eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY)'s growth decline started nearly two years ago. Now, as reported by The New York Times, the final spike has been driven into the very heart of what eBay once was. In a Johnny-come-lately effort to revive a growth curve which eBay's top brass blindly shackled ten years before its due, the company is shifting its focus from the tried and true, mom-n-pop auction strategy to a business model of "stock the shelves with all the discount crap that you can, and don't charge for the benefit." It's okay though, anyone who can achieve eBay's new "diamond power-sellers status" will be qualified for the same discount perks that eBay has negotiated with Buy.com. It's just too bad that the eBay stuffed shirts never figured out that eBay's sellers were its buyers also.
The discount store concept might have worked for eBay, if it had been tried as a parallel effort, while leaving the original working eBay alone. But of course, they had to tinker with the formula. I tried to warn you. Honestly.
If you got out in time, I applaud you.
Gary Sattler is a freelance blogger. He holds no position in eBay. His wife does still operate an active eBay store.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-15-2008 @ 7:47PM
Preypal Problems said...
I guarantee you that Diamond Powerseller status, was JUST thought up. Ebay had to cover their behinds, because they knew we were on to them.
Auction Bytes, which we KNOW ebay reads, has loads of comments that bring up Buy.com about the loads and loads of fake listings, that you can't even bid on and the tens of thousands of ads, that they ended on June 9th, only to immdeiately relist them. I guess they were trying to inflate the count 2-fold, until I went to live help and asked why they were doing this. Live help got a technician on the line and wouldn't ya know it, it stopped immediately. They did this for 5 hours and then as soon as they find out that someone knows, they stop. Seems very fishy to me!
They never announced the Buy.com partnership, until they couldn't hide it anymore. They wanted shareholders to think that everything was OK at ebay, when in all actuality, sellers are leaving in droves and the only thing keeping the listing count afloat, is the millions of free listings from Buy.com. Millions of free listings, meaning NO revenue and with a sell through rate of 5%, even the sales aren't bringing in much revenue.
They started listing the SAME time the changes were put into affect, to cover up the boycott. It was all just a ploy to fool the shareholders. I feel bad for those that were taken by this low down company.
WE TRIED TO WARN AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE.
7-15-2008 @ 7:58PM
Ray The Money Man said...
We were Pro Stores users early on. It had its benefits in a lot of ways compared to their competitors. But it also had a lot of problems. One of the things that shys me away from them now is that they are not "all conclusive". For example they will not allow you to use Google Check Out. Not Good.
http://www.oilenergystockvideos.blogspot.com
http://astore.amazon.com/oilenergystock-20
7-15-2008 @ 9:10PM
Ric Roe said...
It is interesting that buy.com is able to routinely game the listings policies at eBay, as in the cases documented here by triple listing identical items despite the announced agreement otherwise.
Either buy.com is routinely violating their agreement, or eBay is allowing, permitting and condoning these violations in order to artificially enhance the reported listings volume at the site.
Quoting eBay executive Usher Lieberman from the eBay blog : http://ebayinkblog.com/2008/05/03/ebay-partners-with-buycom/
"In order to protect sellers from being crowded out of search results, Buy.com merchandise will be limited to a single-listing per SKU and, even though Buy.com will be competing for eye balls in the
same way as all of eBay's sellers (through DSRs), I must point out the fact that this deal is "economically feasible for both parties". "
It would appear that "economically feasible" includes the benefit eBay receives by inaccurately stating unique listing counts in quarterly reports as well as to the media during events such as eBay Live to convince the public and investors that recent policies imposed on the site are not having a negative impact on listing volume.
Violations of this stated policy appear below using links to the triple listing search results of items in direct violation of the stated policy:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=+NEW+TRENDnet+TV-IP212W+Wireless+2-Way+Audio+Internet...+
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=NEW+Lorex+DVM5031+Webcam+
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=+NEW+Lorex+Lorex+IPSC2260+Network+Video+Server+%26+PTZ+...+
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=NEW+Axis+215+PTZ+Network+Camera+
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=NEW+Q-see+QSWLMCR+2.4+GHz+Wireless+Camera+System+
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=NEW+Hawking+Net-Vision+HNC290G+Wireless-G+Network+Ca...+
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=NEW+Toshiba+IK-WB21A+Network+Camera+
There are literally thousands of items which have been repeatedly triple listed for months despite having been reported to eBay as a violation of the announced agreement.
eBay thus far has refused to reply to any complaints made regarding these triple listings, and instead, have allowed, permitted and condoned the activity - apparently to bolster listing volume numbers.
7-16-2008 @ 8:58AM
tonyga said...
Internet shoppers don't need eBay to buy on-line. In fact, eBay is a stupid place to "shop". eBay screwed up the search so bad, you can't find the lowest price anymore. eBay insulted, squeezed and harassed the sellers to the point they are numb. So stupid eBay. With the true deals all but gone, The discount sellers are more than capable of selling online without paying eBay fees. eBay was oh so smug. Page after page of RED. Unsuccessful BIN's. It's really gotten ugly.
7-16-2008 @ 11:01AM
AVENGER said...
Some other players like Ebay's Buy.com:
Feedback Profile
seedrack ( 83256 Feedback score ) Member is a PowerSeller
Positive Feedback (last 12 months): 98.9%
Member since: Oct-02-00 in OR., United States
150,236 Feedback received COMPARED TO 207,256 Feedback left (OMG!)
W/FEEDBACK SCORE MERELY, JOKINGLY 83256!
7-16-2008 @ 11:10AM
AVENGER said...
Some other players like Ebay's Buy.com:
seedrack ( 83256 Feedback score ) Member is a PowerSeller
Member since: Oct-02-00 in OR., United States
150,236 Feedback received COMPARED TO 207,256 Feedback left (OMG!) W/FEEDBACK SCORE MERELY, JOKINGLY 83256!
7-19-2008 @ 2:43AM
Preypal Problems said...
More about the counterfeiting:
http://tinyurl.com/5pnasn
8-05-2008 @ 11:16AM
AVENGER said...
ATTENTION EBAY SHAREHOLDERS! THIS IS WHAT EBAY "LISTINGS PADDING" - STOCK MANIPULATION LOOKS LIKE!!!
COMMENT DATED 8-5-08:
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2008/07/14/1664258-ebay-beats-tiffany-in-court-case-over-trademarks?threadId=312961&cmt=2368737#c2368737
8-23-2008 @ 1:12AM
Marge said...
New video: Ebay tools exposed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwPLD60CgFY
They found the video and it is like world war III in there, come see.