eBay in decline, best place to sell old junk?

[trailgumby]

It seems to me that with eBay lifting its take from each sale, and the space now being dominated by Chinese retailers selling new junk, buyers have fled the space and it is now quite difficult to sell there, especially at auction. Perhaps it's my imagination, but it seems to have taken a severe downturn in recent months.

So this begs the question, where have the buyers gone? If you're looking to sell your good quality old gear, where is the best place to connect with buyers and get a fair price?

One of the advantages of eBay was that information on fair prices was quite visible. You could check on sold listings to see what fair prices looked like, people could easily search for what they wanted, but with social media-based buy/sell/swap groups this is much more difficult, and the protections for both buyers and sellers are largely absent.

Recommendations appreciated.

[familyguy]

Following.

Though, my $0.02:

Ebay really does appear all-but dead. An upside seems to be that some bargains can be had, as people don't check it as often and sellers offload some of "that old stuff dad/mum/grandparents collected" without research or value in mind. Have caught a few bargains that wouldn't have lasted on Gumtree or FB. The oppoite is also true, as people price things so bizarrely it's clear they have done no research, nor have they read how much Ebay will charge them for the privilege of selling at a price. I've not listed anything on Ebay in 2 years, maybe more.

FB marketplace really does appear to have become the de facto sales floor. Unfortunate on some fronts (social conscience, data harvesting/farming) but the reach is undoubtedly large. Also unfortunate because it brings a lot of peanuts, lowballers, tyrekickers, "is this available?" ghosts and other assorted numpties. Categories need way more definitions if they are to be usable for a search. 'Sporting goods' covers a whole lot of stuff. The more specific market pages are better, as you know the market is generally after what you're selling. Downside, everyone has a good idea of value and wants to get out of it for cheaper than any regular sucker buyer. I've had way more luck with this than anything.

Gumtree is something of a middle ground, but not without flaws. They are pushing paid models much more. Items "expire" and get taken off the listings instead of remaining up until removed by the seller. You can renew every so often, but I've not really had much luck with it regardless of items. I'm 50/50 on Gumtree. Some things sell at the price, some things have barely been viewed and expired and I just toss them out at the next council clean up. Their categories aren't very effective at sorting the wheat from the chaff either.

That said, it's also tough to move certain things now as people start to reign in their spending a little. Sadly, I can't make the swap meet in October, otherwise I'd be targeting that as a sales point, even a stall will pay for itself easily on a day like that.

[P!N20]

^ This.

I quite like Gumtree as a trading platform, but it feels like Facebook Marketplace has thinned out the traffic somewhat.

I haven't sold anything on ebay for years, still occasionally buy stuff, but bidding on auctions is pretty rare.

[Thoglette]

One thing I miss about fleabay is the pretty decent search & notification engine, even if it’s been deliberately bent (if not quite broken) in recent years.
Likewise I’ve long given up selling due to the terms & cost

[MichaelB]

^ This.

I quite like Gumtree as a trading platform, but it feels like Facebook Marketplace has thinned out the traffic somewhat.

I haven't sold anything on ebay for years, still occasionally buy stuff, but bidding on auctions is pretty rare.

eBay owns Gumtree and Trading Post afaik.

Agree, only use eBay occasionally, and that is to buy cat food. Same price as online with their store and cheaper delivery It was useful when I had to buy a couple of odd shimano sub-components that I just couldn't get anywhere else.

Selling on it is now a waste of time and money for private sellers.

[P!N20]

eBay owns Gumtree and Trading Post afaik.

I'm amazed Trading Post still exists.

[zebee]

I was told by a bod who has sold a fair few of his elderly motorcycles the Gumtree was the go.

I don't want to deal with StalkerBook so if I have a pushie to sell that's where it will go.

(Although the Oz HPV list might be better for my purposes as all I got are 'bents! And a 450 Ducati single, anyone want to try seriously retro powered two wheeling? Eyeball rattling single cylinder goodness)

[Thoglette]

And a 450 Ducati single, anyone want to try seriously retro powered two wheeling? Eyeball rattling single cylinder goodness)

Definitely! But Vintage bikes are being listed at eyeball rattling prices (see the current Shannon’s auction listings for example)

[RonK]

Facebook Marketplace - and other Facebook groups.

[trailgumby]

Facebook Marketplace - and other Facebook groups.

Apparently I've broken some sort of FB rule and my account has been restricted for 29 days, so I can't list anything new. I have no idea what I've done, and there are no notifications concerning any violations. Bizarre!

[RonK]

Facebook Marketplace - and other Facebook groups.

Apparently I've broken some sort of FB rule and my account has been restricted for 29 days, so I can't list anything new. I have no idea what I've done, and there are no notifications concerning any violations. Bizarre!

Yes, a few of my friends and acquaintances have had the same experience. Some automated FB process decides a word or expression you have used violates some rule.

And the Tour Aotearoa and Sounds2Sounds groups have been banned repeatedly for some unidentified reason. Perhaps the FB lexicon is offended by Maori place names? Who knows?

[trailgumby]

Facebook Marketplace - and other Facebook groups.

Apparently I've broken some sort of FB rule and my account has been restricted for 29 days, so I can't list anything new. I have no idea what I've done, and there are no notifications concerning any violations. Bizarre!

Yes, a few of my friends and acquaintances have had the same experience. Some automated FB process decides a word or expression you have used violates some rule.

And the Tour Aotearoa and Sounds2Sounds groups have been banned repeatedly for some unidentified reason. Perhaps the FB lexicon is offended by Maori place names? Who knows?

And that's OK - systems aren't perfect. But not to tell you why? That's user interface design fail #1 in my books.

[familyguy]

And that's OK - systems aren't perfect. But not to tell you why? That's user interface design fail #1 in my books.

Probably got reported by some sap for just stating facts in one of the bottom-feeding pages I see the brave souls replying on, yourself included.

On a FB note, I have had several sales removed/restricted without reason given. Black quill stems, black seats on posts, long pumps, axles, BB spindles. I reckon the picture algorithm picks those out due to similarity to firearms.

[2wheels_mond]

On a FB note, I have had several sales removed/restricted without reason given. Black quill stems, black seats on posts, long pumps, axles, BB spindles. I reckon the picture algorithm picks those out due to similarity to firearms.

Ah hah! I had this issue with a black quill stem a while ago, for the life of me I couldn't figure out for the life of me why Facebook kept banning the post. That explains it.

[trailgumby]

And that's OK - systems aren't perfect. But not to tell you why? That's user interface design fail #1 in my books.

Probably got reported by some sap for just stating facts in one of the bottom-feeding pages I see the brave souls replying on, yourself included.

I closed out my account awhile back, and only started up a new one a few weeks ago, solely to sell on FB marketplace and stay in touch with family. I try to stay off FB as much as possible these days.

[familyguy]

Wise move. That's all mine really gets used for now, too.

[zebee]

And a 450 Ducati single, anyone want to try seriously retro powered two wheeling? Eyeball rattling single cylinder goodness)

Definitely! But Vintage bikes are being listed at eyeball rattling prices (see the current Shannon’s auction listings for example)

Well yes. This won't be going for chump change especially given its history. I have an offer on it for around 5 grand less than I expect it will go for but if I'm absolutely wrong I have that.

I wonder if in 10 years all the babyboomers with money will be dead or gaga and prices will drop? No idea what brings eyeball rattling money in unpowered 2 wheelers, or even what big money is in that realm.

[Thoglette]

.

I wonder if in 10 years all the babyboomers with money will be dead or gaga and prices will drop?

A good question, given the meteroric rise in prices in the past decade ( I turned down a Pantah for $4200 ) I think we’ll need the “collectors” from the 1% class (who need not just one but “one of everything”) to have a major down turn before we see prices return to something the Hoi-poloi can match

[caneye]

I've had an ebay account for almost 20 yrs. been buying (rather than selling) the past 10 yrs.
in recent months, when i tried selling something, i was asked to provide proof of ID, bank details, etc .. (information i didn't have to provide back in the day)

i can understand it given the strict anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer requirements these days, especially as ebay is integrated into a payment gateway. for that reason, none of these requirements apply to Gumtree and FB.

and on that note, i have noticed with increasing regularity the proliferation of fake profiles and scams on both platforms, especially FB. things appear to have spiralled out of control since covid started.

[Roisin79]

Is it me or is Gumtree far more popular in NSW than Victoria? Never seek to buy or sell off eBay anymore but I do enjoy overseas eBays, purely for research purposes.

[P!N20]

Is it me or is Gumtree far more popular in NSW than Victoria?

Yeah I don't disagree. In the case of vintage complete bikes and frames, most of the reasonably priced items are located elsewhere - Victorian based items more often than not seem to be asking stratospheric prices. IME, YMMV, etc.

[P!N20]

*Oops, wrong thread, sorry.*

[bychosis]

‘Tis a shame eBay has moved to flogging cheap Chinese products by drop shippers. Auctions and global listing opportunities were great for getting a fair price for stuff.

My phone is a bit old and the gumtree app now doesn’t work, so I’ve moved away from that. I found gumtree good because it has a ‘dumb’ search and only returns what you ask and you can search Aus wide or locally according to what you want.

Marketplace is OK, but limits searches to your area and you can’t search Aus wide as far as I can tell. search results are pretty random. Browsing can be frustrating. It took about a fortnight of marking kayaks with ‘I just bought one’ to get them out of my feed.

Specialist groups are OK on Facebook but there’s a million of them and unless you join all said groups you are probably missing some items. If you’re like me you join a few, then opt out of the duds. That doesn’t mean other people think the same groups are duds though. Now my Facebook app has hidden ‘groups’ from me and given me ‘reels’ and ‘news’ that I don’t want.

[Retrobyte]

I reckon I block 50% of people who message me on Facebook Marketplace. If they lowball a price that's half of what I've advertised it for, they're zapped straight away. I list with a margin of maybe 10% to allow some negotiation but the amount of ridiculous offers is mind numbing.

[familyguy]

In the last few days I've had messages from ebay regarding verification of user details and bank accounts.

Ebay now requires the upload of a photo ID to be kept on file with them. Also, re-verification of bank accounts, one option of which is direct login to your account through ebay for verification. Yeah, that's not happening. They can verify via micro-deposits, though.

Might be sayonara, ebay real soon.