Ebay -Growing Or Going Under ?

[inflames]

i just read an article about ebay (cant remember the link and i just closed the box on accident) seems like the worlds largest online auction site is having problems ... customer service seems to be at an all time low . prices keep going up with the service remaining the same ... it seems like ebay customers are on the edge .... i think all it would take is someone with a few thousands dollars hell maybe even a few hundred dollars to open an online auction site that would put the final nails into ebay's coffin ... if an another auction site is going to do it now would be the time / offer lower listing fees , commissions and great customer service ... im pretty sure at this point in the game thats all it would take to make customers make the switch .

anyone have any thoughts on this ?
curious to here others opinions on the whole ebay thing
thanks

 

[Zeeble]

Im sorry to put it this way but personally I don't think that you could be further from the truth. eBay is a growing company and will continue to grow for a good few years to come. It would take someone with more like a few hundred million to put even a few nails in ebay's coffin. I would suggest that all people check out eBay's financial position:
In the whole of 2003 eBay concolidated an income of $2.17 billion and the number of listings was up by 57% on 2002.
now lets take a look at 2004 eBay concolidated net revenues of $3.72 billion in 2003 and had 1.4 billion listings which is up 45% on last.
That is some serious cash flow and it would take a very large corp to knock them off their #1 spot.

 

[dc1pop]

eBay will go down one day i can see it. They are forever putting up price's which makes it pointless to list certain things.

 

[Sabre]

Maybe they will go down one day, but i cant see that day coming for the considerable future.... it would take something BIG to knock them down.....

 

[Zeeble]

Of course they will come down some day, but I would put that at about 10-15 years from now....
Its like supermarkets, they all take a turn at the top. But the thing is that the other "big" auction sites have A LOT of catching up to do before they get a turn at the top. Am I right in saying that eBay has over 100 million members? whats the next biggest auction site?

 

[Sabre]

I dont know any other auction sites comparable to Ebay..... as i only use Ebay as its the most well known one, so most choice etc.!

 

[CrazyTech]

I don't think that they're going under, personally. However, I can say that their customer support is lacking at best since most inquiries have gone 24-36 hours beyond their promised timeframe. Not to mention a staff member that was clearly uneducated on their own rules. I think they are having a little trouble internally with staff but nothing suggests they're going under to me.

 

[HHDomains]

i think all it would take is someone with a few thousands dollars hell maybe even a few hundred dollars to open an online auction site that would put the final nails into ebay's coffin ... if an another auction site is going to do it now would be the time / offer lower listing fees , commissions and great customer service ... im pretty sure at this point in the game thats all it would take to make customers make the switch .

Sorry to say this, but if you actually believe someone with a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars could overturn a company like Ebay then you are delusional.
To even make a run at Ebay you would need financing in the millions of dollars.

 

[Zeeble]

Sorry to say this, but if you actually believe someone with a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars could overturn a company like Ebay then you are delusional.
To even make a run at Ebay you would need financing in the millions of dollars.

Hundreds of millions.
OK so if ebays support isn't as good as they promise, would you agree that it is better than most other auction sites?

 

[inflames]

hmmmm well if you want to throw numbers around zeeble

A University of Michigan survey released last week found that the Web site's user satisfaction declined 4.7 percent in 2004.

During the past month, eBay's shares have fallen 16 percent

New fees

Gallery photo: 35 cents, up 10 cents

10-day auction: 40 cents, up 20 cents

Buy It Now: 20 cents for items listed at $25 to $49.99, up 15 cents

Monthly Store subscriptions: $15.95, up $6.00

Commissions for Stores: 8 percent on items that sell for $25 or less, up from 5.25 percent

Sources .. ebay.com sfgate.com

ebay may not fall to the ground but they will lose most of their stores since they are taking the biggest screwing ....

and with someone starting another auction site , its the net anything is possible...


overstock.com <--- seems to be growing very well at any one time they have about 50,000 auctions going ... they DO however have some problems to work on but i believe they are going to give ebay a run for their money

 

[Mark]

Not that I put much faith in these stats usually .... but their pageviews etc ... are down this year :

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=379&h=216&r=2y&y=r&u=ebay.com/&u=

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=379&h=216&r=2y&y=t&u=ebay.com/&u=

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=379&h=216&r=2y&y=p&u=ebay.com/&u=

But ~ I don't think the folks over there will be looking for minimum wage Jobs any time soon

 

[inflames]

oh i agree with u 1oo% all4cost ... they arent going to be looking for min wage jobs

i guess in all what i am trying to say is that Ebay is starting to get sloppy
and by the looks of the price increase a bit greedy

 

[deu12000]

I don't think any auction site can give them a run for their money. There are other big auction sites like yahoo, bidville, etc...None of them come even close to having the amount of users on and items as ebay. It's hard to beat number 1 and so far no one is even close. Ebay is the most expensive auction site out, but you are also a lot more likely to sell your item there than anywhere else.

 

[Zeeble]

well lets just see how they do at the end of this next quarter.... satisfaction may be down, but I would say that probably 70-80% of web users arn't even aware that other auction sites exist and all go to ebay. eBay is so big that they have their affiliate scheme has made some people millionaires.... The auction market is van oligopoly with eBay as the biggest market leader which makes it very hard for any other auction sites to get a slice of the pie without investing alot of money.

 

[inflames]

i agree zeeble it does make it hard on any other site that tries to get a slice of the pie . but i also think that other sites will make some sort of move now that they see people getting upset (99% of them being the store owners with the price changes)and things slowing down for ebay . maybe it will work for them or maybe ebay is just to far ahead in the game already i guess only time will tell

 

[Zeeble]

you said it yourself, 99% of them being the store owners, they will go elsewhere then go back to eBay because they don't sell half at all the other auction sites put togehter.... I also think that eBay is just being crafty, they recognise that at the moment they have little or no competition and can therefore charge high fees which is a well know business stratagy, and as soon as a competitor gets too big they will either buy them out or have to adopt a different marketing stratagy.

 

[True_Snake]

I think it's just a down time for eBay. Every business has ups and downs, and thats part of being a business. I think eBay is very strong, and it'll take another site with a huge weight to topple eBay, and so I don't think eBay is done just yet.

My opinon:gl:!


True_Snake

 

[Qwert]

From what I've heard, overstock.com's auction site is comming up quite fast...

 

[IAmAllanShore]

eBay is the brand name.
No other auction site will be able to compete any time soon without something dramatic happening (Mr. Buffet investing in it, for instance).
However, use is leveling off, new user increase by a % is dropping exponentially. More and more folks will go elsewhere for online shopping as the economic realities of such a broad market reach are felt; and as more and more people are burned by PayPal and eBay "customer service".
My hope, on a personal level, is that it dies.
-Allan

 

[SpareDomains]

ebay & paypal are going nowhere soon, it's a household name, could someone give them a run for the money sure but that would be a huge investment to take a chance on. (godaddy auctions) with commercials from the godaddy girl coming soon :lol: