As I listed a few items on eBay last month, I could hardly believe that it has been nearly 2 years since I walked away from my online retailing. The transition wasn’t easy–I gave up nearly $20,000 in income (for my first full year in business), and decided that I would prefer blogging and writing over retailing. Of course, my blogging income has been much lower than that starting out, but I hope to soon boost it up by taking on some paid posts, freelance writing, and more.
Anyway, back to eBay. I just really don’t like eBay. I still sell items there on rare occasions (personal items mostly), but I try to avoid them when possible.
It all started when the removed the ability to sell digital products. That really sucked because a small portion of my income came from a few eBooks I wrote. So that was strike one. That one made so many sellers angry.
Next, they alienated their sellers by removing the ability to leave negative feedback. Take it from someone who knows–some buyers absolutely deserve negative feedback. I had some buyers who were nightmares. The terrible experiences I had with them made me despise eBay, especially when I had no recourse and had to accept getting scammed. You would be shocked to read some of the absurd emails that popped into my inbox from people. eBay will do one thing for sure: They will let you know that there are nutters in this world.
Finally, eBay’s ever rising fees, and daily rule changes was enough to make me want to throw in the towel. So I did just that. Everything was a hassle anyway: Creating eBay listings, managing your inventory, dealing with 1,000 dumb questions per day (most of which were already answered if they had just read the listing), shipping packages, bookkeeping was a nightmare, etc.
I was earning an okay amount of money for just starting out, but it wasn’t worth the effort and frustrations that came along with it.
Since leaving eBay as a full-time business, I am so much happier. I don’t have to deal with rude people, silly questions, and get scammed by dishonest buyers looking to get free stuff.
Why eBay is Dying a Slow Death
I have blogged in the past about why I think eBay will die a slow death. I think this death process is already happening. People rarely use eBay anymore, and when they do, it is almost always an aggravation.
Even though I list about 5-10 items per year, it is still an annoyance dealing with people on eBay. The company is trying to compete with Amazon, which is kind of silly considering Amazon is completely different. What made eBay great was the novelty experience. You could find or buy just about anything. Buyers could find unique items that they couldn’t find anywhere else. Sellers could make a good living selling junk they didn’t need.
Now, eBay is targeting bigger business. What does this mean? Less unique, and more boring stuff we can find on any old website. To me, this strategy is silly. Rather than compete with Amazon, why not just be an auction site? Why try to be a Retail site? Doesn’t make sense.
If only a big company would come and challenge eBay. I would give anything if Google would do it. That would be amazing. I would actually consider doing some retail on the side again. But I will never do it full-time with eBay. Never!
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Posted under eBay
This post was written by Ben on March 13, 2010
