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EBay Valet

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41–50 of 89 posts

Re: EBay Valet

#41
post #38

I think the most likely outcome of this is valet items being given preferential treatment on eBay. Just wait until your items are a tiny spot at the bottom while the valet items take the main spots, and that 30% commission will be the least of your issues.

Seems like the Appstore 30% fee model is becoming standard everywhere now. That's not a very positive thing...

Re: EBay Valet

#42
post #7

Isn't amazon already doing something similar with "warehouse deals" and "fullified by Amazon?

Warehouse is all Amazon returns, AFAIK. But you can do used sales off of the main purchase page, and mail in your stuff to have it Fulfilled by Amazon. I've been looking into this quite a bit lately since I have about $7,000 of Canon gear to sell off. I think I'll stick with Amazon. Ebay's 30% seems ridiculously steep.

Do you happen to have either a 50mm 1.4 or 1.8, or a really wide zoom (10-32 or 16-35)? I might be interested.

Re: EBay Valet

#43
post #41
post #38

I think the most likely outcome of this is valet items being given preferential treatment on eBay. Just wait until your items are a tiny spot at the bottom while the valet items take the main spots, and that 30% commission will be the least of your issues.

Seems like the Appstore 30% fee model is becoming standard everywhere now. That's not a very positive thing...

Depends. For lazy people it's an easy way to get rid of their stuff without the hassle of packaging, getting scammed, etc.

Re: EBay Valet

#44
post #39
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beaten to it. Sniping is hugely frustrating and the main reason people either use buy it now or plain old ads (cf gumtree/Craigslist etc)

Why is sniping frustrating? How can sniping make me lose an auction if their snipe bet is lower than what I entered as my maximum?

While it does not frustrate me personally, it does seem rather pointless to list an item for several days or weeks when the actual sale takes place in the last five minutes, and to show a 'current price' which has little relevance to the final price.

Ebay might as well call it a sealed bid second price auction and be done with it.

Re: EBay Valet

#45
post #7

Isn't amazon already doing something similar with "warehouse deals" and "fullified by Amazon?

FBA is seller's stock distributed by Amazon with the same levels of commission. They just charge for storage and handling of the item at warehouse.

Re: EBay Valet

#46

New or like-new designer shoes and handbags: Brands like Hugo Boss, Gucci, Nine West, Ralph Lauren I wonder if eBay are potentially setting themselves up for a massive headache with this. There is a quite staggering number of people who falsely believe that their counterfeit designer items are genuine.

Rather more worrying, perhaps that eBay won't be able to tell the difference between a genuine and counterfeit item and end buyers will end up being screwed by the protection policies in place because "they obviously verified the item themselves". If you've ever fought a dispute with eBay, it's a battle that leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth.

However, I don't have a problem with eBay as a third party as the benefit of the larger market and capital gain versus the risk pays off[1], but when it comes to being the middleman as well, the buyer and the seller have a lot more to lose.

[1] There are always chancers, fraudsters and complete muppets (idiots).

Re: EBay Valet

#47
Some of the valet-service users will become regulars sellers. Some people who would never use ebay might become users because of this.

Re: EBay Valet

#48
post #38

I think the most likely outcome of this is valet items being given preferential treatment on eBay. Just wait until your items are a tiny spot at the bottom while the valet items take the main spots, and that 30% commission will be the least of your issues.

You mean like auctions are now? eBay is just a storefront now.

I do pretty well (£600+ a month) out of just buying items in auctions which are rather well hidden then selling them via the storefront/buy it now process.

Re: EBay Valet

#49
post #41
post #38

I think the most likely outcome of this is valet items being given preferential treatment on eBay. Just wait until your items are a tiny spot at the bottom while the valet items take the main spots, and that 30% commission will be the least of your issues.

Seems like the Appstore 30% fee model is becoming standard everywhere now. That's not a very positive thing...

If you think 30% is high, I would like to introduce to you Getty Images, the juggernaut of stock photography. They take 50% now.

Re: EBay Valet

#50

New or like-new designer shoes and handbags: Brands like Hugo Boss, Gucci, Nine West, Ralph Lauren I wonder if eBay are potentially setting themselves up for a massive headache with this. There is a quite staggering number of people who falsely believe that their counterfeit designer items are genuine.

FWIW... this is exactly why we launched Lollipuff (YC W13): https://www.lollipuff.com/

eBay is notoriously plagued with fakes. For some designer brands, fakes can account for 75% (or more) of the items sold [1,2].

The key for Lollipuff: We have brand experts authenticate each and every item -- ie. real, human experts augmented with sophisticated software to make things scalable. We like to think of it as "eBay without the fakes", or if you prefer "Palantir for designer goods" (software-augmented humans).

[1] https://www.lollipuff.com/blog/41/ebays-counterfeit-epidemic...

[2] https://www.lollipuff.com/blog/123/ebays-counterfeit-epidemi...

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