eBay sellers in the UK got major media attention when they went on strike on August 15, and Australian sellers have been readying for their planned strike on Monday, August 21. According to one seller, the count was at 152 Stores as of Thursday (http://forums.ebay.com.au/thread.jspa?threadID=500024740). He reports that sellers will close their eBay Shops and relocate on competing auction sites, including oztion.com.au, aussiebids.com.au, and www.ebid.net.
A major Australian newspaper wrote about the planned strike on Thursday. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, eBay rival Oztion reported picking up 15,000 new members in the last month, including 1,900 self-reported professional sellers (http://digbig.com/4mkhy).
Sellers are protesting eBay's fee increases in Store listings, which they say significantly cut into their profit margin and may make it impossible for some to continue to sell on eBay Stores. The new fees go into effect on Tuesday, August 22.
In Australia and the UK (and some other international sites), sellers also faced a rollback in the Stores in Search feature, meaning they are paying more fees for less exposure. eBay had rolled back Stores in Search in the US in March. Some US sellers have been protesting for a week, while others will join them in striking the site on August 22.
eBay Australia has made one change to its planned fee increases: it modified the way they had intended to charge for multiple-quantity listings in Stores, posting an announcement earlier today (http://www2.ebay.com/aw/au/200608181635302.html).
