As an eBay seller for 7 years as well as an Amazon bookseller I can verify that the changes eBay has instituted in the past 15 months have driven many of the better sellers to Amazon or their own websites.

Ebay has destroyed the search function and disadvantaged their store sellers - not only making it difficult for the sellers to make a profit but frustrating the buyer who can't find what they are looking for as well. As better sellers leave they take many of their buyers with them, leaving eBay with a lot of inexperienced buyers and sellers. Ebay's reputation and goodwill is taking a huge hit.

Most of us who still maintain a presence on eBay either have our own website or sell on multiple venues. Wall Street should be aware that eBay is selling advertising space to offsite sellers which is directing buyers away from eBay's own sellers - offsetting the loss of auction/store revenue with advertising revenue.

EBay dumped a lot of shareholder money on their failed China site and overpayment for Skype. Paypal's cash cow may not be able to shore up the bad management decisions forever. Plus the company's stock buybacks are propping up the earnings per share.

"Amazon upping fight with eBay for third-party sellers"

There is no need for a fight; the ebay sellers are being pushed into the arms of Amazon and every other eCommerce site. Those sellers will happily take their business elsewhere, including onto their own web site.

The Sponsored Ads being displayed on ebay - directly competing ads, not the 'complimentary' nor zero-result ads as claimed by ebay - are driving the buyers and sellers OFF SITE. Many of the ads are for Amazon and sellers are finding that as a viable market for their products. They discovered that fact by way of those very Ads.

As I see it: Amazon has class, ebay attempts to purchase class. Amazon invests in its infrastructure, which had some negative consequences last year. It is now not only recovering, but thriving. Ebay invested in Skype. That wasn't good for the site, the buyers or the sellers and, no matter how it is spun, it isn't good for the investors.

Consider for just a moment...what if that Flawed Judgement applies to many decisions made by ebay Management, past and present? Currently, ebay has set a course to 'make more changes within the next few months, more than has been made within the past several years'. Change, for the sake of change. I ask the readers here, what if Bloggingstock's visual and functional format was changed on a weekly basis, would you consider that a Good Thing?

Brian,

Funny how myself, Gary E. Sattler, Tony P., Texas Trader and many other fine people were publicly defamed on this forum last September and October for speaking about what would happen in the future... the long term ramifications of the 2006 fee hikes - to "rebalance" the Ebay marketplace form store to core. Instead, we were told that we needed some more "spaghetti sauce."

The only rebalancing that happened is a rebalancing of the larger marketplace. Do you shop only at Ebay now, or do you shop at any or all of the following: Ebay, Amazon, start-up auction sites, or seller's own web sites.

And when you shop at these "venues," who do you buy from - why seller's of course. And what is the larges Internet sales platform (other than Ebay) for third party sellers? Why Amazon of course.

Amazon didn't "up" the fight with Ebay in order to draw sellers away. Ebay drove sellers away, and Amazon took advantage of the situation like any opportunistic business would.

Truth be told... I have shopped exclusively on Amazon since last September. That is by choice - I simply switched my buying habbits. For example, I bought vintage stereo equipment and vintage collectible vinyl records on Ebay. Now, I don't use Ebay at all, and I buy mainly books, CD's and DVDs from Amazon - about three-quarters of which comes from third party sellers.

I'll say that again, about 75% of my Amazon purchases are from third party sellers.

I have sold on just about every venue and I am switching more and more of my business to Amazon. Their only shortcoming is their 15% fee on alot of the categories. Amazons auction house is a failure but their third party sales are the best of any site.

Amazon is making eBay look like a sick dog! Wish I had invested in Amazon instead of eBay. eBay is a dog on a downward spiral! I never even look at eBay anymore, I buy from Amazon.com or Overstock.com.
Meg and insiders are selling their stock as fast as they can! lol. Bad press every day! Word of mouth will eventually bury this company for good!

First the China blunder, lost Billions and stock crashed to low 20's. Now the Skype blunder, lost money again! Will we see 20's again? lol.

For investors this company is a nightmare!
I totally agree with everyone that say's SELL SKYPE while they still can!

And Meg Whittman should resign! Two Blunders and your OUT!

well, you could try mega-bids.com free basic listings, free classifieds, and free online stores, they are out to make money and will let you know it, they sell ad space and take a low commission, a very TRUTHFUL company

ADLE International has been with Amazon since 2004, a time when Ebay was on the high platform and Amazon was gradually continously growing.

Amazon has it's own niche and has grown through the years. Today it has change gradually from the biggest bookseller to today's online shopping mall.

We are extremly grateful for this success and even though today's sales is hard by the severe market volatility and housing market slump, one can be only optimistic.

We salute Amazon for being with small brick and mortar stores struggling like us. We are very optimistic for 2008 that Amazon's time has just started.

Alex Esguerra
CEO, ADLE International
www.adleinternational.com

I've sold on ebay only for 7 years now. I sell only brand new quality items. Ebay needs to go back and remember their start. People sold their good used items they had no use for any more and ebays fees were cheap. Ebay said this is GOOD! They kept their prices low and it open the doors for sellers of new items. Retail sellers sold and made good profits. Ebay made more money and said this is GOOD! Then ebay said we are so big no one can touch us and they raised their fees. Again and again and again. And they have raised them so high now retail sellers can no longer grow unless they sell cheap china junk that doesn't cost much, ticks off buyers because it doesn't work most of the time.
I want to grow but have stopped on ebay because fees are taking all the profits. I was approached buy Amazon last year because of my huge inventory and sale of only new quality items backed by valid US and International warranties. At that time I could not make the change because of their image requirements. I have made the image changes and will now be making the change to Amazon, overstock and others.
I sold all my ebay stock years ago at a small loss before the china dump and skype joke. Someone had to be sleeping with someone on that skype joke. Agreed- Meg needs OUT but it may be too late.