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1. Regarding Pawn shops, around here they also need log books but I know of a couple that operate off the books “out the back door”. The goods are moved out of state never to be seen again. Also I have been selling on eBay since ’98. The fees are always going up. They bought PayPal and payments must be made through them, more fees. It was nice when I could get checks, cash ‘or MOs. Last year (2017) PayPal sent me a tax form with all my sales totaled up and I am expected to claim it as income. Keeping track of my expenses will be a major headache. I sell locally on Craigslist with great success. For the life of me I don’t know how Craigslist turns a profit. They will host 24 pictures for 1 item. That’s a lot of storage capacity.

   1. I agree the fees on eBay are going up. I just noticed that they even take a cut of the shipping charges, I don’t remember them doing that in the past. I still think it is a good place to reach a large audience, one of the next installments of this article lists some alternatives to eBay.

      eBay has also announced that PayPal (which I think eBay sold or spun off a couple of years ago) will be replaced over the next two years by a new payment service that I think they own. I have not followed that too closely, but suspect that it will be good for eBay’s bottom line, not so good for the seller’s.

   2. Regarding eBay – they have also become balanced WAY too far in the buyer’s favor over the seller. The last item I sold there was a guitar in perfect, like-new condition.

      I packaged and sent it in a soft case and very well protected. The buyer claimed it arrived damaged in one area and had pictures to prove it. I claimed there was no way that could have happened based on how I shipped it.

      He filed a claim and PayPal immediately froze my funds until I credited (agreed to settle with him) $50 for the issue. There is not even any way you can refute a buyer’s claim or make your case to eBay when something like this happens. It is totally handled in the buyer’s favor.

      I did a little research on his eBay account and looked at reviews he had posted for certain items. Among them was a guitar of the exact same model as the one he bought from me. Six weeks later he sold the damaged guitar on eBay and showed the damage in his listing with the same photo he used to claim damage on mine.

      So he was able to upgrade his damaged guitar with my perfect one and get some $$$ back from me in the process.

      The truth is I felt lucky to get off with as little loss as I got. he could have taken me for much more based on their policies. As noted, I or any other seller, have no rights whatsoever in a buyer claim – valid or bogus. I had been a seller with over 600 positive reviews and zero negative ones. Based on this and numerous other factors noted in the other comments here, I will never sell through eBay again.

      You’ve been warned.

2. I’ve been on eBay since 2000. Over those years, it has consistently become better for buyers and worse for sellers. In the early days, it was a giant online yard sale for small, easy to ship items. But if you wanted a specific part or item it was frustrating.

   Now, I search for the exact item I want, see the results, and in most cases BIN and instantly check out. I see the exact shipping charges I will pay. No entering CC info, no surprise charges.

   Craigslist makes money b/c certain listings require payment.

3. Fallacy of “What It Is Worth”
   The value of an item is precisely what somebody is freely willing to buy it for.

   1. I used to make this point every year when I taught Economics in high school. I would go to EBay and look up a mint Detective Comics #27 which was the first appearance of Batman. The kids would gasp at the $450,000 buy it now price (free shipping of course). I would make the point that it was only worth that if someone was willing to pay that price.
      I would check back on it with them as the semester went on. Finally, right before exams, I showed them it was still on sale. I asked what’s it worth to the seller right now? The smart kids would say “zero” because no one has wanted it.

4. The CRAIGSLIST question: How do they make a profit?

   ‘Profit’ is always a function of costs vs. revenue. “It’s not what you make”, they say, “It’s what you keep.” What you keep is the profit.

   As people started doing business more online with computers and phones, print media adverts clearly declined. To get and keep market penetration CL management lowered the cost of entry to $zero$ AND provided a fantastic service for ‘personal classifieds’, earning the “business” from well established print media: Denver Post, Gazette, Pueblo Chieftan etc.

   As I understand it, revenue in 2018 in the classified segment in 2018 was in excess of US $3.3 Billion in the US. 3.3 BILLION in revenue! That means that everyone would have to spend 3.3 BILLION to break even, and I’m sure they are not. The difference is profit.

   Once market penetration was established, they offered premium services for a fee. For example, Job ads are from $10 to $75 each! Brokered Rental properties and car Dealers are all a paid gig. Which honestly was pretty nice when every car dealer just went in and Flagged every other car dealer’s listing. Now it’s much better “cost” vs. lost time.

   But what are CL internal Costs?
   Human labor, always ranks pretty high, but JML implied above that the storage costs might be astronomical. Let me assure you that it’s a different cost per terabyte than you’re likely accustomed to.

   All that is to say that the Capitalist concept where a buyer and seller can agree on a price and meet to buy and sell products and services is fantastic! Yes, I’m sure that CL needs to keep a low-water-mark-of-site-users to afford to keep the lights on, but know that CL is “Making BANK” profit!

   CL isn’t a mystery at all. There is insane money in free ads.

   The real question is How Apple intends to buy so many hard drives to keep making that icloud service profitable. Recall that EACH phone has 8GB, 16GB, 32,GB 64GB or 128GB of storage and these days and that space is backed up every single day. I don’t pay a dime for my icloud storage but on one hard drive somewhere in Apple land they have to backup my little girl’s birthday party daily. I believe they’re on the cusp of being in trouble as not enough hard drives are manufactured because they literally can’t source hard drives fast enough. Amazon, Google, & Facebook have similar challenges.

   I’m a bit ‘all over the map’, but this is my comment.

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