I’ve pondered quite a bit lately about how Ebay has impacted toy collectors and their associated communities online. Ebay has some pretty rotten practices in place to be sure. They were a little more friendly back before they acquired Paypal and back when Yahoo auctions was giving them a run for their money, but they still provide some valuable services.
I’ve thought about this a lot as of late because I’ve been buying up a lot of Sigma 6 figures. I got into them in 2007, just as the line was wrapping up. As you may or may not know, the last of the line saw the light of day in 2008, which means you won’t find these anymore at your local Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, Target, etc. It makes getting them pretty tough. Ebay to the rescue.
Some people don’t do Ebay, but for someone like me who has such diverse toy interests, it really makes sense…especially in the event that you get into a line a little late.
Based on the sheer number of toys available on Ebay and based on the amount of people bidding against me at any given time, I would guess that Ebay has had a huge impact on the growth of toy collector and customizer communities.
Despite its flaws and sometimes shady business practices, Ebay has helped the growth of many toy communities online even if some people aren’t aware of it. I would like to see some legit competition for Ebay though in order to keep them from raising prices and offering less value to users.
Things Ebay could do to stay ahead in this game:
1. Pay attention when buyers or sellers report auction violations – This is so simple and they constantly drop the ball on this. On a number of occasions I have reported the same spammer posting in the action figures category with things that are NOT remotely action figures. They are 1:1 scale costume accessories. It’s ridiculous that Ebay leaves them there. They allow it, because they make no money from pulling them, only from sales. Please visit that link up there and let me know if I’m the one that is missing something about those torn up panty hose being “action figures”.
2. Allow buyers to BLOCK sellers. Allow sellers to BLOCK buyers. – They have it in place so you can disallow bids from people with zero feedback. Wow. Great. How about letting me block bids from people under 90% feedback or under 10 total feedback ratings or allowing me to block users newer than 30 days? If I’m a buyer and I see the same overpriced junk for sale from the same seller with the same overpriced shipping, why can’t I filter that seller out of my results?
3. SHOPPING CART!!!! – Come ON already… how long is this going to take? Why can there NOT be a shopping cart with items cued up? Click buy and it buys them all at once and if from different sellers, you can pay individually still…or better yet, since it’s probably done via Paypal, why can’t I pay ONE total to Paypal and they take care of the paperwork? It’s such an outdated method. It works for auctions sure…if you’re only buying a couple things. These days with all the stores on Ebay and all the “buy it now” options, a shopping cart should be mandatory.
4. Stop gouging buyers with your double dipping. – You’re getting listing fees, sales fees, picture fees…why do you need to stick people with fees at Paypal too? You already OWN Paypal…just because it has a different name, doesn’t mean the money isn’t going to Ebay. Stop double dipping. You already have the best business model anywhere…you have NO inventory, you are not required to ship items, you don’t need to approve ANYTHING aside from the account creation.
Just some friendly suggestions should Ebay actually care about being the “best” instead of just the “biggest”.
In closing, I still believe Ebay is a very valuable tool in collecting and building online hobby-based communities.
