Volume of ebay items today vs decade ago

[final fight cd | 187]

I have a focused collection and only collect for one system.  My collecting interests and keeping up eBay listings, sold items, prices, buying, etc have waxed and waned over the years. But currently I’ve been interested and engaged for a solid 8 or so straight months, which means I’ve been in the look-at-ebay-multiple-times-per-day mode.  
 

Does anybody else feel like the volume of listed items today are not what they were like years ago?  Given the nature of my collection I realize there are only so many items I have left to buy, which might be influencing my perception of things, but it seems like there are less items to choose from today compared to a decade ago. 

Is this a sign that 90s consoles are becoming too archaic and collectors are moving onto 2000 era consoles and newer?  Are people just hoarding and sitting on their collections?

Does anybody else feel this way or do I just not have a solid pulse on the scene?

[The Count | 534]

I collect primarily Game Gear and Genesis, and I certainly see less for sale then perhaps, even four years ago. Probably us collectors not letting stuff go along with ridiculous asking prices. I'm down for the long haul, though, because I enjoy the process. It's about the journey for me.

[Tanooki | 4,953]

No the volume is there.  The thing is, if you want to question the volume, question how much of it is not selling compared to 6 months ago, and how much of it when it is, isn't selling for what it did just last spring/early summer.  Things are starting to crack.  It's not a simple thing of just one obvious bit but I think many.  Prices have gone up enough out of proportion from around 2011-12, but with what happened in the last 2 years it went up to stupid amounts.  There has been a retracting from that, but if you follow prices it's beyond that.  I think it plays into the recession coupled with inflation, the recession that we are in but certain powers refuse to admit.  When things get tight people spend less, and then they offload stuff for more important things too.  I think we're in that point where people are regretting and releasing, but can't quite in some cases accept they're not going to get $200 for their $120 item so you see what's going on.

I've been watching and tracking mostly SNES and Genesis loose game costs and they've taken a real hit, and when I checked a few other things, they took a bite as well.  I think you're mistaking one thing for another, it's not that it's too old, it's that the economy sucks and frivolous stuff like this gets harder to justify at greedy asinine prices when there are lesser down to free alternatives. Combine that with so many faux collectors, investors, and just I see gold bars due to X types starting to regret their mistakes you have what we have.  Let some more months shake out of this into the fall, then you'll see.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

I would argue there is more inventory, especially when it comes to sealed. 

[nrslam | 477]

A quick search for "ebay annual sales" turned up this chart. Its in $ rather than items so is affected by price changes, and it only goes up to 2018. Coincidentally, the big drop in 2012/2013 area is when they started all the anti-seller stuff.

[twiztor | 855]

there's also more online marketplaces than there were 10-15 years ago. facebook marketplace, for example, has seen an enormous rise in sales over that time period.

[DK | 267]

As someone who collects Asian games, for sure. Covid really messed up international shipping. Some countries STILL aren't shipping to the US 2.5 years later...

[360collector | 289]

28 minutes ago, DK said:

As someone who collects Asian games, for sure. Covid really messed up international shipping. Some countries STILL aren't shipping to the US 2.5 years later...

same here, some of my favorite websites still have the same covid excuse for no international shipping, its been pissing me off for the last year

[Tanooki | 4,953]

I had that problem.  I had to go with DHL through zenmarket(fantastic service with a flat 300yen broker fee) to get a Gameboy lot in 2020, added like $40-50 range to the price of mailing like a 1-2lb lot of Gameboy games.  Had I been able to use the pre-overkill mail shutdown rates it would have been 50% less or more.  Thankfully the reason I grabbed the bundle were 2 key games that cost so much I still came out ahead and discovered a few other solid games too in there.

I sadly haven't used it again since, shipping is still f'd up and it can be challenging trying to search for stuff in particular so it's a slow crawl through yahoo japan auctions to find stuff.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,018]

It seems to be down for the stuff I've been looking for compared to 10 years ago (2012) for sure. I started collecting in 2010 for reference and there seemed to be more of a spectrum of game conditions fs at any time. Now it seems like there are more low end condition and high end condition (including sealed) with less available in the mid range.

It's probably just due to the nature of how games exchange hands these days. Back even in 2012, basically all online sales were going through eBay with a tiny bit through Amazon or forums. With the rise of not only Facebook marketplace but Facebook groups and Reddit, the forum exchanges are dead or on life support. Particularly high end games that would result in high dollar fees and headaches are not going through eBay as much as they're going through FB groups and Reddit posts / wishlists.

eBay 100% knows this and is trying to offer services to get sellers and buyers back on the site which is why you see them introducing services first to designer clothes and now trading cards like free authentication for purchases over $500, collection trackers for cards and even a vault where you can exchange ownership for basically free (I think) while your $1M card collection is safe in ebay's bunker. 

All of those things are coming to video games as well once eBay scales up the infrastructure. Idk if it will work but it definitely has helped them compete with sites like stockX so far.

[Sumez | 2,995]

Nah, it's definitely a lot easier to find a lot of uncommon/rare games on eBay now compared to a decade, and especially two decades ago. There used to be games I couldn't even find despite them not being particularly rare (or at least not the pricy kind), which are now only a casual search away.

I do think eBay has gotten worse with allowing international searches though. No matter what search filters I pick, it seems like it's always hiding a bunch of listings from me.

Edited August 9, 2022 by Sumez

[Bonanza125 | 55]

Ebay inventory is actually up. I think a lot of the businesses are taking advantage of the new promotions Ebay has to offer sellers with listing increases. The problem is the demand for items is down. Most people aren't willing to pay the increase shipping cost nor the prices. I've actually seen an increase this month locally compared to shipping stuff. 

Edited August 8, 2022 by Bonanza125

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,018]

31 minutes ago, Bonanza125 said:

Ebay inventory is actually up. I think a lot of the businesses are taking advantage of the new promotions Ebay has to offer sellers with listing increases. The problem is the demand for items is down. Most people aren't willing to pay the increase shipping cost nor the prices. I've actually seen an increase this month locally compared to shipping stuff. 

Where do you list things locally? I haven't had much luck with local sales the past few years but wouldn't mind trying it again if the demand is there. 

[Bonanza125 | 55]

9 minutes ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

Where do you list things locally? I haven't had much luck with local sales the past few years but wouldn't mind trying it again if the demand is there. 

Facebook Marketplace is where I am seeing an increase for local buyers. Craigslist and Offer Up are both dead.

[Tanooki | 4,953]

I've noticed that since the switch, craigslist has a few posts a day, offerup about the same.  They're active ghost towns basically, they're dead with a few who refuse to leave or catch on, but effectively off the grid for the majority who care.  It's all on marketplace, mercari and ebay at this rate.

[DefaultGen | 5,436]

I definitely haven't noticed games being gone or anything (besides super rare stuff). However I used to casually browse newly listed BINs in the mid 2000s for deals and it's basically impossible now. Hot keywords have people trolling them so much that even when I use "instant" alert services that refresh every 30 seconds it's usually too late when something popular and underpriced comes up. 

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

This happened a while ago in my opinion and was even worse a few years ago. Things started to become stale in 2015ish once it was common knowledge that games were worth a good amount of money. There might be less inventory overall these days but I find it is easier to find rare games if you're willing to pay the price where a number of years ago they'd be hard to find at all. 

[goldenpp72 | 1,237]

The answer is likely going to vary entirely based on what people are looking for. Stuff like TG16 for example seems far less these days, same for game gear and so forth, but I've noticed increases in other platforms too.