I've bought several reels onE-bay in the past and I've been watching E-bay for well over a year now. I haven't found much of anything to bid on and can find absolutely no "deals".

 Has anyone else noticed this? I posted something similar probably 8 months ago and several people commented that E-bay's changes that have hurt sellers has greatly deterred them.

@nd question - Craigs list, I just don't get it. Do you have to search for everything one state at a time? I've tried looking a couple of times and it seems that way.

Thanks in advance

FFI - AKA Matt Crum

i search for gear thats been listed but mis spelled.

i am stuck on looking for Daiwa gear though.........

Ebay was much better 10-12 years ago, before most of the dealers invaded. >

I used to be on there all the time, and made a fair amount of money buying/selling vintage motorcycle parts, but it's just not worth the hassle now. It's turned into a giant flea market full of poorly made products and "dealers" who have all of their items drop-shipped because they actually have no inventory at all.

Ebay has also made it very difficult for dealers to accept payment by any means other than Paypal. They charge you to list your item, charge you more for any added features you want in your listing, hit you for a final value fee when your item sells, and then force you to accept payment via Paypal so they can screw you out of even more money on the transfer of funds?

Ebay's changes, much of them meant to attract buyers to the site, have left sellers more vulnerable to being ripped off by unscrupulous buyers. Add that to the fee increases and it's not hard to figure out why there are fewer sellers there and many stores that shuttered their E-doors.

It's not just Ebay though.  A flea market approximately 12 miles south of me was one of the biggest in the state for years.  The past 5 years or so they've been jacking the rates on sellers who sell there full time and for those that just show up every once in awhile on the weekends.  The place is a ghost town now.  The buildings that held the full time dealers are nearly vacant.  The outdoor pavilions that held others are the same.  The number of temp sellers has dwindled to 1/3 of what it used to be.  

Essentially the flea market owners priced themselves right out of business.

It all depends what you consider a deal. I've got a few reels, NIB at 1/2 retail. There seem to be a bunch of sellers that sell "new" reels that were part of combos. I avoid these. There are deals out there. I have a saved search titled "Baitcaster" and one titled "Baitcast"

It takes a while to look through all the listings but you can customize the search to filter out unwanted brands also. Keep looking.

Don't just search for Curado or Revo. You might be missing some misspelled bargains as Skunked mentioned.

 I hear ya on the spell thing.

I have the following searches

Pflueger

Shimano Spinning

Shimano casting

Abu Garcia

Steal deals for all fishing under a certain $

Bass Pro shops

Cabelas

Daiwa

Same searches I've had forever and I don't even find anything to bid on. I am still mainly looking for the same series of reels so that will have an effect. I just don't care to bid on the other models.

Just curious if anyone was seeing the same trend or if I was being too picky.

No big deal either way it saves the budget this way.

I did watch a 6o minutes deal with the head of E-bay and it seemed to follow the trend that I'm finding ( less sellers because of fees ).

Well it's not only the 'dealers' that have invaded; it's every person that bought the 'Become an Ebay seller..........I cleared $5,000 last month part time!!!' kit. I know a couple guys that got into that and it was a big waste of their time.

Ebay is decent for selling stuff now because it's amazing how many people will buy something used at near full price, pay for shipping AND wait 7-10 days to receive it. For a few dollars more they could go buy it new, have it then AND have a warranty. As far as buying, unless it's mispelled as other have pointed out, you're lucky to find a decent deal on QUALITY stuff.