When did eBay get so expensive?

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fzmax

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I haven't sold anything there for over a year. The fee used to be about 5%, but now it's 12%. Is there a popular alternative or are they still the only real game in town?
 
Its the only one that anything really sells on. Theres BidMopar.com also.
 

There are plenty of other online auctions. Name one, you say? Gee, I can't (well there was Yahoo, but everything Yahoo does is wrong). Pretty much means it's eBay or the highway, if you actually want traffic.

As for me, I'd rather give stuff to friends in need, or put it out for the trash. eBay has become very unpleasant for me as a seller.
 
eBay used to be affordable, full of decent stuff which you could get a good deal not to mention you could sell your basement of parts and put some coin in your pocket. Now it seems that every auction is a 'buy it now' for Chinese crap by some reseller. That and every legit person wants to make $10 on shipping.

I'm sure they're making money hand over fist, but I was hoping someone picked up the slack. Craigslist is OK, but letting the market set the price by using auctions worked very well for me back when I sold a lot of stuff.
 
I waited until they had a free listing special and listed 3 items. When they sold, it still cost me almost 9% of my sale price.
 
People want it, they will pay. I have found some killer deals, just need to look. I paid $9.99 for a lot of NOS Mopar trim not knowing what any of it was, looked up some part numbers and did some research, found that I had a NOS 65 Fury hood lip moulding, polised it up and flipped it for $130....not bad, really helps with the bills. I have no problem selling on or buying on ebay, after all, Ebay helped build my Valiant :toothy10:
 
I personally think E-bay is not as good as it used to be. I have not purchased or sold anything on it since I had a auction cancelled by the seller for a set of visors that I won for 99 cents. They didnt do anything against the seller and did not lower his rating.
 
I have found that E Bay is a good resource for getting NOS parts but just as easy to also get parts that are misrepresented as NOS when actually they are used junk with a picture of a new item associated with it. I always try to do my homework by researching the sellers feedback ratings etc....
 
People want it, they will pay. I have found some killer deals, just need to look. I paid $9.99 for a lot of NOS Mopar trim not knowing what any of it was, looked up some part numbers and did some research, found that I had a NOS 65 Fury hood lip moulding, polised it up and flipped it for $130....not bad, really helps with the bills. I have no problem selling on or buying on ebay, after all, Ebay helped build my Valiant :toothy10:

I'm like you buying and selling, sometimes I buy just to flip it back on ebay... Just bought a new $96.00 Jaz quick fill for $9.00 because the guy listed it bad, not my fault..... If you have prime parts you get top dollar... If you have junk it wont sell... Ebay started chargein' more on fees when they started losein' sellers to the bad economy, thay just make us successful sellers pay more, thats the way thay do business, the sellin' fees really pi$$ me off, but its still the best market for my parts....
 
If I don't know what something is worth, I sell it on ebay. If I know what it's worth, I sell it on craigslist. I've had good luck with that so far.
 
I've had some decent luck on racingjunk.com too. No fees, all motorheads, not a lot of spammers, but get a lot of trade offers and some powder business off my profile. A pontoon boat I don't need. :-D
 
If I don't know what something is worth, I sell it on ebay. If I know what it's worth, I sell it on craigslist. I've had good luck with that so far.

Yup, Ebay is a very good indicator of what its worth, if 3 million people see it. With craigshelper and reader pro, you can scan USA's craigslist posts for that STR-12 intake in Grande Blanc, MI for $250..and then get ripped off when the guy cashes the MO and says he never got it. Oops, let me get back on the subject....
Too many storefronts, just look for a used camshaft for a LA, there is like 4, but there are 300 new COMP cams, and they are all from the same seller, at no real bargain either. I got a $50 Ebay coupon that I have had for 2 months, but I never used it because stuff is cheaper locally and I cant justify paying 17 bucks to ship a pair of $15 Felpro blue PT head gaskets. Just for kicks, do a search for "ending soonest" in Ebay auto and see what you can pick up for .99.
 
I'm like you buying and selling, sometimes I buy just to flip it back on ebay... Just bought a new $96.00 Jaz quick fill for $9.00 because the guy listed it bad, not my fault..... If you have prime parts you get top dollar... If you have junk it wont sell... Ebay started chargein' more on fees when they started losein' sellers to the bad economy, thay just make us successful sellers pay more, thats the way thay do business, the sellin' fees really pi$$ me off, but its still the best market for my parts....

Couldn't agree more
 
I won my wagon for $405 in May. :) Still a FEW deals on there
 
I'm like you buying and selling, sometimes I buy just to flip it back on ebay... Just bought a new $96.00 Jaz quick fill for $9.00 because the guy listed it bad, not my fault..... If you have prime parts you get top dollar... If you have junk it wont sell... Ebay started chargein' more on fees when they started losein' sellers to the bad economy, thay just make us successful sellers pay more, thats the way thay do business, the sellin' fees really pi$$ me off, but its still the best market for my parts....


That's not why they started loosing sellers, they lost sellers when they changed the feedback rules back in 07 and became a pro-buyer site.

I know so many high end collector/sellers that just walked away when they changed their rules in favor of the buyer. They did need to do more for the buyer but not at the expense of the sellers, there are just as many buyers that rip people off as there are sellers that rip people off, they just made it too easy for the buyer to rip off the seller, at least the buyer can file a paypal claim or a claim with their credit card. The seller don't have these protections.

I collect and sell Vintage model cars and old bikes (Stingrays & BMX) and I sold on there for about 10 years and I went through feedback extortion with a buyer who was pissed that I didn't take his lowball offer on a bike so he bid high on the bike to win it then treatened me to give him back over $250 and greedbay did nothing about it, even with all the threatening email and ebay messages from the buyer that I had as proof, in the email he said "I told you I was going to get it for my offer price one way or another" With scumbag buyers like this, the insane fee's and the hassle of shipping, what's the intensive to sell on there anymore?
 
I prefer local classifieds, but they're a lot less reliable/professional. Kijiji, Craigslist, Buysell, Usedwinnipeg (or usedwhereveryoulive). Autotrader for cars too.

On that note, someone please buy my daytona!
 
I think they raised their fees because they realized they are the only game in town, so they could. It's ridiculous to think that between their fees and Pay Pal's (which of course they own now) you can end up giving up almost 15% of your sale to them. I try to market most of my things on forums like this where you can build a relationship with your customers and save them the extra cost associated with using ebay - because you know whenever a seller has to pay more in expenses, they have to charge the customer more.
 
10-4 on all of the above comments on Ebay. I have been selling on there for a while, my feedback count is 1500. They are a major PIA to deal with and all of the above comments are right on the $$.
 
ebay has turned into pure crap. All Chinese junk and store fronts. Hardly any good deals any more. They have become anti-seller big time. Raising fees and prices. Forcing sellers to use Paypal so that they can get moeny at both ends of the transaction. Holding sellers money for 30-60 days so they can make interest off of it.

This seems like pure monopoly to me, Why arent the politicians investigating ebay and Paypal? The politicians can spend time investigating steroids in baseball (which benefits none of us), but wont look into companies like ebay, or the cellphone companies who are ripping off millions of people.

I seriously cant understand why competitors have not sprung up.
 
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