Could Trade-in Programs Extend to Vintage Collectibles?

by: sasikat9

I'm still looking to trade in the bridge I own.

by: Enough Is Enough!

When ebay was an auction site, and a huge garage sale (before Stores and Buy It Now / Best Offer), folks sold their unwanted collectible items on ebay to buy pieces they collect from other sellers on the site.

This, in essence, is a trade-in program, and the Bay laughed all the way to the bank.

Fast forward to the Ho regime. Small ''The Noise'' sellers have been booted off the site, and have left in droves. These sellers were also buyers who no longer use ebay.

The statistic of 2% growth for 2014 is a loss for ebay. Plain and simple. Any business strives for a minimum of 5% growth from year-to-year. And when inflation is at 7-8%, this is a huge failure.

by: Grandma_Fish

Not sure about trade-in programs for collectibles in categories other than electronics, but I think it works great for things like game consoles and vintage video games. With a game console, you can always trade-up an original Xbox to an Xbox 360. So Gamestop is onto something, especially now with younger gamers wanting to experience vintage gaming on those original consoles. Vintage electronics are hot right now. I still have my original VCR player and watch VCR tapes, so I still would buy those, especially a few movies that never came out on DVD. But I think it would be hard to work that out for other types of collectibles. What items would a person be trading up for? Would you be able to trade in Grandma's old wood-burning stove for a vintage Roper stove? Just not sure how that would work.

That said, I belong to several collector groups for vintage dolls on Facebook and they do a lot of trading and sales amongst the members. There's even a LEGO group. Not sure about other collectibles in general, but there are plenty of yard-salers on Facebook. I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook became a place for estate sales as well.

by: Philip Cohen

@Enough is Enough,

You have it spot on; "trading-in" or "trading up" or down was what eBay used to be all about, until the cretinous Johnny Ho arrived on the scene ...

“We had to create a vision of the future so people could let go of a very successful past.”—John Donahoe (2007) ...
What could one possibly say to better such an asinine statement? ... http://bit.ly/YvxFEg

Notwithstanding that the eBay Dept of Spin once claimed a “400% increase” in eBay’s stock price,from its low ~$10 during the 2008–2012 global recession, the fact is, in August 2007, immediately prior to the start of the GFC, when the "Pain From Bain", Johnny Ho, was already effectively in control of eBay, the share prices of eBay and Amazon were both ~$40. With eBay recently ~$56 and Amazon ~$390, clearly, regardless of all the disingenuous nonsense, from the eBay Dept of Spin and its paid shills  that appears in the media, the “smart money” on Wall Street recognises eBay to be a "dog", and Johnny Ho to be a very poor dog handler ...

The eBay executive suite—where the incompetent mingle with the disingenuous, the malevolent and the outright criminal, and the just plain stupid … http://bit.ly/11F2eas  

by: iheartjacksparrow

Agree with what Grandma_Fish wrote. And refurbishing Lego sets is a great idea, especially since there are sites with parts lists for each set plus the instruction booklets.  

by: mazelgirl

The 2% eBay growth doesn't matter to the execs. or board  of eBay.  It finally hit me-which means I'm probably a bit slow--Donohoe came from Baine--whose entire purpose is to acquire and cut out them most profitable parts of companies. That is what he was brought in to do--and he succeeded.  When the split occurs profitable Pay Pal goes one way..and not so profitable eBay goes the other. Unless someone can get it cheap and bring it back to life it will probably eventually sink.  He's leaving because he accomplished what they brought him in to do.