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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I've written you before and you might want to drill down a little to identify what I believe are two distinctly different markets of online sellers. There are the antique/used/collectible/craft sellers - usually small, recreational, and occasional sellers (but many of them) i.e. the original Ebay sellers. And there are the new/gift/electronics/reproductions/etc. sellers - the ones who took over EBay and constitute most of the "power sellers". There are fewer of them but they do most of the dollar volume.

The needs and concerns of these two groups vary greatly. I fall in the small antique seller group. I am not highly skilled computer-wise and just scraped by when selling on Ebay. Those of us in this group need a lot of help and need to be spoon fed information. We relied on the ease of the early-day system of selling on Ebay. But as the rules got more complex and "the game" matured, a lot of us fell away and found it hard to keep up with the sophistication of selling online.

Conversely, the power sellers got more skilled, automated, and proficient in their effort to move larger quantities efficiently... i.e. more genuine, professional businesses. I also think that sellers of "new stuff" were the source of most of fraudulent behavior.

Nuff said. Don't know if this helps you one bit. But I would like to see an auction site develop that returned to serving the needs of the small seller. If your new newsletter could focus on stories or solutions for this group, I think there is an "online selling for idiots" audience out there.

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Hi Ina,
Thought you may be interested in this terrific eBay Community story... http://www.ebaychatter.com/the_chatter/2008/06/while-mark-was.html

A friend of mine now has the 6 charity auctions up and running... http://stores.ebay.com/Giraffes-and-Things_Charity _W0QQcolZ4QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ139278012QQftidZ2QQtZkm

Hope all is well and your week is great!
Best regards,
Lanae

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Hi Ina,
We read so much negative about eBay, I was wondering if you could blog about something positive. Terry Meade's (tootsiegirls) husband Mark had a heart transplant on June 4, 2008 and is now home and doing well. Terry is a member of Voices and we put together some auctions to help support the Transplant Foundation: Gift of Life Family House in Mark's honor. This tinyurl link will take you to the auctions and if you'd like to do a story, please feel free to use any text in the auctions or contact me or Terry. Thank you. http://tinyurl.com/6kwmbf
Helen

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Hi, Ina -
One of the ebay policy changes that hasn't gotten a lot of press but will have a major effect on me is the "anonymizing" of email addresses, which will force all communication to go through ebay's very rudimentary email system.

My primary concern is the very poor searchability of ebay's email system. I search prior emails to answer questions or resolve problems on a daily process. In almost all cases, it would be impossible to find the emails I need if they had been sent through ebay and I had only the current ebay email search function available.

Can you find out from ebay what changes are being planned to address the lack of a complete search function in ebay's email system? What is needed is found in all other client email systems - the ability to search by recipient (would have to be ID rather than email address), any word or partial word in the subject line, and any word or partial word in the body BY DATE RANGE.
Thanks.
Carol

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Hello...
I've enjoyed AuctionBytes from the beginning and am grateful that you provide such a wonderful source of information and ideas.

Like many EBayer's, I received a note from EBay telling me how to up my rating. (Up-my- something is more like it!) EBay suggests that in order to get great feedback and ratings I should not charge shipping and handling. (Is it just me or does the post office and UPS make everyone pay to ship an item?)

EBay went on to suggest that if there was any problem at all with the transaction, that I pay for the return postage and give my bidder 100% of their monies back. (It didn't seem to matter what the problem was. EBay wanted me to know that I should take full responsibility for the financial end of things.)

So let me see if I have this correct: I buy an item for $7 that can sell for $12. I have to pay EBay their fees, PAYPAL their fees, AND I have to pick up shipping and the cost of packing material and the gas to get the item to the post office? Hmmmmm. I can understand how sellers who list items that "fell off a truck" or are "faux" brands sold as authentic can manage this kind of odd accounting, but what about the rest of us?

In addition, I am not able to leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers who try to re-negotiate prices after the auction ends? Buyers who tell me they never received their items even though the tracking number lists it as delivered? Buyers who threaten me when the book they bought doesn't arrive within 24 hours?

I have excellent feedback and ratings. I always make things right with my bidders. I work hard to provide great merchandise at an excellent price. I'm starting to feel as though EBay is tying my right hand to my left foot and then asking me to dance a tango.
Frustrating!
J

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Hi Ina..
Here is another EBM Vehicle listing problem. The sell to location has defaulted to USA only. I always sell world wide and just noticed when listing a vehicle on the preview page a suggestion to also sell to Canada.. Only problem is the sell to locations has been removed from the syi vehicle form.

I posted about it on the motors board but no pink response yet. We do quite a bit of export business and I'm thinking this might stop a non us buyer from clicking the buy now. But just the fact is says USA may deter potential buyers from asking questions.
It never ends!
Ed

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You should do a story on just "my ebay beta".... they are forcing 5% of the ppl to stay in it.. it really does suck.. i wont buy anything till its over.. and make sure you ask them what happened to freedom of choice

Note from Editor: This article covers the My eBay test

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Ina,
Why and when did Ebay start to delete all COMPLETED auctions when a seller goes NARU? I am not talking about specific trademark items that they pulled for VERO, but items that buyers won and paid for and the seller went Naru for other violations.

In your blog today you wrote about the Australian seller ebusiness_supplies. This is a perfect example. IF you look at feedback left for them Ebay has pulled all the closed auctions. How is this even remotely fair to buyers that may need that information for legal purposes?

While I am not part of the Ebay bashing contingent, this particular action by Ebay reeks of self protection on Ebay's part and gives me pause. What exactly are they trying to hide by removing closed auctions that buyers have paid for? Why is Ebay hampering efforts by pervious buyers of these Naru sellers in gathering all the information they need to file complaints and possible police or legal action?

I am very surprised not to hear more stink about this. If you have more information I think it would make a wonderful blog post or article for auctionbytes.

Thanks for your time,
Phil

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After just coming off a 25 cent listing special and suckering countless sellers into listing 10-50-1000 identical items eBay has NOW announced that only ONE of those identical items will show up in the listings. There are many such as myself that have those 25 cent listings running through next Friday.

In fact I have 26 remaining and now just ONE will show in ANY search option not just Best Match. To spend fees on 26 listings to only have one show up is fraud. If they wanted to enact such a rule then sellers should have been given advance warning and push the date to August 15,Sept 1st etc. As a three year seller,Gold level PS I'm done with eBay forever. This is CRIMINAL behavior no matter how you spin it.
David

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RE: "eBay Changes Mind on No-Links Policy"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/cab/abn/y08/m07/i31/s01

i,
It just sounds like they are trying to mitigate some of the damage done by their ignominious sellout to buy.com.

There aren't going to be many sellers OTHER than "buy" afffected by this. Who has ten or twenty items that are all going to show up in the same search?

However, this business of eBay's braindead MBAs jerking around with how things appear in Search is very disquieting. Just look what has happened to the sellers that went and opened eBay "stores", then eBay decided they were too prominent in search so they fiddled with the system so they don't show up. My sales tanked. Thank you Donahoe & Co.

A while back, they started changing how things were displayed based upon seller ratings or something like that. Now, when you do a search, instead of being displayed in the order of closing, they jump around by time. One item ends in a hour, the next in 2 days, then the next ends in 15 MINUTES. More eBay stupidity. But what can you expect from the geniuses that thought buying Butterfields Auction would be a good move?
Bruce