I really think that Ebay should instate a small listing fee, as the current system of "free until it sells" is driving up prices, by people who have no incentive to drop them if they don't need the money.
I know it is intentional by ebay to encourage people to pad out ebay with more listings, but more and more of the collectable stuff is not selling, and fewer people are having low-starting auctions (or auctions at all) to sell at what the market is willing to pay. In the past when Ebay had listing fees, the Buy-It-Now option was rarely used, as it was something you maybe used once if you thought there was enough demand for it to be snapped up at an excessive price (otherwise you were stuck with a hefty listing fee and no sale). Now it seems people just sit on items for years, sometimes never selling (or even willing to discount). One item I've had on my watch list for 3 years now (yes, since 2010), is a $50 SCF figure. It's obviously not worth $50 or else someone would have bought it by now... but since there is no incentive to discount (no ebay fees to force a quicker sale to make a profit), it's just going to keep sitting there. (and I've asked if they would drop the price after all this time... but no)
This dealer was one I was looking through because they advertised on TFW recently, and you'll see on that link (if you are member of ebay) the completed listings... and less than 10% sold (25 of their recent 277 TFs items). I then clicked on some of their relisted items, and they were all the same price. So even though no one bought or bid on 91% of their items because they over-valued them (compared to what the market obviously values them at), there is no incentive to list them at "market value" because it is free until they eventually sell.
Perhaps they should have a tiny fee for repeat listings, and then their regular % fee if it sells. That way, it remains free for a one-off listing for the seller to see if there is interest at their preferred price, and then they have a choice to relist it for a fee that will be negligible at first, but will start adding up if they don't start turning over their stock.
Because as much as ebay gets people listing lots of stuff for free, if they don't have an incentive to turn over that stock, the listings will plateau as most will only have the time to manage a certain number of listings at one time.
And people will be less likely looking if bargains are harder to find (especially if the 10% of items that are selling to rich or desperate buyers, encourages other sellers to bump up their prices believing it to be "market value" - one random sale to a rich or desperate collector doesn't make "market value", the recent average auction win is what the "market" is willing to pay).
It's making it harder to buy rarer items if sellers keep sitting on them (including collectable stores who watch ebay listings), instead of auctioning them off to get what they are actually worth.
It'd be like a flea market that wants to increase its business by starting to only charge people if they sell stuff. Sure, there would be a surge of sellers, but they would be less willing to discount if they don't have a financial penalty for being there now (minimum sales don't need to be as high to cover their costs of being there). And sure, they would keep coming back each week with their hefty prices, but they will only be able to bring in a certain amount of stuff each time (meaning, the flea market reaches a certain capacity eventually)... and buyers are less likely to go back if there is less of a chance for a bargain.
Ebay used to be like a flea market - full of bargains and items that needed to sell. Now it is full of greedy people, teasing us with stuff we can never afford, that they don't need to sell.
(it probably also encourages Knock-Offs, seeing how much they could sell a fake for, or catering for the majority of people who can no longer afford the original)
Originally Posted by Ravagecat
Finally my question for you guys....The toys inside were not damaged thank god...Oh and by the way the seller did write on the outside box in marker pen "fragile please do not crush" with a big smiley face which IMO just made it a bigger target
Reply With Quote
