eBay Auctions – Are They Still a Thing?
I love a good auction!
eBay Auctions
When eBay first came on the scene in the UK in 1999, I enjoyed searching for items and seeing them for sale by auction. I have purchased many things with a last-minute click to get in the winning bid before someone else beat me to it.
Along came third-party software that allowed buyers to set a maximum price and it would bid as needed or during the last few seconds. eBay too, introduced an auto maximum bid, that automatically increases your bid after another higher bid is made. That took the fun away!
How much is sold by eBay auction?
In the early days of eBay, most items were sold by auction. The latest figures I have are for 2022 from eDesk. This shows that now 80% of items sold on eBay are new, and 88% of items are sold as Buy it Now, leaving just 12% as auction sales.
I think that’s rather sad, but I guess the fact the site now sells mainly new items accounts for this. Auctions are still a good way to grab a bargain and for a seller possibly to get a better price and sell quicker than if they do a ‘buy it now’ listing.
I think the last auction item I bought was a car. It was local so I was able to view it and test drive before getting the…
