In the early morning of January 29th, 2008, President of eBay North America announced coming changes to the eBay Marketplace. As would be expected, all changes were presented with the idea of, “improving the overall experience for our customers - both buyers and sellers.” The categories of change were laid out by Mr. Cobb; fundamental changes for pricing, seller standards, incentives and Feedback. You can read the full unedited version of Bill Cobb’s eBay changes announcement here at eBay. If the changes announced didn’t seem like enough, Bill Cobb also revealed he would be leaving eBay and this was his last announcement he would provide.
At first there were some stories and blogs announcing that eBay was dropping their prices and that users could expect to save money. It didn’t take long for eBay veterans to closely analyze the announced changes and reveal that they saw a big problem with the fee changes. While it is true that eBay does plan to lower insertion fees for auction and fixed price listings 25 to 50 percent, they are increasing final value fees to more than cover the reduction.
In addition to the fees being increased on the back-end, eBay has also passed some tight measures concerning their own online payment processor, PayPal. With specific types of transactions performed through the eBay Marketplace, eBay has stated it will hold the PayPal payments for up to 21 days. In addition to holding payments longer, P
ayPal is also being forced onto a wider group of eBay sellers that have low feedback or are new to the eBay Marketplace.
While eBay sellers are definitely upset about the fee increases which have happened many times before, the one thing that seems to really have sellers up in arms is the feedback changes. Feedback is essentially what eBay has been built on from it’s inception and is really one of the parts that made eBay one of the first adopters of the Web 2.0 environment. Feedback abilities will now be limited to sellers so that they can only leave positive feedback for buyers. Buyers will still be able to leave positive and negative feedback.
The new CEO of eBay, John Donahoe could really only come up with one good thing to say about eBay’s feedback change, he stated It’s the, “First time in eBay’s history for removal of negative feedback” in an interview with AuctionBytes’, Ina Steiner. For the full transcript interview with John Donahoe you can read it over at AuctionByes here. Ina Steiner brought up the fact that eBay sellers could be blackmailed into having to provide refunds or other bonuses if a buyer threatened with negative feedback. In the past, sellers have had the ammunition that they could also leave negative feedback. With nothing to give them leverage, seller’s will probably find themselves being gamed by bad buyers.
An interesting piece from the interview with John Donahoe over at AuctionBytes comes close to the end of the interview. In response to a question from Ina Steiner as to what the incentive was for sellers to stay at eBay Mr. Donahoe states, “The incentive for sellers to stay on eBay is that they are continuing to sell great volumes on eBay. This is so, again, we had the largest number of traffic in the 4th quarter.” While we’re not saying that Alexa’s traffic metrics are perfect, they do provide a good general look at traffic trends and looking at eBay’s 4th quarter it’s hard to see what was being referenced. As you can see from the included graphic, traffic doesn’t seem to be largest number of anything. In fact, it looks like the 4th quarter was the worst in terms of traffic in eBay’s last 7 years. You can analyze this traffic in traffic rank, pageviews or reach and they all look terrible. The first graphic is the 7 year traffic trend and the second graphic is a 3 year traffic trend to show you more detail.
With all of the changes eBay is making, you can expect that some sellers have been getting upset and threatening a boycott. There have been boycotts before in eBay’s history and in all truthfulness, they have mostly been a lot of talk and not much action. 
This time around however, there seems to be more uprising brewing thanks to petition sites like this one, an established website for PowerSellers to communicate called PowerSellersUnite.com and even YouTube videos like this one and this one cropping up to spread the message.
The uproar and upset eBay users have been dismissed by eBay Corporate as expected and nothing they are actually worried about. Interesting enough though, eBay has been running a 20 cent listing promotion, so that the promotion will land increased listings during the planned eBay boycott. In addition to running this promotion, eBay has also announced more fee reductions for sellers involved in media categories like Video Games, Movies, Music and Books. With an increase in listings and sellers being sucked in by great discounts, eBay is more likely hoping to show that the site’s traffic and activity increased during the boycott.
If we reference Alexa traffic data one more time and look at a closer view of the end of January and beginning of February you’ll see yet again another decline. In fact, in the days building up to the planned boycott eBay’s traffic rank has taken a dive. The hard data shows that eBay users upset about the recent changes just may be making an impact on eBay’s bottom line. If that happens, eBay could be forced to address some of the issues in their policy changes for the first time in eBay history.
It doesn’t seem to be a loss for everyone in the online auction world. There are eBay competitors that have sprung up over the years and this time of year seems to be doing wonders for them. A look at numbers released about OnlineAuction.com shows they increased their new sellers by 7,500 within 7 days of eBay’s announced changes. Another competitor called eCrater.com has stated they saw 1,400 new sellers within a few days after eBay’s announcement. While these sites still pale in comparison to eBay’s user-base they are seeing strong growth and are providing refuge for sellers that are fed up. One thing you may find surprising about eBay’s competitors, is one of the biggest differences of all. OnlineAuction.com allows sellers to pay a flat-rate fee to list items on their site, while eCrater.com allows sellers to list all of their items for free. Both are novel ideas in a competitive marketplace that seems to be dominated by the innovator of online auctions, eBay.
Whether the boycott of eBay’s service forces eBay to reconsider some of their policy and fee changes, one thing is clear, websites built around communities are not always in control as much as the owners would like to believe. With Web 2.0 websites growing in popularity and dominating the Internet scene, user’s are gaining more control to let their voices be heard by video, audio and commentary that was once lost in a dark corner on the web.
Wake up ebay. Sellers can’t leave negative feedback for buyers? are you crazy? eBay executives, do me a favor. Open up a store on your own site. run it for a year and see if you can keep a 99% positive feedback as a seller without being able to report bad ebay buyers and leave negative feedback. I’m guessing there is no way you can do it.
Feedback and higher FVF’s are no longer the only main issues.
Ebay is now putting on the sellers auction page a commentary about their stars rating. Add to that, they also show other items ‘which may interest you’.
Get real. Do you think for one minute that any seller is going to be enthusiastic about seeing other sellers auctions listed ABOVE their own? On their own bought and paid for listing? eBay, you’re chasing sellers away by the droves. Hello OLA and eCrater.
So, after checking out the other auction sites, I can see why ebay feels that they can push sellers like me around, but even though I may not be using online auctions and ecrater anytime soon, I will be leaving ebay. The fact that paypal already feels that they can hold my cash for 3-5 days boggles my mind; but add the new seller feedback system and a 21 (!) day wait to access my funds, and you have a recipe for disaster. Anyway, see you guys on craigslist!
I’m a long time Ebay seller with a 100% positive feedback. The thing that galls me the most is the new CEO’s stunningly stupid remark about “his buyers”. What?? He has no buyers or inventory. He simply rents a space. He’s going to make that space way too uncomfortable for too many people to live in anymore.
Did bill Cobb and Meg Whittman leave expecting this to work? if so why did they sell off so many stocks before they did it>
EBay fees increase, PayPal fees increase, my leverage as a seller to ensure satisfactory auction results is being taken away by the powers that be. I’ve bent over backwards over the last ten years to hold on to that 100% rating. It’s just not worth it anymore, eBay. I’m tired of working my butt off to earn YOU a living. So long, it’s been fun.
Isn’t the real problem with ‘boycotting Ebay that Ebay has all the traffic? I see the alexa traffic charts and other stats posted above in the post, but that only shows Ebay traffic going down….compared to WHAT?….these smaller auctions sites only have a fraction of the Ebay traffic. Without huge traffic, competing auction sites are just a ’sideshow’. It;s very hard to reach critical mass when it comes to traffic.
As a seller, I flipped when I saw the email notice of the new changes. I can’t believe they think we should have no voice at all, or immediate recourse against scam bidders. I won’t be listing anything at eBay unless they reinstate the original feedback system, and reduce fees.
Let’s face it, all eBay really does for you is to host a few kilobytes of text and images, and run a database to sort it and rank the bids. That’s it! There is virtually no customer service, and no real protection now for sellers. The protection you get with Paypal purchases comes with a whole new set of charges. Any marketing and advertising ebay does to attract bids helps them at least as much as it helps sellers.
I’m done.
I agree with the whole article. eBay has screwed me over. It’s a shame to see such a once great company turn sour. F you ebay. I can’t wait for the day you need to shut your doors.
it’s real simple guys. just use craigslist.
i dont really agree with this, this is not was written on the aritcle at opentopix.com
Cost of EBay Item……………..$5.00
Cost of Shipping Item………..$40.00
Ebay is full of nothing but retards.
[…] with sellers saying they will end up paying more. Sellers are boycotting Feb. 18th - Feb. 25thread more | digg […]
I’ve never sold anything on ebay, just purchased, and I even think all this is bs.
I used to sell on eBay,had my self alittle store I did then eBay rasied its prices.Not only for listings but paypal and finale sale fees.In the end my profit was small,eBay’s was good for doing very little..For them this is all about making more money (greed) that’s the bottom line.I will no longer do buisness with eBay as a seller or buyer,I’m done….
I used to be a homeless rodeo clown but now I am a world class magician !
Ebay/Paypal’s policy on being anti-gun has already cost them tremendously. The two sites GunBroker.com and GunsAmerica.com have grown exponentially due to this policy. People are getting their Paypal accounts closed just for trying to buy things like a leather holster. We’re talking about some leather and nylon sewn together, not a weapon. Basically the same materials you put on your feet! Yet they treat everyone like f’ing criminals and act like the world needs to fit to their standards. Screw Ebay. One day they’ll realize that the world doesn’t spin according to their whims.
There isn’t one honest thing about EBAY!
Forcing me to take PAYPAL is an illegal monopoly.
EBAY did it to themselves. Their lack of customer service, exhorbitant fees and threats of negative feedback if you disagree is ridiculous….extortion….”if you don’t do this, I will give you negative feedback”
GOODBYE EBAY….you got everything you deserved!
Ebays new rule that you MUST take Paypal or you cannot have an Ebay account at all. This is not only a monopoly as they are both are the same company, but gives the seller no recourse at all.
I have personally had money automatically reversed from my account from “bad” purchasers losing both what I sold and the money (over$1,000). When I refused to take Paypal on my next aucion after these losses, they closed my account. I would think that this is an illegal business practice.
Anyone have any feedback on this concern but me?
Thank you for an article that sums it all up. As a seller and buyer of 9 years, all I want as a seller is a voice. Being called “noise” by the corp. I give my hard earned money to is not good business relations. Personally I shopped eBay for unique things, old things, handmade items, unusual funky stuff…the stuff they call fleamarket items. I search out the mom and pops to give them my hard earned money because it does them more good than some big business. This made me feel like I was participating in this world bringing good to others. EBay seems to want to drive the “fleamarketers” out and have only big powersellers with made in China stuff or the millions of overpriced things they call ipods and designer purses which I can buy ANYWHERE! Can you all say Wal-Bay?
All you have to do is look at business history. All your large retailers from 50-75 years ago have fallen to the wayside or closed their doors like JC Penney, Montgomery Ward, Sears etc. and basically been replaced by Walmart. Ebay was the first of its kind but like a lot of big businesses in the last 100 years they have gotten cocky and believe that their customers have no choice but to do business with them. Some of the above mentioned retailers laughed at Sam Walton when he developed his business model until it became huge. Even now Walmart is getting to that cocky stage that makes me go elsewhere a majority of the time. Ebay is obviously getting into that stage as well by not taking care of their true customers -the sellers. It’s just a matter of time before there is a young upstart business that will put the big behemoths down just like they did in the past. We just have to be patient for it to happen so we can point and laugh like Nelson. Hah-ha!
I have completed 600-plus transactions and I’m sick of eBay digging its hands into my pockets deeper and deeper. The sad reality is that the alternatives such as ecrater and onlineauctions are jokes. Put aside for a moment they don’t have the base of potential buyers. Their sites are cartoonish and amateurish. They’re nearly impossible to read or navigate. The very second a viable alternative to eBay crops up, I’m gone, but it looks as though I’ll be waiting for quite some time.
I was left retaliatory feedback from a buyer once who “forgot” to send my package for a month. I finally left him negative feedback, so he did the same to me with a message: “accidents happen, get over it!” He since went out of business (gee, I wonder why).
I my case, I can see how it would benefit me, as the buyer. However, I still think this is a horrible idea, as is the fact that responses to buyers/sellers is so short that you can never give details as to why you may be leaving bad feedback.
…I also highly doubt eBay will delete that seller’s feedback on my profile once this stupid policy is put into action. I guess I’ll just sell on Craigslist from now on.
Whoever has the drive to start a class action lawsuit to address the anti-competition business practice of buying up the largest payment service and making it mandatory will be set for life.
Sellers run their own scam by requiring positive feedback from the buyer before leaving feedback themselves. I applaud the change being made.
Alexa is the old floppy grandma tits of the traffic world. Who cares about their graphs?
The problem with a viable alternative to eBay is that they have probably patented as many of the features of the site as possible. They would claim you were violating their intellectual property and would send an army of lawyers with patent infringement claims to shut that site down pronto.
As a seller with 100% feedback, I am done with ebay until somthing changes.
I for one am extremely happy with this. Now when I get shafted by some of you crappy power sellers, I won’t have to worry about negative feedback when I neg feedback them with statements like “deadbeat buyer doesn’t know what he is talking about.” etc etc
Look, in the real world, when a customer doesn’t get what he wants, he bad mouths the company, store etc. You don’t get to cross examine a buyer. Grow up people.
If there are that many sellers that feel like there should be a better alternative, then it seems like a co-op auction site owned by the sellers would be the solution. The technology is not cutting edge.
if you sell art, crafts, supplies or vintage items check out ETSY.com Many of the art sellers from ebay are doing well on OLA and Etsy this week. Etsy is a beautiful and fully-functioning web 2.0 site that treats the sellers with the respect they deserve, reasonable fees and a wonderful community.
ebay is pushing sellers away, i just hope a reasonable alternative can be found. without SELLERS there would be no ebay, no traffic, no $$
I had a nasty experience with them. I removed my usual bank account from the files, and a month later when I sold something (I’m not a powerseller), the invoice had my secondary account’s number. I was quite surprised that the removed bank account was charged, causing an overdraft fee, as it was empty at the time. Ebay refuses to acknowledge that if they indicate one account on the invoice and charge another (which should not be on their file anymore) then all the expenses are their fault.
ebay has turned into a farce if a seller cannot leave a neg to a bad buyer the bad buyers will flock there and scam every seller going
bye bye ebay
r.i.p.
I’ve been watching these events closely as I’m just on the very cusp of listing my first items ever on eBay. I’ll be looking much more closely at alternatives.
As an e-bay buyer with 100% feedback, I am happy with the changes. Now I can give negative feedback to poor sellers (there are a lot of them) without fear that I will receive a retalitory negative even though I paid immediately, etc.
This article is a load of hogwash. Do a “Find” on this page and look for the phrase “Bad buyer”.
What the…. Bad Buyer? What’s that? When I’ve used eBay, I need a thick manual for my car, I needed some Mr. Moto DVDs, and a few other things. I found them and paid for them.
The book was fine, but the DVDs were ILLEGAL copies! Some guy just ripped them. The sellers can cause problems, what problems can a buyer cause? Answer: None.
Either we get what we paid for or we don’t. If we don’t get what you advertised (like a few sellers) then you should expect negative feedback.
The customer is always right. AKA, there are no ‘bad buyers’.
I am exclusively a buyer and even I think the changes are ridiculous. All this is going to accomplish is to discourage the better sellers from working through eBay, as many of the comments left here indicate. What we’ll be left with as buyers are only those auctions that maximize seller profits given the new pricing scheme. That means we can look forward to more and more corporate sell-through of overstock and discontinued items, and less and less of the unique and interesting, which is what defined eBay when it began.
Unique an interestesing? eBay hasn’t been that in god knows how long?
At least this will end the practice of holding feedback hostage. As a buyer, I’ve completed my end of the deal as soon as I pay. There’s no if’s, and’s or but’s about it. I expect to get my positive feedback from my seller right then and there. If I don’t get it, you can be sure as hell that I’d be leaving a negative feedback as I already feel the seller did not complete the terms of the transaction.
Peter Morris has written the single best article to date about the reasons for the boycott and the effect it might have on ebay’s bottom line and/or management structure. Instead of just extracting sound bites from other e-commerce sites, he has really done his homework and has spent some time thinking critically about this issue. Kudos, Peter! On a personal note, it has been a fabulous few days for me, not selling or buying on ebay. My stress level is way down and I have time to leisurely get the rest of my listings transferred onto other selling venues (blujay, ebid, onlineauction, specialistauctions, bidville are the ones I’ve chosen–as well as developing my own hosted website). I have been diversifying in this way since last fall, but not until this boycott have I really started to see the numbers of lookers and buyers that I needed to quit ebay altogether, after 9 years as a power seller. It is just so refreshing to go to these other sites and feel not only welcomed as a partner, but also respected. On most of these sites, the staff are working double time to come up to speed, being inundated now with new seller and buyer registrations and trading traffic. Yes, there are hokey graphics and such, but there are also nice friendly people who answer the phone and solve one’s problems. It can’t hurt them to be gaining a boat load per hour of veterans in e-commerce and they know that and are ready to embrace the necessary changes to make themselves not “the new ebay” (that is gone forever), but viable and broader based e-commerce venues. Ebay’s new management have made a huge tactical fubar here by committing to shed the small sellers (mostly auctioneers) in favor of fixed price sellers (ie, to become a clone that can compete head to head with Amazon, and it is no secret to John Q. Public that it so much more fun and friendlier buying at Amazon–an online WalMart–vs ebay). The boycott is a heads up to the stockholders that they may have to rethink keeping John Duh-know-who as the CEO. It has gotten many many ebay sellers to venture outside their comfort zone (and they are liking it). It was never intended to bring ebay down. For every day of the boycott by tens of thousands of sellers and an equal or greater number of buyers, ebay and PayPal are losing quite a chunk of change and their stock prices are falling. It is interesting to watch the listing numbers plummet. I understand that in order to cauterize the artery, ebay threw in their non-US listing numbers on some of the tracking sites to which they feed supposedly only US numbers. It is also interesting to see the huge increases in listings on various UK and European sites in the past few days (ebid, specialistauctions, cQout). Unlike American sheep, those folks won’t stand still to get buggered, so those losses of sellers from ebay are probably way more likely to be permanent. I have my good ebay historical numbers to protect, so I am gittin’ while the gittin’ is good. The average number of bids and selling price on my goods have both fallen since last summer. I may not get any more for things on other sites, but it will be sooooo much less stressful. A final note for Mr. Morris–every time I bring up any page on your site, my virus software advises me to go to a dial up connection. I would run some health checks on your site. I’ll bet money that Ebay has its high paid technies trying to suppress this article, just as they have done with so many others which have not just been Harvard MBA ebay rah rah positive spins. Thanks again, Peter Morris, keep them cards ‘n letters comin’. This is only day three of a seven day boycott, and today is the day when the new higher rates go into effect.
This is a long time coming. As a buyer, I was always being held hostage by the seller to leave my feedback FIRST before they would give me feedback.
You know, the ONLY ONLY ONLY thing that a seller could POSSIBLY leave feedback on a buyer is whether they PAID. PERIOD!!!
If you really wanted to make the feedback system valid, either the seller must leave feedback first after getting paid, or both feedbacks should have to left blindly and neither gets published until they both are registered. Then there could be no retaliation feedback.
Then the bad sellers, and there are MANY more bad sellers than bad buyers, would stop all of the fraudulent sales.
And one other thing, if a buyer wins an auction and doesn’t pay within one week, THEY should be charged all auction fees immediately. Then the sellers would not be out these fees whenever a buyer is screwing with an auction.
What do you mean there are no bad buyers? I have a Feedback rating > 1600.
I’ve had negative feedback because buyers
- want to return it because they “didn’t like it”, even though we have a no refund policy. Blam negative feedbacked us! We Negative feedback them back too to warn other of this “bad user”!
- disagreed that it was in “New Condition” even though it was in a hard plastic wrap! We suspect that they were of the first reason but didn’t want to admit it. They slammed us immediately and we retaliated with a summary explanation.
- sent back the device without contacting us on why, and we never could figure out who it came from (different name on package), no RMA, no Ebay auction number, nothing, sheesh! Kerblam another negative feedback.
- won the auction but did not pay, ebay was of no help! They didn’t care as they only had less than 5 feedback ratings.
- sent a PERSONAL Check. Eventhough we STATED that we didn’t accept it. We mutually agreed to not leave a feedback on this but ate the listing cost. Grr….
So HECK yeah there are “bad buyers”! We current have 21 negative feedback due to this and other minor reasons, to each we left a negative feedback.
BTW, that’s why we believe that the feedback system is for feedback based on the entire transaction and not just if they paid quickly enough.
SteveT
I’m a coin collector and have been buying coins on Ebay for a number of years with ZERO issues till the last few months… I purchased a coin, when it arrived the case it was in (PCGS certification slab) was cracked in three places and I paid for insurance but the package was NOT insured… I left the Seller neutral feedback (MY FIST NEUTRAL to any seller) stating that the case was cracked in three places and there was no insurance which I’d paid for.. The Seller left me Negative feedback saying “hassle over a 1.25 bid on a 40.00 coin..block this one….”. I asked the seller why he left me negative feedback when I’d been justified in leaving him neutral feedback and he said “to me neutral IS Negative” Ebay refused to remove it or do anything about it. a month later I bought another coin, paid instantly using PayPal as I always do, and it took the seller 7 days to send it from Chicago to Indianapolis.. On the positive feedback that I left I said “received coin as described, and it ONLY took 7 days from chicago to indianapolis” and the Seller left Neutral feedback for me stating “This is the kind of guy that makes life not worth living..YOUR BLOCKED”… the Sellers in these two cases totally abused their feedback ability and Ebay is totally useless and refuses to change totally unjustified feedback entries… As a buyer, I bid, I win, I pay… if I’ve done all three then there is ZERO justification for giving me anything but Possitive feedback…
Also, maybe this will run off the sellers who game ebay , and deceive buyers by offering such low prices with ridiculously high shipping fees to cheat ebay out of their auction fees on the final price.
To Derek, who says, “It’s really simple, just use Craigslist,” betcha didn’t know that ebay owns 25% of Criagslist’s stock and is therefore sitting in on every board meeting. Craig himself plays this down because he’s made his money and doesn’t care so much any more what happens there, now that he has zero control over it. He’s in the same position as Pierre Omidyar, the founder of ebay. Sometime go to ebay and look up Omidyar’s “letter from the founder” under the category of information for new members. For any long time seller or buyer on ebay, it will be a painful reminder of the good old days when a great idea was born and took off like a rocket. I wish Peter Morris would ferret out Omidyar and do a casual mano-a-mano interview with him to see how he feels about what Evilbay has become. He’s probably hiding out in Bahrain in a 10 star hotel, with the money he’s made, but I imagine he is having more than a few pangs of remorse at selling out to the greedheads. And get this one–the outgoing CEO of ebay, Meg Chapman, is being courted by Republicans to run for Governor of California, and she is all a-twitter about the prospect. Yeah, right, let’s put the world’s fifth largest economy (California) into her hands. She made some of the biggest tactical mistakes in ebay’s history (Skype, ebay China, etc). At least she only cost the company a lot of money. Donohue is costing the company the last shreds of its public and private respectability. So if you think Craigslist is a good alternative, think twice. Try onlineauction or even overstock, which is running a special discount membership this week for ebay refugee sellers, and has accumulated more than 20,000 listings just in the past few hours. Ebay doesn’t own any part of most of the smaller but well established “alternative” auction and fixed price sites and hopefully won’t, if those companies’ major shareholders stick to their guns.
Ebay has never found a good balance between taking care of its buyers and taking care of its sellers. As someone who has been boned royally on both sides of the fence, I can say I am not surprised. Before these changes, there was no way to contest retaliatory feedback from bad sellers. At the same time, ebay sides with buyers over sellers in disputes by default.
Make no mistake, it is a hard balance to find, and ebay has not been doing a good job for either party.
What has not been mentioned yet is… who will be paying these fee increases at the end of the day… The customer will… from a customers point of view is a 20-30 cent increase on a purchase worth not getting negative feedback? Another thing is, what happens if a large ammount of the power sellers with good priced items leave ebay and go to these other auction sites… how long will ebay survive…
Hey Ebay, seems to me in a ever changing market with many large companies such as yahoo, google or microsoft could come in at any time with a system just as good as yours. Look how facebook stole most members from the other socializing network sites. If I where Ebay, I would be a little more causious not to open an opurtunity like this in this day and age.
Hey guys…what’s the alternative though?
I mean…aside from yahoo auctions…is there a legit auction alternative out there?
Let us know!
Last time I checked the sellers paid all of the fees. I think they should focus on us more and not the buyer, or perhaps charge a fee to the buyer if thats who they feel keeps their site making money, nothing to buy if there is no sellers.
I am a power seller on eBay for over 5 years now. I truly hate the abuse of power they have at times, but I still make a living by it. I guess I wear the eBay handcuffs, but they are made of gold. This article is not giving all the information. The increase in final value fees is for big ticket items and in certain categories, so it won’t affect the little guys. They didn’t mention the fact that non-paying bidders can’t leave negative feedback and/or it is retracted as soon as the NPB strike is given. You can also have it removed by forwarding any blackmail messages to Trust & Safety. As far as PayPal holding $$ for 21 days, that is only for new sellers, and after they build up a certain amount of feedback, it goes away. It’s protection for buyers from scam sellers that withdraw the money from PayPal and disappear. This has happened to me as a buyer, so I’m all for it. So, yeah…the article didn’t provide all the information…and the graphs…compared to what? Other sites just aren’t there yet…maybe one day.
Seems to me to be a lot of angry buyers here who are happy about the feedback issue. I’m as much of a buyer on ebay as I am a seller, and I can say that I’ve had bad experiences and plenty of them, but the prospect of mutual negative feedback accomplished two things: 1) It forced me to communicate with the buyer and they with me, and 2) it gave both of us a cooling down period so that we didn’t leave hothead comments with the deliberate intent of damaging each other’s reputations. Now my problem as a buyer is that a whole lot of good sellers are leaving because they won’t be able to afford the fees and don’t have the volume to dilute the impact of even one or two unthinking hothead comments from people who are blaming them for things like (for example) the postal service’s slowness, weather and holiday delays, postal increases, etc. Feedback is especially an issue for people who sell items of subjective value (used, vintage, antique, ecclectic). It is a fact that most buyers do not read the item description, terms, etc, they just look at the picture and think, “I want that.” I have received one negative and one neutral in many years of selling on ebay. The recent negative was because the item was smaller than she thought it was going to be…of course, the size of the item was plainly stated in the first sentence of the description. Most people would not neg a seller under the old system for something like that, but we have a new crop of clueless buyers like that one, who was making her 3rd purchase on ebay. Now a buyer can say whatever they want and neg away without having to communicate. They can scam you in so many ways now with that (and many more ways with PayPal) that it makes no sense for any honest seller to stay there and see their reputation and profits go down the drain. Ebay will apply their secret Buyer Satisfaction Rating formula and can any seller who doesn’t meet the numbers. So sellers have to raise their prices now and lower their postage and speed up delivery and give every paying buyer a glowing positive (even if they received a negative) and yes, even delivery goods that have been “payment withheld”), while simultaneously selling an impossible volume goal every month now in order to counteract the end-run killer fee increases. What ebay was (mainly a scam seller’s paradise) will now shift to mainly a scam buyer’s paradise, killing off the remaining honest sellers due to negative feedback. It’s a wild west cattle stampede now over sellers’ backs. What honest seller would want to submit to that, eh? And without all those neat vintage items, you have just another online WalMart, like Amazon.com. Ebay has done all of this for one reason only, and that was to compete with Amazon, who kicked their butt this past Christmas. So now you buyers of unique items (ie, anything not in a shrink wrapped package with a barcode) will just have to find us elsewhere, where we are allowed to protect ourselves from buyers who use malicious feedback and other ebay/PapPal weapons to scam us into discounts and freebies, and thus very effectively and quickly putting us out of business. I am going to other places to sell, where I feel I have some protection from scam buyers, malicious competitors, and greedy megalopolies.
Just another company getting too big for it’s britches.
E-Bay has competitors on the side, and all they need to do is steal e-bays sellers. The sellers always had control whether E-Bay realised it or not. When E-Bay makes the sellers angry enough, they will just move, and E-Bay will simply no longer have a market place.
I’ve always wondered why eBay has always charged sellers fees exclusively. As a buyer, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to have to pay a small buyer’s premium, say, the equivalent of a seller’s insertion fee. Maybe this wouldn’t have worked back when eBay was still newfangled… when the concept of buying things online sight unseen was new. I could see not wanting to charge buyers then because you didn’t want to give them any other reason to not pull the trigger on a transaction. But times have changed. People are obviously comfortable with online auctions now, and it seems unlikely to me that they would walk away in droves if they had to kick in an additional twenty-five cents when they pay for their $100 pair of shoes. This would help take the pressure off eBay’s bottom line, and they could roll back some of the recent increases in seller’s fees. Doubt I’ll ever see it, but it makes sense to me. Stop hitting up the sellers for everything. Let the buyer share the burden of eBay’s shareholder expectations.
I had a look through the new ebay Fee chart on PSU, and mostly eBay is taking a bigger cut, for me this new fee structure will have almost no impact. After the 2006 changes, and the reduced shop visability I moved over to eBid.net and have been building on there ever since, it was hard taking the eBay handcuffs off at first, but I feel much better and more in control these days, I can offer more payment options and better prices, for peace of mind and looking forward to the future jumping off the eBay wagon and getting on board eBid was the best move I made.
Ebay was initially created as an arena for people to sell the “stuff” we all have laying around going to waste. Things like a broken laser pointer, for example. Its vision for success: take buying & selling & connect people around the world. What a great idea! Proven by how quickly it caught on & grew & grew..! It’s now one of the largest venues for recycling on the planet. That’s a darn good testament to what Ebay–INITIALLY–stood for.
As a buyer, I’ve been purchasing on Ebay almost since its inception. Here was a place I could purchase all kinds of great items; new, used, designer goods I may never afford, brands not available, unique gifts & more! It was so much fun! And, it didn’t take me long to realize I had a great opportunity myself with Ebay. Instead of donating perfectly good clothing I’d either tired of or just never wore, I could recoup some of my costs and resell them!
Jump ahead a few years: Things have certainly changed haven’t they? The mom & pop sellers who helped Ebay to soar are being replaced by major retailers using Ebay to dump clearance goods, designer fakes & cheap dollar store crap. How can we possibly compete? Two years ago, I was thrilled winning a Couture sweat set for $60 knowing I was still saving tons off retail. Now, with some luck, I can get the same thing for $10. Great for me, not so good for the sellers. Of course, back then I knew I was getting the real deal – today – not so sure what’s real or what’s fake.
As a seller, I used to sell 80% of what I listed & at a fair price. Now I‘m lucky to sell ½ that, even re-listing several times. The fees: even before this increase, eat a huge chunk of your profits. It may seem like pennies, a few to list, gallery, additional pictures, final fees, Paypal- it adds up! I also put a lot of work into my listings & that takes time. For me, it’s getting to the point where all this work just doesn’t seem worth it. Those backyard rummage sales are starting to look better & better.
Also, all these changes seem to be directed at the sellers. What about the buyers? Where are the stricter penalties for buyer abuses? I’ve caught registered Ebay buyers with fake addresses, names, emails & tele nos. Buyers who bid then want to barter on shipping costs, buyers who don’t pay, pay when they feel like it, don’t want to abide to your terms of sale - after winning, file phony charge backs & abuse the system for their own gain.
Ebay needs to make up its mind what it wants to be: a venue for “average Joes” to sell their new or used goods, home-made crafts, etc. , a clearing house for places like Overstock.com & Victoria’s Secreet to dump their un-saleable goods or a place for oversea importers to sell their designer copies or cheap junk. If it wants to be all things, then maybe there should be 2 arenas: one for us and one for them. Or how about a fee system relative to seller type? It’s not difficult to differentiate between those selling a few items & others selling hundreds or thousands. Ebay’s coffers are filled to the brim by our hard work & dedication. If Ebay chooses to forget its initial purpose & those credited with its success, if we don’t matter anymore; then let’s take our business elsewhere – it’s as simple as that. For all you other E-auction type sites, TAKE NOTICE: it’s time to make your move, you’ve seen Ebay grow, learn from them but don’t repeat their mistakes. I’m sure any one of you won’t turn down the possibility of being tomorrow’s new billionaires!
As a seller 100% posit. feedback, 250+ transactions for over 2 years, I’m fed up with it.
F*ck you eBay. For me it’s over.
The Star system rigged by eBay to save them having to give the discounts. The buyer sees 4 is good, so gives you a 4, now eBay decrees that 4.1 is bad and you are going to be penalised, not only in no discounts, but also have your listings hidden away, and now Red Warnings!
Read this blog http://mousewords.wordpress.com/ , any seller still wearing rose tinted glasses needs to take them off so they can see clearly, to walk away to a new site.
It is infuriating to me as a seller that eBay does not even regard me as its CUSTOMER although I pay all the fees for every facet of an online auction transaction, while the buyers pay no fees.
The sellers do all the work involved in acquiring, researching, photographing, promoting, packing, and shipping merchandise, and must provide customer service directly to the buyers every step of the way.
EBay’s entire contribution is the hosting of our data on the web, and the provision of accounting software to monitor the transactions — altruistically facilitating their collection of a percentage of the revenue!
The announcements eBay sends out are filled with misleading assurances that these changes were thought up with my best interests in mind!
Ultimately eBay’s policy changes serve to safeguard their profits and protect them from accountability.
“…ridiculously high shipping fees to cheat ebay out of their auction fees …”
Yeah, you wouldn’t want to cheat ebay out of getting the most fees that they can. god forbid! Awww… poor ebay!
As a small time buyer and seller, the feedback issue is critical. Buyers like to think that their part of the transaction is over once they pay, but in many, many instances, there is more to it than that. There are “bad buyers” out there…I have heard of buyers who claim an item is stained/ damaged after it is received and request a partial refund (only to drop the request when a seller asks for photos of the offending spots); I have heard of buyers claiming the item sent was the wrong size and sending back a different item for a refund (i.e. if I sold them a girl’s size 3 dress, they say I sent them a 2. Theoretically, I say send it back and I’ll refund you. I get back a 2 that I never sold them and they now have a larger size item, now the right size for their kid, essentially for free). I have heard of buyers who keep an item for a few weeks then say it wasn’t what they wanted/ has a flaw and want to return it (even though they had said, early in the process, that they were buying it only to have child’s photos taken in it…hmmm) And then there are the buyers who, though delivery confirmation states the item was delivered, claim never to have received it…or those who initiate a chargeback months after they received items. And those who never pay, or want it shipped to a 3rd party despite no confirmed address there, or want to use a money order when you say Paypal only or want you to ship to Indonesia when you say US only….There are loads of issues that can show up after a buyer has paid. How those are resolved should be reflected in feedback. Some of these concerns are likely legitimate; many aren’t. Sellers typically wait until the item is received and acknowledged to be in satisfactory condition to leave feedback, or until both parties have reached a resolution about refund or the like, because then the deal and negotiations can be considered closed.
in almost 1500 ebay transaction, i ahve meet a huge number of bad buyers, but never bad sellers (not so good sellers, yes, but not outright bad ones).
Ebay Sellers\’ Boycott gains traction; competing sites grow | politikly.com…
\r\nOn February 20th, 2008 eBay will roll out unprecedented changes to their auction format. eBay wi…
I sell on average 60-70 items per week on ebay, am a full time seller, and have sold in excess of 7000 items over the past 3 years ,,, all items I sell are antiques / old items of which most have damage or need some form of restoration … I advertise very clearly and in detail, and post very clear high resolution photos … I have a positive feedback score of 98,9% and have received 33 negative feedbacks … many buyers do not read the adverts and just look at the photos before bidding … I have never been afraid of receiving a negative, and have never been afraid of leaving a negative feedback … I have been using the feedback section as it was intended to be used, and have on many occasion left a negative feedback first, then recived one in return … As I am human, I have erred in the past, but have aways promptly refunded in such instances and have always been polite when the buyer was polite … I have been cheated on many occasions by many buyers … people who receive items, sign for them then claim they never received, …. buyers who receive an item then do not like it, then break it and claim it was broken in the post … buyers who buy an expensive antique clock, receive the item and remove parts for their broken clock then claim that the clock is not working … etc.etc etc … I mark all small items with a magic pen and send all items via recorded mail … I have had buyers threaten to leave negative feedback if I do not offer discounts and have had every trick in the book thrown at me, but have learned and have become wiser …
I do not think ebay’s new rules will be very effective for the sort of items I sell , as I will still be able to leave a feedback for a buyer … although not negative in colour, but will be negative in content … buyers will soon realize that sellers will leave bad feedbacks and will leave negs but will not appear with a red dot, and will be visible for all to see, so buyers will still be afraid to leave negs..(Ebay states that sellers can still leave feedback but will not count as a negative) … i also buy a lot of items on ebay, and have never left a neg for a seller.
As for paypal, I have had very good dealings with them … although a bit expensive at times… I as a seller also have protection … I have had approx 10 cases where buyers have done chargebacks, and I have won 8 of the cases … in all instances, paypal has mediated … however, I wish to emphasise that if paypal holds funds for 21 days … I will only ship items once paypal has cleared and will add this clause to all future listings…
As for the seller ratings where items will be downgraded in the search order, buyers will become wiser and search lower down the ranks for bargains, so I do not think that this will work …. buyers are driven by greed … I list all items at a start price of £1.99 irrespective of the price I paid for the item, and let buyers decide what they wish to pay for the items … buyers do not care what the feedback percentage is … If I have an item worth £500 and it is standing on ebay at £11,25 …. people will bid irrespectave of my feedback score …I know it is different for different categories of items and other sellers (new items etc) … but with the sort of stuff I sell, I do not think it will make a huge difference in future sales… If sellers are driven away from ebay due to their new policies, there will be better prices for the items I sell …Ebay are also forcing high volume sellers to register as businesses where vat will be involved, so there will be fewer sellers who sell the same sort of items as me, and in the same instance there will be fewer buyers at antique auctions where I buy most of my items ….
I will continue to sell on ebay for as long as I make a healthy profit, but will be looking at alternatives to ebay, which i am sure will soon materialise ….
and one other thing…as a buyer, your responsibility does NOT end when you pay. the feedback system was a way to rate the transaction opinions of BOTH parties. and if i, as a seller, feel the transaction was negative because of fraud that happens weeks after the transaction, or because of a buyer who thinks a used item should be in like new condition when it was described as very good, or because a glass item is smashed and you failed to buy the optional insurance, then you know what? the transaction was NEGATIVE for me, and i have (had) the right to rate it as so. there is more to a buyer’s responsibility than paying, just as there is more to a sellers responsibilty than shipping. you know what i have begun doing as a seller? pre-emptively blocking *anybody* who may present a potential problem, based on word-of-mouth between sellers who sell the products i sell and feedback searches. i just had to explain this to a woman last night - why she was blocked despite having never done anything to me. she simply had too many “items not as described” or “items not received” claims, despite her 100% positive feedback. this is what it has come to…
I gave up on eBay, when they bought in hide & hike, & moved over to eBid.net , although I’m a relatively small seller, I do tend to buy a fair amount.
If eBay don’t want my custom as a seller, why should I even waste time searchig through the fakes, scam listings, & over inflated postage to buy there?
Now I list on a site with excellent customer support, who listen to their members, both sellers & buyers, & where I’m not forced to use just one payment method.
I’m sure there are plenty of people who still list on eBay, who can absorb the fee rises because they have a very high markup on their goods, but what will happen when their goods are hidden because their feedback average has been messed up by a bad buyer?
The changing in feedback will now mean that eBay is more attractive to the, “goods never arrived”, & “doing chargeback for no reason brigade”. IT DOES HAPPEN!!
There ARE bad buyers, just as there are bad sellers, eBay have just given carte blanche to those who set out to rip people off.
“pail in comparison”?
Ebay has given the church of scientology free reign over its servers to directly remove any listing they want to. they do not have to discuss any matter with ebay admins– they have been given admin power.
That, in a nutshell, explains ebay to the world– completely anti consumer, and pro mind controlling cult. Ebay would give the COS the keys to your front door if they thought they could avoid being sued by the COS. no shame.
Jeff: are you serious with the scientology thing? Come on that can’t be for real. I would luv to see some backup reports on that. Wouldn’t that be illegal? Are they like major stockholders or something? This is just some online urban legend right??? Unless the item is one specifically stated in their policies as one that can not be listed, how could someone “at will” remove items?
Buyers recvd standard feedback with PayPal, yet when they complain about service or product the buyer gets negative feedback.
Ebay should back the buyer, yet is supported by sellers. EBay hands off to the two parties to solve.
Ask them # cases solved by them,of the ones submitted!!!!!!!!!!!!
How else does the buyer get negative except for questioning the product or service,they pay(PAL)
before they can even accept the product or service!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is in my experiance that only fraud sellers should have anything to worry about. If your buyer sends you money, that is all you need. They either paid or they didn’t there is no feedback required as they loose their accounts if they fail to pay. Most sellers simply leave negative feedback to retaliate. Most buyers only leave negative feedback when the seller takes too long to ship or blatently lies in the listing. However, some buyers fear posting anything less than perfect in their feedback due to fear of sellers leaving negative feedback.
It was a good move for eBay as it benefits all buyers and only hurts a few sellers who of which deserve it in the first place. Good honest sellers have little to worry about. And maybe now feedback will actually be more honest and informative for future buyers.
I bought a supplement that was counterfit - didn’t do anything. The seller had over 1000 postive ratings…and a few negatives here and there. I buy the same supplements from name brand suppliers and they work. So I left a negative rating for the product. I had 50 postive until then. The seller turned around and slammed me and gave me a negative rating back. I’m not fighting it, not worth my time. But I can see that there is a problem with trying to be honest on there. Your forced to pat each others back or the other slams you.
Naughty, naughty, naughty writer! Check your style guide on apostrophes, quote usage, and the word pale.
Other than that, thanks for the link to Cobb’s announcment.
I’ve been on eBay since 1999. I have great feedback but now they want to screw me over on that too! Between PayPal and Final value fees, eBay has effectively made it so the little guy can’t make any profit. Who made eBay? The little guy. Who will kill eBay? Guys like me who list about 20 things a month. The powersellers make up for the fees with high shipping and pure volume. That is not an option for me. eBay awards big sellers at every turn and punishes the little seller at every turn. Goodbye eBay! Hello eCrater, ebid, Yahoo (or my own damn web page!) or ANY other place that doesn’t feel the need to suck me dry to drive their greedy machine. They clain these changes are designed to help? Are they on glue? What a crock! Stupid greedy $^&%*tards.
I’m an eBay Seller Strongly in Favor of New Feedback Policy.
After reading so many complaints, including the recent boycott threat, I want to take this opportunity to praise this new policy.
As an eBay seller with a 100% Feedback Rating and lot of experience as both a buyer and seller, I am firmly in support of the new policy prohibiting sellers from leaving such feedback to buyers.
I have written extensively about the subject of Seller Retaliation Negative Feedback and it appears that it is likely these sellers that strongly opposed to the new policy. I myself has sometimes been reluctant to leave negative feedback to a seller noticing that they have a history of never leaving feedback first firmly retaliating against anyone who leaves negative feedback against them.
Once a buyer pays for the item, they’ve lived up to their contractural obligation of the deal. I have always felt that a seller should leave positve feedback to the buyer the moment payment is received. I have always practiced what I preach and a typical feedback comment I leave is as follows:
Thank you. Please leave feedback as well when you receive [the item].
Prior to this new policy being in place, I’ve had to look at the seller’s “Feedback Left For Others” tab to see if there’s been a pattern of retaliatory negative feedback to buyers.
Retaliation Feedback Sellers argue that the inability to leave feedback for buyers puts them at a disadvantage because they have no way to complain and warn others about deadbeat buyers that don’t pay for the items.
This complaint is now meritless because eBay is going to implement new policies to take action against deadbeat sellers that don’t pay. The only legitimate reason to take action against a buyer is failure to pay for an item. It is far more effective to report such deadbeat buyers to eBay to take appropriate action againts such buyer accounts, but sellers leaving retaliatory feedback against buyers is something that is appropriately being irradicated.
As I stated earlier, I sell and I buy and I read forums for buyers and sellers. I realize that there are some sellers out there who leave negs in retaliation. Honest buyers who have not been on the selling end don’t appreciate the lengths that other, less than honest buyers, go through to get refunds, partial refunds, etc, etc. Good, honest sellers have more to worry about than ever before. For example, they will not have the advantage of reading prior negative feedback left about a bidder/buyer that might inform their transaction with them. I know a seller who received a neg. this week from a buyer who bought one item from her, thinking she was getting a set of several items. It was clearly stated in many ways and obviously reflected in the price of the auction. However, the seller rec’d a negative. Good, honest seller, did nothing wrong. And in the new feedback system, she should leave this buyer a positive…?!?!
Is it eBay or ePay? You Determine!
A bit about me; I am a Seller on eBay just shy of reaching ebay’s silver level of Power Seller status with a 3 month average of $9540 in gross monthly sales. Working 12+ hours a day to do. Out of this $1300 are my average monthly seller’s fees to ebay. With the newly imposed up to 66% historical jump in seller’s final value fee’s rate increase this our costs to utilize their service will increase substantially as well. Like any business it is best for all of us to do some research into what is the best plan in which to move forth. Hence, I’m including some of my research in this blog to assist all others in making their determination as well.
I have come to the conclusion that enough is enough. I am much the wiser and will be spending my hard earned income in another venue for advertising purposes. I am sure my small $15,600 a year to ebay will hardly be felt by ebay, however, it does make a huge difference to me and my clients. I would much rather be able to afford them the break or concession in price where it is appreciated. Remember “ePay” there is power in numbers. It will not be felt all at once, but it will be felt. Many companies have had their rise and fall. The difference is knowing and accepting when it’s time to exit. All good things come to an end. GR
Questions I Ponder:
Why does ebay need to raise seller’s fees when they had a 28% increase in yearly revenues from the prior year? Possibly to pay these salaries:
John Donahoe
President of Auction Business Unit, eBay Inc.
$1,445,948 USD
As of Fiscal Year 2006
Is to succeed Ms. Whitman as eBay’s president and chief executive officer. Mr. Donahoe will assume the role of CEO-designate immediately and will transition to the role of president and chief executive officer upon Ms. Whitman’s resignation.
• an annual salary of $900,000;
• a target annual incentive bonus of 125% of salary, or $1,125,000;
And performance-based restricted stock units and having a target value of approximately $8,000,000 on the Focal Date
Margaret C. Whitman
Chief Executive Officer, President and Director, eBay Inc.
$1,216,024 USD
As of Fiscal Year 2006
Is resigning as eBay’s president and chief executive officer, effective March 31, 2008. Will remain a member of eBay’s board of directors will serve as a special advisor to eBay’s president and chief executive officer through December 31, 2008 she will receive $600,000 anual salary with a target annual incentive bonus of 100%
The experience also has made Whitman, eBay’s third-largest individual shareholder, a billionaire.
Rajiv Dutta
President of PayPal, eBay Inc.
45 $610,526 USD
As of Fiscal Year 2006
Has been named by eBay’s board of directors to succeed Mr. Donahoe as President of eBay Marketplaces, effective immediately.
• an annual salary of $720,000;
• a target annual incentive bonus of 100% of salary, or $720,000
Plus performance-based restricted stock units and having a target value of approximately $6,400,000 on the Focal Date
Michael R. Jacobson
Senior Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel, eBay Inc.
52 $454,066 USD
As of Fiscal Year 2006
Don’t feel bad for him. He made a lot more in one afternoon trading ebay stock than his entire yearly salary. (See below)
Bill Cobb and all who have had decisions in this project; This is YOUR new baby, you worked long and hard devising and implementing this stratigic plan. Why are you not proud of all of it??
Why did ebay.inc approve the ammended the restated bylaws on jan 15th, after this decision and announcement?
ARE INSIDER TRADING LAW’S DIFFERENT FOR EBAY EXECUTIVES THAN THE REST OF US?
Why are ebay executives selling off a great portion of their stock to lows below the past 2 year average?
Why did insiders purchase a net 1.3M sharesover the last 3 months when this is in stark contrast to the 2-year quarterly average where insiders are net sellers and indicates that insiders are more bullish about EBAY’s prospects for the next 6-12 months?
Why do ebay’s insiders control only 0.07% of EBAY through the 213,497,067 shares that they hold when this level of ownership is below the Internet Software and Services industry norm? Does it not and suggest that insiders goals could be less aligned with those of shareholders than at other companies in this industry?
The figures are public information available for anyone to view. They speak for themself. Please note most are all the same day trasactions. Are Bill Cobb; President-North American Marketplaces, Michael Jacobson; General Counsel, Secretary & Senior Vice President Margaret Whitman; President & Chief Executive Officerand Day Traders up on their luck or Inside Executives profiting from information the rest of us are not privy to? I’m sure we will be seeing a lot more of this on the news in the upcoming months.
On one day alone, Dec 14th, Michael Jacobson; General Counsel, Secretary & Senior Vice President bought and sold ebay stock to the tune of a $1.6 Million profit. Bill Cobb wasn’t quite as greedy with a $283,196 gross profit. By Chance? Margaret Whitman; President & Chief Executive Officer 7.4 Million profit for Dec 5th and 6th alone.
Now remember, this is only for the month of December 2007.
Overall Activity from Nov ‘07 to Feb ‘08
775.0K Shares Purchased for $415,001,850 .06% of which were Executive Shares and have Sold 3.7M Shares for $-24,264,206. -.28% of Executive Shares
Executive Shares Traded:
4th Quarter to Dec ‘07
Purchased Sold
775.0K Shares 3.7M Shares
$15,011,850.00 $-24,264,206.00
0.06% -0.28% of Exec Shares
3rd Quarter
Purchased Sold
3.1M Shares 3.7M Shares
$29,893,541.39 $-111,810,037.03
0.23% of -0.28% of Exec Shares
2nd Quarter
Purchased Sold
1.1M Shares 1.8M Shares
$8,403,460.87 $-34,763,555.99
0.08% -0.13% of Exec Shares
Purchased Sold
374.1K Shares 374.1K Shares
$1,784,293.04 $-11,958,966.12
0.03% of -0.03% of Exec Shares
4th Quarter 2006
Purchased Sold
283.2K Shares 11.5M Shares
$135,518.04 $-8,697,406.80
0.02% of -0.85% of Exec Shares
Yes, a whopping 85% of EXECUTIVE Shares sold in the 4th quarter of 2006. Why has this not raised a red flag???
Announced 01/23/08
2.00B for eBay Inc.
Buyback
The Board of Directors of eBay Inc. (NasdaqNM:EBAY) authorized a stock repurchase program on January 23, 2008. Under the program, the company is authorized to repurchase stock of up to $2 billion.
EBAY’s price was down 6.08% after the transaction was announced on 01/23/08.
Does this not make you curious to what will be showing when this quarters reports are out?
Ebay 2007 Revenues
eBay Inc. had revenues for the full year 2007 of $7.7B. This was 28.5% above the prior year’s results.
2007 revenues at eBay Inc. totaled $7.7B, while annual earnings equaled $1.53 per share. eBay Inc. had 4th quarter 2007 revenues of $2.2B. This bettered the $2.1B consensus of the 23 analysts covering the company. This was 15.4% above the prior year’s 4th quarter results.
THE BIG LIE is a re-post of a blog originating from ebay’s discussion boards. There are not many I read or keep however, I feel this one has the most meritt and is concise in spelling out the new changes in black and white. Changes that ebay representitives elected to present in a not so black and white format. They were so proud to promote the new possitive changes that will affect sellers and buyers alike while tucking away the real meat of their project only to be found in dribs and drabs.
THE BIG LIE
It’s been years since Ebay has really been a user friendly company, especially when it comes to sellers. This is easy to prove, just try any of the following: See all the hoops they make you go through to get a refund on an unpaid item, or try to have a patently unfair feedback removed, or try to fight an unfair PayPal chargeback (even if you have all the evidense on your side), or try to contact an actual, living customer service representive — and if you do succeed in contacting one, see how helpless they are at resolving most of your problems.
But now, eBay has reached a new low in their disrespect toward their sellers. They have cloaked their largest fee increase in the company’s history, as a benefit to the entire eBay community. And they have portrayed their destructive changes to the feedback / selling rules, as a positive change for sellers.
This “Big Lie” strategy was used during the lead-up to the war in Iraq. In that case, those in charge used a series of lies and distortions to successfully lead the public to a misguided support of the war. The oft-repeated rhetoric stated that the invasion in Iraq was a vital step in protecting our country from untold weapons of mass destruction. History has told us otherwise.
Now, eBay is using a similar tactic, in an effort to put a positive slant on the changes they have outlined for February 20th. This time, I hope, it won’t work.
Let’s look at eBay’s own statements, and compare them to the facts:
Lie #1 — Bill Cobb states, “Our goal for these changes is to continue to improve the overall experience for our customers, both buyers and sellers.”
Truth #1 — While these changes may improve the experience for some buyers, they drastically worsen the situation for the overwhelming majority of sellers.
Lie #2 — Bill Cobb states, “We’re making a fundamental change to the economics of selling on eBay, resulting in three significant price reductions.”
Truth #2 — The overall fee changes will NOT result in a reduction for anyone, except those who’s items do not sell (they will save a nickle). For everyone else, this is a massive fee increase of more than 40%. Most of the trumpeted “fee reductions” are for expensive add-ons, that are not often used by the majority of eBay sellers.
Lie #3 — Bill Cobb states, “First, we’re reducing the up-front risk for all of you by lowering insertion fees for auction and fixed price listings across the board…and we’re balancing that change by adjusting some final value fees.
Truth #3 — When you balance something, it is presumed that you give and take equally. In this case, eBay is giving an extremely minor token fee decrease (5 cent reduction on most listings), and ‘balancing’ it with a whopping 67% increase of the final value fee. In practice, this will increase the cost of selling a $25 item from $1.91 to $2.74. This is by far the largest fee increase in eBay’s history. I fail to see the balance.
Lie #4 — Bill Cobb states, “All of these changes came as a result of listening to your ideas and concerns … You told us that you want free Gallery. You said you’d prefer fees for success, not listing. But more than anything, you told us that our overall pricing structure is simply not working for you, and that high insertion fees, in particular, have been a big deterrent in moving more of your merchandise onto eBay.”
Truth #4 — How many sellers do you think contacted eBay and let the know that they felt that a nickle off the listing fees would be a major improvement in their listing structure? And how many of those same sellers would think that a massive final value fee increase would be a fair trade off? It is true that the free Gallery is a plus, but If Bill was really listening, and he really wanted to eliminate the ‘big deterrent,’ why couldn’t he of reversed the changes. Lower the across-the-board listing fees by 67%, or 50%, or even 25% — and add only 5 or 10 cents on to the final value fee, when an item sells? This would have been a real way to eliminate the “big deterrent in moving more of your merchandise onto eBay.”
Lie #5 — Jim Ambach states, “Let’s take a quick look at all the things we’re doing to strengthen our partnership with our sellers:
1. Reducing insertion fees
2. Free Gallery on all listings!
3. Reduced Feature Plus and Pro Pack fees
4. Increased listing exposure for sellers with great DSRs
5. Pricing discounts for PowerSellers with great DSRs
6. Protection from chargebacks for PowerSellers
7. All addresses are confirmed addresses for PowerSellers on their
eBay listings that are paid with PayPal
8. Unlimited PayPal protection for PowerSellers
9. Repeat Feedback credit
10. Rolling 12-month Feedback Percentage
11. Personalized Seller Dashboard
Truth #5 — Jim forgot to mention a few things, that might not “strengthen our partnership with our sellers.”
1. A stunning increase to final value fees — many, many times
higher than their miniscule reduction in insertion fees.
2. Ebay’s “Pricing discounts for PowerSellers” only eliminates a tiny
portion of the fee increases. Even with the full 15% Powersellers’
discount — fees will increase monumentally. With or without the
small discount for PowerSellers, THIS IS STILL THE LARGEST
FEE INCREASE IN EBAY’S HISTORY! (By a really, really wide
margin — really.)
3. There are many new penalties to sellers not meeting eBay’s
criteria fo success. For low-volume seller’s, one vindictive buyer
has the power to increase your fees and lessen the exposure of
your eBay listings.
5. Sellers can no longer punish abusive, dishonest or deadbeat
buyers with negative feedbacks — sellers can ONLY leave positive
feedbacks!
6. The new one-way feedback structure eliminates any constraints
on the buyers. They can use feedback as a weapon to extort
concessions from sellers, and sellers will have absolutely no
recourse or protection.
7. Buyers can, in some cases, cause sellers to have to wait for 21
days for their PayPal money, by simply withholding a positive
feedback. Here’s the eBay policy in their own words: “When eBay
suspects the transaction may result in a dissatisfied customer,
PayPal will delay release of the payment funds to the seller until
the buyer has left a positive feedback, or 21 days have passed
without a dispute.”
8. eBay can now force many new sellers to accept PayPal, even if
they don’t want to. They claim that the seller can get PayPal OR
a merchant credit card, but the cost involved in obtaining a
merchant credit card makes it prohibitive for most low-volume
sellers. This leaves PayPal as the only feasable option. And who
is it that benefits financially by PayPal’s use?
9. Buyer’s can anonymously hurt you by leaving a 1 or a 2 on any
of the DSR ratings — on any of the four attributes. This can
punish you by eliminating your PowerSeller discounts and make
your items come up at the bottom of searches. For example,
if you state in your description that you use priority mail for all
packages, the buyer can demand you use first class. And if you
refuse, they can leave you a 1 on the “shipping cost” attribute.
This will hurt you in numerous ways, but you will have no way to
determine who stabbed you in the back.
10. When they state, “All addresses are confirmed addresses for
PowerSellers on their eBay listings that are paid with PayPal,”
they are not telling the real truth. If you read the fine print, it says
that this will apply to most (not all) countries.
11. The “Repeat Feedback credit” is a double-edged sword –
multiple negative feedbacks will also count against you when
this change takes effect!
In conclusion, eBay has instituted a widespread series of changes, and they have tried (and lied) to project these in a positive light. They have made an attempt to imply that these changes have widespread benefits to the selling community. But, if sellers take the time to even give even a cursory glance at these changes, they will find that in fact, they benefit only two groups — buyers (especially the dishonest ones) and eBay itself.
As an honest and hard working seller, these changes are quite upsetting to me. However, when eBay tries to tell me that they are for my own benefit, they become even more repugnant. If they just were honest about it, eBay would say, we want to make more money off your labor and we want to make a big, public show of protecting buyers — even as it comes at our sellers’ expense.
It has become ever increasingly clear, that eBay does not respect sellers, does not care of our concerns, and does not choose to truly try to reach out to us in a spirit of mutual benefit. But at some point, anyone with any self respect has to say, “enough.”
I have never been one to stay where I am unwanted. If these changes become a reality, I will let eBay know that they have gone too far. I will stop providing them with thousands of dollars in annual fees. I will stop recommending them to my customers and friends. And I will find other venues to use, in order to sell my merchandise.
Maybe if enough sellers follow this example, eBay will finally stop treating us as second class citizens.
As a buyer that has only gotten negative feedback in retaliation for negative feedback on bad sellers, I love the change that buyers can’t leave negative feedback! As for prices, most of the sellers I have bought from have used high shipping costs to enhance their profits. And everytime ebay has raised the rates, the sellers have just raised their selling price or shipping and handling fees - they just pass the cost on to the consumer.
I am a power seller, we list an item of jewelry. the word in the listing is clover, Well ebay pulls listing suspends me, They do not tell me why. I find out later Van Cleff & Arpell say that is a trademark, The word clover
Tired of getting shafted by eBay? Open an account on Online Auction.com.
It’s only $8.00 a month, sell all you can. No listing or final value fees.
GOOD-BYE EBAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can understand being frustrated that one would have gotten a retaliatory negative feedback, and in and of itself that’s not right. But just because that was ones experience, does that make the one-street aspect of this policy right? Seriously, what is the point of even leaving feedback for a buyer if it can only be positive? Doesn’t that negate it’s value? I have never left a negative; I have never received a negative. But I see flagrant mis-use on the horizon.
As for prices, sure, I’ve seen shipping inflated sometimes…but handling charges are also permitted, to cover packaging supplies, time, trips to the post office, etc…and with all of the postage increases, I think people often lose sight of how much something is actually going to cost to ship.
[…] businessshrink.biz » Ebay Sellers Boycott gains traction; competing sites grow […]
Watch them sink themselves deeper and deeper… They already did the damage when they, instead of addressing these issues, called their community “noise”… And then pretty much said that we would get over it…
Not Good Ebay!!
To Lyn - you seem very well informed and I appreciate your comments. I just learned last week about eBay buying 25% of Craigslist. I was surprised and dismayed. Here’s the New York Times article link to the details of that acquisition:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE3D9153FF937A2575BC0A9629C8B63
eBay, like any other wealthy American corporation, is buying out the competition to create an airtight monopoly on internet trading, both domestically and internationally. Their only concern is market share, not the buyers or sellers personally. They do have the traffic, no doubt. But we buyers & sellers (the consumer) can take our dollars elsewhere. Gradually, alternative websites will gain market share and begin to really compete with eBay. Only then will eBay consider changing their misguided policies. By then, it may be too late.
The top three American automakers looked a lot like eBay in the 1980’s; laughing at the Japanese Automakers, not taking their small market share seriously. The Big Three kept cranking out inferior product with an attitude that nobody elsewhere could compete with them. Well, their complacency and greed caught up with them because more and more consumers got savvy and started buying reliable Japanese vehicles. This forced the Big Three to make better product, but it was too little, too late. Japan has become the largest car producing nation in the world. Alas, the consumer has prevailed, but it took a few years.
eBay is an American sucess story, but they are fraught with big problems; issues of trust, fraud of all kinds, customer dissatisfaction, and yes, competition (Amazon). Their stock is down to half of it’s highest peak. Traffic is down. The Top Brass that just left eBay cashed in a total of 3,077,237 shares in the last quarter of 2007. The cash value of these stocks totaled $106,727,738. If they are pulling money out of eBay, why aren’t we?
In all honesty, I will probably list a few more estate sale items on eBay before the feedback change in May. By then, I will be listing and buying elsewhere. I know I’m just one person, but collectively, we CAN make a difference. Feb 18-25th 2008: Worldwide Ebay Strike
“The Golden Rule: Those who have the gold, makes the rules”
I am really just sick of paying for fake bidders or no bidders at all. I sell sports autographs on ebay and through my site www.rksportstars.com I am sick of the fraud increases and the scam artist that say we can make u $$$ on ebay(ebays partners???)Try http://www.slbayauctions.com Does anyone know any other good auctions, somethings got to give.
Rob
Sorry for the bad grammer. Here’s a correction:
“eBay’s Golden Rule: We have the gold, so we make the rules”
I’ve never been an eBay seller and I’ve made only a few purchases. In 2/3rds of the purchases, the sellers were lousy because they’d either deliver the wrong product, sometimes multiple times over, and/or they’d take forever shipping the product. When I finally received the correct product and left a negative comment citing no more than the factual truth of my experience, the sellers would retaliate with negative comments with complete fabrications. In some cases they would then follow up with an email offering to retract their negative feedback if I would do the same. As a small time buyer, they knew very well that negative comments affect me more than them because in all cases those buyers had a large numbers sales already. This is extortion, plain and simple. As far as I was concerned, the eBay buying experience was an awful one, not because of eBay personnel but because of the scum who like to masquerade as good sellers on eBay. Such people corrupt the selling process by taking advantage of eBay’s facility for bullying customers. If eBay has finally recognized this loophole and is closing it, I am 100% in favour of it. High volume sellers always have the advantage and this is wrong. Now don’t even get me started on the subject of all those sellers who are actually running scam auctions… oh wait, it’s another case of horrible sellers. Perhaps all the sellers in the comments here whining about bad buyers are full of shite - their few problems pale compared to the debacle that eBay has become because of sellers being the problem, not buyers.
A pail is a bucket. It is “pale in comparison.” It is hard to take an article seriously when the author and editor miss things like this.
[…] Ebay Sellers Boycott gains traction; competing sites grow - and apparently Ebay has lost quite a lot of traffic! […]
There are bad buyers. You buy it, you pay immediately, I ship the next day and you leave me neg feedback because you didn’t get it in 2 days in time for Christmas. Your poor planning is not my fault. I’ve been blackmailed by buyer, I have 100% positive feedback with 1100 feedback and had buyers threaten to leave neg feedback if I didn’t ship for free or just plain give them the item. I am done. I will not be selling any more. I just started selling in November 2007 and between ebay and paypal, I loose 15 to 20% in listing fee’s, final value fees and paypal fees. It is always nice to have a bvuyer win an item and never pay or reply to an email. If I leave neg feedback they do the same.
Well, I’m done. It was nice while it lasted.
Bye ebay, I wont be buying or selling again
@Cam: Yes, a “pail” is indeed a bucket - a remarkably astute observation. What I wrote was “pale”. But let us suppose that I had made a spelling mistake. All people who make spelling mistakes are unworthy to have their opinions considered? Wouldn’t that position be a trifle arrogant? Perhaps you sell dictionaries on eBay? If so, I’m sure the bad spellers of the world appreciate your attempt to lift them from their unworthy position in life. On the other hand, perhaps you just happen to be one of