The Video Game Critic

I was have a discussion with my friend Scott the other day after skyrocketing prices on Ebay.  It used to be that you could buy a lot of stuff for under $5 (plus shipping).  Now it seems like people don't want to bother selling something unless they can earn $10-20 bucks on them.  Everything is so expensive.

Scott pointed out that this is the result of Ebay heaping on fees in recent years.  In order to make it worth the seller's while, they now need to sell an item at a high price.  That made sense to me.

Anybody else notice this trend?

I stopped using eBay over the last couple of years. You just don't find fun deals anymore...everything seems to be too expensive (too many fixed priced listings rather than auctions), crappy quality (too many knock off items), or a chore to find (too much crap people list that they wouldn't have in the past).

eBay makes most of its money now on the final value fees rather than insertion fees, so people just list garbage on the site hoping that it sells. 

I'll buy stuff elsewhere, thank you.

I made a similar post not too long ago complaining about the same thing.  Ebay used to be a boon to video game collectors/retro gamers.  Now its a pain to find something that isn't "buy it now" for some crazy high price.  Also whenever you list something on ebay they give you recent prices that same item sold for...so you're less likely to find some idiot selling his old copy of M.U.S.H.A. starting at $1 (no reserve).

There are still deals to be had on ebay, you just have to look MUCH harder for them.  Patience is absolutely necessary to get the most out of it.

Ebay remains the place I go for my retro games; sometimes Amazon. It was definitely a lot easier to find good deals on ebay several years ago than it is today. I don't like the new format they've gone to, and I think a lot of sellers are unhappy with their fee setup. I know when I sell on ebay I get pretty annoyed with it. I think they're ripe for some new competition, and I hope some entrepreneurial soul will come in and start something even better. Until then, ebay remains "pretty good", though certainly not great like they used to be.

I always go to amazon instead of eBay because of the prices. The only reason I would shop at eBay for something is if it isn't available at amazon or if it is a Sega cd game.

[QUOTE=Gecko101]I always go to amazon instead of eBay because of the prices. The only reason I would shop at eBay for something is if it isn't available at amazon or if it is a Sega cd game.[/QUOTE]

Amazon also charges a large fee for even very small sales.  I recently started selling a bunch of things on half.com and amazon.com, and half.com's fees for a seller was so much less it had my head spinning.

eBay's final value sale fees are much lower than both of them.  There are listing fees, but those are usually anywhere from 50 cents to a nickel now that including photos is free.  I'm not sure the trend in question can be boiled down just to eBay fees.

[QUOTE=m0zart][QUOTE=Gecko101]I always go to amazon instead of eBay because of the prices. The only reason I would shop at eBay for something is if it isn't available at amazon or if it is a Sega cd game.[/QUOTE]

Amazon also charges a large fee for even very small sales.  I recently started selling a bunch of things on half.com and amazon.com, and half.com's fees for a seller was so much less it had my head spinning.

eBay's final value sale fees are much lower than both of them.  There are listing fees, but those are usually anywhere from 50 cents to a nickel now that including photos is free.  I'm not sure the trend in question can be boiled down just to eBay fees.[/QUOTE]

Comparison of eBay's fixed-price fees and Amazon's fees for videogames (since Amazon doesn't do auctions, let's compare apples to apples) in the U.S.:

eBay:
$0.50 insertion fee + 13% of total sale amount up to a $50 sale price (then 5% from anything from $50 to $1000)
Most sellers use PayPal, so add on an additional 2.9% of total sale + $0.30 transaction fee
That comes to 15.9% of total sale price (up to a $50 sale price) + $0.80

Amazon:
15% + $1.35 (variable closing fee) + $0.99 (fixed closing fee)
(Consoles are lower: 8% + $1.35 (variable closing fee) + $0.99 (fixed closing fee)) 

Of course there are different promotions and discounts for high volumes sellers, but let's stick to the "little" sellers.

I'm not sure I'd call eBay's fees "much lower" than Amazon's.

I've stopped using ebay for reasons already stated. I used to love watching .99 cent auctions & bidding on them.

Well, eBay just got worse for buying games. They just redesigned and you can no longer choose platforms older than the PS2 to narrow searches (can someone please tell me if I'm missing something!!!!). Unless I'm not seeing something, this is the worst change yet.