Ebay will be there until there will be an alternative. There isn't a good alternative yet, but its coming. I too wish Amazon or Google would take them on. My guess is that Ebay will start feeling real pain when the hobbiests start/find niche internet portals. Like coin collectors will start their own hub, then stamp collectors, etc. If Ebay was smart...they'd try to make Paypal more widespread. That has more potential than the sales that goes through their website. SM
eBay has lost alot of market share to Amazon in current manufactured items. eBay does a poor job with high volume items where the customer wants a specific UPC, and it does a poor job with comparison shopping. My wife is a powerseller on eBay, and I wrote and support the application that she uses to maintain her inventory, listings, postings, and sales. eBay has made great strides in the user experience by using item specifics. When I am shopping, it is very important to quickly filter apart Dell 1950 server computers from memory sticks for Dell 1950 servers. I am seeing the Real Estate posting model, where separate servers have a specialized version which offers item specific filtering, being promoted to other areas. That said, the main problem with promoting item specifics is the inertia of people like me. For the modest real income, it is hard to justify alot of reprogramming. When retailers go are online, they have to commit quite a bit of staff to classification/categorization and the inhouse software to support it. For the site to help customers find the purchasing options for a specific item, the site needs to know the relevant things about an item. Just look at initiatives to add color matching in eCommerce. The woman wants a red dress, but she has a finite set of bracelets and shoes with which to match. Cross selling is cool, but if you only sell complete accessorized outfits, you aren't going to get any business. As far as fees go, they add up, but I don't support zero-upfront fees. Just look at the low quality of posting on Craigslist. There are many specialized sites, and more power too them if they can make it. There are always tie-ins that a homogenizing agent can't exploit. For example, Ravelry.com is a thriving site that pulled its market share out of eBay. eBay was smart to buy Paypal who was smart to buy VeriSignâs Payment Services business. This gave them a working payment gateway model with recurring billing. This web retailers a way to process credit cards, receive Paypal balances, and manage recurring billing long before the competition. Authorize.Net, for example, has only recently got their recurring billing to where PCI non-compliant vendors can use it. In the meantime, dozens of other payment processors have jumped in the market. I don't see getting Paypal onto more website as a driver for future eBay revenue. The total market for consumer good is pretty finite and perhaps permanently finite given the resources consumed. eCommerce sites took a big market share from brick-and-mortar retailers, but retailers have their own websites now. Retailers see the future opportunity in mobile apps. Perhaps it is just a fear of being behind the curve again, or perhaps impulse buying through cellphones will be a significant market share. I don't see eBay chasing that fragmented task.
So taking 10% of your profit for doing everything instead of you is a lot? Just asking, because it doesn't seem too much for me.... If a retail store were selling your goods, they would charge at least that much if not more... Different service but C2 charges a monthly fee and takes 1/3 of the subscription fees. Compared to that, Ebay's 10% seems reasonable to me... Anybody tried Quibids.com? It works the opposite way, you are bidding on the minimum price you are willing to pay...
I know this about Ebay, and it is the reason I won't have anything to do with Ebay. Their software is very bad, especially PayPal, and quite deceptive. Nothing at all like a first rate corporation. They appear to me to be very shady.
ebay is like sotheby's or christies at the low end of ther price spectrum. there is no reason it should fall. as to the OP limbo your handle is appropriate. you are in limbo. isn't it time after 2 days of this thread to leave that state? limbo Registered: Jun 2000 Posts: 228 06-10-11 06:33 PM Is ebay destined to fall and why?.....I have some strong thoughts on it- but, initially I'd like to hear what the forum thinks.
Your wife, if smart would tell you to just keep on traveling. what happens when these bad business people have lost their jobs and have liquidated everything there is to liquidate to raise cash for food and shelter? Real Estate aka American ATM crashing, jobs more and more fcked up, wallets tightening, American Savings Rate on a northbound rocket blast from 0% to fck knows where today. -------------------------------- another fcked up business entity - the FDIC ... takes fees in the form of premiums from HEALTHY banks to bail out the SICK/inefficient banks. When the HEALTHY cannot afford this robbery anymore, what the fck do you think is going to go down?
There it is right there. That statement flew right out of the Occipital Lobes of the HERD like a mantra, a biblical statement. God help me, I'm in sheer fckin paradise at ET. Nothing personal to the amiable, zdreg.
What a place, ET? Not one thought to look at the only arbiter, PRICE. Fckin incredible. Am I lucky or what, to be the only outsider who serendipitously stumbled into Lalaland and LOVES IT? 5 waves up, trendline broken, indicators all singing south and these zunts (cunts with zippers) are still debating the issue. Right thing to do is stay SHORT as shown - Daily chart only. Will follow up with a look at weekly and monthly but thisis such a bogus outfit that it would be akin to doing a prostate check on an igneous ass. Uploaded with ImageShack.us
I haven't bought - or even shopped for an item on eBay in ages. Amazon marketplace and Craigslist have replaced it.