Just want to clarify this... you will still be make $$ on ebay you will just make less of it now that's all, with the new fee structure you will make more listing it on half.com than ebay, if its over $31 you will make more out of it by listing on ebay... although if you get the 15% rebate this will drop significantly yes? (guess $17 ish maybe?)... ebay is looking less and less attractive on those figs.. auction break figs are going to be very different to half bins... who wants to do the calculations on that?

It's worth noting that if, and perhaps a big if, the amount of buyers on eBay increases as the result of these changes, then final auction prices will be higher all things equal. So reaching these thresholds may be easier.

Sea-to-sky-games wrote:
It's worth noting that if, and perhaps a big if, the amount of buyers on eBay increases as the result of these changes, then final auction prices will be higher all things equal. So reaching these thresholds may be easier.

I personally think that ebay has reached a saturation point, I don't think that this will attract a uge amount of new buyers, I think it will keep some buyers that were thinking of not using ebay again, increase their usage and bring some of the poeple back.. you also may have less sellers at the end of the day so thats were the effect is going to be...

Brette:)

megnelwil wrote:I noticed Powersellers now have to register with ebay as a business. So no more private Powersellers. Can't anyone smell the government lurking? Talk about the ebay fee increases but a government fee on top would kill it stone dead. Ebay might be digging its own grave here.

For people that their ebay business IS their business I'm all for it.. I pay a huge amount of Taxes and I don't see why others don't have too... Having said that I always wanted to work in the tax office and do an audit on some of the people that calimthey they have .."made millions on ebay/the net/some scam!"... Just would love to be the tax guy that rocks up to their place...

"Hi Mr Smith, I'm here from the tax department investigating claims that you have made millions. Looking at your last last couple of years of your Tax I see that you have claimed that you have made only $10,000 per year and haven't declared any income at all from your business that you have done over the net... I'll be seizing all your property of course and going through everything with a fine tooth comb.. Unfortunatly for you, you have already made statments that you have made this money and the tax department will be billing you as if you made that money, oh and late fees and prob sending you to jail for tax evasion... We will also be seizing all you parents and freinds property as well as it also states that they have made millions as well. I will be keeping all your assets and selling them even if we don't find anything as we know that people are very good at hiding money in various tax havens all over the world... now if you could please stop crying and please bend over so we can at least get the cavety search out of the way that would be a good start.."


Brette:)

It seems to me that the best "solution" to the whole "broken" feedback situation is pretty obvious.  A long time ago, ebay should have just made it so that all feedback between a buyer and seller remains "hidden" until both parties have left feedback.  If there is more than one transaction, then all transactions must have feedback left.

If 90 days pass, then that transaction is considered closed - if one party hasn't left feedback by this point, they are out of luck.

It's not perfect, but it is a heck of a lot better than what ebay has come up with so far . . .

Anyway . . .

See, I wouldn't necessarily mind so much about the ability to not leave negative feedback if I was fully confident that Ebay would actually help protect me, however based on my previous experiences, I have zero confidence of that happening.   The worst part though with the way the system is now is balancing legitimate feedback versus retailiatory feedback.  

I still really believe that a large portion of the feedback problems lies squarely on the shoulders of the mutual withdrawls and the abuse of that system as it allows people to try and bully others into withdrawing legit feedback left.  I think that if you eliminate it in all but the most extreme set of circumstances, that you will fix a large part of the problem as it sits right now.  I say this because, it will again force people to be a lot more accountable for the actions before and while they are leaving feedback. You know, kind of like they are adults and they are out in the real world...

Hi all, just a few quick notes of recommendation to small-time sellers (which I used to be, but don't have the time for anymore):  I believe that with these changes, eBay is no longer a viable venue for small individual transactions.  Sure, it's great for buyers, but when the sellers actually lose time and money to post their items, there's no room for a personal touch.  It's going to be all about the Power Sellers now and their buyers.

Locally, some of my friends have been having success with Craigslist, even on gaming esoterica and other oddities.  It's by no means perfect but if you're in a decently-sized metropolitan area, you might want to dabble.

My personal recommendation for individual gaming items:  private sales.  I know the Acaeum has been gradually becoming a venue of this nature, because it allows fee circumvention and it works.  (Aside -- it only works when there's trust on both sides, which is rare, but is not a problem here.)

A few people I know who sell games of all kinds have actually been doing all of their business through booths at conventions, pooling together to defray costs.  Two man the booth while the other two go play / eat / sleep, and switch off.  It's a bit Wild West but apparently it's quite lucrative.  Some are even prowling other booths for unintentional bargains and adding them to future stock, or even the current booth.

From personal experience (roughly 2004-2006), Half.com works well for diversified "common" media.  By that I mean books, music, and videogames.  Amazon works fine too.  The caveat for these is that your stock might have to sit for awhile before it sells, so have a good storage area set aside.

If you're not an established Power Seller and you absolutely, positively have to sell on eBay, the only viable method I can see is to sell lots, never individual items, and make your procedures as international-friendly as possible.  If you have good international buyers, it's still a win-win, because they can afford to bid high and still get a deal, due to the depleted dollar.  If you go this route, expect your customers to fall into three categories -- Power Sellers, internationals, and bottom feeders.  I expect profit margins and to be exceedingly small, especially since people with deeper pockets might be able to pick your lot apart and piece it out at a potential loss … basically using you to put yourself out of business.  As I said, no longer viable.

There is no universal solution, and will not be until someone who can swallow colossal foundation costs (Google?  Microsoft?) finally decides to create a full-fledged eBay rival.  Given the taxation / leadership volatility in the US, the tanking economy, and the obvious fact that eBay is a wounded whale thrashing around and doing anything it can for a buck, I don't expect this situation to change in the next 5-10 years.  (Maybe 10, but even if a rival site were established, it would take a long time to build up the critical mass of users that would bring eBay back to the realm of competitive sanity.)

Good luck!

darkseraphim wrote:I believe that with these changes, eBay is no longer a viable venue for small individual transactions.

Dark!

This has really hit home with me in the last couple of days. It's just not 1998 any more, I guess ... which, eBay-wise, is mostly pretty sad. The ability for a seller to just "jump right in" and start making some money with extra stuff, things just sitting in the garage, pieces of a collection, etc., etc., are long gone. The eBay of 2008 is all about Powersellers, drop-shippers, absurd fees, and new rules and regulations that show a real, honest-to-God disconnection from reality.

darkseraphim wrote:If you're not an established Power Seller and you absolutely, positively have to sell on eBay, the only viable method I can see is to sell lots, never individual items ...

True dat.

Gaming-wise, unless it's an item that has proven it can stand on its own (say, at least a $40 average sale over the past year), it's looking like pure foolishness to list individual items. All of that time and effort, just to have a too-large chunk of the "profits" (if any) taken away through various fees ... no thanks, eBay.

Gaming-wise, it's going to be almost all mixed lots for me. And I doubt I'll be the only seller to be forced into this corner.

darkseraphim wrote:Hi all, just a few quick notes of recommendation to small-time sellers (which I used to be, but don't have the time for anymore):  I believe that with these changes, eBay is no longer a viable venue for small individual transactions.  Sure, it's great for buyers, but when the sellers actually lose time and money to post their items, there's no room for a personal touch.  It's going to be all about the Power Sellers now and their buyers.

I agree....Ebay is definitely pushing aside the smaller "mom and pop" type seller.  This isn't necessarily a terrible thing.  Many bad experiences in buying games comes from "dabblers" who are uninformed about gaming items and think a single, dog eared book from a boxed set is a "complete, near mint" gaming item, or they figure if they ship one day a week that's fine, or they can't be bothered to actually check the items to see if there are maps in them, etc.  Unfortunately, a lot of good people will also be caught in this net.  

Locally, some of my friends have been having success with Craigslist, even on gaming esoterica and other oddities.  It's by no means perfect but if you're in a decently-sized metropolitan area, you might want to dabble.

CL's is an interesting venue....you never know, kind of like perusing a bunch of garage sales.

My personal recommendation for individual gaming items:  private sales.  I know the Acaeum has been gradually becoming a venue of this nature, because it allows fee circumvention and it works.  (Aside -- it only works when there's trust on both sides, which is rare, but is not a problem here.)

Private sales are a great solution to rares or harder to find items...but a place like the Acaeum is not the best venue for getting rid of a bunch of more common gaming items.  This is where larger venues like Ebay excel.  But yeh, for the rarer items, there is typically someone here looking for that item. If you know what the item typically sells for anyway, it makes sense to cut out the middleman (ebay in this case).

A few people I know who sell games of all kinds have actually been doing all of their business through booths at conventions, pooling together to defray costs.  Two man the booth while the other two go play / eat / sleep, and switch off.  It's a bit Wild West but apparently it's quite lucrative.  Some are even prowling other booths for unintentional bargains and adding them to future stock, or even the current booth.

Unfortunately not as many dedicated gaming conventions as there were years ago...but working a comic book convention in Jan I surprisingly made a few sales of some used gaming stuff I brought along.

From personal experience (roughly 2004-2006), Half.com works well for diversified "common" media.  By that I mean books, music, and videogames.  Amazon works fine too.  The caveat for these is that your stock might have to sit for awhile before it sells, so have a good storage area set aside.

If you don't need the money anytime soon, this isa good option.

If you're not an established Power Seller and you absolutely, positively have to sell on eBay, the only viable method I can see is to sell lots, never individual items, and make your procedures as international-friendly as possible.  If you have good international buyers, it's still a win-win, because they can afford to bid high and still get a deal, due to the depleted dollar.  If you go this route, expect your customers to fall into three categories -- Power Sellers, internationals, and bottom feeders.  I expect profit margins and to be exceedingly small, especially since people with deeper pockets might be able to pick your lot apart and piece it out at a potential loss … basically using you to put yourself out of business.  As I said, no longer viable.

Selling in lots does seem the best method ifyou are not a "professional" seller or a power seller.  Sadly this will probably start limiting the numbers of new Power sellers...but I suspect this is part of Ebay's plan anyway.

There is no universal solution, and will not be until someone who can swallow colossal foundation costs (Google?  Microsoft?) finally decides to create a full-fledged eBay rival.  Given the taxation / leadership volatility in the US, the tanking economy, and the obvious fact that eBay is a wounded whale thrashing around and doing anything it can for a buck, I don't expect this situation to change in the next 5-10 years.  (Maybe 10, but even if a rival site were established, it would take a long time to build up the critical mass of users that would bring eBay back to the realm of competitive sanity.)

Good luck!

Everything's cyclical....in five years we may be awash in money and lighting cigars with $100 bills, I remember the awfulness of the late 80s compared to just a few years later as the internet began to boom.  But this aside, Ebay is what it is.  The days of the old RPG marketplace were great, obviously a certain level or trust had to exist (especially on the buyer's part), but they probably are't going to ever come around again.

Mike B.

Can anyone confirm whether UK sellers will get the same store price reductions and free gallery upgrades as US sellers? I checked both notifications (admittedly a week or so back) and there was no mention in the UK version.