Why is everything on eBay BIN these days?

I've noticed a serious change in the composition of eBay auctions, where very little £500+ hifi gear is actually sold in an auction format. 80% of listings appear to be BIN, which really defeats the object of running an auction site. The "best offer" function is good, but not an alternative to a competitive start price.

Sorry, but it's really p*ssing me off!

 

Ebay is dead. I believe Ebay changed the structure of the listing pricing, making it much cheaper to list as a 'buy it now'. They want to make it into a shop,rather than an auction site.

 

i used to be on ebay during the last four years, got barred by paypal who now runs ebay because i refused paypal charges as well as ebay's 100 % record 288 sales code name fulcrom0_1
it sucks,
nando.

 

Wrong way round nando.Ebay bought paypal so any wrongdoings on Paypals' account is/has to be with the full and implicit authority of Ebay.

Best wishes
Ian

 

ebay don't want the likes of you and me selling bits and pieces - their ceo said they want ebay to be an online mall...

hence the charges for auctions going up and more tat now veing sold...

but...if you look at it from their point of view - they're probably as sick of scammers ad we are and I'm guessing they just want the likes of online shops and power sellers on there...

 

How the worm has turned!

 

as have used ebay for over five years, i had made a pact with all my suppliers not to sell curent stock on the site, witch is fair, all of the items i have sold were discontinued bran new and just passed on the deals to people who were after a bargain, and that worked well on three sides, now i am still doing well via this forum , word of mouth, and web,
nando

 

I treat ebay as a shop, a discount warehouse type place for new goods and a huge second hand shop for music and audio kit.

Look at the typical stock holding of a decent used hi-fi dealer and you find that eBay is several orders of magnitude larger. It's a giant used audio shop in the sky, forget all this auction nonsense. If you see something you like, decide what you can pay (max) and bid that just before the 'auction' closes.

Still cheaper to buy on eBay than a conventional used audio retailer IME.

 

hi rob, what about after sales service? hardly existant i can assure you,
nando.

 

Hi Nando,

Yes I agree - after sales is often very poor. I guess you must balance this against any cost saving.

Ultimately, if buying a new product that is still in production it is far better to use an authorised dealer in order to obtain the benefits of warranty and service. For me, the real advantage of eBay is access to long discontinued kit - stuff that I used to drool over and couldn't afford many years ago

regards,

 

Rob, that is exactly what i was doing and still want to do , but they will no longer allowe me to, as i don't use credit cards only debit was their excuse not to let me trade??? one of them does not what the other one does, i thinks! go to compare the meerkat.com i think.
regards nando.

 

With years I see less and less sense in buying new. Used gear sounds better and cost less. Ebay saved me thousands of pounds and months of burning-in.

 

I've noticed a distinct lack of interesting kit on there in the last three months. Just the same old tat (Unidisk SC anyone?) at the same BINs, going round and round and round. I guess private sellers have given up and buyers like me aren't interested in BINs, which are rarely good value.

DT

 

Ebay sucks IMHO. Just invoiced me £30 on a £500 item that didn't even sell. Thanks again you little Swiss misers, guess what I won't be auctioning again!

I think their new rules that mean sellers can't criticise buyers who to be fair can be complete tools on occasion have put a LOT of people off. You must also list paypal as a source of payment.

I suspect people are leaving in numbers if this forum is anything to go by and BIN at least guarantees a sale price rather than a low ball bid that just clears a reserve.

 

Yeah I think the "no NFB for buyers" and mandatory paypal policy makes the situation even more annoying. I'm surprised that a company like eBay is changing some very fundamental aspects of what made it such a success in the first place. When you've found a magic formula, don't tinker with it!

DT

 

Given the profit margin on new Hi-Fi equipment I would much rather buy mint secondhand gear. There's shedloads on ebay usually but I do agree, there are just far too many shops there now. I think it's outstayed its welcome.​

 

Time for someone to open up a cheap auction site then....

 

Abso-bloody-lutely!

A real competitor is now overdue. A year or two ago I would have said that ebay had it all sewn up, but there are enough people fed up with the increasingly unfavourable cost/feedback/paypal/BIN changes that perhaps there is finally an opportunity for a rival site to break through.

Why ebay felt it had to continually tweak things when it was so successful I don't know, but I think they've overdone it. If I want to buy something for a fixed price, particularly if it's a new item, then I can usually find a better deal on Amazon or even in the High Street, and the last few bits and bobs I've sold I've done so elsewhere.

Mind you, I still pick up 2nd hand CD's on ebay for pennies, so I do still browse it quite often .

 

Lucky old you. Sod's law, the ones I want are lots of pennies

 

They probably changed it as so many people got caught out on auctions by those damn snipers that take the bargain at the last few seconds. I dont think they'll ever truely get rid of the auction system though, that would be suicidal I think.