New eBay is not old eBay

Moving home is the perfect excuse to clear out all those things I no longer have use of. But the options are narrowing in where sell stuff.

For many of us, eBay remains the default location for second hand goods on the net. Paper-based classifieds having long gone to the dogs and most online classified still not having a solid enough traffic base to offer a good chance of selling. But eBay is moving away from the second-hand, average-Joe’s boot sale, to a professional marketplace. And it is doing it covertly while alienating its private (non-business) sellers in the process.

Rules and selling constraints are popping up everywhere. Usually allied to specific categories, limitations on postal charges, limitations on returns policies, etc. are being imposed that make selling a challenge. Yes, I too have been irritated by unscrupulous sellers reducing item costs and inflating postage costs, but eBay’s solution is draconian and ill-considered.

Two specific examples:
I have a large stack of Playstation2 games I no longer use. eBay does not allow any postal charges for games items other than Free.*
I also have a steering wheel controller fo the same console. By weight, insured post (recommended by eBay to ensure everyone is covered), would cost £9. In the specific console steering wheel category, eBay will only allow me to charge a maximum of £5 for postage and insurance. If I were a professional seller, I could likely arrange postage at that level, but as a private seller, not a chance.

Let’s talk about commission…
eBay now charges a whopping 10% commission on the closing value of private seller auctions.  Ouch! As a professional seller – meeting eBay’s targets for monthly sales turnover, ratings, etc – one can achieve much lower  commission rates. Add to that sting the cost of placing an item and the associated Paypal fees, and you could see a significant slice of your selling price being eaten up.

The alternatives?

Searching around I found a number of alternatives, the closest in style being ebid.net. Selling on ebid.net consists of paying a fee to become a seller, from $1.99 for a week, to £49 (discounted within the first 24 hours of sign-up) for lifetime seller status. In return there are no item placement fees, and no final value commission fees. A good deal if you have a lot of stuff to sell over time.

I think ebid.net has one fatal flaw from the buyer’s viewpoint, however. Sellers can post an item “until it sells”. Sounds good for the seller, but there are numerous comments around the web from buyers wishing to buy items that have remained on ebid.net for some time and are no longer available. (ebid, you’re driving buyers away with experiences like this.)

Other options come in the guise of more conventional classified services such as gumtree.com, preloved.co.uk, and others. But they all face the problem of not having the level of traffic compared to ebay, particularly for niche categories. Without the traffic, you stand much less chance of actually selling the item.

eBay’s future?

eBay have promoted their profits having taken a hit last year, so some change is inevitable. But I feel they are over-reacting and alienating a large segment of their users. If the rules for professional sellers tighten further, even they will find selling on eBay an inconvenience and will look elsewhere.

The more you slap your users in the wallet, eBay, the more will turn their back on you.

* In the end, these games went to musicmagpie.co.uk, a games and DVD trade-in site. Sure, I got less money in my pocket for the whole lot, but after counting the real cost of eBay and Paypal for each item, the enforced postage pricing (not to mention the additional hassle of individual items and buyers), the ease of sending one, pre-paid box to MusicMagpie was more than worth it.

---