Isn't It Time For An Alternative For Ebay?

[Guest eedeecee]

eBay still dominates the market worldwide when it comes to rare vinyl being offered but

isn't it time for an alternative??

Ok, John Manship is a great (and expensive) alternative for that specialist market. But what else is there when

it comes down to buy vinyl auction style??

my experiences with eBay range from VG++ to F after five years of mixed experiences as a buyer and seller

I start to look around for alternatives

but what's the choice???

[Tomangoes]

Junk shops, charity shops, car boot sales, ebay.com as opposed to ebay.co.uk, for sale forum on this site. The oldest trick in the book, free ad in free ad papers, old soul records wantd, collections bought. Always some 'ex spouse' busting a gut to get those 'old crap' records out of the loft.

It goes on and on.

Walking through a Saturday market in Nijmegen Holland at Easter, as you do, and some guy had a stall with at least 1000 vinyl 45s (Soul). Looked through about half and saw loads of stuff at abour 2 euro each that a collecting begginer would have bought 50% of.

Alas my collecting days are distant (75-82), but I used to go scouring everywhere to find low price quality soul. There was only two choices then, pay the asking price from dealers, or find stuff I could afford. I built a 2000 single collection for less than £1000, but it took 7 years.

Whats the fun in making the dealers rich?

Get out and find those bargains, and dont come back till you got at least 5 worth £50 each that you paid £10 forthe lot.

Ed

[Dylan]

gemm, netsoundsmusic, endless dealers sites and lists.

but ebay is still my buying place of choice.

[Ged Parker]

Isn't It Time For An Alternative to Ebay?

Yes it is?

When I find it the last thing I will do is tell anyone on here .

It could be like ebay was in ten+ years ago.

[45cellar]

eBay still dominates the market worldwide when it comes to rare vinyl being offered but

isn't it time for an alternative??

Ok, John Manship is a great (and expensive) alternative for that specialist market. But what else is there when

it comes down to buy vinyl auction style??

my experiences with eBay range from VG++ to F after five years of mixed experiences as a buyer and seller

I start to look around for alternatives

but what's the choice???

Obviously I am aware that ebay sells a lot more that just records, anything and everything in fact.

However, regarding Vinyl, ebay appears to have built up a Market, just to knock it back down again by charging high fees.

Many bargains thus disappearing. I don't know if they realise or really care as they have many other things being sold daily.

An alternative would not be necessary if ebay decided to change their prices a little.

I was buying lots of records for a few dollars, taking a chance on stuff I hadn't heard etc,

selling a few non soul or spares, but it just isn't as cheap anymore.

Gemm, Musicstack etc mostly set sale but bargains still to be had.

[Guest]

Can I be devil's advocate here and stand up for ebay? The main trouble people have with ebay is the sellers trying to flog records that are battered. That's not ebay's fault, its the sellers. An alternative to ebay would still have the same problems of 'bad sellers'. Ebay has done a lot to protect buyers in recent times, and as long as you use paypal you're protected and can put it down to 'experience'. Plus spreading the word about bad dealers to avoid helps us all.

Gemm is sort of an alternative, but its a rip-off with its 15% add on fee.

Online your best bet is indiviual dealers pages, and Ebay. Both provide bargains galore from UK, US and beyond - if you spend enough time trawling the net that is.

An alternative to ebay would be nice, but it would to some degree be replicating an already successful site. And there's a huge risk of time and money for someone/some people to venture trying to set one up.

[Dylan]

the idea of a successful site like ebay makes it a one stop shop that is quick and easy. I like it.

Other lesser used sites will throw up bargains but the time and effort against sucess is much lower.

on ebay you know if you spend the time looking there is bound to be something you can buy and you will get it for a good price.

this is a buyers perspective.

I don't have an opinion from the selling poerspective.

[Guest Dan]

ebay has ruined record collecting. as have john manships various price guides. by the way, £29 for the latest guide apparently?

[Guest]

Can I be devil's advocate here and stand up for ebay? The main trouble people have with ebay is the sellers trying to flog records that are battered. That's not ebay's fault, its the sellers. An alternative to ebay would still have the same problems of 'bad sellers'. Ebay has done a lot to protect buyers in recent times, and as long as you use paypal you're protected and can put it down to 'experience'. Plus spreading the word about bad dealers to avoid helps us all.

Gemm is sort of an alternative, but its a rip-off with its 15% add on fee.

Online your best bet is indiviual dealers pages, and Ebay. Both provide bargains galore from UK, US and beyond - if you spend enough time trawling the net that is.

An alternative to ebay would be nice, but it would to some degree be replicating an already successful site. And there's a huge risk of time and money for someone/some people to venture trying to set one up.

This is true, eBay has pretty much sewn up the market....a new site would have the same buyers & sellers so the same problems but far less exposure.

It is the exposure of eBay that has meant it's got so big. As an example I set up my own website for my sales and started promoting/advertising it when eBay hiked their fees up a few months ago. However I will never get the number of visitors to my site as I would if I put those records on eBay....and this really showed up last month. I needed to raise a bit of cash so listed (at set sale) about 200 records from my website onto eBay. Those 200 records had been on my website for anywhere between 1-5 months with no buyers and yet in a 10 day period on eBay I sold 63 of them! But I then had the pleasure of paying them 9% in fees of the selling prices.

Adam.

[Guest Bearsy]

i have bought and sold on ebay for a good few years now and to be fair i havent had a single problem and had some great bargains and nearly always found what i am looking for,

i try to be as honest as possible when selling and i am very careful who i buy from as it narrows down the chance of being ripped off but then again we all had to start somehere,

1 bad experience could change my mind for a few days but on the whole ebay has been a very good experience for me personally,

you try and sell a car in auto trader its £29 for 1 week and no garauntee it will sell but on ebay i never failed to sell a car at a profit and didnt mind paying the sellers fees which never went above £35 inc listing charge.

So many people knock ebay but they still search it i bet

[Cheapsiderecords]

The bigger sellers on ebay are the same guys who used to have the lists in Goldmine/Discoveries so wherever the new market is you will get the same problems/bargains/sellers.

I remember seeing an interview with the president? of ebay who was explaining the last round of cost increases by saying that a huge percentage of items listed dont actually sell?

[Guest in town Mikey]

Does Martin Thompson still have his auction facility? Martin, are you still on here?

Pat Brady also has a much less publicised auction facility. As it is not so well known some of the tunes are available at less mind blowing prices than some tracks reach on JM's.

[Guest eedeecee]

Junk shops, charity shops, car boot sales, ebay.com as opposed to ebay.co.uk, for sale forum on this site. The oldest trick in the book, free ad in free ad papers, old soul records wantd, collections bought. Always some 'ex spouse' busting a gut to get those 'old crap' records out of the loft.

It goes on and on.

Walking through a Saturday market in Nijmegen Holland at Easter, as you do, and some guy had a stall with at least 1000 vinyl 45s (Soul). Looked through about half and saw loads of stuff at abour 2 euro each that a collecting begginer would have bought 50% of.

Alas my collecting days are distant (75-82), but I used to go scouring everywhere to find low price quality soul. There was only two choices then, pay the asking price from dealers, or find stuff I could afford. I built a 2000 single collection for less than £1000, but it took 7 years.

Whats the fun in making the dealers rich?

Get out and find those bargains, and dont come back till you got at least 5 worth £50 each that you paid £10 forthe lot.

Ed

Ed, 50% of my collection is build on finds that are regarded as bargains. Yes, I find more pleasure chasing the rare (and not so rare) vinyl in the wild; junk shops, car boot sales, flea markets, private sales etc. Recently I found a collection of 200 or so rare singles from the 60's and 70's from a guy who was collecting Elvis stuff and dumped the soul collection for GBP 50 (!) not realising that some of the singles in this collection are worth that amount alone. Nothing beats finding valuable rare vinyl for almost nothing!! I totally agree with you on that aspect of collecting.

Since eBay came on the market I have become lazy though. Rare vinyl is so easy to find and buy nowadays...I just don't feel the need to go out in the wild again to go crate digging.

I think eBay has created a whole new insight into the prices and availability of rare vinyl and not only for the buyer. Sellers also had to re-invent themselves. The bigger record fairs, like the one in Utrecht, are proof of that. Many dealers had to adjust their prices and offer better stock to attract more buyers. So in that sense, eBay had a big influence on that part of record collecting as well. A good thing.

What really bothers me with eBay is their monopoly; eBay's fees and % of final sales and the same policy at PayPal are spoiling the fun. Not speaking of Non Paying Bidders or dodgy sellers...but when things on eBay work out it's great. If only we had a choice!

[Pete S]

ebay has ruined record collecting. as have john manships various price guides. by the way, £29 for the latest guide apparently?

Yes it used to take a lot of skill and knowledge gained over the years, now all one has to do is pick up a book (and then be disappointed that you only get half of what it's listed for!)

[Guest Bearsy]

Does Martin Thompson still have his auction facility? Martin, are you still on here?

Pat Brady also has a much less publicised auction facility. As it is not so well known some of the tunes are available at less mind blowing prices than some tracks reach on JM's.

the only problem i have with Pats auction Mikey is the, if you win you have to pay your maximum bid and not what it might of took to win it like on ebay or JMs.

what i am willing to pay top wack for shouldnt mean i have to pay it if im say £100 more than the next bid down.

some dealers auctions somethimes make me feel im being pushed for every possible penny they can get out of me,

thats why for auctions as a buyer ebay is the best way, when the times up its up and the highest bid wins

[Guest Dan]

Yes it used to take a lot of skill and knowledge gained over the years, now all one has to do is pick up a book (and then be disappointed that you only get half of what it's listed for!)

i wouldn't claim even half your skill or knowledge pete, but that's definitely part of it. but even more it's taken the fun out of it and the sense of achievement when you spent ages looking, like years, and finally got what you wanted.

most of all, it has ruined the states, or at least had a major detrimental impact. all the dealers now use ebay and often base their prices on manship. of course, you can still do deals esp on bulk buys but the rewards for laying out the money and time to go out there are far less.

i still remember when i was 19 me and my mate dave finding a little shop in pennsylvania no-one had been to before - three floors of records in old boxes and all over the floor. both of us found demos of something new to do which at the time was probably my favourite record. cost a few cents. absolutely awesome.

chances of doing that now: nil.

obviously, not everyone was able to go over there, so this is a personal p-o-v, and i've bought stuff off ebay myself. but it's taken the fun away. now all you nmeed to do is have the money and you'll get virtually everything eventually.

[Guest Netspeaky]

There have been alternatives to ebay, I've run one myself (soulbid) for 18 months at a cost of £300 a month, I had just short of 500 members (worldwide) but only one dealer used it regular, it was free to list and percentage on successful sales were lower than ebay. I contacted numerous US dealer with offeres to induce them to list, but no one took a chance. Unless you get the US dealers on board you have no chance of success. As JM has stated previously he has looked at the idea but rejected it, because he would have no control over the gradings of the listings, and thus rightly wants to protect his own auction site, no doubt the same response would come from Pat Brady and others who run there own sites.

[Martint]

Does Martin Thompson still have his auction facility? Martin, are you still on here?

Pat Brady also has a much less publicised auction facility. As it is not so well known some of the tunes are available at less mind blowing prices than some tracks reach on JM's.

actually I do, but by sheer coincidence and the operation of sod's law, I have just been updating it and due to some problems in the database it has just generated a load of nonsense emails to a lot of users telling them their accounts are suspended or that they have payments overdue on items etc. which is very embarrasing and rather poor (if you have received such an email/s please ignore them).

However, once this is resolved, and it will be in the next few days, the site will be working again (https://www.record-dealer.com ).

I had cleared off all the old auctions in the process of updating it and have a load of stuff I plan to list myself in a few weeks which is why it is empty..... it's a shame that these things always get brought up at the worst possible time (i.e. when it looks sh**e )

Edited July 10, 2007 by martint

[Souljazera]

how about DDAY???

[Souljazera]

Yes it used to take a lot of skill and knowledge gained over the years, now all one has to do is pick up a book (and then be disappointed that you only get half of what it's listed for!)

a solid assessment of the sorry record game....guide prices ebay it was much more fun with photocopied lists....and home made wants books...oh and actually talking to people (thats if anyone would tell you anything) its all gone very pete tong..how about bidding on your own records even?

[Guest WPaulVanDyk]

as much as Ebay being good, Gemm is also a site not auction but a site that can almost find what you are looking for in every sense. Spending time round record fairs, car boots, junk shops (charity as i say) and whatever is nice if you see someone you want and like but the net made this easier for us to collect and not spending years to find it when i could come on here and within minutes or hours find what i want for sale.

as for price guides i can't say if Northern soul ones are definitive, i use record collector all the time in pricing records up and they list Sam cooke - Sugar dumpling at £50 which is £25 more then in a Northern soul price guide so who is right and wrong.

[Guest]

as for price guides i can't say if Northern soul ones are definitive, i use record collector all the time in pricing records up and they list Sam cooke - Sugar dumpling at £50 which is £25 more then in a Northern soul price guide so who is right and wrong.

Record Collector if you're selling, the northern guide is you're buying!

[stomper45]

as been said if you find a good alternative keep it to your self. ebay not the worst, know of "sealed bid" sales where seller tells preferred clients what top bid is to see if they wanna top it, hence dont bother with them anymore.