EBay isn’t what it once was. Not only has growth levelled out, the auction format which made eBay stand out of the crowd just a few years ago is now being dropped by many buyers and sellers in favour of fixed price listing. Is this the beginning of the end of eBay?

When eBay opened its virtual trading doors over a decade ago, the appeal which made the site stand out, and grow beyond all predictions, was the ability to put items you no longer use any more on and sell them for whatever the buying public deemed reasonable to pay.

At that time, eBay summed up the new fangled World Wide Web perfectly, giving power to the masses fingertips. But the site isn’t what it once was.

First of all there has been a gradual moving away from solo sellers listing random items they no longer want or need any more in an attempt to make a few dollars. Instead, businesses have been created around the site, with many products now just part of a huge money-making company. Though there’s nothing wrong with that, it does mean eBay has fallen out of the hands of bargain hunters such as you and I.

Then there has been the constant interference to the service from eBay itself. In February, changes to the listing fees and feedback system meant eBay faced its first sellers revolt. Many of those have never come back, and eBay later admitted that the site was suffering as a result. The latest move may be even more controversial, with eBay planning to make Paypal the only method of payment available.

Now, according to an article on Business Week, the number of auctions has dropped massively on the site in recent years and fixed price listings using the Buy It Now option are increasing.

While this isn’t the be all and end all of transactions on the site, it does point towards eBay becoming more of a mainstream business, and less of the hagglers marketplace that many people loved it for being in the early days.

It could well be that eBay is evolving, through either necessity or customer insistence, but for many of us it has now become much less than it once was. It could be that these changes, were they to continue, mean eBay’s time as a vital Web destination come to an end sooner rather than later.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 12:39 am under Ecommerce, Internet, Opinion.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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