eBay Live and Let Die

• Report this Comment On June 19, 2008, at 4:56 PM, bobtech wrote:

  Ebay has already cancelled "live 09",the next one will be in 2010.........

• Report this Comment On June 19, 2008, at 5:27 PM, RicRoe wrote:

  Ebay succeeded in building itself into a multi billion global marketplace on the backs of small sellers.

  It is these very same sellers that have lost all trust and confidence in eBay as a venue.

  When prosecuted over something like counterfeit merchandise sold on its site, eBay likes to present the defense that "we are only a venue" and as such have little control....

  Yet control is exactly how eBay now is seen by the majority of small sellers.

  eBay perpetually boosts fees and offers the worst customer service of any sales platform.

  eBay charges fees to list items for sale on the site, then gives priority visibility to mega seller partners who place listings for free and / or greatly reduced fees negotiated in advance.

  eBay expects sellers to ship merchandise promptly, yet allows its financial arm PayPal to hold payments from certain sellers for virtually any reason they can invent.

  eBay prevents sellers from rating non paying bidders with anything but a positive rating, preventing others from identifying scam buyers.

  eBay wants sellers to reduce shipping costs yet will only accept signature confirmation as proof a buyer received an item. Signature service is an extra cost which inflates the shipping rates, so where is the lower cost supposed to come from?

  eBay/PayPal encourage scam artists to make false claims of items not received by refusing to accept postal tracking as proof of delivery, and rewarding cheaters with full refunds not from the alleged Buyer protection program, but with deductions taken directly from sellers accounts.

  eBay lost the trust of buyers and sellers alike when they changed existing policy to make neutral ratings count as negative ratings.

  eBay encouraged buyers and sellers to build reputations only to change the rules where feedback older than 12 months is no longer counted in buyer or seller ratings.

  eBay created Digital Seller Ratings and convinced buyers that 4 star ratings were in fact good ratings. Later, eBay changed the use of DSR's and incorporated them into a secret algorithm that determines listing visibility, making a rating lower than 4.7 subject to lowered visibility.

  eBay rolls out changes touted to make the site safer and more secure, yet somehow, the changes only serve to make eBay's bottom line the thing that is improved.

  eBay executives rolled out this latest set of changes and have hit the bulls eye. Their problem is the target was painted on their shoes.

  Sellers who are also among eBay's biggest buyers have pulled out and moved to other venues. Any look at recent listing counts reveals eBay dropping and a significant number of other sites increasing.

  The only people that should trust eBay/PayPal going forward are those that neither buy nor sell on the site.

  Investors should be prepared for a significant earnings drop as fee increases alone will not replace the lost revenue as sellers that formerly paid to place listings on eBay jump to other venues out of disgust with current management and policy.

• Report this Comment On June 19, 2008, at 5:27 PM, ebayinwonderland wrote:

  It only takes the daring of analysts to actually spend time inside the bowels of ebays message board system to read the disdain from sellers. Keeping in mind that those who do find the boards, as nothing is easily found on ebay, represents a fraction of members the tone is deafening about the disrespect ebay is showing its community.

  Go ahead, quit looking at the numbers, pay close attention to the building clamor on the boards and read how the community is reacting to each announcement made by ebay.

  The changes roll in faster than a hurricane and with poorly worded policy an ebay hallmark, sellers guess and wonder until reality strikes how those new policies impact them. Then it's too late.

  The buyer is king now, and sellers are getting more and more scam buyers who not only intend to get their goods for free by filing false claims, but dishing out negative feedback for the sole purpose of ruining long time good sellers.

  Go ahead, wade in the ebay swamp.

• Report this Comment On June 19, 2008, at 6:05 PM, lindalward wrote:

  After 10 years of both buying and selling on Ebay and 100% positive feedback, I am finally done! It makes me very sad what has happened to a once fun and fascinating and unique site, but I can't be a part of this fiasco. What do I tell people who talk to me about eBay, knowing how I enjoyed it in the past: EBay will break your heart.

  Friends don't let friends sell on eBay.

• Report this Comment On June 19, 2008, at 6:29 PM, UnhappyEbayer wrote:

  Why don't you get the REAL word out, about ebay. How they are committing fraud, just to make it look like the boycott, isn't working. Well, we know it is working and we have documented proof, of the padding of fake listings!

  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.

  P.S. You can find the revolt going on at: http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=113

• Report this Comment On June 19, 2008, at 6:40 PM, LegendsOfBatman wrote:

  "you have to think that maybe the company has upset one power seller too many."

  Actually, they have upset one too many buyers!

  I am as furious with ebay as any; which is why I joined the Feb 18-25 boycott, and asked the boycotters to agree to an open-ended boycott, beginning May 1st. The response was overwhelming, as everyone knows!

  We're not finished. With ebay's schemes to make PayPal the only accepted payment in Australia, the Europe, Germany, Canada, and then the US, we have our work cut out!

  But this buyer refuses to be ordered to use PayPal only. If I choose to use PayPal, thats my business. But nobody has the right to force us to use only one method of payment.

  We also have word on ebay & buy.com seemingly conspiring to pad listings Buy (buy.com's ebay user ID) has 500,000 listings, but, has a sell thru rate of only 2.39% and listing 44% of all items in the Books category. What is suspicious here is not the volume listed. Or the poor sell thru rate.

  The suspicious activity:

  1. IF Buy paid listing fees for all the items listed between March 2, 2008 and May 31, 2008, they would have had to pay $24-25 MILLION in listing fees (and, this is based solely on the minimal listing fee of 10 cents; of course, they have had many that were listed at the maximum $4-4.80).

  Their total sales? Less than $4 million.

  2. It was by accident I discovered an entire page of Dutch Auctions that had been closed at 1am, and the reason? "The item was no longer available".

  Since there were 20,421 pages of completed auctions, I did not desire to see how many were actually closed for those reasons.

  Such a reason to close so many auctions leads me to believe the nearly 250 MILLION items listed during that 90 day period was a farce, to make it look as if ebay's listings were normal.

  Ebay, we deserve answers. Your investors deserve answers.

  Tim

  http://myspace.com/boycottebay

  http://forums.delphiforums.com/boycottebay/start

• Report this Comment On June 19, 2008, at 9:22 PM, Patricia013 wrote:

  I guess ebay small sellers can post till they're blue in the face - you folks just don't get it - ebay doesn't get it or else they're downright hiding it and hoping things will turn around. The site is going downhill...I know you are looking at listings (said to be padded with empty buy.com listings) and numbers crunched to the maximum. I'm a 10 year small seller and I can tell you from my own experience and those of the small sellers around me....sellers are quietly leaving the site or else drastically reducing their listings and taking their stock elsewhere. Go and read Ebay's own boards - those are not noise-makers - they are sellers trying to find a different path and many are no longer listing on Ebay! Ebay has us walking on hot coals - at the mercy of any mentally unbalanced or scamming buyer who comes along (and there are more of them than you think). Ebay offers us NO protection from instant negatives. Ebay turned all previous neutrals into negatives for no good reason! Ebay offers us NO protection in mailing to unconfirmed addresses. The list goes on - all for Ebay all for the buyers...little for powersellers - absolutely nothing for small sellers! Never before have we had to deal with such a stressful environment while Ebay/paypal whittle away at our already meager profits. So, you think its just noise that we're leaving? WHAT, if anything would be the reason for us to stay? As stated before, I am a 10 year seller - I have a perfect 100 percent record - yet my listings seem to be buried in their stupid Best Match search. I'm allowed to pay the same fees as a powerseller - and for that I am hidden. My business has gone from 700.00 to 800 per month down to just 62.00 in the last 30 days. Now you tell me...WHAT would be a REASON for me to stay? I can do just as well on one of the free sites. No...this time its not noise - its real. Everyone I know has reduced Ebay listings and is listing elsewhere!

  I used to be so proud of Ebay. I thought I could depend on them to help in my retirement.. I'm hoping some authoritative body such as the SEC investigates the workings inside of Ebay. Oh, I'm convinced it would all come out in the wash....it always does. I just hope one day everyone of the wall street gurus have to eat every glowing word they've said about this company this year!

  www.ACEOart.net

• Report this Comment On June 19, 2008, at 9:32 PM, eightdays wrote:

  Am I wrong but are all these stock "buy" analysts riding in the same cars, eating in the same place and living the same lives as ebay execs? Why in heaven's name is this stock moving up? I am sick! Are they missing what is happening to an average ebayer like me? 10 years on ebay. Sometimes buying, sometimes selling but never fearful of retaliation from leaving a neg to get the word out to other ebay users. Now ebay punishes me for standing up and taking the hit, enacting paypal to hold my payments up to 21 days and if a buyer is outside of the USA, failing to introduce any alternative means to show paypal proof of delivery. They hold shipping charges hostage as well and now at 500. in overseas shipments, I can not front money for ebay's interest bearing pleasure, so my overseas buyers have to wait 3 weeks for me to ship. Yes, Yes, Yes, I am done. I have other ways to make extra money. More so too when I want to buy and other buyers may find the same, there will be less to find that sparks the soul and more of just another washed out store you pass by.

• Report this Comment On June 19, 2008, at 9:58 PM, JohnnyeBay wrote:

  It's funny. There is NO other retail venue in the world where sellers can attack buyers the way they do on eBay.

  Most buyers look at a negative a seller receives to see how the seller responds.

  If there's a negative and the seller goes "Stupid Buyer..."

  Yeah... who'd buy from a brick and mortar if that's how the owner treats a simple return?

  The seller's biggest enemy? Other sellers, vindictive enough to bid on their competitors.

  eBay is the only place buyers are treated crappy, and if they complain, sellers want to brutalize them.

  Nice work sellers - you made this change happen with feedback.

• Report this Comment On June 19, 2008, at 11:07 PM, Patricia013 wrote:

  You're right - ebay IS the only place buyers are treated crappy....as in sellers being Ebay's BUYERS and being treated crappy by Ebay!!!! We're their paying customers - paying thru the nose for their really lousy service!! I know there are plenty of bad sellers - but there are also plenty of bad buyers too. I would say in that respect, we are even! The sad part is the majority of sellers NEVER treat their customers crappy - yet they are being punished right along with the bad sellers. There was a more even handed and fairer way to rid the site of both bad buyers and bad sellers. What ebay is doing has not rid the site of ONE bad seller but has caused plenty of good sellers to leave in disgust!

  www.ACEOart.net

• Report this Comment On June 20, 2008, at 12:29 AM, mgiv wrote:

  all this rage about ebay. I tried to use it only once in my life. I bid for a bunch of lighting gels. In the last minute of the auction, I get this email stating I was no longer the top bidder due to some weird hidden jumping bid. That was it for me. So I never bought a thing from ebay. To me they are the digital walmart.

• Report this Comment On June 20, 2008, at 5:36 AM, hokie06 wrote:

  Please, please, please, go to the eBay Discussion Boards http://pages.ebay.com/community/boards/index.html?_trksid=m3.... Take a look through Seller Central, Feedback, and Search and you will see that all the positive spin eBay has put out about its new policies is a complete lie.

  I'm so sick and tired of news reports that come out every single day making everything at eBay look all positive ONLY because eBay's word is not challenged. Take 15 minutes out of your busy days and read what is going on in the message boards. Then you will have a whole different story to write.

• Report this Comment On June 20, 2008, at 7:46 AM, eMoviePoster wrote:

  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 website, www.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

• Report this Comment On June 20, 2008, at 9:35 AM, ASAPsellsIT wrote:

  Great Post Bruce...I wish you well with your website and your decision to leave ebaY. I unfortunately can not leave ebaY even though there new policies are ticking me off. I run a consignment business (Auctions, Shipping, and Packaging) in the NYC area and I know it is impossible for me to pull in more money on some other auction site.

  I have 100% feedback as well which is now down because of a couple of neutral feedbacks which is BS.

  I am waiting for the day that I get unwanted negative feedback for no reason, it is bound to happen to everyone. So for now I am stuck and I have to just deal with it..

• Report this Comment On June 20, 2008, at 9:36 AM, ASAPsellsIT wrote:

  A sidenote about ebaY ticking me off some more is everytime you go to there homepage they are promoting these Kim Kardashian wannabe charity Auctions. Do they realize that she is only donating 10% to charity and keeping the other 90% for herself. This is a joke to me. She is making all this cash thanks to ebaY for selling stuff she probably got for free.

  Just another example of ebaY not caring about it's real sellers. I am sure there are 1000's of people donating 100% of there auction to charity and they get no exposure.

• Report this Comment On June 20, 2008, at 3:33 PM, WillJD wrote:

  If you read through thousands of posts by Ebay sellers, the common thread is distrust. Ebay's arrogance has turned management and employees into habitual liars. If they're talking, they're lying.

  A few analysts and media members have started to get it. Duhhh. Those sellers are pretty dumb whiners but they all keep saying the same thing, do you think there might be some truth in it? BAHAWAHWAHA!

  Know what's coming next? Millions of duplicated items presently listed in seller stores as replenishable inventory will be forced into "core" listings. Wall Street will wet itself thinking listings are up and Donowhore will cough himself into a bad case of hemorrhoids trying to hide his laughter.

  Ebay & the media has perpetuated the image of Ebay as a happy dappy flea market that sells Jesus sandwiches. Well guess what, folks. Millions of families depend on Ebay to eat. Like it or not, Ebay's impact is comparable to the world's largest employer. I'm a card carrying libertarian and Friedman enthusiast so saying this doesn't give me any joy: America needs to get Ebay under control. They have far too much power for such an immoral bunch.

• Report this Comment On June 21, 2008, at 12:47 AM, thedofca100 wrote:

  After ten years with ebay and never a negative, always 100% positive feedback, I went to bed one night with 100% positive and woke up the next morning with a 96.7% and nothing had changed in my feedback. All of a sudden the one neutral I had from a woman who felt media mail took too long had apparently become a negative. I still don't get it. Of course, I left ebay. If they don't want honest, responsive, prompt to ship sellers, it's okay by me. It was a fun hobby but nothing lasts forever.

• Report this Comment On June 21, 2008, at 4:52 AM, KinabaLLC wrote:

  Fantastic article!

  I disagree with the comment made by JohnnyeBay. Sellers did not bring about the changes - eBay's reactionary nature did. And eBay is the only place where sellers can trash buyers? That simply isn't true, nevermind the fact that were talking about an issue of a small percentage of sellers.

  eBay's logic on changes this year doesn't hold. It isn't logic at all. As I've blogged myself in the past, eBay is a giant pendulum that swings from one extreme to the other. Perhaps it truly is the sign of a teenager who hasn't matured.

• Report this Comment On June 21, 2008, at 6:58 PM, trice193 wrote:

  Wherether or not you agree with ebay's policies the point is ebay stock is very much undervalued. Do you really think yahoo is worth more then ebay when ebay has more profit more cash flow and similar growth I doubt it. Plus ebay is still a strong marketplace with little competition so that is why ebay still has a buy rating. Paypal alone is worth atleast 50 or 60% of current stock price that is why price of stock is very cheap

• Report this Comment On June 21, 2008, at 9:58 PM, eightdays wrote:

  pumper!! is that the term trice193?

• Report this Comment On June 22, 2008, at 11:21 AM, Oregonmed wrote:

  I quit selling / buying on eBay in May after being a powerseller and trader assistant since 1997. With 100% feedback, one new member, who didn't understand that if she chose parcel post over priority it might take a week to receive an item. 'A little slow' neutral rating last July brought my feedback to 98%, after 1000's of positive. A Neutral feedback is now counted as negative! In addition, with eBay's DSR, not understanding that mailing global, with slow customs, could injure your shipping time score, though I always shipped the next day. That none were warned in advance to prepare for this change, to possibly stop selling globally, we were awakened to a brutal understanding that no matter how hard we tried to excel, eBay enjoyed beating us down. I could go on and sell for eBay, but I refuse to be under the authority of an abuser, and that is eBay 2008!

  eBay has destroyed the trust and loyalty they once deserved. It was not difficult leaving. The adventurers are leaving eBay for other internet auction/selling sites like IOffer.com etc. in droves.

  Why waste my money & time investing in inventory for eBay, when other sites want my business for free listings! Why throw good money after bad? Why work night and day to support these corporate parasites who don't understand the original concept of eBay! Online auction forums are full of entrepuneurs leaving eBay successfully. Everyone I talk to who use to be selling has left and are happier for it.

  EBay Live turned out to be a flop. eBay has become an internet dinosaur like AOL... What a pity a marvelous thing that Pierre started was ruined by these corporate robots only trying to juggle and manipulate their reports for their stockholders.

• Report this Comment On June 22, 2008, at 1:44 PM, tg999 wrote:

  Been a powerseller since '99. Seen a lot of changes - but almost never an improvement.

  You can argue about the FB, or the fees, or lack of customer service - ppl have been bitching about these things forever.

  What makes this time different is very very simple.

  The buyers are no longer there.

  I have nearly 10 years of sales statistics on the same kinds of items, and I sell these items on my own website too.

  The only place where my sales are dropping is on Ebay - and I have high visibility on Ebay, and an almost perfect FB record.

  From a stockholder perspective, I am running more auctions than usual, and selling far less. My ebay bill is almost half of what it was last year - and I have much more listed and in my store.

  I have never been an ebay basher, and I'm not bashing them now.

  But whatever it is that Ebay is doing - whatever strategy or new formula they are attempting - it is most certainly NOT resulting in more sales.

  I see less listings in almost all categories, far fewer sellers, far less variety, and far less views per item.

• Report this Comment On June 22, 2008, at 7:51 PM, antoineblanche08 wrote:

  Before I share with you my experience in which a buyer retaliated me with a neutral feedback after he offered to buy my items outside of Ebay and I refused, what are your guidelines of posting emails that buyers and I exchanged? Am I allowed to post the full content of these emails as proof of this retaliation?

• Report this Comment On June 22, 2008, at 8:29 PM, antoineblanche08 wrote:

  Test

• Report this Comment On June 23, 2008, at 7:57 AM, antoineblanche08 wrote:

  Before I share my experience as an Ebay seller who turned down an offer to sell outside of Ebay and was retaliated with a neutral feedback (counting now against my feedback), would someone please tell me your guidelines regarding posting the contents of emails between me and that buyer? Thanks.

• Report this Comment On June 23, 2008, at 5:18 PM, Patricia013 wrote:

  "Wherether or not you agree with ebay's policies the point is ebay stock is very much undervalued. Do you really think yahoo is worth more then ebay when ebay has more profit more cash flow and similar growth I doubt it. Plus ebay is still a strong marketplace with little competition so that is why ebay still has a buy rating. Paypal alone is worth atleast 50 or 60% of current stock price that is why price of stock is very cheap"

  And may I ask is this just your own thought or did you actually research it? We're living it...and we're telling you of big trouble at Ebay and even more coming! I know if I were going to buy a stock and experienced insiders gave me some disturbing information that can easily be researched...I would at least do so before leaping into the septic tank!

  www.ACEOart.net

• Report this Comment On June 23, 2008, at 5:40 PM, 37gasser wrote:

  komakazi-ebay, set your sights, put the noze down, & don't look back. Ebay, A marter fot the cause. What cause? That is the 64 million dollar question.

  The cause is that of the oppressed buyer, held down buy unscrupled sellers. You know the type, independant sellers that are very small niche & unique product sellers, they offer items that are completely unique & unavailable elsewhere. They ship within the week because that is how their business works, they have awesome items that you love, they charge a couple extra dollars on shipping to cover tape, time & boxing. They leave feedback when they can because leaving feedback is so time consuming, & they have not figured out a better way to do it yet.

  Talk about oppression!!! Thank God for the komakazi-ebay, coming to the rescue of the poor & down trodden, oppressed buyer.

  37gasser

• Report this Comment On June 26, 2008, at 3:39 PM, aPowerSeller wrote:

  As a business professional responsible for many international business startups and as part of consulting companies serving international Fortune 1000 corporations, I developed the skills to analyze my competitors, industries and business opportunities. What are a company’s strengths, weaknesses, stated goals, likelihood of achieving those goals, the actual 'corner office agenda', etc.

  As a PowerSeller on eBay, I’ve watched the announcements by eBay and some of the activities and policy implementations with emotional opinions ranging from disappointment to disgust.

  eBay says they want to improve the buyer experience and trust. But eBay dismantled the reporting structure that allows a buyer (or seller) to tell eBay that a seller is mis-representing the item they have for sale, defrauding the ‘buying experience’ by, for example, selling glass as gemstones. This has been done in the USA and the U.K.

  eBay has always had problems with service and support to the buyers or sellers. For any program announced by eBay or PayPal, it can be difficult or impossible to reach a staffer aware of the company’s ‘marching orders’, what to do, how to do it, etc. This non-existent level of service has gotten dramatically worse over the last year.

  Quality of management, implementation of programs/policies and business vision are not strong suits of eBay management.

  The many changes from eBay are either incompetently stupid or very carefully conceived and planned. I have to believe that they are planned, conceived to eliminate sellers and throw away almost everything that made eBay successful.

  So, it appears that eBay wants to go to Fixed Price listings for generally available new merchandise. And they want to concentrate on a limited number of large sellers rather than manage a business with millions of sellers.

  A few basic questions come to mind - Why did buyers and sellers come to eBay and keep coming back to eBay instead of other online venues? How is eBay different/unique vs. other places where buyers can shop? Does eBay’s senior management intimately ‘know the business’ they are trying to run?

  If eBay’s management continues with the changes implemented and the other changes announced, what is the likely direction that management is taking the business?

  It appears that eBay’s management wants to convert from the diverse variety of the current eBay to becoming a direct competitor to Amazon, buy.com, WalMart, Best Buy, etc. and eliminate the small and medium size sellers.

  What does eBay become if they accomplish this transition? Why will buyers continue to come to eBay to get the same items they can pick up at a retail store or buy online from Amazon? buy.com? Sears? WalMart? How will eBay be better/different/unique vs. these competitors and continue to attract customers to eBay?

  I believe that the wide range of products is what drew buyers to eBay and made it successful. The auction format may have faded from favor. But having a site to wander, browse and be delighted with the unknown treasures you find is an integral part of what made eBay a desirable and unique site for sellers and buyers.

  If eBay isn't buying and stocking merchandise or shipping it, they depend upon the inventory of the sellers.

  If eBay eliminates all but a handful of large sellers, the diversity will also disappear. And the reason for anyone going to eBay instead of WalMart, Amazon, buy.com, Sears, Best Buy, etc. is no longer justified because eBay will have become just another mass merchant of the same products that are available from many, many other retailers online and around the corner.

  In a commodity market, competition is ultimately about availability and price. The new eBay, compared to their competitors, will not be in control of either price or availability.

  From a different strategic perspective, eBay has struck a special deal with buy.com, allowing buy.com to list products on eBay at drastically discounted prices. Buy.com has their own website. Every item that buy.com ships is sent with flyers encouraging buyers to return to the buy.com website for additional future purchases. Buy.com is getting access to eBay's customer base and will be siphoning those customers off to its own site.

  Only an extremely desperate company would cut off its own arm and feed it to a hungry wolf standing in front of it!

• Report this Comment On June 26, 2008, at 3:40 PM, aPowerSeller wrote:

  As a business professional responsible for many international business startups and as part of consulting companies serving international Fortune 1000 corporations, I developed the skills to analyze my competitors, industries and business opportunities. What are a company’s strengths, weaknesses, stated goals, likelihood of achieving those goals, the actual 'corner office agenda', etc.

  As a PowerSeller on eBay, I’ve watched the announcements by eBay and some of the activities and policy implementations with emotional opinions ranging from disappointment to disgust.

  eBay says they want to improve the buyer experience and trust. But eBay dismantled the reporting structure that allows a buyer (or seller) to tell eBay that a seller is mis-representing the item they have for sale, defrauding the ‘buying experience’ by, for example, selling glass as gemstones. This has been done in the USA and the U.K.

  eBay has always had problems with service and support to the buyers or sellers. For any program announced by eBay or PayPal, it can be difficult or impossible to reach a staffer aware of the company’s ‘marching orders’, what to do, how to do it, etc. This non-existent level of service has gotten dramatically worse over the last year.

  Quality of management, implementation of programs/policies and business vision are not strong suits of eBay management.

  The many changes from eBay are either incompetently stupid or very carefully conceived and planned. I have to believe that they are planned, conceived to eliminate sellers and throw away almost everything that made eBay successful.

  So, it appears that eBay wants to go to Fixed Price listings for generally available new merchandise. And they want to concentrate on a limited number of large sellers rather than manage a business with millions of sellers.

  A few basic questions come to mind - Why did buyers and sellers come to eBay and keep coming back to eBay instead of other online venues? How is eBay different/unique vs. other places where buyers can shop? Does eBay’s senior management intimately ‘know the business’ they are trying to run?

  If eBay’s management continues with the changes implemented and the other changes announced, what is the likely direction that management is taking the business?

  It appears that eBay’s management wants to convert from the diverse variety of the current eBay to becoming a direct competitor to Amazon, buy.com, WalMart, Best Buy, etc. and eliminate the small and medium size sellers.

  What does eBay become if they accomplish this transition? Why will buyers continue to come to eBay to get the same items they can pick up at a retail store or buy online from Amazon? buy.com? Sears? WalMart? How will eBay be better/different/unique vs. these competitors and continue to attract customers to eBay?

  I believe that the wide range of products is what drew buyers to eBay and made it successful. The auction format may have faded from favor. But having a site to wander, browse and be delighted with the unknown treasures you find is an integral part of what made eBay a desirable and unique site for sellers and buyers.

  If eBay isn't buying and stocking merchandise or shipping it, they depend upon the inventory of the sellers.

  If eBay eliminates all but a handful of large sellers, the diversity will also disappear. And the reason for anyone going to eBay instead of WalMart, Amazon, buy.com, Sears, Best Buy, etc. is no longer justified because eBay will have become just another mass merchant of the same products that are available from many, many other retailers online and around the corner.

  In a commodity market, competition is ultimately about availability and price. The new eBay, compared to their competitors, will not be in control of either price or availability.

  From a different strategic perspective, eBay has struck a special deal with buy.com, allowing buy.com to list products on eBay at drastically discounted prices. Buy.com has their own website. Every item that buy.com ships is sent with flyers encouraging buyers to return to the buy.com website for additional future purchases. Buy.com is getting access to eBay's customer base and will be siphoning those customers off to its own site.

  Only an extremely desperate company would cut off its own arm and feed it to a hungry wolf standing in front of it!

• Report this Comment On June 26, 2008, at 3:50 PM, aPowerSeller wrote:

  As a business professional responsible for many international business startups and as part of consulting companies serving international Fortune 1000 corporations, I developed the skills to analyze my competitors, industries and business opportunities. What are a company’s strengths, weaknesses, stated goals, likelihood of achieving those goals, the actual 'corner office agenda', etc.

  As a PowerSeller on eBay, I’ve watched the announcements by eBay and some of the activities and policy implementations with emotional opinions ranging from disappointment to disgust.

  eBay says they want to improve the buyer experience and trust. But eBay dismantled the reporting structure that allows a buyer (or seller) to tell eBay that a seller is mis-representing the item they have for sale, defrauding the ‘buying experience’ by, for example, selling glass as gemstones. This has been done in the USA and the U.K.

  eBay has always had problems with service and support to the buyers or sellers. For any program announced by eBay or PayPal, it can be difficult or impossible to reach a staffer aware of the company’s ‘marching orders’, what to do, how to do it, etc. This non-existent level of service has gotten dramatically worse over the last year.

  Quality of management, implementation of programs/policies and business vision are not strong suits of eBay management.

  The many changes from eBay are either incompetently stupid or very carefully conceived and planned. I have to believe that they are planned, conceived to eliminate sellers and throw away almost everything that made eBay successful.

  So, it appears that eBay wants to go to Fixed Price listings for generally available new merchandise. And they want to concentrate on a limited number of large sellers rather than manage a business with millions of sellers.

  A few basic questions come to mind - Why did buyers and sellers come to eBay and keep coming back to eBay instead of other online venues? How is eBay different/unique vs. other places where buyers can shop? Does eBay’s senior management intimately ‘know the business’ they are trying to run?

  If eBay’s management continues with the changes implemented and the other changes announced, what is the likely direction that management is taking the business?

  It appears that eBay’s management wants to convert from the diverse variety of the current eBay to becoming a direct competitor to Amazon, buy.com, WalMart, Best Buy, etc. and eliminate the small and medium size sellers.

  What does eBay become if they accomplish this transition? Why will buyers continue to come to eBay to get the same items they can pick up at a retail store or buy online from Amazon? buy.com? Sears? WalMart? How will eBay be better/different/unique vs. these competitors and continue to attract customers to eBay?

  I believe that the wide range of products is what drew buyers to eBay and made it successful. The auction format may have faded from favor. But having a site to wander, browse and be delighted with the unknown treasures you find is an integral part of what made eBay a desirable and unique site for sellers and buyers.

  If eBay isn't buying and stocking merchandise or shipping it, they depend upon the inventory of the sellers.

  If eBay eliminates all but a handful of large sellers, the diversity will also disappear. And the reason for anyone going to eBay instead of WalMart, Amazon, buy.com, Sears, Best Buy, etc. is no longer justified because eBay will have become just another mass merchant of the same products that are available from many, many other retailers online and around the corner.

  In a commodity market, competition is ultimately about availability and price. The new eBay, compared to their competitors, will not be in control of either price or availability.

  From a different strategic perspective, eBay has struck a special deal with buy.com, allowing buy.com to list products on eBay at drastically discounted prices. Buy.com has their own website. Every item that buy.com ships is sent with flyers encouraging buyers to return to the buy.com website for additional future purchases. Buy.com is getting access to eBay's customer base and will be siphoning those customers off to its own site.

  Only an extremely desperate company would cut off its own arm and feed it to a hungry wolf standing in front of it!

• Report this Comment On June 26, 2008, at 3:50 PM, aPowerSeller wrote:

  As a business professional responsible for many international business startups and as part of consulting companies serving international Fortune 1000 corporations, I developed the skills to analyze my competitors, industries and business opportunities. What are a company’s strengths, weaknesses, stated goals, likelihood of achieving those goals, the actual 'corner office agenda', etc.

  As a PowerSeller on eBay, I’ve watched the announcements by eBay and some of the activities and policy implementations with emotional opinions ranging from disappointment to disgust.

  eBay says they want to improve the buyer experience and trust. But eBay dismantled the reporting structure that allows a buyer (or seller) to tell eBay that a seller is mis-representing the item they have for sale, defrauding the ‘buying experience’ by, for example, selling glass as gemstones. This has been done in the USA and the U.K.

  eBay has always had problems with service and support to the buyers or sellers. For any program announced by eBay or PayPal, it can be difficult or impossible to reach a staffer aware of the company’s ‘marching orders’, what to do, how to do it, etc. This non-existent level of service has gotten dramatically worse over the last year.

  Quality of management, implementation of programs/policies and business vision are not strong suits of eBay management.

  The many changes from eBay are either incompetently stupid or very carefully conceived and planned. I have to believe that they are planned, conceived to eliminate sellers and throw away almost everything that made eBay successful.

  So, it appears that eBay wants to go to Fixed Price listings for generally available new merchandise. And they want to concentrate on a limited number of large sellers rather than manage a business with millions of sellers.

  A few basic questions come to mind - Why did buyers and sellers come to eBay and keep coming back to eBay instead of other online venues? How is eBay different/unique vs. other places where buyers can shop? Does eBay’s senior management intimately ‘know the business’ they are trying to run?

  If eBay’s management continues with the changes implemented and the other changes announced, what is the likely direction that management is taking the business?

  It appears that eBay’s management wants to convert from the diverse variety of the current eBay to becoming a direct competitor to Amazon, buy.com, WalMart, Best Buy, etc. and eliminate the small and medium size sellers.

  What does eBay become if they accomplish this transition? Why will buyers continue to come to eBay to get the same items they can pick up at a retail store or buy online from Amazon? buy.com? Sears? WalMart? How will eBay be better/different/unique vs. these competitors and continue to attract customers to eBay?

  I believe that the wide range of products is what drew buyers to eBay and made it successful. The auction format may have faded from favor. But having a site to wander, browse and be delighted with the unknown treasures you find is an integral part of what made eBay a desirable and unique site for sellers and buyers.

  If eBay isn't buying and stocking merchandise or shipping it, they depend upon the inventory of the sellers.

  If eBay eliminates all but a handful of large sellers, the diversity will also disappear. And the reason for anyone going to eBay instead of WalMart, Amazon, buy.com, Sears, Best Buy, etc. is no longer justified because eBay will have become just another mass merchant of the same products that are available from many, many other retailers online and around the corner.

  In a commodity market, competition is ultimately about availability and price. The new eBay, compared to their competitors, will not be in control of either price or availability.

  From a different strategic perspective, eBay has struck a special deal with buy.com, allowing buy.com to list products on eBay at drastically discounted prices. Buy.com has their own website. Every item that buy.com ships is sent with flyers encouraging buyers to return to the buy.com website for additional future purchases. Buy.com is getting access to eBay's customer base and will be siphoning those customers off to its own site.

  Only an extremely desperate company would cut off its own arm and feed it to a hungry wolf standing in front of it!

• Report this Comment On June 26, 2008, at 4:09 PM, aPowerSeller wrote:

  As a business professional responsible for many international business startups and as part of consulting companies serving international Fortune 1000 corporations, I developed the skills to analyze my competitors, industries and business opportunities. What are a company’s strengths, weaknesses, stated goals, likelihood of achieving those goals, the actual 'corner office agenda', etc.

  As a PowerSeller on eBay, I’ve watched the announcements by eBay and some of the activities and policy implementations with emotional opinions ranging from disappointment to disgust.

  eBay says they want to improve the buyer experience and trust. But eBay dismantled the reporting structure that allows a buyer (or seller) to tell eBay that a seller is mis-representing the item they have for sale, defrauding the ‘buying experience’ by, for example, selling glass as gemstones. This has been done in the USA and the U.K.

  eBay has always had problems with service and support to the buyers or sellers. For any program announced by eBay or PayPal, it can be difficult or impossible to reach a staffer aware of the company’s ‘marching orders’, what to do, how to do it, etc. This non-existent level of service has gotten dramatically worse over the last year.

  Quality of management, implementation of programs/policies and business vision are not strong suits of eBay management.

  The many changes from eBay are either incompetently stupid or very carefully conceived and planned. I have to believe that they are planned, conceived to eliminate sellers and throw away almost everything that made eBay successful.

  So, it appears that eBay wants to go to Fixed Price listings for generally available new merchandise. And they want to concentrate on a limited number of large sellers rather than manage a business with millions of sellers.

  A few basic questions come to mind - Why did buyers and sellers come to eBay and keep coming back to eBay instead of other online venues? How is eBay different/unique vs. other places where buyers can shop? Does eBay’s senior management intimately ‘know the business’ they are trying to run?

  If eBay’s management continues with the changes implemented and the other changes announced, what is the likely direction that management is taking the business?

  It appears that eBay’s management wants to convert from the diverse variety of the current eBay to becoming a direct competitor to Amazon, buy.com, WalMart, Best Buy, etc. and eliminate the small and medium size sellers.

  What does eBay become if they accomplish this transition? Why will buyers continue to come to eBay to get the same items they can pick up at a retail store or buy online from Amazon? buy.com? Sears? WalMart? How will eBay be better/different/unique vs. these competitors and continue to attract customers to eBay?

  I believe that the wide range of products is what drew buyers to eBay and made it successful. The auction format may have faded from favor. But having a site to wander, browse and be delighted with the unknown treasures you find is an integral part of what made eBay a desirable and unique site for sellers and buyers.

  If eBay isn't buying and stocking merchandise or shipping it, they depend upon the inventory of the sellers.

  If eBay eliminates all but a handful of large sellers, the diversity will also disappear. And the reason for anyone going to eBay instead of WalMart, Amazon, buy.com, Sears, Best Buy, etc. is no longer justified because eBay will have become just another mass merchant of the same products that are available from many, many other retailers online and around the corner.

  In a commodity market, competition is ultimately about availability and price. The new eBay, compared to their competitors, will not be in control of either price or availability.

  From a different strategic perspective, eBay has struck a special deal with buy.com, allowing buy.com to list products on eBay at drastically discounted prices. Buy.com has their own website. Every item that buy.com ships is sent with flyers encouraging buyers to return to the buy.com website for additional future purchases. Buy.com is getting access to eBay's customer base and will be siphoning those customers off to its own site.

  Only an extremely desperate company would cut off its own arm and feed it to a hungry wolf standing in front of it!

• Report this Comment On July 25, 2008, at 5:11 AM, xandros wrote:

  Like many others, I also used to Love Ebay, both as a buyer and a seller. I felt proud when I became a part of the community. Little by little I got more and more bothered with the policy, (and attitude) changes. It didn't seem like a happy, friendly community anymore. The detailed seller ratings seemed interesting, but didn't make sense. Like buyers rating how pleased they were with the shipping charges. Shipping charges are clearly spelled out in the listing. If the buyer doesn't like the shipping charges, don't buy the item, rather than agree to the shipping charges but then mark off points for them. Anyway, Eventually I had problems with one buyer. He wanted his money back. I agreed to refund his money if he wished to return the item. I even offered to reimburse his return shipping charges. He wanted to keep it and get his money back. Simply put, he wanted to get it for free. I refused, but still offered a full refund if he decided to return it. He informed me that I would regret it. Pretty soon several movies I had listed were pulled and my account was suspended. Ebay informed me the movies had been reported as needing to be listed in the mature audience category. These were movies like 'American Pie' and such, not adult movies. I sent ebay that information and even sent them IMDB listing links to prove that they were not adult movies. Even with this proof, Ebay refused to admit they had made a mistake. They simply responded back that, well I had been reported and my account would be suspended for 3 months and I could petition to have it reinstated at that point. I was a little bit panicked at that point as I was fully supporting myself with ebay sales at that point and couldn't get by for 3 months without income. I decided to try starting my own website to sell my stuff. This probably wouldn't be a great solution for smaller sellers, but it worked well for me. Me fees were a lot lower than what I paid ebay, so I was keeping a significantly higher amount of my profits. For awhile I still used Paypal to take credit cards, but when I looked into sources to take credit card payments directly, I found I got more credit card orders, and was again paying lower fees and keeping more of my money. Ebay has since unsuspended my account, but I have not gone back, nor do I plan to. Especially with all their new restrictive policies. In the end it all turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me.

• Report this Comment On August 31, 2008, at 9:37 AM, ocdgirl2000 wrote:

  GoAntiques is now being acquired by the WorthPoint Corporation. GoAntiques has been around a lot longer than ebay and has ties with the antiques and collectibles communities as well as having am extensive price search program that rival's ebay's terapeak, called Price Miner. In addition, it adds the values in it's searches for completed sales found in auctions on ebay as well as other venues.

  This company is going to be rolling out their new online auction program(just like the old ebay!), as compared to their own fixed listings program, (which, by the way, has been growing in leaps and bounds).

  Yes, there will be some companies that submit to being taken over by ebay, but not this one. WorthPoint understands the needs of customers, and clearly understands the market for the rarer and more unusual collectibles, as would be demonstrated by it's own customers. This will be an awesome combination to make ebay CEO's sweat bullets.

  Some of us niche small sellers who did not get offered the special discounts available to the affiliated groups of sellers have decided to put our "less advantaged fees" to better use and get our listings up on a site that specializes in antiques and vintage, and we'll at least get some personalized customer services and better selling relationships with our own customers for the same dollar value that we would be paying ebay.

  It might be worthwhile to do some homework on this particular teflon coated selling venue.

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