Comments | jbsegal: WTF is it with EBay?

jbsegal

WTF is it with EBay?

Mar 23, 2006 14:34

Does anyone still sell anything on ebay by _Auction_ anymore? The last {N} things I've looked up have all been "Buy It Now!" only.

WTF's the point??

... and, while I see a way to limit my searches to ONLY BIN sales, is there any way to exclude them?

inqueries, grumble

Comments 30

jim_p March 23 2006, 19:40:26 UTC

When you do a search, you should see three tabs near the top of the page: All Items, Auctions, and Buy It Now. If you click on auctions it will eliminate BIN-only items (though it will show auctions for which there is a BIN option)

jbsegal March 23 2006, 19:44:54 UTC

I suppose the real question is why there are so many BIN-only sales and so few auctions. (at least in the items I'm looking at.

coraline March 23 2006, 19:48:11 UTC

because that way people who are using ebay as their way to retail stuff don't have to wait for an auction to close to get a buyer -- with interchangable commodity stuff, there's not a huge amount of variability in sales price, so quick turnover is much more important.

i assume you're looking at electronics or consumer goods -- if you look at clothing or shoes or (hm, why would i think of this) loose gemstones, you'll find a larger mix of BIN and auction. (or art noveau flatware. not that i'd know anything about this.)

so far as i can tell, the more unique a thing is, the more likely it is to be by auction.

gravitrue March 24 2006, 19:47:18 UTC

Precisely ( ... )

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jbsegal March 23 2006, 20:21:03 UTC

So why not have both?
As an auction buyer, I know that I might lose something to a BIN buyer. As a BIN buyer, I know that someone might pay less for it...

But when there are 20 of an item and they're all BINd at the same price, it's not worth coming to ebay to look for it.

coraline March 23 2006, 20:40:53 UTC

But when there are 20 of an item and they're all BINd at the same price, it's not worth coming to ebay to look for it.

why?
(i'm not seeing why this makes ebay less useful to you, especially since you have the option of only looking at auctions if you want)

jbsegal March 23 2006, 20:46:35 UTC

(i'm not seeing why this makes ebay less useful to you, especially since you have the option of only looking at auctions if you want)

No I don't. I can select auctions AFTER the search has run, but I can't do an initial search ONLY for auctions (or 'Auctions and BIN'), while I CAN search for 'BIN only'.

If there are only BIN results, I don't want to see them.... Amazon probably has whatever it is cheaper.

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