eBay, the good old days

[Midpack]

Decluttering is wonderful! DW and I are selling off 22 items that we’d otherwise throw away, could net over $2,000. And eBay and PayPal do make it easy. 9 items will sell, the rest TBD this afternoon.

But their take is much more now, about 13%. Most buyers are more savvy now, the days of generous bidders have passed IME, and snipers have become the norm. Lots of dealers now instead of private parties. And though I’ve only been scammed once in 78 transactions, you read about more scam angles all the time.

So it’s still a good outlet for decluttering, along with tossing, donating, giving away or selling local (big items). But not as attractive as eBay was in its heyday IME.

 

[HadEnuff]

as someone who had done a lot more buying than selling on eBay, I feel the same way. I think it was maybe 16 or 17 years ago I picked up some great Hudson Bay Blankets, from private sellers, at great prices. Now, if you are looking for something, you have to weed your way through all of the dealers, whose prices are often not as good as Walmart or Amazon.

 

[aja8888]

I joined eBay in 1998 and sold and bought a lot of stuff over the years. I remember when you could leave Feedback for anyone, including those in other auctions. That was a kick, for sure.

I also remember when scammers hit the site and sold stuff they didn't own. This was before PayPal and buyers were sending cash (yes, cash) and postal money orders.

Like you say, today it's too many dealers. Back then it was a hoot!

 

[OldShooter]

Yup. I joined in February of 2018 when they had 30 employees. Now 700+ feedback. They have become greedy and arrogant. I avoid the place as a seller. Online forums and CraigsList are more profitable and less hassle.

In Olden Times it really was fun. I have a fantastically accurate "Colt 45" target pistol bought on eBay for half its market value (with a snipe.)

 

[Souschef]

I am still a fan of eBay, more as a buyer. I found some discontinued cosmetics for DW, and a bunch of stuff for the switch engine we are rebuilding.
I do miss the good old days when you could buy liquor on eBay. I guess the ABC clamped down on them.
After I was widowed, my late wife had a large collection of crystal animals I had no use for. I sold them all on eBay. The strangest thing that happened was a met a lady who bought one of the pieces on the train to the Ventura County Fair.

 

[Yarnstormer]

I sell a good bit on ebay. I find the traffic is so heavy it’s hard to get interest and there are a lot of dealers buying from me. I have had people message me after an auction ended pretending to be the high bidder and wanting me to mail to another address! I have had only one no pay so far. Ebay was good about handling it. They do take a big chunk tho then paypal takes another. I have over 2000 books to sell tho so not much else I can do to sell them!

 

[harley]

I gave up on eBay a few years ago. I can usually find what I want on Amazon or some other site, without having to worry about the eBay scammers. And I hate Paypal. I had a number of bad experiences with them over the years, and avoid them when I can.


As far as selling, I prefer Craigslist for big things. Little things I just donate. They aren't worth the hassle of selling.

 

[cbo111]

We have found next-door.com and craigs list to be very useful for buying and selling used stuff. No fees. Ebay/paypal fees have become excessive.

 

[audreyh1]

Decluttering is wonderful! DW and I are selling off 22 items that we’d otherwise throw away, could net over $2,000. And eBay and PayPal do make it easy. 9 items will sell, the rest TBD this afternoon.

But their take is much more now, about 13%. Most buyers are more savvy now, the days of generous bidders have passed IME, and snipers have become the norm. Lots of dealers now instead of private parties. And though I’ve only been scammed once in 78 transactions, you read about more scam angles all the time.

So it’s still a good outlet for decluttering, along with tossing, donating, giving away or selling local (big items). But not as attractive as eBay was in its heyday IME.

We haven't wanted to touch it these days. 15 years ago we made great use of it. It was a friendly place then. Now it seems full of scammers.

Fortunately there are online places that will buy used photographic equipment and computers that mean we don't have to hassle with eBay.

I'm sure we could make it work if we really wanted to, but we are happy to avoid it.

Paypal drives me up a wall. I use it fine for most things, but they are a real hassle about foreign transactions sometimes. They absolutely will not let me buy KLM tickets without using their Euro-USD conversion. It's cheaper to take the KLM fee directly. KLM charges no fee if you use PayPal - so that's probably why they don't allow you to use your credit card conversion. But they don't say anything - just don't let to pick an alternative.

Oh - and after a couple of years of being able to notify them of travel. They don't allow me to do that anymore! Grrrr!

 

[Midpack]

I would agree that PayPal is the eBay's evil twin. The only time I did get scammed it was by PayPal, not eBay. eBay at least waived their fees on the sale gone horribly wrong.

The only reason I still use eBay vs craigslist or most classifieds is because eBay brings a much larger audience and we really don't want strangers at house to kick the tires of items. The local sales we have done have all been arms length, meeting at a safe location no where near home.

 

[6miths]

I loved eBay back in the early days. Late 90s and early 00s but stopped using it when it became flooded with dealers. PayPal was the final spike for me. Now use Kijiji which is owned by eBay but never took off in the US. Has done well in Canada and is similar to Craigslist but is quite a bit classier and gets 3 times the traffic in Canada.

 

[Freedom56]

We use Craiglist. It's free and very effective. Plus We live in Los Angeles County - a market with almost 10 million people. We use it in South Florida also. If it doesn't sell it goes to the Salvation Army or other charities.

 

[ownyourfuture]

But their take is much more now, about 13%.

I noticed that last year when I sold some coins. All told, it was just slightly over 14.00%

That being said, I still think it's a great site, & use it a lot, but definitely more often as a buyer.

 

[travelover]

We have found next-door.com and craigs list to be very useful for buying and selling used stuff. No fees. Ebay/paypal fees have become excessive.

I agree in general. but it depends on what you are selling. Common items can be moved on Nextdoor, Craigslist and Facebook based resale groups, but to get the best price for an unusual or collectible item, I find eBay to bring the most eyeballs and highest return.

 

[CaliKid]

Ebay is still great but definitely not like the old days. I have been on the Bay for 20 years and do not sell like I once did. There is so much stuff sitting on Ebay that it's hard to sell a lot of stuff for enough to make it worthwhile. So end up donating a lot to Goodwill now. It still has it's place and is especially good for selling small and "rare" collectibles that are easy to ship.

 

[athena53]

Not thrilled with it as a seller for the reasons cited above, but mostly excessive fees. Shipping outside the US, even to Canada, is so cost-prohibitive I just refuse to do it. I also think I remember that when one sale went bad (I clearly said the item was Used and the successful bidder backed out after the sale because it was used), I was unable to leave Negative Feedback for the buyer (although I did leave "neutral feedback and said why).


While I'm not thrilled with the number of dealers with "Buy it Now" prices, I still find it useful for obscure items- when I wanted a platinum chain so I could wear my husband's and my wedding bands around my neck, it wasn't something local jewelers carried. I also Unsubscribed from the endless e-mails I got from Silpada Jewelry after I realized that e-Bay has a huge selection at about half the price- probably from dealers getting out of the business.

 

[Midpack]

We sold 14 of 22 items today, and cleared just over $1000 after “they” took their cut on items that would’ve been a pain to unload elsewhere. PayPal and eBay still aren’t as “enriching” as they once were, but DW and I made about $200/hr all told. We have a pile of paid for boxes to mail tomorrow...

Guess I shouldn’t complain, beats garage sales or classifieds for us.

 

[AlbaCrush]

I only use ebay to purchase a item that is alot cheaper that the manufacturer item. I got a generic heating oven for my stove for $20. If I got one from GE, it was over $75.

During the good old days of ebay, you could sell anything. I sold three Victoria Secret Catalogues for $5 and they paid the shipping.

 

[audreyh1]

We’ve been selling older camera equipment back to bhphotovideo.

 

[brucethebroker]

Perhaps ebay has moved from "the good old days" (also known as the wild, wild west...) to a true business format to keep up with technology and reduce fraud. I sell about 1,000 items each year and have noticed that ebay continues to streamline and make the selling process easier for sellers. The fees, when compared to the ease of doing business elsewhere are reasonable, IMO. I do not have to worry about shoplifters, marketing costs, nor the overhead/time commitment of a traditional business. Paypal eliminates having to set up a credit card account at a bank. BTW, in the 8,000 plus items I have sold, I can count on one hand the number of times I have been "scammed". (Ebay completely backs sellers when items are claimed to be not delivered, for example.)

ebay recently announced new payment options in the future: "...eBay will manage the payments flow, simplifying the end-to-end experience for both buyers and sellers. We have signed an agreement with Adyen, a leading global payments processor, to become our primary payments processing partner. PayPal, a long-time eBay partner, will be a payments option at checkout for eBay buyers."

Like many things, ebay seems to get easier the more you use it (speaking as a seller). I am sure it IS frustrating when only selling items once every few years. But it is still a great option for those who want to have a relatively simple small business-or clean out their closets.

 

[misshathaway]

So it’s still a good outlet for decluttering, along with tossing, donating, giving away or selling local (big items). But not as attractive as eBay was in its heyday IME.

Not for sellers in MA and NH anymore. They requested that PayPal send reports of "income" for 2017 to the state for any incoming transaction. Other states could follow next year. The cutoff per year is $600. Mine was $900, all for sales of decluttering. The statement does not include any refunds or offsetting expenses. That's up to the you to provide, per item.

 

[DrRoy]

Not as attractive as eBay was in its heyday.

+1 for sellers. About 10 years ago I had a go at buying and flipping proof coins. Then, the take was about 5% but growing. Not worth doing now. I still use Ebay to find something unusual, or to sell off an old item, but nothing steady.

 

[happy2bretired]

My late husband used to buy and sell on eBay a long time ago. It was his hobby. I sold a very old TITANIC book for $100 and my daughter was able to sell most of her Beanie Babies before the fad wore off. We both were very happy with our sales. I won’t even look at eBay now.

 

[aja8888]

I buy Chinese knock off auto parts for non-critical car repairs on eBay now.

In the past, I have sold almost a 1,000 small antiques and other goods. I have also sold and bought a couple of used cars on the site. Most of the transactions went well.

 

[COcheesehead]

I’ve been on eBay for almost 18 years. It’s changed, in some ways for the better. Buyer Protection for instance and the mandatory use of online payments. I still sell $3000 - $5000 a year on it. Sometimes in just a few items, sometimes many, many items. There are still deals to be had when buying, but it requires some work to find those. I like it better than Craigslist. Where else can you get that big of an audience and not have to deal with the flakes that don’t show up or cancel at the last minute? I would rather sell it and ship it.