How to get eBay's attention?

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It's somewhere in the your account page, under subscriptions I believe. They will charge you a fee though if your store isn't expiring at the end of the month if you had a yearly store

 

I think you actually get the rest of the month anyways but yea that's no big deal. Sales cratered when they switched to their own system anyways

 

Like it or not they still are the 900 pound gorilla in a lot of areas. Losing higher end coins to auction sites won't really matter to them as they will make far more off their own payment system then they will lose. That said they have never been as successful as they should be and the idea is just so good that decades of mismanagement has been able to survive

 

They'll probably always have a strangle hold on the 20-30 dollar and under market too. World coins they could lose ground in but they are by far the best for that currently. They've never really seemed to figure out that at least for coins most of the buyers will at least dabble in selling and if you turn them off of that many will just stop using it all together

 

How do people buy and sell coins before eBay and the internet? I guess by visiting their LCS and through magazine ads?

 

What basically changed ? I never understood this Managed Payment System.

I only buy there, I still have PayPal and other options to pay.

 

Things moved glacially. Even in the late-1990's most dealers used Fax lists of inventory.

Today, you email blast hundreds of people/dealers with high-resolution, high-def pictures of the coins.

 

The old SASE for a list of products. Some may be too young to remember sending a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope and get a list of coins or stamps for sale.

 

Some have no idea how glorious it is to see images of what your buying. Even less than ideal images are better than those "one jug over the line" price lists from the 80's.

 

I was ready to close my eBay store and move on, but changed my mind after a conversation with an eBay rep. They allow coins, bullion, and paper money now. And the managed payments system is not difficult to navigate.

ONE POSITIVE: I actually really like how they take out their final value fee with each transaction rather than letting them add up for a month. One less monthly bill for me to think about and a bottom line profit/loss for each coin that is easier to calculate.

ONE NEGATIVE: As Mike eluded to, it takes between 2 and 4 days for each transaction to clear to my bank account. So it slows down the money flow. And since cash flow and quick flips are pretty essential in the coin business, it makes things more annoying.

 

Actually, I believe it was much easier before eBay, with numerous magazines, LCS, Yahoo (thousands of sales personally), word of mouth, coin shows, inexpensive auctions, etc..

I had a long list of people from around the world who wanted relatively expensive U.S. coins, and people seemed more trustworthy.

Auction fees were much lower, and scarce coins seemed far more accessible.

It was a great time, except for the bankruptcies caused by government intervention and believed unrealistic consumers. A BM dealer could tell a naive troublesome customer "go look in the Numismatic News, etc., I'm sure you'll find what you want".

JMHO

 

Ebay started in 1998, and really before that Yahoo was known to very few individuals. It was mostly used for Search and Stock Quotes.

Auction fees have remained "sticky" on the upside but I think a few new entrants charging 5-10% commissions could really pressure the bigger houses to at least trim their excessive fees.

 

I remember staring at the Littleton catalog for hours on end as a kid. Dreaming of being able to buy $20 gold coins when they were sub $400.

 

People were exposed to significantly less inventory and coin types before the internet

The big houses won't ever lower them. They use them as leverage to get big high dollar consignments. It sounds like you're getting a better deal when you get Hammer plus 5% then if they just say they will give you hammer and charge 10% buyers fee. The higher the fees the more wiggle room they have