EBay vs Sellers - Here's a New One!
By irisheyes
@irisheyes (4370)
United States
January 17, 2009 3:22pm CST
Fair warning, this is going to be a rant that ony experienced eBayers will probably get.
I haven't been very active on eBay for awhile and it seems that every time I put something up for sale I uncover yet another way that the auction site is putting the screws to sellers.
I used to sell frequently to the Japanese and I have a pretty good feel for what will sell to Japan. So when I recently saw a nice little enamelware teapot at an estate sale, I bought it knowing that it would go to a Japanese buyer.
Well, it did sell to a Japanese buyer but at a much lower price that I'd gotten for any of the 10-12 other little similar teapots I'd sold over the last ten years. When I looked at the bidders, I realized that the three highest of them were all "represented" by the same outfit. A MIDDLEMAN in partnership with eBay. The middleman was handling ebay sales to Japanese people and shipping was drop to the West coast and then forwarded by them to Japan.
In other words, my buyer (with whom I will not directly deal) probably paid more than the price I usually got for the item - a lot more because he or she was also paying two postages, the middleman's cut and the eBay share of the middleman's cut.
In a nutshell: The buyer pays more but I get less and eBay and their middleman walk away laughing.
To add insult to injury the middleman's ME page revealed that they are not so articulate or facile with the Engglish language as the averge Japanese buyer I've dealt with in the past. Yet, they are helping to facilitate the sale. If you ask me it's more like helping themselves to my buyer's money.
NEVER again will I offer an item with sales possiblities to Japan as an auction item. ONLY the Buy It Now format will be used. That way at least I get mine and I'm pretty sure that the average Japanese person will be happy to handle their own purchases if it means getting a fair price. I already know that the average Japanese person is capable of handling their side of a sale without representation.
3 people like this
6 responses
@user_786 (1338)
•
18 Jan 09
This is true, eBay eats a lot of money from sellers. I think it is about 8% of selling amount and also the insertions fees.
Recently, eBay allowed us to add free Gallery image, which is good but i never found any online selling site having no picure of item being sold. Previously, on eBay many sellers have saved money by not adding Gallery picture but that obviously attracted much less visitors/buyers. One gallery picture is not enough anyway for ccertain item, and it costs sellers to add another picture. Moreover, eBay charges for bolding your text,highlighting, etc, which is definitely not fair.
The present fees from eBay is too much, it definitely should be cut down.
1 person likes this
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
18 Jan 09
All brick and mortar auctions spllit their fees. There is a Buyer's premium and a Seller's premium. Only eBay choses to put the entire burden on the Seller. They are terrified of loosing buyers but don't seem to realize that loosing sellers who know their products can be just as devastating in the long run. Ebay should take note of the recent collapse of the real estate market. That's what happens when a market is lopsided for too long a period.
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
6 Mar 09
Mystic Dragon, I want to give you a best response here but I can't because you answered in somebody else's square.
@Mystic_Dragon (89)
• United States
11 Feb 09
eBay has forgotten their humble beginnings and I believe greed is now in control. So many, myself included, are heading to eBay alternatives. www.bonanzle.com has just entered the auction marketplace and has made a huge impact. Sellers and buyers seem to be flocking there. I have not seen such a frenzy over a site since eCrater came on the scene. eBay's pricing for sellers are driving the small sellers out of business. They (the sellers) must either take a huge profit cut or pass eBay's fee increases on to the buyers. I see this as a lose/lose situation. Without sellers, eBay will lose buyers. I feel eBay will phase out their auction part and focus on just stores in the near future, like a giant online shopping mall.
@mariposaman (2959)
• Canada
18 Jan 09
Are you still not turning a profit? I realize that Ebay is not the Ebay of yesteryear, I have heard a lot of complaints about how the company is changing but the whole idea is to make money from your sales. Is there not an Ebay Japan that should list your offerings, I would go that route if possible.
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
18 Jan 09
There is still a very small margin of profit but it would be more profitable at this time to just consign the items to a ritzy little shop. I'm interested in staying in business and not necessarily in giving the best stuff away. I knew what I had and I did not get a fair price for it. The way around it here is to list only as fixed price. That way, I get a fair shake and so does the buyer. My guess is that the Japanese people will be smart enough to see that. I've dealt with them a lot in the past and they were more than capable of handling their end. Older Japanese who are not that familiar with the internet can get all the help they need from young, savy family members. They don't need a middleman in their partnering with eBay anymore than I do.
@mariposaman (2959)
• Canada
18 Jan 09
I understand. I did a little amateur picking quite awhile back until my health deteriorated to the point where I rarely get out. You have to make a certain amount of profit to make your time worthwhile or why bother, the fun part only takes you so far unless you are collecting for yourself. I was going to start on Ebay but never did. I thought the shipping costs seemed high unless it was an particulary expensive item.
@Stiletto (4579)
•
17 Jan 09
I guess American Ebay must have different rules, etc because I don't think anything like that happens on UK Ebay. Well - it probably does but the seller wouldn't know they were selling to a middleman. But generally I think Ebay is becoming a nightmare for sellers. I've sold on there for years and at one time I actually came pretty close to making a living selling on Ebay, but there's not a hope that I could do that nowadays. If there was an online auction site that was a viable alternative to Ebay I would use it but I haven't found one yet.
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
18 Jan 09
I didn;t know that it wass going on here until I was faced with it and I can guarantee you it will not face me again. I also would like to find a viable alternative. Ebay's attitude is that they can always come up with new sellers so sellers are not important. However, the sellers that are pondering an alternative are the ones who know their market and can come up with the inventory. If eBay were dependent on lucky box lot finds from newbies to satisfy their clientele, they would not get very far. If so0ome of us do come up with an alaternative, they will loose a lot of their marketplace.
Many booksellers (self included) have abandonned Ebay & half.com for greener pastures and it could happen with other things too.
1 person likes this
@hotsummer (13837)
• Philippines
18 Jan 09
well does ebay site in each country has its own rule. i am not much familiar with ebay and how it works. but i am interested to sell stuff also but hopefully will not have this kind of problem as the thread started had. is ebay owned by paypal too now.
i don't know why there are regional ebay. so when i need to sell stuff, since i am from the philippines. should i see my item on the local or philippine ebay. then how would the international buyer see my products up for sale.
@jwfarrimond (4473)
•
17 Jan 09
I've started to sell on Amazon, they do not charge for listing, and you do not get that double bite out of your income that you do with the Ebay/PayPal combination. I sell books though and Amazon might not be suitable for your items.
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
18 Jan 09
Actually, I sell books on Amazon also. In fact, Amazon and ABE are my mains sources. I was stuneed when I started on those sites to realize how much money I had lost giving good and sometimes rare books away on eBay.
Just recently,in an Amazon lull, I took 100 books that were listed on Amazon and double listed them on Half.com (eBay's book site). Because Half.com does not have any up front charges, I actually reduced the price of the books there by a few dollars. These were reading copies priced from $10.00 to $100. at the end of 6 weeks, 25 books had sold but only 2 of them sold on Half.com. The other 23 were Amazon sales even thought the books were priced higher on Amazon and business was slow on Amazon at the time.
Needless to say, I took all the books off Half.com and just left them up on Amazon. Guess you could say I ran back home lol Bottom line was that it was not worth the effort checking inventory 2x per day to sell 2 books in six weeks. I expect that if things continue as they are on eBay, Sellers will start finding alternatives for other items also. I just wish I could come up with something now.
@mscott (1923)
• United States
18 Jan 09
I actually still buy some stuff from ebay but as far as selling goes I do very little. With the listing fees, selling fees, paypal fees, it just isn't worth it unless you have an item that is really going to bring in some good money. I listed an item for 10.00 and besides the listing fee they said the final value fee would be 1.20. I said What!!!!!!!!!!! 12% is crazy, when did that happen? I use to collect trading cards and buying and selling them on ebay was fine, now they charge so much people aren't listing the low dollar stuff and even if they do they are charging ridiculous amounts to ship because they are trying to make up for all the costs feebay charges. 
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
18 Jan 09
The marketpoace is definitely geered to the buyers now but it just seems eBay is making it even worse for sellers. Every brick and mortar auction house in America divides they fee into a Buyers premium and a Seller's premium. Yet eBay continues to simply raise the freight on the Sellers while giving more and more representation to the buyers. Sellers pay all fees but can no longer give anything but positive feedback.
@Troublegum (641)
• United States
17 Jan 09
Ok, here is what I don't get. Given what you just said, your item was purchased by a middleman from you on e-bay and then resold to a buyer in Japan. Would that buyer not also have the option of buying directly from you on e-bay? Afterall, your listing was still available there unless e-bay didn't list your item in japan. Now if e-bay was telling you it was listed in Japan and it wasn't then there is a problem.
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
18 Jan 09
Not exactly. the middleman is handling the bids of Japanese buyers. In this case, the same person handled bids for three different bidders and they were in partnership with eBay. After payment I will ship the item to their wharehouse in California and they will forward it to Japan. the Japanes buyer will pay an additional postage (in this case $10-12) as well as the cut their "handler" (or middleman) as well as eBay's partnership cut. The buyer is paying much more and I am getting much less. The buyers are basically being told that they need help and should have someone help them BUT if the item were offered only at a fixed rate price, my guess is that most of the Japanese would be very capable of bidding on their own and getting a better deal. They certainly have been very capable of that in the past.
@Troublegum (641)
• United States
19 Jan 09
Again, unless they are actually pulling down the japanese site the ones that are capable should still be able to bid from you. I have a number of international buyers, and some of them use middlemen, but the middle men are still in competition with the people who don't use middle men. You also see a lot of people buying stuff collecting it and exporting it en-mass. Either way, the more buyers I have trying to get my products the better.
I will have to go look to see if ebay-japan is still working, I don't sell a lot of stuff to japan and this may be why.
