More Ebay stupidity

I seriously doubt ebay understands the dynamics of their marketplace but they must have a problem with shifty sellers to make this move. The reality is probably closer to the increased fees and poor economy affecting its business model than any other factors.

 

I did that too, listed on my auctions in 70 point font. Do they read....no.
At the end of my auctions, half of my winners were from Sweden, Japan, Italy, and S. Korea.

What killed selling on ebay for me besides buyers switching records and sending them back, sending fake checks, insisting I ship a $200 album surface mail (had a few get lost), smashing records and sending them back (a $250 Blue Note), buyers asking me to send them my bank account info (I accept PayPal, Bidpay, and money orders. No exceptions). And the best one yet, not paying for the item all together since I'm not paying postage, the buyer wanted me to ship it for free. I gave up on selling on Ebay after a year because of this nonsense. besides I was running out of records to sell.

At the record store was better.
One guy slashed a $300 Jackie McLean mint original Prestige opening the LP box with a carpet knife and blamed me for packing it wrong. Kids bidding stupid amounts for hip-hop, ska, & punk and not paying.

A number of guitar sellers are getting off ebay and selling on Reverb due to their policy changes,
I'm wondering if Discogs is going to be the new place for record sellers since the novice sellers are ruining eBay.

 

That's where this, and other new poorly constructed policies, are heading. There will be little left to buy. Prices will either be way too high, or sellers will simply leave Paybay for alternatives.

 

I've been using Ebay since 1997 and used to have a lot of great experiences selling, but now it's not worth the hassle anymore. The fees are just crazy and the double and triple dipping being done by Ebay and then Paypal is criminal.

That being said, as a buyer it's perfect. Sure I may have received two or three items that were not as described but hundreds more that were just fantastic. Many in fact where the condition was understated, a real treat when that happens. I'll continue to buy off Ebay.

 

I've been on eBay since 1997 or 1998 and it has been wonderful for me as a buyer. I've only sold a couple of items in that time, but those worked out fine too. But I agree all the changes I've seen in the past few years don't give me a good impression.

 

trouble is not many do so its a kind of race to the bottom and even buyers start to think vg is ex...

 

Yes but that doesn't make it right. Grades are meaningless without some standards. I say use the new rules to send all your over graded junk back to the seller.

 

The plus side is that sellers will have to be that more meticulous with their descriptions, otherwise suffer the consequences.

 

I wish this new rule would have come into effect years ago. I might still be buying off eBay.

 

Then set up your options properly so your sales only show to US users.

 

This drives me nuts as well. The common thing I see is a closeup of maybe half of the LP cover, being careful not to show any of the corners, and a label shot. As if a few errant label spindle scuffs are more important than what the vinyl looks like.

 

actually this kind of thing is the reason I only sell inside the US, as much as ebay seems to want me to ship internationally (Always having to flip that little switch off when I list) it's not worth the aggravation.

 

I agree but as standards drop across the board buyers start to believe VG is EX too, like i say it is a race to the bottom so those sellers who grade correctly get penalised, nothing much anybody can do about it, honest sellers lose out as usual........

 

Ever notice that when you "flip that little switch off" that says "Send it to the US shipping center, and the rest will be taken care of for you" (referring to the Global Shipping) it is the only thing that continues to come up as default in your template every time no matter how many times you turn it off? Just more of the sneaky stuff Ebay tries to pull.

 

This drives me nuts as a Canadian, though some sellers make the exception if contacted directly.

 

I feel for you but sellers can get screwed just as bad if things go awry to Canada as any other destination in the world.

 

Recently in another thread here the subject of record grading was being discussed. Expectedly, VG and VG+ was associated with poor, crap, junk, etc. which caused at least one member here to joke: record collecting.....where "good" really means not good. But this isn't so according to the accepted grades and amongst knowledgable experienced sellers and buyers. Very good means just that...VERY good. Unfortunately, experienced knowledgable sellers and buyers are the extreme minority. And whats 'Good' to one person is not to another.

All grading is subjective. And largely done visually...in a trade where the desired result is primarily sound. The nature of second hand used sales is fraught with bias and sliding scales of expectations. Buyers subconsciously tend to tip a VG or VG+ to the next grade (or two) up. Sellers do this too. Your junk is my treasure. My junk is your treasure. My experience is that the more inexperienced a buyer is - the steeper the expectations get. Throw in the fact that many buyers don't have one iota of knowledge about how turntables work or how records are made and should be dealt with, and the scene is set for the irrational, unreasonable complaint.

Nevertheless my experience with ebay and discogs is that 3/4 of my purchases are as good or better than described. That may not be high enough in the odds department for some, but the only viable alternative is to shop brick and mortar -- where the grading mistakes you make are 100% your own. Its an imperfect world. Successful sellers I know play the odds - the occasional financial loss for an online sale is a trade off for not having a brick & mortar, where outright theft, switch outs, and customer damage occur regularly. Pick your poison.

Recently I watched a guy next to me shopping with his girlfriend pull out a Stones album (iirc Emotional Rescue, priced at $3). He looks at it and says "hammered, played to death....what a rip off" before putting it back. I checked it out. Visually it was right about VG to VG+with a few paper caused hairlines and scattered, dusty finger oil smudges, but clearly it was very little played, the gloss was pristine even at the rims with pristine spindle mark free labels and inky black grooves. In my experience when washed it would play VG++ or better. People like him shop online.

 

Some Canadian s simply have a US postal box and make the quick trip across the border once a month or so.

Postal rates FROM Canada make ebay a hopeless cause for anything that can't be passed off into a flat mailer.

 

It's nteresting to read the opinions of "sellers" vs "buyers". Each is convinced they're getting the short end of the stick and they perceive that Ebay doesn't understand its business.

My guess is that Ebay understands its business model very well -- both the strengths and weaknesses -- and adjusts its policies and fees to meet the changing dynamics of its business model. My other guess is that at this point in time (and in general in the past) Ebay has determined that dishonest/incompetent sellers are hurting its bottom line more that dishonest/incompetent buyers -- and/or supply is more inelastic than demand -- thus the increased burden, i.e. costs, on sellers.

Until Ebay finds an equilibrium to their imperfect model (whether that be through increased costs for sellers and/or alternative sales outlets for sellers), I would expect that the burden on sellers will continue.

 

Or they simply know it's smarter to "protect" people SPENDING money rather than TAKING money. Same way that Ebay is fully aware that 80-90% of the autographs sold on it site are fraudulent, but it still makes money for the company.

Ebay has done little to stop scam buyers and these rules make it worse.

Ebay wouldn't be making these lopsided rules if they weren't, more or less, a monopoly with online sales of used goods.

 

You're contradicting yourself.

First, you say Ebay is protecting buyers rather than sellers. Then you say Ebay is fully aware that most autographs are fraudulent, i.e. they're protecting scam sellers over buyers. Then you say ebay has done little to stop scam buyers -- thus they are protecting buyers over sellers with the new rules.

The rules aren't lopsided. Ebay are simply like bookies making a point spread. They're simply interested in balancing the bets to maximize action and profits.

 

We can both agree that ebay is making rules to maximize profits rather than making rules to stamp out bad behaviour.

As for "lopsided" rules - what is ebay doing to prevent scam buyers exploiting their new power?

 

I'm much more a seller than buyer these days but increasing the final value fees rises costs to buyers. I feel this translates to less sales therefore less profits. I don't even list auction style much because if I start low it usually ends low. The buyer base looks to me to have deteriorated quite a bit in recent years.

As far as the policy, I have no problem with it. If you sell an item that is not as described the buyer should not be out the return shipping costs.

 

As I said, it's interesting how sellers and buyers both think they're getting screwed by the other. I'm gonna guess you're a seller...

Ebay is dispassionate about any of this -- except their bottom line. They make the rules to benefit Ebay -- and Ebay only. They almost certainly have reams of data they review constantly to tweek their model. My guess is that they have perceived (and continue to perceive) that scam sellers are hurting their bottom line far, far more than scam buyers. Thus the continually evolving "lopsided" rules.

 

Not one penny of eBay/Paypal's income comes from buyers. My problem with eBay is that they should just do well what they are at the root, which is an advertising medium. Their only "rule" should be caveat emptor. We sell advertising, we don't come in any other way between buyers and sellers. But some bean counter there saw pennies slipping out the door through things like making deals off-site and spent many many dollars to protect against this by injecting itself into every aspect of the transaction they could.