eBay is also currently making product identifiers (UPC/EAN etc) compulsory, another step in a long line of steps to slowly turn themselves into something more like the amazon marketplace.
I guess the implication of eBay's shift (and the general demise of most C2C formal online "flea markets") is that it's not a great business to be in. There are probably a few factors at work.
- Arguably, there was something of a fad aspect to eBay's initial rise. Yes, there were serious buyers and sellers but I also suspect it was something of a game for a lot of people who subsequently moved on to do other things.
- In general, my sense is that buying/selling used goods is overall something that makes less sense today. That's a very broad brush statement but I've seen this directly in some areas with some local sports stores, for example, getting out of selling used gear.
- The overall broadening on the Internet population tends to mean that anywhere scammers can scam, they will. This is harder to effectively protect against in the type of market eBay originally focused on (one-off sales of pre-owned goods that were often not standard items).
Agreed. Every once in a while I consider selling something on eBay, think for a few seconds about the effort it would require to take different pictures, write up a compelling description, figure out shipping costs, find some decent packaging... ah whatever.
I love eBay as a buyer though, especially in Canada. There are still a ton of random things on there that really can't be found (at least not nearly as easily) anywhere else.
Amazon FBA is pretty awesome for this. You gather up all of the items you want to sell, set prices for each one, and then print shipping labels to ship them to Amazon. Everything after that is handled by Amazon (fulfillment, customer support, etc), and you are sent money.
Unfortunately this only really works for items already listed on Amazon - otherwise you need to create new listings.
You have to define whose time and what type of things but I'm in broad agreement. I know I haven't sold anything on eBay in ages and, even when I did, I found the ROI pretty poor. I also note that the various services offering to sell your stuff for a cut seem to be largely gone as well.
And I haven't bought anything through their traditional auction format in ages either. I don't really collect stuff and I'm not much inclined to do the auction thing when a few clicks at Amazon or Newegg will get me almost as good a deal (at minimum) for electronics for less hassle and risk.
Regarding your second point, I expect that has more to do with the fact that it's difficult to compete with zero-overhead craigslist (and similar sites) for local used goods. There's little reason to use a B&M store to buy or sell such things used.
It still comes down to $$ vs. time. There's a lot of stuff I'd be happy to dump on a store at a theoretical 50 cents on the dollar vs. a private sale rather than dealing with a bunch of individual transactions. I might feel differently once transactions got into the hundreds of dollars but I don't generally want to deal with Craigslist or eBay for selling. Just too much trouble.
Ha, this is kind of the opposite of the ebay issue. I can totally see selling at a store for that reason. I even donate a lot of stuff I'm sure I could sell since it's just easier (and of course someone benefits). But as a buyer, it's going to be much easier to look around online, and most likely cheaper too, buying privately, than trying to buy from a B&M store.
