As we follow Hookah trends on a daily basis, we came across the auction site, eBay.com. We did a refined search on Hookahs and it appears that every type of seller is trying to sell water pipes on the site. From sellers with a rating of 0 are listing them by the dozen and sellers who sell women clothing are even beginning to sell hookahs.
The market appears to become extremely saturated and more Hookahs are being manufactured in China at a very low price. At this rate, everyone and their mothers will be selling hookahs that look alike for $5 a piece. The demand for Hookahs significantly dropped over the years as they fill the shelves of eBay stores of almost every type of seller.
The reason being is that the cost has dropped and more people are desperate to make a dollar here and there that they begin selling hookahs because of its popularity. However, it still appears that the pioneer Hookah eBayers still have the power and attract more sellers. Rookie sellers attempt to regain the veterans market share and drop the prices to gain customers. Even though, this method sounds smart, it hurts both sellers.
Ultimately, the rookie seller who is trying to make a dollar off their hookahs leave the eBay arena after a few months and the veterans regain some of their market share back. However, a new rookie begins to sell hookahs as one leaves causing the same cycle to occur.
The demand for hookahs has not declined at all; what has declined, however, is the eBay buyer's trust in sellers who cheat them by calling a Chinese hookah Egyptian. Even with the glut of Chinese imposters available on eBay, we haven't seen a decline in our business there at all. Why? Because we are honest about our products and offer great service to our customers. Perhaps this is where the other sellers you mentioned go wrong.
Thank you for your comment Caravansarai Hookahs. We'd like to congratulate your company on your success on eBay. After conducting a market research on eBay.com and comparing the numbers of Hookahs sold this year compared to the last few years, the numbers of Hookahs sold have dropped. There is an abundant supply of products listed and a lesser amount being sold. Therefore, we have concluded and inserted that commentary based on the demand drop on eBay.
Furthermore, your assertion about "eBay buyer's trust in sellers who cheat them by calling a Chinese hookah Egyptian" is a interesting point. Currently, there are about 1200 Hookah auctions listed on eBay. When we conducted a refine search for the aforementioned keyword "Egyptian Hookah" approximately 200 Hookahs were listed with the following keyword. About half of those listing appear to hookahs made in China. Henceforth, less than 10% of the Chinese contain the keyword "Egyptian Hookah." Unfortunately there are no hard facts based on your assertion to prove the decline in eBay buyer's trust in sellers. We would need to conduct a survey on a given population and even that assessment would not be accurate unless we get every past and present Hookah eBay buyer to participate in the study.
We've been selling hookahs both on eBay and direct wholesale from our two warehouses in the U.S. for approximately four years now and have seen a couple of significant changes in the market trends during that time.
As gold level PowerSellers on eBay, we can definitely attest to the fact that the demand for authentic Egyptian hookahs has not declined for if it had, we would have been out of business quite some time ago with the glut of Chinese manufactured pipes available on the eBay venue. Several of our wholesale customers who carry both authentic Egyptian hookahs and the Chinese copies have seen a lack of interest in the latter since approximately August of this year. They have not, however, seen their sales of Egyptian hookahs slump.
We worked with eBay's Trust and Safety Department to help them recognize the characteristics of an Egyptian and a Chinese hookah so that they could crack down on those sellers who were deliberately misleading their buyers. All but one of the original sellers have gone, but a new one has been added to the mix. Considering that back in 2003 nearly every hookah sold on eBay was called "Egyptian" irrespective of its place of manufacture, this reduction of dishonest sellers is quite an accomplishment, thank you.
I used to sell on eBay a year ago and I kinda agree with the genie. There would be 100s of sellers selling the same exact item and I think honesty has nothing to do with too many sellers.
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