eBay? Success or waste of time?

[randomo]

While eBay is great for some types of items, domains are not among them.

It's bad for domain sellers because few domains sell, and the ones that do sell usually bring super-low prices.

It's bad for domain buyers because you have to wade through oceans of worthless junk to find half-interesting domains. (Yeah, you can search for domains that already have bids, which makes your search more efficient, but many eBay auctions get bids only at the last moment.)

I've picked up some decent bargains there, but - despite many listings - have never gotten a good price for a domain I was selling.

 

[Gerry]

So, retaliatory feedback is only when a buyer leaves feedback first followed by retaliatory feedback from the seller?

What a surprise. I was not aware that only sellers are most LIKELY to be dishonest or leave retaliatory feedback. Quite astonishing, actually. Has nothing to do with the new system of blocking the seller from leaving negative feedback for non-paying bidders. Glad to know that they are free to roam on ebay and continue on as if they are little darlings. Surely no one would take advantage of the seller.

 

[Gerry]

It was great, up until around 2004. Sold a few dozen domains there, and bought some good keyword domains from end-user sellers who tried to make a buck. Resold them at a healthy profit. These days, eBay is full of junk.

That's a good timeline. I've been on ebay since 1999 as both a buyer and seller. There were some good days on there buying names. I recall buying about 12 or 13 LLN.com for something like $68 or $73 bucks for the entire lot.

 

[Theo]

So, retaliatory feedback is only when a buyer leaves feedback first followed by retaliatory feedback from the seller?

What a surprise. I was not aware that only sellers are most LIKELY to be dishonest or leave retaliatory feedback. Quite astonishing, actually. Has nothing to do with the new system of blocking the seller from leaving negative feedback for non-paying bidders. Glad to know that they are free to roam on ebay and continue on as if they are little darlings. Surely no one would take advantage of the seller.

My thoughts exactly. Instead of keeping the 'nukes' available for both buyer and seller in the event of a screwy situation, eBay decided that the buyer is always right, thus cutting its time of mediation.

 

[MAllie]

. . . believe it or not, friend.com sold for $100 on Jan. 2nd:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...d=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&LH_Complete=1&afsrc=1

I wouldn't believe it, frankly. And 33 bids to get to just $100? Must be a mistake somewhere. Possibly in the spelling of the domain name, making it different from what it appears to be. I'd be interested to hear the true story.

 

[Gerry]

My thoughts exactly. Instead of keeping the 'nukes' available for both buyer and seller in the event of a screwy situation, eBay decided that the buyer is always right, thus cutting its time of mediation.

This must be instituted as an attempt to attract more buyers to ebay since it has been losing some traction (and revenue). That's fine. But did they forget that they do not make a single penny off of the buyer? It is the seller who pays fees to ebay and paypal, not the buyer. So I'm not sure why they would want to shoot themselves in the foot (perhaps head) by driving sellers away.

By the way...all negatives I have ever had in my 12 years on ebay is retaliatory feedback with the overwhelming majority from (egad...) deadbeat buyers.

 

[Gerry]

I wouldn't believe it, frankly. And 33 bids to get to just $100? Must be a mistake somewhere. Possibly in the spelling of the domain name, making it different from what it appears to be. I'd be interested to hear the true story.

Did you notice the name is FriendPick.com. The title is misleading. It is keyword spamming and misleading title, both against ebay's listing policies.

 

[TBC]

I don't no why I'm touting Ebay today. I guess I'm somewhat amused to see the world's most popular auction platform being dismissed out-of-hand.
"I'm fond of the quote: In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's there are few."
Here's another link - believe it or not, friend.com sold for $100 on Jan. 2nd:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...d=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&LH_Complete=1&afsrc=1

Hi robmgf, just checked out the link, yes, it is actually very deceiving, the eBayer wrongly put friend.com in the title, when in actual fact the domain sold was friendpick.com!!

 

[robmgf]

Interesting. Especially when you notice that friend.com was renewed on the same day of the sale.

 

[Gerry]

Don't read any more into that other than a coincidence.

The domain for sale on ebay was FriendPick. My guess is someone was doing a search for dropping or expiring prime names and got his inspiration to reg some. Clearly the singular is a seven figure name.

The one on ebay's creation date was 12-15-2012.

 

[Gerry]

update: 39 items sold (not domains), 6 non-payments. Slightly >15%.

 

[DomainJealousy]

ebay could have been a great platform for domain sales and maybe sometime in the future it will be. I'm a newbie domainer and have had some early sucess with it. Bought a high search dot com for $16 and sold a few weeks later on sedo for $300. I've also made three sales on ebay in the past few weeks of between $25 and $80 and have just started listing a lot more on there.