question about buy it now motivation

[David Hill]

I've used ebay on and off for several years--even had a "store" at one time. The BIN is a big moneymaker for them. I much preferred the sending money orders so I didn't have to link ebay with any of my accounts---call me paranoid I guess (I Prefer cautious). I'm patient and didn't mind waiting until the end of auctions and either bidding then or watch the sniping. With what I was collecting at the time (old fishing lures), I did run across some shill type bidding---that was when you were able to look that up, but they've denied that access couple years ago. Now mostly ebay is just a source for stuff I can't get readily- machine/car parts, inlay material and the like.

[Mel Miller]

People love to complain about Ebay, and I do at times myself. However, Ebay is still the best out there. There are deals to be had, and instant gratification if you find a good BIN.
All you have to do is a little research before you hit the button if you don't already know what stuff is worth.
I never bid more than a few seconds before an auction listing ends. That just makes your bid a target for others interested in the same thing and drives prices up.
As a seller, I often receive offers on items. I can either accept the offer, or wait until the listing ends and sell privately which avoids fees.

[Brian Elfert]

...this is why I laugh at people that refuse to sell outside the "lower 48" (which in my book includes Hawaii and excludes Maine and Alaska, but I digress). They are losing $ because folks overseas will pay more- especially GB where the pound is strong.

One issue with international shipping is the much higher chance of loss of the package in transit. The seller is then on the hook for a large shipping cost plus the cost of the item. Ebay is very slanted towards buyers now and would just force the seller to refund the money to the buyer. Yes, there is insurance, but how much of a hassle will that be if the package went through the postal services of several countries along the way?

If a buyer claims an item wasn't in the condition as described to avoid payment then you could also be out a lot of money on an international shipment. If it costs $200 to ship versus $20 domestically that is a lot of money on the line. Most transactions will go fine, but enough go bad that a lot of sellers have abandoned Ebay. They don't want one bad buyer to cost them their profit for the week or the month. My brother sells a bit on Ebay and he has had people pull scams on him.

[David Weaver]

I don't know if it's the case for us selling internationally, but I know UK sellers will not ship things over a certain value to here without signed-for type shipping. that gives them tracking, and if the package disappears you get the money back from the post office as opposed to just eating it as the buyer.

I'd imagine ebay was in the middle of countless "i shipped it" vs. "no you didn't" vs. "I did ship it, but don't have tracking" arguments and put a stop to that to some extent.

My opposition, as a sometimes seller but much more often buyer, to overseas shipping that could take a while is that you could have that money in and out of your account and two months later get an email from someone claiming they received an empty box, or they broke what you sent and they claim they didn't notice it. I've had enough trouble with that kind of stuff domestically (one guy shipped back something that was $350, because near the end of the term he said his wife decided she didn't like his new sharpening stone, and he said he noticed a crack that I didn't disclose in it - of course there wasn't one, but what would happen is he'd complain and ebay would force me to refund his money. So weeks on after he gushed about how happy he was, I ended up refunding him because he got in trouble with his wife). Can you imagine trying to handle that stuff with someone who doesn't speak english?

Well, and as a buyer, I didn't get a pocket knife from japan. Never did. I got tracking that it made it to JFK and then someone there decided they liked it. Japan Post made a couple of inquiries but when no item turned up, they stopped checking in.

that's just part of the "ebay margin". You do a few hundred transactions, you write off the few that stink, it's part of the deal.