But I noticed recently that eBay is being mentioned more frequently by co-workers, and on message boards when discussing purchasing something. I purchased something off eBay this spring because a merchant on eBay had it for sale (new), and Amazon did not - the first time in about 12 years.
Frankly, I am finding that identical items are priced lower on eBay than on Amazon right now about 70% of the time. Maybe it is just what I am looking for, but this is what I have been seeing for the past 6 months. Anecdotal, so take it for what it is worth.
But it seems to me that Amazon is no longer looking to be the low price leader in everything anymore. They are trying to be the one stop shop instead and may be trying to increase margins as a side effect of being more convenient and hoping that Prime members are not comparison shopping.
Prime was a really smart marketing move by Bezos. I remain a Prime member for the shipping and streaming (Netflix and Prime - cut the cable; sorry DIS and ESPN, I am one of the millions) even though I am buying less at Amazon than I have over the past couple of years. Shipping is occasionally a big deal and eBay does not compete as well there.