Has ebay peaked?

I am a listed seller on ebay, but I haven't transacted for six months. The fees imposed by Paypal and eBay eliminate most of any profit--as others have said. To me, eBay seems to have become just a huge collection of Powersellers mostly selling crap from China.

Hi, i do some small business on ebay and find that while id rather not pay fees at all, the 10% or so all up is a reasonable fee for such exposure to traffic. I think if 10% is too much overhead you wont be successful at operating a real store either where overheads are much higher, traffic is less and your price must be higher. In answer i think ebay wont peak it will always be with us and there is too much money at stake for them to allow it to fall apart or become unviable for sellers. I would like to see a major rival grow up though and have some competition and choice for buyers and sellers alike. cheers

i totally agree and now only use it cos i dont have much time to shop or transport to get it ba ck home-there are very few bargains now-postage is a rip off and the feedback system is a joke-and unless your selling dear stuff theres no money to be made-if ebay helped you more ie support when things go wrong then maybe ... but they dont care

I totally agree with you - ebay are digging their own grave with all their new rules. Have you noticed the announcement today that all power sellers will be obliged to take returns if need be.

My gf still sells stuff on ebay regularly. She doesn't have a store or anything; she mostly sells clothes she no longer wears (or never wore) and stuff like that. She has made a good amount of extra money from selling on ebay, so I would say that it is still a great way to make money "on the side"...not so sure if it's great for someone who is trying to use it as a primary source of income.

well with the biggest recession since 1920 heading this way i feel it will come into its own as folk will want bargins and shops usually can't compare

Yep, it is very rare that you find the bargains you used to - I always browse USED items only, as new ones might as well be from Amazon or local shops. It is now crammed with people selling thousands of listings at a time for cheap, low quality products (eg. batteries) and getting away with incorrect categories. In some instances, ebay has pushed the price of used goods sky-high, books and records for example. Once 20p from local stands, they are now easily searched for and sold for £5.00 +. Certainly lost its magical appeal.

I agree, there is still the odd bargain from a casual seller but most of it is overpriced new goods these days I have seriously tried a couple of times to sell on ebay but whats the point when they take the lions share of your profit margin? Have a go on cqout, it seems to be ebay as it should be and is very popular

Yeah Ebay just doesnt care anymore they are soo comfortable in their own monopoly that they dont care about the little people, anyone feelimg like this should try the site i am using now - its called www.specialistauctions.com, its not as big as Ebay (yet) Its free to list iems, free to add photos, and also free to open a shop on the site - the only fee is 3% of the final sale price which is mega cheap compared to Ebay - have alook!