Classic car parts on Ebay

colnerov

Well-Known Member
Hi, unless I have missed it mentioned on here. But has anyone else noticed on here that 'classic car parts'
has gone from ebay. It is causing a lot of forum traffic both on other forum sites and ebay, which seem
reluctant to reinstate it. You now have to wade through all the unwanted dross on 'car parts'.

Can anyone suggest any other good auction sites for classic car parts?

In anticipation, thanks.

Colin
 
If you go that route, it is there, but when you click the link, you go to 'other car parts' which has 1,245,638 items for sale!
 
Hi, It is redirecting you to 'other car parts'. if you look at the second box you will see. If you look
at the discussion boards both sellers and buyers are very dischuffed.

Colin
 
unfortunately ebay has a monopoly and is not so much a facilitator as it was in the early days now it has a captive market.

Only site that ever gave it even the slightest competition was ebid. There's a chicken and egg problem though. people dont sell on ebid because they dont get enough sales/bids and people dont buy there becuase it doesnt have the range of goods which ebay does.

Rich.
 
Sorry Guys, should have looked further :oops:

Yes I really wanted ebid to succede because ebay are such a set of b*stards, but as you say it's not happening very quickly.

Recently I've noticed that a lot of stuff on ebay can be bought cheaper elsewhere (new stuff that is), I used to just go to ebay and buyer the best I could find, now I look on ebay but go searching elsewhere too, have saved quite a bit.
 
I must say, I virtually never browse by category, just search for what I'm after. Only becomes a problem when selling.
 
Hi, in the past I have tried Ebid but as there wasn't much of a choice I didn't linger.
However I will persevere and see if any of the sellers from ebay migrate. Failing that
I will wait till the changes are complete and see where I go from there.

Thanks anyway.

Colin
 
arthuy said:
Thank goodness other people noticed. I thought I was missing something. Colin

Me too! I often browse by 'Classic car parts', as various lucas bits, headlamps, switchgear, radiator header tanks, etc are often not listed by any vehicle at all, so you get the biggest search area (and biggest bargains) by casting the net across classic cars generally. Shame it's gone- I've given up trailing through listing in amongst the 1.67 million toyota corolla and impreza pattern parts!

Is it worth believing we could make a difference??

Michael
 
On the off-chance it could make a difference, here is the link to the ebay contact page. Takes a month of sundays to find it, and none of the pages ever load first time so you have to hit refresh all the time (hmmmmm, is this to deter complaints...?)

Choose 'Searching for items to buy' from the 'Buying' drop-down box, then hit 'Email' in the contact option which appears on the bottom right of the screen.

I said this:
------------
Dear Sirs,
Please reinstate the 'Classic Car Parts' sub-category in 'Vehicle Parts & Accessories', which was discontinued a few weeks ago. As a Classic car owner, this was a valuable way to access the listings I needed. I am now deterred from searching as I have to sift through literally millions of listings for vehicle parts generally. The vast majority of these listings are business sellers with multiple products that are of no use to a Classic car owner. The Classic Car scene in Britain is a fast-growing and very lucrative industry, and many owners use ebay as a primary method of trading increasingly rare and expensive parts around the country. Please reinstate this category at the earliest convenience. Ebay.com (international site) still has the search category. I am encouraging many of my friends and fellow classic owners to contact you regarding this matter. With Best Wishes, Michael
------------
Thought it made the point whilst appealing to their better [greedier] nature. Not sure if it'll make a difference, but worth a go.....
 
redrover said:
Thought it made the point whilst appealing to their better [greedier] nature. Not sure if it'll make a difference, but worth a go.....

You are absolutely right, every one on their forum discussion Is going on about how they
are inconvenienced. From the sellers saying that their revenues are down and the buyers
saying that they cant find anything without looking at 10 times more things that they could
possibly buy. Plus the people who can't spend a happy 3 hours a day browsing, and I include
myself in that group most days. Ebay are a business and they don't make any money out of
browsers. That why supermarkets keep rearranging their stock so you come across other
items and put likely impulse buy's by the till. So appealing to their profit potential is a good
strategy. We shall see!!

Colin
 
Just had this back from eBay now. Not the answer we'd hoped for but you can't argue with it for thoroughness of response...

------
Hello Michael,

Thank you for writing to eBay with regard to Classic car parts category.

I apologise for the delay in replying to your email, and any
inconvenience this may have caused. We know that some of our members are
familiar with the Classic car parts category. Changes on eBay are made
after prolonged consideration and keeping in view the satisfaction and
ease of our members. I can understand that it is indeed very difficult
to adapt with something when you're habitual of using something for long
time. I have explained reasons why Classic car parts category has been
merged and how you/your buyers can still search for them easily.

How you/your buyers can still search for Classic car parts:

Though the category structure has been changed, the search functionality
remains the same. Keyword searches will still direct buyers to listings,
as was the case before the category changes. Refining search will make
this task easy for you. For example, to find parts for Mini clubman.
Type Mini clubman in the search box, select Car Parts category from
refine search options (from the left hand side of the search result
page). Now, you will see Mini Clubman under Model, click on the link
Mini Clubman link to get the result for Mini Clubman.

The rationale behind merging classic car parts into car parts is that it
removes the ambiguity about what is meant by 'Classic' car parts. It's
not clear where you would expect to list or find a Golf Mk2 part.
Additionally, lots of parts fit vehicles found previously in the
'Classic' and 'non-classic categories' this removes the confusion about
where to find and list these items too. With this change, categories
will represent part types, rather than vehicle manufacturers. Given that
so many parts fit vehicles from different manufacturers, it makes more
sense to have the categories this way around. Sellers can specify the
make(s) of vehicle that their part fits using item specifics. This item
specifics will help buyers to narrow down their search to get exact
result.

The primary reasons for making the change, i.e. combining 'Classic Car
Parts' into a universal 'Car Parts' structure, are that:

- There isn't a clear, universally accepted definition of 'Classic' it
is generally subjective. Some definitions are based on the date of
manufacture, whereas others are based on the age of the vehicle itself,
which changes with time. Some definitions are a reflection of how iconic
the vehicle is.

- Because of unclear and confusing definition of classic, a split
structure forces sellers to decide where to list their car parts. This
led to buyers having to search in multiple categories or else risk
missing inventory that they were interested in.

- These changes are part of a wider initiative to bring Fitment to the
site alongside the MVL (Master Vehicle List). This initiative is most
beneficial when car parts are not split across categories as with 'Car
Parts' and 'Classic Car Parts'.

- The category structure has changed to parts-based rather than
manufacturer-based in order to solve these problems. Before the category
changes some buyers were used to browsing by category (the categories
were car manufacturers, e.g. MG, Lotus, Jaguar etc.).

I hope I've explained everything clearly. If you need any more
information please get in touch.

Kind regards,

Oliver Davis
eBay Customer Support

-----------------------------------------------------------
 
I for one agree with his thinking, it's the best way to do it given that many sellers fail to categorise their items correctly. If not for this I'd have lamented the loss of Classic Car Parts as a category.
 
Look for rover 2000 and you get way to many modern parts to search through,as not all sellers put P6 on the listing,but will have put it under classic car parts.
And the reply you got is the same verbal bull that I got.
I have no doubt it will come back eventually,once they realise that we know what a classic car is "Basically over 25 yrs old" !!
So if classic cars can be a category then classic car parts has to be there to compliment it.
Those who put certain yr2000+ on yank cars under classic car are dreamers!!
 
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