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I truly think there ought to be anti-trust penalties and fines against both ebay and amazon. Both are too powerful and disruptive to the free markets. You can't have an open online market anymore when online buyers flock to Amazon since they can negotiate the best price against any supplier and they have too much tax advantage and ecommerce against any company out there even more powerful than Apple and Google combined. You can't sell your own goods because ebay technically still owns paypal and make online payment easier while banks requires so much hassle just to send somebody money. Because banks protect both seller + buyer. Paypal only protects itself.
Amazon/Ebay also controls most searches on line, if you search something all the links shows up for Amazon and ebay. Sure it's all free market but it's not free when big money makes it almost impossible for any retailer to compete without selling directly on their platforms.
Lately, I have noticed that a lot of eBay's "Buy it Now" prices were comparable to or even higher than Amazon for the same item. In the past there used to be significant savings with buying on eBay, but now that gap seems to be closing. There also seems to be much fewer auction items on eBay than there were in the past, which is where eBay's real savings were from.
I don't shop on eBay as much as I have in the past since I am an Amazon Prime member, however, does anyone think eBay is dying? I am thinking of selling a refurbished MSI motherboard on eBay after no luck on trying to sell it on Craigslist; hopefully I get lucky this time.
Do you sort the results by "price + shipping lowest first"? Because if you keep it set to "best match" it's not necessarily the lowest price. Often they hide the lowest price sellers, so you have to keep searching for them. Don't just take the first price you see.
I got tired of the auctions. Bidding and watching and waiting, getting outbid and bidding again and again, just to be outbid at the last minute.
About 3 years ago, I began looking for 'Buy It Now' only. Auctions were lots of fun for a few years, but now I just want what I want.
Snipe bidding, either manually or with software can be a good solution for winning auctions. I find that I can usually get stuff that way for less than the "Buy It Now" price.
Do you sort the results by "price + shipping lowest first"? Because if you keep it set to "best match" it's not necessarily the lowest price. Often they hide the lowest price sellers, so you have to keep searching for them. Don't just take the first price you see.
I do that quite often, but when I do, the items will often ship from China and take forever to arrive. Items that ship from the United States will often be the same price or higher than Amazon.
Two points of contention:
The sellers are getting hit with higher costs to post items, and they in turn over inflate shipping and this mysterious "handling" charge fee on to the bidder. I recently inquired with a seller before bidding why my 2$ item (which I could buy at a walgreens really) was being sacked with this Handling fee? Of (4$). The response was, well I have to pay for packing material and then drive to the post office...I said, sorry doll face, that item can be sent via UPS for 1.10$ (bubble wrap envelope included)and they even pick up- at your home.!
then there is the second fact: Try fighting a charge back when the seller vanishes and PayPal refuses to resolve. If they can't find the seller then its my fault??
There are a minimally few Honest sellers at ebay and I have often been impressed with how they handle some frustrated incidences...Most have been professional in response and rarely get upended. They have a healthy pride in their transactions and products.
I do that quite often, but when I do, the items will often ship from China and take forever to arrive. Items that ship from the United States will often be the same price or higher than Amazon.
Then in addition to choosing Price + Shipping Lowest First, you should also choose 'US Only' or "North America Only'. With millions of sellers, you have to sort through them to find the cheapest.
Two points of contention:
The sellers are getting hit with higher costs to post items, and they in turn over inflate shipping and this mysterious "handling" charge fee on to the bidder. I recently inquired with a seller before bidding why my 2$ item (which I could buy at a walgreens really) was being sacked with this Handling fee? Of (4$). The response was, well I have to pay for packing material and then drive to the post office...I said, sorry doll face, that item can be sent via UPS for 1.10$ (bubble wrap envelope included)and they even pick up- at your home.!
The best solution to that problem, check the box for 'Free shipping'. That eliminates all the scammers charging $10 or $20 shipping on a $2 item. Sellers who offer free shipping seem to be much more honest.
Personally, I still prefer eBay over Amazon and I don't think it will go away anytime. They can perfectly coexist as they are different in nature. I like the "bazaar" type eBay is, generally speaking you can find better deals. It also easier and cheaper for sellers. The only down side with eBay are some of the Chinese sellers who are not always reliable in terms of shipping time, product quality, customer service and overall "honesty". The multiple bad experiences I've had made me stay away from buying in Asia.
I buy from both US and Chinese sellers. I don't find the Chinese sellers to be any less reliable. Of course shipping from China takes a lot longer. But reliability is about the same. I have a few problems with products not getting shipped on time, but it always gets resolved eventually.
eBay is a viable alternative now that Amazon charges taxes.
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