How eBay Stopped Being Recession-proof
What’s happened to eBay?
During the previous recession, the company thrived, partly because it was still young and growing, but mostly because it offered a place for some people to raise a few bucks quick by selling off their stuff and for others to find bargains that were often better than Amazon — or anywhere else, for that matter.
Take a look at this chart. It shows eBay’s stock against the Nasdaq in 2001 and 2002. This was eBay just before its peak, when it was a freewheeling, town square bazaar where entrepreneurs, hucksters and oddballs met and in many ways, a cultural phenomenon. Hardly a week passed when some bizarre item for sale didn’t make headlines.
Fast-forward to the past year, and our current recession, as exemplified in the chart below. Things have reversed. The performance of the Nasdaq is once again abysmal, but it’s still doing better then eBay.
In the first week of December, the heart of both holiday shopping and hard times, online traffic was up 9 percent at major online retail sites overall , according to comScore. Amazon’s traffic rose 10 percent and Apple’s surged 29 percent. But eBay’s traffic fell 9 percent.
The shift is a direct result of eBay CEO John Donahoe’s strategy to make eBay more friendly for shoppers. Over the past year, eBay has de-emphasized auctions and put more focus on “buy-it-now,” fixed-price sales.
By instituting a series of dramatic changes in policies and fees, eBay intended to shore up sales. Instead, it may have blunted its unique edge in online auctions and plunged headlong into another market where competition is much more intense. In grooming eBay to be more like Amazon’s merchants, Donahoe has created a competitor, but one that is growing more slowly. Indeed, analysts are starting to question the wisdom of the move. This morning, one downgraded eBay while another cut earnings estimate for the year, noting that the transition to fixed prices from auctions is being hurt by the recession.
In some ways, the strategy makes sense. I, for one, never took to eBay’s auctions, preferring the simplicity of “buy it now.” And while I recognize that eBay is now a safer environment to purchase things, I still compare its prices and seller ratings with those of Amazon and other sites before making a purchase.
So as a consumer, I welcome Donahoe’s changes. But I still wonder if he didn’t make a big blunder for eBay itself. Legions of buyers loved the thrill of winning an eBay auction, the eclectic collection of strange things for sale, and the feeling of wandering around an open market where nearly anything might happen.
The freewheeling bazaar is fading away. Instead, we are left with something that is, for better or worse, less dangerous.
We are left with just another strip mall on the Internet.
Chart images courtesy of BigCharts.com.
Have you noticed that unique items are disappearing, not the oddball items, but wonderful unique items that ebay used to be known for? Replaced with drop ship mega sellers? buy.com, shoplet, trading card seller and just recently smartbargains and this is supposed to improve the buyer experience?
Not likely.
Sellers are leaving in droves because the higher fees and horrible search engine, dysfunction feedback and double standard detailed seller star ratings are driving them off, voluntarily and otherwise.
Horrible and impossible for the majority of sellers.
It’s fading faster than a sunset.
Recently I put a cellphone of mine up on ebay.. the cellphone right now sells for $199.00 unlocked on several sites.. I listed my cellphone on ebay with a very, very low starting price of just 99 cents (of course to save on listings fees) and relied on market value to push the price up to at least a reasonable value of one hundred dollars since the phone was rarely used but out of box.. I had very good photos of the phone up with an 8MP Sony cam.. they were crystal clear.. I also included a 2GB Internal storage card.. After 7 long days.. my phone ended at $17.00????????? I mean there was no way on this planet was I giving this phone to anyone for $17.00 I asked the buyer to cancel the item through an ebay link where no one would be out any money.. of course the winning bidder cancelled my request to cancel the win and he told me “you have to sell it now, that’s what ebay’s about” I told him to jump off a cliff and that ‘if ebay isn’t getting any buyers anymore that that wasn’t my problem.. I also added that I will recognize this ‘lack of generation’ and move away from the ebay option at least for now.. I am also noticing that ebay now is hosting sales from ‘Power Sellers’ who basically are selling things from the insides of corporations.. sellouts, overstocks, etc.. might as well just go to Overstock.com or Amazon if I want that.. Ebay’s problem is their fees and the fact that regular everyday people are judged by every single purchase or sell through their ‘feedback’ system.. this might have been an okay idea in the beginning but if you do the feedback thing long enough you just run away from it.. ebay is the only venue where you’re rated everytime u do a transaction.. imagine if real life was like that and you had your feedback posted on your forehead for everyone to see? Who would ever leave home?
Ebay’s fees are not reasonable.. ie., when you list an item ebay charges you at the entrance.. and if you sell an item.. ebay charges you at the exit.. what is this.. ebay fees, ebay fees, and more ebay fees.. if you want your text to be bold you have to pay for it, if you want your ebay window to have a border you pay for it.. it’s just rediculous.. it’s just money, money, money!! It insults people.. and over time yes.. ebay will kill itself.. Craigslist is the same thing as ebay.. you list an item with photos.. and people buy and sell.. Craigslist has ‘ZERO’ fees and ‘ZERO’ feedbacks.. You do the math.. Ebay is just another greedy corporation heading towards it’s own greedy demise.. and ya know what as a former ebay lover.. I wouldn’t even care if it shut down tomorrow for good!!! We can all just go back to throwing our junk out and not have to go to the dang post office so much..
John Donahoe will be taught in business school as an example of what not to do.
He killed eBay in less than one year. Shocking.
Even if eBay was able to compete with the other fixed-price online marketplaces, what would its brand stand for? More than entering a fiercely competitive market, eBay has lost its identity. That is death in consumer-land.
The only thing keeping Ebay going right now are the buyers who have been on the site for years and don’t want to learn to use other venues. With each small seller they lose they also lose some buyers. The scales are tipping and soon buyers will be forced to shop other venues in order to buy from those small sellers again. As one of those small sellers forced off ebay by Best Match I look forward to the day Ebay sinks down and dies! They’ve shown such callous greed and total disrespect for small sellers that they’ve earned it!
Ebay has it coming. They rule as if they have nobody to answer to. They turned their back on auctions and turned their back on sellers. The new feedback policy alone gives far too large an advantage to buyers when twisting the arm of sellers to give them what they want or else. I don’t know who the brain trust was at Ebay that thought making the whole buyer seller scales uneven would help Ebay in any way. Hard fact…ebay makes nothing if sellers don’t post something for sale. So although buyer protections, etc need to be in place, making the playing field uneven is a a huge mistake. Ebay should have been nothing more than a flea market that rents space. They should have never gotten involved in enforcement, etc as they have. Bottom line is the feedbacks eventually solve every issue, good or bad. But not if the feedback is now held hostage by buyers. Ebay is now in trouble and they deserve it. bring on the next one and I will list my sales there.
“So as a consumer, I welcome Donahoe’s changes. But I still wonder if he didn’t make a big blunder for eBay itself. Legions of buyers loved the thrill of winning an eBay auction, the eclectic collection of strange things for sale, and the feeling of wandering around an open market where nearly anything might happen.”
Hey That’s mighty white of you but what about the millions of displaced eBay sellers that are being forced to leave the site????? less than 1/10 of 1% of all sales were problematic with fraud & eBay could have easily handled it if they really wanted to but in doing so they would have to admit there was a problem .. Now because of all eBay’s failed policies tens of thousands of sellers who made all or most their income are now out in the streets & I hear nothing from you guys in the suits about these displaced sellers .. But if walmart lays off 500 people it’s front page news!!!!
John Donahoe is such an ego driven moron, even if he knows in his heart that his “disruptive innovations” aren’t working, he won’t admit it. I’ve been with Ebay for over 10 years, with 100% feedback, and they won’t get another dime from me, a SELLER, until things change. The main change needed is the termination of John Donahoe. I don’t have enough room to list all the stupid changes he/they have enacted, but just visit their own discussion boards and see for yourself.
I, along with hundreds of former Ebay’ers, have since gone to Bonanzle and love it. It’s a friendly atmosphere, uncomplicated protocol, and reasonable fees.
@GhostofEbayPast: So, what you’re commenting on is only what the public has seen over the past year or so. Donahoe, alone as well as when reporting to Meg Whitman, has been part of bad decisions made for at least three years. It’s been a long time in the making.
What’s really scary is the number of eBay incompetents who have gone on to leadership positions at other SV companies.
Cherie is absolutely correct! This has been in the making for a few years. Ebay has evolved into not much more than a venue for the large drop-ship sellers, whose wares you can find at your local discount stores. The “mom and pop” sellers of the unique and interesting items have been driven off. As I said, the problems are too many to list here.
I stopped selling on Ebay in Jan 08 as soon as I read of the then new changes (especially the feedback changes and being graded on DSRs). I have since closed my Ebay and PayPal accounts. As a seller, there is no way I will play Ebay’s game. I am self employed because I like to make my own decisions and reap; the consequences or rewards of my own actions- but under Ebay’s new regime, everyone must fit into a narrow mold; and the type of buyers that they are now attracting by pandering to idiots and scammers, are NOT the type of customers I want. And when a non-paying bidder, scammer or competitor can ruin your business through DSRs and feedback (as happened to a friend of mine), anyone who values their name and reputation will abandon the Ebay ship before they fall victim to such a fate through no fault of their own. As a buyer, I simply do not trust anyone who would continue to sell on such a venue- as their willingness to stay under the current atmosphere says to me that they afre concerned only with making a buck at any cost, and not about doing what is right, or running their business in the best way- so I no longer have any use for Ebay as a buyer or seller; and ditto for all my friends.
You can’t sustain a business with the premise that ‘people are basically honest’. You can’t offer up guidelines for conducting business instead of hard,proven,enforceable rules. Guidelines resulted in thousands of interpretations by millions of sellers. Without rules, without any roadblocking delays to fraudulent users eBay didn’t escape behind its ‘venue’ curtain for very long. Millions of dollars lost to litigation and fines. It cannot be salvaged with late breaking, heavy handed rules. Using ‘disruptive innovation’ eBay is transforming itself into an internet ad platform for a handful of existing retailers (real businesses) with their own mail order processing facilities. After 10 years of ‘herding cats’, eBay is courting reputable businesses. What of the rabble-rousers, the ‘noise’ that remains of the sellers on eBay? Expendible. eBay has charged the buying community with the destruction of the remaining sellers by ‘rating’ them to oblivion. And, Meg Whitman, architect of change on eBay, never changed John McCain’s perception that eBay was a vital economic factor to save thousands of jobless households. The American public listening in to the debates has no clue that eBay is dead. Noisy, but dead.
It seems that eBay neglected the long tail (mom and pop sellers) and wrongly focused on bigger stores, with commodity fixed-price items. It would be a better move if they launched another website to offer a more online store environment, where sellers could display their products in a more professional way (and even easily put their products into Shopping.com). This new venue could be attractive to consumers that are looking to a regular buying experience. Now, eBay is damaging its major brand and is also doing a lousy job with SDC.
Several comments here are from people who say they used to be sellers on eBay, but left.
I’m curious, where did you go when you left eBay? Did you move to another site? Set up your own Web store? Drop out of online retail entirely?
I never really got into eBay, the site was always slow and non responsive. The search functionality sucked, and the listings I found were often not at all what I was looking for.
For the vast majority of things that I need to sell Craigslist works much better, without needing to worry about whether I’m being scammed or not.
Hi Kevin, To answer your question: I was a seller on Ebay for about 5 years. I invented and produce Special Mica Shades for Antique lamp bases, and I do custom work as well. 100% feedback, over 580 satisfied clients. Some are Very Notable. The day Ebay would no longer “Allow” me to accept Money Orders and Checks, was the day my life’s purpose was erased. Not an Overstatement at all. It’s All Gone. Everything. I refuse to use PayPal because of it’s reputation for Corruption. Ebay forced it on the remaining sellers. I refuse to go paperless. It isn’t necessary. I’m listing on OnlineAuction.com, eCrater, iOffer, and others. People have not yet branched out and ventured into new territory as fast as we need. Five years ago, I created my business. Everything was going along smoothly. Shortly thereafter, Ebay started in with Requests that sellers lower their prices. “At Low Prices”, “Start your item at .99″ was the mantra. It was Murdering my sales. I complained about the intrusion into my way of doing business. I must get a certain amount for all of my work to make it worth while , “DUH !” Ebay is Only a Venue. They Sell NOTHING. Like an Answering Service, there’s nothing Tangable there. They have no business telling me how to run my business. It’s the Seller, then the buyer. Seller PAYS Ebay to list. Then Buyer comes along….PAYS Seller. Ebay makes ZERO DOLLARS on buyers. ZERO. Unless….Do YOU pay Ebay a Fee to Buy there ? That’s It. The old rule of “K.I.S.S.” As a Seller it is MY JOB to: 1)Make an Item 2)Photograph the item in detail 3)List the item 4)Provide FAST courteous Service to folks asking any questions 5)PROMPTLY wrap up all End of Auction actions…usually within Minutes. 6)Box & Ship the item 7)Leave feedback immediately upon reciept of payment I only accept Money Orders and Checks. Never had a problem. EVER. My website is : nymarts.com …..take peek…. I recieved an email from a man down South who also Just got notice of the New Payment Rule. He said he was about to put the barrel in his mouth. I never heard from him after that… All of Ebay C.E.O. John Donahoe’s changes (disruptive innovation) have litterally had a Deadly Effect. I just recieved an Email from the Department of Justice stating that there is nothing they can do. So, Limbo is what it is now…..a vaccuum of nothingness… God Bless You Kevin May we all be Prosperous in the Coming Year.
I liked the old ebay – you could get bargains bidding on auctions and there were a lot of used and/or one-off items there. I bet if you compared traffic on Craigslist you’d see the Craigslist has grown while ebay has shrunk. They need to bring back the auctions and court the mom and pop sellers again.
Ebay needs to be the national garage sale it was instead of another online shopping mall.
I give ebay and paypal with all it corruption and fees 2years tops befor chapter 11 take over. Ebay and paypal screw me about 5 years ago. I never return to the site.
@Nan. Thanks for sharing about your experience. I certainly share your wish for prosperity for all next year.
Check out Bonanzle as an alternative to eBay. It looks like it is about to take off in a major way. No listing fees and $3 final value fee on $100.00 sale.
Also, we can not overlook the “bad blood” eBay has created in the online world. They think they are just pissing off the small sellers but they have created an army of people who will tell everybody they meet how awful ebay is.
I googled “Ebay Sucks” and “Walmart Sucks” about a month ago and eBay beat Walmart by a large number.
Also, a good many of those small sellers ebay declared expendable were also its most faithful buyers.
How can it possibly been seen as good business to create enemies of your allies?
Although I am still a very active eBay seller, the changes have had a significantly negative impact on my quality of life. Like Richiemagoo, I too am self employed because I like to run my own business. That’s what I did before the moron Donahoe entered my life.
Lest anyone get the wrong impression, most eBay sellers (myself included) care deeply about our customers’ satisfaction with their buying experience. This is because we want them to return, AND because we are a prideful bunch who gather some portion of our esteem from the praise of others. Having an anvil hanging over our heads, ready to be released without notice by some guy who just caught his wife cheating with someone he associates with our eBay listing… This is not the way to motivate us into performance. We perform by our very nature.
Personally, I feel extremely smothered and nervous all the time since the changes have taken place. eBay has reversed only one of the absurd “disruptive innovations” introduced since May 19, 2008. That would be the equality of neutral and negative feedback posts from buyers. That one was SO absurd that it is my belief that it was intended from the beginning as something they would forfeit in a failed attempt to make us think they were paying attention to us.
Since this mess started, I have had thoroughly pleased customers by the hundreds who have rated me with 4 stars thinking that they were praising my products and service, while eBay uses their “praise” to justify raising my final value fees by 45%. The design is so obviously slanted that it is truly amazing that it is even legal.
I apologize for the rant, but I assure you that there are lots of fellow sellers reading this who are saying “AMEN!” out loud as they read. This is impacting real human lives. Marriages, children, household budgets, credit ratings… I could go on for hours.
I challenge you to find one positive article about eBay anywhere in the news since May 19, 2008. Donahoe’s arrogant plans are failing and will continue to do so. This seller will remain through the first quarter of 2009 in a belief that the madness will stop, but if it doesn’t, I’ll be following Richiemagoo out the exit door. Not only will I be unwilling to go back, I predict that there will be nothing to go back TO by the end of the year.
@eBay Management: Take the cotton out of your ears and remove your blinders! Make the U-Turn NOW! We want you to make it, you idiots. Do you think we are the enemy? We made you what you are and you have abandoned us.
Everyone is quick to point to the current economy when discussing recent declines in Internet Sales Volume, especially the dramatic decline at eBay.
eBay however, has no excuse to hide behind the economy declining curtain, except for the fact the CEO is unwilling to admit he had led the marketplace down the wrong path.
Draconian policies and failing infrastructure combined with search that returns irrelevant results, and the worlds worst customer service has been slowly bringing eBay down for years.
Enter Mr Donahoe and his “new coke – green ketchup – disruptive innovation’ plan for eBay, and the skids of failure received a new layer of grease.
Ebay has historically out performed the brick and mortar retail segment as well as the stock market during past recessions.
When times got tough, buyers used to flock to eBay in search of incredible deals on unique items as well as scoop up second hand goods to help stretch their dollar.
Then came John Donahoe, the killer of small sellers, the eBay suicide king, leader of the gang that could not shoot straight.
Under Mr Donahoe’s leadership, eBay is being converted into a high priced shopping mall at the very time that retailers of new merchandise are filing for bankruptcy in numbers never seen before due to a lack of buyers.
Mr Donahoe’s choice to eviscerate the core of eBay by purging small sellers could not have come at a worse time.
eBay’s quarterly reports are dismal and it’s stock price which has seen its value drop by 2/3 since Donahoe assumed control, sinks to a new low almost every week. Page views have reached new lows – down 30% Oct 2008 compared to Oct 2007.
This decline at eBay started to set in long before the economy displayed signs of recession, and runs completely contrary to eBay’s historical success during tough economic times.
Ebay has always offered the worlds worst customer service, recent staffing cuts have served to exacerbate this problem.
Ebay has alienated buyers with forced search methods that do not return what buyers want to see. Buyers will not buy what they do not want, and will not look too hard for bargains which eBay buries in search.
The failed Best Match does not allow buyers to search, but instead shows buyers what eBay has determined they want buyers to see.
Sellers that pay to place listings see those paid listings deliberately disadvantaged in placement in favor of a class of sellers that pay nothing to list items. These Diamond sellers flood the core and drown the small sellers that pay to list.
eBay has further alienated sellers with a draconian DSR policy which is not the tool promised to sellers. Instead, it turns out that DSR’s are really a weapon pointed at sellers heads that only delivers suspensions not information to foster improvement.
Sellers were supposed to be able to use DSR’s as a tool to improve, but eBay effectively prevents that function from succeeding as they prevent sellers from seeing details of individual transactions. Sellers are supposed to be able to improve yet are blinded by the secrecy of the system.
Sellers are frustrated by eBay’s failure to address the increasing frequency of non paying bidders. NPB activity has increased since implementation of the one way feedback policy. The issue continues to be ignored as eBay profits from re listing of unpaid merchandise.
EBay further alienates both buyers and sellers with a crumbling IT infrastructure that is subject to rolling ‘glitches’ on an almost daily basis. Glitches that effect payments, shipping, searching, access to funds, correct payment information, delayed revenue transfers and others cause buyers and sellers alike to give up on the company that suddenly can’t get anything right anymore.
As eBay continues to deteriorate, they have become less of a venue as they now want to dictate every facet of a sellers business from retail pricing and fixed shipping costs to what kind of feedback sellers are permitted to leave buyers. They cannot get anything right, yet they dictate what sellers must do. So much for the claim of being a venue.
PayPal is steadily alienating sellers with needless payment freezes and account holds which seem to be designed not to protect buyers, but increase PayPal’s on hand revenue balances, and thus their ability to earn interest of the frozen funds.
Mr Donahoe and the rest of his executive leadership team keep their heads buried firmly in the sand. They only pull them out for the occasional press release to parrot Donahoe’s claims that “all is well” and “everything is proceeding according to plan”, while ignoring the roof that is obviously falling in around them.
Add the fact that as the marketplace crumbles, eBay continues to steadily increase fees and it is no wonder why so many sellers have opted to migrate to other marketplaces and open their own web sites.
This company is failing on every level. Emperor Donahoe continues to fiddle as eBay burns.
Will shareholders step in and call for the removal of eBay’s current leadership or is John Donahoe the next poster child for failed CEO’s?
So many very good comments and insights here… one has to wonder if this apparent take-down wasn’t also controlled. I am learning that a healthy dose of skepticism is a very good thing and there are few mistakes made as concerns matters of this magnitude. A bigger question is what is the end game?
@Wanda, I wish you were correct about this:
…there are few mistakes made as concerns matters of this magnitude.
But you aren’t. A culture of conformity, myopia, and cronyism are the rule at eBay. If you were a rank-and-file person with research and analysis clearly showing that eBay was going down the wrong path… well, if you weren’t on track to advance, you were simply ignored. Or if you yelled loudly enough, you were screwed.
Or, if by some miracle your analysis was listened to in some way, the path from insight to action to end product is so convoluted and lengthy that it’s nearly impossible to be responsive to eBay’s audience even in the best of times. And in bad times, it leaves them completely flatfooted.
So to Wanda, Nan, johnhiggins and other eBay users, trust me when I say that it makes a lot of us heartsick to know that we couldn’t help steer a site and community we were devoted to, especially when we had clear evidence that the decisions being made within the last four+ years would not serve you well. Because mostly , we were forced to become politically savvy so we could glean some learnings, beef our resume and move on to make a real difference someplace else.
It’s alright “annonymous”. Don’t let it eat you up. I get a Good Night’s Sleep knowing that the Karmic Forces are at work. Merry Christmas :o)
EBay is in deep trouble, and even its supporters agree. The worst part is: their high fees and silly rules changes caused the issues, and they have no one to blame but themselves.
RicRoe nailed it, as usual. Now, it seems small sellers’ biggest effort should be in getting their buyers away from Ebay. Buyers notoriously do NOT want to suffer a learning curve. Even faced with the simple task of registering at a new site and finding you is often overwhelming to them and so they continue to hunt on Ebay in the ever dwindling supply of small sellers. I say make a list of ALL your past customers and email them and encourage them to seek you out at your new venue. Sign up with Ina and David Steiners “EveryplaceIsell.com” then you only need give your customers one URL link and they can immediately see and go to everywhere you are selling. We have been telling the public all year about the turmoil at Ebay and about their callous treatment of small sellers. Now we need to turn our energy on getting OUR customers away from that site and onto the smaller sites where they can get better deals and fairer treatment and where we can operate our businesses without the nonsensical and greedy interference from Ebay.
Well, as a long-time Ebayer I’ve certainly lost faith in it – as a seller it’s getting harder to put stuff up for sale, and the way the feedback works – every transaction is a risk-the-business one for the seller. As a buyer, I’ve seen items I’m interested in drop (in my standard search) from 250 to about 75 to browse. I guess if ebay gives up on the one thing that set it apart in the e-commerce world (its weird and wonderful auctions that got the clicks and the eyeballs) it’s going to be a big adjustment – I see little point in selling there now and the stuff to buy – well, mostly like stuff you can get at WalMArt, or lots of other places – too bad, it was great and interesting while it lasted.
I had just started my selling career on eBay when it was cut short in January by the changes. Too expensive, too complicated to list, too risky and arbitrary.
One question for Mr. Donahoe-if I can accept PayPal on other sites without my money being held for 21 days or longer, why would I sell with PayPal required on eBay, where that can happen? Particularly when the other sites are either free or have FVFs in the 2-3% range rather than the extortionate 9-15% you put into place this year? Small sellers can do the math, unlike eBay’s executives. One crucial equation in particular that they missed-every small seller driven off equals at least one BUYER no longer using the site. Small sellers WERE the buyers, many of them selling on eBay so that they could afford to buy on eBay. With no money from sales and all the interesting, quirky merchandise gone, they have no reason to patronize eBay-and that’s before you take into consideration the simmering resentment and rage at the way they’ve been treated. So there are probably actually multiple buyers lost for each small seller, as family and friends pay heed to the bad publicity. Never before has so much goodwill been squandered! Ebay has priced and reinvented itself into irrelevance this year. 2009 is going to see Bonanzle, Etsy and others continue their growth at the expense of the site that used to be the behemoth of auctions, because IT left eBay a year ago.
Another question for Mr. Donahoe-if you wanted to CEO an Amazon wannabee, why didn’t you just find or start one, instead of ruining something that wasn’t broken?
The problem with ebay is they are trying to do too much change in too short a period and there business plan is not sound .When they rolled out the new fixed price format I got calls and emails encouraging be to convert my store listings and auctions to fixed price format .Now about a week ago they send me a email telling me unless I am selling more than one item in the listing that I should use the auction format ???????????????This is the problem here instead of coming up with sound policies they constantly tinker which just creates confusion .What made ebay a giant is that it was a good CHEAP selling format when it started .It grew as fast and as large as it is beacuase it was CHEAP !!!! When I started on ebay my costs per item were about 3 to 5 percent now they are 20%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can only squeeze a lemon so much at some point it will run out of juice which is exactly what is happening with ebay now
Fire ebay’s CEO, John Donahoe, Now, before it’s too late!
Search the internet for “Ebay Stockholders and Sellers Calling For Immediate Termination of John Donohoe CEO”
at petitiononline.com
see what ebay/Paypal’s own employees are saying about the corruption by going to glassdoordotcom!
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?jdonohoe
I was an eBay addict. I sold on eBay for years, first time was about 10 years ago. I was also an eBay buyer for all of those years. I no longer purchase on eBay as I will not support what they have done to the sellers there. The fees are insane and they try to act as if us sellers don’t see the big picture “we have lowered listing fees” ( oh but we increased final value fees so it all works out for the big guys in the end).
From a buyers perspective though I am going to use my old co-worker and dear friend as an example. He had a blast on eBay bidding on auctions. Admitted himself how he would bid and bid many times more than an item was even worth because it was fun to win the auction. He hunts down football images of stadiums and games from all over, him and others in his group are building library of sorts of these images. Well in the last 5 months approximately he has only found a few things to bid on in the sea of buy it now and fixed price. He does not have the eBay auction spirit anymore because eBay does not have that spirit anymore. He has moved onto other sites such as Amazon & Bonanzle. On Bonanzle he can at least on most items make offers & chat with sellers and bring some fun back into purchasing. Amazon he feels more comfortable with than eBay and finds more of a selection with images in books than on eBay (due to eBay lost many of their big time sellers for these items). He has noted to me certain sellers that he bought from all of the time that one day were completely gone from eBay.
I myself do not list much on eBay anymore at all. I have given in to try to run a few auctions here and there and 90% of the time they sit there and nothing, nothing except me paying fees to eBay so in turn I can watch my items sit and not sell. I moved onto Bonanzle.com set up a booth in minutes, list my items in no time at all and no grief or stress, and best of all they do not charge me just to list on their site only a small fee if something sells. The community there is so friendly and helpful and the staff responds to emails personally and right away. I could not ask for more. The site is growing so fast it is so nice to finally see a REAL eBay alternative.
Thats my two cents Kim
Another great alternative to eBay, now also know by many other not so pleasant monikers is http://www.bonanzle.com/. This site is growing by the minute as you can see if you log in and refresh, the numbers rise continually. If you read their discussion pages, you will see the onslaught of eBay refugees that are disgusted and fed up with the many, rapid, unreasonable changes to their prices and policies. I have been selling on eBay for 4 years with a fair amount of success. I am still on the big E, but am preparing myself for a transition to this new refreshing, friendly site. Check out your alternatives. This is a good one!
My husband & I started selling full time on ebay over 4 years ago; our 1st year’s gross was nearly $50k. Now we can’t even get close to $10k. It is simply amazing to me that our sales there have dropped so much just in 4 short years. And it is all due to bad polices and practices implemented by the management there. Why they can’t understand what is actually happening is a complete mystery to me; it truly makes me wonder if they are actually destroying ebay on purpose. But why?
I’ve spent the last couple of years looking for an alternative; listing on Yahoo Auctions, Blujay, Plunderhere, Google Base, Craigslist, researching many others, and opening a web store. This past August I found Bonanzle.com through a link on powersellerunite.com, and I have to say that it is simply the best thing I’ve found. It has that certain something that could very well take it to the top of the heap. I’m finding that I’m actually enjoying buying and selling there again, something that I have very much missed on ebay for a couple of years now. ebay used to be fun and exciting, now I dread opening our seller page there everyday. And that is just plain sad.
Although we still have a few listings on ebay, we are planning for the day when we are no longer there. Right now, selling on the 3 venues, (our store, ebay and Bonanzle), are keeping us afloat, but I know the clock is ticking down on ebay. And frankly, the relief I will feel when we finally shut the door on selling there will be immense. But I have to admit there’s a bit of regret there too, for the wonder that ebay ~used~ to be.
eBay was the world’s greatest natural monopoly ever. It had a business moat that would have been impregnable for many, many years to come. It is now gone. It was destroyed from within by greed and ineptitude. (Unless of course you subscribe to the theory that the current management was cleverly planted by a competitor.)
It will be a case study in business school for the next two hundred years as our children try to understand the mindshare that eBay once enjoyed.
“We’ve done exactly what our sellers wanted, and sure enough, they are listing a lot more,” says Donahoe. “The selection on eBay has never been greater.” (Quote for Time magazine).
REALLY??? Up until a couple of years ago I could find almost anything on eBay even if it was really rare or obsolete. Now outside of the Ipods, DVDs & other widely available consumer goods I find only a very small percentage of the unique items for sale on eBay that created a fun and exciting marketplace that was unlike what the competition had to offer. People poured into eBay and spent hours and hours searching for fun stuff to buy. It is not the recession that is killing eBay it is the lack of originality that is sinking their ship. If they think becoming a cookie cutter version of Amazon is their future they better start looking in their rear view mirror.
Http://www.rexxsales.com
I have left the big E and will never look back. I have found a new home at Bonanzle.com. I’m very happty to be in on the ground floor of a company with people who actually care about the sellers. It is growing by leaps and bounds and I just love it and the people!
http://thebonz.com/memawscollectibles
I tried to reassure my decision to leave eBay, by listing a few things on eBay, just one more time. I completely confirmed my decision was the right one. When it cost me over $15.00 to sell one (1) $10.00 item, I knew that I had found my new home at Bonanzle.com. I can list away, not worrying if I can afford to just offer my items for sale, much less, just to ask a lower price, than what my item is worth, and sell it not at all, or below my cost. I list my items on Bonanzle, they are as listed until I decide to change them. I do not pay over and over for the privilege of not selling it, because I closed my store, and now, My listing is number 10 million, below the Nikes and all the other commercial items. I am Happy and Proud to to me a supporting member of Bonanzle, and will remain there as long as I sell on line.
Respectfully blarney_stone http://www.theBonz.com/blarney_stone
I stopped buying and selling on ebay when they started their bull with all the changes.
Bonanzle has better staff, and a much better customer support than ebay ever had. The Site Owners respond to email personally. They are a hands on team, working for their members.
Bonanzle is growing by over 1000 members per week, and will soon be rated #1 place to sell and buy online.
Don’t waste your time with ebay, it has failed those who made it grow, now everyone is flocking to Bonanzle where the action is. Don’t be left behind.
Brenda told my story. And so many stories have pieces of my own experience. I have checked out many of the various venues this year and have had to go back to a job because of ebay’s changes.
This summer of all the venues I tried, I enjoyed Etsy best. But then Bonanzle came along and I found it about 3 months ago. I have moved a lot of my business there and have plans to grow there over the coming year. Maybe I will get to revive my dream of supporting myself with my own business again! I do know I have thoroughly enjoyed shopping on there for my Christmas gifts this year! Everything but the ordinary for sure!
Ebay said they tried to make it safer for buyers – they could have easily done that without all the harmful changes to sellers. What they did was make even the good sellers afraid to sell on Ebay. Then they raised the fees so high, small sellers could not make a profit. Then top that with all the other changes – it just isn’t worth it to most sellers.
I have now moved on to Bonanzle.com and love it there. It’s easy to list on and easy for buyers to buy.
Ebay killed the goose that laid the golden egg. They had a unique business concept and the lion’s share of the market. They were so far in front, nobody could compete. Then they employed Donahoe. Result: disaster.
They have only themselves to blame.
WOW! Prior to reading all postings from the disgruntled ex-ebay (or soon to be ex) sellers above, I had a long list of issues with ebay myself. However, everyone has covered them so much more eloquently than I ever could and will forego any repetitions.
I, too, was a small “mom & pop” outfit making $300 to $500 profit a month. Not much by other people’s standards, but a real treat for an old lady like me in being able to generate a modest supplementary income. Ebay’s newest fee hikes & policies finally blew me out of the water without any hope of being able to compete in what used to be a fair market place. The last month I listed, ebay fees were $287 and my net profit was a whopping $94.00 for that month.
In reading several hundred forums all over the internet since this summer, I am finding that thousands of folks have experienced the same demise with ebay and have quit.
What saddens me is that I probably spent more than 1/2 of my earnings right back on ebay because I just LOVED the thrill of auction bidding, or could find really good deals for the money. Even items I could find at my local stores, it was so much easier & convenient to buy or win it on ebay and have it delivered to my front door. No more…
So ebay not only lost this “mom & pop” seller but a buyer as well. I no longer buy there because I REFUSE to put my hard earned pennies into the greed meister’s BILLION DOLLAR pockets when they have so callously been the ruination of many people’s dreams, potential incomes and self-sufficiency.
@Kevin Kelleher – you asked where people are going? Well I’ve researched & tried several venues since this summer, but as several posters above have already mentioned, you might try this very promising upstart called Bonanzle.com. The community is super friendly and most willing to help new sellers in anyway they can. Not just a community, but people who refer to themselves as “family” where people can actually talk to each other directly, revel in the success of others, or supply an abundance of encouragement when needed. What I find exceptionally exciting is that these same sellers are buying from each other, the ultimate form of support. Or introducing their former ebay customers into this new, alternative market place. Prices are also somewhat because there are no high fees padding their bottom line. People have honestly become excited about selling online again and I’m happy to be one of them.
@CostaRicaKen – AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! a thousand times AMEN!
@All my fellow Bonanzlers – “Hey Guys – glad to see ya spreading the word. See ya soon in the forums.” :)
What ebay refugees are saying about Bonanzle: http://www.bonanzle.com/forums/2/topics/8971
The heart and soul of the old ebay is moving to Bonanzle. Don’t miss the bus. It is worth the ride.
Ebay was my main supplier of laptop parts. I had trusted sellers, most have left. I enjoyed looking for that bargain and got excited when I won the auction. Ebay has made it impossible for a small seller like me to continue there. No money orders, no checks and now Paypal is the only payment option for me. I dont sell enough for a merchant account. My last sale on ebay was about $70.00 with my fee’s at about $19.00. I have started selling on Bonanzle.com. I have made two small sales, my fee’s including Paypal and google were $2.10. You do the math ebay.
Ebay lost sight of one very important thing. They work for us.
It is hard to add anything that hasn’t already been said here… eBay was good while it lasted. I don’t blame everything on Donahue. I also blame it on Corporate America and the investors. For many many years now eBay has focused on one thing.. to get bigger to please the investors. They forgot their identity. They forgot their history. They forgot their customers. That is the same formula that has caused many other once large businesses to fail.
I started selling in 1998, and even got my folks hooked on it. I remember the early days. The simple days.. Where it would only cost you less than 50 cents to sell a $10 item. Bids were good. Sales were good. Profit was good. Then they started “improving” the site. No more free-to-us Mr Lister. No more single page item post methods. No more free research of item history. The nickle and dimes started adding up. Now, bids are down, sales are down, profits are down, scams and fees are way way up. A $10 item will cost you nearly HALF once you figure in all of the fees. I know I am no rocket scientist…. but I can do simple arithmetic. eBay can’t, otherwise they would see the subtractions they have caused.
JMHO, I can’t believe, any company as large as Ebay, could be this blind! Don’t they know for every one of us that sold there, we were THEIR buyer’s too, now they send us off site, with their links, to other sites like Amazon. Well, making a long story short, It’s my opinion, they should fall, flat on to the bottom, because that is exactly what they did to seller’s and buyer’s too. Come to Bonanzle.com, you’ll love it, it’s fun, listing is easy, and your are not working for them, as Ebay seem’s to think the seller’s are working for them. You don’t get canned email back, when you have a problem either, you get the Man himself, and he goes above and beyond to get your sales started, Bonanzle, is the place, where you will find every but the ordinary! Ebay should know, if we wanted some cheap contaminated item’s, we could just go to Walmart.com or the local one every body has, and get it. Some of us, enjoy the rare and unique. They sailed this ship, out of greed, so I say let them continue to sink it.
I add my name to the long list of those who left eBay in search of more friendly grounds as a seller. The high fees of eBay/PayPal as a store owner, the rediculous DSR rating system that could ban the small and medium sized seller from listing items for 30 days to one year and the lopsided policy allowing buyers to leave negative feedback for sellers but not sellers leaving negative feedback for bad buyers was just too much to take. Mr. Donohoe will have to sleep in the bed he has made but without myself and thousands of other sellers.
What’s an eBay ? is the mantra now………………………lol……………that turkey is so done, and they did it to themselves. Instead of being an internet hero, they are an internet zero. When times got tough last year, they tightened the screws to everyone, every way they could. Bye eBay you were good way back when.
Me Again, Folks. Just reviewing the many excellent comments here- but one thing that really strikes me- the thing I find most offensive about Ebay/PayEnemy, is that they will allow buyers to return merchandise for virtually any reason. Here we are, selling second-hand items to the highest bidder at auction, and Ebay treats us as if we are Wal*Mart and enforces an unconditional return policy. Well ya know what, Ebay? I am not Wally World! I don’t list a $400 machine that costs $75 to ship, only to have someone return it because they found another one in the interim at a lower price, or because they forgot to note the dimensions and it doesn’t fit their space! I voluntarily take responsibility if there is a problem with my merch (and in 6 years of Ebay selling, there never has been)- but the idea that I should have to offer an unconditional return policy (which is essentially what you do if you accept PayEnemy- which is now mandatory to sell on Ebay) is just absurd, and not only would cause sellers to have to raise their prices (people who want the luxury of unconditional returns should shop at RETAIL stores and pay retail prices!) and opens us up to scammers against which we are defenseless when they return a box of rocks, or their old, damaged item in place of our good one- and THEN, they don’t even allow us to leave negative feedback for buyers, so we no longer have any clue as to who is a crook! Then they grade us like kindergardeners with this idiotic DSR system, which penalizes us if our customers say that we give accurate descriptions, good communication, fast shipping and reasonable shipping rates. (They’d be saying that by rating us 4 stars in those categories- and Ebay would suspend us if we had “only” an average of a 4 star rating!) I will have no part oif such absurdity. I used to love Ebay it…now I loathe it! There is not yet just one site out there that can take Ebay’s place- on which you can sell everything- but there are lots of good sites, each being good for various categories and niches- so currently, Ebay can be replaced by using a combination of different sites. (And for books, DVDs, electronics…Amazon RULES!)
Hi two comments stuck out for me, Mrsmoondaog ‘now I dread opening our seller page there everyday’. Was a time when I enjoyed the emails customers sent, that was in days before every email could be the death of your business. Now I have to steel myself as I switch on eBay. Followed by teckman45 ‘Ebay lost sight of one very important thing. They work for us’ I have been self employed for many years, run several bricks and mortar businesses, I moved to the internet to cut down on the stress of employing people, the idea of only having my own income to worry about appealed to me. Now it appears I have a boss in eBay, one who’s human resource department doesn’t know I exist except when I have to pay them for the privilege of being bullied. Time to move on I think.
Back again also. Excellent posts, especially richiemagoo, on the matter of the Paypal chargeback. I agree. People who want the right to unconditional returns should shop at Wal-Mart or other retail stores, and pay retail prices.
But the main reason for my current post is to inform readers of eBay’s latest censorship of the discussion boards. During the past few days, many threads have been removed from Seller Central, and placed on Soapbox. Without exception, the moved threads have been critical of eBay. Furthermore, the posts of some posters are being removed altogether, regardless of content, and without the usual ‘violation’ notice. Again, those posters being targetted are those who have consistently and articulately expressed concern about eBay policies and their impact on members, particularly sellers. It would appear that eBay is finally becoming aware that there are some serious problems, but, rather than addressing them, they have chosen to ’shoot the messenger’. Apparently, it is quite acceptable for the Emperor to have no clothes. But it is not acceptable to point it out to him.
All of the concerns expressed in posts here by eBay sellers are legitimate, but eBay refuses to listen. It seems that the only way that eBay can be brought to the table is for it to be brought to its knees. And that, assuredly, is what will happen if the current situation continues.
Also back for round two, I neglected to rant about the push for free shipping. I sell a product that has historically been available only to large industrial customers, or at outrageously high prices through catalog sales. It’s an inexpensive product that weighs a lot, therefore the shipping often costs as much as the product. Sometimes more! And I’m not making money on the shipping even at that.
Other sellers with similar products know what I’m up against. Buyers often think, “Why does it cost more to ship this stuff than it does to buy it?” This without noting that they paid $20 for something that weighs 20 pounds. eBay requires us to tell the buyer what the shipping is prior to making the purchase (something I happen to agree with), but then they allow the buyer – who agreed to pay that shipping cost – to rate us on how reasonable they find that shipping cost to be!
If buyers don’t like the shipping cost, why do they buy the stuff in the first place? Giving them the opportunity to complain about it, thus affecting our fees and search placement, is something designed specifically to prevent us from reaching the DSR scores that result in a discount.
Our business is in Texas. I recently had a fellow PowerSeller buy an item on the day before Thanksgiving. We shipped it the same day. UPS didn’t work over the holiday, but the item still arrived in New York the following Tuesday. Six days from TX to NY over a long holiday weekend and this SELLER gave me only one DSR score: 2 stars for shipping time.
This is the kind of stuff that makes unstable people go postal. eBay has failed to concern themselves with the lives they are affecting with their “disruptive innovation.” I get mad, cuss and kick dirt. There are those who take it out on their families, or the poor clerk at the brick and mortar store, or some innocent driver on the freeway. My point is that the same venue which once brightened the lives of many has now become the source of fear and anger in the same people. If not criminal, it is clearly unethical.
As Richiemagoo said, “I used to love Ebay it…now I loathe it!” I know how you feel. And I would never have believed it possible. As sellers we must accept it and move on to keep our sanity, but its difficult when there is no clear competitor to which we can turn.
Many are praising bananzle here (I question the legitimacy of these posts), but I have 2500 items listed there without a single sale in 2 months. iOffer looks great, but I’ve been there with the same number of items for 6 months without a sale. I tried to buy a used Macbook Pro on those sites, but couldn’t find one. While I want these sites to succeed, they aren’t there yet.
Let’s just hope that the eBay board will have a moment of clarity and start turning the ship after the holiday. Donahoe absolutely must go. Then perhaps someone who understands their business can begin the long, hard road to recovery. Otherwise, I’m sure that another venue will rise to prominence from somewhere, but it’s going to be a long dry spell for us (years) while we wait for that to happen.
ebay CEO, Donahoe & previous CEO, Whitman’s, “Disruptive Innovation” SCHEME will be the death of ebay. Policies designed to work against smaller sellers are being forced upon the users in order to morph ebay into an online “strip mall” full of foreign, mass produced, cheaply made junk. The fabulous smaller sellers are leaving in droves, while ebay continues to implement policies, which protect scamming buyers. With the CEO’s help, dishonest buyers can easily keep the sellers’ items AND receive their money back, now and receive NO restrictions for doing so.
Don’t forget to sign and leave your comments at the petition to remove Donahoe. We will NOT accept Whitman back, either…Whitman was Donahoe’s boss at Bain and brought him to ebay. TOGETHER they worked on the SCHEME to destroy small sellers and Whitman promoted Donahoe as her replacement.!
Sign here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?jdonohoe
Steer clear of Paypal, too! It’s owned by ebay and they are now WITHHOLDING users funds for 21-180 days at their “sole discretion” per amendments to their User Agreement!
Re Costaricaken I agree that it seems that there is a big push here for Bananzle. There are so many other small sites out there. If they all got together and became one site, pooled resources and got some good techs they would see a mass migration. I don’t know why Overstock never really took off. They have a good site and did plenty of Tv ads.
I was a hobbyist butyer and seller on ebay for many years. Like a number of other collector/hobbyists, I improved my collection by selling older items or items I no longer wanted in my collection and then bought newer items or items of interest on the site. In my collectibles areas, it was common for collectors to reshape, maintain or improve their collections them via judicious sales and purchases on ebay and ebay got a cut in each transaction. After the mid-year changes in 08, I stopped selling on the site – it was too risky and too much hassle to bother with. And I wasn’t the only one, because many other dealers and collectors also stopped selling on ebay. As a consequence, there is little to buy on the site in my collectibles area anymore. The changes in ebay’s direction as a marketplace eliminated many collector communities who circulated a lot of money through the site as part of their hobby.
I can buy new, mass market retail merchandise in many places and the goods available on ebay are simply not competitive with other venues for what I buy. I have less and less reason to even look on ebay anymore.
I don’t see much of a value proposition in the new ebay model. People need a reason to buy something on ebay and the current direction of the company isn’t providing a good reason to shop the site. Many collectors buy in good times and in bad times – the psychology of collectors is different than that of purchasers of mass market items.
LCOLE said: “I don’t know why Overstock never really took off.”
[This is Ebay-related...you'll see...]
Quite simply, one can not find good bargains there. Every time I’ve been in the market for something and looked there….all I saw were refurbished items selling for as much or more than a new one can be had for elsewhere, if you do a little Googling. After seeing that a few times, I no longer bother to check that site when I am in the market for something, for I know exactly what I will find there. There may well be some sellers offering decent deals there…but if there are, they are overshadowed by all the mass merchandisers and refurb sellers. And quite frankly, for items such as consumer electronics and small appliances, etc- you can never find as good a deal on a 3rd party venue as you can on an individual sellers site, because of the fact that on the 3rd party venue, the seller must pay a fee to sell- while that fee alone is often greater than the mark-up on an individual sellers site where it costs them nothing to sell. And therein lies what will ultimately lead to Ebay’s demise: Ebay once was a great venue for average joes and sellers of unique items. They offered low fees, and attracted people selling unique and 2nd-hand items, and thus, they really had no competition. Now, Ebay is dumping all those small sellers, and going head to head in competition with huge sellers of new merchandise- and such a scheme will not work on Ebay for the same reason it hasn’t worked on Overstock- because the competition in that market is too fierce to allow for both a profitable mark-up AND Ebay/PayEnemy fees. Ebay threw away it’s unioque and wonderful niche, and has taken on competitors which it can not beat; competitors which were not competitors until Ebay chose to enter their niche and try and snatch their customers. As the sell-through rate for the shoddy mass-merchandisers which Ebay has attracted is only between 2 & 3%, it will not be long till they abandon Ebay, and then Ebay will have NO customers at all. And I will laugh on that day (as I’m sure just about everyone reading this article will, also)
I sell books just about anywhere except eBay. My husband’s sold some items on eCrater (no listing fees, no FVF) without doing anything but listing. Overstock doesn’t function because of the CEO.
I have been with ebay for years,power seller,100% feedback.I mainly sell tools for older cars and bikes. I will be happy to see ebay given a good kicking.They are arrogant,greedy and uncaring and the whole world hates a bully. Thats what ebay and their greedy partner have become and there are a lot of people pleased to see them in trouble. What a sad epitaph for what many regarded as a friend.
I have a PayPal account and there is only one reason and one reason only that I will NEVER use PayPal again: they do not allow me to chose my credit card as my first and primary source of income. If I make even the slightest keystroke mistake, they will automatically dive into my bank account and make a withdrawal, and I may not even be aware of it happening until it’s too late and I am overdrawn, thinking I have payed by credit card.
It is asinine that PayPal lists credit cards in their ads and then try to make it impossible for you to actually use your credit card. When PalPal allows me to change the primary and default choice of payment to my credit card, I’ll come back, but any wise buyer would be a fool to use PayPal the way it is currently set up. They are the only on-line payment company that does that, not google checkout, not Amazon, only the greedy bastards at PayPal.
The protest which eBay initially dismissed as ‘noise’ continues to grow, as more and more sellers fall victim to the potholes and pitfalls which eBay has laid in their path.
But rather than address the members’ concerns, eBay continues to try to silence its critics, particularly those posters to the eBay discussion boards who are both consistent and articulate.
Posts, and entire threads, are being moved from Seller Central to Soapbox, or removed completely. Posters are being suspended without the usual ‘violation’ warnings. I received notice of indefinite suspension yesterday. Ebay clearly does not want the truth to be revealed. The fact that one voice on a members’ forum could be considered a threat would tend to suggest that the eBay edifice has developed some major structural problems.
Until now, I had entertained some hope that those in charge of eBay would come to their senses, reverse their destructive decisions, and restore eBay to the way it was. Sadly, it would appear that my optimism was misplaced.
The more I read about Ebay hitting the bottom of the toilet the more I laugh. Ebay WAS a megaKING at one time. Now it has become the ghetto of shopping for those that have no idea that there are more avenues of selling. It is a cut throat place. Worst than that, the people that run it are rude, self-serving, money hungry, non-caring people that think they are too good to deal with the public, those that ironically put them on top to beging with. They like to play with you the CAT and mouse game. Well Ebay YOU are not the only place where people can sell. There are many places giving you competition. I said it a long time ago that I had lost respect for all of you and my feelings remain the same. Trust and Safety all of you are a JOKE. Dressed with a power shirt that stinks because at the end of the day, there are so many ways to go around you. It’s only the honest people you hurt and it’s only EBAY you hurt. Look how many have left. Atomic Mall is the place to go. Ecrater, Bidzinger. Those places is what selling is about and you have one thing Ebay does not give you. They let you run your business YOUR way, they are courteous, and they dont nickle and dime you to death! FEEBay, you are a HASbeen.
Ebay can’t simply blame the recession for their shrinking share of the market.Auction sites like ebid are showing a steady rise in listings and more importantly sales as more and more people look for alternatives. It simply beggars belief that ebay are still hell bent on a this path of self destruction surely no one can have doubts anymore that their policy of punishing their small sellers whilst welcoming big business with open arms and reduced fees is killing them off. Ebay is turning into just another shopping mall,and like most of the others an empty one that does little trade. My last ebay invoice was less than 3% of what they used to be,but my sales on ebid and my own web site are growing. I’m showing ebay the same loyalty they showed me,none.
I can see why Ebay wanted to expand into fixed-price big-box territory, but I will NEVER understand why they insulted & alienated the small & medium sized sellers who made up the very fabric of their success. Ebay has driven these sellers off & Donohoe even made derogatory comments about the “flea market” sellers. I’ve been on there as a buyer AND seller for years, and some of the coolest & most interesting stuff can come from someone’s basement, garage or attic. If I want to shop at Buy.com, I’ll go to THEIR site – NOT Ebay. Now, thanks to the oppressive policies instituted by Donohoe & his management team, I rarely buy on Ebay & have stopped selling there altogether. I feel bad for the employees who had to support this madness & then got laid off because of it, and I’m sure there will be more layoffs, too. In a time when people are looking for bargains & also trying to raise extra cash to make ends meet, Ebay should be doing GREAT business, and they WOULD be if the old policies were still in effect. Let’s hope that 2009 ushers in a return to sanity on Ebay – or the emergence of a clear alternative in the on-line auction arena. Best wishes, all!
@ Kevin Kelleher, You Could NOT be more WRONG. REQUIRED READING : The Petition to Remove John Donahoe. Ebay is NOT SAFER Ebay is COMPLETELY VERMIN RIDDEN Ebay is SO UNSAFE is defies all logic why anyone, Seller OR Buyer, would Gamble on a Transaction there. I am a Good, Clean, Honest Person with STELLAR Feedback, and I won’t sell my Invention there anymore because Ebay is so TAINTED. In Real Life (not Virtual) I make it a Point to avoid “Ebays” (definition for dishonest people and businesses) like THE PLAGUE ! I cannot, and will Not be Tainted. Ebay has no place in my life, and should NOT have a place in ANY decent, honest person’s life. BONANZLE is the way to go. nymartsDOTcom
E-bay might have been recession proof but this is not a recession. It’s a depression.
THE PROBLEMS WITH EBAY ARE : EXCESSIVE POLICIES: DSR’S ARE KILLING SELLERS AND THERE EXPOSURE BY DESIGN; EBAY KNOW THE EFFECT. . AND IS DOING NOTHING!FEEDBACK FOR BUYERS(WE KNOW THEY ARE 100% HONEST, RIGHT!) YEAH!! RIGHT!!. . SLAP THE SELLERS AGAIN, EBAY. . YOU HAVE ABOUT 3-6 MONTHS LIFE YET. . WHY. . MOST SELLERS WILL BE GONE BY AUGUST, 2009 (ALL I KNOW. . AND I AM A TITANIUM PWR SELLER) THE EBAY STOCK PRICE WITH THE DONOHOE LED POLICIES WILL BE IN THE $5 TO $6 RANGE. . IF HE STAYS IN THE $3 ZONE; GET READY TO LOSE , IN OTHER WORDS WITH ANOTHER YEAR OF DONOHOE AND HIS ENTIRE TEAM, DISTRUST DEPT. . THE BOB BURKE FEEDBACK STOPPAGE TEAM!! WILL CONTINUE TO ASSIST IN THE DECLINE. . THEY MUST GO!! EBAY IS ALREADY 23/” IN THE HOLE TO NOW BUSINESS; AS IT CONTINUES TO SLAP SELLERS WITH : DSR’S SYSTEM AND THE NO SPEECH FOR SELLERS POLICY OF NO FEEDBACK EXCEPT POSITIVES. . WITH NO SELLERS EBAY. . YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANY BUYERS. . PLUMMETT DOWN THE TUBES AS YOU CONTINUED ON YOUR TOWN HALL TO SLAP THE CALL-IN SELLERS WITH YOUR RHETORIC!!! WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IS LISTEN TO THE WATER AND SWAMP SWIRLING AROUND YOU . . JUST AS YOU GO IN THE DUMP . . . WHERE YOU AND YOUR POLICIES, PEOPLE AND MANAGEMENT BELONG!!!!!!!
Ebay Un-American? You Speaka De English?
I can’t get an American on the phone whenever I call ebay and I’m just lost for words. This online auction company has gone through more changes than Joan Rivers face.. hit the drum smitty! But seriously, I’m an ebayer for over 5 years I have over 550 Feedbacks and I just got a bogus negative feedback and rightly so I was peeved over it! I tried and tried to fight the feedback but ebay told me “hey if a buyer isn’t happy with a transaction they can express that”. End of story!
Wow, so this one crazy buyer didn’t have a perfect transaction with me and decided to call me a “SCAMMER” complete with all caps!! Well, before being called a SCAMMER funny thing I had 100% positive feedback! Since the outrageous name calling event in my feedback I have noticed that people aren’t bidding up my items anymore? I also notice that now others are leaving me more ‘nuetral feedbacks’ for perfect transactions other than that “shipping took a long time”? Hey buddy I’m not the post office I’m just a 1 guy-selling machine.. and my sale items are old stuff sitting in my attic? I’m being held to some very strict guid-lines- LOL!! I just sold a really nice pair of leather boots for a big $1.04- Hey thanks ebay! What’s wrong ebay? No one buying things anymore? ( http://gigaom.com/2008/12/10/how-ebay-stopped-being-recession-proof/ ) I guess that’s why ebay takes a nice listing fee from everyone.. hey, ebay gets paid no matter what.. and on both ends.. Yep ebay takes fees when you list and then again at the door when you sell! Gosh how money do need from us, ebay? I feel like I’m a money machine for you. No wonder people aren’t using your site that much anymore I mean after all Craigslist is free! FREE!!!
Ebay is Un-American! No one speaks english in customer service- most of them now sound like they’re form the Phillipines.. I don’t mind speaking to forienger’s but these people just don’t care about American’s having problems with an American company (ebay)- There is just no empathy, or passion and it shows. Sometimes these ebay csr people hang up on you or pass you around like a hockey puck from department to department where they ask you to repeat your entire story over and over again.. I bet that gets some good laughs. Disgusting, I’m so disgusted. I pay so much fees to ebay on average $60/month and sometimes I pay this amount and didn’t sell 1 thing. Now, I just don’t use ebay so much, I’ve been using CL and getting many things around the home sold that way and I do recommend Craigslist as a wonderful alternative to ebay and as a bonus Craiglist doen’s require packing and shipping and returns because people buying items from Craigslist are almost 100% of the time local to your area.
What’s with all the policy changes? ebay is changing policies all the time and it’s just impossible to get a company like this, where people sell junk from their homes, perfect. The downside is that policies change so often that you might find you lose a dispute for a certain reason and then later on when the tables are turned and you should win a dispute.. hey the rules changed and now you lose the same dispute that someone else won against you not long ago. This has happened to me. Here’s a quickie example- A few years ago I said a seller was a ‘Fraud’- ebay removed my feedback saying ‘feedback should not include personal attacks against a buyer or seller”. Now I was just called a ‘SCAMMER’ I thought okay no problem that’s a personal attack I can get that removed, right? WRONG! Now, apparently, it’s okay to say things like this.. lol it’s so funny I have to cry.
Please read my blog on recent experiences I had on ebay. You’d be surprised. I think ebay will fall to this economy soon due to the failing economy and also to unhappy customers/members.
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