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What Will Become of eBay?

@Tippie

When I buy from Amazon, I buy "from amazon" - not the myraid amazon marketplace sellers.... It's not worth it for the small amount you might save on the item (vs buying from amazon itself) to have to deal with an unknown quantity....

What Will Become of eBay?

As a buyer, I'm sticking with amazon -- I tried to buy a few things on ebay for xmas presents. 2 out of 3 turned into disasters -- one was an item for which the sale was "canceled" by ebay because the seller had been suspended -- of course they canceled the sale a week after I paid, and then it took me another 2 weeks to get my money back. I ordered the same items from amazon for about the same price, no problems.

As a seller - ebay is a mess for me -- the only thing that keeps me there is a lack of an clear alternative for auctions in my category.

I dumped my ebay stock at $25 (at a loss) and I'm sure glad I did...

If anything, I'd be short not long right now...

Why eBay Needs Shipping Cap

The shipping caps are absurd. I ship items in the 16mm film category - most weigh between 7-15lbs. I ship UPS and it costs me between $8-$20 per item to ship. If I really have to limit my shipping charge to $6, I'm going to lose $2-$14 per item....

For the moment, I've switched to using all calculated shipping, but who knows how long ebay is going to allow that...

In a free-market economy the whole idea of ebay telling sellers what they can and can't charge for shipping is ridiculous.

If they're so worried about buyers getting "confused" or sellers getting disadvantaged, there's a much simpler solution -- just show the price including the shipping charge in BIG TYPE for each item. Then the buyers will be able to compare apples to apples, and there will be no need for caps...

The reason they wont do this is that the real reason for shipping caps is to make people like me raise my prices so that they can get a percentage of the shipping cost in fees.

eBay: The Next 4 Months

@AreYouKiddingMe

Your name is quite appropriate...

Ebay's customer is the SELLER not the BUYER. The BUYER is the SELLER's customer....

So - if the "customer is always right" then ebay should be supporting it's own customers - the sellers...

And to your direct point -- most sellers don't overcharge on shipping - and almost all sellers disclose the shipping up front -- so you dont have to buy from someone if you don't like their shipping costs...

Ebay is driving away many more good sellers than bad sellers ...

eBay: The Next 4 Months

@ Dinah
Shareholders may not care how much Donahoe abuses sellers NOW, but just wait until there start being tangible (and I believe negative) results from his abuse... I think they'll start caring then...

Friday I sold all my ebay stock, and over the weekend I did some serious work setting up my web site to sell directly. My goal is to reduce my ebay sales from $6-$10K per month to $1-$3K per month in the next few months, and then hopefully to zero within a year... I sell one of a kind collectable item. If enough sellers like me either leave or reduce their sales, ebay is going to turn into a place to by cheap junk at inflated prices. And that will almost certainly have an impact on their revenue.

eBay: The Next 4 Months

Just a comment on this : "Company announces huge cuts in fixed price listing fees. eBay inches ever closer to becoming a retailer as a result." ..

I've noticed that almost every article and blog mentions the cut in listing fees, without mentioning the large INCREASE in final value fees, the implicit fee increase in requiring paypal, and the implicit fee increase (in some categories) of forcing sellers to include the shipping costs in the price of the item (and therefore paying fees on the shipping charges too). (Take a $100 media item with $10 shipping - under the old system you would pay $2 to list, and $4.82 for the FVF + $3.49 for paypal fees - $10.31 total (or $6.82 if the buyer pays with a money order). Under the new system, you would pay 15 cents to list, you would need to list it for $107 because your shipping is limited. Your FVF would be $10.35, and your paypal fee would be $3.49 for a total of $13.99. that's a 36% fee increase on each item sold (more than 100% increase if you are a seller who used to take money orders only).

The listing fee decrease is going to encourage sellers who have large quantities of slow-selling junk to list it on ebay, while the fee increases are going to discourage sellers who have more saleable or one of a kind items. Overall, it seems to me that the result is going to be bad for everyone.

eBay Introduces New Listing Type

Scott -- This is all well and good for the seller who lists many of the same item at once, but it's a mess for those of us who list one of a kind and fairly expensive collectors items. As background, I do around $7-$10K in sales per month with an average price of about $100 per item.

1) The fee structure goes up for us dramatically on the back end. This may make fixed price a poor option. So while my listing fee on average goes from $2 to 15 cents, my final value fee goes up to $10 from about $5 - a net increase of $3 per item sold. (Granted, if items don't sell the first time around, it's now cheaper to relist - but as a rule, I only list items once, and then save them until ebay has a listing sale before reposting)
2) In my category (16mm film), I'm going to be crushed by the $6 shipping limit- most of my items are in the 12+ lb range and generally cost 2-3 times that much to ship and insure.
3) Many collectors out there are older people with disposable income -- and many of them are leary of using online payment systems. I get 30% of my orders paid with check or money order. I expect those sales will just be lost.

EBay's New Fixed-Price Move: Amazon Envy?

I really like how ebay's examples ALL assume that you relisted the item three times before it sold.... If you assume that it sells on the first go 'round, then the fees are UP substantially - not down.....

PayPal Offers Cash Back to Shift Users From Credit Cards

It's extremely annoying to me as a buyer that I have to go through hoops to use a credit card on paypal .

And on the flip side, it's equally annoying that as a seller, I get charged the same rate regardless of whether the buyer uses a credit card or not...

The idea that they're giving the buyer some of that money is disgusting -- just another way that ebay has changed it's focus away from it's own customers (the sellers) in an attempt to make more money.