The Guardian newspaper in the UK reports that eBay sellers there are planning to strike on August 15 to protest the eBay Stores fee increase, and WebUser magazine points to a forum on eBay where users are discussing the strike (http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?messageID=1200548979). Meanwhile, some sellers in the US are planning to strike the company on August 22.

The success of such protests by users have been difficult to gauge, and eBay has never published the impact of past strikes. Sellers who rely on eBay income for a majority or all of their income may take a more long-term approach to dealing with the fee hikes. The significant fee hikes caught sellers by surprise just before the back-to-school shopping season, which leads into the holiday shopping season - a critical sales period for online merchants.

The area on the US eBay discussion boards devoted to eBay Stores has several threads about what sellers are planning to do to cope with the increased cost of doing business. Strategies vary, from selling more items in auction format to closing their eBay Stores altogether. Users have been debating the effectiveness of selling on "St. Elsewhere," a code word for other online auction sites, which users are banned from mentioning or linking to on the boards.

The fee hikes affected many international sites in addition to the US site, including UK, Australia and Italy. In Australia, a post protesting the fee increase stated, "If you disagree with the new Store Fees introduction and/or will be leaving eBay or closing your store due to these increases please sign your protest." The post received 3,470 replies (http://forums.ebay.com.au/thread.jspa?threadID=500024740).