A bit of good news for eBay

Posted Nov 6th 2006 4:46PM by Gary Sattler
Filed under: Major Movement, Good news, eBay (EBAY)

Just a chuckle...

On August 29, 2006 eBay North America undertook a formidable task. They sought to return their auction site to more of the 'traditional' auction style format. Or at least that's what they said. Resetting the balance was what they called it, and restoring the magic is their mantra. So after a year of aggressive soliciting and intensely prodding their members to load the eBay Stores format with goods for sale, they kindly pulled the rug out from under us.

They claimed it was our own fault because we, with some 20,000 eBay stores, were moving in to eclipse their straight auction format. At the same time they claimed that was not the case and that we were a marginal endeavor, so then why mess with us at all? If the stores format sucked so bad, then what's the deal with all this money poured into eBay express advertising? Umm, hey dudes, eBay stores float eBay Express...

When we raised a stink about what was being done to us, eBay hid behind the facade of "it's just an annual fee increase".

The true fact of the matter is that they undertook a deliberate slash and burn program specifically designed to unseat us. What they didn't count on then is what is making them flounder now. They never anticipated our sustained backlash and they never anticipated the opportunists who would come in to exploit the voids in customer service and site security which were contrived to destabilize us. As we loyal store operators were slowly marching out the door, some very unsavory characters were (and still are) quietly slipping in.

eBay has maintained some interesting numbers as this scenario has played out. It's hard to get accurate ones though. Least to be trusted are the numbers eBay administration represent as actual. I can give you one statistical comparison which I have made myself. I'll keep it as simple and straight forward as I can. At the time the fee increases were initially announced eBay had a total listing count hovering at about 15 million (excluding eBay motors). As the fee protest raged I watched that listing count waver and drop to as low as 12 million (excluding eBay motors). I just checked those numbers again for the purpose of this writing. At the time I am typing this eBay's total listing count is 14,037,575 (excluding eBay motors). Here's the first chuckle, I know you've been waiting for one. Of those 14 million listings, about 2.5 million of them are fielded by the top 5 eBay stores. You're laughing now right?

Okay, here's the angle. I've been tracking the top 5 eBay stores since inception of the fee protest and the top five right now are five totally different sellers than when the protest began. Now here comes the next chuckle, be sure not to miss it. When we started our protest the top five stores at that time were fielding 3.5 million listings and now none of those sellers even remain on the site. So let's do some simple analysis here and please do try to laugh.

August 29, 2006 approximately 15 million total listings, 3.5 million by top 5 stores.

November 6, 2006 approximate 14.1million total listings, 2.5 million by top 5 stores.

There's your reset magic balance Meg Whitman. We, the eBay patriots do really hope it was worth the price.

p.s. The single largest eBay store seller on eBay right now has 56 recorded sales as of this writing and the picture showing what I interpret as the inside of their store looks an awful lot like the interior of a Blockbuster Store. They sell CD's, DVD's, reference books, non-fiction books and children's activity books. They have inflated shipping prices and although they state that they will "work" with you, they place a nice fine print merchandise disclaimer at the bottom of all their listings. Of the 14.1 million listings on eBay right now, this one eBay store is presenting 365,000 of them.

You may laugh now.

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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)

11-09-2006 @ 12:27AM

Garry King said...

This is a very complete illustration of why Ebay stockholders should demand a new, more capable management team while the company is still save-able.

11-09-2006 @ 9:15AM

Michele said...

#21 Agreed... Fire Meg and Bill; re-work the entire infrastructure of a crumbling, glitchy one and assure both sellers and buyers (which will truthfully assure investors, and not just give them false, padded numbers of where their money truly stands) that not only is their information safe, that eBay is still the place to find IT... As it stands, go in and do a search, and see how many variables you see...

And if you're one of the unlucky ones who rotate on a dead server, you might not see your store inventory items at all (if you are searching as a seller, buyers will never know your product is "missing")...

11-09-2006 @ 12:10PM

Tajsultani said...

Truthseeker - Don't even bother looking into investing in eBay. I have sold and bought there for over 5 yrs. and let me tell you - as a seller, I am ready to ditch it because nobody is buying - why? Because it costs too much just to list an item, shipping is high and you have to deal with eBay and it's draconian attitude. For example - if an overseas buyer with 2 feedbacks says they didn't get something within 1 wk. of payment - their word is better than a seller with 5000+ good feedback - so refund ALL the $$ no questions asked. Doesn't matter that customs causes stuff to be delayed several weeks sometimes - buyer is right, so seller pays the piper with no recourse.

As a buyer - I don't buy much on there anymore - again because it's too expensive, and too many crooked sellers. Most of the sellers with the "neat one of a kind" items are gone, and what's left is the cheap overseas "tourist crap".

Then there's Paypal - again, expensive, worthless, and frustrating for both buyer and seller. Was great when original owners had it - now that eBay has it - piece of trash!

11-10-2006 @ 11:19PM

Duane said...

I compare Ebay to AOL. AOL was king of dial-up, and while over half of America uses broadband, dial-up is still popular. AOL increased their rates to $27 a few years ago with the Warner merger, to compensate for all the programs they contracted and were installed with AOL, and thought it wouldn't change their position in the market. They didn't care that NetZero and Earthlink were charging $10, because no one would ever abandon AOL's software for a basic connection. Now, NetZero advertises that you can use AOL free, and pay them just $10 a month instead of AOL's $27. What went wrong? The same thing Ebay is doing. They thought they were dominant, and no one could take the market from them. Well, according to what I have seen, Ebay has gone from 85% of the online auction market, to 65%, in just 4 months. All those sites that never amounted to much, are now picking up steam. And the hardest part to swallow for Ebay is that the sellers on those sites used to buy AND sell on Ebay, but now rely on the other sites for their selling... AND buying.

I look for Ebay to drop below 50% of the market by the end of the year. Only a couple sites really have a strong presence (1 million + listings) but after Ebay sellers make it through Christmas, look for Ebay listings to plummet and other sites to drasstically increase.