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Comment by draftable | Hacker News Reader

"Has anyone under 30 ever bid on something on eBay?"

What a load of shit. I'm 25, and I use ebay all the time.

Sure, you can make the argument that Etsy and Amazon are taking business away from eBay. But suggesting that they have replaced eBay as a platform is ridiculous. This is also a very USA-centric view to take. I'm from Australia, so using Amazon is a pain due to manufacturer export restrictions, and the often prohibitively expensive shipping costs. So in many cases eBay is a better alternative. And as for Etsy, it serves a niche. If you want to set up an online store to sell kitschy homemade toot, knock yourself out and use Etsy. But if I want to sell some of my second hand stuff, eBay is what I'm using.

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For a company run by Sarah Lacey (who takes pride in having a Chinese presence) Pando Daily is a shockingly north American centric publication.

I also get the sense they want to be the first to say something is happening rather than could happen, at the expense of accuracy.

Australia is partly to blame for its own woes there -- Amazon have said in the past that they won't set up a .au subsidiary while there are parallel import restrictions on books.

All hail the luvvies, who made all books more expensive for all Australians, so they could protect a handful of novelists, playwrights and poets.

Explain how there's parallel import restrictions on books here? Last I heard there isn't any. I thought the only reason Amazon & co don't setup shop here is that its cheaper for them to ship books direct from the UK than pay Aussie-level wages.

If there is an "Australian" edition of a book, it is illegal to import copies printed elsewhere and resell them. Or, as it's also known in polite circles: retarded protectionist bullshit.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/business-old/shorten...

As for "cheaper to ship from the UK", you're thinking of the Book Depository, who take advantage of subsidised export rates.

This is true. We have largely removed all tarrifs and disincentives to import here, but when it comes to books the local publishers have a stranglehold over the market.

Ironically, they are dying anyway because you instead of reselling the books here, consumers just buy them directly from sites like amazon.com.

Meanwhile, Angus & Robertson and Borders have closed, and it's damned hard to find a bookstore any more. Which means that publishers can't sell there books as there are very few retail outlets they can sell their material. I'm really not shedding any tears - books are far too expensive in Australia.

When I moved to Australia last year, I simply couldn't believe the prices for books. A simple trade paperback would likely set you back 15-30 AUD! And don't even get me started on technical books...

There are a lot of people who are pirating technical books in Australia.

Indeed there are. I _want_ to reward the authors of technical books, but there's no way I'm going to pay the outrageous prices Australian distributors want. It's still much cheaper to buy from Amazon and pay shipping from the US/UK to AU than buy locally. That assumes 1) you can find a bookstore and 2) they have the title you want in stock.

And Aussie retailers wonder why people are revolting and buying online...

This is why protectionism kills markets.

Yeah - I've used Book Depository, they're excellent. Also there is an Amazon subsidiary who I've ordered off as well - Amazon.co.uk - their official address is in luxembourg or something (obviously some tax dodge).

You, being merely a single example of an individual who does not fit her statement, does not invalidate her point that it's a marketplace that an older demographic audience uses.

If she (and you) could demonstrate that as being true (or false) with research and statistics, then she (and you) would have a leg to stand on.

Draftable isn't getting paid to peddle anecdotes though.

Most of my friends and younger brothers friends have used eBay to sell second hand stuff and buy tickets for various events. I have never heard of Etsy.

I am not a great fan of ebay but if you want to shift something second hand its pretty effective.

A handful of people do not make a trend. However, I feel the comment on eBay being abandoned by under-30's is one of those statements made by someone living in a tech bubble and not in the real world.

eBay isn't hip or cool. That said when you want a good price for something, whether buying or selling doesn't matter. You want a good price and you don't want to get conned. eBay nails both of these.

I stopped using eBay 6 years ago, and for 5 years before that I used it every week, for buying and selling. eBay is fast becoming irrelevant. And I'm not in the US either.

>I stopped using eBay 6 years ago, and for 5 years before that I used it every week, for buying and selling. eBay is fast becoming irrelevant. And I'm not in the US either.

What part makes the above statements not anecdotal?

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