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In every issue, readers soundoff about issues important to them. From feedback to payment services, from increased fees to posting policies, AuctionBytes Soundoff gives you a chance to air your views.
Hi Ina,
Not sure if you've covered this.......
Did you know that eBay is starting to monitor "My Messages" and take action against people who are trying to do business outside of eBay? If you weren't aware, I can let you know. I have direct experience, and a friend does too, so it's not just rumor.
Donna
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Good morning Ina!
There is a lot of talk on the eBay Stores board about a nationwide boycott of eBay on August 22nd.
Is there any way to get some exposure in Auctionbytes about the one day symbolic boycott?
Jennifer
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I appreciated your article very much, which was factual except for the part about the fee hikes translating to a 25 to 50% increase for many sellers. Try 500%. Store inventory listings have been 2 cents each month (besides the $15.99 base store fee), so for 1500 listings, I pay $30 a month if I don't sell one thing. With the fee hike that will raise to $150 a month, plus the final commission on each sale will jump from 7% to 10%. This is an astronomical increase. Then add to that the amount PayPal takes out for handling the sale, as 90% of our sales are paid through PayPal. Then eBay took the stores inventory out of their searches last February or March (decreasing our sales by about 2/3 - we dropped from $3400 a month to just over $1000 and still dropping) - do you see why experienced power sellers have no recourse but to explore other venues? Hope you will take the time to read this.
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Hi Ina,
On eBay in the Mens Clothing section, if you click on the pants, jeans, blazers/jackets section or a few others, scammers have been listing auctions with porn photos in the them & they are featured so they are at the top of the results. Well, if you click on the auction, it takes you to a fake eBay site & downloads a keystroke logger!! I was listing there yesterday & clicked on 1 to get the auction number to report it & found out about it. I had a keystroke logger downloaded onto my computer with other virus' but I was not hijacked, I changed my passwords in time. There is no way to report the auction because you do not have an auction number or ID name.
If you report one to Live Help & it's removed, one more comes back up within 30 minutes or less!! HELP, can you print something about it to warn others?
Thank you so much, I met you at Live, you were very nice to chat with. Take care,
Kath
Editor's Note: ChannelAdvisor's Scot Wingo wrote about this in a blog post on Thursday, New eBay fraud tactic: VPTH
http://digbig.com/4mkph
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Thank you for the excellent article re ebays price hikes. I'm one of those sellers STILL trying to decide what to do ... with the clock ticking. At the present time we are petitioning google to start and auction/store hosting site ... here is the link to that site which is (naturally) on google. They do not monitor their boards but we've sent them invitations to monitor this board and have made phone calls to various google offices to inform them of this location.
http://groups.google.com/group/auctionplease
Ann
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Greetings Ina -
I wanted to thank you for the info and your auctionbytes email and all the effort your put into this. It is one of the only emails I read and visit the links. The information is invaluable and you always have the pulse of us Ebay sellers. Thank you.
These new fees are quite the slap. I am a power seller and my Ebay fees every month are over $850 and I would say my store generates 90% of these fees I pay to Ebay. If I cut my inventory down to bare bones and run a few auctions each week I can get my store fees down to approx. $100. We would direct our buyers to the website we are now completing in response to ebay's never ending greed. How Ebay figures that a loss of just ME and my $700 each month will help impact their bottom line is hard to comprehend. And I am only one seller, multiply that by thousands of people moving away and do they think this will actually make for a more "vibrant" marketplace? I used to have a bright active business on Ebay but in the last 4 months, since the search changes, since Ebay Express and whatever else they are doing to direct people away from my store listings, I have seen my business drop more than 60%. More fees, less sales. Ebay is getting to be something that is just not worth doing anymore.
I don't understand those people at Ebay. They make their incomes off of the sellers backs and they just keep slapping us. It is crazy.
Thanks for letting me rant.
Regards -
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I know it's been said before, but why would you want a big company to take on another big company? Do people think Google will be different? Google is like GPay, they're "not established" under the same circular argument, but PEOPLE and SELLERS make the company.
crappyauctions.com could be big if people made it that way. You give birth to the son of Satan, and when the spoiled brat becomes a spoiled adult, you run and abandon it, forgetting that YOU made it that way.
A name means NOTHING. What is an ebay?? Exactly. Nothing, but "you" the seller made it the "household name" it is. Rather than look for Google to be the Savior, why not patronize an existing site, Bidville, BluJay, etc.
It still amazes me that sellers have no idea that there are ways to make sure a customer becomes a repeat one by building the rapport, offering a catalogue, a mailing list, specials, etc. They don't know how to save a template of what their sales text is, which is what we've heard sellers claim as an excuse for not leaivng ebay ("I'd have to retype all my listings!").
Ebay has tested their market, and found that they can raise fees consistently, without offering anything to justify it (like upgrades, specials, enhancements, etc), and users will still list there, and typically list more in some backwards attempt to make up for the excess fees. Ebay has the perfectly legitimate and accurate reasons to raise fees.
Greg
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I am glad they are making the stores pay more, they are devasting for the small person, or what I like to think of as the peon's. With all the stores listing we get squeezed in between not to be noticed even. I think they should have a special site for the stores, not on the same site with the small seller, like myself.
When I started they didn't have all the stores and I sold almost everything I put on eBay, but now I am lucky if I sell anything, it is very disgusting. So I say thank you eBay for finally listening to all of us peons.
Ardyce
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Ina,
Thank you for providing a vibrant forum for eBay sellers. I wanted to add my comments to those who wrote out of concern for the recent changes to eBay stores. It is evident that stores have contributed to the sheer volume of offerings on eBay's site, without any concern on eBay management's part for the effect on auction sales. IMO, the aspect of eBay auctions and eBay stores is and always has been inconsistent, as the so called "eBay experience" (yes, there actually was an eBay experience at one time ) was lost soon after stores were added to the site.
Still, eBay provides a tremendous service to sellers in providing the marketing that attracts buyers together with functionality for transacting sales. Sellers who complain have other options to promote their goods in the on-line marketplace; there is nothing preventing them from listing on the many other sites in cyberspace, some quite good as portals.
The web has evolved with many other players (websites) on the scene since eBay. eBay was really the first ecommerce site where ordinary people could transact business, sellers and buyers could interact without go-betweens. Allowing ordinary people to buy and sell from/to each other was really what catapulted eBay - that plus some very good programmers. The aspect that it was transacted via an auction process was secondary. Still, eBay is known to most as being synonymous with auctions.
eBay's problem is that it bears the seeds of its own irrelevance in moving away from auctions in order to provide more items to be listed on the site (hence the listing fee profitability). One of your writers made a comment that "auctions are dead" ("on eBay" - my quote). Auctions have been around for thousands of years and auctions are by no means dead. It is the "Ebay experience" that is dead. The problem for eBay is that to re-ignite that experience, they will have to become a smaller company - to retool. This is inconsistent with a large public company where shareholders expect profit improvement each quarter and management's compensation is without regard to customers' satisfaction - the average eBay seller.
The web will continue to evolve and eBay will play an important part. It may be to everyone's (especially eBay sellers') advantage to buy back the stock and go private. This would motivate the management to listen to their customers, instead of shareholders. The present directors will have the distinction of re-invigorating the company (and will go away with plenty of money). Can you see the statue of Meg Whitman in San Jose with the caption "Meg Whitman - whose vision invigorated eBay" . it could happen!
Thank you
Marv
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Ina,
Thought you might pick up on this thread on the "Stores Board"... its the touching stories of eBay finds, the true magic that makes up eBay. There's no "bitching", griping, or back biteing..just truly touching stories
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000193515
Thanks for your interest.
Sandy
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Dear Ina,
I read your stories on your site. I think its very helpful to sellers . BUT in regards to the store increase isn't there anything we can do as small sellers to bond together and really take a stand ?. 10% is an awful lot to ask. we are on the store primarily due to the fact we spend so much money on the auctions. We list promo auctions to drive people to the store. What can a small seller like me do ? Everyone talks about closing down etc. But there has never been a universal way that sellers can link up and really take a stand against ebay. Sellers at times DO NOT have any rights. This is highly unfair what can we do ?
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Re: "eBay Strike in UK Makes Headlines, US Sellers Bothered over eBay Promo"
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m08/i16/s01
Ina,
I think the reason that ebay is also raising it's store fees is simple.... They introduced Ebay Express! I'm sure they spent a lot of time and money into it, lots of ad campaigns etc. When it was introduced till today we've sold 1,500 items, guess how many were ebay express? Ding Ding Ding, you guessed it! 2! Wow a Whopping 2! And when did these miraculous 2 happen, you ask? It was in the first couple of weeks when introduced.
In an earlier email to you I had mentioned I don't think ebay express will work, but I was hoping it would. We now know it doesn't. Everyone knows eBay and that's just how it will remain.
I also had figured out their ploy yesterday as well. Pretty ingenious of them if you think about it. To try to trick us with the core switharoo, I decided to just keep everything the same though. For the past months I've been paying over $900 in ebay fees. I just hope this fee increase will not effect me that much. Probably not, much I only sell between $1,500 - $1,800 in my store inventory, according to my sales reports. But time will tell, and I know I am nothing compared to some of these other ebayers.
I find it all a bit amusing though because at eBay Live the successful gentleman from Inflatable Madness LLC spoke at one of the events. He was mentioning how he had 450,000 listings and that 90% was in his store. That it would be too expensive for him to do Core listings, I'm sure he's taking a big hit.
Honestly though I always knew this would happen. The .05 I was paying for my store listings (with gallery & subtitle) really were a great deal. I'm honestly surprised that they hadn't raised it when they kept raising the other fees for core, I mean .35 for gallery? We knew this day would be coming.
Well that's it, I had to put in my .02. Doesn't buy you much these days, not even a store listing.
Sincerely,
Suzan
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Hi,
You should look at EBAY live auctions problems. When I click to "go to bid" or to leave an absentee bid, most of the time it fishes around trying to enter, then says "time to reach URL exceeded". It seems to depend on volume, but it does it with 6 different browsers and cable and dial up servers! They told me to "clear cache" - their golden solution to everything! I've worked with them for a week, but they are essentially in denial.
Also the actual live auction will now work ONLY with Netscape8 (a lousy browser), not that I haven't tried 5 others! These people are basically incompetent and eventually EBAY and PAYPAL will have a meltdown! Their answer to everything is to update browser and clear cache.
Gary
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Ebay just announced a "special"...move your store inventory listings to auctions for only 10 cents....good on August 15 and 16.
I can guess why. When THOSE auctions are over and you move the unsold BACK to store listings, the new fees will be in effect.
Do they really think we are that stupid?
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Just copying this to a couple of people who might be interested. This is a letter I sent to one of the reporters for eCommerce Guide this morning. A recent article seemed to only mention the power seller point of view. I just wanted to speak for the small store owners.
Thank you -
Beth
Subject: Comment on eBay's recent fee hikes and small store owners point of view
Good morning -
I was reading through the article by Vangie Beal regarding "breaking up with eBay". I noticed that one of the powersellers was quoted in the article as well. I felt compelled to speak on behalf of the small sellers - the ones who have smal businesses that provide either partial or entire income which has been greated affected by the latest scheduled fee hike.
The store boards on eBay have indeed been flying with commentary, disgust, suggestions on alternate venues, etc. We've gone from the initial shock, to anger to acceptance and now dealing with it. However, what I have NOT seen addressed very much is WHY the store owners are so angry.
Many feel as though it is simply because of yet another fee hike. While certainly not pleasant, most small sellers understand the need to offset costs with fees on occasion. Note that there was a lot of grumbling when the basic level store rent went from $9.95/month to $15.95/month. One can also note that the grumbling subsided, and stores went on with their business. eBay also eventually (slowly, but eventually!) added services for that extra cost, such as expanded category options, seller's reports, etc.
This time is very different. There are several reasons why, and I want to speak from the seller viewpoint. I don't think this one will die down any time soon, and the exodus will be continuing until/unless eBay either withdraws the scheduled hike, or adjusts the fees. Many of these issues are not spoken of when articles are written about the sellers' unrest. Of course, all of this came right before the busiest selling season of the year starts. Traditionally, eBay sales are heaviest from September through December, incorporating both the back to school sales and holiday sales. I truly believe that we will only see a small percentage of the exodus that will take place AFTER the holidays. Some sellers simply cannot afford to NOT sell on eBay during this busy time of the year.
First, sellers are tired of being manipulated without our knowledge. The constant playing with including/excluding store items from the search engines without telling us when those tests were taking place resulting in a constantly-changing playing field. Some thought they had an unpopular item, some thought they were suddenly gaining a foothold, and invested heavily in more inventory. Then comes yet another shift, and the opposite happens, leaving sellers again confused as to what they were possibly doing wrong. They also changed the search engines to exclude formerly included versions of words, leaving out many items in results that would have formerly been included. (By example: you used to be able to search for "button", and it would bring up all listings that had EITHER "button" or "buttons" in the title.
No longer - it now only brings up exact matches.) This was not announced either, so sellers were forced to find out by trial and error. Along with all these search engine experimentations, stores were randomly dropping out of site completely, and then reappearing days later with no explanations from eBay. In additional insult, eBay tried to offer "consulting" services on how to run a successful online business, when most of the sellers were already doing just that. However, it is virtually impossible to keep a successful business plan in place when the basics are constantly changing.
Secondly, the rollout of eBay Express left most sellers less than happy. Those who were not selling new items were automatically excluded. Those who did not choose to use eBay's own Picture Manager service were excluded. (Workarounds have now been found for that, but it was yet another annoyance and control issue on eBay's part.)
Thirdly, along with the announcement of the extreme fee hikes came the news that along with paying more, the store listings were now going to either be buried or shuttled off to Express. They are no longer going to be including any store listings in the search results, meaning that customers will have a very hard time even finding what is available. They have offered to include a limited number of store listings on their latest "BIN" (Buy It Now) tab, provided that not enough "core" listings for the same items are coming back.
To add insult to injury, they additionally announced that they would also be importing Half-dot-com's used item inventory into the search database. This greatly angered sellers who are constantly subject to having items pulled for having a link to anything they offer outside of the eBay direct store. They also don't appreciate having yet another batch of used goods competing for screen space in the constantly-changing dynamics of the search engine results.
Because that was not quite enough to "tick off" a good portion of the sellers, Mr. Cobb's announcement tried to smooth things over, stating that it would result in an average "6% increase" to the average store seller. I would suppose the eBay has only unique stores, not a single average one, because not one seller has been able to come up with figures that come near that percentage. The reality is more in line with 200-500% cost increases. For the smaller store owners and the ones who do not have high profit margins (either from item cost or from keeping at a competitive price), this means almost no profit left for selling on eBay.
But we are not done yet! No, there are still more reasons why the sellers are uber-unhappy this time. As if these were not enough reasons already, sellers are being told that we are too much of a drain on eBay's bandwidth without generating enough revenue in return. Thankfully, most are not so technologically dumb as to blanketly accept this statement. We know that bandwidth is only used when the items are pulled up and viewed. If no one is looking at the store items, as eBay claims, then obviously, they are not using the bandwidth. Server storage? Perhaps, but store owners pay "rent" monthly for that space - it isn't "free-until-sold". We have also all seen the results that can take place when stores WERE included in search results. Almost every store owner can tell you that their sales took off to new heights, not reached in prior YEARS, let alone months. Why? Customers could FIND the items available for sale.
If the balance was indeed as Mr. Cobb stated, store listings now at 83% of their business, then why would any company with actual growth in mind offend and ignore such a high percentage of its business? To cater to the alleged 17% that make a profit, and ignore the 83% just makes no sense on any level.
Apparently, stores took off much better than they had anticipated. However, this simply reinforces the current common opinion that eBay no longer knows its REAL customer base. Auctions (aka "Core Listings") were a novelty several years ago. That is no longer the case. There will always be an auction market for the unique and unusual items - that will not change. (After all, we can't all have an iconoclastic grilled cheese sandwich in our store inventory!)
However, today's customer wants a choice, reasonable prices, fast service and a safe shopping experience. eBay is overlooking that, preferring to focus on that 17%, which includes the high-ticket items, like Matthew McConaghey's car, and all those widgets the Golden Palace wanted as publicity stunts.
In this latest move, eBay has basically told the small store owners that they are destroying the "magic" of eBay. There is no concern as to whether or not store listings can be found, no intention to provide no means to help them be found, and will be providing much less service for a lot more money. Now they seem to be surprised that the store owners are not quietly accepting this fee hike. When the users tried to have a little fun and blow off some steam harmlessly by running various "fee hike" auctions (giving eBay the "core listings" they claimed they wanted), eBay quickly pulled them all, giving the excuse of keyword spamming. One seller went so far as to buy the domain of "feehike-dot-com" so they would own the rights to the phrase, but eBay still cancelled them all.
Today's store owners know that the REAL "magic" of eBay is not the auction format listing - it is the availability of unique items, and being able to shop 24/7/365 and find almost anything. Many items do not do well in auction format, because it is a matter of the right buyer finding the item when they have the time to look. To run an auction format only, means that the item is available for only 3-10 days, virtually eliminating the chances of a certain buyer finding a certain item. The ones who sell "vintage" or older collectibles are being deeply hurt by this, as they are also not eligible for eBay Express either.
It is no secret that there are massive amounts of core listings that are practicing what is called "fee avoidance". eBay does not charge a final value fee (FVF, their charged portion of the selling price) on the shipping portion - only the price of the actual item. So, the scammers are continuing to list items for one penny, and charging anywhere from $25 and up for shipping, thereby avoiding paying eBay their share of the fee to sell the item there. This is one of the big problems eBay currently has - the fee avoiders are a drain on both the bandwidth AND revenue, and erode the trust of the buying community in general. Yet, nothing is being done about it. The reported "crack-down" on the fee avoiders reported in May has never taken place. Reported sellers continue to sell unfettered. Sellers with hundreds of negative feedbacks are still allowed to continue with no warnings, no suspensions, no account cancellations. More erosion to the trust and safety area.
So, yes, the sellers are madder than they have ever been at this point. Being charged significantly more for significantly less service doesn't set too well. Some try to compare it to the rising cost of gasoline, but that doesn't hold true here. We don't have a choice on the price of gasoline very often, but need it to live our daily lives. By contrast, no one NEEDS eBay just to live. There are many other venues offering similar services. While eBay has the most traffic, they GOT that way from both advertising and from having the biggest selection of items from which to shop. If the sellers move other places, the buyers eventually will as well. They won't really care if they bought it on eBay, Bidville or even Wagglepop, as long as they got what they wanted at a price they felt was fair. If eBay continues to price most small sellers out of their marketplace, then they will be causing a shift to the marketplace, and they might well find themselves in 2nd, 3rd or even lower place on the scale.
And make no mistake - sellers have caught on to the manipulation, and this time are putting down their foot. eBay's latest listing special was viewed as an insult by most. While we are all used to eBay's listing specials when things get slow, this latest one is a direct result of the store owner boycott. They are running a two-day special for store owners to move their inventory OUT of the stores and INTO "core" format at a "greatly reduced price". HOWEVER - that reduced price is only in theory - sellers still need to pay regular prices up front (putting additional revenue into the coffers). They will not see their "account credit" until September or October, and then only if they have not closed their stores. Not too many sellers are biting on this bait, and are not willing to give an interest-free loan to eBay for the months of August and September. This was yet another attempt to keep reports at certain levels, and we are just no longer willing to play along.
Furthermore, reports of the transcripts and tapes of calls involving CEO Meg Whitman, and her laughing about the idea of killing many small businesses, just didn't go over very well either. This further alienated small sellers.
So, THIS time, eBay has indeed managed to alienate a large percentage of the sellers. Some who just love the whole idea of selling on eBay will probably stay. But for many, who are in business for a profit, will most likely move on (either after the fee hikes go into effect, or after the 2006 holiday selling season is completed). The real effect of all this remains to be seen after Christmas. How many stores will remain is certainly unknown. What IS known, however, is that the other venues, such as Bidville, Wagglepop and others, should probably send eBay a thank you note for sending them all this business for the final quarter of 2006!
Thank you for your time today.
Best regards -
Beth, Owner of The Katy Workshop
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Re: "eBay Displays Competing Items on Some Closed-Item Pages"
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m08/i18/s04
Ina,
As always you folks do such a great job. Thank you. Years ago I used to be a reporter (won a few awards too) and one of the things I enjoyed then - and have none of now - is access. So, since you have a lot more access than the rest of us, I am sending you a question. If you ever do a larger story on this new "begin showing items from other sellers on a seller's closed item page to buyers who come to eBay directly from an off-eBay site" idea... please ask eBay:
If they are going to put nice links away from my old ad - why can't they at least put MY active items on the TOP? It was MY auction/ad that brought the buyer in though Google or some other search engine - why then put my competitors items AT THE TOP and mine below?? I can understand, though disagree with, them putting competitors items on the closed pages - but why do my competitors get top billing - my items should be on top.
It just makes no sense to me and almost seems designed to upset sellers.
Thanks,
Tim
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Dear Ina,
FRAUD is a major problem at eBay. We can not sell items we paid $100 to obyain, for $1 no reserve. The bibbers just aren't willing to RISK their hard earned cash once they have been stung by a scam seller. In the jewelry category, I did a search for: zircon ring. The resulting items were about 95% cubic zirconia and brass, which was listed as a gemstone and karat gold. This practice is not allowed by the the Federal Trade Commission's
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/jewel-gd.htm
Guidelines for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries, which were established both to protect the consumer, and to level the playing-field for sellers. The majority of the time, very little, if anything, is done to stop the fraudulent activity on eBay. We simply can not sell real natural stones and karat gold for the same price as the fraudulent seller who lists brass & CZs as the same thing, and lists it for $1 (and who over charge on shipping/handling. By doing that, if the fraudulent seller's customer complains, they are offered their $1 refund upon return of the merchandise. They state that the s/h fee is non-refundable. So the customer did not receive what they paid for, and ended up losing the $15 s/h to receive the item, and maybe another $8 to return the item, and they only get $1 back.
Meanwhile, the fraudulent seller keeps the amount they over charged for shipping PLUS they get the merchandise back to re-list. Bad sellers hurt everyone. This is a huge problem that I believe eBay should focus on, instead of raising fees we can't afford to pay, because we can not compete with fraudulent sellers, who eBay does far toolittle to remove from their site.
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Great website Ina
On your article "eBay Motors Sells Two Millionth Passenger Vehicle"...the big question is how many listings did it take to sell that many Ther are many items on ebay that a very small % sell...in example Diamond, Oil paintings etc Someone should rate different catagories for saleability
Kind regards
J C
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