
EBay don't understand why people dodge their fees - jstanley
http://incoherency.co.uk/blog/stories/ebay.html
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calbear81
Actually, it's clear the author doesn't understand how to list an Ebay auction
to accomplish what they're trying to do. Here's how you could have done this
EASILY:

1) Allow local pickup as an option on your listing (Does not cost anything!)
2) Put a Buy It Now Price and open it up to Allow Offers to be made.

I'm not sure why a buyer has an incentive to go off platform since after all
there is no fee for a buyer to pay through Ebay. The seller pays all the fees
so for a buyer to ask to go off platform usually is a red flag for me (scam,
wire transfer, etc.).

~~~
jstanley
Adding a buy it now price costs 50p upfront, whether it gets used or not, and
the buy it now option disappears as soon as any bid is placed.

What you describe might work if I removed the auction component entirely.

Also note that the closest thing to a "scam" that I was subjected to was the
on-platform non-paying bidder. The off-platform experience was just 2 honest
individuals conducting a transaction without trying to cheat each other.

~~~
calbear81
The setup I normally use now if I know how much I want for an item is to do
fixed price listing and not an auction and set it at an upper bound of what I
would like to get but allow offers so it's sort of like an auction.

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ravenstine
It really is astounding how people took a once powerful brand and dashed it on
the rocks. Granted, there were always numerous unresolvable problems with the
concept of online auctions, but eBay also did many things that seem to
sabotage their service. I don't know anyone who sells anything there anymore
because the majority of disputes are resolved in favor of the crooked buyer.
It was also never good for a reasonable person as something about online
auctions often causes at least one person to bid ridiculously high on items
that aren't even rare. And now I am pretty sure you can't even see sellers'
ratings on the results page.

At this point, I only ever use eBay to buy prescription medicine from
overseas. I just can't understand how someone could let a once household name
rot like this. As evidenced by the article, and my own experience, this is
another case of a business blindly believing that the customer is always right
and forming policies around that flawed idea.

~~~
wand3r
> only use eBay to buy prescription meds from overseas

What?

~~~
atroll
drugs

------
darksim905
>eBay don't

I stopped reading there (kidding) but it's apparent the person doesn't use
eBay to the fullest extent of features available to you. I don't use it these
days because I prefer paying with Paypal + Credit Card & have had that number
compromised too many times -- also makes it hard to find specific
locksmithing/high end security equipment for building physical security labs,
so there's that.

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jamez1
It's to create a disincentive for spammy listings - every retailer would
constantly flood eBay with repeats of the same items etc to drown out the
competition.

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moioci
I thought that's what "Buy it Now" was for: to end the auction early, with a
sale.

~~~
jstanley
If you add a Buy It Now option (which I've done a few times), it costs you 50p
upfront, and it disappears as soon as the first bid is placed.

It's just a waste of money unless you get really lucky and it sells before
anybody places a bid.

~~~
brianwawok
That's not how buy it now works.

The main use if it is for fixed price listings. The auction game is not worth
the hassle. Want $100 for something? List it for $100 eith buy it now and
payment required.

Listing stays up till money is sent. Easy cheesey.

Using auctions for things with fairly well known values is a waste. Days to
collect bids then hope winner paid.

EBay is still alive and well. It's just not really an auction site anymore.
Most people only use buy it now.

~~~
jack9
> That's not how buy it now works.

Except that it does. Observing that other people use it another way, doesn't
change the existing functionality.

~~~
brianwawok
I mean sure, they can use it wrong.

If you REALLY want buy it now + auction, you use a reserve price.

Say, start at a penny, reserve price of $50, buy it now price of $70.

Then buy it now dies not "disappear" with 1 bid for a penny. It sticks around
until you hit $50.

If you really but no reserve and buy it now on an auction, you are literally
flushing money down the crapper. Unsure why eBay allows this, maybe easy money
for them. But this use case is user error mode, and not how anyone who uses
eBay would actually sell on eBay.

