How long till Ebay has Myspace type tumble weeds rolling around?

[bellbrass]

Like it or not, most of their changes, which are interpreted as a pain in the butt for sellers & buyers, have been done in order to reduce fraud, theft and inaccurate descriptions of merchandise. One thing I can think of is overuse of the term "mint" - they flag that and make you re-assess. As a watch enthusiast, I like that. I've bought a few watches over the years listed as mint that were anything but.
eBay has tried to become a competitor with Amazon, but they have backed off that a bit, I think. eBay remains the place where you can sell your vintage concert t-shirts and used DVDs with impunity. If they do away with the feedback function, they will perish. That one concept alone has become ubiquitous with online buying, thanks to them. I can't remember a feedback option before eBay.

They have raised their fees a lot. Expect more of that until they have a legitimate competitor. And then, they will both raise their fees at the same time...until eBay buys the site.

 

[RogersLudwig]

I bought a drum item, had a problem with the buyer’s representation of what I bought, and their dispute resolution process was, “Work it out with the seller or send it back.” The seller was a psychotic jerk and I will buy only books through ebay from now on.

 

[Trilock_Gurtu]

They're going more the Amazon route, less Craigslist. Online shopping for new items is only growing, and will continue to. This is no surprise, from a business perspective. I buy new stuff from Ebay all the time...used stuff, not so much.

 

[Polska]

I browse every once in awhile and notice the majority of gear is sold by shops or manufacturers. It might just be me, but I'm not seeing a lot of gear being sold by individuals anymore.

 

[bellbrass]

It might just be me, but I'm not seeing a lot of gear being sold by individuals anymore.

That's because the market for used instruments is terrible right now.

 

[Browny]

Down here it certainly feels like there's a migration happening to FB marketplace, FB buy & sell groups, and Gumtree.

 

[cashmanbashman]

I bought another Tama Starclassic from Sweetwater on EBay last night. I was hoping that they listed it on Reverb for there sake but they didn’t so the fees must not hurt to much more than the other sites? Maybe the extra eyes on the listing make up for it? If it sells faster and allows more space to get another in the store just like a car dealership operates.

 

[swarfrat]

Myspace is still around. As of 2019 they still had 7 million monthly visits. It's not really cat pictures and what I ate for dinner pictures any more though. Or so I've read.

 

[Tdipaul]

eBay is still good to buy from but as a Seller, I am done.

#1 reason: eBay assumes you are guilty if there is any kind of problem. Buyers are on to this and taking advantage of it. One tiny little flea bite in a 50 yr old cymbal = "not as described" to eBay and the "how are you going to make this right?" shakedown from the Buyer begins.

The USPS debacle is hurting both parties too.

 

[Jordan Blue]

I think Ebay numbers are down this past year due mostly to shipping fiascos caused by the pandemic. I still sell a few things on ebay here and there but nothing really bigger than a DVD. Shipping costs are too crazy on bigger items. I will still buy a bit of new drum stuff, etc, mostly from dealers. I think even online places like Musician's Friend, GC, have suffered this past year. If GC would ever work out some reasonable rates on selling their used, they would do much better.

 

[GregR]

I don't remember my feedback rating but I have done well over a thousand transactions on Ebay. I haven't used Ebay in several years. It lost its appeal to me a long time ago for all of the reasons staed and more. It used to be a great place to buy and sell. When they started cutting back on being able to communicate with others, it started to go down hill quickly.

 

[dcrigger]

The 1099 requirement is $20,000 in California. The $600 is only for certain states (DC, MD, MA, MS, VA, VT)

eBay and Form 1099-K

If you’re a managed payments seller, you may receive a Form 1099-K from eBay, depending on the totals of your sales and transactions. This is to help you comply with your tax obligations.

www.ebay.com

And the thing so many skip over is that is just about the "reporting" requirement - and this has come about with Ebay taking on a sort-of in-between broker/seller role for us individual sellers - and thank god. Because if they hadn't the whole paper trail for inter-state sales (sales tax) would have become us sellers' responsibility. And THAT actually could've spelled the end of Ebay - or for me doing selling over state lines.

Because the fact is our profit on sales was always supposed to reported on our income tax. I get with cash sales via Craig's list, etc - most of us don't. But that doesn't mean it wasn't supposed to reported.

And now with more and more folks doing business less one to one business with cash and more with Venmo, Apple Pay, PayPal, etc.... keeping these transactions "under the table" is going to become more and more difficult. Even when selling on Craig's list, etc.

Or just do cash transactions locally - or remotely... if you can find buyers to trust that old one-way-street - where buyers had to take all of the risk with sellers bearing none.

Personally I'm not selling drums, but I sell a bunch of other stuff on Ebay - and am thrilled to be able to sell nationally (actually globally) with all forms of payment, shipping discounts, and some degree of conflict management, while hardly ever having to leave my house.

So no, I seriously doubt Ebay is going anywhere.

 

[Old Dog]

It will turn into a dealer frenzy. And they'll push out most individuals over time. But I seriously doubt eBay is going anywhere for many years. I shop there weekly. I don't sell often. Usually very specific items, niche markets. Like selling my Meucci pool cue a few years ago. Didn't take 6 hours to sell and I made money. Or like my Oakley gear (sunglasses, watch). literally gone within hours. It's all about the size of what you sell, what we pay for shipping is horrible there, for the most part. I agree.

 

[FlowTom]

I haven't listed or sold anything on eBay for quite a while. I buy something once in a while.
I would consider selling there if they offer the same price break on shipping that Reverb does.
Reverb's in-house shipping system isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than paying individual shipper rates to UPS and FedEx.
I have UPS and FedEx shipper accounts with built in discounts and my ground parcel shipping costs have still roughly quintupled since the early 2000's. Maybe more.
The reason is all the "free" shipping that people get from bad person, Amazon and the other mega online retailers.
The big companies negotiate ridiculously low rates with the carriers. Individual shippers like us pay through the nose to make up for it.
The way things are currently, I don't see shipping costs becoming affordable again unless a new player enters the market that sees an opportunity in servicing small shippers.
Lord knows, UPS and FedEx aren't going to voluntarily lower their rates. Heck, even when gas prices decline sharply every once in a while, they still hit me with fuel surcharges on every invoice.

 

[Rich K.]

And the thing so many skip over is that is just about the "reporting" requirement - and this has come about with Ebay taking on a sort-of in-between broker/seller role for us individual sellers - and thank god. Because if they hadn't the whole paper trail for inter-state sales (sales tax) would have become us sellers' responsibility. And THAT actually could've spelled the end of Ebay - or for me doing selling over state lines.

Because the fact is our profit on sales was always supposed to reported on our income tax. I get with cash sales via Craig's list, etc - most of us don't. But that doesn't mean it wasn't supposed to reported.

And now with more and more folks doing business less one to one business with cash and more with Venmo, Apple Pay, PayPal, etc.... keeping these transactions "under the table" is going to become more and more difficult. Even when selling on Craig's list, etc.

Or just do cash transactions locally - or remotely... if you can find buyers to trust that old one-way-street - where buyers had to take all of the risk with sellers bearing none.

Personally I'm not selling drums, but I sell a bunch of other stuff on Ebay - and am thrilled to be able to sell nationally (actually globally) with all forms of payment, shipping discounts, and some degree of conflict management, while hardly ever having to leave my house.

So no, I seriously doubt Ebay is going anywhere.

Pretty sure it's not "profit" that technically has to be reported; it's revenue. Then, of course, your spending is deducted.

 

[Rich K.]

I haven't listed or sold anything on eBay for quite a while. I buy something once in a while.
I would consider selling there if they offer the same price break on shipping that Reverb does.
Reverb's in-house shipping system isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than paying individual shipper rates to UPS and FedEx.
I have UPS and FedEx shipper accounts with built in discounts and my ground parcel shipping costs have still roughly quintupled since the early 2000's. Maybe more.
The reason is all the "free" shipping that people get from bad person, Amazon and the other mega online retailers.
The big companies negotiate ridiculously low rates with the carriers. Individual shippers like us pay through the nose to make up for it.
The way things are currently, I don't see shipping costs becoming affordable again unless a new player enters the market that sees an opportunity in servicing small shippers.
Lord knows, UPS and FedEx aren't going to voluntarily lower their rates. Heck, even when gas prices decline sharply every once in a while, they still hit me with fuel surcharges on every invoice.

Ebay print label offers a pretty significant discount on fedex. Used to be you could compare it to the discounted ups rate, but now PayPal isn't tied in with ebay's sales

 

[dcrigger]

Pretty sure it's not "profit" that technically has to be reported; it's revenue. Then, of course, your spending is deducted.

I'm sorry - yes, you're absolutely correct. The profit would figure into tax liability - but incoming money would need to be reported.

 

[Rufus T Firefly]

I agree that all the brand new stuff for sale on eBay and Reverb is a turnoff for me. To me they used to be a place I could find something I didn't want to pay retail price for and while that is still possible there is all that brand new stuff I have to wade through (I usually just check the box for used items only). I've found the brand new stuff on eBay & Reverb generally have prices no better than I can get at my favorite online music shops and often the shipping takes longer so I rarely buy anything brand new on either site.

 

[franke]

I cannot say whether eBay will retain its dominant position as a marketplace but can say it remains a hotbed for fraud.

On February 28, I reported this listing (and along with six others from the same seller) to eBay for possible fraud:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SUPER-RARE-ZILDJIAN-NOBLE-COOLEY-6-5X14-CYMBAL-ALLOY-SNARE-DRUM-LOT-G380/193925576741?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

As I write this, it's still up and has received bids. As I mentioned, this seller has numerous drum-related items for sale, along with other categories, a total of 616 listings, and all that I have looked at have a disclaimer planted within the photo file advising that "the item can only be purchased at the Buy-it-Now price", with instructions to contact them at "[email protected]". "Pawn-shop.pro" is a non-existent web page (below), that when one clicks on the links, takes them to a page of other links.


Now it may very well be that there is a real pawn shop somewhere that actually has these items for sale, and it could also be possible that they have chosen to exploit eBay's flimsy listing and security protocols as a means to evade eBay fees, but perhaps what we all can agree on is that anyone foolish enough to send them $3,000 for the "super-rare" Zildjian N&C snare drum is taking quite a risk. As anyone who has ever worked in e-commerce IT can tell you, nowadays, with the various administrative tools available, this sort of thing is an easy fix, and if they truly wanted to, eBay could do much to mitigate fraud (which in this case seems directed at both eBay and its users), but as with many online services that have emerged over the past several decades, the priority seems more directed at externalizing liabilities rather than user experience and security. eBay chooses to not address this because if they did and vulnerabilities remained, then that could expose them to litigation, particularly if they touted their security improvements in their marketing.


***update*** eBay removed the listing.

 

[Lee Van Kief]

The UX is clunky, the page is ugly and the messaging system is particularly awkward.

They are a behemoth but all these specialty sites like Reverb must be taking a bite out of their bottom line.

I’d say the same about Reverb, at least through the phone app, which is what I primarily use. I have to back out completely to get my watched items to refresh, and often items that I’ve unwatched will show back up. There’s also a weird lag in the messaging system.