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So, I jump on Ebay and search 'office chair'. I could hardly find one single item with a bid, everything was 'Buy it Now'.
A long time ago, when I used ebay, I used the bid count as an indicator of value. If people were bidding on it, then I at least looked at the item.
Nowadays, it's full of 'buy it now' items with no bids. There is page after page of this crap. It has become useless to me.
Ebay rant over.
I found a few in auctions. Perhaps their server was on part time working. ;)
But, you're right, there are a lot more "buy it now" sellers.
There is page after page of this crap
Mostly made in Hong Kong!
When I sell I almost always use Buy it Now. I'm ususally selling older stuff that maybe not so many people will want, so I don't want it to go for 99p, it's just not worth my while. By sticking it on at a lowish price for Buy it Now, if just one person looks that fancies it they'll usually buy it.
Selling office chairs via auction wouldn't seem to have much advantage to the seller. You paid x for the chair and you need to make x+y to cover your costs. There are a hundred or so competitors, so cost is a major factor in marketing. How likely are enough people going to bid x+y+1 to make it worthwhile? Not very.
Across the top are tabs such as, All Items, Auctions, Buy it now, Classified ads.
I didn't see that hiding up there. It does confirm just how much 'buy it now' there is compared to auctions.
For my 'office chair' search:
Under 'Auctions' Tab: 319 items found (Very few items with bids)
Under 'Buy It Now' Tab: 3476 items found
Is it possible that eBay's fee structure change in 2008 February is the cause of this?
I don't think so. It has been that way (Buy it now) for a year or two.
When I sell I almost always use Buy it Now.
But that defeats the purpose of an auction site. Why not put a reserve price on it?
Incidentally I am getting fed up with the numpties on eBay who bid almost as much (sometimes more!) than the retail price. I regularly find stuff on Amazon (with Amazon guarantees and shipping rates) listed at less than bids on eBay for the exact same item. I cannot believe so many people are so styooopid.
What is it? IMO, as it stands now they are a glorified classified site living off of the foothold/marketshare it established many years ago?
Maybe that's why ebay is interested in craigslist.
I have to say that eBay offered the better prices by a long way.
One obvious thing was that around 75% of those selling what I wanted on eBay, and remember I'm talking DVD's here, were in China! No thank you.
Syzygy
One obvious thing was that around 75% of those selling what I wanted on eBay, and remember I'm talking DVD's here, were in China!
Ebay is awash with bootleg DVDs and sellers advertising their product as '100% authentic'. Yes, 100% authentic bootleg. Same as a lot of electrical stuff from Singapore. Its usually fake. Bargains can still be had on Ebay, but you have to be careful. I tend to prefer Amazon myself.
dc
they are a glorified classified site living off of the foothold/marketshare it established many years ago?
Maybe they are the one of the last victims of the dot bomb implosion from 2000. It took longer, but ultimately they diluted their original business model that made them successful and now they are fading away.
A few months ago the Wall Street Journal had an article talking about eBay, Amazon, and a few of the other survivors of the dot bomb era. It was saying that stock analysts were trying to find new and "better" ways of measuring if they were a good company. It said the traditional items like profit growth just "didn't work" for these enlightened companies. Instead it they wanted to measure things like how many sellers there were and new member sign up and other things that are completely meaningless unless it actually generates a profit.
One thing we all know from free market economics is that if eBay doesn't find a way to boost up the things that made them successful a new competitor will come along and eat their lunch.
I used to spend four figures a month there, this month it won't reach three.
I noticed a lot of auctions disappearing after the feedback changes in May, leaving a lot of merchant sellers with BIN at retail, plus shipping. What's the point?
The whole thing smells like groupthink, with the group using a nonrepresentative sample of users and overgeneralizing.
A shame.
-Automan
need to make x+y to cover your costs
Maybe eBay's downfall is because of it's success. There's probably hundreds of people selling office chairs, the supply exceeds demand, so auction sales wouldn't cover the costs. With BIN they just list them and every one sold is a profit.
I don't think anyone really has any good auctions where the supply is saturated.
I think the lack of products on sale is due to the changes to seller feedback also.
