Expect the classifieds to pick up the next few months... (O/T?)

... As sellers flee eBay in droves. I know this is pretty O/T but bear with me a bit -

eBay's rates go up 2/20 - the fee to list gets cheaper and I get a free gallery photo, but the fee they take from a completed auction goes up about 40% to make up for it.

In May, they change feedback so sellers can no longer leave negatives or neutrals on buyers, which really has people up in arms. The reasons given vary from asinine to utterly rediculous.

They also plan to tie search results to your star rating, even though almost no one can keep a fully perfect one in all 5 categories. Those with better ratings will be featured higher. About the only way to have super high ratings is to list thousands of things so that even if you have lots of unhappy customers they hardly make a dent in the figures.

They already implemented policies where if sellers get too many negatives or neutrals in a set period they get restricted what they can sell. Again favoring those with enough listings to easily bury a high number of unhappy buyers.


The incoming new CEO of eBay is some kind of snobby ******* who wouldn't dare dream of shopping at a flea market and his stated goal is to eliminate the small sellers from eBay - all these policies will do a good job of that, as the ones who don't just outright leave will be forced out with just a few bad experiences. Guy needs a swift kick in the ***, followed by one in the teeth.


What this means for the HAMB: I'm sure we will see a lot more people coming here expressly to post in the cl***ified. How much of it will be worth looking at as opposed to overpriced rotty **** - the stuff for instance I already don't waste my time posting here because all it does is draw flames even when not posted here - you'll have to wait and see. But either way I'm sure it will do a number on the bandwidth, so it's something Ryan and everyone else who runs this show might want to be prepared for.

It also means more people will be using Craigslist, for me it hasn't been so hot but at least it's free. Again same deal, you'll be weeding through a lot of not what you want posts to find what you do want.

It's too bad no one has the time and energy to just clone eBay Motors. A site like this has the user base enough to support something like that - the problem with any compe***ion to eBay has always been not enough user base, not enough hits, and not enough sales. If you have the people, or the ability to promote to draw the people, then you'd make money with it. Otherwise it won't last too long.

As for eBay, it remains to be seen what comes next, I think eBay's stock will nosedive and never recover. They've forgotten what makes eBay, eBay, in the effort to become a clone of amazon.com.



I'm sure this will turn into some winded hate eBay rant, but whoever deletes this might save this post as a heads up of what's probably coming. I'm not sure what you can do about it, but one other site I go to only members who contribute to the site can post ads. If the costs of the cl***ified become an issue, restricting them to Alliance members might be one way to reduce things to a managable level.

 

Wow... I hope I can get all my stuff sold before they weed out us little guys!

 

i personally didnt like ebay as a seller because i felt like it was hard to start cuz ppl wouldnt bid since i didnt sell stuff before (or perhaps i was selling **** either way). craigslist is a bit of h***le...ppl seem to ask for the oddest ****. ALL HAIL THE HAMB!!

 

Damn it all, between here and ebay, that's where I get a lot of my parts...I doubt many folks will sell here, since they'll potentially lose out on higher prices due to bidding...too bad my local swap meets only have 70's and 80's ****...

 

Seems like they can't leave a good thing alone. Yes, Craigslist is free.
For now.

 

Has anybody tried to navigate the "NEW" E-bay Motors??If that is any indication of what is to come,you can count me out. What a piece of **** that is.I switched back to the old page and use that.I'm sure they will take that away anytime now.Maybe,in time,the real life swap meets will get better.

 

No doubt the new search mode and categories ****...I wonder if someone will step up with another auction site...a vintage car parts site would rule...

 

I don't like navigating the new Ebay but I think I can get used to it. I do like the lower listing fees. Don't like the new final value fees but it might not be that bad. I find it odd that I can't leave negative feedback if I need to. I rarely do anyway. I am a powerseller on Ebay and the fact is I get much higher prices there than I do anywhere else. They've got the traffic. I ***ume they can weed out some of the little listings and cut costs, fewer staff, etc. and improve their profit. That's what all businesses do. However, most businesses don't have a 39 year old majority owner who is worth 6 billion or so either.

 

I've sold a lot stuff on e-bay, Hell its part of my income sometimes. I wish they could keep it just like it is, the feedback is the only thing to go by on whether somebody is worth a **** or not. I just listed stuff this week, and I saw the warning of the changes in my mail box, but I didn't pay much attention, will have to look at it again! My name is choppedandchanneled on there, so if you need a 37 Chevy radio or some old Chevrolet filmstrips, check it out. Hows that for a shameless plug? Hope I don't have to give up e-bay. You can sell stuff on there that you couldn't give away in 20 years of flea marketing. So many people are on there looking, its a good crowd as you would say at a swap meet. 4- door stuff is even easy to sell!

 

i pretty much gave up on ebay a year or so ago after being a regular seller and buyer for close to ten years not as much action but i'm takin my action back to the swapmeets

 

I'm not especially thrilled with the new Ebay look either and am staying with the old as long as possible. I question whether or not the fee increase will make that much difference. On a $325 sale it only amounts to $1.63 minus the lower listing fee. At this time there isn't anyplace else you get the exposure Ebay provides. I know that many of you think this is the only place for sales but that's not the case. Last summer I had a Kaiser rear license guard for sale here for $250 no one was interested at that price. I put it on Ebay and got $335. I put things here first most of the time but after a while of no sale I go elsewhere.

 

I heard that Ebay now owns Craig's List...so I wonder what will happen there.
Tim
MBL

 

If there were a compe***or for my volume, I'd be gone from Ebay in a heartbeat.

 

I just read the part about no negative feedback for buyers!! That ain't right. Now these non-serious bidders will mess up your auctions without fear of negatives?? WoW, dumb move. I don't get ebays change on this; WHY?

A lot of us fund our builds by selling on ebay....and you got to admit, there is stuff on there you could NEVER find elsewhere. 99.5% of my car & parts come from ebay.

 

I dont sell often on ebay, when I do I figure in the listing costs in the starting price.
Since I don't sell mainstream items (shirts, clocks, hand tools, etc...) I don't think my not being a powerseller is an issue.
i.e. if I list a 1954 Oldsmobile part, everyone who wants it will still see it.

Not leaving neg feedback for buyers is unfair.... someone sends me 2 bounced checks should be reported.

I havent listed anything in a long time, thats what ****s when you've cleaned out your yard!

 

Ditto for me too. I often list stuff on the HAMB with no hits and then sell for more money on Ebay. How can you replace that? I was reading some of the thoughts on Ebay message board and alot of sellers are going to Ubid.com but I've never sold anything on there yet. Word is, Ebay is changing it's name to FEEbay.

 

I can see the point of no negative for buyers-even though ALL my income right now comes from Ebay. I also buy on Ebay quite a bit, and it pisses me off when I buy something from a seller and it takes them weeks to send it, or the part is not as described. Right now I've got a seller who hasnt delivered my goods 3 weeks after I sent him payment, but I am afraid to ding him because he'll pop me a negative right back. Sellers nowadays ususally hold your feedback hostage to coerce you into leaving good feedback for them. FWIW, the new feedback system will weed out the shady sellers right quick, which benefits us all. Also, negative hits from the flake buyers that draw down your 100% will go away over time if you get good feedback. I've got good star ratings, so I'm not too worried about my listings geting buried...again, this one will weed out the a-holes who sell **** and charge double to ship it. Oh yeah...if I could get the same prices locally or at a swap for the stuff, Id be all over it. I HATE selling on Ebay, but it's about the only place you can buy thrift store junk and sell it for a huge profit. I bought a broken tape deck at Goodwill for $15 and sold it for over $400 recently. That wouldn't happen if I had to sell it at a flea market.

 

I guess this is just one more reason for me to hate Ebay, I have been selling there for years and I get pissed every time they change things especially now with there new search functions. I have a feeling that Ebay like most other companies will start to have major financial problems when they start trying to milk the company for all it's worth, I don't think these people realize that when they do this it will make them lots of money instantly but in the long run ruins them financially.

 

i've gotten most of my parts of off ebay for years. sold a few things not a lot. the no negative feedback deal seems silly. there have been a few attempts at an ebay motors knock off. some of them pretty decent, but didn't fly. seriously, if theres anybody that could pull it off it's ryan cochran. he knows how to run a big internet site and he has 40,000 customers already. word of mouth from loyal HAMBers alone would grow the site much quicker than most. ryan?

 

Ebay dumping on the little guy and catering to the power sellers is nothing new. I was selling on there heavy a few years ago to support my addiction (racing). It fed my habit for quite a while. Power sellers would watch what I was selling and copy my auctions word for word, which was supposedly a rule infraction. They would find out where I bought my my items and sell under cost. The vendors they were using either had free shipping or a low set shipping fee. They would make their money by having the product dropped shipped to the buyer but charging $30 or more for shipping. No matter the infraction a power seller committed whether it was copying exact text or an image ebay did nothing when it was reported. I had a ebay store and between the store and auctions I was listing over 50 items a week.

Funny thing is when they had their big fee increase a few years ago I bailed. I started receiving phone calls begging me to come back. They even offered to make me a power seller, which they refused to do even when I was selling enough to be a power seller.

It was about a year ago they notified me that I owed like $25 in fees and charged my credit card on file. This was almost three years since I'd sold anything. They said I had a selling subscription that I hadn't canceled, at the time it was a free service. I canceled the subscription right away. Here's the kicker when they charged my credit card on file, they charged an extra $11 to it so I had a credit with them. Kind of an under handed way to get sellers to come back.

 

so what exactly will the new selling percentage to ebay be?

 

I'm usually the fella caught buying the "broken tape decks"

 

I think that if the HAMB could somehow "qualify" sellers...not the easiest task, but certainly a probation period, where you might eliminate the must unload this stuff/car types who join, for access to the cl***ifieds may work. There is the important factor, of bringing something (yes, even Germ!) to the community, that makes the HAMB what it is. If the cl***ified end of this site works well as it is, and change is not desired, then maybe we could experiment w/approaching Hemmings as a group, seeking something far better than the former "Motors" section experiences?

 

Last I heard, it was a 25% stake, but money talks. I hope they leave it alone, but if they don't, there are a ton of people who could make the next free ad site.

 

If I understand correctly, listing fees dropped a nickel with free gallery(.35) but the fvf goes from 5.25% to 8.75%.

I also thought Ebay only owned 20% to 25% of Craigslist but that figure was from a few years ago.

 

Yep..people will flee eBay just like they've quit going to gas stations.

 

eBay own about 50% of Craigslist and they are trying to own it all......I hope eventually everyone leaves eBay and something new starts up with lower fees. The problem with eBay is that they staff way too many people, people who sit around in meetings all day dreaming up new ways to change the eBay Motors page or whatever....leave it alone, lower the fees and fire a few people....they'll never do that. Not many people can actually make a living on eBay as they claim. It's one of the great evils. I hope more people list on the HAMB and Craigslist.

 

I used to be a power seller on eBay, 100% rating, but haven't listed anything since June '06. Not worth it at that time, less worth it now. I'm a regular on the eBay Motors discussion board (same user name as here), but not for selling anymore. Amazon.com traffic has picked up as of late, and will likely pick up even more as eBay continues to self-destruct.

The difference in what people get between the HAMB and eBay is due to the selling structure. On the HAMB, a price is required when the part or car is listed, and the potential buyer uses that as a starting point to bargain the price lower. On eBay, there's a starting bid of the seller's choosing, and potential buyers start there and go upward, depending on the demand for the item.

The HAMB could allow parts and or cars to not have prices in the ad, but potential buyers could make offers by PM, and the seller could reject 'em all or accept one he thinks is fair.

 

Ive got a great idea lets go set up in a field with all of are parts we don`t need !
and look for stuff we do need ?
I think they use to call them swap something oh ya meets.

 

What a great idea!

A friend of mine once said that as a swap meet promoter, I should make a career of hating ebay. To a degree, he's right...but the fact is I'm not going to find a 3x2 intake for my 322 Nailhead, or an NOS trans dapt bellhousing at a local swap meet. (intake:ebay. Bellhousing: HAMB). On the other hand, i'm not going to be buying a hydraulic press, horizontal band saw, Victor torch, rear end or expensive-to-ship '60-'66 Chevy truck fender online.
I do, however, have a good number of people who come and buy parts from the vendors, (helping the economy of the show) and then ebay them for a profit, getting them into the hands of other enthusiasts who want those parts.

Like everything else, there's good and bad with all of it.

And the free market will sort itself out, if left alone to it's own devices. I have no problem with ebay raising fees, keeping people on staff, etc: it's a business, and it seems the majority of people seem to ignore the fact that a business exits to make money. Period. If you don't like the service they provide, stop using the business. If you have balls, start your own business that provides the service you think is needed.

Nothing more annoying than people whining about how unfair a business is. Not in this country.


-Brad