You're right in that back in the day, ebay was more like gumtree, full of private little home sellers trying to clear bits and pieces.

Nowadays, ebay is mainly organised online shops, either the big stores, small online sellers of new goods or Chinese sellers (also new factory goods).

I can't imagine that back in about 2004, many people would have been looking to buy a new TV or fridge on ebay. A second hand one maybe.

So comparing prices between ebay and normal stores didn't come into it so much.