8 ms·
Ebay will match Amazon’s, Walmart’s and others’ prices on over 50K items
- dovdovdov 9y agoFinally, get paypal scammed at competitive prices! :)
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoPaypal is in the business of screwing merchants, not customers.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- kbart 9y agoDo you have any examples? I use PayPal (even on Chinese sites) for many years -- never have been scammed yet.
- j_s 9y agohttps://hn.algolia.com/?query=paypal https://hn.algolia.com/?query=paypal Doesn't seem to impact buyers often.
- frgtpsswrdlame 9y agoHere's what I don't get. Why do a price match guarantee? Why not just price your items lower? Or do a "match" where you guarantee every item for 10 cents cheaper than your competitors?
- Nightshaxx 9y agoBecause not only can advertise your price matching feature and get more customers, but you charge your normal prices to the 90% of people who don't bother to price match. Basically you can have your cake and eat it too. (To some extent)
- frgtpsswrdlame 9y agoDoesn't that seem like some form of tacit collusion though? In this case it seems the price match flips the competitive environment so that competitors raise prices instead of lowering them.
- robertcope 9y agoI agree with you. Many of my racing friends get prices online and then have Discount Tire price match. I think that's stupid. I'd rather support the vendor that prices things "right" in the first place.
- JumpCrisscross 9y ago> Why do a price match guarantee? Why not just price your items lower? MAD [1]. Price-match guarantees are meant to deter price competition. If you cut your price below a price-matching competitor's, the time you have the best price will be short. After that, less profit for everyone (assuming similar cost structures). If, on the other hand, you match, everyone keeps their market share and margins. Price competition in a price-matching market happens when someone has lower costs. It also happens when someone uses cheap capital to buy market share, intending to make up for lower margins with volume, e.g. to cover fixed costs. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction
- frgtpsswrdlame 9y agoDon't we want companies to engage in price competition though? Especially in a market with network effects which is dominated by a few large players.
- Neliquat 9y agoExcept that ebay has a terrible track record of delivering, paypal issues, etc. Amazon just works, always seems to make things right and has better shipping and accountability. Ebay at the same cost is still a bad deal.
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoThis doesn't make sense to me except as a marketing move. For new items eBay's advantage is that you can buy in low volume straight from china (if you don't mind waiting a month) or from an importer who's running their operation out of a storage locker or basement. The prices are reflective of the decreased overhead compared to selling on Amazon (or some other "less flea-market like" option). If you're shopping for something and don't want to wait for it to ship from China odds are you could already find it on eBay cheaper than Amazon in the first place. This move is just publicizes and existing advantage.
- petraeus 9y agoPRO TIP eBay: people don't use your site not because of prices but because you are a horrible company to deal with.
- robbyt 9y ago...the horrible site is just the cherry on top
- notyourwork 9y agoElaborate....
- manigandham 9y agoslow, confusing, outdated UX with poor search and overloaded crap results
- Shivetya 9y agoI don't agree. As a buyer I have never had a problem they did not settle to my satisfaction. I did make sure in each case to have my facts in order. I tend to buy mostly antiques, glass and china, and have had three bad purchases which were fraudulent in some manner. This out of nearly three hundred purchases. I also purchase consumer items like batteries, dog toys, beef jerky, a DJI drone, and whatnot off the site. Now as a seller I have no clue, but I have no clue what it is like to sell on Amazon either. I do find ebay easier to navigate by leaps and bounds over Amazon. amazon fills my pages with more trash than I ever want to see.
- jtth 9y agoAs a buyer you're more than protected. As a seller, I'm exposed for 30 days, because you can, for any reason, choose to return the item with a full refund, and just say it doesn't work. Ebay does not take evidence from the seller that this patently untrue. I've been burned twice this way and lost hundreds trying to sell two laptops.
- amelius 9y agoSecond-hand items now price-matched to new items? I don't get it.
- bitJericho 9y agoEbay has a lot of new stuff. Often cheaper too because the fees aren't as high as other retailers.
- amelius 9y agoDoes Ebay have the same problems with authenticity as Amazon? There are a lot of fake items being sold on Amazon.
- colmcg 9y agoIt's a lot easier to see the quality of the seller on eBay. Items are not grouped like they are on Amazon.
- ReverseCold 9y agoAnd, just like Amazon, disputes are basically a guaranteed win for the customer.
- dabber 9y ago>In order to quality, the item must be one of the new, unopened items sold daily through eBay Deals, for starters. I think they meant qualify but still, looks like it's only on select new items.
- bitJericho 9y agoEbay is usually cheaper than the alternatives. Does this mean the price is going up?
- lighthazard 9y agoWhen has it ever been cheaper than the alternative?
- zanny 9y agoPhone cases and batteries are usually selling much cheaper on ebay than Amazon Marketplace. A lot of them are obviously fakes, but even the real ones are a good 20-30% cheaper.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- kbart 9y ago"A lot of them are obviously fakes" Amazon is even worse, because sometimes there's no way to tell if items is original or fake and end up getting fake for same price as original. On eBay you can mostly safely assume it's fake, so at least you get what you pay for.
- bitJericho 9y agoWell you can source ebay items from reputable, name brand, stores, and you know they didn't mix in fakes from chinese companies.
- elorant 9y agoRIP for Amazon to Ebay arbitrage.
- hockeybias 9y agoPayPal == PainPal...
- cletus 9y agoWhat I don't get about eBay is they found initial success in being an auction site then they almost immediately decided they wanted to be an online retailer instead. Why not just be the best auction site you can be rather than be yet another Amazon wannabe? Interestingly Amazon has done the same thing except they want to be Google (Android) and Netflix (content bundling with Prime). I get the desire to grow but honestly more often than not trying to do too much just makes you mediocre at everything.
- swlkr 9y agoAmazon does a decent job at prime originals vs. netflix originals.
- uw_rob 9y ago> What I don't get about eBay is they found initial success in being an auction site then they almost immediately decided they wanted to be an online retailer instead. Why not just be the best auction site you can be rather than be yet another Amazon wannabe? I recently read a book [0] that outlined some of the reasons why that happened. Two of the main reasons outlined were: (1) As more and more people started selling on the site, items started to become commodities with fixed prices. So even old antiques started to have a fixed value. This encouraged more people to just buy it now. (2) Even by the mid 2000's, when ebay was still considered mainly an auction site, only a very small fraction of sales were made by auctions. Something around 90% of sales were buy-it-now new items. This meant that their real success was in buy-it-now and they started to focus on that. (Don't quote me on the numbers in the second part, I will try to get more accurate ones later). So they had a lot of initial success in being an auction site, but there isn't really much of an market for a general purpose auction site. And once you become a succesful auction site, you basically stop being a auction site. [0] I cannot remember the name right now and I cannot find it. It was about providing real world examples of famous economic papers. It covered wide ranges of topics about used cars prices, trading in prison camps, ebay. It was released in 2016.
- Luc 9y agoThe one about used cars could be 'The Market for Lemons' by George Akerlof. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons
- the_wheel 9y agoeBay?
- losteverything 9y agoWalmart has been stopping price matching (except their own.com) this and last year across the country in its stores
- linsomniac 9y agoThe only reasons I even think about going through the ebay process is because either their price is significantly better than I can get on Amazon, or it is an unusual thing I can't get at Amazon (mostly used stuff). Most of that irritation comes from their desire to get me to use Paypal.
- Hamcha 9y agoNice, I finally get to do work by having to find similar items and write an email to be able to save exactly.. well, nothing. Are they seriously expecting anyone to put effort and wait just to buy something from their place? Granted, I hate how Amazon doesn't support Paypal, but last I recall ebay doesn't do 1-day shipping, let alone 1-day replacement when opening an RMA. Besides, they don't even actually lower the price to match the competitor, they just give you a one-time coupon with the difference. They're not even trying.
- notyourwork 9y ago> I hate how Amazon doesn't support Paypal This might be the first time someone has been upset that paypal support is lacking. I am surprised by this considering the general distaste for paypal typically. What makes you wish paypal was supported if you don't mind me asking?
- gtsteve 9y agoI understand some people prefer Paypal because Paypal can assist with disputes, i.e. if something doesn't show up. At least that's why some of my friends prefer to use it. However Amazon has always resolved problems to my satisfaction. I don't imagine it would be necessary in this situation.
- notyourwork 9y agoI thought credit cards provide the same protections that Paypal does. Any time I run into trouble I can call my credit card company, reverse the charge and move on with life. They are no questions asked easy and my credit card company cannot hold my money for 6 months for arbitrary reasons without providing proof. I see no benefit to Amazon using Paypal and only a less than good customer experience.
- nickpsecurity 9y agoThis is true. Lots of people don't know you can do stop payment. You also can do it 60 days on one rule or more than that if you tried to resolve it with vendor.
- ecommerceguy 9y agoWe sell on eBay and have seen a slight uptick in sales with their last media campaign. However, I still question the company as a whole. For instance, I wonder if eBay will ever enforce their "prohibited goods" policies. https://medium.com/@datafacts/why-ebay-is-allowing-e-cigarette-and-tobacco-products-to-be-sold-regardless-of-their-tos%C2%B9-2a7abedc5148 https://medium.com/@datafacts/why-ebay-is-allowing-e-cigaret...
- maerF0x0 9y ago>Found it for less? Here’s what you do: (... list of too much work ..) Why would i go through all that work for just a match? If I'm only going to get the same price, I'm buying from Amazon/Walmart where I dont have to 1) contact someone, nor get the difference as a "coupon".
- joshstrange 9y agoDefinitely read that title as "Ebay will match Amazon’s, Walmart’s and others’ prices on over $50K items" or put another way "Ebay will match Amazon’s, Walmart’s and others’ prices on items over $50K". But I don't buy on Amazon only because of price. I buy for 2-day shipping, peace of mind on returns, and a consistent experience across the app and website.
- seibelj 9y agoI have found eBay to be the best way to get the maximize money selling stuff. If you can wait the auction week, just let it run and get the most money. I have sold the most random stuff on there and found buyers. I only use eBay to buy used cell phones (Android testing), but for selling it pays off.
- sbierwagen 9y agoPretty weird. I sure wouldn't buy food from Ebay. Or mainstream electronics, or razor blades, since almost 100% of the stock on Ebay are counterfeits. That doesn't leave a lot, mostly just durable goods, like tools, lab equipment, etc. I've only spent single-digit hundreds on Ebay in the last ten years. Not because the prices were too high, but because I didn't trust the goods. This is a big splashy initiative solving precisely the wrong problem.
- sigi45 9y agoyeah sucks to be ebay: No innovations for auctions over the last 10 years, got more and more expensive to put stuff on and with trying to be also a 'marketplace' it is sucking more and more.
- geekierkid 9y agoThey lost me at "...call customer service..."
- zer00eyz 9y agoI find this interesting. There is a huge market for "discounted" lego on eBay and the bulk of these are probably "stolen" (from Walmart to boot). If you don't believe me just google stolen lego and read up. I think this is going to lead to some interesting pricing conditions in the market, ones that don't work well for retail locations like Walmart.
- JoblessWonder 9y agoI wonder if this will change the Amazon/Ebay arbitrage markets?
- awa 9y agoReasons I use ebay for: 1. Discounted gift cards, 2. Cheap imports from China. As a buyer I have been happy with ebay, things take a while to come but are generally well before the estimated time and a lot of stuff is much cheaper than Amazon. As per returns/bad goods, Sellers are generally willing to send a replacement item if the original has an issue
- DanBC 9y agoAnd on Ebay I don't have to spend time wondering if this is a prime exclusive, or an add-on item, or if postage is included or not. Shopping on Amazon is just exhausting now. Even for books they're not my first choice anymore - wordery is.
- Sohcahtoa82 9y ago> Discounted gift cards You got me interested. How deep of discounts are we talking here? And for what businesses? And have you gotten screwed ever?
- awa 9y ago10-20% discount. Mostly from the daily deals section. I mostly buy Lowes gcs, some restaurants gcs along with Dominos.
- anotherbrownguy 9y ago>2. Cheap imports from China. Start using Aliexpress and you have one less reason to use Ebay.
- yourapostasy 9y agoI wonder if heating up competition and shakeups in the retail sector means that margins have gotten so thin that the only way to survive going forward is through massively-scaled automation and innovative presentation and delivery that limits real-estate footprints as much as possible. Another factor I've been unsuccessfully trying to nail down is if disposable income and velocity of money has declined for a broad enough swath of the population that we're seeing a gradual collapse towards an increasing percentage of incomes going towards essentials over time. All this excitement in online retailing reminds me of yield chasing investors; the excitement appears as growth- and margin-chasing, and in the meantime the "plodding" sectors (and their associated populations) are overlooked. For example, I don't see a shift to online with dollar stores.
- Sohcahtoa82 9y agoThat's cool. I still won't buy or sell anything on ebay as long as scammers are so prevalent. I had a sealed collector's edition of StarCraft II that I wanted to sell a few years after the game came out. I knew that there was a very significant chance that if I sold it on ebay, some scam buyer would get it, open it, redeem the codes for all the in-game loot, then file a claim saying the item was not as described and that the codes were already redeemed. Instead, I sold it through Amazon, using their Fulfilled by Amazon service. That way, Amazon will have verified that the game was still sealed and refuse a refund. It cost me a considerable amount in fees (IIRC, I sold it for $350 but only received $300), but it was worth it for piece of mind. Though FWIW, some people have told me I still could have gotten scammed, it just became a little less likely.