I was wondering if any members here were going to observe the ebay embargo May 1st. I have not been selling lately for a few reasons, but the main one being that ebay is sucking the profits off smaller items and lower profit items. I used to sell a few prez dollar rolls but with the increased final value fees it doesn't make sense anymore. I think it would be great if there were a lot fewer listings and fewer buyers that first week in May in protest to the fee hikes. I just wondered what others here thought.
For me, Ebay is a great way to raise quick cash...I have slowed to a crawl, but will not observe or participate in an boycott. Every seller who dislikes ebay has the incentive to go elsewhere...look around, there are options now and the options are growing by the month.
I think Craigslist is starting to hurt Ebay a little bit. Granted, the format sucks compared to ebay and there's not as much. But many people on CL hate ebay and that's why they use it. Plus you eliminate everybody's fees. I've found the best way to use CL is do a search on google and add 'craigslist' on the end. There's some scammers on there but they're pretty easy to figure out. I've been looking at some coins on ebay and it seems to me a lot of the sellers really jack up their buy it now prices. I understand trying to make a bit of profit on a coin but $150.00 profit or nothing?? C'mon. I don't think even an extended boycott could hurt ebay. The guy I work with has sold so much on there the last couple months, that between ebay and paypal, he's paid them around a grand in fees by himself. In two months. You may as well boycott a gas station for a day.
Take the gas station boycott for example, it would only work if people did not use any gas that day. That would hurt the oil comanies a bit. The same goes for ebay if everybody took a few items off and sold them elswhere I think they would feel it. In the mean time I am exploring other selling options.
More than 80% of oil based petrolium is used by manufacturing and industrial business. A civilian boycott would make no difference whatsoever. As far as Ebay goes, I'd imagine the margins are similar. Most of the profits gathered come from large item purchases, such as property and autos, not small time coin sales and such. Disgusted and fed-up collectors could all boycott them, but I doubt it would even be noticed by corporate. Guy~
I dunno about that, think of all the millions of gallons purchased per day, surely if everyone didnt buy gas there would be some surplus. but it will never work, unless things get extreme... but anyways, an Ebay boycott? nah. Again, i doubt things would get that bad that it would happen. and if it did, it would probably work. But it would have to work for like, a week. i.e. no one buys or lists anything for a week. Then Ebay gets no money, and Paypal (owned by ebay) gets no money. edit: also realize, if you're an Ebay stockholder, you're not going to want that to happen either.
Has anyone joined Coin day or bay, I am not sure which? I understand that they have little or no fees.
IMO, boycotts on something like gas are worthless. Corporate at big oil companies only care about their quarterly earnings which improve their stocks when the report comes out. Whether you buy gas today, tomorrow or next week isn't going to make a bit of difference. Unless everybody's capable of boycotting them for an entire quarter. Then it might.
I don't use ebay, but I won't boycott them. They might be getting more pricey, but in my mind, they are a business, and they can do as they want. Phoenix
I love ebay. I don't like the fact that the only strategy that they have for growth is raising fees, but if their fees get too high, someone else will get into the auction game.
Maybe you could list some of the options so we can check them out. But please with the options you list please include any pros and cons you think the option gives with relation to eBay and also was your personal experience with the alternative venue a positive or negative one?
There should be a new thread started titled "Ebay Alternatives" or something similar. That would be a great thread! :thumb: Ribbit
That's the detail many overlook. The suggestion of a one-day gas station boycott has come up many times since the first Arab oil embargo in 1973. Every time gasoline prices spike people want to "send a message" to the oil companies by getting everyone not to buy gas on a particular day. It didn't work then and it won't work now. Or ever. Practically all who participate in such a boycott will simply buy gas the day before or the day after the boycott. They still drive their normal amount on the day of the boycott. At the end of the week the oil companies will have sold just as much gasoline as if there had not been a boycott. The only way to send a real message to the oil companies (and the oil-producing countries) is to USE LESS GASOLINE. And not just for one day. Drive less day in and day out. Get rid of your Ford Excusion or Lincoln Navigator or Hummer and drive something more sensible. If you drive 12,000 miles a year your 12 MPG SUV will use 1,000 gallons of gas whereas if you drove a vehicle that averages 24 MPG you would only use 500 gallons of gas in a year. Just think - if 1,000,000 people junked their 12 MPG SUVs and started driving sensible 24 MPG vehicles there would be 500,000,000 more gallons of gasoline each year in the "national gas tank". Prices are usually determined by supply and demand. If demand is less (by more people driving more fuel-efficient vehicles) and supply is more (as shown above) then prices could be expected to fall. But it won't happen.
Or go without driving. But you do get the point that most miss; that changing when you buy something has no effect unless you reduce or eliminate the net amount you use. Else, you haven't actually done anything to hurt the company any and the boycott is useless. (Another problem with the gas/oil boycott is that it is a completely fungible commodity, but that analogy doesn't carry over to a service boycott lol so won't go into that...) Another meaningless boycott is when you boycott something you don't use anyway lol... why I'm not going to boycott eBay... I sell next to nothing there anyway (main reason is the listing/selling/PayPal fees, before the rate hikes, already make it pointless to sell low value items; selling an item for 99 cents for example actually results in a net LOSS after the fees! For a concrete example, I just sold a $3.70 sheet of stamps for face value and only cleared about $2 after the listing, final value, and PayPal fees were taken out.. worst ripoff is PayPal takes a portion of the shipping charge too, even though eBay only takes its fee off the value not counting the shipping charge...). I'll still buy on eBay ocassionally, but I almost never sell there anyway, not only because the fees are too high but I usually have nothing to sell anyway. Me boycotting eBay would be about as meaningful as saying I'm going to boycott Ferrari. Thirdly and fourthly I guess... the boyocott won't be effective unless enough join in on it and the target knows you're all doing it, and why. And that's why I don't think the boycott will mean much; too many people won't bother to participate. In the long run, most who boycott for one day will come back anyway, because face it, it's practically the only game in town, or almost so, and even at the higher fees there's no place you can get as many potential customers as eBay, so until there's a viable alternative or competition, eBay could care less if people take a day off. Besides, see the first reason... if enough people boycott for a month maybe you'd see a response... but a day won't mean anything, especially if everyone who takes the day off comes back the next day anyway. Same reason skipping a day getting gas won't do anything.
I started my own website, and it has been very positive. Con? Slow taking off but the hit meter is growing by the day. So far I have saved hundreds on commisions, the site has paid for itself in the 1st month for a years fees. Other options I have seen are CoinBug, CoinZip, ILikeCoins, all dot coms, and there are several others, you'll have to look around. I cannot comment because I have sold on none of them. Do some digging then post your results here !! EDIT: A hybrid or a small gas efficient transpo will not tow my boat up into the mountains.
#1: Open the yellow pages and find the nearest brick and mortar coin store. Er or do you mean selling alternatives, rather than buying lol? I'll probably still buy from eBay on ocassion because of the conveneince, and the ability to find things that interest me that are difficult or impossible to find in reasonably nearby b&m coin stores. Just purchased a German banknote on eBay that I couldn't find at any coin store within 10 miles of me. I just hope not many sellers desert eBay before an alternative just as good or better comes along... but until something like that exists, I imagine most will stick around.
Understood. I don't have a problem with that. What I am talking about is the soccer mom who drives a Hummer to the store to buy a bottle of water.
