9 ms·

eBay is the worst for so many reasons. I can’t believe no startup or even big tech company has tried to make a competing platform.

barbs 6y ago
I imagine an auction-site like this is only as good as the number of people that are using it. What issues do you have with it? I find it's not perfect, but it generally works reasonably well.
- TheKarateKid 6y ago
  Their account interface is so out of date. Parts of it still require you to use an interface from the early 2000’s. It’s a nightmare to navigate. The fees are high, and they even take a cut of your shipping fee. And yet, they still have 3rd party ads all over. Their rules and policies are strange and one-sided, just like this one. Poor customer support.
- jen729w 6y ago
  Strong disagree. eBay has become a cesspool. I finally rage-closed my account after carefully listing a thing, monitoring the auction, being happy when it sold, and then having the buyer casually tell me that they didn’t need it after all. I remember when clicking the ‘make a bid’ button actually meant something. Wasn’t there even a warning along the lines of ‘you are entering in to a contractual obligation’?
  - tdeck 6y ago
    I sold an Apple IIgs that had a monitor in one of the photos to show it worked, but clearly explained that the monitor wasn't included in the first paragraph of the listing. Someone bid and then emailed me asking me to cancel their bid because they didn't realize it didn't include the monitor, having taken a closer look. THEN the next highest bidder won, and after winning they must have bothered to read the listing because they emailed and canceled theirs as well. I'm not used to selling on eBay and was shocked that people are so careless. Apparently even for unusual vintage items they just glance at the photo and then bid.
    - michaelmrose 6y ago
      People don't read or skip half of what they read or misapprehend it this is a people problem not a platform problem. Next time edit the photo to include large red text over top of the monitor saying monitor not included or better leave it out. Plan ahead for stupid because it is here to stay.
      - tdeck 6y ago
        Yeah that's actually what I am planning on doing when I relist this. I was just amazed people would bid over $200 without reading anything. And I took great pains to write a clear description as well!
        nullc 6y ago
        If it makes you feel better, ebay probably showed that listing to 10,000 people and the two people that just managed to fail to read because missed their coffee that morning were the first/highest bidders. Unlikely? Why? Of course they'd bid the most / the quickest: from their perspective you were offering a killer deal. :) There are platform specific stupidities, last I saw it their mobile interface almost hides the listing details... and on a lot of listings the details are worthless and not really worth looking at. But I think experiences like yours, which I've also had, are just the natural result of taking the most eager buyers out of a lot of candidates.
      - TheKarateKid 6y ago
        It’s not a people problem. eBay used to make bidding or even Buy It Now a contractual obligation. If you bid/bought, and didn’t want it anymore it was too bad for you. You would be charged for it anyway or lose your account.
  - pishpash 6y ago
    Why would you rage-anything? List it again or offer it to the second highest bidder. (If you really wanted you can probably successfully collect on the winning buyer but it may not be worth it.)
    - jen729w 6y ago
      The rage-part might have been a slight exaggeration. But why would I use a platform that doesn’t work? The whole point of the damned place is to sell stuff, and recently – this wasn’t an isolated incident – I’ve found it to be markedly bad at doing that. Me personally I can’t stand to give people money for a shitty service. eBay has become, in my opinion, a shitty service.
nightcracker 6y ago
In the Netherlands people use marktplaats.nl much more than eBay.
- duozerk 6y ago
  In France there's leboncoin.fr, also more active than eBay.
- tinus_hn 6y ago
  However, marktplaats.nl is owned by eBay.
  - nightcracker 6y ago
    I didn't know that. I also don't know if they exert any influence policy-wise.
toast0 6y ago
Yahoo Auctions tried, but they only won in Japan, and eventually shut down everywhere else. As eBay has shifted to buy it now, marketplace sites (amazon, walmart, newegg, aliexpress) compete to some degree.
- TheKarateKid 6y ago
  Most of those marketplace sites don’t allow casual selling. Even Amazon’s Seller Central is slowly being restricted to only businesses. I’ve been using Swappa for phones and consoles, and Bonanza for other things. But they’re still not mainstream.
  - amanaplanacanal 6y ago
    There’s also Etsy. Originally was intended for hand made stuff but I think you can sell anything on there now.
  - vortegne 6y ago
    eBay's seller fees are already not very friendly for casual selling of not very expensive items
- rasz 6y ago
  Ebay pretty much doesnt exist in Poland. allegro.pl has local monopoly in similar way to Yahoo Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegro_(website) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegro_(website) They tried expanding to Czechia, Germany, Russia and Ukraine in 2015 but conceded defeat a year later.
  - m4rtink 6y ago
    In Czech Republic aukro and sbazar is very strong.
MattGaiser 6y ago
Probably because dealing with people selling lots of individual items does not scale well and eBay's issues are not easy to solve, even after decades.
- toyg 6y ago
  This. It’s a massive effort to keep ebay somewhat respectable and busy. Small companies will struggle.
mhh__ 6y ago
In my experience eBay is still the best for p2p auctions, but for anything vaguely commercial it's pretty dire. You can sometimes find some bargains of people reselling from alibaba or whatever (FPGA boards can be had for cheap on eBay). In the UK at least, the listings are so unprofessional I don't understand why people would shop - usually no contact details, THE DESCRIPTION IS IN CAPSLOCK, and those stereotype word-art and product on white background photos.
fyfy18 6y ago
eBay has a lot of different use cases. Although it was originally for selling your second hand junk, now I expect a lot of their sales come from new items. In my country eBay doesn't exist (i.e. they don't have a localised site, you can sell on other country sites though). The main 'second hand junk' services are: - a local version of Craisglist - Facebook Groups (for hyper local listings, mainly for very cheap or free stuff, e.g. "I'm moving tomorrow, come get my half destroyed IKEA furniture") - Vinted [0] - although it's intended for second hand clothes, a lot of people sell new items they bought in sales from other countries, so it's more like eBay in this retrospect For new items Etsy (crafts and furniture) is quite popular. For electronics Tindie (although it's custom / DIY, rather than 'random adapter that only 5 other people worldwide have bought this month'). Most of the time when I want some sort of electronics that I can't find elsewhere I will buy from eBay in another country (using a shipping service) or AliExpress (then wait 2 months). [0] https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/27/vinted-the-second-hand-clothes-marketplace-raises-141m-at-a-1b-valuation/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/27/vinted-the-second-hand-clo...
cocoa19 6y ago
Amazon and Craigslist are competitors and serve most people's online shopping needs. Everyone used eBay like 20 years ago. Now, not so much.
- BlueTemplar 6y ago
  eBay and Adevinta are still (nearly) billion-dollar companies that compete for person-to-person transactions.
- TheKarateKid 6y ago
  Using Craigslist to sell is like the Wild West. There’s no rules or enforcement, and many criminals use it. I’m not going to risk getting robbed trying to sell my iPhone. Amazon has locked out private selling for most mainstream items unless you’re a business with a PO directly from the manufacturer. Also, their fees get higher the more your item competes with their own sales. Totally anticompetitive.
ratww 6y ago
Reverb.com is (was?) eating Ebay's lunch when it comes to musical instruments, but Ebay seems to be fighting back now.
MaxBarraclough 6y ago
Really tough to overcome the network effect problem and build momentum. Who would use an online marketplace with few users? fyfy18 already mentioned Facebook, but I'm not sure how serious they are with competing against eBay.

barbs 6y ago

I imagine an auction-site like this is only as good as the number of people that are using it. What issues do you have with it? I find it's not perfect, but it generally works reasonably well.

TheKarateKid 6y ago
Their account interface is so out of date. Parts of it still require you to use an interface from the early 2000’s. It’s a nightmare to navigate. The fees are high, and they even take a cut of your shipping fee. And yet, they still have 3rd party ads all over. Their rules and policies are strange and one-sided, just like this one. Poor customer support.
jen729w 6y ago
Strong disagree. eBay has become a cesspool. I finally rage-closed my account after carefully listing a thing, monitoring the auction, being happy when it sold, and then having the buyer casually tell me that they didn’t need it after all. I remember when clicking the ‘make a bid’ button actually meant something. Wasn’t there even a warning along the lines of ‘you are entering in to a contractual obligation’?
- tdeck 6y ago
  I sold an Apple IIgs that had a monitor in one of the photos to show it worked, but clearly explained that the monitor wasn't included in the first paragraph of the listing. Someone bid and then emailed me asking me to cancel their bid because they didn't realize it didn't include the monitor, having taken a closer look. THEN the next highest bidder won, and after winning they must have bothered to read the listing because they emailed and canceled theirs as well. I'm not used to selling on eBay and was shocked that people are so careless. Apparently even for unusual vintage items they just glance at the photo and then bid.
  - michaelmrose 6y ago
    People don't read or skip half of what they read or misapprehend it this is a people problem not a platform problem. Next time edit the photo to include large red text over top of the monitor saying monitor not included or better leave it out. Plan ahead for stupid because it is here to stay.
    - tdeck 6y ago
      Yeah that's actually what I am planning on doing when I relist this. I was just amazed people would bid over $200 without reading anything. And I took great pains to write a clear description as well!
      - nullc 6y ago
        If it makes you feel better, ebay probably showed that listing to 10,000 people and the two people that just managed to fail to read because missed their coffee that morning were the first/highest bidders. Unlikely? Why? Of course they'd bid the most / the quickest: from their perspective you were offering a killer deal. :) There are platform specific stupidities, last I saw it their mobile interface almost hides the listing details... and on a lot of listings the details are worthless and not really worth looking at. But I think experiences like yours, which I've also had, are just the natural result of taking the most eager buyers out of a lot of candidates.
    - TheKarateKid 6y ago
      It’s not a people problem. eBay used to make bidding or even Buy It Now a contractual obligation. If you bid/bought, and didn’t want it anymore it was too bad for you. You would be charged for it anyway or lose your account.
- pishpash 6y ago
  Why would you rage-anything? List it again or offer it to the second highest bidder. (If you really wanted you can probably successfully collect on the winning buyer but it may not be worth it.)
  - jen729w 6y ago
    The rage-part might have been a slight exaggeration. But why would I use a platform that doesn’t work? The whole point of the damned place is to sell stuff, and recently – this wasn’t an isolated incident – I’ve found it to be markedly bad at doing that. Me personally I can’t stand to give people money for a shitty service. eBay has become, in my opinion, a shitty service.

nightcracker 6y ago

In the Netherlands people use marktplaats.nl much more than eBay.

duozerk 6y ago
In France there's leboncoin.fr, also more active than eBay.
tinus_hn 6y ago
However, marktplaats.nl is owned by eBay.
- nightcracker 6y ago
  I didn't know that. I also don't know if they exert any influence policy-wise.

toast0 6y ago

Yahoo Auctions tried, but they only won in Japan, and eventually shut down everywhere else. As eBay has shifted to buy it now, marketplace sites (amazon, walmart, newegg, aliexpress) compete to some degree.

TheKarateKid 6y ago
Most of those marketplace sites don’t allow casual selling. Even Amazon’s Seller Central is slowly being restricted to only businesses. I’ve been using Swappa for phones and consoles, and Bonanza for other things. But they’re still not mainstream.
- amanaplanacanal 6y ago
  There’s also Etsy. Originally was intended for hand made stuff but I think you can sell anything on there now.
- vortegne 6y ago
  eBay's seller fees are already not very friendly for casual selling of not very expensive items
rasz 6y ago
Ebay pretty much doesnt exist in Poland. allegro.pl has local monopoly in similar way to Yahoo Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegro_(website) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegro_(website) They tried expanding to Czechia, Germany, Russia and Ukraine in 2015 but conceded defeat a year later.
- m4rtink 6y ago
  In Czech Republic aukro and sbazar is very strong.

MattGaiser 6y ago

Probably because dealing with people selling lots of individual items does not scale well and eBay's issues are not easy to solve, even after decades.

toyg 6y ago
This. It’s a massive effort to keep ebay somewhat respectable and busy. Small companies will struggle.

mhh__ 6y ago

In my experience eBay is still the best for p2p auctions, but for anything vaguely commercial it's pretty dire. You can sometimes find some bargains of people reselling from alibaba or whatever (FPGA boards can be had for cheap on eBay). In the UK at least, the listings are so unprofessional I don't understand why people would shop - usually no contact details, THE DESCRIPTION IS IN CAPSLOCK, and those stereotype word-art and product on white background photos.

fyfy18 6y ago

eBay has a lot of different use cases. Although it was originally for selling your second hand junk, now I expect a lot of their sales come from new items. In my country eBay doesn't exist (i.e. they don't have a localised site, you can sell on other country sites though). The main 'second hand junk' services are: - a local version of Craisglist - Facebook Groups (for hyper local listings, mainly for very cheap or free stuff, e.g. "I'm moving tomorrow, come get my half destroyed IKEA furniture") - Vinted [0] - although it's intended for second hand clothes, a lot of people sell new items they bought in sales from other countries, so it's more like eBay in this retrospect For new items Etsy (crafts and furniture) is quite popular. For electronics Tindie (although it's custom / DIY, rather than 'random adapter that only 5 other people worldwide have bought this month'). Most of the time when I want some sort of electronics that I can't find elsewhere I will buy from eBay in another country (using a shipping service) or AliExpress (then wait 2 months). [0] https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/27/vinted-the-second-hand-clothes-marketplace-raises-141m-at-a-1b-valuation/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/27/vinted-the-second-hand-clo...

cocoa19 6y ago

Amazon and Craigslist are competitors and serve most people's online shopping needs. Everyone used eBay like 20 years ago. Now, not so much.

BlueTemplar 6y ago
eBay and Adevinta are still (nearly) billion-dollar companies that compete for person-to-person transactions.
TheKarateKid 6y ago
Using Craigslist to sell is like the Wild West. There’s no rules or enforcement, and many criminals use it. I’m not going to risk getting robbed trying to sell my iPhone. Amazon has locked out private selling for most mainstream items unless you’re a business with a PO directly from the manufacturer. Also, their fees get higher the more your item competes with their own sales. Totally anticompetitive.

ratww 6y ago

Reverb.com is (was?) eating Ebay's lunch when it comes to musical instruments, but Ebay seems to be fighting back now.

MaxBarraclough 6y ago

Really tough to overcome the network effect problem and build momentum. Who would use an online marketplace with few users? fyfy18 already mentioned Facebook, but I'm not sure how serious they are with competing against eBay.