will ebay ever fall?

[pk698]

Was just googling around and searched for "ebay sucks" to see some points why people hate ebay so much. I can't believe all the negativity about the auction site. I gathered that fees seems to be the #1 issue, where fees keep increasing. I also noticed that there are a lot of sites trying to topple ebay, yet all are unsuccessful. actually, some don't even come close to even touch ebay. I always wondered why this is.

My assumption is this: even though sellers don't like the fees, they don't have a choice but to stay with ebay. Sellers know that once they list their items, it will be seen by a large global community; and, they move their inventory. Other sites can be free, but who would list items there if nobody looks at it.


What are your opinion on this? can ebay be beaten... or not?

 

[Floris]

I've never liked eBay myself. The risk of abuse is just too high for me. Same with Craigslist.
I hear a lot of people have success with it. Which I am happy to hear. I just don't want to risk it.

 

[Onimua]

The fact eBay also bought Paypal isn't any help either, and people don't like Paypal already because of its high/ridiculous fees.

Almost any company can be brought down if a newer one comes along that offers a better experience for users. Some things just take time.

 

[Mikey]

Never been scammed on ebay, but only because I follow a few practises, namely to use common sense, if it looks too good to be true, it is, if I see a book i want shipping out of hong kong for 99p, but the same book is available in Britain for £5, + £3 postage/packaging I go for the local one, just because.

If you see auctions ending really cheap, check the background of a user, they may have several hundred '$1' auctions where they sell nothing at all, and reap in the collective cash.

Also, I always use "Buy it Now" rather than auctions, and I always check the feedback a user has recieved.

 

[AmericanForum.com]

Was just googling around and searched for "ebay sucks" to see some points why people hate ebay so much. I can't believe all the negativity about the auction site. I gathered that fees seems to be the #1 issue, where fees keep increasing. I also noticed that there are a lot of sites trying to topple ebay, yet all are unsuccessful. actually, some don't even come close to even touch ebay. I always wondered why this is.

My assumption is this: even though sellers don't like the fees, they don't have a choice but to stay with ebay. Sellers know that once they list their items, it will be seen by a large global community; and, they move their inventory. Other sites can be free, but who would list items there if nobody looks at it.


What are your opinion on this? can ebay be beaten... or not?

Yes Ebay can be beaten in some of their niches by smaller players ... can Ebay be beaten as a whole ? ... it's possible but highly improbable.

 

[Mert]

I don't know if ebay will ever fall but i know someone who made crazy money ( 8 digits ) from ebay

 

[AmericanForum.com]

I don't know if ebay will ever fall but i know someone who made crazy money ( 8 digits ) from ebay

legally ?

 

[Mert]

legally ?

I can't comment on that as i don't work for ebay or saw all the actions of the guy.

 

[Smokeycheech]

I got scammed on ebay. Lost a few hundred pounds after winning some motorcycle leathers.

I have never really used it since. I think for people that don't abuse it ebay is a good site, except for some of the fees it charges. Personally I plan to keep my visits there to a minimum!

 

[Onimua]

I've had maybe 1-2 issues with sellers over the last couple of years and I got my money back each time. I'm surprised there are some here who seemed to have very different experiences.

 

[Photon]

Will eBay ever fail is like asking will the free market ever fail?
eBay is just the medium.

 

[Jethro]

Have brought the odd thing off eBay without issue.

There's a kiwi company that's more successful across the ditch than eBay in NZ with even more ridiculous charges.

 

[Cezz]

I have been messed around on ebay a few times, but all in all I have also managed to make a few £100 from selling the old stuff that is cluttering my house up...

All in all it is about conman sense, and when selling, if you are only selling to get rid of something and don't really care what it goes for then you are in for a win with ebay and so are the people who are getting it who get it for penny's... If you are on there to make a profit it is also possible but you are much more likely to be scammed but this is where paypal and its stupid fees come in because they have always been good at getting me my money back or protecting me when there have been scams.

 

[darkon]

I haven´t visited ebay for more than a year now..

My "problem" with eBay ist just, that there are to many golddiggers trying to get as much money as possible for some old and used stuff.
Since i buy mostly old CDs and vinyls i became kind of addicted to Amazon-Marketplace. At least in germany there is quiet a number of stuff the buy and the prices are much more reasonable to me.

 

[Sador]

Oh come on people, you know how this kind of stuff works. Some company gets big, seems to last forever, and at some point, whether that's days, months or years, some other small company will take it over. Yeh, they will be beaten.

 

[dutchbb]

Well it just works... You have a big audience so you will sell. You might not sell for the price you wanted (in fact you rarely get a good price) and the fees are on the steep side (not to mention the ridiculous policy of asking money for just about every little extra) but in the end, it's still on of the biggest marketplaces on the web to get rid of you stuff in a comfortable way.

Will they be beaten?

This is possible, all it takes is a better service that starts to receive more attention.

 

[0ptima]

Ive never been scammed, but I did learn a valuable lesson about selling. I once sold something during the holiday season and was assured it would take X days to ship the product. I told the buyer when I sent the item and how many days it would take, based on what the post office told me. Exactly X days after shipping the item, the buyer did not receive the item and without even contacting me, opened a paypal complaint claiming I had not shipped the item. I contacted the postal office and they said that during the holiday season, there could be delays. I sent the buyer an email explaining that there could be delays during the holidays, but got no response.

Since the buyer selected the lowest shipping option, there was no tracking number, so there really was no way of knowing where the item was. To protect my ebay reputation, I was ready to refund the buyer the amount for the item plus shipping. Fortunately, the item arrived a few days later and the paypal complaint was dropped. Since this experience, I only ship items with a tracking number.

 

[EQnoble]

Ebay is a community of sellers and buyers. As long as people use them they can't fail. Bandwidth and server costs are their only real overhead, as long as the people who make up ebay's community keep frequenting, how could they fail. All products are sold user to user and claims against sales are related to other users not the site. They just take a cut. Remember , selling the company doesn't necessarily mean falling in fact it could mean the opposite. What I'm getting at is as long as there is people there... even a few compared to what they have now, a site like that can last as long as there is network connectivity to it. (assuming all their corporate actions are on the up and up)