Has Ebay lost its fun side? (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: chris_14

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	09/09/09 (31 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good source of rare items

Disadvantages: expensive fees

I have been using Ebay since 2005 for both buying and selling and have to say im becoming addicted!

I now find myself more often that not turning to Ebay as a first point of call for any online shopping. However i have often seen that although you may think Ebay is a cheap place to make online purchases you will soon find that there are many online retailers that sell the same products as ebay for alot cheaper.

I personally think that Ebay lost some of its character when it worked purely on "auction" style listing as opposed to the hundreds of shops that now operate on Ebay. This takes the fun out of it slightly as mostly these shops list items with buy it now prices whereas i used to enjoy the thrill of watching your item your bidding on finishing with a bidding war.

This is not to say that this still doesnt exist, the bidding style auctions are there just not in the same entiraty as before, i beleive that alot of users have also caught onto the small tricks in order to ensure that win the item they like, for example being a silent bidder until a few seconds to go when they put in there highest bid. Although this can be avoided if you set a price you want to pay and bid up to that maximum.

This is not to say Ebay is a bad site, i still use it often and i also enjoy selling items on Ebay however i feel that Ebay fees have been pushed too high, for example i recently sold something for £250 which cost me £26 to sell this added with a £8 fee to use paypal takes £36 of your selling price which is significant amount.

My personal opinion is that Ebay has lost its fun side and turned into profit orientated website. As i said before this is not to say i think its a bad site as it does have many advanatages and i would continue to use it.

Summary: A great website for sourcing rarer and hard to find items