Ebay sellers turning into pit bulls?

Steve Bough

I would be interested in what type of business you have and how you are rated. I most certainly doubt that customer service and satisfaction is a priority with you or your business. You sound like a Ebay
stockholder.

What part of this don't you understand?

1.) Ebay sellers are customers. We pay a monthly store fee to do business as a store owner on Ebay. Let's associate it as a form of rent.

The difference between a physical brick and motar store vs. Ebay is:

A brick and motar store the seller does not have to pay a fee for each individual item put in the store or on the shelf.

The Ebay store seller pays a listing fee for every item placed on Ebay regardless if placed in the store or listed as an auction. When listing an item
from store inventory to a
"Core Listing" there is
another fee to put it back in the store when it does not sell.

Historically, "Core Listings" have a poor sell through rate. This is another inaccurate statement
that Cobb made. He made a statement to the effect that "Core Listings" sold in 14 days vs. Store listings that took longer. I've got news
for you.
Very few listings are sold in 7 or 14 days using "Core Listings" if that were true who would want an Ebay Store? THINK ABOUT IT! Matter of fact who would want a physical brick and motar store if that was the case? Slap the product on Ebay and (MAGIC) it's sold. Right Meg?

WHAM BAM THANK YOU..No! That's not what happens. The most the store owner can expect by using the "core listing" is utilizing the listing as an advertising leader to get traffic into their store to view more products. Ebay would rather hide the stores and lose the revenue that would be generated if more focus was placed on the stores as seen in the first three months of 2006 when the stores were promoted by
Ebay and the store sellers were generating a profit for a change with the increased exposure and sales.
Then we were removed or hidden from the mainstream.

Guess what happened to our sales and profit growth?

This is where it gets confusing. Store sales went up thus generating more revenue for Ebay along with the store sellers and then (MAGIC) we disappeared.

Instead of Ebay satisfied with the revenue generated from the stores increase exposure Cobb decided that wasn't enough. Hide the stores and force them to use "Core Listings"

Now why would anyone in their right mind want to add an additional (bottom line fee of .70 per item w/out picture) to every item they have in the store. Bottom line means a item that starts out at $9.99. Knowing that you have a sno-balls chance of that item being sold in 14 days.



with the hope they will purchase or bookmark for the future.

If an item sells we pay a Final Value Fee on store items. Now we pay 10% of the selling price vs. the 8% that was charged. That's the bottom fee then the fee escalates depending on the selling price.

The listing fee per item listed rose 150% and that percentage increases depending on the listing price.

Cobb has a problem with math. He spewed out to the news media the increase was (only 6%) and that percentage has never been corrected by him nor the media. He has never admitted he understated the percentage nor has the media questioned him as to how he came up with that figure.

Meanwhile, while you and the rest of the misinformed posters on these blogs (Pro Ebay) have the arrogance to criticize and refer to sellers as whinners and dogs...You don't have a clue as to what the total picture is.

2.) In Ebays initial founding stages the premise being that Ebay was a "Community" bringing buyers and sellers together. With both having a 'voice' in the community. Of course, at the time of organization no seller was considered to be to small or insignificant. What has been completely ignored in all this is the fact that: If it wasn't for sellers...there would be no Ebay! My bottom line to you is...if you don't like what we the sellers have to say about 'Ebay' DON'T READ THE BLOGS!!!


and it sure looks a lot better then 150% Unfortunately, that inaccurate percentage is what the new media has done their hyping with and has hurt the sellers



2.) We also buy on Ebay and sell.
3.)

Hello to all, just FYI, ebay is not only going after the stores, it is consistently driving away legit sellers, by canceling auctions with honest shipping & handling fees, while keeping all of those 1c BIN auctions with outrageous shipping fees. There are 2 possibilities; either they have an ulterior motive for destroying its customer base (sellers), or they don’t know what they are doing. Either way this current trend will reflect in the stock price. Watch and see.

I'd like to address some of the specific concerns in your original post.

Some sellers are actively putting together a class action lawsuit. As far as I know, sellers have not petitioned the FTC, etc. collectively, only individually, but we have been told there seems to be a "pattern of complaints." My personal opinion is that as Americans, we have a terrible time getting and staying organized. I was extremely impressed by how organized the overseas sellers were during the protests.

I have been revamping my own business plan to include the higher cost of doing business on Ebay, while very tentatively exploring other options. One major limitation I have is time, and lack of funds (in part because I spent much of August organizing against Ebay and helping to coordinate international protests). I'm frustrated that many sellers seem to be sucking it up and going about business as usual.

I would just like to add in response to Steve Gough's comment that Ebay is my living, and it's not easy to adjust to such a huge cost of living increase.

It's also my opinion that Ebay could make a huge dent in the ill-will they have built up with the sellers (their customers) if they allowed Stores in Search again, the way they did earlier this year, instead of treating us like the red-headed stepchild. That would go a long way toward easing the pain of the fee increase. I had to pull hundreds of book and music listings because they were no longer cost-effective, and raise the prices on my regular merchandise. That also makes it harder to compete against regular sellers who can afford to offer the same merchandise for $5.99 as opposed to $15.00. I've also found some brick and mortar outlets and studied my sales sheets to find out what sells the best for me. I'm furious, but I'm also trying to cope, as are we all.

Here's something to think about, eBay stockholders. Have you seen the ads for eBay Express: "Get IT NEW, get IT now"?

Well, here is the reality:
http://search.express.ebay.com/items/used-socks_W0QQ_nkwZusedQ20socks

Used socks? Really. You want to invest in this kind of incompetence?

All one has to think of when it comes to eBay is Corporate Thinking. All corporations operate with the same principles; make money..screw everything else. Corporations have to answer to their respective stockholders. It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to see where the whole store issue is headed. eBay has started their new eBay Express and is basically a store venue. So, in my opinion, just like the old adage; "Out with the old, in with the new. The "Old" being eBay Stores...the "New" being eBay Express. Stockholders are easily bored by the "same ol, same ol". As for the stores being hidden, more and more each month, there is no doubt at all this is, in fact the case. With eBay having the top search engine positions, they control what is being found. We recently joined another site for an additional store on a much smaller site (eCrater.com). The search results for our store there are much more prelevant than that of eBay. Impossible you say? Believe me..it is very true. One can complain or they can take action and move on....Life is much too short. Diversification has been the answer in business for decades now.