The State Of Ebay

[syntheticrhyme]

Many fellow members probably know me from selling domains on Ebay. I must say, in the years I've been selling on Ebay, I've never seen the market for domains in such a terrible state (speaking on ebay, end user sales are still ok). Domains which i've previously sold on ebay within the past few years in the $100-200 range where the owner let them expire, and I re-registered and relisted, are now selling for below reg fee. Add this to increasing ebay fees and politics and it does not leave much incentive for staying on Ebay. I've been forced to downsize (i had 4 employees at one point). Right now it is a buyers market (if you can sift through the countless pages of useless Michael Jackson domains on ebay, you are sure to find many hidden gems.

 

[telking]

i dunno man 99.9% of domains on ebay are useless. Although every once and a while a dictionary .com or LLL shows up

 

[syntheticrhyme]

i dunno man 99.9% of domains on ebay are useless. Although every once and a while a dictionary .com or LLL shows up

Ebay is not really the place to buy lll or premium 1 word generics. But for good 2 keyword domains, there are many sellers who frequent namepros and sell on ebay with a good portfolio. One of the problems is that it is flooded with many pointless names from newbies, but that has always been the case.

 

[Broker]

I was going to list a domain last week and it said $14 listing fee, I cancelled it immediatley.

 

[mjbenterprises]

I think the same is true at all auction venues: SEDO, ebay, and all the rest....

 

[Jaco]

Ebay has turned into a catastrophe due to internal decisions and policies, but then again, the DUMBEST listings on the entire site are unquestionably in the domain section. I mean, ask a random net-savvy person to show you an example of a stupid ebay listing, half of them will immediately search "domain name" and "highest price first".

Sad- when I was younger, ebay was like a money tree, but for a number of reasons (including the novelty of being able to buy useless crap from the comfort of your living room wearing off of the masses) it isn't anymore and I very rarely use it to buy, almost NEVER use it to sell anything.

 

[mosilager]

Many fellow members probably know me from selling domains on Ebay. I must say, in the years I've been selling on Ebay, I've never seen the market for domains in such a terrible state (speaking on ebay, end user sales are still ok). Domains which i've previously sold on ebay within the past few years in the $100-200 range where the owner let them expire, and I re-registered and relisted, are now selling for below reg fee. Add this to increasing ebay fees and politics and it does not leave much incentive for staying on Ebay. I've been forced to downsize (i had 4 employees at one point). Right now it is a buyers market (if you can sift through the countless pages of useless Michael Jackson domains on ebay, you are sure to find many hidden gems.

Why don't yo try and sell some of these domains here on NP's, might get a good price for them, and no listing fee!.:D

 

[syntheticrhyme]

Why don't yo try and sell some of these domains here on NP's, might get a good price for them, and no listing fee!.:D

yes, I have in the past and may go back and try it out again

 

[eFingerz]

ahh yes i know you from eBay and have bought many domains from you in the past :P
You were my favorite seller on ebay the only one i have in my saved sellers list in my 8+ years on ebay
you always have had good quality domains and great prices
it has been awhile since i have purchased or sold anything on ebay
anyway thanks for all the great domains
and hope things get better for you in the eBay market and you continue to provide great domains
PeAcE

 

[BizBot]

Here's a few of the ridiculous names for sale on eBay today:

michaeljacksoninthenews.com - $21,000,000.00
MichaelJacksonAddicts.com - $3,500,000.00
KITCO.TEL - $21,000,000.00
BarackMadeHistory.com - $21,000,000.00
PizzaObama.com - $5,000,000
AMERICANEXPRESS.ME - $3,333,333 (TM isssue)
DHAandARA.com - $1,000,000.00

There's hundreds more I could list. Most names for sale on eBay are not worth .99 much less $1,000,000+.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Your business model rocked!

Syn

you are a wonderful asset to Ebay.

Bought many names from you in the past and like clockwork you provided the best customer service with a fast push and a fast feedback. Sorry to hear the place has slid off the cliff like the rest of the economy. If you can't pull it off the place really is dead.

Good luck to you, hopefully you find another niche.

I am thinking give it a shot in a couple months.

The White house administration is getting the sheepeople ready for another shearing with false economic reports and I suspect the stock market will rise and suckers will start buying again. Of course they will also take a big bath in a short time as the market will drop to 6,000 after the little sprurt rally. So during this suckers market everyone will be in a little better buying mood and names will start selling again. That is until the big drop.

Roderick

 

[labrocca]

Ebay has sucked more and more ever since their IPO. I would love to see internal stats for growth. I can't imagine they are gaining sellers...most everyone I know that was selling years ago has left. Amazon is a better marketplace but unfortunately they don't have domains for sale there.

 

[syntheticrhyme]

Syn

you are a wonderful asset to Ebay.

Bought many names from you in the past and like clockwork you provided the best customer service with a fast push and a fast feedback. Sorry to hear the place has slid off the cliff like the rest of the economy. If you can't pull it off the place really is dead.

Good luck to you, hopefully you find another niche.

I am thinking give it a shot in a couple months.

The White house administration is getting the sheepeople ready for another shearing with false economic reports and I suspect the stock market will rise and suckers will start buying again. Of course they will also take a big bath in a short time as the market will drop to 6,000 after the little sprurt rally. So during this suckers market everyone will be in a little better buying mood and names will start selling again. That is until the big drop.

Roderick

Thank you for your kind words and everyone's support and interest. Hopefully the economy will get back on track. I've witnessed a few spikes before (when the stock market crashed and when gas prices peaked at record levels, it seemed sales dropped for about 1 week, then they went back up. But now, the economy is in such bad shape that people are using extreme caution when buying anything. On a brighter note (as I have said before), I stress to everyone to try and develop their domains. The number of advertisers on the google network and general search engine traffic is on the rise. If it was not for my hundreds of developed websites I have, it would be hard to weather the storm right now. So be sure to develop as many domains as you can (as opposed to just parking them)

 

[Domainace]

Sorry to see you are getting hit, too. Scaling up on Ebay like you have takes some real organization, and you were a good role model.

Like you said, though, there isn't much recently to scale up. I recently bought a 3 word domain on Ebay with 5,400 exact searches on Google...for $1. It's already up with a simple page and earning adsense, and paid for itself within the week. The thing was, it was listed properly - it wasn't one of those screwed up listings that nobody saw.

Still, it's one way to meet buyers and it will pick up again when domain names are rediscovered by the masses (and when the masses have money).

Thanks for posting.

 

[DubDubDubDot]

The quality of domains on eBay has taken a severe nosedive during most of this year. I don't think I'm the only one who used to scan 100% of the daily listings, but now scans a much smaller number due to being so uninterested with the offerings.

 

[harkster]

I have not heard anyone have anything good to say about eBay in any capacity in over a year, that is, relating to how they treat their partners when dealing with them, fees or otherwise.
.

I will say something good. I get $xxx most every month from their affiliate program.

I have had an account with eBay since since Jan-21-98 but have neither sold or bought anything there for years. In those early years it was a buyers dream. I was running an antiques and Collectibles business then - a lot easier than out there beating the streets every day. From my perspective it went to hell not long after their IPO.

 

[bloggerer]

It's because of those *****s that try to sell at impossible prices that normal people can't sell their domains at a decent price anymore. It's just this saturation of domains that people are dropping, it's all to do with the recession and also the new domains coming in.

 

[elias75]

ebay has been giving sellers a hard time. I also know too many who left ebay to explore other alternatives.... guess what? More than half of them are back on ebay and being very careful of how & what they are selling. It is clear that for the last year or so, ebay is trying to reduce the amount of sellers. At the same time, ebay is hoping to rise the quality of the offered services. There are many scums out there both sellers & buyers.....
IMO ebay is such a strong brand that is near impossible to compete them. At the same time the amount of crap listings (especially domains & SEO services) is ridiculous. I wonder all those sellers that list really bad domains for x.xxx & xx.xxxx and higher (that never sell by the way) don't they care about the listing fees?
I have been selling on ebay for quite some time now under different ID's and also I have been setting up ebay stores for a couple of other business.... I still feel ebay can provide many opportunities for both sellers & buyers. Buyers should try to promote their listings outside of ebay and sellers should invest more time going through dust to find a little perl!
It is like going to flea markets or car boot sales: you go through loads of junk but in the end you get to find this something that really worths a lot (for you)