Changes at Ebay?

Ron Earp · 02-10-08, 07:42 PM

While not specifically GT40 related many of us do use Ebay for our car hobby. Some interesting information here that I must do more research on to see how it all shakes out.

YouTube - Feb 18-25th 2008: Worldwide Ebay Strike

Ron

Chris Martino · 02-10-08, 07:52 PM

Reminds me of the attempts of 'boycotting' gas company 'X' on your next fill-up on the first Monday in May to bring down fuel prices at the pumps - stands about as much of a chance at making any impact.

Although I did get an email from FeeBay stating that final value fees were lower and listing pics were now free - too bad everything else went way up in price making it all a moot point.

Chris

Ron Earp · 02-10-08, 08:20 PM

Here is some of the lowdown on changes to the feedback system:

Upcoming Changes to Feedback

I definitely don't get #2:

"Sellers will no longer be able to leave negative or neutral Feedback for buyers. This change will occur in May, 2008."

Bill Musarra · 02-10-08, 08:56 PM

Ron,
The sellers were using negative feed back when the buyers left negative feedback on the sellers. By eliminating that, the buyers don't worry about retaliation when they have a bad seller and they are hoping the buyers will leave a truer picture of the seller. If you have someone who doesn't pay, you can re list and sell. If you have someone who doesn't sell, Ebay has the hassle of trying to get your money back, along with trying to prosecute the scamers who can be anywhere in the world.
It has been reported in the media and particularly by consumer advocate, Clark Howard that ebay's business has fallen off recently and that the number of items not selling or sold has increased dramatically. Ebay's revenues have suffered due to relistings that they currently don't charge for. So they are restructuring their fee schedule to try and increase their revenue stream. The local options, Craig's List and others have seen an increase in listings and sales. Probably due to the fact they deal mainly with local listings. When sold to the people "in the neighborhood", the follow through is much higher. There also was an increase on Ebay in the number of sellers who were "selling nothing but smoke" and were only trying to get your money. The local markets make that more difficult to pull off, as you can meet and exchange in a lot of cases.

Bill

I LOVE GT40- Paolo · 02-11-08, 08:25 AM

just I hope this will be a revolution as the downfall of napster at the time.
Now we have amule/emule and torrent, and its too much better.

Paul Thompson 'Hooligan' · 02-19-08, 08:27 AM

Got this today...

eBay's Insertion Fees just got even cheaper

We're delighted to announce that the Insertion Fees to list an item on eBay.co.uk will be reduced by up to a third in most categories from February 20th, meaning you can reach millions of potential buyers for just a few pennies.

The bulk of fees will now be payable only when and if your items sell, so there's no reason not to give it a go now!

Find out how to sell on eBay.co.uk

Find out more about our new fees

So what's the verdict? - are they getting desperate yet?

Gary Kadrmas · 02-19-08, 02:15 PM

Pressure from the competition????

Doug Clark · 02-19-08, 08:00 PM

Although they've reduced the insertion fees they've more than made up for it by jacking up the final costs.
Also if you want to register and sell on eBay as of Jan 17 you HAVE to use PayPal (another revenue stream for them). And if you use PayPal you now HAVE to accept credit card payments which means you HAVE to have the account type where you get charge for EVERY transaction you do with PayPal.

Essentially I think in trying to me the stock markets expectations of growth they're going to slowly kill the business.