To eBay or not to eBay?

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I think eBay is.....

better than ever.
6
17%
getting worse by the day.
12
33%
looking after buyers more than sellers.
7
19%
expensive for low value items.
8
22%
'cheap as chips'.
2
6%
geared towards power sellers, not individual lower volume sellers.
1
3%
 
Total votes: 36

User avatar
kevinramsdale
Posts: 156
Joined: Mon May 22, 2006 7:09 pm
Location: Lincoln

Re: To eBay or not to eBay?

Post by kevinramsdale »

eBay are constantly tinkering with the way the site works, and need careful monitoring so as not to be hit by unexpected fees

I think that you can opt out of the auto relist on the advanced selling form?
Kevin

Moonraker
Posts: 222
Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:23 pm

Re: To eBay or not to eBay?

Post by Moonraker »

Probably, but I've yet to explore the finer points of the latest eBay revamp. One small advantage of re-listing is that one can tweak the title to aim at different sectors of collecting interest.

Moonraker
Posts: 222
Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:23 pm

Re: To eBay or not to eBay?

Post by Moonraker »

I've just checked out the re-listing process and indeed one has to select the eight-times option. Nearly all my postcard listings are of common cards left-over from bulk purchases, and I didn't mind the old system of them being re-listed once. But I reckon that if no-one's interested after two listings there's no point in going on adding to the dross. Pity one can't specify the number of re-listings.

Currently I'm listing as one lot five or six cards of the same army camps. My original starting price was £4.99, but I didn't get any bids, then I dropped the price to £4.19 and have one bid for that - which I'm happy enough with, as I just want to find a home for them.

Moonraker
Posts: 222
Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:23 pm

Re: To eBay or not to eBay?

Post by Moonraker »

Oh the irony. Early this year I won a couple of "military Wiltshire" lots at a traditional auction and got my money's worth from the cards I wanted for my collection - leaving me with about 25 surplus cards that I've been gradually selling off on eBay. One bonus was that, despite its Wiltshire postmark, one card showed a camp on the Isle of Man and so fetched more than double what it would have done had it shown the camp suggested by the postmark.

Then I offered four or five cards each of two camps in two separate lots and got no interest despite a starting price of £6 or so for each. Fair enough, they were common cards. Finally I put the two lots together, threw in three more cards, two of which were very unremarkable, and gave a starting price of £9.99. To my surprise the combined lot has just gone for £24 ...

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eastlondonpostcard
Posts: 613
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:10 pm
Location: https://www.ebid.net/uk/users/20sent06/all-about-me/
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Re: To eBay or not to eBay?

Post by eastlondonpostcard »

Still cannot understand why sellers stick with ebay (nicknamed 'greedbay') with the high cost of selling on there, they even charge you fees on the postage (cheek!)

I know they have a lot of users, so why the exorbitant fees... why don't they reduce the costs in order to keep hold of them - hence the nickname...

The alternatives are sooooooo much cheaper! :-)
~ send it on a Postcard please ~

Moonraker
Posts: 222
Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:23 pm

Re: To eBay or not to eBay?

Post by Moonraker »

A postcard of Stonehenge has just sold for £52 on eBay! As an iconic national monument it has featured in many, many PCs, and rather too often modern colour cards are listed on eBay.

But this one featured Stonehenge just before the First World War, with two soldiers in a dog-cart riding eastward up the hill from the road-fork. But what made it interesting (presumably) were the old buildings on the skyline. I've never seen these on a PC before, though I have cards with photographs taken three or four years later from the same spot as this.

I think I've remarked before that it's possible to build up a low-cost collection featuring changes at Stonehenge, including during the 1900s when some of the stones were propped up.

At first glance, I thought the card featured the bomber aerodrome built beyond Stonehenge in 1917, parts of which later became temporary housing and a pig-farm. Understandably 1920s photographers tended to aim their cameras so as to exclude these eyesores, though sometimes they did include the short-lived cafe in the dip below the monument.

I wonder what price dealers would have asked for the card at fairs?

User avatar
kevinramsdale
Posts: 156
Joined: Mon May 22, 2006 7:09 pm
Location: Lincoln

Re: To eBay or not to eBay?

Post by kevinramsdale »

That card could conceivably have been found in a 20p box (well, maybe a 50p box)

This is what makes selling on eBay worthwhile, always the chance of a freak result.
Kevin

User avatar
eastlondonpostcard
Posts: 613
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:10 pm
Location: https://www.ebid.net/uk/users/20sent06/all-about-me/
Contact:

Re: To eBay or not to eBay?

Post by eastlondonpostcard »

Moonraker wrote:A postcard of Stonehenge has just sold for £52 on eBay! As an iconic national monument it has featured in many, many PCs, and rather too often modern colour cards are listed on eBay.

But this one featured Stonehenge just before the First World War, with two soldiers in a dog-cart riding eastward up the hill from the road-fork. But what made it interesting (presumably) were the old buildings on the skyline. I've never seen these on a PC before, though I have cards with photographs taken three or four years later from the same spot as this.

I think I've remarked before that it's possible to build up a low-cost collection featuring changes at Stonehenge, including during the 1900s when some of the stones were propped up.

At first glance, I thought the card featured the bomber aerodrome built beyond Stonehenge in 1917, parts of which later became temporary housing and a pig-farm. Understandably 1920s photographers tended to aim their cameras so as to exclude these eyesores, though sometimes they did include the short-lived cafe in the dip below the monument.

I wonder what price dealers would have asked for the card at fairs?
I saw this one go - it started off at £4.99 I recall; yes, it is different to normal, so I can see the appeal ... I'm sure the seller is pleased.
~ send it on a Postcard please ~

Moonraker
Posts: 222
Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:23 pm

Re: To eBay or not to eBay?

Post by Moonraker »

Moonraker wrote: Sun Apr 24, 2016 3:52 pm Phew! Just ended on eBay: fierce bidding for a postcard that went for £119 - which meant that someone else was willing to go up to £117. (I dropped out well before then.) It showed a Breguet aircraft that was entered in the Military Aeroplane Competition held near Stonehenge in 1912 to determine a suitable British warplane...

In my own, admittedly narrow, field of collecting ("military Wiltshire"), I can't recall a card going for so much, the nearest being around £100 for a fund-raising tank trundling into Salisbury Market Place...

Everything comes to he who waits!

Just won on eBay a duplicate of the Salisbury tank card for £8.50 against a couple of modest bidders. At a fair I would expect to pay £25+.

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