wearmanyhats

Sometimes a death knell rings a long time.

Ebay’s death knell is ringing and has been for a while.  When it first set up its site, it almost became the same kind of verb that Google became.  Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “I Googled it this afternoon and found out…”  Well, it used to be that people would say, “Why don’t you just sell it on E-bay?” or “E-bay it, and see what you get.”

They aren’t saying that any more.  Enter Craiglist, where you can list things for free.  E-bay, which has raised its seller rates right along, is suddenly looking at sellers who are fleeing to a free site or setting up their own websites. Free is in, especially in this economy.

Ebay’s drop on the stock market has been somewhat gradual.  It seems to steady out for a while, then goes down again, then on a flat course. Like many other stocks, it dropped a big amount since the declines in the last quarter of 2008.  And in the recent weeks, it hasn’t gone up even a little bit.

That’s not to say that people don’t use E-bay.  They do. It still is the first stop for many people.  But that is going to change.  The economy will force it, and so will the fees.  The only bright side is that there isn’t as much bidding on items as there used to be, because it’s not getting as much traffic.  The flight to Craiglist and the fact that many people simply do not have much available monies is a part of this.  Deals can be had there.

Investors can read the future of this once giant second hand company.  More and more people are checking out the free competition.  Unless there is something radical to bring them back, consider Ebay to win the “Buggy Whip” award soon.  Avoid buying it, for it can only come back on a miracle.

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