I just received an email about an MSNBC Report concerning Ebay. Looks as if the article is a bit old, but I am sure that many of the facts are still relevant to this day. Interesting article to say the least: Fraud on Ebay
That's not good, I honestly think that they should send you a report of sellers who are known to have fraudulent claims, as well as any new frauds that surface that not very many people are aware of.... Of course you can choose not to receive these e-mails, but, I think it would be a good idea for them to do that, there is a new auction site that was created by a collector, for selling coins, i've forgot the link, but, will post it at a later date when it actually takes off, there is only one seller on there right now, but, I think the layout of it is a good idea, and the person being a collector can hopefully stop fraud before it happens, especially in the beginning, the design of it needs to change ( black background with bright blue text ) But, overall, i'm hoping that the site takes off and does good.
New auction sites pop up almost daily, and none of them go anywhere for the simple reason that sellers sell where there are buyers, buyers go where there are sellers, and like it or lump it, EBay is where they are both present in substantial numbers. Although I've been regularly trolling both sites for the same length of time, my feedback rating on EBay is approaching 200 while my Yahoo rating is 17. As I write this there are 176,376 coin auctions on EBay - 228 of them under "Japan". There are 10,608 coin auctions on Yahoo, 7 of them under "Japan". There are hundreds of coin auction sites out there, at Error World, WINS, and many other club and organization sites; and at many, many commercial sites; but in the aggregate they probably process less than 1% of EBay's volume, and whether we like it or not, that isn't going to change any time soon.
I do yahoo as well as e-bay and have had better luck with yahoo.maybe because of less bidders.But I have made some good seller connections.
That's really my point. If you make the effort and spend the time hunting, as a buyer you can find some good deals on the non-Ebay auctions; but for sellers anything else is the pits.
Without violating the self promotion rules, I feel that there will be more niche auctions sites in the very near future. eBay is a company that has increased its pricing since it went public to the point that it is becoming too expensive to list coins and make a profit.. I think the future will see 100% niche sports online auctions, stamp auctions, women's only clothing auctions, and yes, 100% Numismatic Auctions with lower costs will grow and prosper. More online successful places to buy and sell coins helps all people interested in our hobby.
Getting back to the article, although some of the same problems exist, I think they exist in a much smaller scale with eBay taking a different stance on the fraud issues. Back in 2002, their response to anything that they didn't want to deal with was, "eBay is just a venue". I am seeing a lot less of that now. I am seeing solid evidence that eBay is attempting to take action. Powersellers may still be being given some preferential treatment, but I don't think it's as prevalent as it was. I have seen powersellers permanently suspended and I have seen powersellers have their powerseller status taken away due to low positive feedback percentage. I guess it all depends on how you look at it - is the glass half empty or half full? Rather than look at "what was", I prefer to look at "what is" and "what will be". Perhaps this makes me more optimistic than most, but until I see that progress has halted, I will continue to hope for a better future for eBay and its buyers.
I also hold out a little hope for Ebay. Since I have never used Ebay, my knowledge is only based on what I read and hear and see. A few sellers certainly stand out from the crowd. Tradernick and Susanlynn are perfect examples of the type of seller that should be sought out. I especially like the fact that some are actively seeking the opportunity to bring much needed change to the arena.
I humbly thank you, good sir, for the kind words. It is a shame that eBay waited so long to act to correct the problems. There are other sellers on eBay who also sell with honesty and integrity. You just don't hear about them as regularly as you hear about the scam artists. It's a shame but that has always been the nature of things.
