"Idiots" eBay should charge as much as their VAT -value added tax and see how they cry.

I presume the 1st comment poster is not a seller on eBay. And I also presume eBay makes plenty of money to pay their VAT. Not "idiots"; people in control of their own destiny and not afraid to stand up for themselves.

As a long-time Ebay seller who has weathered the various increases, bait and switch tactics and downright lying on Ebay's part, I am amazed at the patronizing tone of this article. We are not extremists, or radicals, or harmless. We are men and women who are trying to run their businesses in a business-like fashion, without being forced to retool their business plans every few months because Meg and Bill want to a) make Ebay's stock look good or b)to subsidize the free listings in China, Taiwan, etc. Some of us depend on Ebay for our income. Maybe that's the "idiotic" part.

As a long-time American Ebay seller, let me say that I am worn out by Ebay's fee increases, bait and switch tactics, and just plain lying. Meg and Bill are using the American and European sellers to subsidize the failing Chinese, Taiwanese and Singapore markets, even though all of those countries can list for FREE and pay no fees. And scam American buyers by offering low priced items with exorbitant shipping fees. We are not extremists, we are hard working men and women trying to run our businesses, without having to retool our business plans every few months at Meg's whim.

Ebay deserves to lose market share. They have been playing jack o lantern for too long a time... I'd sell on Google!!!

These eBay sellers are biting the hand that feeds them. eBay needs these adjustments to stay a viable, growing marketplace. Calling for competitors like Google to enter the space, who don't care at all about the small seller, is just like begging for their own death. eBay is the last bastion of the small merchant, these sellers should spend more of their time listening to eBay on how to adjust their businesses to the new pricing.

Ebay removed the stores link to view stores. Only if you pay MORE will you get exposure. They are cutting us off at the knees with all these backroom removals and we have no idea when it happens until someone posts to the forums. They're playing russian roulette with my business. No one is protecting us. No one considers us a consumer, they say you need to get legal advice. How can I do that when I have no money. I have no voice. Ebay is crushing my small business and many others worldwide. Ebay can rot, there's nothing they can ever do to appease this. I'll never EVER trust or shop with them and as soon as I can afford to leave and still make my modest living I am GONE, FOREVER. F U GREEDBAY

We have already been losing money since end of Feb 2006. We have nothing left to lose. Ebay went too far this time. They need to fix their internal problems, they don't even pull the fakes or shillers or China S&H price gouging but they will bend us over any time of the day. These are not humans, they are disgusting. Meg Whitman, Bill Cobb, the board of directors, even PIERRE. How could you do this to us Pierre!

Two things the press should understand about the anger of ebay's sellers:
1) this is NOT about a change in fee
2) this is NOT about eBay being required to support formats (including stores) if they find them to be detrimental to their bottom line
What this IS about is honesty. Imagine how stock traders feel when they make big financial decisions based on FALSE company claims.
It's unfortunate when companies have layoffs - but usually the employees know when things aren't going so well - and the smart ones will get their resumes in order.
Ebay was actively hyping the value of stores right up the "big announcement". If they knew that stores were too bloated - six months ago they could have announced that stores weren't producing the revenues desired and that no new development would occur in that area - the effect would have been the equivalent of yelling "abandon ship" - and the "problem" of too much store inventory would be non existent.
I run my own eBay store and it's still a possibility that I remain somewhat profitable, but this blow to trust has me concentrating my efforts elsewhere. I could work my way around these fees and there could be a thousand percent fee increase next year - or stores could be cancelled all together after being hyped AGAIN. All we want is honesty, so that we can make relevant business decisions - Do I purchase new inventory?; how much can I afford to pay for my expected return? ..etc. Ebay makes money off of OUR investments and OUR risks. If they can't see why we're angry, then I fully support the effort of those petitioning Google and wish them luck - because we are NOT eBay employees - we are CUSTOMERS - and angry customers take their business ELSEWHERE.

Two things the press should understand about the anger of ebay's sellers:
1) this is NOT about a change in fee
2) this is NOT about eBay being required to support formats (including stores) if they find them to be detrimental to their bottom line
What this IS about is honesty. Imagine how stock traders feel when they make big financial decisions based on FALSE company claims.
It's unfortunate when companies have layoffs - but usually the employees know when things aren't going so well - and the smart ones will get their resumes in order.
Ebay was actively hyping the value of stores right up the "big" announcement. If they knew that stores were too bloated - six months ago they could have announced that stores weren't producing the revenues desired and that no new development would occur in that area - the effect would have been the equivalent of yelling "abandon ship" - and the "problem" of too much store inventory would be non existent.
I run my own eBay store and it's still a possibility that I remain somewhat profitable, but this blow to trust has me concentrating my efforts elsewhere. I could work my way around these fees and there could be a thousand percent fee increase next year - or stores could be cancelled all together after being hyped AGAIN. All we want is honesty, so that we can make relevant business decisions - Do I purchase new inventory?; how much can I afford to pay for my expected return? ..etc. Ebay makes money off of OUR investments and OUR risks. If they can't see why we're angry, then I fully support the effort of those petitioning Google and wish them luck - because we are NOT eBay employees - we are CUSTOMERS - and angry customers take their business ELSEWHERE.

for investors and analysts to understand
the truth of what is going on, spend some
time over at Powersellersunite.com in
the ebay forum. tis not just the sellers
who are being hoodwinked as believe that
you all could have made a lot more money
in addition to all the sellers if things
were on the up and up.

post #6 your statement
"These eBay sellers are biting the hand that feeds them" is the complete opposite.
it is the sellers who feed ebay and the
stock investors.

and about google and your comment
"
Calling for competitors like Google to enter the space, who don't care at all about the small seller
"

is also completely wrong. google has
froogle and that is setup for small to
large businesses.

what ebay is doing is setting things up where
the middle class and up sellers will be there.

and now where are all the buyers who buy many
of the low cost items going to go? to build
their own website or other up and coming auction/
store sites.

it is not so much what they did but HOW
they did it when there was many other
options available. why spit all the
handicapped and poor out on the streets
with not more than one month's notice?

do some serious reading about what is
going on. yes some get very emotional
and yes maybe some words are better not
said but imagine if you were encouraged
to pack up your store many times and to
open up even more stores and then pull
they rug right from under you. and there
you are with maybe thousands of dollars
worth of inventory. the fees in the
auctions are outrageous and so are the
store fees. am guessing you really do
not know what the fees really are and
the impact of them.

please do not mistake many sellers who
are angry with being sellers who sell
very little. many are not just powersellers
but are in the higher levels of powersellers,
like those found on PESA.

this whole thing looks like bait and switch
and unethical business practice.

any good investor would not just discount
so easily as you have the real reasons for
the upset. they would educate themselves.

and this is not to critize you but think of
this post as trying to inform the uninformed.

read their forums and don't assume there
is a bunch of people overreacting. some
maybe, but many of the problems that are
brought up are real.

imagine just how much money was truly
lost to sellers and to investors.

Ebay is like a monopoly and it knows it. It's best move was to buy Paypal. In effect, Paypal grew also to have the largest market share in the money services or payment processor sector.

Ebay = largest market share in auctions
Paypal = largest market share in payments

I think the this is unfair practice especially if they ban legitimate payment processors like google checkout or even the controversial (but much cheaper in fees) e-gold as payment options for Ebay.

Ebay has been a bully to everyone and even to its loyal sellers who rely on Ebay as a living.

Ebay has to make a win-win situation with fair play. Ebay is acting like a government---dictator style.

If Ebay treats its loyalist badly, these loyalist can simply abandon them enmasse and move to the next auction site company...GOOGLE ARE YOU LISTENING?

I agree. E-bay is greedy and going to lose its base of consumers as well. The fees are outrageous the ebay stores charge sellers to list with them and then want the seller to pay the sales tax as well. The sales tax should be paid by the buyer. Also shipping is outrages the charges they charge for mail is twice what it should be so buyers also should also be aware of the greed. To list an item with an Ebay store most want a set fee per item, 20% or more from the final sale price of item, and for seller to pay sales tax without customer paying it and in retail the customer pays for the sales tax. You wonder if they are not collecting twice on the tax, both by the seller and buyer which is illegal. I think the Feds need to investigate this issue. Also Ebay promises up to $1,000 buyer protection, but then when it comes to pay they say you may not get the full amount paid and the buyer has to pay numerous fees such as third party input to dispute, fax fees, gas money to find third party appropriate to input on dispute. Buyer beware of buying on Ebay as they will protect big sellers and buyers loses on complaints by fraud and misleading and defects of items not disclosed by these high profile sellers. Government needs to investigate ebay policies and ebay for not protecting the buyers interest by unscrupolus sellers and then not reimbursing buyers expense to back up their complaint and not paying the full price of item paid to seller and seller found guilty of fraud and/or misleading buyers about itmes listed. Ebay needs to be under federal guidlines and monitored by the feds. When it comes to Pay Pal to settled claims they say that they can not get information from Ebay even though Pay Pal is owned by Ebay. Another examination the government and security Dept needs to investigate.

It is not the fee increases that are the main problem, but the reduction in visibility. My items used to appear on search engines such as google, due to some kind of agreement between google and ebay. Since last weekend, this doesn't seem to have been happening. Having absorbed the fee increases myself, intending that my sales levels would not change, I have noticed that my sales are down by a significant percentage, one important enough to make me question the viability of owning a store on eBay rather than selling through another medium. There must be thousands of shop owners left thinking the same thing. At the very least, if we do not close our stores, we will definitely have to seek out alternative means of revenue in addition.

When ARE they going to get it, YOU CAN'T Sell INVENTORY, do they know,how much it cost EBay tech department not including increased fees paid to GOOGLE to route to EBay it self. EBay is doing what other service is, passing the COST down the pipeline to the CONSUMER. The Pacific Rim is not to be blame here; they are a SMALL part of eBay listings.
Its all about MARGINS. #9 you will see improvement once the weeds are removed.

Competition is the most effective way to achieve a fair marketplace. If eBay's new fees are actually fair and needed (not just a money grab as so many people suspect), and they truly are operating in the most efficient way possible with their customers needs in mind then a competitor like Google can't hurt them much.

But if the fee hikes are just a money grab, then they will get trounced, and they will have deserved it.

In other words, let the market figure it out ... but we need a competitor for that to be work.

WagglePop is where a lot of people are going.

As a loyal ebay seller since 1998, I can say I am not furious, I am scared sick!

I cannot work, due to injuries from a car accident. I can still walk and talk, so am not qualified for disability. I have struggled along on child support and ebay sales for 5 years now. Since I opened my store, I owe ebay $100.00 out of every $400.00. That is NOT counting what paypal takes. I didn't complain about that. The other $100.00 profit is what has been feeding us. Not well, but I have managed to stay out of the welfare system.

With the new fees, they will take over another $100.00, and we will be left nothing but the bills. I have to wonder what meg and bill will be eating tonight. We'll be having beans again.

I'm one of the lucky ones. I'm a good buyer, and I don't have more than a few hundred invested in my inventory. Some sellers have thousands invested, and no where to go with it. I can certainly understand furious!

I have been on ebay for 9 1/2 years and am literally, one of the core group of sellers which built ebay. We were the ones listing, packaging, answering emails back in the days before Pay Pal, instant invoicing, and especially before Meg Whitman and Bill Cobb who were not even around when WE started. If not for us, there would be no ebay ... period.
When the store concept began, the literally pushed it down our throats. Everywhere you turned, "open an ebay store it will grow your business" ... AND in this case they were right. We thrived. The stores are owned by everyone from new sellers to seasoned sellers. We, personally, have 5000 items in our store which we now have to decide what to do with ... move?, close down the store? ... staying is not an option when Ebay not only raises the fees BUT at the same time takes us out of the search engines. And both of those moves are totally unacceptable. What is even more of an insult, today, August 11th, they are STILL promoting and pushing their stores, and of course listing "only 2 cents for each item per month" and an "8% final value fee". NO where do they mention that fees are subject to change --- big change --- in 11 days. If the stores have "upset the balance" so badly, WHY are they still pushing them?

Do the math. They make $16 per month PLUS 2 cents per inventory item PLUS 8% FVF PLUS they own Pay Pal where 99% of our items are paid. And at last count there were at LEAST 23,000 stores on ebay. AND many of them are NOT the basic store, but instead there are medium stores for $50 a month and "anchor stores" for $500 a month. AND THEY AREN'T MAKING MONEY????

Meg and Bill have new ideas and new toys to play with now ... possible advertising auctions, possible this, possible that. If they were smart business people (and good people) how hard would it be to have three divisions of ebay (after all, they began Ebay Motors as its own division). SO why not a store division, and auction division, and a playroom for Bill and Meg to start all their new ventures with their CEO buddies? But to just wipe out an entire group of sellers is implorable.

One poster on the Google we Need an Auction Site Board last night reminded everyone ... "YOU made ebay. YOU can make ANY auction site into ebay". He's right and there's thousands worldwide looking for that RIGHT place.