihng, then it might be a problem.

Pinky · Nov 5, 2005

It will last as long as it lasts...

I know I sell there less now than I used to. Most of my PC component sales in the last 3 years have been through the classifieds here. I only sell 'odd ball' and new(er) items on ebay, knowing I wouldn't be able to sell them here.

skou · Nov 6, 2005

I do an amazing amount of buying on Ebay, but most of my selling I do right here, or in person. I have yet to have to actually sell there, and am not looking toward that date.

Ebay is a good source of parts for my laptops, and it is also the major place to find my antique Shopsmith parts.

I hope it stays around. But, if it goes under, some other company will replace it. The model will always exist.

steve

Lionsault_100 · Nov 6, 2005

skou said:
I do an amazing amount of buying on Ebay, but most of my selling I do right here, or in person. I have yet to have to actually sell there, and am not looking toward that date.

Ebay is a good source of parts for my laptops, and it is also the major place to find my antique Shopsmith parts.

I hope it stays around. But, if it goes under, some other company will replace it. The model will always exist.

steve

Yes, thats why i said it won't be around in it's present name, but the company itself will be replaced by somehting better.

OK number 9!

Lack of customer service

eBay is the only public service I know of that doesn't provide a contact number for customers to call in with concerns, or problems, they do this to save money, but it really makes people who use their service want to find an alternative. And the "email your concerns" way of dealing with customers is incredibly BOGUS.

Silversinksam · Nov 6, 2005

tom10167 said:
Do you honestly think Yahoo would stay free if they were as large as Ebay?

As a seller, Ebay is incredible, you can sell ANYTHING on Ebay

There's lots of things you cannot sell on Ebay

In fact there are so many prohibited items, they fall into 104 catagories of items you cannot sell on Ebay

Under EBAY HELP type PROHIBITED ITEMS, and you can read all the 104 catagories.

Benvanz · Nov 6, 2005

Silversinksam said:
There's lots of things you cannot sell on Ebay

In fact there are so many prohibited items, they fall into 104 catagories of items you cannot sell on Ebay

Under EBAY HELP type PROHIBITED ITEMS, and you can read all the 104 catagories.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/celebrity-material.html

Does this meen you cant sell movies and such?

squasher · Nov 6, 2005

I love how they talk specificly about native american bones.

speed bump · Nov 7, 2005

tom10167 said:
Do you honestly think Yahoo would stay free if they were as large as Ebay?

As a seller, Ebay is incredible, you can sell ANYTHING on Ebay and get top dollar for it, where else is that true?

Ebay is the definition of capitalism. It is awesome.

Quote of the year.

I don't use ebay much anymore but hey its still great on occasion.

geestring · Nov 7, 2005

for me i've been scammed plenty of times... im sure many have.. thats its downfall.. even with people with a 100% feedback..

its too easy to scam someone...

Nathan0490 · Nov 7, 2005

I just found out they started charging late fees and seller fees are due immediatly at the end of each month now.

Lionsault_100 · Nov 7, 2005

OK.. number 8!

Paper Feedback
At first what has been a revolutionary way to get some kind of info on a seller or buyer before doing business has now become more useless than male nipples.

Feedback systems have been mimicked in services like heatware the way ebay had it

Scores used to mean something, and with scores ebay has been giving stars the higher up you go,and at an undisclosed amount of positive feedback you could become a power seller

today, any person can go to the everything else section, buy a bunch of e-crap and build their feedback to 100 pretty easilly, and rip someone off after providing a false sense of trust. Buyers will be less likely to use ebay without seeing any real seller history for fear of getting e-smacked.

wandl · Nov 7, 2005

actually I've on both sides of the fence, I once sent a money order to a guy back in 2000....he sent the item upon the auction's end cos i had like 300 feedback, then said the MO never came..at this time I had a week off went to vacation.....he filed a complaint with Ebay etc etc (squaretrade or whoever the resolution company was) and it was impossible for him to have any methods of recourse...of course I cancelled the MO and promptly resent another one when I came back

I've also received counterfit checks/money orders, nigerian offers via paypal or whomever.....

Ebay has very little security structure, which is why on a daily basis people are getting ripped off.

PLUS Ebay charges fees based on the selling price...some sellers have charged like $200 shipping for a $2 2 Gig memory module so Ebay only charges them commission off $2 bucks.

Of course, on the flipside, if you need any obscure part for your car/house/boat/generator/computer/wife you'll find it on Ebay!

C0oLl2iCef0o · Nov 7, 2005

auction fee, seller fees, paypal fees, shipping fees...

fees this fees that

Dreamstalker · Nov 8, 2005

Nathan0490 said:
I just found out they started charging late fees and seller fees are due immediatly at the end of each month now.

Seriously? I wonder if this means they're going to get their billing software in gear and stop making late withdrawals. Or, maybe they will as an excuse to charge even more in late fees...

The billing system is a mess; I'm hoping that next spring we don't get a replay of what happened 2 years ago and last year (some sellers were massively overbilled--interestingly enough the worst damage was done to sellers who had direct debit for seller fees--and ebay did nothing about it...well, 'reimbursement' via anything points which are worthless).

Lionsault_100 · Nov 8, 2005

Number 7 ~~~

419 scammers

To the average bear the offers of the rich princes nigerian millions seems pretty stupid, ebay's lack of really doing anything to keep these guy's off, leaves the door open for more elaborate scams, which will reduce the buyers trust in ebay

RedDragonXXX · Nov 9, 2005

I just hope that they don't start charging listing on classifieds

tom10167 · Nov 9, 2005

People are going to get scammed everywhere in life, Ebay isn't a cause of that. A good amount of common sense will prevent you from getting scammed.

Hey look, a brand new Ferrari for only $5,000, sure I'll buy it! Ok, I'll Western Union you the money tomorrow bye!

techun · Nov 9, 2005

i got scammed, basically they make it that it's not worth it to ship it back, and you just cut your losses

(a heavy 5.1 reciever, "wrong one" supposedly)

Lionsault's top 10 Reasons ebay won't be around in 5 years

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