E-bay a sellers market

[fish-fighting-illini]

Is it just me or has anyone noticed that there is just not much on E-bay these days for fishing items? It has been this way for several months.

 Anyone have an opinion as to why?

[firefightn15]

I usually lurk around the abu garcia ambassadeur area and I've noticed it right there.  I guess I hadn't thought about it until you brought it up though. :-/

[Long Mike]

Tis the winter season.  If I were going to try to sell fishing gear on e-bay, I would wait until spring.  The demand would be much higher.

[Pigsticker]

I don't know, just bought a Hyper Speed Zillion for 260. Pretty good deal, and I saw Revo STXs for 160 and Curados for 150. Some nice deals on there.

[Redlinerobert]

There's always good deals on Ebay.  You just have to keep looking, and sometimes be lucky.

[bassnleo]

Check out the e-bay store Simmons Sporting Goods.

They have ALL their Kistler rods 50% off right now.

Baitmonkey just added 6 more to my arsenal.

[cart7t]

I've noticed the past year that much of the stuff I've sold had fewer bidders/watchers and the overall selling prices have dropped.

Blame it on a slowing economy.

I will say Ebay has been doing what they can by cutting the upfront listing fees often.  

[cart7t]

Check out the e-bay store Simmons Sporting Goods.

They have ALL their Kistler rods 50% off right now.

Baitmonkey just added 6 more to my arsenal.

They've also got Team All Star Big Boys at $70.  I added a 7'2" Med/Hvy I've had my eye on as well as a Classic GT2 crankbait rod.  

[bassinri]

Is it just me or has anyone noticed that there is just not much on E-bay these days for fishing items? It has been this way for several months.

Anyone have an opinion as to why?

Here's the answer why.

I am a FULL TIME EBAY SELLER. This is all I do for a living and have been doing it for a long time. I know all the ins and outs of Ebay. About a year ago Ebay decided that is was going to become more BUYER friendly. They were listening to the buyers that were in the minority mind you, that we having bad experiences. This number is very small but Ebay is a very greedy business and again only looking out for their buyers. Dont misunderstand me, buyer protection is extremly important but sellers need protection as well.

In their infinite wisdom they chaged many of the policies that protected the SELLER. Issues like sellers getting taken on a sale where they buyer never pays and the seller cant leave a negitive feedback for the buyer, come on. A buyer can hold a seller hostage and demand partial refunds etc and the seller has no recourse. Lets say you get a reel and theres a few scratches on it and the seller said it has some minor deck rash. You dont think thats the case. You can now email the seller and say this has more than minor deck rash, give me 20 dollars back or Im leaving you a negitive. What can the seller do? Report the buyer? Ha thats a joke. Ive done it and nothing happens. A seller not being able to leave any negitive feedback is crazy. I understand that some sellers leave retaliation feedbacks but there are ways to control that.

While I do agree that there are some crooked sellers on Ebay 95% are honest Ebay sellers that stand behind everything they sell. Its a small 5% that dont. When a buyer sees something he likes the key is to only but from a proven seller like myself. I have almost 3000 positives and a few negitives that I even tried to make the buyer happy but you cant please everyone. Sellers got tired of this kind of thing happening to them. PLUS the fact that Ebays fees have skyrocketed SO high its crazy. They now MAKE both buyers and SELLERS use Paypal. No more moneyorders or checks. Do you know why? Because they BOUGHT PAYPAL! By the time I list my item and get my payment from Payapl I'm spending almost 20%! you may think thats cheap but now add in the cost that I spent on the item, usually 50% of the final sale price and Im making 30%! Take out my time to list it etc and my profits about 15%! Thats nuts!

While I still like alot about Ebay as do many sellers, some dont and are finding other ways to sell their items. Ebid, Ubid, Craigslist and a whole host of other sites are far more cheaper.

The "Bad Economy" excuse is not it for the most part. If things are bad theres going to be MORE for sale. People are trying to sell MORE stuff to make some extra money. Its Ebays own doing that has cause this. I am already selling on other auction sites and these sites are growing every day.Im hopeing by next year to be done with Ebay. Buyer protection is important but people like me who sell on Ebay for a living need protection too and were just not getting it.

The bottom line is the decline is items listed for sale is because there are less sellers because Ebay has chased them away. Polls have been taken to back this up.

[cart7t]

Is it just me or has anyone noticed that there is just not much on E-bay these days for fishing items? It has been this way for several months.

Anyone have an opinion as to why?

Here's the answer why.

I am a FULL TIME EBAY SELLER. This is all I do for a living and have been doing it for a long time. I know all the ins and outs of Ebay. About a year ago Ebay decided that is was going to become more BUYER friendly. They were listening to the buyers that were in the minority mind you, that we having bad experiences. This number is very small but Ebay is a very greedy business and again only looking out for their buyers. Dont misunderstand me, buyer protection is extremly important but sellers need protection as well.

In their infinite wisdom they chaged many of the policies that protected the SELLER. Issues like sellers getting taken on a sale where they buyer never pays and the seller cant leave a negitive feedback for the buyer, come on. A buyer can hold a seller hostage and demand partial refunds etc and the seller has no recourse. Lets say you get a reel and theres a few scratches on it and the seller said it has some minor deck rash. You dont think thats the case. You can now email the seller and say this has more than minor deck rash, give me 20 dollars back or Im leaving you a negitive. What can the seller do? Report the buyer? Ha thats a joke. Ive done it and nothing happens. A seller not being able to leave any negitive feedback is crazy. I understand that some sellers leave retaliation feedbacks but there are ways to control that.

While I do agree that there are some crooked sellers on Ebay 95% are honest Ebay sellers that stand behind everything they sell. Its a small 5% that dont. When a buyer sees something he likes the key is to only but from a proven seller like myself. I have almost 3000 positives and a few negitives that I even tried to make the buyer happy but you cant please everyone. Sellers got tired of this kind of thing happening to them. PLUS the fact that Ebays fees have skyrocketed SO high its crazy. They now MAKE both buyers and SELLERS use Paypal. No more moneyorders or checks. Do you know why? Because they BOUGHT PAYPAL! By the time I list my item and get my payment from Payapl I'm spending almost 20%! you may think thats cheap but now add in the cost that I spent on the item, usually 50% of the final sale price and Im making 30%! Take out my time to list it etc and my profits about 15%! Thats nuts!

While I still like alot about Ebay as do many sellers, some dont and are finding other ways to sell their items. Ebid, Ubid, Craigslist and a whole host of other sites are far more cheaper.

The "Bad Economy" excuse is not it for the most part. If things are bad theres going to be MORE for sale. People are trying to sell MORE stuff to make some extra money. Its Ebays own doing that has cause this. I am already selling on other auction sites and these sites are growing every day.Im hopeing by next year to be done with Ebay. Buyer protection is important but people like me who sell on Ebay for a living need protection too and were just not getting it.

The bottom line is the decline is items listed for sale is because there are less sellers because Ebay has chased them away. Polls have been taken to back this up.

my mistake economy reference was to the number of buyers, not sellers.

AS for the rest of your rant on Ebay.

The inability to give bad buyers a negative feedback wasn't a good idea IMO.  I have on a couple occasions been more persistant in getting paid after a sale if I knew ahead of time, via a buyers past feedback, that he/she was a slow payer or needed to be threatened.

Paypal is who I have my dispute with.  i've never won a single outcome despite the fact that most of the disputes I got were answered via my item description in the original listing.  In reality, there are few if any protections for sellers on ebay,  the buyer is in complete control which is why I've always wondered why people were leary of buying from there.

Checks or money orders?  Yes, I did that for awhile.  It wasn't worth it.  The amount of time it was taking buyers to come up with a M/O, mail it and then await for snail mail delivery wasn't worth it to me.  Plus,  I had fewer bidders.

[cart7t]

Besides selling rods and reels (which I barely do anymore), I also sell lamps for rear projection DLP and LCD TV sets.  It's amazing how buyers will attempt to rip you off.  I learned the best way to handle them was NOT offer a monetary refund but instead, an exchange.  I also have a very lengthy refund description in the item description which basically states "Once you buy it, it's yours."  

A number of folks have bought one, found out the lamp wasn't the problem with their set and then wanted their money back.  I inform them to read the item description again, send the lamp back and I'll send them another.  Of course, they have to pay the return shipping.

In the dozen or more refund complaints, I've only had 2 sent back.  Most of the time I never hear from the buyer again.  

[fish-fighting-illini]

I posted this and forgot to check for responses until now.

Good stuff everyone and a lot of good theories.

 It just seemed like last year that people were selling a lot of stuff. Gander mtn, Shimano, Pflueger you name it. There were great deals. Now there is not even a lot of those products.

 I assumed that is was fisherman hanging it up for the year to re-arm for next year. Or people rasing funds for cristmas. Both could be greatly affected by the economy but not the raising money for x-mas so much. The sellers policy post brings up a very big difference from last year. I'm not sure what it is maybe last year was the odd duck?

 Either way good stuff guys great posts

[KYntucky Warmouth]

Check out the e-bay store Simmons Sporting Goods.

They have ALL their Kistler rods 50% off right now.

Baitmonkey just added 6 more to my arsenal.

They've got some good stuff...plan on buying an Energy from them soon

[fish-fighting-illini]

I've been checking a bunch since and E-bay still has nothing on it that I regularly look for.

[flechero]

I've been checking a bunch since and E-bay still has nothing on it that I regularly look for.

you must mean tackle specifically and the open auctions...  There are tons of rods, reels, etc. and if you look in some of the ebay stores, all the baits and terminal tackle you find elsewhere, plus the rods and reels.  I bet if you found the right ebay stores, you'd find most of your tackle too.  JBC outfitters is just one example of many but a good place to start since he's also a member here.

[CFFF 1.5]

Is it just me or has anyone noticed that there is just not much on E-bay these days for fishing items? It has been this way for several months.

Anyone have an opinion as to why?

Here's the answer why.

I am a FULL TIME EBAY SELLER. This is all I do for a living and have been doing it for a long time. I know all the ins and outs of Ebay. About a year ago Ebay decided that is was going to become more BUYER friendly. They were listening to the buyers that were in the minority mind you, that we having bad experiences. This number is very small but Ebay is a very greedy business and again only looking out for their buyers. Dont misunderstand me, buyer protection is extremly important but sellers need protection as well.

In their infinite wisdom they chaged many of the policies that protected the SELLER. Issues like sellers getting taken on a sale where they buyer never pays and the seller cant leave a negitive feedback for the buyer, come on. A buyer can hold a seller hostage and demand partial refunds etc and the seller has no recourse. Lets say you get a reel and theres a few scratches on it and the seller said it has some minor deck rash. You dont think thats the case. You can now email the seller and say this has more than minor deck rash, give me 20 dollars back or Im leaving you a negitive. What can the seller do? Report the buyer? Ha thats a joke. Ive done it and nothing happens. A seller not being able to leave any negitive feedback is crazy. I understand that some sellers leave retaliation feedbacks but there are ways to control that.

While I do agree that there are some crooked sellers on Ebay 95% are honest Ebay sellers that stand behind everything they sell. Its a small 5% that dont. When a buyer sees something he likes the key is to only but from a proven seller like myself. I have almost 3000 positives and a few negitives that I even tried to make the buyer happy but you cant please everyone. Sellers got tired of this kind of thing happening to them. PLUS the fact that Ebays fees have skyrocketed SO high its crazy. They now MAKE both buyers and SELLERS use Paypal. No more moneyorders or checks. Do you know why? Because they BOUGHT PAYPAL! By the time I list my item and get my payment from Payapl I'm spending almost 20%! you may think thats cheap but now add in the cost that I spent on the item, usually 50% of the final sale price and Im making 30%! Take out my time to list it etc and my profits about 15%! Thats nuts!

While I still like alot about Ebay as do many sellers, some dont and are finding other ways to sell their items. Ebid, Ubid, Craigslist and a whole host of other sites are far more cheaper.

The "Bad Economy" excuse is not it for the most part. If things are bad theres going to be MORE for sale. People are trying to sell MORE stuff to make some extra money. Its Ebays own doing that has cause this. I am already selling on other auction sites and these sites are growing every day.Im hopeing by next year to be done with Ebay. Buyer protection is important but people like me who sell on Ebay for a living need protection too and were just not getting it.

The bottom line is the decline is items listed for sale is because there are less sellers because Ebay has chased them away. Polls have been taken to back this up.

I'm pretty sure 15% is good profit margin.

[cart7t]

If he's doubling his money on sales he's doing much better than most.

15% profit may be a great margin for a high volume seller but on a smaller scale it's not.  

[burleytog]

eBay is anything but a seller's market.  Once eBay removed the ability for sellers to leave negative feedback, the entire operation became a farce.

[fish-fighting-illini]

eBay is anything but a seller's market. Once eBay removed the ability for sellers to leave negative feedback, the entire operation became a farce.

 I'd say seller friendly no but a sellers market yes. Very few items that I typicaly look for show up any more. The ones that do are never any kind of deal. I could buy down the street for the same price. For the most part I do mean auctions vs e-bay stores.

[cootertom]

Give Simmons Sporting Goods a chance. I live 45 minutes from it and go often. This is a family business (the one in Alabama) and they are a honest and nice group of people. The store is packed full of items. If you don't see it email them and odds are they have it. You can do business around Ebay with them if you call the store.

[fish-fighting-illini]

Give Simmons Sporting Goods a chance. I live 45 minutes from it and go often. This is a family business (the one in Alabama) and they are a honest and nice group of people. The store is packed full of items. If you don't see it email them and odds are they have it. You can do business around Ebay with them if you call the store.

 I might have bought from them before. Anyway the reason I'm on E-bay is I'm generaly looking for a deal on something used. Or a deal via something someone just needs to sell for one reason or another. I will keep Simmons in mind but if I'm going to buy retail I would prefer to do business face to face. The fact that you recommends them does help though thanks for the info.

 FFI - AKA Matt Crum