When two Anna Nicole Smith diaries fetched $600,000 on eBay last week, the Web auction powerhouse got plenty of free publicity.
After all, when you’ve got something to sell, nothing draws a crowd quite like eBay.
But that is just the problem for some of eBay’s most prolific sellers, who are complaining ever more loudly that the millions of new products flooding the Web giant every day are driving down the selling price of antiques and collectibles – practically erasing their profits.
At the same time, eBay has upset these so-called platinum-level sellers by hiking their fees.
The complaints, which have simmered for months, appear to be ready to boil over.
“Everyone and their grandmother has brought these items out,” said Morgan Goodman, a Platinum Seller from Westchester. “There is too much supply for the demand.”
Roughly 7 million new items come onto eBay each day, bringing the count to an astounding 100 million listings for sale. But if you check what is paid for completed items, many don’t ever trade hands.
EBay of course, ends up with a fee whether or not granny’s vase is sold.
It’s not that Goodman and sellers like him can’t sell items on eBay – he manages more than $25,000 worth per month – but he’s just gotten pickier about what items he buys because eBay bidders for some items are now few and far between.
Any designer goods carrying names like Louis Vuitton, Cartier or Tiffany always seem to find a market, but, Goodman moans, unless you have a top doll, “It’s worth nothing.”
“That’s why eBay is pushing the pots and pans,” Goodman explained. “The collectibles market was strong for a while, but it’s dropped off significantly.”
For instance, Goodman says he’s been having trouble even getting his money back on Baccarat paperweights, while the “best” china patterns are down 60 percent over the last few years.
Analyst Jeetil Patel of Deutsche Bank asserted in a recent report: “Following a solid holiday selling season, eBay sellers appear to be experiencing deteriorating sales trends in recent months.”
Patel, who has a “hold” rating on the stock, with a $32 price target, said 70 percent of sellers he spoke to at a March e- commerce confab said 2007 sales trends “were generally flattish or declining.”
EBay shares are down over the past two years as growth has slowed a bit. Shares on Friday closed at $31.83, down 53 cents.
In a reaction to the mod est slowdown in growth, eBay announced a fee hike this past summer. It also announced a $2 billion share-repurchase program to help lift the stock.
A company spokesman answer sellers upset over the low prices their prod ucts have sold for, saying they may have been “arti ficially inflated.”
He said the reason eBay has listing fees is to “dis courage the listing of items that are not priced to sell through.”
Sellers have gotten so upset at eBay that at least one blogger is advocating a series of one-day boy cotts of eBay, beginning April 2. The eBay spokes man said the post is but one out of “hundreds of thousands” of posts.
Goodman said he re cently paid $200 for 10 Hummel figurines and “got killed” on eBay. “I made more money ship ping them than I did on the item,” he laughed. “I don’t see it changing. During the 10 years eBay has been operating, ev erything has been nose- diving.”
The eBay effect of fall ing sales and prices is spreading to brick-and- mortar locations, as well.
Joe Geller, who sells on eBay, at the Chelsea Flea Markets and the antiques market in Stratford, Conn., says sure, items sell, but it ain’t like it used to be. Beatles records, for instance, were mass-produced and used to sell for $15. “Now you don’t get more than $6 or $7,” Geller says. “Anyone that wants a Beatles album can get it cheaper on eBay than at a vintage record shop.” [email protected]
