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Technology Stocks : eBay - Superb Internet Business Model -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: mitchell finegold who wrote (144)9/22/1998 11:06:00 PM
From: tiquer  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 7772
 
Some problems I see about ebay----I use it and have been satified. However I have friends who have more than 100 postings a week. This summers bidders were not out there and after eating a lot of filing fees . Over $150 for 1 mo, and got few bids, he went and tried a different service with no listing fees. The jury is still out on this one.--My point is you need buyers to make it work or the listers will dissapear.

Oops... I made a mistake about the Antique malls... The Antique malls will still be filled with the stuff that isn't any good...After failing to attract bids on the auction sites... The stuff they are selling is probably not at all desirable or is very common...

Roger



To: mitchell finegold who wrote (144)9/23/1998 3:39:00 AM
From: Doug Fowler  Read Replies (4) | Respond to of 7772
 
Mitchell:

I also noticed some softness on the bidding on eBay in August.

Any time there are more sellers than buyers, the overall effect will be to diminish the price.

I can't imagine anybody getting burned by eBay listing fees, since the most you have to lose on any single listing is $2.

Some sellers expect to get retail prices (or better) for items they list. This is not a realistic expectation. First, people expect a bargain on eBay and that is what drives the bidding. Second, your costs to sell on eBay are very low when compared to the more classical methods. The middleman is eliminated. The expectation is that the seller will pass some of these savings on to the buyer.

Note: The middleman is not ALWAYS eliminated on eBay. I have recently seen a lot of items listed through a third party (on a consignment basis, or whatever.) That means someone else is trying to get their piece of the pie, adding to the price to the buyer, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a lower success rate on these kinds of auctions (i.e., the seller not getting the desired price, and therefore not getting a sale).