Leaving eBay: Not as Easy as It Sounds

Sellers, who boycotted eBay (EBAY) last month, may be back in May for round two. The driving force behind "everything" eBay are eBay sellers who have simply had enough.

There was a time when eBay sellers were too afraid to speak out publicly against the auction giant. Those days appear to be over. The fear factor has been replaced by anger and sellers are devoting their time to speaking out against their venue partner. While those selling on eBay have also begun to search other venues in which to sell their wares, there is (no doubt) a bit of trepidation of leaving eBay completely.

Over the years, eBay has continued to grow at a staggering pace. Those seeking a venue to sell their wares came to eBay and now consider eBay their "home". It's a place for sellers to communicate through message boards (and forums) on topics ranging from how to sell on eBay, to politics, to announcing births and deaths.

The thought of leaving eBay may be likened to that of experiencing a loss. If we lose our job/career and/or experience a financial loss, we eventually bounce-back. In essence, we are a resilient bunch and once we accept a loss, we may simply go back to being angry but channel that anger in ways that make us super men and women.

No doubt, the fear of leaving eBay is deep rooted in the simple fact that once you leave, you can't take much with you. You may have spent years building your eBay business and even the thought of closing down your eBay store can send a shiver of fear down your spine. This is the "fear factor" that plays into the success of the auction giant.

While another boycott appears to be on the horizon and message boards expound on real and/or perceived injustices (wielded like a sword toward eBay sellers), sellers keep coming back for more.

Powersellers may be the most vulnerable of all eBay sellers. They have spent years building their eBay business and reputation. They have changed the color of their stars over a period months and/or years and eventually get that shooting star, which basically lets everyone know they're an eBay success story.

However, when it comes to picking up stakes and taking your tent elsewhere on the net, you have to leave behind your feedback, your store and your traffic.

Your most valuable asset is your eBay username. If you're a high-volume eBay seller, you more than likely have established hundreds and/or thousands of links into your eBay store, however, once your username ceases to exist, so do your links.

One other slight problem that many may encounter is that if you were to sell your eBay business tomorrow, you must have the consent of eBay to transfer your username to the new party. What if eBay informs you that you may not transfer your username to a new entity? There is very little information available within eBay's Help pages, which addresses the all-important question of how to sell your eBay business.

If you spent years building an eBay business (and do not have a brick and mortar presence), your initial goal in opening your eBay business may have been based upon the premise of selling your eBay business as part of your exit strategy. If you have eBay store with high-volume sales, you've got a business worth money.

Who owns your eBay username?

When registering on eBay, one has to select a username. In fact, eBay offers some good advice within its Help pages on how select your username. This Help section expounds on how valuable your username can be to you and how to distinguish your "brand" from that of other eBay sellers. Ebay uses words like "you and yours" when offering good advice on how to select your username. In other words, selecting an eBay username is a valuable asset - not to be taken lightly.

If you leave eBay, your username can possibly be released by eBay to a new seller after a period of time. It's possible to contact eBay and request that the username be placed back into circulation. If you're lucky enough to have an eBay Account Manager, you may even receive an email reminder letting you know that a specific username was placed back into circulation and will soon become available.

There do not seem to be any clear-cut rules and/or answers on eBay's site concerning the sale of an established eBay business. While an eBay search for domain names yielded 160+ results, there do not appear to be any eBay usernames up for grabs.

For all of the publications available on how to "sell on eBay" or "how to make a million on eBay" there are none, which tell you how to sell your eBay business once you have made that first millionJ

Are there any eBay sellers who have successfully sold their eBay business? If so, please tell your story below in the comments section.

Disclosure: None

Comments

[Grey Edwards]

I have extensive knowledge of how to go about the process for selling an eBay user id. I can be reached at 801 502 7319

[meanwhile]

thanks, great article, thought provoking & timely.

borrowing a line from you.........

''There do not seem to be any clear-cut rules and/or answers on eBay's site concerning...''

indeed, many aspects of ebay buisness are not clear cut, transparent, well defined, well conceived etc etc ...

when for example, dsr and feedback ratings now become potential penalty points effecting the sellers qualifying for substantial discounts, surely all related matters must be a one size fits all set of published reg's........

meanwhile.....

ebay sit as judge and jury in their own closed court, deciding if fb should be withdrawn or not, employing complete discretionary power, is this just, correct or proper?
when they might benefit financially.... eg disputed neg' fb is not withdrawn, then counts towards a seller not enjoying discount benefits.....

[Watchingthe Wheels]

I have just returned from Ebay's answer center. I had attempted to leave a link to alert users to this article and more importantly to alert users to the first comment posted.

My Ebay post was interfered with. MY...
...MY

Hopefully people will find it. Mr. Edwards I'm sure there are members who would be very interested by what they might be able to learn from you. Please keep listing your info whereever possible

[Henrietta]

That great American institution eBay is UNAMERICAN.

In America we are presumed innocent until found guilty.

On eBay we are found guilty and can spend months or years trying to prove our innocence.

eBay has ruined people financially, with its unregulated monopoly payment system Paypal, it has frozen accounts for years. Paypal can & does change their Terms of Service at any time without notification. If you have a Paypal account they can not only freeze your funds in your Paypal account, they can fine you $2500 for violation of their Terms of Service, go into your bank account and credit card and help themselves to their fine. They have greater powers than the Courts who are bound by law.

screw-paypal.com will open your eyes.

Paypal changed the User Agreement March 5th 2008. Do you know what changed? PayPal is amending section 10.2 of the User Agreement to allow PayPal to take the actions described in that section if PayPal has reason to believe that you have engaged in any of the Restricted Activities. The prior language allowed PayPal to take the actions described in that section if you engaged in any of the Restricted Activities.

Are sellers afraid of eBay and Paypal? If not, they should be! If you think my real name is Henrietta I have a very nice bridge I would like to sell you, on eBay.

[greta_speaks]

interesting article mr. larouche, thank you. yes, leaving was emotional, but eBay made it VERY easy to leave and not look back. sell name or eBay business?? in all good conscience, doubtful if anyone could seriously consider selling a castle on a sinking island.

eBay has lost their integrity a long time ago, in life and business they are basic requirements. we can see the wizard behind the curtain, hopefully the stockholders will too.

~ JOIN THE eBay BOYCOTT ~ BE INFORMED ~

Find your State or International Location folder and join us. Former employees are welcome too!

A place to organize.
A place to unite.
A place to focus.
United we stand, Divided we fall.

forums.delphiforums.co...

www.accknowl.com/

Boycott Victoriously ….. While Making Noise!
Evacuate by May 1, 2008!

[drt (dirtyraggedtired)]

boycott victoriously's post stated my opinion precicesly:
eBay made it VERY easy to leave and not look back.

sell name or eBay business?? in all good conscience, doubtful if anyone could seriously consider selling a castle on a sinking island.

Today I had an unpleasant experience in KMart - owned by Sears - who is reputedly being courted by eBay. A display rack with a large $7.99 price sign, I took 2 to the counter and was charged $13.99 each. This has happened at the same store on other occasions and I have chalked it up to misreading the sign, but this time I balked - stalled the entire line and had people checking it. They came back saying that the sign was for items on the OTHER side. I made a scene, and plan to contact Sears and Kmart management about it.

I've noticed this from this particular company many times over the past 20 years and believe that it's not "human error", but that it's deliberate and deceptive, the same behavior that eBay is practicing.

The rumors that eBay is working toward a relationship with Sears / Kmart, the deception goes on and on and on and on...............

[JewelryBlogger]

I had an opportunity to interview the head of a U.K. investment group on Monday. The article will appear on seekingalpha by tomorrow. The U.K. group is investing heavily in a new auction site to launched in July.

[NotImpressed]

If you've dumped eBay and haven't looked back, then obviously you weren't a serious seller.

In fact, anyone who can boycott eBay for an entire month can't be a serious seller.

"Boycott Victoriously ….. While Making Noise!". Yeah, white noise.

As for screw-paypal.com, if PayPal is freezing your accounts (and I seriously doubt it's for "no reason"), then you should leave eBay--it's Seller like you that drove away the buyers.

Good Luck!

[Henrietta]

@not impressed
Nobody has frozen my Paypal account.

Have you read ALL of your Paypal User Agreement?
I used to think people who opened up special bank accounts just for their Paypal related business were really obsessive. Then I read it. Then I pulled all my Money Market Funds out of Paypal and put them someplace else.

[airmandj]

Very good point Not Impressed. I've read the PayPal User Agreement and nowhere does it state they will ever take money out of your bank account or credit card without your prior authorization. You others just want to complain about how eBay is showing unfair favoritism to the buyers...No Duh! If eBay and PayPal don't keep the buyers happy then obviously the sellers aren't happy. Why is that, because they'll take their hard earned money elsewhere. So eBay makes buyers happy by making their buyer experience as low risk as possible, to relieve them of their fear and apprehensions of purchasing something off the internet. So what does the seller get out of this...Millions upon Millions of traffic from people wanting to buy! And all it takes is just one bad experience for these buyers to walk.

I'll admit, there is definitely fraud out there that can victimize sellers as well as buyers. Unfortunately, this is what the economy has come to, petty people doing dishonest things to make a few measly bucks. Nobody is getting rich enough to retire off of scamming people through eBay and PayPal. eBay invests many of its resources to ensure that fraud trends are caught as quickly as possible. If you have been a victim of fraud, I apologize, its truly an unpleasant experience, but it is just one of those risks you must accept by being in business. Its not fair that a company like Walmart loses millions each year due to shoplifters. And thanks to these shoplifters, you have to pay more for your purchases so Walmart can offset this loss and attempt to prevent future loses through more security and surveillance equipment. eBay is no different. Sure, fees may go up, but did you ever think that the money is probably going in to updated fraud detection systems that allow eBay to find and stop potential problems before they happen?

I've been an eBay user for 7 years now and I've never had any problems that eBay and PayPal were not able to resolve. As Not Impressed stated, if eBays improvements to attract more buyers bother you, you can leave. eBay will be right there waiting for you 5, 10, 20 years from now with their Billions of satisfied buyers and Billions of profitable sellers.

[dammitgirl]

Henrietta is wrong. Everytime paypal updates their agreements they send you an email. and they are regulated, they just arent regulated like a bank is, cus they're not a bank. And they don't have the authority to pull funds from your bank account or your credit cards so I don't know why you'd need a "special" bank account just for paypal. talk about paranoid!

and i am amazed at how pissy sellers can be. i have been a seller and a buyer for years and i have no problems buying or seller. mainly because I understand that when i sell, i am responsible for much much more than a buyer. if there are no buyers, there are no sellers. customer service is something i think these boycotting sellers don't seem to get. i have never bought from a bad seller and i have never had a bad buyer, so i guess i consider myself lucky. But at the same time, i KNOW THE RULES, cus there have to be rules, and if you sell you cant be oblivious. If you are buying too, you have to be smart, due to all the fraud out there. You have to be smarter as a seller as well, to avoid all the buyer fraud out there.

EBay is the most American thing there is, a site where you can sign up and start selling your junk immediately and become a budding capitalist. As are not an anarchist country, which is what you whiners seems to want. go sell on those small crap sites, where you have absolutely NO protection. good luck getting a wide range of buyers who will actually pay you.

[tam]

I boycotted in February, actively. And i have sold only a few items on ebay since. I do have a full time job, but that does not make me any less important that a full-time seller.

I have moved on from boycotting to leaving. Found a very affordable and accomodating auction site for only $8/month. Business will pick up. Walmart wasn't a huge success overnight, but it came, as did ebay. click on my www for more info.

[Rosie theRiveter]

Um... hey, "not impressed"...

If you are a serious seller you would not tolerate the increasing fees and lack of protection of sellers.

So I cannot take YOU seriously, but I know that eBay has a SERIOUS problem that will only get worse. Just wait 'til your feedback gets submarined just 'cause it can.

[XX]

I am amazed by some of the ignorant comments that are being made here. For example one person writes that he doubts PayPal is freezing accounts for "nothing." Fact of the matter, PayPal IS freezing accounts for nothing and denying people access to THEIR money for 6 months or longer -- in the process destroying many vulnerable, yet potentially successful, online businesses. Almost ANYTHING -- in most cases what innocent is -- can trigger PayPal's "anti-fraud" system which will then automatically limit a person's Paypal account, send them an automated email, and then you have thousands of people IN ONE DAY trying to contact an untrained and powerless PayPal customer service staff of about 500. Take a look at SOME of the reasons as to why PayPal may limit your account:

www.screw-paypal.com/r...

So keep the ignorant comments in check. Also, the arrogant people who use PayPal and eBay and never had a problem quickly become believers when they do eventually run into problems -- and MOST DO!

Also, if anybody is interested: New Ebay and PayPal Michael Moore documentary -- HELP MAKE IT HAPPEN. You can get the information here:

www.screw-paypal.com/c...