NEW EBAY FEES

[HSaidman]

If you sell on Ebay you better scan the new fee structure coming in February. One I noticed was no refund of Reserve Fees if the item sells. That is such BS.

[Dave]

That is very interesting, thanks for letting us know.

I think this policy will really reduce the number of high end machines that show up.

Maybe the shows will start to pickup.

[HSaidman]

I just read an article on Motley Fool where ebay might also penalize you for not accepting Paypal in how a buy might do a search. So basically if you do not accept paypal, your item might not come up as quickly as someone who does. Hope this was not true.

Paypal Warning: I know several Antique Dealers who have been burnt by paypal. Here is how it works. If you sell say a rare blue vase for $1,200, and the buyer puts a cheap blue vase in a box and sends it back it you and disputes the charge, your screwed. All he has to do is take a picture of it, send it to Ebay and said you sent him something other then what he bought, and he sent it back, you can be screwed. At the verly least your $1,200 will be pulled out for months.

I know this scam was pulled for Toys, Dolls and Pinbacks. Only a matter of time until it hits us.

[Dave]

....

Paypal Warning: I know several Antique Dealers who have been burnt by paypal. Here is how it works. If you sell say a rare blue vase for $1,200, and the buyer puts a cheap blue vase in a box and sends it back it you and disputes the charge, your screwed. All he has to do is take a picture of it, send it to Ebay and said you sent him something other then what he bought, and he sent it back, you can be screwed. At the verly least your $1,200 will be pulled out for months.

I know this scam was pulled for Toys, Dolls and Pinbacks. Only a matter of time until it hits us.

So, if I sold a Rol-A-Top Cherry Front for let's say $8,000 and the buyer then returned a Groetchen Columbia stating that is what I sent him then it is his word against mine. I lose the $8,000 AND the Cherry Front and get a Groetchen Columbia in exchange??? Very interesting.

[Dave]

The more I think about this the more I think it might not be a bad thing.

It might force sellers to stop using reserves all together and just set the starting price at what they need out of the piece.

For example, if the person is selling a Coin Front Rol-A-Top and have a starting bid of say, $6,000.00, then most people won't waste their time with it. However, if they have a reserve of $6,000.00 and start the bidding at $100 then a lot of people are going to be watching it and hoping they can get it for a bargain when in reality, the owner is simply nuts.

It might also reduce the use of shills, which is much easier to do on eBay these days since they no longer advertise who is bidding on an item.

With no reserve, there is a much greater liklihood that the use of a shill will result in the shill actually winning the auction.

Since I don't buy machines on eBay it really doesn't matter to me what they do. It will be interesting to see what shakes out in a few months though.