Yes, the pipe (|) is the "or" operator in a craigs search.

An example that sort of highlights my first point and sort of doesnt- a modern Shimano 5800 crankset search. Type in 'Shimano 5800 crankset' and choose 'used'. 3 items show up. 3. Really? Only 3 of these are for sale in the entire US on Ebay regardless of length or tooth count, and one of them isnt even a 5800 crnakset- its titled as Sora? So 2 used 5800 cranksets on all of ebay right now.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...Condition=3000

I am not looking for a 5800 crankset so this example doesnt really affect me, but assuming the search is correct(it looks to be), then while it isnt an example of me not knowing how to search anymore, it is an example of another anecdotal observation Ive had thru the last year- ebay has less stuff I want.
Im shocked there are only 2 used 5800 cranksets for sale right now in the US on ebay. Sure, there will be some bundled as a group too, but there are currently 2 used groups under 'Shimano 5800 group'. 'Shimano 5800 groupset' returns 0 results since the one it returns is a full bike. And 'Shimano 105 5800 group' returns the same 2 used groups as already mentioned.
Its crazy that there are only 2 listings for a 5800 group. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...Condition=3000


This is all modern product examples, but I used 5800 as an example due to its massive popularity and recency. If there arent many of a 40 year old item listed at any given time, the reasonable explanation is rarity.

That right there ^

Ebay is collecting tax when they have no right to in the state of Ohio between private sellers, in state or not. Ohio doesn't get the "tax" Ebay collects and neither does the seller. Based on that, the item has to be priced to reflect that or I won't buy it.

I find I'm netting less and less on things I've sold on ebay. The fees are now awful and it just takes one or two false claims of damaged items to make me shy away. (for me, 100% of overseas purchasers have claimed that something was wrong and it's too expensive to return. Yes, damage can be covered but it's a big hassle.) I'll sell on CL and get what I can locally.

Fees are twice as worse selling on amz. I have noticed some strangeness in my ebay search results lately also.

As a buyer 1st thing I do on ebay is tick the box for used items. So much fake crap otherwise. For rare used small items its still pretty good though.. what else is there? For more common stuff sure you can look locally on craig or offerup or letgo but for seriously hard to find items what marketplace is nearly as comprehensive..

Always was, always will be a rummage sale and like most, have to dig thru the crap.

Pity the small time seller. Have zero interest in doing so. Unless one is a very high volume seller I certainly don't understand why any would sell super low cost items, go through the hassle and time.

Still a dream for a buyer. Though comical how ebay puts up the gate between communication means between parties. Nice try ebay.

BTW: I refuse to use PayPal and you don't need it as a buyer.

Lol- Just this early AM, purchased from Hong Kong- free shipping, four automotive related items that are OEM Germany. I even researched the design specifics and seller was quick to reply. Paid .05 cents on the buckaroo.

Crazy that a few small sellers next on the list were peddling the same items - USED and far higher priced. Jeezo

Then, sniped a pretty nice Columbus tubed lightweight, full Shimano 600 for pittance. Easy enough, I contacted the seller and told him to skip the packing and shipping as I'll pick it up. Simple.

I'm not quite sure why you only get 3 of them.

I get a BUNCH of them!!!

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...ion=3000&rt=nc

Comparing my search to @mstateglfr's search,

Ahh... he clicked on "used", which cuts the number down by a LOT, and I'm also showing the 3 used lots, along with some extra arms and etc. I did pick up at least one "chainset" (British term).

I get quite a few international results without specifying an international search.

:foo:

Perhaps people are slowly cutting down on dumping used junk up on E-Bay. Harder for the small e-bay sellers? Too hard to compete with businesses? Getting one's auctions buried? Problems with selling "new" stuff? Access issues to buying and reselling?

Try selling something for over $14,000.00 US and see how PayPal and Ebay nail you to the cross! This is the last thing that I sold on Ebay and did so only to help a friend. Prior to selling this Honda, it has been a few years since I offered anything for sale on Ebay...
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9197634200.jpg

I rarely use Ebay to sell stuff, anymore. They just take too much, counting the PayPal amount, and I really do not like the unbalance buyer/seller reporting of feedback. That inbalance is more than I can tolerate. I still buy, when the price is right, which is not really all that often, anymore. But I do still buy through Ebay.

As typical, we all like to gripe about eBay fees. Me too!

But try selling on Amazon (hint, it's higher than eBay). Or sell at a local consignment shop (they typically get 60%, I get 40%). Or sell at an in person auction (they can charge seller 30% of the selling price, plus a 15% buyers premium).

And other than Amazon, none get you the nation wide or international exposure for your item.

As soon as I can reach as many customers for a lower cost than eBay, I'm there!

My rough estimate is I need to make at least double what I could locally on an eBay sale to make the fees and headaches worth it. Many times, I am getting 5X or even more. And selling locally has headaches too like dead beat buyers, no shows, tire kickers, whatever.

There is, of course Craigslist. Is Facebook also free?

Good for easy to sell items, but not that rare item that gets sent halfway across the country.

yes craigslist "|" still means OR

Craigslist boolean algebra is pretty good. My biggest issue seems to be remembering which syntax for which system.

Logical OR Syntax:Putting a comma into Craigslist seems to give unpredictable results (I think resulting in an AND interpretation).

yes between ebay, amazon, google and craigslist, the search stuff should be STANDARDIZED!!!

it;s a crime

wle

Is it Light Beer or Lite Beer?

No doubt someone will try to copyright boolean algebra. :eek:

Its all Netscape's fault!

I saw the writing on the wall when they announced their intention to shed their "yard sale image" and followed up by easing the limits on same product/vendor ads. Suddenly there were hundreds, (now thousands) of nearly identical listings in the search results.

As a vendor it was taking me as much time to create a listing for a unique item as one of their "preferred" sellers was spending to do a hundred nearly identical listings for a cargo container of low bid product from China. And every single one of those vendors was coming up higher in the search results for buyers that weren't using half of my description in their search terms. Today ebay is all about tweaking their algorithm so the people generating the most revenue for ebay get the most exposure in the search results. Not saying that's bad, just that it's not what it was.

I now take anything interesting along with me to the swap meet and see if I can find a vendor interested in a trade. I rarely come home with exactly what I was looking for but I usually find something at least as neat as whatever I brought with me. (Before I was old enough to move out, my folks quit asking me to make dump runs. They wanted the truck to come home empty.)

That was also the final straw for me. For a seller, you get penalized as if neutral = negative feedback. No matter how messed up your buyer is, you're not permitted to give anything but positive feedback and penalized if you don't give enough of it. It's all about, "enhancing the customer experience", as long as they can do it on the sellers dime.

Yeah, I used to buy a lot more on Ebay; not much now. I am a long-time buyer, never a seller.

For searches, I have long used the 'minus' filter, useful on both Craigslist and Ebay. I have a long search expression somewhere which I copy and paste into the search bar, which eliminates most of the crap. Say I am searching for vintage Campagnolo and want to filter out the keyword spamming floatsam, it starts out like:

Campagnolo -Schwinn -huffy -murray -kickstand -single -fixed -accessories -helmet ...

Etc. Craiglist is far worse for keyword spamming. It takes constant flagging to keep this down.

I only buy auction listings... never Buy it Now. I never buy stuff from the U.S. under the: 'Global Shipping Program', which features absurd shipping charges that are multiples of real USPS shipping rates. And the Global Shipping Program tacks on random extortionist fees such as: 'Import Charges'. Whatever that is... Cross-border shipping is largely duty free.

Since I only buy through auctions, I never bid until the last second - obviously. No point to get into a bidding war with an irrational new Ebayer, or worse, a shill bidder.

In the last 10 or so auctions I bid on, I have bid on the same item with the same seller. The initial listed price was $90. I bid $99.99. Before the auction close, someone bid $100 even, and won the auction. Weird thing is, is that this other bidder only bids on items from the same seller. Shortly after, I received an email from the seller indicating that the 'winning' bidder could not 'complete the transaction', or some such nonsense, and I could have the item for $99.99. Second chance offer. I obviously let this expire.

A few days later, the item was reposted.. and we went through the same saga. I bid just under $100, and lost the auction to the same shill bidder. We did this silly dance 10 times before the seller just let me have the item for $90.

wtf??!!

I have stopped selling on ebay as well. it has become just too much trouble. But I still buy occasionally and mostly its been fine and for very specific rare parts, often from other countries. At the moment, its still the only place to find these parts and I THANK YOU EBAY, no matter your other shortcomings as without ebay it would be next to impossible to source some of the rarer things one might need for specific projects.

I also CURSE EBAY from time to time, but I had to get that thank you in as well.

I really don't understand why so many buyers look upon Second Chance Offers as if they're some sort of a scam. eBay makes no secret that this is an available feature, and the offers are sent directly from eBay email addresses.

IIRC, they also show up on the webpage independent of the email (I may be wrong, long time since I've received a SCO from a seller).

There's nothing obviously dubious about them, and the track record of winning bidders screwing sellers over should make SCO's fairly common.

-Kurt

I'm confused right now because I "won" an auction for an item that I wanted for which you could either do free local pickup or shipping. Since it's on the other side of the country from me, I chose to pay for shipping. Somehow the seller seems to have selected local pickup because when I try to see a delivery date, there isn't one and I can't complain that it hasn't arrived in the 3 weeks since the auction ended because it has a blank space in the sentence where it says that "It looks like the item is on its way and should arrive by . If you don't receive it by then, please contact the seller or come back to us so we can help you.". When I look at purchase details, I see it now says local pickup, but it also shows the $60 I paid for shipping. Seller isn't responding. I guess I have to try to open a case directly through customer service (assuming they still let me do that) as they've made it harder to find customer service than they used to. I guess that hassle is what I get for taking a chance on a low feedback seller.

Well, this was a scam. The seller was obviously and repeatedly employing a shill bidder to expose my high bid, and run up the final price. When the shill bidder inadvertently 'won' the auction, the shill (the seller, under a different IP address) pulled out of paying - hence the reason for the Second Chance.

In the Second Chance, the item was offered to me at a higher price than would have been the case if the shill hadn't been bidding against me.

This is another reason why bidders should never bid on an auction with more than a few seconds to go. Or bid in even dollar increments.

When I used to do auctions, at least 10% of the time, the winning bidder never paid. So I did make some second chance offers.

Now I just avoid the headaches and do buy it now with immediate payment required (check the box in your listing). No more deadbeats.

When bidding, bidding during the auction just reveals your interest to others. Which to me is a bad idea. Bid your maximum at the end. If you lose, then the item was worth more to someone else. Buy it now is a lot less trouble for buyers and sellers alike.

If you think shill bidding has taken place, call eBay and report the seller. Ebay will be more than happy to ban a seller who has done this. Bidding patterns will be transparent to eBay. As a long term seller (20 years), eBay carries a big stick and can BAN a seller for life or put you on probation. They have some strong tools to eliminate nonsense.