A CONTRARIAN OPINION OF EBAY

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CarlosV
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Re: A CONTRARIAN OPINION OF EBAY

Post by CarlosV »

I have utilized eBay exclusively as a buyer, and the best part of it for me is the geographic reach, that makes available articles in remote places that otherwise would not be at my reach. It has improved in terms of assurances to the buyer over the years, and today it has a fairly decent customer protection and arbitration system. Similarly to Steve, most of my collection originated in eBay, either as direct purchases, or as introductory means to meet sellers, which was the case of Raphael, whose store I found on eBay and sold me a pristine schoolhouse model some years ago that keeps entertaining me. I have limited experience in auctions houses: years ago I bought several items in auctions of the SAS house in England. I bought once a machine at the annual auction that Breker promotes, and tried to bid for some items in the recent auction that Millon promoted in Paris of the Marty collection, but did not manage to buy anything. The limitation of these houses is that none of them packs and ships, so the buyer has either to pick it up personally or arrange a third party to ship the goods.

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Re: A CONTRARIAN OPINION OF EBAY

Post by Granby »

I'll chime on in with this subject as I have had quite a bit of experience with auction houses over the past 10 to 15 years. First, many auction houses strongly discourage reserve prices these days. This means, as sellers, we have no way to really protect our phonographs from going for a really low price. And, I can attest to the fact that sellers commission rates are 30 - 35%, currently. That is the going rate..... [fact].

If you sell a phonograph for $1,000, you will get a payment for $700.... eventually.... I have some great friends and colleagues who are well respected auctioneers. But, payments are not quick. If you decide to sell a common machine, the "right" buyers aren't there, and it sells for $65.00, you will get a final payment in the neighborhood of $45.50.

In my humble opinion, unless the auction is a highly advertised "phonograph auction" by the houses already well known in our hobby, they are a disposal service - one step up from an estate sale. I don't intend for this to sound negative. My grandparents and parents have all downsized and I have seen high end antiques sell for pennies on the dollar. On the reverse side, as a collector, I have bought some great antiques at auction houses for.... pennies on the dollar.... recently.

Ebay will probably get your unique antique to the widest audience at the lowest commission rate. However, I always thought ebay was better for rare items and small items. Maybe, that is because I am not that experienced in shipping large items... :?

My only small gripe with ebay was that they "held" my funds once until the buyer had received my item AND declared that they were happy with my item. I kind of thought that was consumer protection taken to the extreme... :shock: [This was recently, in 2022, by the way]

I hope my opinions and experiences have added a little bit to the discussion. Take care!!! - Chris

martinola
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Re: A CONTRARIAN OPINION OF EBAY

Post by martinola »

Granby wrote: Tue Sep 06, 2022 9:18 amEbay will probably get your unique antique to the widest audience at the lowest commission rate. However, I always thought ebay was better for rare items and small items. Maybe, that is because I am not that experienced in shipping large items... :?
My latest experience with ebay as a seller makes me want to never again be a seller. They've changed the rules about their fees and now include the shipping costs. I had a 50 cent item with 3.00 shipping cost. Ebay charged me as though I made 3.50. I lost money on that. Sure, on the really high ticket items it may work out, but their policy is the last straw for me. I suppose one should never say never, but I'd rather donate stuff or yard sale it rather than giving the corporate blood suckers money that shouldn't be theirs.

Martin

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Inigo
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Re: A CONTRARIAN OPINION OF EBAY

Post by Inigo »

The shipping costs shouldn't be charged, they pay their own taxes included in their prices, going to whom they belong. Why a private company should charge on shipping costs? Surely that's illicit! Shipping costs aren't any source of wages for the seller, or they shouldn't be... Except that it seems to be certain sellers that charge $75 for a phonograph and $1200 for shipping costs, as we've seen frequently. Those are false sales, with the price hidden in the shipping costs, for the sellers to avoid eBay charges in the está when they only charged for the item price. As in many other aspects of life, these minority of city slickers or traitors have made eBay change their politics. I'm sure that's the reason behind this change.
Inigo

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Re: A CONTRARIAN OPINION OF EBAY

Post by 52089 »

Inigo wrote: Tue Sep 06, 2022 3:46 pm The shipping costs shouldn't be charged, they pay their own taxes included in their prices, going to whom they belong. Why a private company should charge on shipping costs? Surely that's illicit! Shipping costs aren't any source of wages for the seller, or they shouldn't be... Except that it seems to be certain sellers that charge $75 for a phonograph and $1200 for shipping costs, as we've seen frequently. Those are false sales, with the price hidden in the shipping costs, for the sellers to avoid eBay charges in the está when they only charged for the item price. As in many other aspects of life, these minority of city slickers or traitors have made eBay change their politics. I'm sure that's the reason behind this change.
Essentially yes. Before eBay started collecting fees on shipping, sellers were (theoretically) charging $1 for an item and $19 shipping for what should have been a $19 item with $1 shipping and eBay was losing out.

I also know of one seller who mostly deals in postcards and other flat, inexpensive items. All items start at $0.01 with a $5 shipping charge, and the seller will not combine postage costs.

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Re: A CONTRARIAN OPINION OF EBAY

Post by jboger »

Raphael's original comment was that it could be cheaper to sell on eBay rather than through more traditional outlets that can charge as high as 30%. That's true. But the price a seller receives may also depend as much on what s/he sells as where it is sold. Some items are just better sold, for example, at a table directly to the public. Other items you might want to consign to an on-line auction.

A word about eBay. I have bought and sold items on eBay since 1999. We need to distinguish between eBay the service provider, on one hand, and eBay's buyers and sellers who use eBay's platform, on the other. If eBay (the platform) made a mistake, it was in the early days. eBay overly protected sellers; eBay tended to side with them. Why? Because eBay collected it fees from sellers and, so eBay wanted to protect the source of its revenues. But at some point eBay realized if buyer's didn't have confidence to buy on it's platform, then there would be fewer sales and less fees. This led to some policy changes that left many sellers disgruntled to this day--they lost their preferred position. These policies for the most part have made a more secure environment for the buyer. And they've forced some dealers to go against their natural grain and become more honest.

Well, I don' t spend much time on eBay any more. If I buy anything, it's new items like vacuum bags and watch batteries. Oh yes, I just bought some hide glue because I can't find it in the local hardware store any more. That's about it.

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Raphael
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Re: A CONTRARIAN OPINION OF EBAY

Post by Raphael »

The intent of my original post was to revisit the prevailing anti-eBay attitudes and offer some comparisons. By no means did I suggest or imply that eBay should be the sole outlet for everybody. For me, it comprises about 5% of my sales. There are many ways to sell, and one should not close the door to any one of them permanently.

Raphael

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Re: A CONTRARIAN OPINION OF EBAY

Post by Sidewinder »

Hi Raphael,

There was an "auction" around your way yesterday with some mechanical music items. Strange was that hardly any items sold (practically nothing actually, 99% unsold), though there was fierce bidding by almost the same 2 buyers, who had an interest in everything it appeared, from Lalique glass, sevres porcelain and all other items there. It was unfortunate that they seemed to bid most items up to just under what must have been the reserve price then stopped, so that the item was "passed". Must be the tough economy.

Did anyone else follow this?

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