Since then, eBay has generated over $15 billion in profit in auctions
Source? eBay has squashed most of its own auction activity in favor of fixed-price items. Participation in auctions has been spiraling downward for years, resulting in underpriced items, resulting in sellers abandoning auctions altogether.
I suspect part of the decline of auctions is that they're risky for low-velocity products.
Example: your item is worth $200 on the fair market, but might only sell one or two a month. There are simply not that many people chasing, say, a Commodore 4040 disc drive or a high-grade 1898 half-crown. You can park it on a Buy it Now listing forever until you get $200. If you try to auction starting at $200, or with a $200 reserve, people will pass because if they're not getting a deal, they'd better at least get immediate gratification rather than waiting 10 days for the auction to close. You can list at $100 or $1 at auction and get interest, but then you're praying people get interested enough to push it back to $200. Buy it now is the safest route for that.
I tend to use eBay these days as "one step above Banggood/AliExpress/etc." They have many of the same items but there will usually be a few sellers offering it dispatched from the US, letting me get it in 3 days instead of 25, for a couple dollars more.
