I\u2019ve noticed those TV commercials that eBay now has running, pitching the idea that it\u2019s more fun to shop competitively, which is what an eBay auction is all about. I do indeed buy stuff there, but I certainly don\u2019t find it fun to use eBay. You can save money on something you want if you play the game right, but you have to work at it. Ebay is hard work, no doubt about it. And it can be frustration too; you can put in a bid at the start of a 7 day auction and go most of the way as the high bidder, and then be outbid in the last 10 minutes. This has happened to me a number of times (and also to every other regular eBay user). In fact, it happened just last week; I noticed that eBay now sends out a consolation e-mail when you lose. How thoughtful. <\/p>\n
It appears that eBay is a bit worried that people are getting tired of it. It\u2019s actually not very hard to pay more on eBay; you can sometimes find something cheaper on a regular (non-auction) web site after maybe a half hour of searching. I have seen that a number of times (luckily I wasn\u2019t the person making the sucker bid). And you have to be very careful about adding in the shipping charges. Admittedly, eBay is good for certain high-volume markets such as used home computers and other consumer electronics (although I had rotten luck on eBay with digital cameras; I found it best to just look around at the regular electronics sites). <\/p>\n
But you don\u2019t go to eBay for basic stuff like household items or food or clothes or books. Ebay is good for collectors items and hobby items, anything that you don\u2019t really need and can walk away from if the price goes too high. With eBay, you either need patience, or you need to be so well off that you don\u2019t really care about paying too much on something that you don\u2019t really need. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m glad that I don\u2019t work for eBay. They are one of the small handful of success stories from the Internet Revolution That Wasn\u2019t back in the 1990s. However, eBay and the American economy have not gone through a serious economic recession since eBay started back around 1996. We may possibly be in for one if the current mortgage and real estate crisis doesn\u2019t get better soon. If unemployment does increase and consumer spending finally starts to tank, eBay would not be in a good position. If families need get serious about spending within their means, spending on eBay is probably the first thing they will cut out. So eBay is perched for a big fall if the consumer spending blitz that has powered the American economy for the past 15 or 20 years finally stalls. <\/p>\n
Ebay is a nervous canary in an economic coal mine right now, hoping that some creative advertising will keep people interested in \u201cthe eBay experience\u201d. Unfortunately, that experience is much like the root-canal experience; you don\u2019t do it because it\u2019s fun, you do it because it might help in the long run. But unlike a root canal for a rotting tooth, most everyone can live without eBay. If you see eBay go down, you will know that something big is happening to the U.S. economy. It\u2019s something to watch.<\/p>\n