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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.
You can also read the AuctionBytes blog, which has a place for reader comments under every posting (http://blog.auctionbytes.com).
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Hi Ina,
I love your website and your work! I just posted (on the AuctionBytes Blog) under "ebay wants small sellers" but it did not show up. I am a stay-at-home-mom and a small seller/buyer on ebay. My post asked the questions: what if ebay starts a new auction-style website under a different name and payment system other than PayPal? Would current sellers go there if the policies would benefit everyone? I am just looking to survive like everyone else.
No, I am not a writer or ebay employee. In fact, I want to go elsewhere if the grass is greener but right now, I don't know where to go. I mainly sell collectibles but need exposure on a site that has traffic.
You are the professional outlet and voice of the people. Would you be able to put these questions out to the public and ebay? We really need a solution or at least direction, not fears and anger. I am just small potatoes, but you could be a major voice. I am sorry if it is alot to ask and puts to in a tough spot, but people are getting desperate, depressed and very angry about how their lively hoods are being lost. Thank you for reading.
Pam
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Re: Paypal payments only shift on eBay
This fits in with my theory that eBay intends to become every seller's senior partner someday by taking the majority of the profits via fees and commissions. If this goes through, there will be about 15-20% of the gross going to eBay. By 2010 it will be 35% of the gross unless someone begins to set up serious competition. I hope that the google guys see the potential inherent in opening up a new front in this business.
Kal
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PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ALL THE EBAY MOTORS PARTS SELLERS YOU KNOW - this can and will affect all of us!!
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=1000697586
MESSAGE TO KRISTINA KLAUSEN Re: Specified Shipping Costs
Dear Ms. Klausen:
Are you really going to punish proven, high-feedback sellers who sell items without specified shipping, by giving them less exposure in a "Best Match" because they cannot comply with the new "specified shipping cost" rules?
I have to assume that you don't spend much time around really old car parts or cars...and have never handled or sold any of them. If you did - you might better understand why it is nearly impossible to specify a shipping cost.
Try to imagine a head gasket - for example. These pieces encompass the majority of items I sell. If you've never seen one, picture two pieces of very thin copper with a piece of asbestos sandwiched between them - lengths range between 16" - 40", widths range from 5" to 16", and each no more than 1/8" thick. Corners bend if handled incorrectly, asbestos tears, copper buckles/crimps... in other words, it's a very fragile piece.
Now try to imagine a muffler, manifold, and other similar items.
To make sure my items arrive safely and in one piece - these gaskets are mounted on boards cut to size, wrapped with several layers of padded tissue, sandwiched between two cut pieces of heavy cardboard - the same size as the boards, taped closed, overwrapped with heavy brown paper, and taped up with USPS Priority Tape. EACH piece takes well over 30 minutes to pack and prepare!!! For that effort, and for the expenses of my packaging materials, I charge a $1.50 handling fee on top of actual costs.
International packing is different - depending on the size of the gasket. Sometimes it's cheaper to box...sometimes the wood has to be thicker. Packing method cannot be determined until I know the winner's country.
In any event - the packing weight of the domestic piece and weight of an international piece is almost always different.
Many times, buyers will bid on/win more than one item. Again, specially sized packages/boards/packing materials are created specifically for THEIR win.
My friends ship world-wide: fenders, glass, fragile pieces of chrome, manifolds, transmission parts...and other items that need to be individually packed, boxed, or crated. Again, many of these people sell more than one part to the same person, and sometimes, combining items is workable, and other times, it's not.
In other words, Ms. Klausen - I cannot "pre-pack" my gaskets for Ebay's benefit. I can't even come up with a "ballpark" weight, because it depends on the wood cut at the time, and weight of the cardboard. I don't "cut" unless the item has a winning bidder. A bad guess would be deceptive. Each situation is handled individually.
My shipping statements are as follows:
US SHIPPING: Buyer will pay for safely packed Priority Mail PLUS Delivery Confirmation PLUS $1.50 Handling. Same/next day shipping upon payment by Money Order!
INTERNATIONAL/CANADIAN SHIPPING: I am pleased to do a very large amount of overseas business! However, special terms apply: Shipping/handling charges will be higher, and will be determined after I have your address.
I'm not the only "old car" person with exemplary feedback who has to specially create crates, boxes, or other packing methods for a specific item - AFTER it is sold.
People in the antique/vintage car business understand this.
Why are you going to punish good sellers, and make us comply with rules that CANNOT and DO NOT comply with our business?
How are you going to handle situations like these, when we can't follow your rules??
Your response is appreciated - as this message has been passed on to a list of 25+ 1000+ HIGH feedback Ebay sellers of vintage car parts, who do not post on these discussion boards.
Thank you.
Caryl
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Received in response to the May 13th issue of the AuctionBytes Newsflash newsletter:
THERE IS NOTHING ANY ONE can do about these changes the only thing that can happen is to leave ebay and there just is not any competition.
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Ina-
I've written to you in the past, and you even featured one of my stories to you in a first item sold online column. Here's one for your readers:
I've made Power Seller under three different ID's since 1998 - two were while I was working for other companies, the last with my "own" when I said why not do this for myself about two years ago. I primarily sell CD's that are used for repairing people's computers that contain a proprietary (i.e., I made it myself) program: rather than spend $100 or so in a computer shop fixing there computer, people can buy a repair CD from me for less than ten bucks. My feedback and DSR ratings are high - I even qualified for the 15% discount last month.
I also used to sell digital delivery items, too. People "want it now" and in addition to reducing the cost to the buyer (no shipping fees) with instant gratification, it made it easy for me: you can truly sell 24/7 and not worry too much about delivery. I could increase the price of the item (more money for me, as well as more commission for eBay), yet the total cost to the customer was less as there wasn't that shipping component. I continued selling digital delivery items until eBay educated all of us selling digital goods were evil as they could be sold "at little to no cost" to the seller. So, I took all of my digital auctions and store format down. Let me point out these digital items were not the 1 cent auction secrets people were selling as a feedback scheme, but ranged anywhere from $2.00 - $20.00 each (if anyone needs a positive so bad they will pay two bucks a pop, something is wrong).
At least I thought I had taken them down: earlier this week, I realized I had two items in a store format I had missed. I took them down, too, on Monday night. Coming home from work today, there is an email from eBay today (Thursday night) saying they identified those same two store format items I took down and ended them. That's strange, as I had ended them earlier in the week. Because of my evils as a seller ~ Power Seller, high feedback and DSR rating, being proactive and taking down digital items ~ all of my auctions (CD's, etc.) were taken down by eBay and my registration has been indefinitely suspended with no chance of reinstatement.
Go figure. To me, it's another case of the 800 pound gorilla declaring a seller guilty with no phone number to call and talk common sense. eBay was fun while it lasted.
Regards,
Bill
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Hello Ina,
I wanted to send you my observations and opinions of the current state of the executive leadership running eBay.
Recent missteps by eBay executives should have everyone questioning the quality and vision of the new leadership at eBay.
First, in announcing pending changes in policies and final value fee increases, eBay CEO John Donahoe disrespectfully referred to anticipated dissenting opinions from buyers and sellers as "noise".
Not exactly a great way to demonstrate the value he places on the opinions of the very buyers and sellers upon whom his company is dependent upon for its continued survival.
Second, after small sellers rise up in arms, pull listings and cancel accounts due to: 1) announced fee increases, 2) discrimination with regard to listings visibility in Best Match search, and 3) new listing prompts insisting sellers reduce shipping fees when postal rates are increasing - Lorrie Norrington posts on an eBay blog that "eBay wants small sellers".
The horses had escaped already escaped the barn by the time Ms Norrington tried to close the doors on this one.
Not helping her case is the timing of the announcement that eBay had signed a discount fee agreement with Buy.com at virtually the same time as Ms. Norrington's post, further documenting the preferred status for large sellers while adding possibility of similar deals to come.
Third, eBay announced that they were going to make PayPal the only form of electronic payment in Australia, eliminating competitive online payment processors, as well as direct bank deposit, and thus telling buyers and sellers that it is PayPal or hand to hand payment at pick up only on eBay Australia.
If successful the plan was reportedly considered to be enacted across eBay globally.
Then comes a non denial denial from eBay spokesman Usher Leiberman who wrote: "In the U.S., we are not mulling, planning, or otherwise seriously considering a move to PayPal-only," and..."There are U.S. market-specific reasons why PayPal-only is something we simply cannot do in the U.S."
But Leibermans' statement gets less definitive as he continued to write: "Categorical statements have a tendency to cause headaches down the road,". Apparently, the headache down the road is either his denial that future plans are to force PayPal only in the US or not.
At best, Leiberman's statement is confusing and seemingly contradicts itself.
Fourth, in a meeting with eBay buyers and sellers in Australia about plans to allow PayPal payments only on the site, eBay Vice President Simon Smith stated: "We're not allowing people to offer unsafe choices, just like in this democracy you can't go out and buy heroin on the streets."
Not exactly a well thought out analogy any quality executive would offer to customers as they express outrage over the new proposed policy.
At what point is eBay going to realize that the current leadership is inept and doing more damage than any competition could hope to inflict?
eBay is rapidly losing buyers and sellers, and it is the executive leadership of the company holding the door open for them as they leave.
If this represents the quality of eBay leadership going forward, then this company seems destined to go from champ to chump in less time than it took AOL to self destruct.
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Re: "eBay Reveals Top-10 Seller Markets"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m05/i09/s04
CAL was number one on this list for sellers, but did the buyers come from outside CA to avoid sales tax? I bet.
Another interesting point if a seller has a business in and sells to someone in California. In California, if I allow FREE SHIPPING, title of the product does not pass until the item is delivered, therefore, I am responsible for sales tax in the county/city the item is delivered to. Normally, the buyer pays shipping, title of the product passes when the item is dropped at the Post Office, and sales tax is based on my city/county.
That according to my CPA. You'd have to be crazy to have a business in California and offer Free Shipping, unless you really enjoy paper work.
Regards,
Troy
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G'day Ina,
One of the later submissions to be published on the ACCC site was this one by PESA, which I would think would have some interest to your readership (it is a big file - 3.8 meg) :
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/trimFile.phtml?trimFileName=D08+41551.pdf&trimFileTitle=D08+41551.pdf&trimFileFromVersionId=827478
Of further interest, is how long it is likely to take the ACCC to come up with a decision. On the top right of the submission page is the "Browse ED notifications" structured by years. So far none have been revoked this year, and out of a large number only two were revoked last year. This one by GeelongPort Pty Ltd, is probably a similar enough, but more simple example of third line forcing, where they required users of their port to use their cranes:
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/779038/fromItemId/776485
There were 23 submissions in this case, it was lodged with the ACCC on 19th January 2007, and "The ACCC issued a draft notice proposing to revoke the notification on 28 July 2007 and issued a notice to revoke on 4 February 2008." Thus the process took just over twelve months.
In the EBay / PayPal case the ACCC is telling enquiries that they expect to come to a decision within 3 to 6 months. If the notification is revoked Ebay have 30 days to stop the exclusive dealing arrangement:
Explianed in this radio interview - http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lawreport/stories/2008/2226695.htm
QUOTE: Well rather than waiting till the ACCC makes a determination that it is a breach of Section 47, an exclusive dealing, Section 93 of the Act allows for eBay to lodge a notification. It's a good corporate government policy. It is saying to companies out there, "If you think you might be in breach, tell us and then we will investigate it, and we will make a determination. While we are investigating it, you are deemed not to be in breach of the provision, and even if we decide that you are in breach, you've got 30 days afterwards to reverse that position."
END QUOTE
Thus it is likely that even if the ACCC stops this form of restrictive trade on the Ebay site, they will been trading that way in Australia for 6 to 12 months (my estimate) and the marketplace will have already been irrevocably affected. PayPal will definitely have an improved take-up rate in Australia, and it is hard to gauge whether anyone who left the site over this action will return in, say, 12 months time. The point raised by the ABA (from memory) that this would actually cause a greater take-up of PayPal by users elsewhere on the net since they were already registered there through Ebay, may become self fulfilling, even if it was to be a reason that the ACCC rejects the notification. There appears to be no chance that a decision will be made by the 21st of June, when the PayPal only policy is to be enforced on the Australian site.
Food for thought, even if it is not scientific.
Kind Regards,
Kevin
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Ebay is flooding categories with items from its new Buy dot Com, literally hundreds of thousands of items.
This is competing against Ebay Sellers, and giving false info to stockholders about the number of items listed on Ebay.
For example, Buy has listed over 200,000 Books in the Books Category. There is a thread on Seller Central Board about how this has wrecked book sales for Sellers.
Do an Advanced Search, by Seller = BUY, then choose the category.
Thanks!
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Ina,
I've spent quite a bit of time exploring the implications of the one very specific measurement that eBay is hanging its entire hat on, that is the lowest of a seller's ratings on four common standards of ecommerce excellence. As you know, all incentives (Best Match, PS program, FVF discounts) rest upon having four great DSR scores.
But eBay is not asking each consumer how the transaction went based on whatever criteria actually matter to that consumer. On eBay, the consumer's needs are more idiosyncratic than the rest of ecommerce. That's why people come to eBay in the first place. But eBay is not measuring "overall" consumer satisfaction. And as you know, you get what you measure.
The Buy.com deal is a great illustration. Buy's DSRs are consistently excellent, and I'm thrilled they are on eBay. But they are a "vanilla" seller. Such sellers don't bring people to eBay (though the lack of such sellers cause people to leave).
On the other hand, there are extraordinary sellers who THRILL their customers, but may be "merely good" (not excellent) in one or more of the 4 DSR categories. If asked to rate their overall shopping experience, many of these sellers would score MUCH higher than Buy.com. But now, in eBay's eyes, they are poor sellers. But they are the sellers that bring people to eBay - that differentiate eBay in the broader ecommerce world.
What are the sort of sellers that DO thrill customers and bring people to eBay?
Sellers that:
-offer the thrill of 99cent NR auctions for valuable items ("windorphins")
-scour the globe for rare, unusual, hard to find items ("only on eBay")
-donate 10% or more of their selling price to a great cause (eBay Giving Works)
-communicate owner-to-customer like on Main Street
-surprise buyers with gifts with their purchase
-a myriad of other unique, special and personalized ways eBay sellers have found to thrill customers time and time again.
These sellers are responding to their customers' needs and may be trading off "merely good" performance (4 stars) on one factor, in favor of LEGENDARY performance on something their customers care deeply about (e.g., 99 cents NR, only-on-eBay items, eBay Giving Works, etc.).
eBay should let customers tell us who the legendary performers are, and allow them to rise to the top of eBay. The only way to do that is to peg all incentives to the customers' "overall" rating - just as Amazon, Shopzilla and most other sites do.
Sincerely,
David Yaskulka
President
Blueberry Consulting
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