Has eBay shot themselves in the foot by raising their fees?

[CarlWohlforth]

Looks like the new fee structure has kicked in. eBay now charges the same fee for a $650 coin as for a $2,350 coin. How much? $50.

Are they the only game in town? Maybe, maybe not. There are the dedicated coin houses like TeleTrade and Heritage. Both of them charge both buyer's and seller's fees. Their total fee is still more than eBay. But they provide more service. They hold the coin so you know they will ship it. They take photos so you can get used to their pictures and learn how to read them.

Still this eBay increase hurts. Big time. It hurts so much that I'm thinking of alternatives. If enough people think of alternatives it is possible that something new will come along that eats eBay's lunch.

I have three choices. I can try to develop an alternative to eBay. I can look at existing alternatives and throw them some business and see how that goes. Lastly I can just complain and continue to list with eBay.

So what am I going to do? All three.  I will stick with eBay short term. If I can't find a good alternative in the medium term I may research some ideas I have. I've been mulling around some idea for a long time and am ready to experiment.

What are you going to do?

[Bubblehead]

 

Well, that certainly sucks! 

Someone on the PCGS US Coin Forum this morning alerted members
to a free auction site called "Wensy.com."

I went there.  Lots of stuff at auction besides coins/currency.  But, lots
of coins, for sure.  I was a tad frustrated while searching for specific
coins, tho.  The search feature is screwed in that, say, you're in the
Washington list, and you poke in a date, and or MM...  Well, what you
get is everything in the whole world that has that date.  Pennies, Jeff's,
dimes, well... You get it.. That's where it becomes a PITA to find what you want...

Seems like their webmaster could fix that with some added or modified code?
Carl would understand...I don't...

Anyhooooo, that's my Monday Morning's Musing....

 

[BCNumismatics]

FleeceBay shot themselves in the foot with the numismatic community a few years ago when they started to refuse to take members' complaints about fraudsters & scammers seriously.

There is quite a few FREE online auctions around.

Check out http://www.my-little-auctions.com & http://www.overstock.com .

Aidan.

[BCNumismatics]

Here's more free auction websites;

http://www.ebid.net .

http://www.ioffer.com .

http://www.upillar.com .

http://www.wensy.com .

Screw FleeceBay!

Aidan.

[19Lyds]

eBay has "morphed" into a huge mega-headed monster built off the backs of small time sellers which now panders only to volume selling fulltime dealers that are happy with a 1 or 2 dollar profit on each item sold.

I would happily entertain dealing with some other online service that doesn't cost me an arm and a leg to sell my stuff.

I don't think I'm alone in my thinking and sooner or later, eBay will pay.

[BCNumismatics]

eBay has "morphed" into a huge mega-headed monster built off the backs of small time sellers which now panders only to volume selling fulltime dealers that are happy with a 1 or 2 dollar profit on each item sold.

I would happily entertain dealing with some other online service that doesn't cost me an arm and a leg to sell my stuff.

I don't think I'm alone in my thinking and sooner or later, eBay will pay.

You're not wrong there.

The American Government & the state governments have no backbone - as both FleeceBay & PayPal have been allowed to get away with breaching fair trade legislation for years!

FleeceBay's compulsory PayPal policy for its members is a restraint on trade - which is illegal in most countries,but in America,they've been allowed to get away with it - for far too long!

Aidan.

[hiho]

Like it or not eBay still reaches more potential bidders (US and international) than any other auction site that I am aware of.
But it's true that they care little for small time sellers these days and appear to cater to large companies unloading excess inventory.

I'll still use eBay to sell coins but only during the free listing periods. I refuse to pay a listing fee + a 9% FV fee + Paypal's 3%.