Ebay’ers Strike Back At The Empire…
Some Ebay Sellers have taken a stance against Ebay and the changing of their fees. Ebay has raised the commission that they charge for sold items and lowered the cost to list items by 25% - 50%. What does this mean to you? For new people starting out on Ebay this at first glance seems to be a good move, I can tell you when I started on Ebay there was a lot of trial and error and It cost me alot in listing fees alone trying to find items that I thought might sell well and never really sold at all. When you become proficient at selling items on Ebay then you would definitely want lower commission charges and keep more of your sales price.
So how did the strike that was in effect from Feb 18th - Feb 25th affect Ebay and their bottom line? It probably is a little too early to tell or we might never know as Ebay will not publicly release it’s listing totals, But according to some 3rd party tracking sites such as dealscart.com and medved.net as reported by USA Today, Ebay’s auction listings have dropped about 13%. Sellers have tried these boycotts against Ebay before and have not really done anything to hurt them. This time with the outreaching of Social Networking using videos on YouTube and Networking on MySpace might have made a difference this time. Ebay’s new CEO John Donahoe is facing slowing growth and increasing competition from Amazon.com and Google plus others getting into the online auction game.
Another new change that has been announced at Ebay is Sellers will no longer be able to leave negative feedback comments for buyers. This is not a popular move from the sellers standpoint, one of the biggest forms of protection a seller has against buyers who don’t pay promptly or not at all is the feedback rating the buyers have. Making it harder for sellers to sell with confidence, If you run across a buyer with a bad track record or does not pay, you will have to list the product again and pay additional listing fees.
So will this change the way Ebay looks at it’s sellers or will they buckle and compromise with their sellers? As of right now Ebay is not changing their policies. One of the most vocal boycotters Valerie Lennert has spread her message with an anti-Ebay video on YouTube and has created a MySpace page to get the word out. Will this affect your Ebay business or stop you from getting into the Ebay business?
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February 26th, 2008 at 9:58 am
very nice post. keep the good work
all best,
z
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February 26th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
While I’m not too active on Ebay, I do buy or sell something ocasionally. Well, I don’t like those changes for sure. Especially feedback part of it.
I don’t think the strike will make any difference, though, but overtime I expect Ebay losing its market share if it continues such ill-guided moves..
Regards, Misha
February 26th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I was really starting to think that eBay was starting to change for the better when they started to implement a lot of social media options. They provided us sellers with a few new great ways to drive traffic to our stores besides having a bunch of listings.
And then they kicked us in the junk.
My thoughts are that they are perhaps trying to weed out some of the ‘not so great’ sellers out there and hoped that the some the top sellers would hold, but I think the opposite has happened.
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February 26th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Great commentary keep up the good work.
http://www.squidoo.com/NOTEBAY
February 28th, 2008 at 3:56 am
Ugh, Ebay commissions are terrible. Ebay is such a huge powerhouse, though, it will be largely unaffected.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:06 pm
My first time reading your blog Ray!
Very good content on a variety of topics.
I am one of those Ebay Sellers that boycotted…and still am…
Joseph Ratliff
Joseph Ratliff’s last blog post..10 Reasons Affiliate Marketing Kicks A$$
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:22 pm
and to top it all off, ebay was caught red handed listing fake or bogus auctions with sellers who are no longer registered???? Look it up on you tube. As one guy was reading a community thread, when he refreshed the page, ebay pulled the entire discussion. After removing the option of sellers being able to post a negative, the name feebay truly applies to ebay.
What a joke of a auction site….i took all of my business to amazon where i am thriving and i keep emailing google to find out when they launch their website to strike back at ebay and their monopoly.