I had correspondence with a reader named Pat who shared some of her thoughts on eBay Stores. I've included some of her comments below.
Ina
I'm really curious about comments on the eBay stores. I have never in three years been able to get anyone to buy anything from the store. In three years, I have had 3 customers buy through the eBay store. I had an item in my auction at full price and the same item in the store for $1.00 - guess which one they bought......the one in the auction at full price. Beats me.
I don't even bother with the store anymore, even if it is 5 cents and goes for a month. The stuff sits there for a month and according to my hit counter - hardly anyone even looks in there.
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I hate the fact when someone does use the BIN (Buy It Now) feature and then wait a week to pay me. I think the rules should change in that aspect. I thought eBay was coming out with a feature that BIN had to be paid immediately. Haven't seen that yet or I missed it somewhere.
Pat
From the Editor: First, Susan Heywood wrote an article for MyEZsale Ecommerce Guide called, "Cybervertigo: eBay Stores and the Vicious Cycle" http://www.myezsale.com/cab/abu/y203/m07/mes0004/s05. She has an interesting perspective on eBay Stores.
Second, you are referring to eBay's "Immediate Payment" option, for more information, go to http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y03/m05/i01/s01.
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Hi Ina,
I have been reading your newsletter each time it comes in and appreciate the work you all do in helping keep us informed of important auction issues and information. I am a Platinum Power Seller, and your last newsletter regarding the new ebay page and the prior one regarding ebay shortening the length of time they post completed sales, finally prompted me to take the time to write.
Your information on Andale was invaluable-please push it again-I'm really relying on it to get accurate prices to sell items at. There are some things affecting my sales that are very serious. I haven't heard some of these things mentioned in your newsletter and I wonder if anyone is experiencing the same problems. Below is a letter I just wrote in frustration to powerseller customer support. I'm hoping the more people speak up, maybe ebay will listen. I've been selling for 3 years and I've seen ebay growing way faster than they can handle it. I called the powerseller hotline Sunday night and the guy I talked to was the only one on the phones (Imagine his frustration).
eBay is less and less interested in the seller and more interested in profits. If only they could see that they (and we) would earn more if they heard us. Sorry for the lengthy letter. I just appreciate that there is a forum such as yours to help those of us selling at home not feel so isolated. Thanks.
Diane
I asked Diane to explain what she meant about Andale, and she wrote back:
Hi Ina,
Thanks for responding. You had told us about Andale's new research function which lets you see closed ebay auctions that will go back up to a year. They charge $2.95 a month for unlimited use. Ebay made a deal with them I guess-but they haven't been pushing it for whatever reason, and I found out about it from you.
It has been extremely helpful in researching values on my items before they are listed. Before I started using Andale research, in those few weeks where ebay was only showing closed auctions for the last 2 weeks, I know for sure that I undersold quite a few items. The problem I forsee is that any buyers who look in completed items to see how much they would pay for something based on past sales, may not see an item completed at the price I have mine listed for.
I don't think Ebay realizes that items are being devalued by not showing the full picture in completed sales. They save room in their system and make money from Andale, but I think they would be losing more in final value fees.
Ebay did respond to my letter and said they would soon be putting start and end dates in completed auctions due to member requests, so maybe they are listening. Thanks again for letting me blow off some steam.
Diane
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Hello,
I got AuctionBytes sent to me from a friend in England, and I am here in Florida and knew nothing about it. I have to agree with a couple remarks you made. One, the new auction (eBay item page) is terrible, and yes the other was fine, so why change it. And also, ebay does enforce their rules inconsistently. I had something taken off, and there were about 20 others just like mine they did nothing about. It all depends on the mood and who was doing it at the time.
I went to eBay Live in Orlando and did have a nice time but was very spread out and lots and lots of walking and being handicapped it was difficult. But, I got around. The powersellers room was a great place to relax but a bit out of the way.
The one event I went to but walked out as well as many others was the one with Hector Barreto, the small business administrator. He has his head in the sand.
I asked him a question, what they considered small business, and he went on to say red lobster etc. etc. SMALL business is the mom and pop, one hundred to two hundred thousand businesses, which he and the rest of the government do not consider ever exist or care to help. His answer was a farce and he had no business there, as he was confronting small business that he knows nothing about. The small business administration has no way or cares to help the small business. When 9/11 came, it put my wife and myself out of business as we had a small antique and gift shop but I got no help as we were to small. They only help what we call big business: air lines, etc., but have no use for the small ones like us, rather give the money to some foreign country to help them instead of America.
From the Editor: eBay and the U.S. Small Business Administration signed a letter of intent to collaborate on ways the two organizations can work together for the benefit of small business across the country. I'll report any announcements that come from the partnership.
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Dear Mr. Steiner,
I attended eBay Live in Orlando earlier this month and subscribe to your lists. Although writing about current and tech issues-and ebay-I am not in that school of determined corporate critics - still, I am stunned by the account of eBay Live in Auctionbytes at
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y203/m07/abu0098/s03
I know you attended and saw the event firsthand - how can anyone claim there were 10,000+ in attendance?
Then this ....
"On the same day as the conference keynote address, signed Meg Whitman (eBay CEO) and Pierre Omidyar (eBay Founder and Chairman) cards sold on eBay for a "Buy It Now" price of $124.95!"
Below is a search of sold items under their names
http://search-completed.ebay.com/search/search.dll?GetResult&st=0&sortproperty=metaendsort&ht=1&from=R7&query=Meg+Whitman+card&completedonly=1
http://search-completed.ebay.com/search/search.dll?GetResult&st=0&sortproperty=metaendsort&ht=1&from=R7&query=Pierre+Omidyar+card&completedonly=1
I'm not going to pursue this further - but it reasonable to expect others who were in Orlando are going to see the same issues in this account of eBay Live!
Respectfully
Charles
