Mixed feelings for my one time favourite (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	24/10/08 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bargains, okay to sell more expensive things

Disadvantages: No longer worth selling cheaper items

Over the years since its introduction into our technological world, ebay has long been the standard bearer for online buying and selling. It's a great concept: a huge online shop where anyone can be the shopper and anyone can set up shop and sell their own things. Where in the real world can you get that other than a car boot sale or the like? Nowhere! And it's open 24/7, with the very rare occasion when it has to close for site maintenance, although this is usually done in the middle of the night when there are less likely to be a plethora of shoppers roaming the internet streets searching for a bargain.

ebay.co.uk has for a long time been a favourite site of mine. I even had it as my homepage for a while, particularly when I was selling quite a few things. However, I rarely use the site now, as I tend to sell smaller items and not on a hugely regular basis - it's a byline for me to get rid of unwanted items, not to make money in particular. Recent changes in the site's charges to buyers and sellers have meant that thousands of people in my situation no longer sell on the site because, by the time the final fee gets back to you, you've barely broken even, if at all - it's cheaper to chuck the thing away!

What this has done has supported the 'powersellers' as it were on the site, as they stand to make a larger profit; equally those selling larger items. I have a few examples I could use from my own selling experience: I sold a DVD for £2.50, including P&P costs. By the time insertion fees and final value fees had come off, and then a cut that Paypal took off the top for using them as a payment system, as well as the cost to send it, I was left with less than a pound. It was hardly worth it. Equally, I sold a much larger DVD box set, which sold for £100 inclusing P&P costs, and although after all the same costs had come off I was £10 shorter, I still made £90 on the item, which was an unwanted gift and actually cost me nothing!

Much has been made of the continued increase in prices for sellers' fees, and I do agree somewhat that it has become a less attractive place to sell for many people, including myself, but I know that if I have a more valuable item to sell, I can still make a decent profit from it on ebay. Smaller items I no longer bother with - there's just no point. The flipside to this is that there is a similar site, named ebid.co.uk, where there are no insertion fees and you actually get what you are paid for an item as opposed to the site skimming off the top every item. Many people have switched over to here if they have only small items.

Ultimately, I am still a fan of ebay. I still buy regularly from the site, as there are always some good bargains to pick up from there. The more expensive items I want to sell are still worth putting on there for me, so I do this. If I wanted to make this is permanent income from ebay, I would need to make sure that calculations are correct, and it would take up a lot of time and effort, and probably initial costs, and as this is not an option, I will remain quietly watching to make sure I bag myself a bargain and sell more expensive items at a decent profit. But for smaller items, it's a no no for me - it's just not worth it any more.

It's worth having a look at various arguments for and against ebay, and you'll find multiple for each side on here. Don't be discouraged by all the negative reviews you see here, and have a lookfor yourself, but also heed the warnings that these reviews send out, as most of them are valid. Similarly, the positive reviews on here also carry weight and are valid in their own right. ebay is a company, and a business, and it does need to make its money somehow. It's there as a tool so that we can buy and sell, just be careful to not get caught out. The truth and warnings are all out there - do your research and then get buying and selling and having fun.

Summary: Pros and cons for the well known online marketplace ebay