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EBay Valet

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Re: EBay Valet

#51

Post by 4ndr3vv »

ekianjo wrote: post #41
dendory wrote: 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...

Compare ebay to 'real' auction houses; ebay has always had very low sales fees. 30% brings it much more in line with the bricks and moratar auction houses sales costs.

Re: EBay Valet

#52

Post by roel_v »

anigbrowl wrote: post #13

You get 70% of the sale price if your things sell. 30% commission, and the valet's incentives are for a quick sale rather than the best price, if the behavior of existing bulk listers is anything to go by. These people are usually not especially knowledgeable about the items they sell and so have a poor grasp of pricing - often good for me as informed buyer, but a real pain in the ass for sellers.

The alternative is 'throw out not completely useless stuff because I can't be arsed to sell it'. It's win win the way I see it, I'd dump half a truck of stuff on their dock if they'd offer this in Europe.

Re: EBay Valet

#53

Post by stevewillows »

zengr wrote: post #22
machbio wrote: post #3

hardly any innovative things come out of ebay, nice to see something new... can other sellers become valet ? or is it the ebay itself serving as valet ?

"How do I become a valet? Valets are carefully screened for inclusion in the program. Requirements include, but are not limited to: (1) ability to list 100,000 listings each month, (2) storage capacity sufficient to hold and manage items received for at least 21 calendar days, (3) ability to list items across all eBay categories, (4) physical presence in all major metropolitan hubs in the U.S. and (5) demonstrated ab…

How do they expect people to post just over 4700 items per day?

Re: EBay Valet

#54

Post by justincormack »

michaelt wrote: post #44
aianus wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You need to list it for a while for discoverability. Having a low price makes it seem more attractive while you browse.

Re: EBay Valet

#55

Post by coob »

pling wrote: post #48
dendory wrote: 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.

What kind of items are you trading?

Re: EBay Valet

#56

Post by 001sky »

beambot wrote: post #50
mootothemax wrote: post #32

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 withou…

Conceptually, how do you guys triage the fakes? The spectrum of quality seems so broad, in that they are convincing enough to be worn on the red carpet (and presumably picked by stylists) etc. Or are all those shots authentic pieces that were then used in fake listings?

Re: EBay Valet

#57

Post by pling »

coob wrote: post #55
pling wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What kind of items are you trading?

Oscilloscopes, power supplies, function/signal generators, lab equipment (optical table parts, galvos).

Oh and "most current and in demand Disney film merchandise" (usually snagged from Disney stores and held onto for a bit) :)

Re: EBay Valet

#59

Post by Jochim »

stevewillows wrote: post #53
zengr wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"How do I become a valet? Valets are carefully screened for inclusion in the program. Requirements include, but are not limited to: (1) ability to list 100,000 listings each month, (2) storage capacity sufficient to hold and manage items received for at least 21 calendar days, (3) ability to list items across all eBay categories, (4) physical presence in all major metropolitan hubs in the U.S. and (5) demonstrated ab…

How do they expect people to post just over 4700 items per day?

From the looks of it this is something they expect to be run by a small business with a few people.

Not many individuals have space in their home to store and turn over 100,000+ items in a month. Or have "Physical presence in all major metropolitan hubs in the US".

Re: EBay Valet

#60

Post by DigitalSea »

easytiger wrote: post #37
DigitalSea wrote: post #36

This is not going to end well for eBay, I can see it now. Some fake items are surprisingly good, you'll be reading stories of people being ripped off because valets were told they were given designer brand items only for them to be discovered as fakes later on. Somewhat cool idea I will admit, but when you're dealing with e-commerce and allowing users to get other people to sell their items, it'll open up a rather co…

Isn't this just a rebranding of something that already existed? This service has existed for a long time.

eBay Valet is a new application. Easy there, tiger. Unless I'm misinformed, it is a new service leveraging eBay's existing auction/commerce platform.
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