[sounds]

I should disclose that I haven't shopped on eBay in many years.

Here's why, and why it's relevant:

I have a terrible experience on eBay.

The prices are great until the excessive shipping is added. Until payment I can generally get a response from the seller but after that it's like I don't exist. Then there are the outright scams.

And please note, I'm a _buyer_. I shudder to think that I should ever be a seller on eBay; sellers are left empty handed if a buyer claims "not as described." Example: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57352136-501465/paypa...

When I try to shop for something online, even adding "-eBay" to a google search to drop eBay listings can be risky (it will eliminate any page that mentions eBay).

I believe this is relevant because the study is basically claiming eBay is well known enough that they don't need to advertise on Google. I'd argue exactly the opposite is happening: eBay is hemorrhaging users and a successful marketing campaign could change that. eBay needs Google more than Google needs eBay.

Amazon (mentioned in the article) and Apple are definitely innovative in the retail space. I notice they focus on targeted ads more than eBay does, because eBay's model is more hands off. And I think a direct consequence is Amazon and Apple can make good use of Google ads.

There's nothing wrong with "hands off" automation of big parts of your business. It works for Google.

But I can't really take eBay's study very seriously: if there are lots of customers and businesses who have grown tired of eBay (and PayPal), their advertising has got to be hurting.

Straighten out your house, eBay, and then people will want to stop by.

[leoedin]

I've had a completely different experience. I tend to buy "buy it now" items, particularly electronic items, regularly from ebay. I don't think in perhaps 7 or 8 years of regular ebay purchases (probably between 1 and 10 a month) I've had more than a few issues. Sometimes things get lost in the post (especially if the seller is based in China or Hong Kong), but they're often quite apologetic about it and often send another one if it never arrives.

It may be that in the past postage costs were hidden, but they've made it very clear now. The buyer pays the price + postage, both of which are clearly visible on the search page and repeated on the item and purchase page.

eBay is fantastic for small electronic components. If you need a couple of capacitors or a single (popular) chip, the price + postage is always considerably less than buying from a mainstream retailer (where £10+ postage for anything is the norm). My experience is in the UK, so elsewhere may be different.

[Spooky23]

I agree, eBay basically shares all of the bad aspects of a flea market with the faceless bureaucracy of the DMV. eBay cannot effectively police it's environment, and it's fee structure is outrageous.

If I want to deal with sketchy people to save a few bucks, Craigslist lets me do that with a higher chance of a positive outcome for $0.

Also, you can exclude ebay from search results by entering "-site:ebay.com"

[sounds]

Thanks for the "-site:ebay.com"

I started with a longer paragraph there, talking about how annoying it is to go on google shopping, find a great price, then look to the right. Oh, eBay.

Then I edited down my wall of text.

[Karunamon]

I agree on pretty much everything you said (especially wrt: selling.. if you're not a medium-ish business with that as your function, you need your head examined if you decide to roll with ebay!)

That said, the whole "excessive shipping" thing is primarily used by unscrupulous sellers to skirt around ebay's fees. It also used to be used to appear higher in search results when sorted by price, until they started including shipping in that column. It's the reason you see a small widget like a laser pointer for a penny with 9.99 shipping.

You can report any listings like that and they'll get yanked for it.

And there's the little fact that the world's worst auction site and the world's worst payment provider are surgically joined at the hip..

[UnoriginalGuy]

Can I just bring up etsy here?

It seems to me that eBay's most dangerous competition is etsy along with perhaps Amazon's "sellers."

You have etsy eating most of eBay's "we make it ourselves" market and you have Amazon which lets people buy "new" goods cheaper with less hassle than the eBay/PayPal mess.

You also have Craigslist going after eBay local...

The only niche eBay really has right now is cheap Chinese/HK direct imports and goods which are borderline legal (and Amazon would likely pull, like knives).

If someone steals that market form them then they might be in real trouble. Even my mom who is in her 50s uses Amazon to sell used books instead of eBay - easier she says.

[duskwuff]

Etsy really isn't competition for eBay, at least unless they change their policies significantly. They explicitly ban mass-produced items.

[potatolicious]

Ditto, I haven't gotten anything off eBay in ages. The last time I did was from a guy who made his own camera grips and, for some reason that I will never understand, exclusively uses eBay to sell his goods.

My other problem with eBay is that in some categories the pricing is just wholly unrealistic. Specifically used/vintage cameras - the initial and ending prices on these items on eBay is often much higher than what the same cameras are trading for on enthusiast forums. The demographic of people collecting these on enthusiast forums vs. those buying the same items on eBay is clearly different.

[hluska]

I tried selling with eBay and didn't have a whole lot of luck. I never actually received a bid and felt like I was paying fees to become a target of phishing scams...

Without hyperbole, I'd rather set up shop on a blanket on the sidewalk than do business with eBay.

[daigoba66]

Years ago I tried selling a laptop on eBay. The "winner" ended up being someone trying to scam me by having me ship before paying or something, I don't completely remember.

Anyway, the worst part is that eBay collected the listing fees before the auction was handed over to the fraud dept. I got my fees refunded, but in the form of credit. So now every month, for the past 10 years or so, I get a e-mail from eBay reminding me of my current account balance of -$26 and change.

[lingben]

I just used eBay for the first time! you can rank products based on price+shipping, or just price. found it very useful