Interesting Comment On Ebay

I couldn't help agreeing with Glenn Stephens today when his latest mass email turned up in my inbox:

'Speaking of ebay they seem to be getting greedier and greedier every year and the term " ebay" is not unwarranted at all.

Many sellers will be soon paying NINE PER CENT on all lots that sell – AND on the shipping cost as well! When the ebay owned Paypal takes their few % extra, you are paying more to selling via the Wild West Lawless Wilderness of ebay, than via a real auction in many cases.

Added to this is the epidemic of ebay buyers who get the goods – tell paypal they have not received them, and the SELLER is immediately assumed a crook, and the funds are removed from your account, and given back to the crooked "buyer".

You cannot now SEE which "buyers" have a long track record of this, as ebay no longer allows sellers to leave Negative feedback for ANY reason .. not even NEUTRAL .. so the cons rip off 100s of sellers with total impunity.

An ebay buyer only CANNOT ever get Negative feedback - so seeing a 100% buyer feedback score sadly these days means zero.

Unless you send each $5 lot via a $20 signed for tracking service you WILL lose the lot, every time, with ebay/paypal if disputed.

Long discussion here and the battle weary troops are NOT happy with yet another round of fee gouging and rule tampering - add your thoughts - http:// (Offsite URL shortening not allowed) /ebay9-Fee

And if sellers pay 10% fees they will generally add that to the price the BUYER pays – that much is obvious.

With ebay/PayPal real fees being over 10% to a large chunk of sellers in 3 weeks time, hopefully more and more sellers will mail their goods to me for a fast cash offer for ALL you have for sale! – www.[Site blacklisted due to email spam (1)].com/buying.html - more and more folks do this each month, and I now can see WHY!

www.ebay.com/b/260/" rel="nofollow">ebay more and more is populated with crooked SELLERS who offer regummed, re-perforated and forged perfin/overprint stamps etc, and now there are growing armies of buyers who claim they never get the goods, ripping off the HONEST sellers for the entire cost of those stamps.

www.ebay.com/b/260/" rel="nofollow">ebay and paypal make a fortune in BOTH cases, and have no reason to do a thing to change it. Long term it will entirely kill the venue for selling stamps worth more than $50, but they think only of next quarter's profit announcement - not long term.

Some of these cons have had FIFTY different www.ebay.com/b/260/" rel="nofollow">ebay accounts as stampboards shows you – the moment one is closed down they start dealing from another account name.

As they have a bunch of fake accounts the common feature of the crooks is to "Shill Bid" genuine bidders like you using a duplicate account or two. So the lot should have got for $100 often costs you $150 as you are bidding against yourself many times.

www.ebay.com/b/260/" rel="nofollow">ebay states they frown on this, but in reality seldom seem interested as it clearly makes them a lot of money. Indeed they now disguise the ID of bidders to make it harder for you to spot the practice and complain.

And remember ANY www.ebay.com/b/260/" rel="nofollow">ebay stamp seller running "Private Auctions" or having private feedback is 99% guaranteed to be a CON. History shows this strongly.'

Honk if you agree!

Much, perhaps most, perfectly true, but the line from the poet springs to mind: 'The dog barks, the caravan moves on'.

People can complain all they want, but at the end of the day, there's no better bang for the buck. Take it from someone with over 50K transactions on line.

As a buyer, I made about 90 % of my transactions on ebay. Believe me that's where I get my thrill. As seller, I sold at the stampclub, to dealers and of course on SCF following Glen Stephen advice in a sense. But a good point doesn't make the whole picture... ebay still has the best website! Best attendance! And opportunities! And believe me if the sales go down they will react and adjust. It's ebay that got me back to stamp collecting!

I agree with Tony and Bobby (edit: and now timbres667) -- sellers can either accept the cost of doing business on ebay or list their material somewhere else.

I have no sympathy for a seller that charges an excessive shipping and handling fee to essentially put a stamp in a plain envelope, slap a first class stamp on it, and drop it in the mail.

I generally avoid those sellers but, in those rare instances when I want to bid on a stamp that one of them has listed, I'll factor their S&H charge into my maximum bid.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have never sold anything on ebay or any other online entity but I have been a buyer since September 2010.

Without taking a position on the merits of ebay, I'd like to say these debates make me nervous.... Every time we have this conversation, it ends with a heated exchange and a locked thread.

Nothing drives new members away like angry posts and flame wars.

I agree it's an important factor for many of us who buy/sell online, but let's all remember to respect the other position. After all, we are a "family"

KirkS

Thanks Kirk, for the reminder. Never discuss politics and religion at the dinner table and I have the feeling that ebay approaches religion.

I don't think posting Glen's post verbatim was a good idea.
He makes thoughts perfectly clear in every other forum.
He also self promotes in every post.
He may be right, but his ego gets in his way.


btw.. For the first time I have bought something one ebay and have not received it... So I am giving it a few more days before filing a complaint or whatever someone is supposed to do. I assume it is lost in the mail as the seller has perfect feedback. And it's coming from Germany.

- ref GS

I do tend to agree with most of what he mentions about ebay though but we are are opposite ends of the collecting spectrum.
His interest is mainly financial and mine isn't.

I've been buying and selling on ebay for a few months now and am only now having a problem with a seller.
Let's face it. Like in any business, there are good and bad apples, be they buyers or sellers. Hardly fair to paint everyone with the same brush (if I may mix my metaphors)
...I had typed a lot more, but erased it. A soap box is a dangerous thing.

Just read same email and was part of forgery debate over there but as stated airing all the negatives just isn't a positive approach to any hobby. I've talked to quite a few auction houses and naturally they and dealers despise ebay as it takes money out of their pocket and that is understandable. But I would challenge a lot of dealers to sell me even a 10th of what I've bought from ebay at same prices. Regardless ebay has opened doors that a short time ago were not availiable to many of us . If your a buyer just do the research and be careful. If your a seller do the same and cover yourself. If you don't like it then don't do it but please do not critisize those who do .
Advice to those buying from overseas-- I've received items from UK, germany and AU in short periods of time but they can also take up to 6 weeks. Delay putting in your non received complaints as long as possible as most do arrive. If you do receive a refund and items arrive please use your conscience and re pay the seller as it is only fair and helps avoid the outrageus shipping fees we are all seeing on low value items.

nitro.. re: no-delivery..
If it doesn't show up then I will file a non-delivery, but I had also intended to let the seller know if it shows up I would repay him. It's the only fair thing to do.

But I am also not going to wait 6 weeks. As the time allowed to file on ebay is limited.

I have been buying a few items from ebay each month for the past two years and have been happy with almost all of the purchases. I feel that I have paid much less than I would have paid at the local stamp shop or from sellers at stamp shows. I have also noticed that some ebay sellers have much higher shipping fees than others so I avoid them for the most part. It could be that some sellers are hiking the shipping costs so as to avoid ebay fees.

In any event, I will continue to shop at ebay but will monitor other sites like bidstart in case better deals can be found there.

With all of the problems with ebay it is still very cheap for the seller. I know of no other venue that give so much traffic for the price. The "customer is always right" philosophy opens the doors for unscrupulous buyers which is unfortunate but it also promote buyer trust and generates higher volume. Many U.S. sellers are adding delivery confirmation onto the shipping cost and most buyer understand and accept the higher costs.
As an occasional seller, I don't like the higher costs for items I sell, nobody does. As a seller I have decided that the extra cost is worth the traffic.
IMHO, there are 2 options; sell on ebay or go elsewhere. The problem is that many sellers think there is a third option and that is to sell on ebay and complain to everyone who will listen.

Stamp Virgin-- If you wait as close as you can to the deadline it then goes into their dispute mode and allows another week or two before you have to make a full claim. 6 weeks to me is to long but overseas is tough to calculate Had same issue from China just recently and even though there was tracking even after I received it it said arrived at shanghai airport. Still find it odd that registered from China only cost under $3.

Registered mail is more labor intensive compared to other mail. Is the cost of registered mail relative to labor costs for a particular country? That might explain why it's so expensive in the U.S. and other countries while cheap in China.

As for the topic, I've said my piece already in a previous thread. It will be interesting to see what the consquences , intended and unintended will come of the change. See if the listing numbers for new items and sold items change. See if the sellers add stores or up the shipping. At least with the change, stamp/cover sellers are affected the least. Coin dealers are going to take bigger hit. Anyone who uses any of the priority/express services or special overseas services will be hit harder. I would hate to be a dealer of cast iron. A stamp can be mailed domestically in the U.S. for 64 cents (that's with cardboard protection and the 20 cent nonmachinable surcharge). A cast iron frying pan...ouch. Maybe flea markets will expand.