eBay Culling the Herd?

The "buzz" this week is that on line auctions are falling to the wayside in favor of fixed priced venues. Is it possible that the CEO of eBay (EBAY) has access to a crystal ball (or medium), which told him that the future of on line auctions is not in eBay's future? Or, is all this "buzz" the result of eBay sellers simply being maneuvered to leave eBay on their own accord and/or adapt to a 100% fixed price format?

It would be unreasonable to think that eBay sellers would wake up today and find an eBay announcement proclaiming that eBay will no longer be an auction venue by the end of 2008. Then again, eBay recently made an announcement that eBay Live Auctions will close by the end of 2008 and while it's not known how much revenue eBay Live Auctions generated for eBay in 2007, their partner, Live Auctioneers, LLC reportedly earned $100M in 2007. If this number is true (as reported by Live Auctioneers, LLC) one has to wonder how much of Live Auctioneers revenues contributed to eBay's bottom line.

The next question would be, "what Fortune 500 company gives up any part of $100M in revenues", especially in these uncertain economic times?

The changes to eBay during the past few months have been dramatic. eBay sellers have responded to these changes by posting negative You-Tube videos, blogs, articles, posts, organizing boycotts and sharing their negative experiences with both eBay and PayPal. The CEO of eBay has referred to all of the negative press as "noise". However, the "noise" has elevated to a point where eBay sellers are spreading their wings and flying the coop!

Is this what eBay wants?

In my humble opinion, eBay is strong enough (financially) to withstand eBay sellers who refuse to adapt to change. If the end goal is to move eBay to a "pure" fixed price format venue, eBay sellers who adapt to the current changes and those who sell exclusively through BIN (Buy it Now), may benefit in the long run.

Could their be a culling of eBay sellers in progress? Culling is the process of picking out others, especially something rejected because of inferior quality. In other words, the "herd" of eBay sellers may be being thinned out in order to move forward with a grander plan.

The name "eBay" can stand for anything..

While the brand has come to designate eBay as the on line auction giant, what's in a name? eBay has methodically acquired and/or launched mini-venues (within its own venue) for quite some time. Half.com, Shopping.com and StubHub.com are good examples of what a venue can do to cull the herd from within.

There are some benefits to eBay in moving to a "pure" fixed priced format:

• Increased buyer satisfaction.
• Reduced fraud.
• Reduction in labor force.

Can eBay morph itself into another Amazon?

While eBay could begin building fulfillment centers across the United States, this process would take some time. Those holding eBay stock (in long positions), might have some patience but, it's might be unreasonable to expect shareholders to "watch and wait" while eBay reinvents its business model. This may be where the help of others is needed.

The deal (partnership) with Buy.com may prove that eBay can open its core to partners, who can flood the marketplace with merchandise. Buy.com did just that by listing 500,000 items for sale on eBay, however, their sell-through rate of 5% was a bit disappointing.

Who suffered from the Buy.com flood?

eBay sellers offering merchandise in the same categories. What eBay may or may have not overlooked is that sellers are buyers, buyers become sellers and it can be one glorious food chain - if balanced correctly. The invitation to Buy.com to flood eBay core with BIN's, upset that delicate balance.

What's NOT fair?

Those selling on eBay have little recourse against bad buyers. Sellers can no longer leave negative feedback against those buyers who abuse, berate and threaten to leave negative feedback if the seller does not bend over backwards to please them. Those who worked for years to build their eBay feedback did so for nothing.

eBay decided that only the last twelve months of feedback makes a difference. In addition, eBay sellers quickly learned that neutrals turned into a "new kind of negative" and many found their overall feedback percentages had declined to the point of the last straw. Just how many straws can placed on the camels back before it breaks?

Why include neutrals into the equation at all? What was the purpose? Who did it help, who did it hurt? Here's some speculation..

There was nothing to be gained by calculating neutrals back into overall feedback percentages. Neutrals are just that "neutral". The transaction was neither good nor bad. No doubt, the decision to count neutrals into the overall scheme of feedback percentages was bad for the sellers (only). There was absolutely no purpose (no foreseeable gain) to eBay in upsetting its sellers - unless you want to "cull" the herd.

How does it ALL add up?

Judging from what could only be described as a "Seller Exodus" off of eBay (coupled with the major changes), one might think that eBay has a long-term plan. It may be that the plan for the future was concocted when Amazon leap frogged over eBay with stellar earnings reports.

Meg Whitman retires and Bill Cobb is on his way out. The eBay seller conference for 2009 has been canceled and eBay's new CEO (for better or worse) has taken hold of the helm of the ship with a map in hand, however, he may be in need of a GPS for a more accurate read on eBay's final destination.

Disclosure: none

Comments

[Watchingthe Wheels]

The executive level of Ebay enacted policy change in less than a forthright manner. There was no rallying of the troops. There was attempt made to honorably address the issues and problems within Ebay.

How can anybody trult trust a company that acts in this manner. Their actions towards the sellers showed me the potentials of dishonesty that can continue to be expected from the top tiers of Ebay.

I don't trust cowards.

[CalifGirl]

Subject: ebay Culling the Herd (seeking Alpha) v 2


Thank you for the very interesting article.


Yours is the first that I have seen that addresses a possible reason for the Neutral feedback = Negative issue. You said, "There was absolutely no purpose (no foreseeable gain) to eBay in upsetting its sellers - unless you want to "cull" the herd."


Brilliant! Of course, that makes sense finally!


The sellers whose feelings can be hurt by such a move are the smaller, caring sellers, who put their heart and soul as well as time and money in their business. Bigger sellers, or those with tough hides, will not be phased by it.


It's sad. I had a great time on eBay. I spent and made many thousands of dollars in my 8 years there. Now it's time to move on, just like they want me to. I'm not going to stay where I am made to feel like a second class citizen.


The auction culture is not gone. It is moving to other sites. There are DOZENS of other Online Auction sites out there. They are ALL growing. It's pie in the sky to think sales at any of them will match eBay's sales volume for most sellers for a while, but a number of them hold real promise (some of course will not survive, but that's the way of business). Many of us have made the move to sites where the other sellers with heart and soul are. It's like the old days at eBay. Slightly funky sites with new ways to learn, but it's profitable (a little at first, but getting better weekly), and the companies and buyers/sellers are a joy to work with. With the large influx of sellers (and buyers) these other sites have seen since January we smaller sellers that eBay has thinned out should be up to normal selling speed before the year is out (with a much better profit margin).


I am not foolish enough to belive that eBay will die off because of this, but they will, in the end, be diminished. They will be just another fixed price site. The magic of IT has left the building, and eBay has done it on purpose. In 10 years I expect business schools will use them as a prime example of what NOT to do when changing your company business plan. A far smarter thing to do would have to left auctions and auction seller related stores as they were (with listing costs at a reasonable level and feedback pre-DSR) and spun off a stand-alone fixed price venue (Express was already in place) where the huge sellers with hundreds of identical items could have happily listed their wares under the eBay banner with no feedback to buyers, and DSRs for feedback.

They have made some serious errors. They have angered a lot of people. One thing I don't think they took into consideration is their sellers, by their very nature, are tech savvy. Word of mouth travels very fast on the Internet. The eBay brand is getting a lot of bad press out there on all the social networking sites, blogs, forums and tech news sites. Of course the old ways are at work too, the playgrounds, lunchrooms and friends telling friends. They have driven off part of the herd they thought they didn't want, but we've taken a lot of new calves with us that they will never see.

[leapingcat]

I believe that the auction v fixed price argument has been overblown. Ebay has gone downhill to the extent that items selling on one bid has now become the norm.

What will sink Ebay is their moving away from the ability to find something different on their site, whether it is a vintage collectable or a hand-crafted item. That is Ebay's USP, you can find the commodity items anywhere, online or in shops.

Perhaps a better analogy than culling the herd is killing off bio-diversity, there are enough examples of ecological disasters to show the folly of that. Ecommerce is no different.

[Et tu,Brute!]

The above three comments show level-headed thought processes. I especially value the line as stated by Watching the Wheels:


"How can anybody trult trust a company that acts in this manner."

The bottom line financially is always about profit. We all know that. But to its sellers that are the foundation of ebay it is in-your-face vicious. Across the board.

eBay will not be able to change its business ethic, which actually seems to have worsened with new leadership. Who indeed would trust such an amoral enterprise?

[User 108022]

Buying on ebay is no longer a pleasant environment. Buyers determine end demand and having been a 50 transaction/year to 1/year customer the obviousness of the problem is one management must surely recognize.

[Paypal's introuble]

Thousands have closed their stores and ended listings. There is a revolt going on...come check it out: forums.ebay.com/db2/fo...

[Paypal's introuble]

Ebay, has made a huge mistake. There are losing thousands of sellers, EVEN the ones. There is a revolt going on at ebay, cme check it out: forums.ebay.com/db2/fo...

[User 205839]

Let us not forget that both the founder of eBay and I believe Meg are still on the board. This trashing is with their green light. I would be concerned for the political party Meg is working with as American's are being hurt all around the globe from ebay / paypal. They can crush us and forse us off eBay but they can not flea from the amount of people they have hurt with their tactics. They tried to tell France how much money they put in their economy and that sure didn't work for eBay as now for 3 months they get their court loss on their home page...Next France court mid month...hmmm...

[Et tu,Brute!]

User 205839 has nailed it straight in, in my opinion. As a new CEO, JD wouldn't be allowed such EXTREME freedom for change without corporate approval. Not with his track record. (I still think Meg steered eBay proper into a corner, saw the writing on the wall, groomed a patsy, and jumped ship!)

eBay's lost several recent litigations in France. France is not tolerating eBay's retoric.

Thirdly, in complete honosty, Meg on board McCain's political campaign has given THIS voter serious pause.

[Watchingthe Wheels]

Donahoe is a past CEO. it is only logical to assume that the newly acquired position that he holds was part of the original job offering.

Pierre hired Meg. I fail to understand the users who feel that he was somehow bamboozled by Mr. Donahoe.

P.T. Barnum had a quote about suckers being born ...


If you are unwilling to think for yourself who really is to blame. The users are unfortunately Ebay's enablers.

Et tu Brute!, I agree with your political assessment.

Ebay was found guilty by the French of fraud. Does this set legal precedent?

[gala1]

EBay is simply a search engine with a commission based sales form attached.
There are now alternative ways to sell your merchandise, especially if it is unique.

I tried twice to sell an antique equestrian painting on eBay, couldn't even come near my reserve.

Then I decided I would sell it on-line on my own.
I Googled "antique equestrian paintings" got a list of dealers from Sydney to Stockholm, wrote a cover email and some photos.

I sold it to a dealer in London for my asking price.
Well past reserve and with no fees other than Paypal. Paypal is eBay's questionable double-dip.
And I do ok on Craigslist too.

I am now in the process of learning how to use Google's payment system.
I'll still sell on eBay but it is no longer even my third choice.

As for chasing away the smaller sellers. They've brought eBay billions.
If eBay doesn't want that profit, some other search engines, preferably Google will figure out how prettily-positioned they are sitting.

One thing I hate after a decade of selling on eBay is how there is no way to communicate with management.
I am a business woman with a lot of innovative input and am analytical and articulate enough to have been an asset with any business.
But I have never once had them respond to any number of my ideas.
Both of us have lost profit because of that.

They even frequently delete my writing from the discussion boards so other sellers can't consder any of my alternative ways of looking at things.
EBay is discouraging diversity in favor of ever increasingly sterile models in a marketplace where it no longer is the only player.

Dumb and dumber to ignore the potential in your sellers. It's no coincidence that Google nurtures ideas and eBay deletes them.

gandolina(at)hotmail.c...


gala1

[Et tu,Brute!]

gala 1

Excellent information for the special and unique. Comments are in keeping with same! I am filing this for future reference as the need arises.

Thank you very much for this specific information. It will be foolish not to explore these possibilities!

[kidcoclothing]

The root of the problem with eBay is that the respect it has for its sellers is akin to "a mother dropping her newborn baby off in a hospital lobby and never looking back". This is a corporation that treat the people(sellers) that bring in its annual billion dollar + revenue, worse than the lowest creatures of society. They bring in big CEO'S,people to head up their company who exist by being brainwashed and programmed to act like a robot with there scripted responses that are as predictable and ridiculous as a book I have already read. They all get big fat paychecks and the numerous other perks only criminals could enjoy and survive and exist upon because they are programmable, money hungry,have no conscience,are blood-sucking,corporat... monsters who eventually resign when they have had their fill on the blood and sweat of so many who have dedicated their lives to building ebay,the countless hours sometimes 14 hr days. for not a lot of money,just satisfaction,to where it is today. They relish in their enormous fees,and lies,lies,and more lies and give absolutely nothing back, no recognition at all to the ebay sellers who provide outstanding performances and 14- 18 hour work days, except a slap in the face,time after time.Suspended accts,VERO Violation,blah blah blah They want to bring back the "buyers" hilarious indeed...They have done a pretty shabby job at best w/this Playground.New buyers= lots of problems,bid retractions,f/b problems etc..and e-bay handed them a form to fill out called "e-Bay lister for dummies" and let them play around and said hey..."what the hell" while your at it go ahead and destroy user id such and such that only took them 8 years to build,but hey you are new,we are greedy,we want our $,and are willing to take any means necessary to get that!Wakey,Wakey e-Bay the very sellers that made you who you are today are slowly dwindling to other e-commerce avenues and I am starting to see more and more sellers/buyers of your kind dominating the market.Maybe,that is what you want?Someone on the same page,the same criminal level as yourselves over there hiding behind closed doors in San Jose.How do you walk past that lawn ornament every morning that so proudly displays your company name and not be ashamed? Do you look at yourselves in the mirror and deeply reflect upon who you really are?I am sure you only take enough time to compliment yourself and pep-talk yourself into what a valuable citizen/robot of e-Bay you are.I am a mother of a 1 yr.old and a 13 yr.old.I had a small store that suited me well and I earned good income.e-Bay has taken very inappropriate actions in a suspension of my acct with no explanation and I have a underpaid college kid telling me on the phone "suck it up" basically..I do not think I will return when reinstated.If we keep "selling" e-Bay keeps using.e-Bay is not crack,although I thought they were at one time.We all need to band together and protest.If you think you are "invincible" sellers,you are wrong.You may wake up one day only to find that everything you worked for was wiped out and your store basically says "closed" owner not allowed back in.No further information provided.But we do want our "fees".I just can not go on...I am too disgusted,Maybe I will write a novel.A nice site to visit to add humor to your evening... www.ebaypigs.com Rather amusing.Mom of 2 booted off e-Bay

[kidcoclothing]

I forgot to add my domain if anyone wants to chat about their e-Bay frustrations...Please visit www.kidcoclothing.com

[conquistador]

I cant auction items anymore because ebay have reduced my search standing due to neutral feedback.I've gone from selling about £400 in sales a week to about £50.

The best match idea is also ridiculous, i've used it and it promotes items from sellers with 100% even if theyre far more expensive than another seller who just has 1 neutral.

One good thing is that i wont have to pay a fortune in ebay fees anymore,because nothing is selling.

I'm rertreating to my website, the money i save in ebay fees can go on a massive advertising campaign.

[blahblahblah]

I've been selling on Ebay for over 7 years, none of this is new!

Sellers have been leaving EBay in droves since day 1. The forums have been packed with angry sellers from day 1.

The fact is, for every seller that leaves, more than 1 joins. Very few sellers that are making real money on EBay are leaving, why would they, it's simple economics.

The facts are simple, EBay brings sellers millions of viewers and buyers while you work out of your basement in your pajama's and you have the nerve to complain when they take 15% of GMV. Try opening up a storefront with high exposure, manned 8 through 6pm, 6-7 days per week and then tell me what your costs would be. Get real and get serious, they have and continue to enable hundreds of thousands of people to sell products and earn a living who couldn't do it alone or without EBay.

[duubledee]

you can read all they hyperbolic statements about safer buying,more open platform and all of the other guff that has been put out in the company name over the last few weeks and sort hope that it might all pan out in the end and that its a correction rather than a c change in policy,that is until you try and figure the rationale behind the mutual feedback removal facility,a good tool that allowed any mistakes or resolved issues to be expumged from the seelers/buyers feedback score.if you take this in the context that Ebay are now suspending en masse sellers for poor performance,it would be against their percieved policy of culling if sellers were then allowed to get their "score" back up by use of withdrawl and become reinstated.
This action alone (the removal of the facilty) has convinced me that YES a major cull is in progress but being snidely manipulated by Ebay to put the onus on poor seller performance as the cause and not a cowardly attempt to save face when it all goes wrong.
I have read extensivly the new rules regulations that have been issued and all over the reasons that have gone with them,but i have yet to see an explanation for the removal of the mutual feedback removal facility.
Great article -hits the nail right on the head,and if Ebay think they can just steamroller through tens of thousands of dedicated users,and brush them aside on a corporate whim i think they are going to be surprised,it will be a long struggle but the human race just doesnt lie down and die you know.

[ed banger]

blahblahblah, with respect, you are one of those who will go one day go to open your virtual ebay shop, only to find the locks have been changed.

Your business is now at the mercy of buyers. You have nothing to fear from those who are genuine and reasonable, but ebay is now a magnet for rouges and thieves...my advice beware, ebay may just have slaughtered the goose that laid the golden egg.

As for the other posters "BRILLIANT" in content and information

[Chameleon]

blahblahblah I have noticed the dissent amongst users of the ebay forums has grown alarmingly in the last few weeks. If the forums are representative of the ebay population, then sellers are being suspended at an alarming rate. Very often they do not deserve to be expelled. These disgruntle small sellers are buyers too.

When ebay suspends enough small sellers, the variety of collectable and rare items will have left with them. I agree with a post above: this was ebays unique selling point, you could find just about anything you wanted on ebay. When I google for some collectables/rare items (that I am interested in), I get returns from ebid and other places. Not ebay.

I believe I am right in saying ebay express was not the success they envisaged. Making ebay into another version of ebay express will surely fail for the same reasons? As a buyer I do not want endless streams of new tat, I can buy that anywhere. As a buyer I do not want my search manipulated for me so that it returns a list of results that bear little or no resemblance to the search criteria, or even an incomplete set of results.

Whatever vision of the future ebays top management have, it sadly does not seem to include the small seller. "For every seller that leaves a new one joins", as soon as they get their first negative they will be gone too because they do not have a buffer to keep them from failing the SNP targets.

ebay management are manipulating the environment so that they lose all these unwanted sellers without having to be responsible for their demise, without having to be responsible for their losses. I know I will not trust such a company with my future.

[Et tu,Brute!]

blahblahblah

Also with respect, you're deluding yourself if you truly believe what you've posted. Sure there have been dissent and boycotts in the ealy years. eBay owned the market then.

But times they are a changin'!!!

There now is Youtube. There now is MySpace. Communication and organization is now a World Wide snap!

There are other sites, sites that have been operating successfully now for several years. Ioffer has over 4,000,000 listings! Think about that! 4,000,000!!! Next to eBay's 14,000,000, and consistently dwindling??? Woe, in truth, that's pretty serious numbers up against a behemoth like eBay.

It's serious, Dude. There are options and they are being followed.

I've left, I'm not going back. I sell much more successfully elsewhere. And buy. And do you know, the red tape, the beaurocracy, the stress, are now absent. And I am... happy!

[kidcoclothing]

blah blah blah, I strongly disagree and beg to differ on that opinion.The question is only a person dependant on a "drug"... this one being e-bay would stay!As for exposure...If you really want the exposure you are looking for you have to rely on e-bay and e-bays search engines.You have no control(minimal)html,k... all linked back to e-bay regardless if you have a domain or not the e-bay stores.kidcoclothing.c... will remain linked to e-Bay even when your doors are locked it is as if you never existed. Unless you want to backlink and blog your ass off to optimize an e-bay store,be for real!I have a tanning lotion website...ranked on the first page of google,2nd of Msn,etc.I am paying $24.00 a month through Yahoo shopping cart and in peak season $15,000 of revenue a month.NO ADWORDS,The only thing I do in return is optimize the hell out of that which is a one time deal.Once your up in rank,you usually do not decline.My point being I did e-Bay as a side thing when tanning season is slow and I sell used/new kids specialty items that would not warrant a store.Lol, the basement and pajamas thing is funny indeed.People have lives and children and families and are not sitting around all day thanking e-Bay for their kindness in letting people incapable of opening a real website make money.It is sad e-bay brainwashes people into believing "they need a hit" AND ARE NOT CAPABLE HUMAN BEINGS!Maybe you can not do it alone,but millions have proven otherwise.It is just the outright lack of respect e-Bay has for humans that is disgusting enough when people go crawling back for more abuse!You are entitled to your opinion and all due respect,but I agree to disagree!kidcoclothing

[Patricia013]

I believe ebay is trying to drop the small sellers - the ones who made ebay a unique place to find those rare and vintage items that are no longer sold anywhere. Its a large part of what made ebay today yet ebay simply ignores that fact and plods foolishly onward. Ebay has now made it almost impossible to stay on the site - small sellers with lower feedback are at the mercy of any bad buyer who comes along and that one bad buyer can put the small seller right out of business. It is a very very cowardly way for ebay to "cull the herd" and it will not go unnoticed. Buyers - even the most occasional buyers are catching on to the way ebay is treating small sellers and most do not like it one bit. In the end, the buyers will dictate whether or not ebay remains in existence or not....its my opinion that once the small sellers are gone and all that is left is merchandise easily found in any store - along with junk from China - then that will be the downfall of a very greedy, very callous and very stupid company! Ebay will NEVER be an Amazon - they are incapable of customer service - preferring to do just about everything with bots so as not to spend an extra dollar on a human being. That attitude along with a site full of merchandise that a buyer can find anywhere - will be the end that ebay so rightly deserves! A lot of small sellers are listing on other sites - trying to build them into what ebay once was - they are taking many of ebay's buyers along with them and this movement grows daily. It takes time to bring down a giant - ebay's demise will take time but I believe it will happen as long as they stay the course they're on!

ACEOart.net

[anyselleronebay]

John LaRouche's article is compelling and stellar.

Here is what I believe: It is highly ironic that eBay has rolled out Seller Dashboards with increment-sensitive Detailed Seller Ratings in the form of a sophomoric, juvenile, anal-retentive report card so that "sellers can know exactly where they stand with their customers,"---and all in the name of creating an "excellent business model;" yet eBay treats its OWN customers as diversely as the firstborn (the buyer) and the stepchild (the seller). There are serious Constitutional rights that are being deprived of eBay sellers; such as freedom of speech in written form/ freedom of expression and it won't be long till stockholders foresee their profits are going the way of actionable court proceedings.

The massive monies that eBay will be paying out to the French will be nothing comparable to the stateside class action suits that are inherent with time and exposure. It's coming. I can already visualize the full page ads of required notices of restitution in People magazine!

eBay has missed the most important point of all in doing business on the Internet as 3.0 grows ever closer. It's no longer simply a matter of knowing who your target audience is but rather understanding with great compassion and depth of conviction about who makes up your sub-target audience. eBay is going to drown itself trying to chart a course of mainstream when it should be swimming to the alternative.

When a company openly violates its own core founding principles upon which its success was built; then the foundation becomes transparent enough to not only see the hypocrisy but to witness the huge erupting fissures as well.

[Watchingthe Wheels]

I can understand that there are times when it IS imperative to make changes within a company.

Unfortunately the top brass of Ebay does slop work. PayPal reps have only managed to maintain a 50% accuracy rate concerning callin questios that I had. If you travel the Ebay site, suggestion, visit the Feedback Answer Center. The antiquated feedback methods are still in a locked position at the top of Ebay's preferred means of addressing questions.

I'm curious. What would take precedent, the new policies or the posting at the very beginning of the Feedback answer center. It does strike me as a tad odd. The answer centers were put into place by staff. Doesn't anybody keep track or monitor the site?

How many other inccuracies are present site wise. Call me silly,but how does one agree to any sort of contractual terms and have it be deemed valid when there is ongoing conflicts within the information being presented to perspective users? How would said contract hold up legally? Which information, if you manage to find it within the site would be seen as current?

Is there anyone POed enough and with a certain expertise with contracts that would be interested in running an audit within the site's endless contradictions? Has any precedent been set based upon rulings within the financial sector regarding information being written inclear English that could be applied here?

My one last wish. it would be nice if I were doing post graduate studies in business. Ebay's antics would be a pure gold mine towards any post graduate papers being written. Students are probably becomed a bit bored reading about Enron.

[Et tu,Brute!]

Watching the Wheels

Getting post grads in finance, and several other fields, interested in prying into the ebay site, and corporate fundamentals, is brilliant. That WOULD be a gold mine. What rocks they could turn over! Publishing could be spectacular!

Etsy.com, which is a site selling all things handmade with fabulous success and outstrips all the other sites in traffic (check with Alexa), was founded and is maintained by a brilliant group of enterpreneurs, none of which looks to be over 30! My hats off to them!

[Carolina260]

As far as fees go, increasing fees are a problem in that increased prices should cover eBays increased costs as inflation increases. EBay fees are similar to taxes. When people sell more, eBay makes more money. Similarly when the economy is good, sales tax revenues go up and property values for homes rise thus increasing property tax revenues. The biggest mistake eBay made was increasing final value fees. Calling it a "change of fee structure" only added insult to injury. Sure listing fees were slightly reduced but for the average seller, the net result was paying more in fees. One day sales announced the night before on listings are gone. I thought they were annoying in that we never knew they were coming until hours before a sale but I know some SMALL sellers took advantage of them. Now eBay has removed my ability to see whether a buyer has non-paying negative feedback. And my 8 years of feedback mean nothing. I used to block buyers with ANY non-pay feedback. Now I can only block buyers with two non-pay strikes in the last 12 months. Not good enough. Judging from the number of eBay buyers who close their accounts and reopen new ones, I want to know if a buyer has even ONE non-paying feedback. Currently I block buyers with no feedback. I used to give such buyers a chance but now with no ability to post a negative, I am not going to open myself up that chance. Buyers are now slower to pay than ever and do not feel the need to communicate with sellers as to when they plan to pay. And why should they since they have no fear of a negative. This attitude among buyers changed IMMEDIATELY with the removal of negative feedback option for sellers. Fortunately, my buyers are mostly repeat buyers who know I will block troublemakers. However, it is only logical that EBay's next step will be to remove the buyer block option. EBay has been monopolizing the online auction business for far too long and I relish the day when there is real competition out there. Craiglist has all my large item listings. And to "blah, blah,blah" - Craigslist charges me NOTHING and yes, I can list on Craiglist in my pajamas although I don't have a basement. When Craigslist moves toward a national search ability, then international, my days with eBay are OVER. For years my eBay seller friends have said eBay's motto is "EBay doesn't care". Amazing attitude since sellers are the ones who pay their salaries.

[BasementFull ofStuff]

I have been selling on Ebay for 10 years. I used to looooove Ebay. It was so much fun and exciting to both buy and sell. But I mostly sold on Ebay. I have a 100% feedback score, and EXCELLENT DSR stars. However, they don't match the "seller dashboad" numbers and my placement for my listings according to Ebay are in the STANDARD catagory for their Best Match search. It states a seller needs a 4.7 average in all 4 DSR catagories to have your items show up in a "RAISED" level in Best Match. Well.. my DSR stars (out of a rating of FIVE).... are 2- 5.0's and 2- 4.9's. And still my placement according to Ebay is just STANDARD. I talked to several sellers who have lower stars than I do, and they are at a RAISED level. WHY????? I contacted ebay four times. Twice with Live Help after waiting 20 mins each time,and being disconected twice, and then tried via email twice. Live Help said they couldn't help me, and told me to write. When I wrote twice, neither answer from ebay had anything to do with my questions. It was a canned answer, which made no sense. Until and if Ebay changes, I won't list anything. My selling days are over. I don't want to sell anything and have my score ruined by scammers and non paying bidders who leave negative feedbacks just because they can, and I also do not want my stuff buried in their searches. They just lost another 100% feedback ten year veteran. And don't even get me started on the ridiculous feedback blunder which has made it open game on sellers, the 21 day Paypal holding fees for some sellers, the fact that neutrals now count as negatives, the Feedback mutal withdrawal that no longer exists, the stupid seller dasahboard, the unfair siding that Paypal does with the buyers, all the pop up adds on ebay now, their idiotic Best Match, the ridiculous and unfair DSR stars and way they set up the DSR star ratings, non existant Ebay customer service and the fact that I have a basement full of stuff to sell. So Sad . And Donahoe?????? He has to go!

[rclieb]

blahblahblahblah - you have some value in your comment - but not too much candidly - I have 5 sites up and running - high search engine placement for over 20 years - all the way back to the mid 80's and DOS based platforms.. and menu driven sites... my cost per site is LESS than I pay in total to ebay in fees - but I stayed on ebay because I made money also - and at 60 years old I leave no stone unturned to support my family ... as to economics - my stand alone sites run me about $700 per year and AVERAGE 400K in sales - EACH ... ebay runs me about $3,000 a year in fees and I generate 15-20,000 in sales - you do the math ... now my fees will be up to $5-6,000 for the same service... no longer profitable enough to spend time.

And by the way - I am a niche higher end vendor - selling a unique wedding related product with 100% rating for 5 straight years...

Ebay has chased away those of us who built the model for them - and if you think you are still making money - wait till you get your new year end profit reports from your accountant - your hourly wages may not be worth it any longer...

On a last note - moved to Amazon with my items.. my volume is back to Ebay levels already - with half the costs - as I said - no stone unturned in supporting my family.

The decision to close my ebay store was easy - when the feedback rules changed - my NPB went sky high - they bid mutliple items of mine and then only paid for the lowest price one they won - driving my costs up - making me wait weeks for a refund of fees - costing me sales to other bidders they outbid - and losing me listing fees - so the answer was list less - in fact - list one of each item ... a drop of 42 average listings - you can do the math... otherwise my costs far outweigh my profit - or I can raise my price and sell nothing (we did try that over the years) ...

So please - paint with a smaller brush here... some of us are not as stupid as you make us out .. we do the math the old fashioned way ... no fuzzy math - dollars in - dollars out - whats left is profit divided by hours spent = is it worth it?

[Et tu,Brute!]

I went to Amazon, too, as I've already stated. Been there but not active a few years. Started working it. My sales already outstrip what I was doing on ebay and FAR less hassle, beaurocracy, fees. Interesting to see sooooooooo many "just launched" logos against i.d.'s at Amazon!

Pssssst. Amazon's established.

[Watchingthe Wheels]

Et tu Brute,

I am in the process of opening a shop on Etsy.

And in a way I do have to thank Ebay. There has been such an upsurge of information since the policy change was announced.

I have found that what impresses me most with Etsy is their admirable sense of morality and ethics!
When I have written customer support I get real answers to my questions, not the canned bot response of Ebay.

The Etsy sellers are in 3 catagories:

Handcrated
Vintage
Supplies

If you buy from Etsy you are also truly helping a small business to become established.

:) What the hey, gimme a couple more weeks. I can be found operating under;

www.uknowuneedanother....

I have also done a sisde by side study of Ebay and Amazon. When a bit more established I'll be looking into Amazon , too.

It is possible to run a professional business.

Ruby Lane has been established for 10 years and I have found that they appear to be very well run.

[keck29]

Unfortunately eBay does get the most traffic - and, unfortunately, as of now there is no really good alternative. For some items there are alternatives, stamps, vintage postcards, vintage photos & camera equipment - but I've yet to find a good one for books (that i can afford to sell on). There is also one for antiques and collectibles, and although it's been around for some years it doesn't get that much traffic.

I am definitely being culled. My feedback was 1,693 (out of 2.014) positive feedback & one neutral in Jan. My feedback score dropped from 100% to 99.2%, then I got another positive feedback - and my score dropped to 99.1!!! I just bought 3 items - and I'm afraid that my score will drop even lower if they leave me feedback.

And those DSRs - don't ask. Since 98% of what I sell is either media mail or parcel post (mainly media mail as I sell a lot of books) - I have a 4.54 star rating on shipping time - because those two ways to mail are slow!! And I get blamed, not the post office. A couple of people have said I charge too much for shipping (DSR - 4.86) - I charge the exact postage and no handling charge.

Oh! I am so frustrated. I am woman hear me rant!!!

There has to be something else out there!!

[fernstuff]

A business is only as good as its customers think it is. I've spent four years on ebay building 100% positive feedback from the buyers. I pride myself in treating buyers as I want to be treated. I'm honest and I work hard.

Now - even though my feedback is perfect, my five star rating is not. My ship time rating continues to decline, even though I ship every 24 hours. I made one, count them, ONE listing error and listed something that was a violiation. I accept it was my error, but to have a dashboard rating of POOR and RISK SUSPENSION because I made one mistake??

Its too bad - I've been an eBay customer for over 8 eight years - I sell under two ID's (different products) and I buy under both. I may be seeking an alternate venue for my business if eBay continues to "weed" us out. I had an eBay store, fixed price and it was a total failure - my items did better on auction - and eBay made more money off of me that way too - so I just don't get it.

The little guy doesn't matter anymore - but in the long run, it's us little guys that make any business.

How do we get eBay to listen?? Write to stock holders??

[Tim C]

Indirectly, the management are destroying shareholder value in eb*y with their crackpot ideas. I would make a guess that if they can crash the company, they could do a management buyout with private equity, and make a few billion dollars in years to come. By using misinformation, they are reducing the trust of bidders in online 'auctions', thus lowering the sale price. Lower sales>lower revenue>lower stock value. And if you exclude 'ebay live auctions', there are no true auctions on ebay; it is a tendering process, not an auction. Tenders have pre-determined time limits, whereas auctions continue until the bidding stops.

[Watchingthe Wheels]

Other companies have returned to private. There are even less restictions.

[wolff]

BasementFullofStuff-I think we had the exact same experience! My DSR rating on my f/b page said one thing and that stupid dashboard said another. 2 live helps, (no help) and 3 my messages later, with responses that didn't answer the question and in fact sounded like they were answering a different person....guess what. My rating went to standard (from lowered) and my numbers stayed exactly the same...huh? The whole dashboard thing is stupid, neutrals getting changed to negatives even though they were received prior to the new f/b rules....here's a CEO who will be rewarded for trashing the company when he leaves...remember the CEO of Countrywide Mortgages....big bucks and bye bye.

[Watchingthe Wheels]

Just doing my small part in spreading the word.

forums.ebay.com/db2/th...

Check out this link to seller's central!

[Stephjen]

Read my latest blog post at my website (it should be on seekingalpha soon too) about how eBay kicked me off the site after generating thousands in revenue for them.

eBay doesn't care about treating its customers well. Amazon, here the merchants come!

[eMoviePoster.com]

I sold 330,000 items on eBay in ten years, for over 14 million dollars, over three million in 2007 alone. I am the world's foremost vintage movie poster dealer, and have published 43 illustrated books on vintage movie posters and have a free website with over 135,000 vintage movie poster images.

But thanks to the latest changes, I now don't sell on eBay at all, and I have auctioned on my own site emovieposter.com for the past nine weeks, averaging $50,000 a week (just what I did on eBay without my special event auctions).

BUT, I now no longer pay eBay $120,000 a year in fees (which would have risen to $180,000 this year), and I can spend that money giving free gifts to my buyers, lower shipping, and spending some dollars on google and yahoo adwords, and still have plenty left over.

And I don't have some crazed micro-managers breathing down my back every second, especially galling since they have never sold an item to speak of, and they choose to dictate exactly how I should run my business, and they make 180 degree policy changes with regularity.

Meanwhile the crooks run rampant at eBay, and none of their changes have made a dent in that, but they have succeeded in harassing myself and countless other sellers into leaving eBay, thus diminishing the selection of interesting items even further, while pumping up their numbers with endless quantities of the same newly made items.

I get told a lot that it is a shame I have left eBay. I always reply that it is eBay who "left" me, by massively raising rates while delivering fewer and fewer buyers, and by attempting to constantly "fix" my business with endless rules, when it is not "broken" in the slightest.

I am a 99 cent no reserve seller who sells 1,000 to 1,500 items a week, and who has sold 330,000 items with 100% positive feedback, and I received one undeserved negative feedback in the last 60,000, unheard of among high volume sellers. I am exactly the kind of seller who made eBay what it was, who helped it grow from a tiny website to a multi-billion dollar household name.

One might think they would find it valuable to maintain relationships with sellers like myself (I am not suggesting any sort of loyalty, just that they would not casually cast off a three million dollar a year seller with perfect feedback).

But there is no room for a seller like me in the eBay of 2008, and I can not for the life of me figure out why (unless it is that they needed to get rid of sellers like myself because they are completely quitting the auction business).

Even if that is their plan, I still don't understand why they didn't simply "spin off" the auction side of eBay (a la eBay Motors) and keep a very lucrative part of eBay alive and well.

From the outside, it looks like there is little rhyme or reason to what they are doing, but I can't imagine that is the case. I sure hope they have some wonderful master plan that they are keeping close to their vest, and that once they unveil it, all will become clear!

Bruce Hershenson
President
eMoviePoster.com

[eMoviePoster.com]

I sold 330,000 items on eBay in ten years, for over 14 million dollars, over three million in 2007 alone. I am the world's foremost vintage movie poster dealer, and have published 43 illustrated books on vintage movie posters and have a free website with over 135,000 vintage movie poster images.

But thanks to the latest changes, I now don't sell on eBay at all, and I have auctioned on my own site emovieposter.com for the past nine weeks, averaging $50,000 a week (just what I did on eBay without my special event auctions).

BUT, I now no longer pay eBay $120,000 a year in fees (which would have risen to $180,000 this year), and I can spend that money giving free gifts to my buyers, lower shipping, and spending some dollars on google and yahoo adwords, and still have plenty left over.

And I don't have some crazed micro-managers breathing down my back every second, especially galling since they have never sold an item to speak of, and they choose to dictate exactly how I should run my business, and they make 180 degree policy changes with regularity.

Meanwhile the crooks run rampant at eBay, and none of their changes have made a dent in that, but they have succeeded in harassing myself and countless other sellers into leaving eBay, thus diminishing the selection of interesting items even further, while pumping up their numbers with endless quantities of the same newly made items.

I get told a lot that it is a shame I have left eBay. I always reply that it is eBay who "left" me, by massively raising rates while delivering fewer and fewer buyers, and by attempting to constantly "fix" my business with endless rules, when it is not "broken" in the slightest.

I am a 99 cent no reserve seller who sells 1,000 to 1,500 items a week, and who has sold 330,000 items with 100% positive feedback, and I received one undeserved negative feedback in the last 60,000, unheard of among high volume sellers. I am exactly the kind of seller who made eBay what it was, who helped it grow from a tiny website to a multi-billion dollar household name.

One might think they would find it valuable to maintain relationships with sellers like myself (I am not suggesting any sort of loyalty, just that they would not casually cast off a three million dollar a year seller with perfect feedback).

But there is no room for a seller like me in the eBay of 2008, and I can not for the life of me figure out why (unless it is that they needed to get rid of sellers like myself because they are completely quitting the auction business).

Even if that is their plan, I still don't understand why they didn't simply "spin off" the auction side of eBay (a la eBay Motors) and keep a very lucrative part of eBay alive and well.

From the outside, it looks like there is little rhyme or reason to what they are doing, but I can't imagine that is the case. I sure hope they have some wonderful master plan that they are keeping close to their vest, and that once they unveil it, all will become clear!

Bruce Hershenson
President
eMoviePoster.com

[flat_spare]

chameleon made a very good point- Ebay Express was the test. The test subsequently failed. Why then would any responsible corporation (an oxymoron, I know) go ahead and reproduce this Ebay Express, this failed test, on such a massive and irreversible scale?

When I am asked no begged back, hell no- I will not go.

[Paypal's introuble]

Ebay is causing sellers to leave in droves, with the new policy changes and tens of thousands are upset and will be protesting at Ebay Live 2008, this week.

The changes are idiotic. Sellers can no longer leave negative or neutral feedback, even if a buyer bids, wins your item, ingores your emails and doesn't pay. What right do they have to leave any feedback, if no transaction has taken place? We have sellers, bidding on competitors items and ruining their feedback, just to get a boost, on their own items.

Ebay went in and retroactively turned all neutrals, to negatives. Neutral, means just that, how can ebay call neitral, negative? They swtarted giving new discounts to people with good ratings, but they knock them down first, with the neutral change, so that many can't even meet the requirements, for the discount.

That is not the worst of it. We have thousands and thousands of sellers, who have closed their stores and we KNOW that the listing count should be going down. But, we have uncovered the source of the raised listing counts and I can't see it being anything, but fraud.

The seller BUY or Buy.com was taken on by ebay, right at the time ebay KNEW they were going to lose sellers. They are using buy.com, to pad the listings, to make it look like the count is up, when it really isn't. We have found thousands upon thousands of fake listings, that have no description and you can't even buy them. I found them ending tens of thousands of listings early, saying they are no longer available for sale and then immediately relisting them. Most likely to keep the sell through rate up and then relisting them again, to up the listing count 2 fold. They don't even pay any fees, being owned by ebay, so all the listings that they are padding, aren't even bringing in revenue???? Something isn't right here!

Isn't this making the stockholders think that listings are up, when they really aren't? We have all the proof documented. I even have it documented of when I was talking to Ebay Live Help and asking them about all the ads, being ended early and it immediately stopped, when they found out that we knew about it.

Please help us in exposing them, for what they are trying to pull. The boycotters should have a fair chance, to show what is really going on, behind the scenes.

[I left eBayafter 11years.]

WHY are you people trying to make sense of Donahoes BAD decisions and misguided policy?

STOP looking to deeply into this.

Its just that - incompetence on the part of Donahoe and eBay management.

Its everywhere - look around - they dont make people like they used to.

Movies, music, television, big business, and of course politics......morons at the controls.

I hope eBay (And Donahoe) dies a miserable death. They earned it.

[o.c.d.collectibles]

It seems as if a SEC filing recently came about that offers ebay employees incentive stock options for giving of themselves in order to make the stock holders happy. I think the employees have been given carte blanch to do whatever they think will be productive and fix what they perceive needs fixing.
Many of the new decisions made appear to be made on the fly, without any real testing or research. So, as in all uneducated ebay style, they use the sellers as guinea pigs. The new game is called "lets lock up many small mom and pop sellers into a useless selling interface page/link called "MY EBAY BETA" and see what they do! They won't be able to sell effectively, and they will be frustrated enough to leave! Along with the sellers who the buyers will just have fun eliminating, by default poor feedbacks!

Gee this will be easy! And then we can listen to the "noise"... get paid some stock options, and then go log onto facebook when ebay acquires it. Sounds like a job made in heaven! Especially if it is being prepped to be sold or maybe the auction portion will be sold off.

None of this suprises me, but I WAS surprised to be bullied into a non opt out interface page when I had just decided to sell a few things..in effect, a few really NICE things that ebay could have taken a few final value fees from...so...why would they jeopardize their ability to make money from a seller?

maybe because they are ready to give up this form of making money?

[swimswithsharks]

Blah Blah Blah - You are just full of carp! Nothing more to say about that!

eBay totally sucks now & anybody still selling there is a total moron! A new auction site GoZBay is the place to go people, just check it out & you will see what I mean.

The CEO of eBay should spend some time behind bars IMHO, because what he is doing is surely criminal, and if he hadn`t most likely paid up a ton of crooked politicians, he would be on his way there now!

Good luck to those still selling on eBay! Enjoy your negs!