81–90 of 101 posts
YES!!!! The new price changes are actually going to save me money. Plus they're still cheaper than AMAZON. FYI: I sell on both Amazon and eBay. On ebay I pay for "Buy it Now" listings ($0.50 insertion) and 11% final value fee. So for me the cost is going to drop by 1% and .50 cents. eBay is doing this to compete and catch up to Amazon. Auctions are a fad on their way out, and "buy it now" is where it's all at. Store…
If you were looking to dirupt eBay's business model, you couldn't pick a better time. While considering a price adjustment on a high-value item I'm selling, I went to their fee calculator to explore some other price points. I was mystified to see not only the fee I expected of ~$55, but a 'New Fee' of $123. Thinking I'd made a mistake, I explored further, and noticed that as of April 16, casual sellers who don't have…
Why?
1) Buyers need to trust the sellers and without the history and system already in place, it's not going to happen. You didn't need this system in place when Ebay started, because it was such a new idea.
2) Without the buyers, the sellers won't bother. I've been a seller for a couple of years and all of the smaller sites combined don't even compare to the number of sales I get on Ebay (Amazon is the other big marketplace).
I don't even waste my time on the other sites anymore.
The elephant in the room is this: ebay is all but impossible to use for big ticket items. I tried to sell a camera (>$1000) and after two months of agony and several failed auctions, I pulled out of ebay and immediately sold it on craigslist. Why? Fraud. The first time, I didn't set the option to only sell to established users. I got bids from people with minutes-old accounts that I knew were fraudsters waiting for t…
Sure ebay has always charged huge fees for absolutely nothing other than having a recognised domain name. Their software is terrible they've just been around forever. They don't actually do anything, their terrible software keeps churning out money for them because they were in the space first. This entity encompasses Paypal too, another very terrible service that simply won't ever go away. Allow my distain for other…
I'm wondering if eBay is making an attempt to remove low-margin products off of their screen estate and make a play in higher margin listings.
Open a shop with us on Shoply.com. Quick, simple, easy. Benefit from our marketplace and existing traffic. We're a startup and exist to democratise commerce and help sellers showcase and sell their products. No fees whatsoever for all HN affiliated sellers. hit us up at support@shoply.com and we will upgrade your account for free forever.
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Interesting to see this move by eBay - we've found that high fees for casual sellers is a huge pain point. By focusing their fee structure towards power-sellers they also happen to be alienating a large group of casual sellers. We're trying to solve this problem (among others) with our product SellSimple. Free app, free postings, and 5% if it sells. Check it out, would love to know what you think: http://sellsimple.c…
What are you doing for fraud? I can tell you from (too much) experience that as soon as you gain any traction in being the "broker" between parties in transactions, you will become a magnet for a non-stop, cat-and-mouse, painful game of fraud. After years of fighting and with a dedicated team, eBay is still losing that battle. And, as the "conduit" for this fraud, you will be blamed by both buyers and sellers, which…
We've already encountered a bunch of fraud early when our system was less developed. Luckily we caught all of those and have had time to grow / build a plan of attack.
We'll never be able to eliminate fraud - but we can make it a pain in the a for a black-hatter to use SellSimple over the hundreds of alternative places.
Few ways:
1. Escrow via Balanced 2. Shipment Purchasing, Tracking & Confirmation all in-app. 3. QR code scanning to release payments for meetups. 4. Verified sellers. 5. Fraud API's - https://siftscience.com/ & https://www.signifyd.com/
If they do get passed all of the systems, there is still large chance they screwed up somewhere and it will be pretty obvious to us what happened. That said - its an uphill battle.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What are you doing for fraud? I can tell you from (too much) experience that as soon as you gain any traction in being the "broker" between parties in transactions, you will become a magnet for a non-stop, cat-and-mouse, painful game of fraud. After years of fighting and with a dedicated team, eBay is still losing that battle. And, as the "conduit" for this fraud, you will be blamed by both buyers and sellers, which…
Totally valid points and it's something we're building for everyday. We've already encountered a bunch of fraud early when our system was less developed. Luckily we caught all of those and have had time to grow / build a plan of attack. We'll never be able to eliminate fraud - but we can make it a pain in the a for a black-hatter to use SellSimple over the hundreds of alternative places. Few ways: 1. Escrow via Balan…
But, fraudsters are relentless and they come in waves. You beat them back, all goes silent, then they come back with a vengeance. It never stops and they are inventive. Much of the fraud comes from outside the U.S. as well (China-big time in our experience), so there's virtually zero chance of prosecution. So, these guys have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If they get busted, they just don't get their money. It's all upside for them.
BTW, I used to think that raising the bar so they'll go elsewhere would be sufficient. It definitely helps, but it's not how it works. If there is any opportunity, there will be parties who persistently work you to find it, such that it will be a constant fight for you.
In any event, you are right that you will most likely be able to detect them at some point. It's just the cost/time involved and the damage to your brand/customers as they keep changing tactics. One thing you should assume is that whatever you put in place, they will defeat at some point. It is guaranteed.
Finally, services like siftscience also help, but they tend to just raise the signal and/or help you to corroborate suspicions. It can still take quite a bit of effort and invariably human interaction to interpret those signals.
Not that it can't be done. Just encouraging you to brace yourself for the fight ahead. While you may be starting out to build a marketplace, you will likely find that you spend more time in the fraud-detection business.
Good luck and kudos on your progress to date.
Sure ebay has always charged huge fees for absolutely nothing other than having a recognised domain name. Their software is terrible they've just been around forever. They don't actually do anything, their terrible software keeps churning out money for them because they were in the space first. This entity encompasses Paypal too, another very terrible service that simply won't ever go away. Allow my distain for other…
Challenge: Find me a Runco LJR-II Laserdisc Player for sale outside of eBay.
If you do, then I'll delete my eBay account and learn to live without it.
I was planning all this week to make a classified site for bitcoin sales and exchanges with 0 fees, its up to buyers and sellers to deal between themselves, making money on related advertising instead and maybe seller verification what do people think of that idea?
www.bitmit.net