(12-12-2017, 02:12 PM)JonE Wrote: If all the cherished suppliers were to embrace the marketplace there, then the sacrifice of the occasional 10% ebay plus 2 or 3% paypal fees on a sale would far outweigh the positive advertising space for promoting the business subtly to new people outside of this hallowed circle.

If it were done on high value or specialist items (like say, a steering box or Sports steering arm), then people see the ad but don't necessarily buy. Many businesses DO promote their contact details rather than being invisible, known only to to people by their ebay name.

And there is no reason why 'special ebay prices' have to be low.  If the 12-3% is added on, then you still get the free advertising. i.e. you don't necessarily want to encourage the sales occurring there, as people will quickly see if they do go direct they can get a better price as they cut out the middlepeople.

What is irritating is those orgs (I'm not referring to Austin 7 related) who do sell new/common things on ebay at their lowest price, as they are plainly netting less per item when selling there after costs, than if people make direct contact.

(12-12-2017, 07:46 PM)Nigel was in Brittany Wrote: Intresting what Tony says , but I suppose moonfacelesleyann for example either buys  in bulk from a cherished supplier and sells it on or waits for an order to come in and then orders it and has it sent to the customer (without purchase advice showing the cost ) another couple are obvious, Roy4167 is Willie and Russ4899 is Jamie,s friend Ian who is going to manage Jamie,s Ebay sales when he retires.

(12-12-2017, 01:29 AM)Phil Kingdom Wrote: Unless the seller is asking silly money at the start of the bidding you cant really blame them if the bidding goes sky high, the trouble is people jump on the bandwagon and the price of the item tends to stay high and that is bad for everyone in general and forces prices up. As most A7 spares are fairly easy to obtain it is always worth checking the sold and completed listings before bidding and that applys to everything on E-bay if you are buying or selling.
There is not much you can do against a couple of I must have it bidders, but if more people did their homework we would see more reasonable prices for all, also it pays to know what you are buying or selling, I did not know for example that there are at least two versions of the Source Book, the reprint is not as good a quality as the original, this was pointed out to me when selling one of each and the difference is quite noticeable when you compare them, the guy who bought them both paid the asking price for the original and got the reprint at a lower price, both cheaper than the E-bay prices at the time, when I pointed out how much they sold for on E-bay, his reply was yes but this aint E-bay!