Yeah, Ebay has pretty much eliminated store listings and converted them all to fixed price. That's why you see all the buy it nows mixes with auctions. I guess they tested in on UK Ebay and Australia Ebay and supposedly most buyers liked it, so they decided to go with it. I do wish they made the "Auctions" button a bit bigger and easier to find for those just shopping for auctions!
I sell on Ebay myself and try to price things for what I've found completed auctions for. Sometimes there isn't a completed auction though and really no way to tell the value of something. Sometimes I price too high, sometimes I price too low. I quit using auctions because every time I use them Ebay has an outage and my $80 item goes for .99 cents. Unfortunately, I lost my job a year ago and haven't been able to find another one, so I have to use Ebay for income. That means finding items at Goodwill for $2 and trying to sell them for $10 and the less common item for more then that. My husband, who is a welder by trade, hasn't been able to keep a job for longer then 90 days the last couple of years. Every place wants to lay him off before he can get health insurance and benefits. So, now he's working with me too. There's probably a lot of people out there trying to survive by selling on Ebay. It's that or gather aluminum cans on recycling day, but there's already several people around here doing that.. lol
I'm not trying to justify the really bad gougers, there's someone on there who lists EVERY toy for $199, even fairly common plushes. Of course, no one buys them, but it's still annoying to run across her listings.
When I'm buying toys for me, I prefer to find them at the thrift and so forth. BUT, if it's the last toy I need for a set, then I buy on Ebay. I love buying fix-it type lots too..
I would say a HUGE part of the reason for the hike in prices too is that people are parting with things they really don't want to sell, but they have to sell them. I have a couple of my more valuable toys up for Buy It Now. I have them priced so that it won't hurt so bad to give them up. I don't want to sell them. I will if the price is right. I'm sure I'm not the only one doing that.
The good thing with the new structure is that it costs more to list items "fixed price" now. If you don't upgrade to the $50 per month store, it costs .20 cents each time you list a fixed price buy it now item. If you don't have a store, it's now free to list .99 cent auctions, up to 100 per month. That should lower the prices on a LOT of things. It should encourage sellers to price more competitively or use auctions. WE'll see right?
Funny story about auctions. Last auction I had was for Jurassic Park stuff. A set that usually went for $35. So, I started mine at $10 and it didn't get a single bid, ended without selling. I listed it with a buy it now of $35 and it sold the next day. Strangely enough, some people hate auctions because they always get sniped at the end. I love auctions myself!
