Strongly considering removing the eBay section on home page

[Scott Tichenor]

Just an FYI but like to read some thoughts. Thinking seriously about removing the eBay section on the home page that links to items we think may be of interest to readers. If you follow eBay closely that area is probably of no interest to you and I get that. But not everyone is the same. Some people don't have the time to spend on it, and asking some users to search for something on a site like eBay is, well, like asking them to hunt purple unicorns. Ain't gonna happen.

Suppose I don't need a reason for this but eBay has bored me to tears for a considerable amount of time. It's less and less an auction site which it hasn't been in a long time and more of a "here, put your horribly overpriced instrument out here 16 times for 30 days a shot without a single interested seller." Getting hard to find 5 interesting things and my patience has pretty much run out. Other than a place for finding the worst scrolls, A Jr. Gibson mandolins offered for $4-5K and all the junk/firewood, not of much interest. Yes, always something that comes up on occasion but the wheat to chaff ratio is approaching zero.

Thoughts?

[MikeEdgerton]

You are right that eBay has changed. Most of the time anything that's good or interesting makes it into the forum section anway.

[Rob Beck]

Well, for what it's worth, I just had to go back to the home page to look for it! I don't think I've ever noticed it before, and obviously therefore, never used it. So even without the fact that eBay may have changed, I'd say it's taking up valuable mandolin space

[Larry S Sherman]

I literally had no idea it was there!

But I see your point and have no objection.

Larry

[barney 59]

But still there are people that search there and interesting items do come up. Often someone has some interest in an item and they want advice or some confirmation that something is what they hope it is. They could take it to another area ,granted, but an area that deals with online auctions makes it pretty clear where to go with it. Ebay has changed over the years and "deals" are much harder to come across. Used to be that it was a lot of people that had something and just the wanted to let go of it and hopefully get something for it. Now it seems that it's become more and more professional traders that will just relist something over and over because if it doesn't sell this week maybe it will next week. The musical instrument areas are one of the worst any more--I buy tools for example and still find good deals and sometimes on hard to find items pretty regularly. I'm looking for a travisher right now and I'm pretty convinced that I'll find a good one eventually and at a good price on ebay.
I have seen mandolins on ebay and then done some research online to see if I could get some more information about it and discovered that the actual instrument was being talked about right here. That could happen to others and possibly be their first contact with Mandolin Cafe.

[Canoedad]

FWIW I always look at the Ebay listings on this site. And if they are of interest to me I'll click the link. Just today I looked at the Carlton case, the A9 and the Gibson Tenor. I always appreciated someone taking the time to put them on this site. Looking at those ebay listings has been part of my mando-education. But I also figured that if I was someone out there looking to snipe ebay instruments, I probably wouldn't like the added attention from other potential bidders!

[chasray]

I wouldn't miss it. Use the space for something else of interest to the mandolin community.

[Canoedad]

But still there are people that search there and interesting items do come up. Often someone has some interest in an item and they want advice or some confirmation that something is what they hope it is. They could take it to another area ,granted, but an area that deals with online auctions makes it pretty clear where to go with it. Ebay has changed over the years and "deals" are much harder to come across. Used to be that it was a lot of people that had something and just the wanted to let go of it and hopefully get something for it. Now it seems that it's become more and more professional traders that will just relist something over and over because if it doesn't sell this week maybe it will next week. The musical instrument areas are one of the worst any more--I buy tools for example and still find good deals and sometimes on hard to find items pretty regularly. I'm looking for a travisher right now and I'm pretty convinced that I'll find a good one eventually and at a good price on ebay.
I have seen mandolins on ebay and then done some research online to see if I could get some more information about it and discovered that the actual instrument was being talked about right here. That could happen to others and possibly be their first contact with Mandolin Cafe.

Barney I think Scott is referring to the 5 or so listings on the left side of the Home page, and not the forum category.

[Tobin]

I've seen it on the home page, but never bothered with checking them out. I agree, eBay has lost its charm for things like this. And to be honest, if I did want to buy a mandolin on eBay and found a rare sleeper that was worth bidding on, I wouldn't be real happy with it being featured smack-dab in the middle of the home page here so that thousands of other people could randomly take interest and start a feeding frenzy. This sort of thing benefits the sellers more than the buyers. A buyer who wants a mandolin will look on eBay and find it on his or her own.

All this is to say that no, I wouldn't miss it if you got rid of it.

[mandrian]

I agree, remove it. I used to enjoy keeping tabs on EBay, but don't really think it's worth the bother these days.

Regards,

[fatt-dad]

agree on eBay. It's become a storefront rather than an auction site.

Thankfully, we have the Café Classifieds!

f-d

[Bill Baldridge]

Do it.

[Bob Clark]

I sure won't miss it. I vote take it away.

[Bruce Cech]

I vote to remove it. I see no value in it and its probably a waste of your time.

[Timbofood]

Bye,bye, eBay!
Scott, I think your observations are clear and accurate, one of the things I indeed enjoy about this site!
When change is warranted, change is made.
It's up to you but, I won't miss it a bit.

[barney 59]

Barney I think Scott is referring to the 5 or so listings on the left side of the Home page, and not the forum category.

Yah,sure can it!

[Bill Kammerzell]

Quote Originally Posted by Canoedad

"Barney I think Scott is referring to the 5 or so listings on the left side of the Home page, and not the forum category."

I believe that to be the case, also.

[Gary Leonard]

I wouldn't miss it.

[nickster60]

Ebay back in the day was a great resource. I haven't bought a instument their in at least ten years.i had two or three in a row that were just out and out frauds.It is useful for some items but not many. I still find good deals on motorcyle gear and parts but that is about it.

[Isaac Revard]

I wouldn't miss it either.

What do you think you'll replace it with?

[Josh Levine]

Tobin makes a good point. Leaving it off will give people putting in work to find deals a better chance of getting a steal.

[Sweetpea44]

I never used it and therefore won't miss it

[Beanzy]

I've got an app for eBay with stored searches. I never would have thought of using here for that.
Now maybe a similar use of the space with Cafe exclusive deals from advertisers could be a runner for sellers and buyers alike.

[Isaac Revard]

Now maybe a similar use of the space with Cafe exclusive deals from advertisers could be a runner for sellers and buyers alike.

Very cool idea

[Tobin]

Tobin makes a good point. Leaving it off will give people putting in work to find deals a better chance of getting a steal.

Well, not as long as folks continue to post threads here in this forum about deals that they find, even if Scott's picks are no longer on the main page. On many forums around the internet, it's considered bad form to post threads about active auctions, because it sabotages bidders. But I'm sure the sellers love it when we get a good discussion going here on the Cafe about whatever auction they have up at the moment. Even if we're being critical of the instrument or the price, they get exposure and more likelihoods of bids. And the people who were "putting in the work" to find good deals on eBay get screwed again.

But hey - whatever. I guess it really is kind of pointless to think that a good deal on an online auction site should stay secret. This is the internet, after all. But there are a lot of people out there who were silently bidding on good deals until someone posted a thread here about it and blew the top off of it. There's no such thing as a sleeper bargain when people here keep doing that sort of thing.