ebay express

[tonksy]

Okay, has anyone heard of this? It's set to be launched (meaning advertised)on monday in the states but it is up now. The way it will work is that the search will only bring up items that are fixed price. So no waiting for auctions to end.

Linkypoo

What I want to know as a seller is:
1. Do you think you would be more likely to use this than regular ebay?
2. Does it look easily navigatable?
3. Are you intimidated by the auction process?

 

[alex]

I don't really shop eBay. I've bought a few things (coins, old bottles) but they were things I think wouldn't be listed at a fixed price....so.... no, I'll search for things I'm interested in but not likely to use eBay more often because of eBay express. (I won't even buy coins anymore cause you don't always get what's advertised and I heard the Chinese make some pretty good replicas...but I'm very proud of the old whiskey bottles from my GGGG Grandfathers distillary)

side note: I'm a little suspicious about sellers out bidding you close to the end just to jack up the price. Since you all into eBay, how easy would it be for a seller to do that?

 

[tonksy]

I can't see where it would be beneficial. You pay a listing fee and then a fee on the back end depending on the amount the item sold for. If you create a seperate account (because you can't bid on your own items) to bid on and run up the price of your own auctions you run the risk of winning that item and being out the cost of the fees. It would be silly....but that being said there are plenty of people out there that don't put this much thought into things.
A lot of people just enjoy sniping auctions at the end. I guess the get a kick out of winning the item at the last second. Ebay express kinda takes care of that, I suppose.

Another question - Do you think that the cost of gasoline these days will lead you to shop online more than you have in the past?

 

[Professur]

Personally, I've used buy-it-now options before. Going in, I know what my top bid for something is gonna be. I know what the retail is too. If the Buy-it-Now price is right, I'll snatch it and be done. Similarly, I'll usually toss a lowball bid to start with, just to blow out any Buy-it-now on something that the price was out of my range. Then I'll wait til the end to try and snipe it, with a wacked bid, like 51.56 or summat like that. Something that'll usually inch past someone else's snipe. Leaving all your bidding to the last minute 1)keeps the price down by avoiding a bidding war and limitting the number of other bids that can possibly run yours up, 2) usually gets by that pesky owner-bid nonsense, and 3) keeps your name off bidding lists for stuff that you'll not win at all, should the price go up. I've heard of a lot of people getting taken in by After-close emails offering a second item at your high bid .... if you'd like it. Seldom does any second item exist.

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

It all depends.

I like the buy it now option when i run across something (usually an out of print CD) where the seller doesn't know what they really have. I've snagged a few CDs at killer bargains that way lately.

Conversely, I don't mind bidding for something either if I really want it. Like prof, I watch the item until just before closing time on the auction, then pop in some weird bid that hopefully circumvents some other schmuck's bid by at least two intervals. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. I know what I'm willing to pay, and I don't get competitive with my bids...I've let things go over a fifty-cent increase. It'll be up again.

I do like the sellers who have an ebay store with buy it nows on their inventory. If I find a particularly agreeable seller, I scan the store and get what they have that I want all at once and save some shipping and time. Did that with some of the Foxfire books, and with at least two CD vendors.

I've sold stuff on ebay too, but it's been awhile. Made a mint off some absolute useless LPs. Some dude in Seattle bought a buttload that I was going to toss in the dumpster for over $130. I got rid of about half of what was left to some moron locally who saw the auction and wanted to come see what I had left. He paid me $175 for about $12 worth of LPs. Suc-kerrrrr. The other 25 or so got pitched a week or so later.

 

[Inkara1]

I'm still stoked about getting $200 for that copy of Microsoft Visual C++ that was headed for the dumpster anyway... and that I only paid $100 for (academic price) in August, 1999.

 

[tonksy]

Personally, I've used buy-it-now options before. Going in, I know what my top bid for something is gonna be. I know what the retail is too. If the Buy-it-Now price is right, I'll snatch it and be done. Similarly, I'll usually toss a lowball bid to start with, just to blow out any Buy-it-now on something that the price was out of my range. Then I'll wait til the end to try and snipe it, with a wacked bid, like 51.56 or summat like that. Something that'll usually inch past someone else's snipe. Leaving all your bidding to the last minute 1)keeps the price down by avoiding a bidding war and limitting the number of other bids that can possibly run yours up, 2) usually gets by that pesky owner-bid nonsense, and 3) keeps your name off bidding lists for stuff that you'll not win at all, should the price go up. I've heard of a lot of people getting taken in by After-close emails offering a second item at your high bid .... if you'd like it. Seldom does any second item exist.

You know, if you receive a second chance offer message and the message appears in your ebay messages then it is legit. Lotsa times the winning bidder flakes out and stiffs the buyer so the buyer will offer it to the next person in line...or they have 2 of the item and they don't want to list them both. But again, this is only if the message appears in your ebay messages. That's how you know it's not a scam or a phishing thing.

 

[simplyred]

I've never sold anything on ebay, so I can't speak as a seller. I sometimes buy on the buy now option if it is something I need right now. I typically use ebay to cure my shopping addiction. It has worked. It takes forever for me to bid on something, I usually only spend a few bucks, and do not end up in the stores where I would have spent tons of money instead. So, I kinda like the bidding process.

Illnesses are fun...

 

[Leslie]

Do you think that the cost of gasoline these days will lead you to shop online more than you have in the past?

In the long run?

It's going to force up the prices of everything everywhere. So in the end, it'll make those of us who would be in a position to have to worry about financial questions like that shop less altogether, everywhere. Cause everything will be more except for the paycheques.

 

[StuTheWise]

There's more to eBay Express than that. For the first time, you'll be able to place items you buy on eBay from multiple sellers into a basket and pay for it all at once. Sellers are required to accept PayPal and buyers are required to pay with PayPal. PayPal distributes the funds amongst the multiple sellers.

I used to work for eBay and I have been a PowerSeller before on two separate accounts at two separate times. The company I work for now sends me to eBay Live! every year. Last year my boss says, "Stu, become a PowerSeller so we can have more credibility at eBay Live!" So I did.

Anyway, regarding sellers bidding on their own auctions... eBay has pretty good software that can sniff out sellers who do that. You can get away with it for a while, but if you're a longtime eBay resident, there's no way you'd risk your reputation by doing something like that. The serious eBay sellers are fanatic about their online reputations.

As a buyer, I RARELY buy on eBay. The occasional deck of cards or something else that is hard to screw up the sale of. I never buy electronics or anything really expensive and fragile. I've heard too many horror stories from my days as an eBay employee.

And heck, I may as well share this. This is me with Pierre Omidyar (eBay founder) and Meg Whitman (CEO) back in 2001 when I used to work for them:

If only I didn't get fired and lose my 1,000 free shares of eBay stock. They'd be worth over $130,000 today.

 

[Professur]

There's more to eBay Express than that. For the first time, you'll be able to place items you buy on eBay from multiple sellers into a basket and pay for it all at once. Sellers are required to accept PayPal and buyers are required to pay with PayPal. PayPal distributes the funds amongst the multiple sellers.

I used to work for eBay and I have been a PowerSeller before on two separate accounts at two separate times. The company I work for now sends me to eBay Live! every year. Last year my boss says, "Stu, become a PowerSeller so we can have more credibility at eBay Live!" So I did.

Anyway, regarding sellers bidding on their own auctions... eBay has pretty good software that can sniff out sellers who do that. You can get away with it for a while, but if you're a longtime eBay resident, there's no way you'd risk your reputation by doing something like that. The serious eBay sellers are fanatic about their online reputations.

As a buyer, I RARELY buy on eBay. The occasional deck of cards or something else that is hard to screw up the sale of. I never buy electronics or anything really expensive and fragile. I've heard too many horror stories from my days as an eBay employee.

And heck, I may as well share this. This is me with Pierre Omidyar (eBay founder) and Meg Whitman (CEO) back in 2001 when I used to work for them:

If only I didn't get fired and lose my 1,000 free shares of eBay stock. They'd be worth over $130,000 today.

I'm guessing from that photo, they had to do some arm twisting where you were concerned.

 

[catocom]

What I want to know as a seller is:
1. Do you think you would be more likely to use this than regular ebay?

So far Most of what I've put on is some big stuff, that I really don't know
what someone would give for it, but I know what's the least I'll take,
so I've only done one "buy it now" item, and it didn't sell.

I'll have to check that out for a few things I'm going to put on, when I
get around to putting them on. I've got one more Big piece I've gotta
get sold first though.

 

[StuTheWise]

The sling is the result of an old motorcycle injury... November 21, 1995. I still wear one today. Now that I have decent insurance, I'll probably just have the darn thing amputated.

 

[alex]

If only I didn't get fired and lose my 1,000 free shares of eBay stock. They'd be worth over $130,000 today.

OUCH, dare I ask what got you fired?

 

[tonksy]

I made Powerseller last month

 

[StuTheWise]

Ok, ok... I absolutely LOVE telling the story of how I got fired from eBay (right before the story of how I got fired by Microsoft )

So I work in email support, and this guy writes in with some problem he's having. He wasn't happy about it. I could tell because he closed his email with, "F#*k eBay, f#*k the internet!"

Well, I'm feeling in a particularly strange mood (probably had something to do with the fact that I worked the graveyard shift), so I open my response with, "As you may know, the Internet is a pretty big place. Screwing the whole thing might take a while. Why don't we just see if we can solve your problem instead?"

Upper management (many of whom looked like they had several large sticks shoved up their *ahem*) was not happy when they saw it. While devastating at the time, I find it quite amusing nowadays

At last year's eBay Live!, it was their 10-year celebration and they had this huge timeline on the wall where attendees could add to to it. I grabbed a marker, drew a line from the middle of December 2001, and wrote, "Stu gets fired by eBay". I have a picture of it somewhere.