More eBay Changes Coming

[vintagebrett]

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200808.sht ... 8-20070116

No more checks or money orders - eBay needs to make sure they get that extra 3% through PayPal. It seems that all the changes that eBay has made over the past 6 months to a year have been for the buyer's benefit. Unfortunately, this makes sellers unhappy and soon there won't be anything to buy except fixed priced listings for junk. With the fee structure in place and requiring paypal, if you want to auction something off you can expect to pay around 15% in fees now. You can probably get a better deal from auction houses than that.

Dealers, come back to the antique shows! I'm much more impulsive if I have to make a decision before the next collector comes down the aisle rather than having 7 days to think it over if I really need the item or not.

[offsidewing]

Sotheby's doesn't even charge that high of a commission.

Wall Street is a tricky place for the world's largest garage sale (aka Ebay). If they can't promote growth and sustainability to there share holders, we won't have to worry about fake A2000's going up on ebay in a couple years...

[mudman]

I really do not like the direction that they are going. Especially the Pay Pal only thing. For heavens sakes they are making enough money as it is. I guess they can get away with it now that they have a such a strong hold on the auction market.

I really wish someone else would give them some real competition with online auctions. I really do not think I will be selling any more high dollar items with them.

[Centerfield]

Totally concur with all everyone’s said thus far. A while ago Brett predicted that the hobby would once again return to face to face dealings. This is a major step in that direction. Kudos to your foresight! Two certainties resulting from eBay’s announcement; I will no longer sell via that venue and there will be lawsuits contesting eBay’s payment monopoly (must use PayPal and then charging for it). It just screams CLASS ACTION!!!!

[rmiller]

I'm like 15 years behind the times-I am probably the only person on here who has never opened a Pay Pal account- I always send money orders. Major Bummer!

[ebbets55]

Hmmm. Not good. On the flipside, if sellers can no longer require money orders, I'm in. I will not bid in an auction where a seller demands a money order only. Screw them. This practice removes bidders from their auctions. This will open up a bunch more auctions for me.

Unfortunately, I got suckered into the PayPal Merchant Account or Premier Account years ago. Someone tried to pay for one of my auctions with a credit card through PayPal, not with PayPal funds, and PayPal informed me that I couldn't accept the guy's payment unless I upgraded my regular account to a Premier account, which charges a fee structure of over 3%. Thousands of dollars in PayPal fees later...all because I wanted to accept the guy's payment without having to go back to him for an alternate payment method and probably risking negative feedback.

Yes, all these things, coupled with anonymous bidding, pretty much blows. Let's do some simple math on a typical glove auction that sells for $50 and see how much it really costs the sellers, as I'm now curious.

Insertion Fee using eBay's picture hosting like I do on a $9.99 starting price = $1.10. The glove sells for $50. eBay hammer fee = $3.07 (8.75% of the first $25 and 3.50% of the next $25). PayPal fee is 2.90% + $.30 = $1.75. So $1.10+$3.07+$1.75 = $5.92 or 11.825%. If I wanted to use a reserve of $50, then that would have cost $2.00 or another 4% making the glove auction 15.85%. With having to snap the photos, fill out the eBay forms, answer all the questions, invoice the buyers, receive or followup on payment, packaging the item, having to go to the post office for that one guy who wants insurance or the one guy from Canada, which requires all the customs forms, waiting in line for 45 minutes and driving time (1.5 to 2 hours total time away from work), it hardly seems worth it.

JD

[vintagebrett]

The thing that cracks me up is they are really pushing for sellers to offer free shipping. Your reward is a bold listing in the category. Oh boy, sign me up! The people who run eBay must never have used it as a buyer or seller.

On a side note, you are all welcome to use the For Sale/For Trade section on this site free of charge as always. No 15.8% fees. Maybe a smaller audience but it never hurts to try for free first.

[Mike_2007]

JD - thanks for breaking it down and doing the math! I only sell stuff on ebay for "fun" and rarely list anything that i think will sell for less than $100 as it is not worth my time for less than that. I don't sell for "profit" - just try and move stuff i don't really need or i'm willing to part with so I can buy something else. I'm probably the type of person Ebay wants! Though if the fees were lower I would list more stuff on there to sell. For anyone seriously buying/selling and looking at the bottom line they are getting screwed. My number one issue with buying gloves on Ebay is how they broke it down into too many categories...

[vintagebrett]

JD, I on the other hand liked the auctions where Paypal wasn't accepted because it meant less bidders and less money I had to part with!

[JC]

I believe that the eBay final value fee percentage only applies to the sale price of the item, and not the shipping charge.

If items include the shipping charge in the sales price, in theory, eBay will collect higher fees since the "shipping included" price will be higher.

Have you ever seen someone sell a glove or other small item, and charge $20or $30 shipping? This is done to save $ on eBay final value fees.

[ebbets55]

Great point Brett. I totally get it. I like to do everything from my computer. Mike, I agree with everything you said especially about the categories. I too only sell extra stuff for fun to replenish my PayPal account. My PayPal account is my funny money or glove account. As much as I dislike the fees, I love the service so I’m not complaining too hard. I can pay for a glove at midnight in front of the T.V. and never have to leave. I can also transfer the funds back to my checking account with a click of a button. To me, the convenience is well worth the extra fees. I love the service.

I have never done well selling on eBay though, and I expect it. Especially now. It is one of the best buyer's markets we have ever experienced in our hobby. I only expect to get about 65% of the price I need out of each sale. When I account for the 15% in fees, I net about 50% or lose 50% in other words. That’s fine. Sometimes I would rather be out of some stuff for 50 cents on the dollar than have it laying around doing nothing. The opportunity cost of not being able to buy at these lower prices would be worse than selling at a loss. Oh well, where else are you going to sell non-high end stuff to millions of people without being able to go to a major auction house? I’ll complain but I’m still in, reluctantly.

BJ, I know you have something to add.

JD

[Mike_2007]

JD - i'm not up on vintage glove prices so I'll take your word on prices being down. Do you have any theories why? It is not like there is more inventory out there...

From my observations over the last few years, I have noticed that for "modern" high end gloves, the summer is the worst time to sell. I think the best time to sell is when the MLB playoffs start through the world series. My theory is people are home watching basball, the summer is over and they are thinking about fall ball or next season if they play or if they have kids that play.

BTW, I too sell to have play money in my PayPal account. I usually break even on gloves I sell. Good thing I sometimes sell stuff other than gloves to build up the account. But I haven't seen I glove I wanted in the last couple of months on Ebay

[hal barth]

This is my take on the increase in Ebay fees. I have been supplementing my teaching retirement money for the last 16 years by selling vintage sports equipment. I live in the Denver area. A few years ago I met Brett at an antique show in Oronoco, Minn. We had a nice visit at that time. I can no longer afford the expense of traveling to out of state shows, although that is where the money is. I now have a space and a showcase in a mall in Denver. I pay more than $500 a month plus 10% commission. The Ebay charge of 15% is very little to me. Besides, recently I sold 2, 1924 football programs for more than 4G. I would not have gotten $200 in the mall. If you think the Ebay fees are high, try selling in a retail setting. I also think Pay Pal is great. I get the money quickly and I can ship the item out of my workroom the next day.

[MTGLOVEGUY]

JD, No response really needed, everyone has covered all the bases, sales are down, glove listings down, economy ...down, glove prices down, "quality" items be it bats, gloves, etc... down, my ebay purchases down.... , EBAY Fees up! Go figure. It will at some point correct itself hopefully sooner then later.

[ebbets55]

Here’s my theory Mike and BJ. What we are experiencing in the glove hobby is a bit of an anomaly. Four huge collections went up for sale last year not to mention all of the other gloves that hit the market due to tougher economic times – people having to sell. The supply curve definitely moved to the right with the emergence of all these gloves, which would normally be enough to bring prices down to a great level for buyers. It didn’t stop here though. As a result of tougher times in the economy leading to less disposable income for consumers, I think the demand curve also contracted and moved to the left bringing the equilibrium price even lower (or at least quantity demanded decreased). In essence, it was like a double hit to glove prices.

When collectors sell, they sell from the bottom up, lesser quality before higher quality. That’s normal and partially explains the lower general price level we have all been whining about. Without an influx of new glove collectors to suck up all of the extra non-keeper product, prices are going to stay down for awhile. It won’t increase at all until we hit that level of great gloves we have wanted to hold onto until the very end. Those two ways will help the price level creep up.

I haven’t seen anything like this in all my years of collecting. I wish I could be a buyer right now. Unfortunately I have to sell to get the funds to buy. What to do, what to do…?

JD