Selling here or on eBay.

[Ronsonic]

Originally Posted by dalava

eBay is not what it used to be, and it's mostly just vendors, even if you ignore all other aspects of it. I stop buying and selling on it a few years back.

Like going to a once favorite flea market and instead of the tables of cool random stuff it's just Chinese made crap you could get a better version of at Harbor Freight.

[professerr]

I rarely sell on ebay now. It is not worth the hassle and I'm not really trying to maximize my profit tbh. So I'll either sell it to guys here I see posting wtb if I've got what they need (that allows me to better select who I sell to), or I'll just post it on craigslist for a bargain price and give some guy a good deal.

I rarely purchase on ebay now either. So many vendors, not individuals, and my sense is that unless you're really into it there are too many ways that the system is gamed, e.g. lots of fixed priced items, mystery bidders, posted prices much higher than what I've paid, etc.

[NHAero]

I still buy off of ebay, but very rarely in an auction. And I don't mind that they might be vendors instead of individuals - why would I? Many of the vendors selling bike stuff are folks I've used repeatedly with good results, vs. buying from an individual for the first time.

Also, on expensive Shimano stuff I've gotten some really good deals on ebay from sellers in China or Hong Kong, most recently the Dura Ace 9100 shifters and disc calipers. Vendors have great feedback, and it's often surprising how fast the stuff arrives.

Originally Posted by professerr

I rarely sell on ebay now. It is not worth the hassle and I'm not really trying to maximize my profit tbh. So I'll either sell it to guys here I see posting wtb if I've got what they need (that allows me to better select who I sell to), or I'll just post it on craigslist for a bargain price and give some guy a good deal.

I rarely purchase on ebay now either. So many vendors, not individuals, and my sense is that unless you're really into it there are too many ways that the system is gamed, e.g. lots of fixed priced items, mystery bidders, posted prices much higher than what I've paid, etc.

[Lemongrab]

I’m sure there are a lot of people like me who don’t have enough posts to use the classifieds. There were several things I would have bought had I been able to contact the seller. This is a good chance to raise my post count.

[professerr]

Originally Posted by NHAero

I still buy off of ebay, but very rarely in an auction. And I don't mind that they might be vendors instead of individuals - why would I? Many of the vendors selling bike stuff are folks I've used repeatedly with good results, vs. buying from an individual for the first time.

Also, on expensive Shimano stuff I've gotten some really good deals on ebay from sellers in China or Hong Kong, most recently the Dura Ace 9100 shifters and disc calipers. Vendors have great feedback, and it's often surprising how fast the stuff arrives.

My experience with vendors selling at fixed prices on ebay is that typically their prices are significantly higher than the same item sold in a auction (by a vendor or individual, assuming the auction is legit and not gamed by ghost bidders and the like) -- all sorts of reasons for that not worth going on about here. Also, the feedback score is not reliable at all. Sure, some guy with a bad score is gonna be bad, but I had plenty of bad experiences with vendors that had awesome feedback and many sales.

Ebay is the wild wild west and was fun and made sense during the birth of the internets, but now everything is online and the entire internet is in effect basically a giant ebay.