no eBay for...

Last week was the first time in a long time that I bothered to look at eBay because I finally had a few extra dollars to spend. I ended up winning a card with tracker bid. The big shock for me though was when I looked at my feedback. I had not bought or sold a card on eBay in almost 15 months

Wow, and I thought I've soured on eBay. I've sold 8 cards on eBay since last May, plus a few others on remote consignment for an eBay-phobic friend. Not sure how many I've bought, but it can't be more than 10 in the last year.

It's really too bad, though. eBay was such a revelation when I first stumbled upon it in the late '90s. It was the great democratic marketplace and really brought me back to the hobby. The collector-to-collector auction model is now on life support, which is just a terrible development for collecting. The cratering economy has obviously had a negative effect, but the demise of the eBay auction has just drained so much vitality from the hobby.

I agree with you Steve...I still look pseudo regularly...and have purchased a few cards in the last 6 months...but not many...and I'm reluctant to try to sell there as well as fees have gotten a little out of control.

Ebay was definitely revolutionary in its day...too bad evolution had to take hold!

It'll be interesting to see the next big thing in the hobby...but I don't see it being collector-collector auctions!

I wouldn't dare list a card for sale on ebay nowdays, with what they take for fees themselves, and then on top of that the Paypal monopoly they own that takes another 3%. I'd rather list a card in a B/S/T section knowing I'm taking a loss......but at least that loss isn't going to a company on it's last legs.

wouldn't it be great if local card shows made a comeback, but not going to happen. Use to love the weekend hotel type shows, with about 20 or 30 tables and maybe one local star player signing autographs. Use to make some interesting finds at these type shows.

The small weekend shows were always best. Always a some gem to be found and there was usually one walk-in that proved interesting.

Jay your right about some good finds at these shows.
I recall one of my many nice finds at these type shows. It was maybe 1989 and I was at a small Hotel show in Houston and the Toy Cannon was signing autographs, anyway I was going thru this dealers binder that had a bunch of 80's rookie cards in it and low and behold in the back was a mint set of 1967 Pirates stickers, the whole set with both clemente's. I asked him about them and he didn't know anything about them said he had just picked them up. I ask him what he wanted for them and he said how about 40 bucks, Couldn't get 2 20's out of my wallet fast enough. Oh, how I miss those little rushes

My best show ever was antique show at a mall. Picked up a full run of Millers and Saints team photos from 1935-60, a decal bat and some rare type cards.

While I dont think ebay has helped themselves I really think the issues with few low bid auctions is the economy. I have been pretty active on ebay the last 5 years and its darn hard to list a card with a .99 start when you have a feeling you are going to lose 30-40% or more because you checked vcp and the last 2 sales have been very low. When the market was booming I would just list all my items at .99 and let them ride, most brought top dollar. Then the crash hit and I noticed many of my cards selling low, I had an exhibit that I had purchased for $67 sell for $13, then another card I paid $450 for sell for $267, ouch. That really opened my eyes as a seller and from that point on I had to change how I sold. I now group my "for sale" cards in two stacks, 1- are cards I have a lot into, I am in no hurry to take a loss on and/or cards I dont mind keeping in my collection but will sale for the right price. My # 2 pile is cards I do not want in my collection, these cards I just run at .99 and sell them off, willing to accept whatever they sell for. My stack # 1 cards I starting putting high opening bids on, I have gotten less sales this way which I understand and the cards that dont sell I just move to BIN's. I try to price my BIN's fair with VCP help but I also take into account what I paid and price it at a number I am ok with selling it. I have done really well on my store sales so I assume my pricing is pretty fair, if I was overcharging I would imagine I would only get the lucky sale here and there.

I also think we will see a lot less items/lower prices in the auction houses this year and next because of some of the low prices we have seen for all but the rarest of items this year. I just think the downturn in cards showed up much faster in ebay than the auction houses. I made a number of purchases from auction houses this year and was surprised I got what I did at the prices. I can remember 2005-08 when I was lucky to win just an item or two all year at the major houses and being shutout was the norm, this year I have won maybe 15 lots from 6 auctions.

I really think that if the markets starts turning around and going up again (fingers crossed this does happen in the future), I would imagine we will see the amount of auctions double or triple or more and we will have a much more vibrant market.