Is eBay going to kill itself slowly?

[momosworld]

Recently eBay has decided to spend 1 million dollars in China for advertising.

This to me and too many others is very stupid.

At the moment, many sellers, powersellers... buy in bulk, wholesale directly from China, Hong Kong etc.

What i have already noticed in my business, is many sellers have already popped up in China and are selling the same item i am for 1/2 the price.

For example: I will buy a housing for a phone for lets say $15, (keep in mind, they are making money off this already) then i will pay duties, GST and shipping, all this brings the housing up to $18-$19, then i will list for $25-$30.

Now sellers from China are buying directly from the factory or even own the factory and are selling on eBay for $13 or $15, now how am i supposed to compete? this is happening with basically all the items i sell.

If this keeps up, it will be all China selling to the world and all other sellers will be out of a job and stuck with tons of inventory.

I thought many others will have this same opinion.

Thanks,
Moez.

[lynxamania]

Eventually thats going to be the case, its unfortunate.

However most people may not be too happy purchasing an item directly from China, shipping and scams could be the problem. The other issue is the custom charges from Custom Fees, Handling Fees and GST/PST would probably not make many Canadians too happy unless the Seller from China claims the goods with a low dollar value which I have a feeling would be case comparing it to US Sellers who are more honest.

Time will tell.

[shoplineca]

Forget about eBay opening the doors to China, our Prime Mnister is there right now doing that for us.

Say what you want about Martin but the inroads he is trying to carve out in the Far East over these last couple of weeks may be just the type of action we need to preserve our own economy and fuel its growth.

Americans wont import our beef claiming the Japanese threatened to boycott American beef so after a couple of years of having a bunch of overpaid political yahoos try to battle it out with Mid West American Politicians and get no-where, Martin goes straight to Japan and gets an agreement to move ahead at lightning speed to be able to approve our 23 month old beef which will remove the American's excuse about Japanese boycotts.

China will be the Super Power of the World by 2012-13. They cant produce enough to meet their own increasing demands today however as soon as they do, watch out boys and girls.

I hope that the business-sense behind Martin will provide a place for Canadian business to prosper on the backs of the Chinese growth as we sure as heck cant rely on the US supporting our desire to move ahead in concert with them.

What was once NAFTA, to strengthen the Americas may end up becoming a limited Pacific Rim Free Trade agreement. I can see it happening and the US will not be a signatory to that agreement, further distancing them from us.

Rather than fear it, lets embrace it and make some money off of the upcoming opportunities.

eBay killing itself slowly?

Time is a relative thing. eBay is but a baby that has been riding on the shirt tails of institutional investors who see it as another dot com full of hot air, a system that did work for a time, certainly better than competitors, a diminishing loyalty with many of its members, few assets relative to its over-inflated stock value yet saddled with a committment to continually increase revenues by the double digits which it has to do on the back of its sellers.

I would say that its peak was here two years ago and we are in the decent right now.

Malcolm

[lina-mallows]

Regardless of the politics- has direct competition from CHINESE suppliers and any impact on your eBay sales?

I recall seeing something about PAINT BALL GUNS- and the opportunity to make some money while someone (who shall remain nameless) was on vacation.

Why hasn't the primary supplier cottoned on to going directly to the North American market?

They- the supplier certainly know where their items are being delivered to- AND that there IS a market.