Are You Losing Faith In Ebay?

Quite the opposite to me. I'm regularly outbid on the better items. I see ebay being flooded with poor quality items that are clogging up my search results.

As what some would call a "bottomfeeder," I've seen the type of stuff I would have easily picked up in the past go for higher amounts with sometimes pretty active bidding.

Things I would consider more specialized or "higher end" are just as out of reach for my budget as they have been in the past. So from my point of view there doesn't seem to have been any change here.

Dale

I never had any in the first place.

Shipping on ebay is a killer. Need tracking on first class envelope as an option (from your computer) like first class package (but 1/3 the cost).

Auctions are terrible on ebay unless you are one of the 'popular' sites.

I'd swear they are using someone to bid up their auctions. Sniping hurts too, such that when NO ONE live bids then it spook snipers who back off.

Sales Tax is now a killer on both buying and selling for me.

Availability of interesting and quality material at reasonable prices seem scarce to me.

I do see trickle up in prices being paid in general lately. Not sure why.

I use ebay for things other than stamps but for stamps and what I collect currently there are 92% Buy It Now and only 8% auction lots. Much of the BIN stuff is vastly overpriced compared to what the same item would go for if auctioned. Most of the time I filter out all he BIN lots as they clog up the search results. I am not even sure when I last bought a buy it now lot.

But despite that I think ebay is still OK especially at the moment and I have more time to look through it. Delcampe and Hipstamp are viable alternatives.

AQ

There are a lot of variables on ebay. How low/high were your opening bids? How detailed were the images? Did the quality of the lots vary, or mostly sound condition? etc....

I think it depends how much faith you have in the first place.
There are people who will always be energised to be a low level trader, whether on ebay or the stock market or whatever. The pennies DO stack up. For most of us becoming a millionaire is just too much hassle.
Apparently I have bought or sold 116 times on ebay. I have probably purchased 80% of the time and sold 20% of the time. I have sold a few stamps but also Toy Soldiers. Like I say, I dont like hassle and buying envelopes, bubble wrap and occasional haggling is not my cup of tea,

I haven't bought any stamps on ebay in months!

Rogdcam,

II am pretty sure the OP has been predicting the failure of ebay for all of the ten years that I have been involved in these virtual stamp community discussions.

I think the dirty little secret is that on ebay you can see the real market value of a stamp.
Which is why dealers don't like it.

I have noticed it's getting increasingly difficult to find new lots in the area I'm interested in.

Most of what is listed on ebay in my area are relistings at such ridiculous prices that they'll never ever sell.

It's always deflating when, for example, I see something in the USA that's right up my street but ebay tells me I'll be paying US$20 just to get a single stamp in the mail to me. Completely preposterous.

It's certainly an exercise in patience these days but patience is key.

I did not place a vote but I'm a collector who has never bought or sold on it. I don't use Paypal either for that matter.

Personally, I absolutely love reading anti-eBay posts.

The more people that leave ebay forever are that many more collectors that I am not competing with.

When you learn how to drive, you might have some accidents along the way. That doesn't mean that you should stop driving altogether.

If you get burned on an ebay lot, learn from it, and move on. Or, don't, and hate the website forever.

I haven't bought stamps from any place other than ebay for over a decade.

And my collection has grown exponentially since then.

You just have to take the time to actually use the site to your personal advantage.

Just like everything else in life, I guess.

Jim

ebay sales are as good as ever. Other sources I participate in outside of ebay have seen no slow down in stamp prices whatsoever because of COVID-19.

It's true that the large majority of auctions on ebay are posted as BIN's and are generally high priced, but not always. Also, a lot of them accept offers.

I've also noticed well known sellers with their own websites post material on ebay heavily discounted from the list prices on their own websites.

High end stamps are competitive when auctioned - they go for relatively high prices but are still generally below what some sellers want as BIN or on their own websites.

I really doubt ebay is shill bidding on auctions. I liked it better when you could see the username of the person you were bidding against, and I forget why they started masking them. Before that, for a variety of collectibles, there were cases where the same username was consistently bidding up one seller's auctions but never winning, and if they did win the auction ended up be relisted - which is suspicious, but not ebay staff.

The eternal question of where new collectors will come from persists, but I doubt anything has changed in the last year. There was a good post on social media by a younger seller that drummed up a lot of attention pointing to stamps as a cool collectible - not dead yet.