eBay’s target is Amazon: you know how Amazon offers results “from other sellers”, or under the “more buying choices” heading? That service–offering a “storefront” so retailers can sell stuff in a place where people are already searching–is pretty profitable, and is where eBay sees its future. But to stand a chance in that market, eBay feels they need to have greater control over the sellers–they need to brand the experience as an “eBay” transaction and are getting away from the founding notion that “eBay just sets up a completely private transaction between two individuals”). They’d also rather have fewer sellers with more items each (and more expensive items) than have lots of sellers with a handful of items.

This does leave an opportunity, but not–realistically–for a niche target like “Scouting collectables”. Attic cleaners, estate sellers, and general purpose antique dealers are not apt to search out targeted sites for each category of collectable item they come across.

The real opportunity is for someone with an established presence (for the sake of discussion call them the “Amazin’ Web Store”) to decide to actively go after eBay in this market: create the “Amazin’ Collectibles” website within their existing store, make it easy for small and individual sellers to be Amazin’ sellers of collectibles, and add an auction mechanism. (If they really want to grab sellers, use a feature like Oak Tree used to have where the auction doesn’t end immediately if people are still actively bidding–I’m sure that would provide enough potential extra profit to draw sellers to Amazin’ and away from eBay.)

But it’s got to be a big enough player for the network effect to kick in at once (as niche auction sites have found, both buyer and seller prefer the site where “everyone else is” for obvious reasons). And while structured categories are important, and buyers don’t go too far afield from their particular collectible interest, an eBay competitor needs to have a broad enough spread of collectibles to be a one-stop option for general-interest antique and junk dealers.

Barring that, niche auctions sites may have to sprout up and take over. Hey John, how hard would it be to get some capital investment, software and equipment, and set one up just for scouting and OA collectibles? (remove tongue from cheek)

-Rob

I think that PRETTY much sums up MOST collector’s attitudes towards FLEA-Bay these days…

Bob McCanless >:-(
Pittsburgh

It works this way:

Buyer purchases a patch and pays with PayPal.
Seller puts patch in envelope and drops it in the mail.
Buyer receives patch, BUT claims patch was not received, and states as much to PayPal.
PayPal contacts Seller, stating Buyer did not receive patch, and does Seller have *proof* (insurance receipt, delivery confirmation) that the patch was shipped. Because Seller does not have the required proof, PayPal deducts money from Seller’s account and refund’s Buyer’s money.

Buyer has just gotten his patch for free, and Seller is out both money and patch.

This had been rumored for quite some time, as this was the policy for eBay Australia for a few months, until the Australian government put the kibosh on it, and it was eventually adjusted, to force sellers to offer Paypal as an option for puchases.
(http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23515926-15306,00.html, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/02/ebay_australia_paypal_battle/, http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/EBay_Australia's_PayPal_only_policy_blocked, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/04/ebay_australia_paypal/)

eBay UK has instituted a similar policy, requiring sellers to offer Paypal. (http://www.tamebay.com/2008/05/ebay-uk-sellers-must-offer-paypal-from-3rd-june.html)

I would expect a similar “clarification” to the new policy, prior to the implementation in October.

This may help give rise to sites like Wigix.com, which looks like it was set up along the same structure as eBay, with a few differences (BSA listings on eBay: 10,128. BSA listings on Wigix: 0).

Robert Mathis