Website design By BotEap.comThe basic idea of ​​eBay is simple: it’s about connecting buyers and sellers within the exciting framework of an auction environment.

Website design By BotEap.comOriginally, it was a forum for people to trade or buy and sell items of relatively modest value. Over time, it grew and expanded to become a major online auction site for just about anything you can think of, including antiques and sometimes high value ones.

Website design By BotEap.comFor many years, it served its purpose as an antiques market well.

Website design By BotEap.comMost professional buyers and sellers were happy because it was always possible for the former to get a real bargain while from the seller’s point of view, statistically, the overall trends/returns were good.

Website design By BotEap.comMany auctions were based on a true open bid with low starting values, and many buyers bid early to try to “reserve” the price range up to the maximum they wanted to pay.

Website design By BotEap.comSo buyers got really good occasional deals and sellers got reasonable sales overall, albeit with occasional and often unexplained losses on an individual item.

Website design By BotEap.comEarly bidding gave sellers some confidence/assurance and open bidding did the same for buyers. Generally speaking, everyone was happy.

Website design By BotEap.comWhat is happening today?

Website design By BotEap.comIt is possible to make a convincing case that the former situation was very much the “happy days” of eBay as a forum for buying and selling quality antiques online.

Website design By BotEap.comIf you buy serious antiques on eBay today, you will most likely find:

  • The vast majority of items are listed as ‘Buy It Now’ or ‘Buy It Now with the best deals’;

  • Quality items still offered for open bidding are advertised with typically high “open bid” levels.

  • Many professional sellers have left, saying that it is now nearly impossible to sell anything on eBay and that they are taking their items elsewhere.
Website design By BotEap.comHow has this happened?

Website design By BotEap.comchanging markets

Website design By BotEap.comThe changes are being driven by the behaviors of buyers and sellers, although it’s something of a chicken-and-egg debate as to where it all started.

Website design By BotEap.comCertainly, since the crises of 2007/2008, buyers have become increasingly obsessed, although understandably, with “must get it cheap“.

Website design By BotEap.comOf course, there has always been a tendency for buyers to try to leave their deals to the last minute. That was done in the sometimes mistaken belief that it’s the only way to get a bargain. However, that trend became the norm as time went on after 2008.

Website design By BotEap.comAnother significant change in buyer practice in recent years has been the increased use of ‘Bid Sniping’ software. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a system whereby buyers can leave a maximum bid level with an online company that then places an automatic bid within the last two or three seconds before the auction ends.

Website design By BotEap.comThe net effect of reduced buying and increasingly late bids at the last second, from the seller’s point of view, is that very often their items will have little or no bids until a few seconds before closing. That kills the seller’s dead trust in a true auction approach with low starting prices.

Website design By BotEap.comNow, if you’re selling a DVD or some second-hand tools and expect to get a final price in the ‘tens’ of your chosen currency, you can be doomed to see your item bid as low as 1.50 about 10 seconds before let it be sold However, if you have, say, a vintage watch valued at 500 and it’s there without any offers just a few seconds before closing, then you’ll be much more nervous.

Website design By BotEap.comIn theory, this process should be self-regulating, but as any experienced eBay quality seller will tell you, it isn’t, and the losses suffered by dealers can be extremely significant and increasingly frequent.

Website design By BotEap.comSo it’s no surprise that more and more quality antique dealers have turned to ‘Buy It Now’ as a means of protecting their interests.

Website design By BotEap.comThe net effect of this is that, in terms of quality antiques, eBay is much more like Amazon or a simple classifieds magazine than a true online bargain site.

Website design By BotEap.comCan the old exciting days of eBay deals return?

Website design By BotEap.comUnfortunately, the conclusion must be ‘probably not’.

Website design By BotEap.comFor quality antique sellers to start trusting eBay’s open auction sales for their financial success again, several things must change:

Website design By BotEap.com1. Buyers should be encouraged to bid earlier.

Website design By BotEap.com2. Bid Sniping software should be banned.

Website design By BotEap.com3. Average realized open bidding prices would need to increase beyond what has been the case since about 2008.

Website design By BotEap.comFor buyers and sellers alike, the demise of eBay as a truly dynamic and exciting open bidding forum for quality antiques is unfortunate, though it is being replaced by an increasing number of antique sellers moving to forums like Amazon or antique stores on ETSY.

Website design By BotEap.comIt’s a sad fact that, if anything, eBay’s own policies and practices seem to be accelerating its transition from an online auction forum to becoming a pale reflection of sites like Amazon and various classifieds boards.

Website design By BotEap.comFor serious antique buyers and sellers, eBay as an exciting channel may now become nothing more than a nostalgic memory.

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