<p>From time to time I hang out on ebay searching for objects of interest and bidding on stuff. In the “past” I would find that there was some competition for whatever object I was bidding on. Other bidders would swoop in and outbid me in the last moments, etc. Being overly busy in recent months, I have not been doing any bidding. This past week, I did a couple of searches and bid on a couple of items. Much to my surprise, no one else came in, and I won both of them. So I have developed a theory that there is a massive oversaturation of the site with objects and that many of them don’t get any attention. Thus if someone, anyone, comes in and makes the first bid, they are much more likely to “win” the item than they might have been in the past. </p>
<p>Has anyone had actual experience/verification of the current situation to the extent that they could verify that things are not as they were in the recent/distant past?</p>
<p>I think it depends on whether it’s an object a lot of people are interested in, and I haven’t noticed all that much of a difference in that respect since the first time I discovered ebay back in 1999 or so. For example, I sometimes look for old postcards from small towns in Europe where people in my family lived once upon a time, or even of cities in the US where my family lived, and if I see one and bid on it, I know there’s a 99.999% chance that I’ll be the only one to do so. After all, the chances aren’t very great that in any given period of a week or whatever the bidding period is, there’ll be another person interested in spending a few dollars on a postcard of an obscure village in Pomerania or Alsace or Baden, or of the particular neighborhood in Berlin where my mother grew up! And when I looked for a postcard showing the high school in Syracuse, New York from which my paternal grandmother graduated in 1905, I had my pick of several. It all depends on what you’re looking for. But I suspect you’re right that the vast majority of objects on ebay get no bids at all (or nobody buys them at the “buy it now” price), and get put up over and over again. If you’re trying to liquidate a collection of something, I imagine that ebay is not a very efficient way to do so.</p>
<p>I’ve found that if I am “outbid” on eBay, after the auction ends an identical item is up for bid. eBay also seems to be overpriced and the bidding process is overly tedious when I can often find what I’m looking for on etsy or Amazon.</p>
<p>I recently bought something on eBay that was not very popular. I bid a dollar more than the going bid & indicated my maximum and to my surprise got the item. It was ink for my printer at an amazingly good price. The terms description of the ink was a bit unusual, which I think accounted for the low number of bids. Was very pleased to get a great price. </p>
<p>I think Craigslist has been taking away some sales from eBay as well, since listings there are free and some folks feel they are less likely to be scammed.</p>
<p>I have seen a lower number of bids on items on eBay, but I think it is because a lot of stuff is listed buy it now or with starting bids at or very near retail. For example, a few years ago I was able to find very good deals on cabinet hardware on eBay, but the competition was fierce. Now I can get the same or better prices on most things on regular retail websites. I still buy a few things on eBay now and again, but it is not what it used to be.</p>
<p>Agree that quite a few items on eBay are now Buy It Now and the prices are comparable or higher than on-line stores and amazon. When there isn’t much price advantage, I prefer to buy outside of eBay, because I have had several negative experiences on eBay and I’m just as happy to buy from other on-line sources or better yet buy locally.</p>
<p>I’ve been a heavy eBay buyer (only occasional seller) since 1996. The big difference I’ve noticed, although this was several years ago, is that many more retailers are using it for their overstock (Bloomie’s, Neiman’s, . . .) Prices in general have gone up because it used to be pretty much individuals selling used items. I still do most of my clothes shopping there. The key is not to count on winning anything. Fun if you get an item that caught your eye; not a tragedy if you don’t.</p>
<p>I try to stick with real people sellers rather than retail stores. There are still <em>amazing</em> deals on eBay.</p>
<p>EBay is great for antique or unique items. Through the years, I have purchased a lot of serving pieces in my great-grandmother’s silver pattern. That said, there has been almost nothing on eBay in her pattern for several years now. So I don’t know what’s going on with that.</p>
<p>I did just buy three small Persian rugs, and they were exactly as described. </p>
<p>A good way to determine if an item will be popular is to look at “completed” items. To find it, look under “show only” on the left hand column of the page, under “free shipping”. If the item has sold in the past, the price is listed in green. All the unsold, expired listings are shown in red. I only bid at the last minute if I think I’ll have competition and have even used esnipe if I really want something. My best deals are when something is mispelled or when they don’t know the pattern name of my Villeroy and Boch china. There are definitely more “buy it now” items and I agree that craigslist is taking away a lot of items. I will also search under “buy it now” AND “newly listed”, as some listers have undervalued items. My issue right now is with PayPal. Because I’ve been such a valued customer over the years, I’m approaching some type of limit and they want my banking info. They are not getting it, so now I’m having to convince sellers to take a personal check or US Postal Service money order.</p>
<p>Much like VeryHappy, I use eBay to fill in my china, flatware & crystal patterns. I have those searches “saved” and I get an email in the morning if anything new has been listed. There have been almost no listings for the crystal & flatware in the past 2 years, but the past month has been a bonanza for completer pieces in my china. Got 4 pieces at about 25% of what replacements . com was asking. </p>
<p>Toledo, I set up a separate bank account that I leave $100 in just to have tied to Paypal. I still select a charge card when I pay. I did not want to have my main accounts attached either.</p>
<p>I recently won an auction for 12 cents with free shipping from China!</p>
<p>Onward and other long time posters may remember my post on paypal. My advice would be to never give them your bank account information unless you go with onwards plan and set up a small account for paypal only.m</p>
<p>I do remember, ebeeeee. That is why I set up the account and that account is not tied to any of our other accounts. Our bank calls it a pennywise account. I have no checks with it and it basically just sits there.</p>
<p>The lack of bids on many objects has been a problem on ebay for a long time. It goes along with the problems many sellers have had, from the costs imposed to issues with complaints being resolved against them without any recourse or argument. Why? Maybe some is volume growth. Maybe some is the way ebay has had to expand its reach to include “stores” for new and reconditioned items. I mean even Apple now has a reconditioned store on ebay. Maybe some is the growth in other services from etsy to instagram (which has become a simple picture based bazaar for many).</p>
<p>We’ve been ebayers in our family for many years.
Agree that the buy it now format has changed things. Amazon almost always has better prices and free shipping on new items.
But ebay rules for old, vintage stuff and also parts for appliances. Been very successful in finding replacement brush heads, nozzles for our two old Miele vacuum cleaners.</p>
<p>My favorite thing to do is search ‘within 10 miles’ of my zip code for vintage furniture.
Recently bought two large Ethan Allen pieces for our bedroom for a few hundred dollars.
The seller even delivered the items and helped us move them into our BR.
Local makes things much less complex.</p>
<p>I’ve used Ebay for years, for antique (used) furniture, collectibles that would be difficult to impossible to find any other way, for new sheets, for cosmetics, etc. I ran into the PayPal problem, too. I refused to give them my banking information, because I had provided it initially and they actually made an unauthorized charge of $50 one time. They did this to a lot of people, and there was a great deal of anger. I was able to get around the limit by opening the PayPal credit card (which I’ve never used). But last time I bought something on Ebay, PayPal declined my payment because of the “sending limit.” Fortunately, I was able to arrange to send a check for the item I’d bid on. But I haven’t had time to sort out the issue with PayPal yet, so I’m in Ebay limbo.</p>
<p>I will try setting up a new PayPal account in my husband’s name. Great idea.</p>
<p>Thanks for the ideas on dealing with PayPal, but how do we let them know we’re unhappy? I thought my boycott might send a message. I’ve been able to send checks/money orders on all 6 of my last orders, but one guy threatened to relist the item. I guess I’ll just take my chances, as none of this is anything I really need.</p>