eBay also announced a fee hike effective January 31st. If you sell on eBay, you'll be paying an extra quarter-percent Final Value Fee. eBay also instituted a 5-cent Buy It Now fee. For all the fee changes, see the NewsFlash story at http://www.auctionbytes.com/pages/abn/y02/m01/i17/s01.
What are the implications of this fee hike? I think it makes some sellers more open to exploring other auction sites. I think there's likely to be erosion in the collectibles side of eBay's business as secondary and niche auction sites that have managed to survive 2001 make some headway in 2002. The beauty of selling on auction sites is the ease in which one can change venues - instantly. But I'm also predicting that eBay will do a good job convincing large manufacturers, retailers and distributors to sell their "practicals" on its site.
On a different note...
We’ve been telling you for a while that it was coming, and I'm happy to announce the launch of the new content management system on the AuctionBytes Web Site! This system makes our Site easier to navigate, easier to search, and just plain better looking!
If you go to our home page, the first things you will see now are headlines from the current AuctionBytes NewsFlash newsletter. Underneath, you'll continue to find stories from the current issue of this newsletter.
In the past, we archived each issue on one page. We've now broken each article onto its own page. Once you click through to the article, underneath it you'll see the Table of Contents from that issue, plus a list of Related Stories. This will help you get more background on what you are reading. And, you can click on "Email this Story" to send the story to a friend or colleague!
If you link to us from your Web site, please check your link and make sure it works. The URL http://www.auctionbytes.com still works, but the URLs to all of the articles have changed, and all of the features have changed or will be changing in the near future.
We are still tweaking the system, so if you uncover any problems, please let us know. It was a major undertaking to move two years of content, but it was worth the effort to make the site easier to use. Thanks to Jim at Box 21 http://www.box21.com who spent many hours designing and helping us implement the new system.
I'm sworn to secrecy, but I urge you to carefully watch our NewsFlash stories early this week for a useful announcement. If you don't subscribe, you'll have to come to the Web site each day. If you want to subscribe and get AuctionBytes NewsFlash delivered to you via email, send a blank email to: auctionflash-subscribe@topica.com
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and AuctionBytes.com and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @auctionbytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.
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