The first wave of reaction to eBay's new fees and feedback policies has hit, and the reviews are decidedly mixed. The full scope of eBay "throwing out the playbook" will take time for users to absorb. It's clear that the fee changes will affect sellers differently, but how will it impact you? One of our readers has given us permission to share a spreadsheet he created that will help you calculate whether or not these fee changes will have a positive or negative effect on your business. You can find the eBay Fee Calculator here (give the page a moment to load) http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/feecalc
We've had some fascinating conversations with eBay executives and PowerSellers this week. Incoming President and CEO John Donahoe, who is replacing Meg Whitman, and President of eBay Marketplaces Operations Lorrie Norrington, who is taking over for Bill Cobb, sat down with us for a podcast interview on Tuesday. You can listen to the audio here
http://podcast.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/podcast/pod.pl?/pl/2008/1/1201665209.html
We're also publishing the full transcript of the interview in today's newsletter for those who prefer to read, rather than listen to, the interview.
(I know all of these podcast links are long, you can go to the main Podcast page to find them all: http://podcast.auctionbytes.com.)
Sellers have never been shy about voicing their opinions, and these podcasts are no exception. Thanks to everyone who called in!
I am scheduled to be on NPR (National Public Radio) on Monday morning at 8:20 Eastern to talk about the eBay changes (http://www.npr.org/blogs/bryantpark). I believe the host, Alison Stewart, will be mentioning the AuctionBytes Hotline podcasts, so your voices will have a chance to be heard.
David and I have been posting on the AuctionBytes Blog about the changes, and we've gotten some tremendous comments from readers. One post has over 800 comments. We appreciate you taking the time to communicate there. I even saw one article that quoted from the blog comments (http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,142069-c,auctionsites/article.html).
In today's issue, in addition to a guide to eBay changes, we have a fabulous article about a marketplace called Etsy by a new writer, Jan Perry. It was announced last week that Etsy received $27 million in venture capital - not too shabby (chic) for a site that allows merchants to sell their homemade goods! And in the next issue, we have an article from Cathy Harned about her experiences building her own ecommerce-enabled website.
So take a deep breath, and thanks for reading.
About the author:
Ina Steiner is Editor of AuctionBytes.com and author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). She has a background in marketing and research in the high-tech and publishing fields. If you have story ideas, comments or questions, send them to ina@auctionbytes.com.
You may quote up to 200 words of any article on the condition that you attribute the article to AuctionBytes.com and either link to the original article or to www.AuctionBytes.com. All other use is prohibited.
