It used to have a lot of individuals clearing out garages and selling items on bonefide auctions Now it appears to be mosting businesses selling everything on a buy it now formatt and very few auctions Add to this the feedback manipulation by Ebay to ensure that feedback left by some individuals is discounted ~(removed) if they fall outside of a certain criteria and ebays policy of removing truthful feedback if it violates their policies (upsets their sellers) means its not as useful as it should be Basically ebay is now just a shop window search engine rather than an auction site
The days of finding a bargain on eBay are long gone. I find Amazon is more than competitive in 80% of cases nowadays.
Agree, bargain hunting is not fruitful on eBay any more. gumtree is a bit better, but you need to be careful. One of my gripes about eBay is that as a buyer, you are told to give feedback before the vendor, when surely the vendor should give feedback as soon as the payment is cleared? If they give good service , then good feedback will come their way, surely? anyway, use it as a research tool, find what you want and see if the non-eBay shop will discount due to avoiding eBay extortionate fees.
The bargains are still there, they just take a little more searching these days. It would be useful if we could choose to ignore trade ads, but that'll never happen. Keep searching though, my mate just picked up a 2002 Aprilia RSV in good nick for £700...
I use eBay a massive amount for finding parts for old cars-still the best source. Also bought a brand new set of mag Marvics for £500 for the Senna
I still find it useful. I do my best to manipulate the system and see nothing wrong with attempting a deal 'off reservation' if it benefits both parties. 10% sale fee is excessive IMO. I buy all sorts off there as well as the usual Ducati part hunt. iphone case £1.98 delivered. TV antenna lead 99p delivered - They're £3.00 even in Asda. All good if you hate shopping. :biggrin: I may start looking on Amazon as others have suggested as a comparison. The "From United States" you have to plough through annoys me...
I totally agree it is past its sell by date, it used to be the place where you could pick up a bargain but now its not even competitive......if I'm after something now I just do a google search rather than just search eBay!!
i find the auction tabs rather than the buy it now tabs have the better hit of individual sellers rather than the commercials..i trawl them now and nabbed a few bike bit bargains....oops that reminds me ...yamaha front wheel finishing soon and im highest bidder at a quid !!
There's a lot of old guff being spoken here. Gumtree has it's place, as do freeads, craigslist and all the other sites, but for a quick sale/purchase and for a good bargain hunt, ebay is the king, and by quite a margin.
and besides that I agree with you on a lot of the elements that make up Ebay, it's just that you can't help feeling that they are almost 'a law unto themselves' in the way they appear to do the minimum they can get away with when disputes arise (my experience only)
i find selling on fleabay, a waste of time. people don't want to pay. Buying is better, although buying parts and bikes, can be a pain. Either the item is not listed correctly or to expensive. I remember going to Peterborough to pick-up a ST2, that i won. Only to find out, that the tyres were bald, the chain and sprockets worn. no history of when the belts were changed. The bloke selling said," all it needs is a MOT". complete waste of time.
Oh, I agree with that completely, I've had several long-running arguments with ebay, but mostly this is down to dodgy sellers rather than anything intrinsically wrong with the way ebay operates. The bargains - and the decent sellers/buyers are still there. Your experience is totally at odds with mine. I've bought some cracking bikes on ebay, and made a profit out of the last half a dozen I've sold. And quite honestly, if you buy a bike without looking at it first - or at least getting the owner to email a ton of pics - then you have to expect the worst. This is not an ebay problem per se.
Indeed! A lot of clued-up people scouring the ads & listing, but unfortunately a few newbies etc listing stuff to end in the middle of the day/11:30pm and wondering why they didnt get any bids/it sold for pence?? :biggrin: Sold my Four with an eBay ad, and now making a four-figure sum selling 22 years-worth of rare & collectable spares on ebay? Can't be bad. :wink:
If anyone's after a silver Bagster tank cover for a TL1000S, I can't shift that for love nor money...
I have a heap of stuff in the garage I need to sell. Note to self.....must get my arse in gear :smile:
95% of the buyers and sellers on ebay are genuine the other 5% are a complete liability and ebay should have removed them a long time ago stopped selling surplus bits on flea bay a while ago, the 5% problem people just made it a complete pita, its less hassle and no commission to put adverts in classic bike magazines and move stuff that way
Indeed - I picked up some nice stuff with with strange end times...Especially as I work from home a lot I can stalk these iems... Changed a bit as late as more people have iphones.
