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> Ebay? The flea market of the internet? You disregard ebay but ebay actually has economic alignment with its sellers. The buyer experience isn't as good as Am

> Ebay? The flea market of the internet? You disregard ebay but ebay actually has economic alignment with its sellers. The buyer experience isn't as good as Amazon's, but the seller experience is better in that you can control your destiny more. But this apparently makes it a flea market? There's going to be a tradeoff between curation and producer freedom. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

hirundo 7y ago
Apparently you took the flea market comparison as disparaging and it was intended that way. Why? What's wrong with flea markets? I shop there regularly and have sold there many times. I usually get great deals there on either side of the transaction. I can say the same about Ebay. For Ebay to be a kind of vast internet flea market seems like a good thing.
- msla 7y ago
  > Why? What's wrong with flea markets? Low-quality goods and the increased possibility of scams.
  - hirundo 7y ago
    I get plenty of low quality goods at Walmart and Amazon too, and plenty of scams as well. Sometimes it's the cheap goods I'm there for, and I don't expect high quality for that. Caveat emptor applies everywhere. The problem comes when you don't realize you're digging through crap looking for pearls and imagine that it's all pearls.
- chillacy 7y ago
  It reads even more disparaging with context: > Nowhere. There's no other amazon. Ebay? The flea market of the internet? That's where people who wanted to sell to wal-mart go. If I wanted to make it sound good I'd call it a bazaar or something.
vangelis 7y ago
Ebay is the real long tail of selling anyways. I can almost always find the obscure thing I'm looking for.
stcredzero 7y ago
There's going to be a tradeoff between curation and producer freedom. You can't have your cake and eat it too. I think the above is one of the key takeaways from the collective experience of the 20-teens! In a way, it's a summary of the whole history of the Internet.
H1Supreme 7y ago
I used to sell auto accessories in my spare time (around 5 years ago). I used both eBay and Amazon, but left Amazon. First, Amazon's fees were higher (not sure if that's still the case). When you're selling low margin items, like I was, it was nearly not worth it. Second, the way I was grouped with similar sellers was madness. I had multiple returns because my item didn't match the picture. Well, considering Amazon used someone else's image and description on the listing, that makes sense. eBay was many times better for selling items. I was able to use my images, customize descriptions, and ultimately pay less fees.

hirundo 7y ago

Apparently you took the flea market comparison as disparaging and it was intended that way. Why? What's wrong with flea markets? I shop there regularly and have sold there many times. I usually get great deals there on either side of the transaction. I can say the same about Ebay. For Ebay to be a kind of vast internet flea market seems like a good thing.

msla 7y ago
> Why? What's wrong with flea markets? Low-quality goods and the increased possibility of scams.
- hirundo 7y ago
  I get plenty of low quality goods at Walmart and Amazon too, and plenty of scams as well. Sometimes it's the cheap goods I'm there for, and I don't expect high quality for that. Caveat emptor applies everywhere. The problem comes when you don't realize you're digging through crap looking for pearls and imagine that it's all pearls.
chillacy 7y ago
It reads even more disparaging with context: > Nowhere. There's no other amazon. Ebay? The flea market of the internet? That's where people who wanted to sell to wal-mart go. If I wanted to make it sound good I'd call it a bazaar or something.

vangelis 7y ago

Ebay is the real long tail of selling anyways. I can almost always find the obscure thing I'm looking for.

stcredzero 7y ago

There's going to be a tradeoff between curation and producer freedom. You can't have your cake and eat it too. I think the above is one of the key takeaways from the collective experience of the 20-teens! In a way, it's a summary of the whole history of the Internet.

H1Supreme 7y ago

I used to sell auto accessories in my spare time (around 5 years ago). I used both eBay and Amazon, but left Amazon. First, Amazon's fees were higher (not sure if that's still the case). When you're selling low margin items, like I was, it was nearly not worth it. Second, the way I was grouped with similar sellers was madness. I had multiple returns because my item didn't match the picture. Well, considering Amazon used someone else's image and description on the listing, that makes sense. eBay was many times better for selling items. I was able to use my images, customize descriptions, and ultimately pay less fees.