This week, eBay's 5 DAYS STRAIGHT discussion thread on the Seller Central forum reached its 10,000th post, almost 6 months to the day the thread began. The thread concerns the severe loss of sales by many sellers in the eBay community. On the occasion of the 10,000th post, a group of sellers sent an Open Letter to John Donahoe, CEO, eBay. The letter was published in Auctionbytes, October 4th.
A great many eBay sellers have had their sales decimated since March 30. 2010 when eBay placed the entire eBay store inventory into the core marketplace. The listings increased from 55.7 million at the end of March to 120 million listings at the end of April and approximately 140.3 million today (medved.net).
Another exacerbating factor in the loss of sales is eBay's use of the Best Match algorithm for searches to favor the largest (diamond) sellers and large Chinese sellers at the expense of the small and medium sellers. The combination of the listing deluge and the manipulated Best Match for searching items has all but flooded out the small and medium sellers.
A great many eBay sellers have had their sales decimated since March 30. 2010 when eBay placed the entire eBay store inventory into the core marketplace. The listings increased from 55.7 million at the end of March to 120 million listings at the end of April and approximately 140.3 million today (medved.net).
Another exacerbating factor in the loss of sales is eBay's use of the Best Match algorithm for searches to favor the largest (diamond) sellers and large Chinese sellers at the expense of the small and medium sellers. The combination of the listing deluge and the manipulated Best Match for searching items has all but flooded out the small and medium sellers.
Even very recently, eBay leaders, past and present, have boasted that eBay has given the "little guy" a chance to have his own business and profit from it. The letter describes what has happened and is still happening to many of those business, both large and small, as their sales have declined.
Approximately 850 individuals have posted, but it should be pointed out that all of the posters have not experienced sales declines. Camaraderie gets established after months of posting, so there is much lightness in the thread, but the subject of the post is a serious one to eBay sellers in the US Marketplace.
Here is a link to the Open Letter as published by Auctionbytes:
http://letters.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2010/10/1286240588.html
Approximately 850 individuals have posted, but it should be pointed out that all of the posters have not experienced sales declines. Camaraderie gets established after months of posting, so there is much lightness in the thread, but the subject of the post is a serious one to eBay sellers in the US Marketplace.
Here is a link to the Open Letter as published by Auctionbytes:
http://letters.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2010/10/1286240588.html
Disclosure: No positions. I am an eBay seller, and participated in the open letter.