I'd agree that 'people have changed' and one way that is evident on ebay is that there a lot less private buyers than a decade or so ago. Whatever the reason for their departure, it has drastically reduced the number of bidders on auction listings, so they often sell for one bid, or not at all.
Yet, when I used to list auctions I'd always get a few Watchers, who mostly never bid. Some checking sale prices, but others just waiting for me to send them an offer at a lower price.
It's not too much of a stretch of the imagination to see that many are Traders who, if they bid at all, only ever bid the start price. They are effectively controlling sale prices whenever they can.
I still collect vintage glass and regularly browse google shopping and etsy and in my niche it isn't difficult to spot numerous items that sold on ebay for one bid of (say) £10, only to appear on another site at a far higher price. So easy to spot when the sellers pinch the original sellers photos.
It's also true to say that what buyers buy has changed and copper kettles may well have seen price reductions. It's the same in my glass niche. I had to get into bidding wars to buy some of the weirder pieces of Stolzle. Today they sell for a fraction of the price I paid.
But it's just as true to say that at the time I picked-up some bargains, by todays standards, in Uranium glass that was regarded as a curiosity a decade ago, but today is fought over. Or Cloud Glass that few could be bothered to I.D, so sold as common UK Davidson, when in fact it was far rarer and made by European companies.
In some ways ebay has not "read the room" correctly and made mistakes by continuing with its boot-fair scrum attitude to collectables that was appropriate when ebay opened up the whole world as a market place. Giving collectors access to an unprecedented range of items that they could rarely find locally.
Those days are gone, collectors are no longer content to grab anything they can find, they're more sophisticated. They aren't content to try to winnow a few items out of 10,000 ads. in Home and Garden category, for modern Chinese "Art Deco style" tat, they know what they want and expect to be able to find it easily. Ebay has failed in that, indeed it's made finding rare items increasingly difficult.
Yes, it is a lot more hassle, both for buyers and sellers and whichever they happen to be, they're more likely to be disappointed. Which is why ebay has become a playground for resellers looking for cheap stock and lower prices that they can make a profit on elsewhere.
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