Originally posted by: fs5
Originally posted by: darkxshade
Hopefully google will give ebay a run for it's money by creating their own auction site to go with their new "paypal killer" because ebay has been going downhill for a long time as is paypal.
ebay is unstoppable. They will just lower their fees if they feel pressure from google. Buyers go where the sellers are and sellers go where the buyers are, rather catch 22. (can't get buyers w/o sellers, can't get sellers w/o buyers)
Where ebay is vulnerable is in the specialized and higher-value categories. Those will be the first to jump ship if someone else comes up with a better system. The people who cruise ebay nightly to buy a $2 trinket just for the excitement of getting a package in the mail will never leave ebay.
But in the more expensive stuff, as the trolls and thieves become a bigger factor due to ebay's hands-off policy, both buyers and sellers would move to another site if it meant more reliable transactions, including some customer policing.
I see stuff sold in a particular collectible area that are modern-day reproductions. The sellers use obscure (e.g., "piece de caprice") language to cover up the fact they aren't authentic. And an item you could buy for $10 sells for $250 over and over again. Ebay says you have to list repros in their own category, not in with the authentic stuff, but the sellers know their 3-day auctions will be long over before ebay gets around to catching them.
My dream is to have a site that allows people to comment on ebay auctions, and display the comments "on top" of the actual ebay page. You couldn't do any actual ebay transactions there, but you could view an auction through that site to see if anyone had any comments about it (such as "this item was restored but not described as such")