Ebay's a wasteland right now

[starscream-tf]

I think it is a number of factors that are causing this downturn on EBay. Much like Star Wars there is TOO much TF stuff out there to buy, the market is flooded, and it is very overwhelming to any new collectors trying to enter the market. The state of the world's money situation isn't helping, food is far more important than buying toys. Finally the toy dealers have grossly over priced most of there sealed G1 and G2 Transformers toys. I mean come on $350 for a MOSC Crankcase, that is WAY over the top. The EBay selling and buying won't get any better until these rip off sellers lower there prices.

[onewaydown]

I guess it depends on what you are looking for. Yeah, reissues are driving the G1 prices down but look for a non-KO G1 Wheeljack or Mirage and they're still $40-50. Binaltechs still seem to hold their value - at least certain ones like Prowl heck even a Hound went for like $90 recently. Classic Ultra Magnus and Rodimus values are wicked high because of Fansproject's add-ons. Heck, I'm trying to find a cheap Classic Bumblebee for my son to play with but they're going for about $20+.

 

Sure you can find deals sometimes but I think there are figures in demand and then everything else. There's just a whole lot of everything else right now.

[Superconductor]

I've pulled out about three tables of stuff to start selling off, but it's not gonna go the ebay route. I think I'm going to try my hand at selling at a toy show. At least that way I'll only be out the table and registration fees even if I don't sell anything rather than losing it on every piece I sell. If only there were more swap meets like that here in MD/DE. . .anybody know anything about this?

[Eradimusprime]

It's hard to shop on ebay any more. when you get something on Ebay you never know what your going to get. Most of these other sites offer security in your purchase. You know what your getting and someone is backing it up. To many people have been burned by a purchase on Ebay. How many times have you seen a reissue or a knock off posted as an original. Then you had the prototype fakes and the list goes on and on. It's just not worth getting ripped off. There are a lot more fan trusted sites out there now. Plus money is a problem, and if you are going to make a purchase don't you want it to be worth it?

[Blitz-Wing]

eBay in general screwed up when they started going more commercial. Get rid of all these "Power Sellers" and "eBay Stores" and give it back to the individuals who got them where they are in the first place.

[Hotrod_Rebirth]

people are getting greedy plain and simple. asking for too much money especially during a recesion. I get them to play with and enjoy. it has become more of a financial aspect then an enjoyment aspect.

[MikePrime]

Some sellers think too highly of their G1 toys. $89 for Headmaster Squeezeplay? I don't think so.

[knuclear200x]

In my experience, its been a bad time to sell...ANYTHING. Ive been selling my old toys to pay the bills, but a single auction doesnt even pay ONE bill. Ive tried, buy it now, $.01 starting bids, even resorted to dropping the shipping price in half but i dont even get a lot. Im not sure if its also because what ive sold has no value anymore, but apparently they have no value anymore

[madman1366]

I think the problem isn't anything to do with any lack of interest in Transformers, simply too many people at this time having to sell parts of their collections to make ends meet. Anytime that happens it's going to create a buyers market.

 

Very few people are buyers at this point, but I don't expect that to be the case forever. If and when the economy ever recovers (I have my doubts that it ever will) then we'll see a lot of people looking to buy back a lot of the stuff they had to part with before. In the end, we could actually see some prices soar higher than ever. The only thing I think that will ever stand a chance of really killing TF's is if somehow, the current generation of kids don't ever seek that nostalgia that we children of the 80's and 90's did.

 

 

Then again, knowing the current generation of young people today....I weep for the future!

[robo_rob]

Not to mention, the way the fandom works now is different than it was say 10 years ago. There is literally a ton of new product, new product that's keeping people busy. In the late 90's when ebay hit its stride,, there wasn't so much out at one time, so a toy collector had more time to seek out older stuff. Not to mention the odd things like a home made TF belt buckle. It would have sold fast then, now... well... just go to Hot Topic and pick one, or hey... etsy.