Can’t even search anymore, seems you get everything but what you’re looking for. And been done as a seller for a while. Sad.

 

Very true. The only time you can seem to find a deal on something is AFTER you buy the thing you want and then deals pop up. I concur, Ebay sucks ***.

 

Gave up on EBay years ago and no regrets....

 

A lot of things I don't like about ebay. But I'm still selling more parts there than here or facebook. I guess it still has the largest audience.

 

I still buy occasionally since ‘99, I’ve reluctantly sold probably less than twenty items since my membership based on the vast market. I’m not a Facebooker, but have been advised that I should be with all that becomes available. Then again I question why I’d sign up for more financial temptation.. I figure I’m doing pretty good to keep my head above water as I am.😅

 

I think Ebay is still a great buying resource for most things largely unobtainable within a limited local range - there are many things I can think of for myself that have popped up on Ebay over time that I've never come across in person and in many cases, private sellers are willing to negotiate near the end of an auction if not otherwise attracting decent, (if any) bidding on something they really do want to sell.

So like most other commodities, it's classic supply and demand economics.

Ebay restricted my account when I refused to provide a bank account for my selling activity, so now I can only buy on their platform. They have definitely gotten greedier in their selling fees structure over time so I'm not taking that as much of a loss for my purposes.

 

I still look at it but mostly for nuthin. I put in 1956 F100 and get like 10,000 hits. Stuff like toy cars, etc. Then search in ebay motors- goes down to maybe 7,000. Includes valve stem caps on and on. Then put in -fits, now down to maybe 3,000, then go to advanced and search for only "Auction" listings. Then I get maybe 68 hits, I'll look at those and maybe actually buy something, used stuff I from sellers who maybe just like me -trying to sell something he no longer needs. It used to be so much fun, but now it's basically just like Amazon or the others.

 

I actually opened a bank account with a different bank from my regular one that I use just for ebay and paypal. Call me paranoid but this gives me a buffer in case something gets hacked or if they try to go after me there's not a lot of money in that account.

 

Yup. Good call. I got screwed by PayPal/ebay years ago. Drained my accounts. I had over 1500 sales etc. I never looked back.

 

It went bad when they made bid history anonymous.

​​​​​​Before the change, I used to look to see patterns if there was "buddy bidding" bumping the bid price on every item to drive up price.

When I bid, I place it once, let it ride. Many times I get contacted by seller after end for 2nd chance offer, which I always say, relist.

 

Amen to that. That and you couldn't leave negative feedback anymore.

 

I occasionally sold on Ebay from 2013-2019. Took a break for a couple years and switched over to FB Marketplace.
Recently got back on to Ebay this year and I like it overall, but think the commission is too high and not competitive with alternatives.
They definitely get the most traffic and buyers are on average are more knowledgeable about what they want.

FB is good for local. Okay for shipping and has low commission (5% of sale).
Some of the buyers are unbelievably dumb or flakey though. Endless "Is this available?" messages. At least they are real people. FB does a decent job of eliminating scam messages.

On the buyer side I like Ebay for getting small consumer items quickly. Like double edge safety razor blades or bulk 9v batteries. Usually ship next day and the postage cost is reasonable. I have tried ordering these exact same from Amazon (with a prime membership) and had nothing ship for 1+ week. It seems to be getting worse. Why am I paying for prime if Bezos and Co can't ship a 4oz item within 1 week?

 

I agree with the comments that the fees are too high. Also when they started charging fees on not just the sale price but shipping costs too. But, there is a benefit to using the ebay shipping discount. I've sold a few items where the buyer paid more for the part to cover my fees, yet saved a few bucks overall with shipping. I sold a bumper to a member here living on the East Coast and shipped it from Oregon. I think it saved $20 on the total costs for him when we went through ebay. I've also shipped some small items overseas and got a big discount on them.