posted on June 12, 2002 06:12:42 AM new
Something else that is happening on eBay that could bring the selling prices back up to where they were in the "good old days" is the number of hoops they make new sellers jump through before they are allowed to list. In my case, for example, I am not a US resident and I do not use a credit card.
Ipso facto, I can never sell on eBay. But, I can buy there until my heart's content.
I have always wondered why eBay could care less about a buyer's identity (the part of the equation who *should* have to provide proof of the ability to pay), yet they want a personal life history from their sellers.
I suspect that when you couple the number of existing sellers who are giving up (due to low bids and higher fees) with the number of potential new sellers who cannot get past the roadblocks eBay has set up to register, natural selection will occur. The problem of "junk sellers" will disappear ...
posted on June 12, 2002 08:40:16 AM new
The number of sellers that are unwilling to use their credit cards to establish a sellers account is perhaps one in 500 and is an acceptable loss to most companies. They do allow checking account numbers I believe as well. Of course that has no effect on the 31 million Canadians. There is an eBay-Canada but no one hardly uses it.
The ebay auction should be for hard-to-find items. The other commonplace and low-end items belong on Half.com . The marketplace there determines the price much like the auction segment. It is almost a game of "Name That Tune" in that the sellers must submit the lowest price they will accept for their item.
It is an out-and-out joke to see super common items on third tier auction in the auction format. With rare exceptions ( such as Hap and his $1 start bids and 30 day auctions ) the vast majority of items that end with a bid, end either one bid or a BIN price. Even Yahoo is the same way. What a joke to call them "auctions". At Half.com there are many protections for both the buyer and seller that auctions do not offer. There are no deadbeats for sellers to deal with and the money is instantly there for them. The dwindling eBay auction format and the growing Half/BIN formation is the future of "auction" sites.
