@biggerguy1 wrote:
Ebay has become one huge 'buy now', especially for music, nearly every listing is 'buy now' with very little bidding. Ebay has lost all credibilty. What happen to auctions to get bargins, seems all the sellers are just stores moving their stock. My favourite is when a seller prices an LP for a 'buy now' at say $3 but with $70 postage. I don't use ebay anymore. There is no consquences for bad sellers. The feedback time should take into consideration the warrantry period, which I have found is often not honoured. Still good sellers out there I am sure but lost in a sea of 'buy now'. Ebay is a relic of a once good place to buy music and is now about as cool as McDonalds. Amazon has better prices and service I believe for music, or better still buy direct from artists of labels. What other great places are there to buy music???
As a music enthusiast and keen collector of physical releases, I do have to note the curiosity of disparaging eBay for not having bargain auctions, then praising other sites who don't even have the facility to offer auctions....I'm a little confused.
TBH, if your purchases are price-driven, then it doesn't matter what site you're on, only the price you're paying - there's nothing wrong with Buy It Now on eBay, it works the same on all those other sites.
As for there being no consequences for bad sellers... Look, I know it's sometimes hard to see, and I also know sometimes it seems like cr**py sellers get away with murder, but this site isn't even consequence free for the best of sellers. If a transaction doesn't live up to scratch for the buyer, there are tons of options for dealing with it, you just have to make yourself aware of what they are and follow the correct procedures.
If you're genuinely interested in gleaning an understanding for why the site has changed the way it has, take a look through the information available here for sellers (not buyers), once you have an idea of how much fees have increased over the last couple of years, including a hike from as little as 30c to run an auction up to a minimum of $1.50 in Oz (excluding free quotas), what things like defects are and myriad other things that all result in sellers having ever increasing risks and costs in a market (physical music releases) that shows ever decreasing interest, you'll begin to understand some of the reasons behind why the marketplace is like it is these days, particularly for music releases. (Once upon a time, CDs were the biggest selling item on eBay - they haven't been for a very long time).
I don't condone postage piracy, (i.e. low prices + over the top postage, if indeed it is over the top), but don't have much else to say about that.
As for where to buy music - direct from the artist and labels is always a good option - sometimes it costs a bit more, but worth it IMHO.
For your rare, hard to find an OOP stuff, there is one site that caters almost exclusively to the lover of physical music releases. I know for a fact you'll find many an ex-eBay seller, there, too.
Probably can't name it straight out, but a quick google of "music database marketplace" should steer you in the right direction.
