Anything Changed Here Lately Much Since This?

[biggestlittlestoreontheweb]

Hi Everyone, was looking through an ebay board from 2009 (ahhh, the good old days) and saw this from a clearly unhappy seller:

"They've burnt my bridge by their continued arrogance and greediness. Even after Donahoe and his crew get ousted, I'm still not going back. He took food off the table, and the livlihood from hundreds of thousands of outstanding sellers who built the company from nothing.

One sided feedback = Stinks
Non Paying Bidders = Quadrupled
Outrageous FVF = Stinks
Donuthole = Stinks
Norringdone = Stinks
Paypal Only = Stinks
McGriff = Stinks
Best Match = Worse Than Stinks
Top Rated Seller Program = Stinks
DSR = Stinks
Overall Seller Experience = Stinks
Customer Service = Stinks"

Question is, before we spend any more effort, time or money here, is ebay really worth it? in particular with reference to new Paypal /poopal changes and gemeral online shopping trends.

[kopenhagen5]

Start by testing the waters and you will soon learn the changes.

Suits some, not others.

ebay still has one of the best coverage IMO.

[phorum_junkie*]

And if you go back to 1999 and 1909 you will see post after post saying that this change and that change is ruining sellers chances of making money etc. It has been thus ever since ebay went global and yet there are some who have managed to survive and still trade successfully, there are more who have left and gone on to pastures new and a significant number of those who have returned realising that with a few tweaks in their business model ebay is still the best way to sell unless you have a large enough stock room and the funds to open and promote your own web site.  For listing auctions for second hand items there is definitely no other platform that can give you the exposure and turn over that ebay can if you are prepared to put the work in.

[thecatspjs]

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@phorum_junkie* wrote:

And if you go back to 1999 and 1909 you will see post after post saying that this change and that change is ruining sellers chances of making money etc. It has been thus ever since ebay went global and yet there are some who have managed to survive and still trade successfully, there are more who have left and gone on to pastures new and a significant number of those who have returned realising that with a few tweaks in their business model ebay is still the best way to sell unless you have a large enough stock room and the funds to open and promote your own web site.  For listing auctions for second hand items there is definitely no other platform that can give you the exposure and turn over that ebay can if you are prepared to put the work in.

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Really ?

How do you know this ?

I doubt the validity.

I believe many more sellers (a signficant number) packed up and never came back, than those that "returned"  -  certainly most sellers that I bought from several years ago are long gone .....

[digital*ghost]

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@biggestlittlestoreontheweb wrote:

Question is, before we spend any more effort, time or money here, is ebay really worth it? in particular with reference to new Paypal /poopal changes and gemeral online shopping trends.

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To be honest, that is an impossible question to answer in a general sense. It's a bit like asking if buying a scratchie is worth it. For a lot of people, spending the ticket price will net absolutely nothing, in fact they'll lose their investment, were occupied for a while, but ultimately disappointed. Others will break even or make a buck or two. A few others will wind up well ahead, but I'm not suggesting it's all down to luck, though, sometimes on eBay it'll be about how hard you scratch.....or something to that effect.  

I personally look at it this way - eBay, as a business, are doing things that damage themselves, and unfortunately taking down some businesses with them (by direct damage, via their policies, FB and DSR systems, seller standards etc, or because they can't maintain the attraction for certain types of items and/or buyers), but their business is, in many way, independent of the businesses that use eBay, and some of those are surviving well enough in the face of all that.