EBAY is a Ghost Town !!! Where is Everyone?

i have been buying stuff on there lately and noticed not to many bids also. but then again i only look for one or 2 things and then leave. i recently purchased an amp kit a small lapiz lazuli stone as a healing stone, and bulbs for the headlights on my car. still find good deals on ebay, no complaints there. i find the prices on ebay almost always beat the prices anywhere else i look.

Same here. I have stopped using eBay and now even more so after paypal recently restricted my account and demanded a copy of my passport and some other proof of ID. For 9 years I have been a 'premier' member. Why the hell now, so that they can build a profile on me? Fuck 'em. I love Amazon.

You are probably right about it being a fad, like frozen yogurt although those self serve places are popping up all over. Marshmellows huh? Never had a home made one.

I feel for you. Are you a guy or girl? Not that it matters I guess, but theres also house cleaning, being a nanny. People who need those services still have the $ to pay. I wish you the best with your move

I think there is a conspiracy brewing against me..... All the bidders that would normally bid on the stuff Apollyon wants are now bidding on the things I want. Can't catch a break on a single item. Most stuff being bid up over retail.

Seize the moment Apollyon and buy all those non bidder items!

Last Edited by Morpheus on 03/16/2012 02:35 PM

I went on Ebay the other day for the first time in years, I was looking for a certain juicer, there was one listed, it was refurbished and they wanted more for that than a new one would have cost.

ebay sux

i've noticed this too. not many people bidding on things lately. lots of things going unsold. i used to have an ebay store and closed up shop on new years this year. ebay and paypal just kept raising fees. everything possible had a huge fee and they made it nearly impossible to make money selling on ebay. ebay fees and paypal fees for store owners has reached nearly 20%.

I buy occult books off of eBay.
Some can be pretty expensive but if you wait a long time checking everyday you can find some pretty cool stuff.
Within about a year I got most of Aleister Crowley's books, all of Helena Blavatsky's (including her Collected Writings, and all of Kenneth Grant's books.. the most expensive book was $365 for Beyond the Mauve Zone and even that was cheap compared to the prices these days.

I also buy old cd's that stores don't carry anymore.

the worse eBay experience I have had was buying a Nord synthesizer that ended up only working halfway... only part of the keys worked.

I couldn't get a refund or anything so I was out about $500 and was pissed as hell. I still can't find anyone to fix it around here.

Definately bargains to be had.

Wow! I haven't bought or sold anything on eBay for a long time, but it sounds like they're becoming the virtual Walmart now.

Except for the most basic staple items like pencils or paper, I try not to buy cheapo Chinese stuff anymore. It seems there's some horror story every week, from poisoned pet food and treats, to lead in kids' toys, etc. They just make shoddy stuff... and obviously there are no health or quality regulations whatsoever.

I never buy fresh fish from China in the grocery store either... I once saw a video about Chinese "shrimp farms"; they're not regulated or supervised at all. Basically everyone with a backyard pond has their own shrimp farm, and often in the filthiest condition possible. It's completely disgusting.

Last Edited by sylvie on 03/16/2012 02:47 PM

Apollo, I have recently found a great feature on YouTube if you install Mozilla firefox (pick an older version that WORKS- like the 3. something that was released in Sept2011 and is not Beta). I have a website where you can install it since it's no longer listed on Mozilla. If you need it, let me know.

You can download a YouTube app that will appear every time you go to a Youtube video and now that YouTube has a lot of full length movies with no commercials I just download a few each day so I can later burn them to disc.

The other day I downloaded "The Core" since everyone here talks about it. I just haven't watched it yet.

I have done this already and it works and works FAST!

DON'T install the app on Mozilla that has the three little colored balls- those will appear on your copy and you have to pay to upgrade.

Install the other one that's related to YouTube.

It will take you to a screen that says "Do you want to download your videos fast or do you want to download them slow?"

PICK SLOW!

The fast one has commercials and the SLOW one is still really fast.

The quality is really good on my final disc when I choose the highest version of MP4 near the bottom (I think it's 360).

I can play them on my own laptop but there's a way you can burn them to a disc and use in other DVD's etc.

I just haven't figured that out yet.

Miggy

Funny you you should mention this and me see it today. I was just about to go to ebay and pull my seller account. It did used to be a lot of fun, and I turned over a ton of "treasures" that others evidently appreciated and that we no longer needed or had interest in.

I have over 1700 unique positives, and I'm not a businesswoman, just a hobbyist, but I did augment my collectibles with some herbs I used to drop ship from Thailand. That was never a big way to make money so I dropped it as too much hassle. (Import times were haywire right after Homeland Insecurity started delaying everything needlessly.)

Anyway, I tried bidding on some things lately, and the preponderance of cheap Chinese stuff and knock-offs makes the bidding an iffy proposition. I'm definitely closing my ebay store today.

Please, other Ebay storeowners and sellers, and avid shoppers, please continue to support this post. I am very curious as to your feelings about the downard direction ebay has taken.

By the way, bidding on my items has become sporadic. If I sell there again, it may just be with buy it now, and a fair price for the collectible or rare book. You know, I didn't even mind the "sniping"--at least it was bidding activity. Oh, and by the way, my perfect feedback reputation was marred by a boy who bought a Babylon 5 Molari doll for $1.00 and then complained about the condition of the box. That kinda took the joy out of it for me right there...

It's the same as in the thrift stores around town.

Sellers aren't selling stuff worth having becuase they can't replace it anymore. Buyers are buying as much because the stuff is in worse condition with higher asking and/or they don't have the $$ in the bank or on the card.

I am a huge thrift store shopper, and the local shops don't have crap anymore.

Used to be able to walk in and buy a whole set of matching pots and pans if you wanted. Now I can't find two pots to fit together to use as a double boiler for my cheese waxing. (don't want to spend $40 on something that will only be used for wax.)

Used to be able to walk in and buy enough beautiful pristine candles to deck out a wedding worth of centerpieces. Now I can't find 3 that match to go in my candle stick prop for plays.

Even the vaccume/sewing repair guy doesn't ever have thing 'left unpaid' that he can sell. Used to be able to choose from 5-10 high-end fancy-shmancy sewing machines for super cheap on any given day.

It's not just E-bay. It's a baromoter of sorts for the underlying economical conditon of society. Despite what number the goverment releases, we have been living through a depression (which the media label used instead of 'crisis') that the media won't even label as a 'recession' anymore. The economy can't take much more before we will see some major troubles.

Because Ebay is a scam using automated bidders.

^^^This X 1,000 ^^^^

sad thing, used to be a LOT OF FUN, The excitement at the end of auctions was awesome,Then they started the "Watch" Option, that banged down bids a good bit but still had some excitement in the end,Then alot of policy changes brought in ALOT of the new cheap junk,Then 2008 the economy collapsed and so did ebay, I used to get 300-600 lookers on some auctions, now I tried it not long ago and 50-60 lookers on a 5 day auction,Buyers are not there like they used to be, too much junk to sift through to find what your selling and I swear Ebay somehow directed views to certain sellers...I don't think it will ever be like the old days even if the economy roared back, man we sure enjoyed it in the early days(sigh)

Amazon.com has a promotion (I think it's still going on).

I used it the month of December.

It's free for the first 30 days. It offers 2-3 day shipping and only $3.99 for the shipping charge.

I bought two greenhouses that easily weighed 100 pounds each and at two separate times.

Each time they were on my doorstep within 2 days and I was only billed the $3.99 shipping charge on each one.

I had to remember to cancel on the 29th day so I wouldn't be billed $79 for an annual fee.

I can't afford that but if you can (it's only like $11 or $12 a month)I would think that's the way to go.

It's the ECONOMY ....

No Money to buy.

I buy a few items a month on ebay, mostly antique collectables. There was a big problem a couple of years ago with sellers having too much advantage in the deal and many of them were screwing over buyers with bad descriptions then not taking them back when the buyer had real grievances. Ebay tightened some rules on sellers to try to balance the transaction more, but it may have swung the pendulum too much toward the buyer, so now you see fewer "cool" sellers and more crap.

In addition, shipping prices have really taken a toll. Few people are going to buy a $10 item when the shipping is $15 unless it is a great deal. I remember when I rarely cared about shipping costs other than to know it was not padded by the seller. But now I care because they have gotten so high due to the price of gas and paying people's pensions, etc...

I still find great stuff on ebay, because not all the interesting sellers have gotten the message, but I have to scour many pages and it is 99.5% crap. Problem is, I am a treasure hunter by inclination, and that just makes it all the more exciting. For the stuff I am looking for, you won't find it at one of 50 yard sales.

Ebay has screwed the sellers and is losing them right and left. They have no enforcement of non-payers, don't allow sellers to give negative feedback for non-payers, and don't even put up a notice on the buyers' home page letting sellers know that this buyer has X number of non-pays. They don't have a mechanism for reversing a bid or purchase by a non-payer so sellers are totally at the mercy of these irresponsible bidders. I have 6 non-payers right now and Ebay keeps the sellers' fees of around 12% until you go through the cancellation process which takes at least 8 days, then they can wait to apply your refund of fees for another few days. All of this time your merchandise is out of commission, dead in the water. Then you have to re-list it, and hope that a non-buyer buyer comes along. Many of these non-payers have large numbers of completed transactions(300-500)from the past, and 100% positive feedback scores....so, obviously they were big and proper buyers in the past which leads me to suspect that they have run out of money, and like to pretend that they can still keep buying....they get a thrill out of bidding and are addicted...and there's no negative feedback for non-payment so they just keep doin' it!!!

E-bay is obviously hurting re: sellers. On the 14th they had unlimited free listings day, no listing fees. They had the same last month. And they are giving the first 50 listings in a month free as well. I put up 60 listings on the 14th, saved $30 in listing fees. I still make $1,000 or so a month on ebay, but it used to be a lot more.

I sell only name brand US goods that I get from the stores during clearance sales for 75% off. You have to buy right to offer good enough prices for the customers and still make sufficient profit to make it worthwhile.

People are sick of being nickel-ed and dimed all the time. Ebay wants a cut of the shipping cost now too.

eBay has more sellers than there are buyers....that's one reason why you aren't seeing any bids. There are alot of former eBay sellers here responding to this thread but the fact is.........EVERYONE is selling their "stuff" on feebay.
So there is MUCH more competition than a few years ago.

As mentioned earlier, Chinese products ARE ALL over feebay. Those Americans who buy wholesale from China to sell retail, can't compete with the Chinese eBay sellers. The Chinese get alot from our dollar when we buy their products, that's why they can offer them so cheap.

About Thrift stores......there is a definite decline in their merchandise. I think people are holding onto their things alot longer than they use to. They are not buying new things because of the economy.

I sell on eBay but I deal in vintage collectibles. Items that are so unique that you won't easily find them anywhere on the internet. The income from this however is not reliable so I definitely can't depend on that to pay the bills. It's also becoming more and more difficult to find those unique collectibles to resale....as I stated earlier, people are holding onto their things.

This is why I love ebay.....


[link to www.ebay.com]

I cried when mine finally broke. I knew the end was near but I wasn't ready to deal with it. We had so many good years together and although I tried to move on, I just couldn't. We shared the last 10 years of my life. Nothing else held up to my expectations.

Nobody sells them anymore. I guess they are old and out of style and don't have built in moisturizer. (WTF women of the world??? Just put some freaking lotion on after the shower!!!!)

That was about three weeks ago and I just havn't been the same since.

Thank you Ebay. Without you, I would be one hairy beast today.

And don't EVER apply for a job on Craigslist. Most are fake and designed to get a lot of personal info from you that they use to steal from you.

Link?

So, what are you selling on ebay that you needed everyone to go bid on, and came here to shamelessly drive all of glp over there to bid on? You must have something that has zero bids, and your getting worried because you wanted to unload some of your junk to finish your own private underground shelter.

Am I right?

ID10T

I have watched the book market take a huge dive over the last year! A book I sold for $12.00 a year and a half ago now is lucky to get a bid for $3.00 or $4.00! It's not worth it to sell my books. I'd rather keep them.

Maybe the economy will pick up again. Yeah right!

Paypal ruined it too. How many times are they going to soak you for part of what you make? Pay for the auction and then pay to get your money!

Yeah...I would hold on to your books. 4.00 is definitely not worth your time and trouble. Right now everything is about e-readers. But I know there will come a day when your paper book will be worth SOOOOOO much more. People will miss reading a good old fashion book.