Tony P.

eBay: Where Did All the Fun Go?

I'm a follower of the "whatever ebay did, they did it for an ulterior motive" school of thought. Obviously. Some might say I need a tinfoil hat. No worries, I have one. :-)

My opinion above does contradict Ms Pat's - she says that ebay did it for the sake of it's users. I say that ebay has never done one dammed thing solely FOR its users.

Early on in the SMI (Safeguarding Member ID) phase, several suggestions were offered as alternatives. One was to simply abolish SCO and make an announcement of that fact.

(For the record, there were some sellers that didn't like the idea of abolishing SCO, but even they agreed that it would be a small sacrifice to pay, to keep bidder IDs from being hidden.)

OK, back on point. Guess what the T&S VP said about that suggestion? That it wouldn't work because users wouldn't know that SCO was abolished. say... WTF?

Present every user that logs-in with a splash page informing them of it. Send out an email to every registered user. Have a banner proclaim it on every ebay page. What would be so difficult about that?

"users don't read - they pay no attention to banners - they don't get half the emails sent" Lots of excuses. (note the contradiction about banners not being effective!)

Funny thing.. ebay used all of those methods to announce their new TOS Policy, didn't they?!

Back on point, again. Some think that ebay wanted to keep SCO because of the revenue it generated, but I have to ask if that amount made up for the loss of bids that followed SMI.

Either ebay had no clear idea what effect the SMI would have upon bidding - OR - they wanted bidding (and thereby auctions) to falter - OR - they're simply morons.


You may choose any three options. ;-)
(Philip, can I put you down for all three? LOL)

eBay: Where Did All the Fun Go?

Philip, I understand your point and agree with the dishonest nature of ebay's actions. I have read your AB post.

But (you knew one was coming, right?), I view ebay's actions differently. For quite a while now, they have acted, so as to cause a reaction. Look deeper within their action and you'll see their goal.

What would happen if everyone that uses ebay for auctions was to become fully aware of the scope and possibility of shill bidding? Auctions would die, correct?

Is that not what JD et. al. have been prophesizing all this time - the death of auctions? They want that. Or wanted it. Today they do, tomorrow they don't. Or vice versa.

They prolly view your ongoing mission as a plus in their favor. But I do understand your desire to educate others..

There's viable alternatives to the hidden bidder policy and you seem to be aware of that fact. Some of those alternatives would even open up auctions to the potential for more bidders, because quite a few experienced ebayers do know about shill bidding.

The amount of money kept from the site due to "shill bidder concern" is more than whatever money is gained by that shill bidding. It has to be - every seller knows that bidding has fallen off since hidden bidders was implimented.

A viable alternative would mean more bids, more money and more revenue for ebay. But ebay doesn't choose that route. Why do you think that is?

eBay: Where Did All the Fun Go?

I'm late to this party, as well. I got two good takeaways from this most-excellent article.

"But the real and simple reason is eBay is no longer fun."

".. and others, myself included, were all too alienated by eBay’s bureaucratic and political MBA culture."


Keith, believe it or not, that culture has gotten worse. It was what killed ebay 3.0 - killed by the Prez of Marketplaces. None other than the Donahoe.

BTW - I joined X-COM as a member in 2000. We were kicking the azz of ebay's Billpoint, weren't we? Good times!