Hi All,

eBay sent a mass e-mail today that completed item searches through the API will be discontinued, which is what we use here to get the items for the Valuation Board.  I suspect this will also affect the main eBay site (no longer will you be able to search for a completed item), but they did not specifically say that.  Besides crippling our ability to maintain the values on the Indexes here, that decision is going to piss off a lot of eBay's user base, because that's the advice we give when people ask about an item's value -- "just search for completed items on eBay!".

I've worried for a long time that this day would come, as eBay continues to march forward with eliminating auctions altogether.  :/  They do not want you to see what similar items have sold for, they want you to guess at setting your own price (which, because of human nature, will probably be higher than the market actually bears).  This is all guesses on my part, but is in-line with the downward trajectory they've been on for the past (seven?) years.  And in further keeping with their past track record, they're giving all of nine days' notice before shutting the service off.

In any event, I have a *theory* on how I can keep the Valuation Board searches on life support, but it's going to require some programming effort on my part.  I don't know if I will have time to implement it before the "go-dark" date of October 15th, but I will endeavor to make it.  If it doesn't work, the values on the Indexes will be frozen at Oct 2020 values, because there won't be any way (even manually) to get sale prices any longer, at least from eBay.

Foul

Would there be a way to do a daily data pull via the APIs for the current auctions, cache them, and then use that data to track the valuations??

Allan.

Great, you're simply great, Foul!

Keep cross fingers!

Indeed, thanks Scott!

Allan.

Wait, so its totally going away, or just the automated data stuff that drives reports?

Something like this could drive folks to communities like this for assistance. I will be happy to give advice! It will all be wrong. Dont pay more than $275 for a OCE, or $70 for a second print Deities and Demigods. No more than $65 for a module in shrink wrap...

This means Mrs Smith who has a load of collectable D&D, or Mr Jones who comes across a stack in a garage sale and remembers it from his childhood, both of whom are just wanting to sell the stuff and get a little money quickly, no longer have any means of finding out how much something may fetch, not how such things should be listed.

If I came across an WW2 medal, an OQO2, a cartridge for a SNES or a plush toy, I have no means of knowing what the important characteristics are for listing it on eBay, what the expected return could be, the potential size of the buying audience, the frequency with which the things come up for sale, or being able to compare good listings against bad listings that may have helped determine price. I also do not have the means of determining which items out of a list of say 20 are worth me spending a few hours researching, and which are not (which is a function of finishing price). So I could spend three hours researching and creating an accurate listing for a plush toy that nets $100, or nets only $8.

The question is... With eBay destroying the research engine for their sellers, will that lower the sale prices? Will that remove the tendency for BINs? Will that result in more errors in listing rares and increase the chances of picking up bargains? Is this a net gain for the buyer and a net loss for the seller?

I believe they want to ultimately move away from both auctions and used items.  Every decision they've made for the past few years indicates this trend.  They see themselves as a direct competitor to Amazon, and the pandemic-related boost to profits has only encouraged them that they're on the right path (although I imagine all online retailers have seen a massive pandemic surge).

Foul

Victory!  I've successfully modified the code to use an alternate method of getting completed item sales.  It's been working flawlessly for a few days now.

FYI, the ability to do manual completed-item searches on eBay is still enabled.  For the time being, at least!

Foul

Thank you, Foul! Very much appreciated!