I was watching the video above yesterday, and I started wondering. Right now eBay feels like the backbone of most pokemon trading, but on the other hand it also feels like myspace in that its features seem outdated and ability to attract new users is slowing down if not declining in some areas (at least compared with Amazon).
It is not unreasonable to expect that if the trend continues in some years they will try to raise fees and their cut to make up for declining revenue, which will further push people away. What could the market look like after such event? Will places like Amazon and Troll & Toad and others become the new standard? Will most trading move to social media? Or to OTC? Or just be split between these three categories?
Additionally, what will happen to the past ebay sold listings information as well as PSA price information that has been accumulated during these years?
Would you personally feel confident using any of the other options mentioned above? Where would you get pricing information from in the absence of eBay?
I don’t think that Troll&Toad (good for players, terrible for collectors) or Amazon (their customer and return policy aren’t very suitable for TCG singles and i don’t think that marketplace is as easy as running an ebay shop) could replace ebay. Imo solutions like tcgplayer or even better pokemoncardmarket have a better shot. Eventually, there will be a bricklink-like site for pokemon cards
If you need that data i strongly suggest you a manual backup or something like that
Yes of course. Ebay is already a shitty price index for a lot of stuff, even for some sectors of pokemon cards market
eBay only keeps information on 3-month worth of sold listings. That’s not a lot. Where are you getting years? If this is available, I’d love to know.
As far as I can see, amazon would need to overhaul its market place a lot to be as friendly as eBay. I recently bought something from there from a third-party seller and am having a tough time communicating and getting the problem fixed through Amazon. Also, Amazon is not really in direct competition with eBay since the service they provide target different slices of the market. Once we see Amazon add a bidding/auction component, we shall worry about eBay’s decline.
Reading over this, it would actually be interesting to see how things may change without eBay, especially if buyers and sellers move over to marketplaces that don’t display past sales.
I’m curious (if eBay were to be completely gone), to see if this results in a fragmented marketplace, where there isn’t really one dominant place to buy/bid, but I don’t think that would be the case – I think it’ll be more likely that Pokemon people will move over to the next-best thing. What that is, idk since I do everything on eBay, but eBay isn’t perfect either, it’s just the best thing around right now.
In 1999 Yahoo Auctions was booming and taking a huge bite out of eBay. I was 2000 rated on there back then. What happened? It was a free service and only charged for upgrades like higher search placement. Then they started charging eBay’s fees of .30&10%. Yahoo was gone in months.
This is because there was a direct competitor to Yahoo at that time (eBay). Is there any other website that is similar (but just hasn’t had enough exposure for whatever reason) than eBay? If not, depending on the alternatives, eBay has wiggle room to raise its fees and sellers won’t be able to do much since they won’t be able to find a platform with a similar or as wide of an exposure as eBay.
eBay has absolutely 0 competition when it comes to non SKUed items like most collectibles are. When you are talking brand new items you’d buy in a store or on amazon though they obviously have tons of competition so the only way they can keep sellers of those items on their platform is for fees to stay reasonable, which they are. That is the thing us collectible sellers have helping us, again that eBay sells loads of SKUed items and gets a big portion of their bottom line off buy it now SKU listings.
If it wasn’t for that fact and if eBay wanted to I feel they could double the FVF and they’d still be worth it to most sellers for lack of an alternative. I know I can’t reach as many buyers and realize anywhere near the same final prices for as little effort anywhere else.
Amazon is garbage when it comes to non sealed items. If they were even decent everyone would have migrated to there.
EBay is planning a huge move by straying away from paypal, that has a bigger chance of doing damage if it goes wrong.
I hope it doesnt since I’ve so over pay pal and the ridiculous stuff they pull sometimes. Knowing eBay it might just end up being identical to it. Here’s to hoping it’s actually good.
I’ve watched the op video before, and it misses a lot of points. While eBay certainly wants to compete with Amazon, they aren’t identical. Ebay taps into the collectible market. Ebay also has an ease to entry for any individual to sell. Amazon is great for high volume goods, but terrible for anything specific/collectible.
Ultimately eBay provides a need that no other market currently offers.
As someone who mainly sells magic now and primarily buys/sells on ebay for pokemon, I wish pokemon had deep buylists like magic does. Only place I’ve found that does anything buylist-like for Pokemon beyond bulk is Coolstuffinc and the prices leave much to be desired. Magic on the other hand seems pretty well flushed out when it comes to buylist competitiveness. I’m very happy to sell to places like Card Kingdom for 70-80% market value on singles and not have to deal with ebay fees and waiting around to sell stuff. Prices can get pretty close to what you would make selling on ebay. The other issue with pokemon is modern singles that aren’t ultra rare have no value to them. Rarely you will get a rare or trainer that has more than bulk value.
Are you talking about PSA pricing or raw NM cards (or both)? Trollandtoad/Coolstuffinc/Card Kingdom somewhat has a list of non-graded card buylists, but I don’t think there’s anything for PSA cards.
NM cards only. As far as I’m aware CK only does magic buylist, but if show me where they do Pokemon I will definitely look into them as well. Again if you go to TCGplayer buylist I only see Magic unless I’m missing something?
Trollandtoad buylist was what I was referring to for Pokemon. I just lumped them all together since they serve relatively the same purpose, as PSA cards are a whole different story in terms of valuation since additional factors skew pricing relative to NM cards. Those are the ones that are worth $$$ and can be really affected if price transparency disappears.
As I am sure many people do, I get caught-up within a few sub-categories of eBay - almost solely Pokemon and U.S. Coins. Outside of those two sub-categories, I really don’t “browse” eBay as I do with Amazon. However, when you’re discussing the “decline” of eBay, it’s necessary to take a step-back and view the overall platform - it’s a lot bigger than you would think!
I was watching a few of the “eBay Open 2017” YouTube Videos awhile back. One in particular really caught my attention; and of course I can’t find that specific video right now - so you’ll just have to take my word on this! LOL This particular video was a speech given-by one of the higher-ups at eBay HQ. He started-off his speech by running-though some general numbers (this was what I found interesting). There are three-main “sub-divisions” of eBay: eBay Marketplace (what we’re all used too), eBay Classifieds, and (perhaps most surpassingly) StubHub! There are somewhere around 175 Million ACTIVE eBay Buyers - with that number being a fairly-even 50-50 Split between U.S. and International. eBay HQ anticipates $25 BILLION / Quarter in Successful Transactions (100 BILLION / Year)! And here’s the one that really got me… How would you classify eBay - would you consider them to sell New or Used Product? Personally, I’ve always considered eBay an “online yardsale” - specializing in mostly-used product. However, the ratio to New / Used Product is actually 80% to 20%. That’s Right, 80% of everything sold on eBay is New - Used Product only factors-in about 20%! I found this particular fact mind-blowing! LOL
Now, let’s get into eBay vs. Amazon… Personally, I am active on both eBay and Amazon - as both a Buyer and Seller. I’m sure everyone is familiar as a Buyer through both platforms, so I’ll focus on the Seller. eBay is SIMPLE! Anyone can sell on eBay with very little knowledge or experience - cookie-cutter templates. Amazon is TOUGH! First Off, I only sell via FBA through Amazon - I’ve never sold as a “Merchant” - so can only speak as an FBA Seller. First Off, the fee-structure for sellers is CONFUSING! Secondly, there is definitely a learning-curve for selling via Amazon FBA - not something you could just jump into and try-out. Thirdly, there is an additional learning-curve for sourcing product to sell on Amazon - it’s not as easy as finding a “good-deal” and flipping on Amazon. You really need to factor-in the Product Ranking - as the longer your product sits within the Amazon Warehouse, the more you’ll end-up paying once your item sells. Basically, eBay is by-far an easier platform for the “newbie” seller and/or occasional “flipper”.
And Finally, eBay is learning from their mistakes and following in the foot-steps of Amazon. I originally heard this a few years back, and have heard more-and-more talk about this; eBay is actually considering an FBA-Style (FBE? LOL) Service. This is a service that needs to be implemented if eBay does want to compete with Amazon in the long-term - as it would cater to that 80% New Product.
I cannot see eBay ever over-taking Amazon within market-share; however, I really don’t believe eBay is going anywhere anytime soon.
Some great points being made here. Coming from someone who has also been a buyer & seller on both platforms, EBay is by far much more user friendly. Amazon’s seller account structure is so complex and confusing that it is simply not for the occasional or casual seller (say maybe, less than 300 or so sales annually). It is for merchants wanting to move product regularly, and IMO, mostly sealed or maybe refurbished product. EBay is perfect for me as a seller, and for most people who sell their ‘product’ by themselves. Because of this, I am more likely to look to EBay first for something I may need to buy online, since I frequent their site the most. Although there are a few things I may jump over to Amazon on occasion to buy or to compare prices.
Overall, agreed. EBay is going nowhere any time soon.
For the past 10 years, I’ve been waiting for ebay to see some competition from one of the big companies and it still hasn’t happened. It’s mind blowing, when you see the kind of numbers they do. You’d figure someone would want a piece of that 100B+ annually. It’s really a shame Yahoo messed up so bad back in the day. They could have simply undercut ebay fees by 1-2% with no insertion fees(the biggest scam on ebay) and they would still be around and chances are fees on both platforms would be sub 10%.
I don’t know how it is in the U.S., but I’m now charged 15% taxes on top of my 10% so it’s 11.5% + paypal fees. I round it up to 15% which is way too much. Then I have to offer free or cheap shipping to stay competitive. It’s hardly worth it except on higher valued items.
There are actually places that offer 3-5%, but they’re so small it’s ridiculous. I think they have more sellers than buyers. lol
Ebay isn’t going anywhere OP. It might see some minor decline eventually, but it’s really nothing to worry about for the average consumers or dealers like the guys here on efour. Only shareholders will worry about that stuff. Sales could drop 50% and they would still be the biggest marketplace for any hobby/collectables.
