Nothng More Than An Investment

good guess (but I was aiming for last not past - both the l & p are next to the ; key)

The ebay vault is now open: https://www.ecommercebytes.com/2022...ading-cards/

Messages were sent to individuals by ebay in ebay messaging with mine arriving at 10:14 AM PDT.


edited to removed errant period.

When my first inverted Jenny fell out of my d****ed album and
wound up in the Hoover, well that was when I realized
I needed the ebay vault!
- Robert E. Zoellner never said


https://siegelauctions.com/lots.php...1240-lot-541

While this might, for now, be limited to high value items; I cannot help but feel that ebay is building a 'ship form stock' foundation (ala Amazon). ebay has been pretty transparent in their desire and vision to be like Amazon. They have been moving away from used items up for auction towards listings for UPC coded buy-it-now items that ship from stock. These type listings have a lower cost per transaction, lower returns, fewer transactional disputes (read as higher profitability for ebay). I think that once they prove out the 'vault' concept, they will open this up to more and more sellers and listings.
Don

I agree with your post, Don, but we already have an Amazon. And, for the most part, it works better than ebay ever could. Yes, they are trying to emulate Amazon, but why should we flock over there when the Amazon system is already up, running, and proven? If I can find a product on both Amazon and on ebay, I am buying it on Amazon every time. If I am looking for a $5-ish stamp of a certain condition to fill a spot in my collection, of course, I will go to ebay. In the end, if they copy Amazon, what could possibly differentiate ebay from Amazon? If happy with Amazon, why go to ebay, if they are similar? ebay needs to understand their niche in the world and try to be the best they can at THAT. Trying to knock off a company that is 10 times its size (100??) is a fool's game, and we will likely simply end up with Amazon and a bunch of niche auction sites that didn't get gobbled up by ebay before they got stomped on by Amazon. Ya gotta admire their hutzpa, though.

There is a continuous trend in the economic system to find more and more ways to get people to pay essentially lifetime regular fees for services. It could be security, software, storage (online or physical), online content, car or house warranties, etc. It used to be rent to own but seems now just to rent forever.

As long as this remains optional, it's just something to smirk at and shrug... it's when systems like this become mandated (or seller-fulfilled shipments get penalized from a fee or visibility perspective) that this becomes a bigger problem.

Currently, virtually nothing I sell is professionally graded, so it's a moot issue.