"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." - Bill Cosby
As eBay marches toward the bargain basement, I can't help but think back to a conversation I had with Kevin Pursglove when we worked together at eBay. Kevin was eBay's spokesman in the early days, and I think he was great at what he did. In those days so many people paid attention to eBay they needed a guy like Kevin. eBay was cool, surprising, and interesting. Leno and Letterman mentioned zany stuff found on eBay.
I remember after work one day commenting on how eBay was moving toward the large sellers. I was disturbed at how the goods on eBay were the same as those found in every big box store in America. They weren't unique, and they weren't interesting. But lots of listings brought lots of revenue, so eBay pushed hard to get sellers to add more stuff.
The result was, the collectors, and treasure hunters were being left behind. I predicted nearly eight years ago that it would kill eBay, and it's slowly happening.
That was also about the time eBay introduced Buy It Now, allowing buyers to buy items instantly. It became necessary in part, because eBay had begun leaning toward the "practicals," everyday items like toasters and shoes. People didn't want to get involved in an auction for those items, so eBay let them buy right away.
Eventually, eBay Stores came along. This allowed even more merchandise on the site that was not hard to find, or interesting. eBay constantly encouraged sellers to make a home at eBay. They tried to teach them how to start a business on eBay. They built seller tools to help people list more and more.
eBay also tried hard to please buyers - often at the expense of the sellers. It's been very difficult to strike a balance between buyers and sellers. eBay has tried to please both, and the result is they are failing to please either.
As former eBay exec, Bill Cobb pointed out - shortly before he announced his departure - auctions are part of eBay's DNA. Another part of their DNA is unique, interesting items that are not easy to find at Wal-Mart. In their efforts to please everybody that came along, and in their efforts to please themselves with more profits, eBay corporate has failed. They're ruining a very cool brand. They should have spun the "practicals" off to their own site and kept the real eBay. But I'm afraid it might be too late for that.
When I buy an item online - particularly on eBay, there is always a tiny little bit of doubt in the back of my mind. I wonder who I'm dealing with on the other end of the deal. I always expect to get my item, but it's often not quite as I had expected. Why would I put up with that nagging little doubt if I didn't have to? Only if I couldn't get the item anywhere else. That's why eBay worked. The interesting items were enough to get people over the discomfort. Now though, eBay is playing ball on the turf of every other marketplace on the web, Amazon being the largest. When it comes to buying toasters online - I will go straight to WalMart.com to buy.
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How about the new scam PayPal and EBay have going where they won’t release paid funds to sellers for 21 days, supposedly for buyer protection—thing is, the buyer knows nothing about it! Assumes their item is paid for and seller has the $ in their pocket. Not So! Seller never receives their $ unless the buyer leaves immediate feedback. Otherwise, PayPal collects all the interest on those funds for 21 days! Shipping prices are so bad now that a local Craig’s List listing seems to be the way to go.
It’s not Bill Cobb’s eBay anymore. eBay killed the collectibles market by making hard-to-find items easy-to-find. Then of course the price on everything took a dive. Good for buyers, bad for sellers. But like you say, if I want mass-produced goods, I can just shop WalMart.com.
It used to be fun.
Like many other small sellers I started as a buyer. I bought for two years and then needed to ‘refresh’ my collections (this is BaySpeak for get rid of some of the sh*t) so I started selling, you couldn’t do that on eBay today, it is just complicated, filled with fear of buyers and joyless.
Who needs that? Sad, but there you go.
AMEN!
eBay has bogged itself down in the “Big Company” mentality that affects many corporations; the time is ripe for someone else to compete with them in the online auction world – I can say without hesitation that there is a huge band of disgruntled eBay affiliates who would jump ship and start promoting a new auction site if they would follow the old eBay/CJ methods of paying them.
eBay recruited affiliates (also known as commission only sales staff!) and then started treating them like second-class citizens (Sound familiar???)
So the person who comes up with a catchy name, a sophisticated, secure auction script with an inbuilt, robust affiliate module could clean up here!
Interesting scenario …..
Margaret
Great looking website. Plenty of good info.