I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again: eBay has reached its nadir. The once might giant is now facing competition not only from Craigslist but from online forums and shops where experts in their field, be it photography equipment to watches, are buying and selling to an informed audience. In short the economy of ignorance that drives most auctions is almost dead and everyone from Joe the Plumber to an auction-master at Christie’s knows – or can find out – the true price of an item online.
That said, eBay is now facing a revolt by its power sellers due to changes in the feedback policy. The policy changes are a bit convoluted. Writes BizWeek:
n a nutshell, eBay wants its sellers to keep a 4.3 or above (out of 5-star) composite average on several metrics on which customers leave feedback. The most controversial is the shipping and handling feedback. A 4 in this metric means “reasonable,” but if a seller starts getting mostly 4s, eventually that will pull her overall rating down below 4.3. If a buyer rates the shipping charges as “neutral” (3) or “unreasonable” (2)—even if that perception is mistaken—the seller’s ratings will plummet and her account can be suspended. Sellers do have 30 days to increase their rating while they’re suspended, but if they’re not selling, it’s obviously tough to get better feedback.
While this ostensibly weeds out the bad sellers, eBay is also looking to move towards an instant pay model, thereby using its PayPal service to its fullest and gaining minute profits along the way. Encouraging people to Buy It Now is actually fairly important: it moves eBay from a browsing site that requires two or more hits to get a transaction to an outright sales site that requires only one click for a purchase.
Don’t get me wrong: it’s a great marketplace for crazy crap (my wife is bidding on some out-of-production lipstick right now) but I’ve all but abandoned the site for big-ticket items. You?
It’s always a one way street when it comes to disputes. PayPal is the same way.
Why can’t the the rating of the rater be taken into account and weight the score given. So, if a user with a low rating or no rating at all says your shipping charges are high, it won’t amount to anything unless many people with low ratings say the same thing. But if a seasoned seller/buyer rates the shipping rate as low, then that would hold more weight.
Also, ebay has to have its own version of inappropriate shipping, otherwise who is in control?
I’m not sure its always been a one way street with disputes on eBay but it certainly is today.
Makes complete sense to me. I no longer use ebay because of seller’s ridiculous shipping/handling prices. I can hunt around and find the item from an online retailer for cheaper than the ebay price when you add in the shipping costs (plus you get a better return policy).
ebay should ONLY be used for discontinued/obscure items. If it’s sold somewhere else, you can find a better price.
….get 30% off using live.com rebate anywhere else? no.
another really wierd policy is that even if you give free shipping, a buyer can stil give you a lower rating,m wouldn’t it make sense to make that an automatic 5?
I love eBay but I think a lot of changes are bieng made as a “test”. The problem with that is eBay is a source of income for hundreads of thousands of families and a couple small mistakes can stop putting food on the table.
Most eBay sellers are not technically savy, they just like to sell, but eBay needs to be careful not to push away thier core because in the long run, the BIG sellers, retailers that is, will not be around but the small guy always will be.
My 2 Cents.
I no longer use eBay either. It is much easier to find a good deal on the internet that you don’t have to bid on. People are becoming more and more savvy when it comes to finding good deals on the internet, so why use ebay? Plus i agree about the ridiculous shipping and handling charges. And if you never receive an item (which has happened to me on more than one occasion) its like a nightmare from hell trying to sort things out. eBay is on its way out.
Sure you can get a good deal every now and then but to pay something like $11.00 to ship an item that costs $5.00 makes me unwilling to buy many things anymore through ebay.
They’re actually changing that. The maximum shipping cost is now $4 on post items, which totally turns me off on selling.
John
I hope you stay turned off from selling. That is the real reason why Ebay has plummeted in popularity!! People are getting wise to the seller who tries to make an extra buck by severely over charging for shipping.
I believe this is due less to fair shipping costs than it is eBay’s attempt to squeeze more money from the sale since I don’t believe eBay collects any money from the shipping portion of the sale.
Hear hear! Ebay makes their cut on the final selling price, and for a while now I have seen buy it now prices for big ticket items waaaaaaay cheap and shipping waaaaaaay high. Some sellers actually put it in the body of the info that they do this on purpose as ebay is ripping people off. I don’t particularly care so long as the total price is cheap and the product works.
Forgot to add in my first post that this will now make sellers add the extra shipping cost to the starting bid for their products to recoup the loss, but this will in effect make eBay more money because now instead of being a separate shipping fee it will be rolled into the cost of the sale.
I cant understand why buyers harp on this issue so much. Why is it so hard to add the shipping and handling cost to the cost of the item. Thats your total price! Would a buyer to that on any other website? Get me once maybe, but the next time I see a listing for the 42″ flat screen for $10 bucks, im not going to even look at the offer.
Ebay was a great idea that worked well for quite awhile. From a seller’s standpoint, eBay ruined a good thing.
At this point, eBay’s policies toward sellers are far too heavy handed, and the nickel and diming attitude has gotten ridiculous. Sellers are what gives eBay their money. In return, eBay treats them like crap, offering virtually no protection to sellers and taking a cut for everything a seller does. Hell, at this point, sellers can’t even leave bad feedback for a bad/deadbeat buyer.
Nowadays, buyers don’t have much to worry about on eBay, other than the bloated prices. Buyers have all of the protection, and they hold all of the cards when it comes to feedback. If you like the price of something, buy without worry. Ebay has your back.
I used to buy on Ebay a lot, not anymore. Never understood how a seller can leave negative feedback when the buyer pays? Isn’t that all a buyer has to do? I left negative feedback after buying a cell phone and getting sent the wrong model, then he left me nagative feedback. That’s the last time I used that service. It’s not the sellers that keep Ebay going, it’s the buyers!
There’s where you’re wrong.
Buyer’s don’t actually pay for any of the eBay services. Ebay takes a cut of the final sale price of the auction, on top of listing fees and fees for every minute feature of the auction.
Buyers pay for their item. They don’t pay for the auction. Sellers are charged, regardless of whether their item sells or not.
On feedback, there are plenty of deadbeat bidders out their. Not to mention people that you have to harass to pay you. There are also buyers who are only buying something to test it out, expecting you to take returns for whatever stupid reason they feel like returning an item.
There are plenty of ways to be a bad buyer on eBay. I’m sure most sellers will attest to this.
Bill, they actually got rid of that problem. Buyers cannot get negative feedback if they paid on time. Thus sellers holding buyers hostage for positive feedback is a thing of the past.
I have not bought anything off Ebay for quite some time. It used to be the only place to get like cheap parts and cables, but with sites like TigerDirect, and Newegg offering things at very good prices and shipping from the United States instead of some shanty town in China.
However if I ever decide I desperately need an old school SNES game I will log back onto Ebay….
Having been stuffed on both ends of a transaction, I’m using Ebay only for hard to find stuff; end of ranges and vintage items. Nothing expensive, EVER – and I don’t sell there either. The feedback system is just a final mail in the coffin.
Ebay thrived on the sense of adventure it provided users. Searching for and finding products as well as bargains was half the fun. Ebay’s recent policy shifts have been aimed at weeding out smaller sellers in favor of “power sellers” who are basically just online stores using Ebay as their storefront. This has tended to eliminate the junk (remember that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure) that people had so much fun looking through. Ebay used to be the world’s best garage sale, now it’s just another ecommerce site.
John,
“eBay has reached its nadir” — You actually mean “zenith” which is the highest point: if you mean ‘it is downhill from now on’ –
“Nadir” is the lowest point: ‘everything is up from this’ point…
Peter
I agree with Nate. I used to sell a lot of goods on ebay >$60,000/yr. Ebay has raised their seller fees so high, that it is no longer profitable to sell on their site. One major change that eBay made is to discourage “retailers” from selling at fixed prices by changing how their listings show up in the search. When you search for a product, the products that get priority are those that are listed at auction (10 days or less). That is great for eBay, because they make more money on the auction items and get paid whether or not the item actually sells. It is terrible for the “retailer,” because they have to pay whether or not their item actually sells. One of the things that really made me upset with ebay, besides their huge FEE increases is that they stopped paying Google for advertising for Store sellers. The only way you show up in google is if you are selling something that is currently an auction item. So long eBay, you screwed yourself and I won’t be back.
I used to use Ebay a great deal but it has changed and morphed into something that I think many are starting become turned off to. Ebay made people money from buyers lack of online shopping experience. Those shoppers have now got savvy and know what they are doing. Sooner or later Ebay will face great competition from an unknown form but it will come.
I have been an eBay member for about 10 years now and it has been great for me and my company. In the electronics/computer area we have found very, very few items priced at or –even higher levels compared to other sites.
Like with any type of purchase, we have to be smart about it and check other [reliable] sources until we find the right prices, secure transactions, shipping, etc.
eBay is a joke now. They keep on trying to be something they are not, Amazon. They need to understand they are good for one thing: things that are hard to find and fun to buy. Not your daily commodities. Now with John D in charge, it has really gone down the drain as the guy has no idea what he is doing. I am glad someone shares my frustrations. I blog about how they are so ridiculous all the time: wigician.com.
As a seller for almost 2 years on ebay, I must agree, ebay has made some really bad changes that has affected many sellers including myself. Not being able to leave a negative on a dead beat buyer is ludacris. Since many of these changes have been implemented over the past two three months, my sales have dropped significantly. I’ve been living off ebay for a year now and will soon have to look for a job, plain and simple. I can no longer rely on ebay and will simply look at it as a way of making extra money.
I know that some buyers complain about high shipping costs. In the past I would list and item at $1 with $5 shipping charge. A total of $6. Only reason I did this was to save myself money ebay fees, not to screw the customer over. ebay only charges fee on the item sale price, not the total price. For whatever reason, buyers would try to get me to lower my shipping cost on a $6 item. Come one people, I already have the item listed at below market value. I guess they preferred paying $5 on the item with $2 shipping. Anyhow, I no longer do this since ebay now lists sellers who offer the lowest shipping charge , front and center, in the search results.
The ones downside to your line “Not being able to leave a negative on a dead beat buyer is ludacris.” — which I agree with BTW — is when sellers abuse this. They wait until *after* you put your feedback to put theirs. I always pay instantly through paypal, and when I try to rectify an issue, and if there is a problem, I get bad feedback to me. That is unexcusable — my only job in this kind of transaction is to pay on time. When sellers refuse to help with any problems, and then they promptly ding you, that sucks for everyone.
Ebay leaves it up to the buyer/seller as to who leaves feedback first. There is no policy or rule or regulation requiring sellers to leave feedback once payment is received. I put in my auctions that I will leave feedback for those leaving feedback for us. I also state if you have a problem with my auction terms, DON’T BID. I have the feedback requirement because 1) I have a LOT of items on and leaving feedback manually is time consuming…but the bidder is bidding on much fewer items…so I will take the time to leave feedback for those bidders who take the time to leave feedback for me [and I SAY SO in the auctions] and 2) Completion of a transaction on the buyer’s side is NOT JUST making payment. It is ALSO being satisfied. So once I hear that the buyer is satisfied [mostly through his feedback] then I will leave feedback. If he is NOT satisfied, I want to know about it so I can make it right if I can.
It is really sad the events eBay have gone through this past year. I thought they would learn the second revolutions started. If they never listen to their customers, who are they going to listen to? John D? Give me a break. He has no idea what he has done to once an unbeatable giant. I am glad someone else shares my frustrations as I blog about eBay all day. =X [check my url]
I am a power seller in the UK, and I think the Buy It Now model eBay is trying to move towards is inconsistent with why people go to the site – which is to try and beat the system by winning auctions at less than they would pay on Amazon or other sites. We gross about £100K per month by listing auctions at cheap/sensible start prices and adding higher postage charges. Last month we offered free shipping on everything / did mainly Buy It Now and marginally increased the BIN prices to compensate for the shipping loss. The result was a near 50% drop in sales. Now we are back to cheap auctions with higher postage and everyone is happy again.
Having been an ebay buyer/seller for over 10 years I can tell you with utmost certainty that ebay is in favor of NEITHER buyers nor sellers. Their service has been transformed into the casino model, where the house always wins — too bad as it’s not gambling. PayPal = Joke. Ebay “stores” = joke with the highest prices, most over retail.
If one wants to “fix” the problem, concentrate on uniting buyers and sellers, not pitching a credit card.
If one wanted to do away with the obscene s/h perhaps strike up a deal with UPS.
Craiglist is far more easier to use than eBay. And with these kinds of publicity and angry users, eBay will certainly loose its user base along with reputation.
I used eBay for years, but then it started changing. At first I loved the Buy-it-Now because people priced things aggressively in hopes of moving it quickly. then they started being greedy and selling it for only a few dollars off retail and not even offering it as an auction at all, only buy it now. Then the shipping issue. When sellers started to realize that ebay didn’t take a cut of the shipping, weeeeellllll. That’s when I gave up on it. Unless I find a fully functional, parts complete Apple PowerCD, I won’t be shopping there any more.
Think you need a copy editor. You’re missing a “y” in “mighty” in the first sentence.
I have worked FOR businesses as an ebay manager for some time.
I don’t mind the feedback changes. Yeah, 4 is “reasonable,” but most buyers leave 5s, unless you suck. We charge $8.50 to ship a jersey, and we still have 4.7 shipping DSRs (detailed seller ratings.)
We’re still making money, too, but it has gotten a little harder. But I don’t see why everyone whines so much… they are just anticipating bad feedback things, whereas the actual result if you just keep working, isn’t all that bad.
Granted, we’re a larger seller. My father sells antiques on there and each exchange is a big deal to him, so I can see both sides from small/big. The only REAL thing hurting him as a small seller? He doesn’t have the time/know how to understand the changes as they are made, such as the best match algorithm. That’s where he gets hurt the most, is just that the bigger sellers can dedicate half an employee’s time to trying to figure out what the heck ebay is up to this time.
But, that said, the opportunity cost of doing so is weighed against boosting our sales on Amazon, which is getting increasingly labor-efficient.
As a buyer on ebay, I know how much they jerk around sellers, so I feel 100% confident buying on ebay.
As a seller I would prefer to sell most of my items at a comfortable fixed price and so a lower shipping cost but this puts off most bargain hunters and lowers the number of sales. Offering for auction at a bargain price with a little bit higher shipping cost is not going to hurt a buyer.
Yes eBay’s new feedback system is total bollocks and hurt very badly the sellers. Well, if sellers leave to other marketplaces, what will be left to sell on the site??
It’s just another demonstration of the poor executive management of this company that once was a jewel of the web. Thanks to MBAs and Consultants, this place has become a real mess. Engineers and real web entrepreneurs should run eBay (or create an alternative?).
Ebay’s management has for too long benefited from the natural dynamic growth of the site. For the first time the company’s history they are facing a real strategic challenge. What is the result? Sellers are more than upset, buyers use google to shop cheaper and the stock hits a more than 3 years low!!! WELL DONE GUYS…
To you consultants, please stay in your consulting firms for god sake and keep your dirty habits (treat engineers as dub ass, create endless pointless processes, meetings to organize other meetings the web…) off the web.
To you financial analysts, stop alarming the market on the health of eBay. It will make around $3 Billion in profits in 2008 with a profitability of 25%. So come on, cut the crap!! Do not underate the online auction business model.
To you eBay (the company, not the stupid management team): what are you waiting for to come back to your true roots: a site for private people to have fun selling and buying old stuff. The Long Tail made you a giant, Donahoe will bring you down!!!
that sucks
I am sure someone else touched on this but it is ALL about eBay’s bottom line.
With all the lay-offs in the .com arena and start-ups these days, eBay is taking a different approach. Rather than get rid of employees and show good business sense like their competitors – they simply squeeze more money out of their sellers.
By limiting the amount of shipping costs and penalizing those that charge a “handling” fee, the sellers will be forced to increase the cost of the item to offset their shipping costs in order to remain active.
Since eBay receives a FVF (final value fee) of the sales price and NOTHING on the shipping/handling, by forcing sellers across the board to decrease shipping costs and increase sales cost, eBay will see a notable increase in revenue – ASSUMING they don’t screw up and lose too many sellers from their changes…
I think one of the big problems with ebay was how it changed from being small sellers looking to sell random or one off items to being filled with the powersellers. They have filters now that sort that stuff out a little but the fun was getting stuff from someone else that didnt want / need it any more or had something you couldnt find elsewhere. It ended up being a wholesale distribution market where stores were just cutting their margins and trying to sell in bulk to a new market place. As many people have said, there are many many sites now that can be easily found to buy stuff cheaper than on the retail shelf, many that come with warranties and guarantees unlike most ebay stores.
I’ve got to agree there. eBay was a great place to shop for bargains for years when it was just the every day “joe blow” selling. But then everybody decided to turn it into a business venture instead of a hobby. Now its nearly impossible to get good deals on items these days. Then factor in the “auction effect” where as people get into bidding wars just for the excitement of bidding (I’ve seen it time and time again even in live auctions).
I’m sorry sellers I feel for ya but I’m out there bargain hunting and your crap that is used is not worth the same as something new. And this BS of charging more for shipping to recoop your cost is total crap, especially from a bargain hunter stand point.
I don’t get it. Where are these, eBay killers that people are talking about?
For electronics I still go to ebay,
Books I use Amazon, and Home Appliances I sometimes use Amazon as well…
For some reason I don’t trust Craiglist…
What are these other eBay killer sites?
How do you not trust Craigslist? It’s local. You can actually see/try out your purchase before you make it.
Much safer than eBay.
Talk about continuing on the confusing, conveluted, bloated web 1.0 method of operation. I can’t believe they’re still alive, without barely any biz model change. I used to go there a lot, but now I think of it as a kind of Spam site; like how I thought of MySpace 3 years ago.
What about eBay’s ridiculous policy with PayPal where they randomly hold payments for 21 days for “fraud protection?” I sold an item almost a month ago and my money is still tied up in PayPal/eBay’s system until they decide that the transaction happened smoothly. And that’s with my 100% rating of 9 years.
No doubt they’re collecting interest on that money that’s just hanging out.
Regardless of what goes on at eBay, they’ll always do good, no matter what
I’m a gadget fiend and use sales of my old phones/cameras/etc to fund my purchases of the latest and greatest gizmos.
I hate eBay, but I can’t find an alternative. Craigslist isn’t an option in my small community. Any ideas?
eBay is also screwing their Affiliates. Earlier this year they switched from Commission Junction to their own internal link tracker and payment system. Besides having lots of issues with the migration, a couple of months later I was booted out of their affiliate program. This is after having been a member since early 2006. I certainly wasn’t doing anything different or against their policies…it seemed that they just want people to use their own crappy internal advertising widgets instead of 3rd-party widgets.
After this and having bought counterfeit goods from a seller some time ago, I’ll never touch eBay again. Good riddance.
Mostly, this is a fight between the Big-Box Power Sellers and the Big-Box mega stores. All the little guys and one-offs are sidelined, both in influence and monetarily.
eBay is a dying breed, since it’s sold out its community. I’ll keep pulling for the little guy (I’m one) and use eBay to invite its buyers over to other forums and venues.
eBay has long been simply a lead generation platform – it’s days as a market leader have been over since last year’s peak.
It’s in a decline. And, like the attitude above, the vultures are circling…
12/03/2008 Robert, Hi there! I too am an EX (little guy) Ebay seller. How do you use Ebay to tell buyers where you are listing? And have you found a good other venue? Thanks!
Aren’t you aware of any of the recent changes? First Ebay DID get rid of employees .. 1600 of them were laid off. Secondly, Ebay might not make anything on shipping fees but PayPal sure does now that PayPal is the required payment method. PayPal charges fees on the TOTAL transaction which includes shipping. And thirdly, Ebay has ALREADY lost too many sellers as a result of all of their changes this year. That is why Ebay is in the dump hole it’s in and sinking more each day.
Donahoe may be the final nail in Ebay’s coffin but someone had to hire him. He didn’t just walk in and take over with his fanatic ideas. So you execs, you got what you deserve. You don’t have any more common sense or clue than he does. You and Donahoe deserve to go down with this sinking ship together.
It has become a cesspool of Ebay and PayPal greed with changes that are insane, contrary to encouraging and keeping its users or drawing new users, and highly unfair and suspect practices as in the case of PayPal only payments now in effect. Australia found this PayPal payment monopoly unfair practice and put an end to it. Why is it not an unfair practice here?? I saw where Ebay was heading months ago and sold my Ebay stock at $29+/share. Now it’s at $14+/share. That was the best decision I made this year.
I was a 10+ year Ebay seller and buyer and I am happy to see the continued and fatal demise of Ebay.
Im a former powerseller.
eBay was a much better place for sellers before than it is now.
Today its primary benefit is as a training ground for people that want to go into the ecommerce business.
Its easy to generate revenue nearly impossible to generate profit that would support a business.
For buyers it remains a great place to shop if you know what to look for.
I first reduced my business on eBay to selling items that I couldnt sell in my online store and after the last round of changes and a few negative feedbacks from some buyers that obvousily had chips on their shoulders, we dumped eBay completely.
I only shop there today for obscure parts and products.
Wrote a song about it, like to hear it here it goes
http://www.adwords-articles.com/blog/eBay/why-ebay-will-keep-making-the-news-for-this/
It’s zenith, not nadir.
I agree there needs to be some step up to the shipping and handling charges. Some users charge way above the what is standard just to jack up their profits. I even randomly bought a game from someone who just so happen to live in my town. Instead of just meeting up and making it easy, they insisted they mail it just so they could receive the extremely high shipping charges they placed. Of course they ended up dropping it off at my house when I wasn’t home to gain a larger profit margin. People like that are out there and there should be stricter regulations, although I don’t know if this is the best one.
Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com
ebay has suspended and/or limited the accounts of 99% of ALL sellers for 30-90 days based on this Feedback policy change. Buyers then leave even more negative Feedback for Sellers just because they can.
There is a new site I found called “Bonanzle.” It’s top goal is to make it easier to sell stuff online than eBay or Craigslist. If you’re looking to buy stuff, Bonanzle is like a street fair where you can talk to (or bargain with) the sellers in real time.
It’s also totally free, which is nice! Come check it out:
http://www.bonanzle.com
Shipping charges are now required to be posted in all listings so you know how much you’ll be paying when you bid. If I think the shipping charge is too high, I don’t bid. It’s that simple..!!
What really needs to go are the DSR’s and the no-neg FB for buyers. These are a joke.
And what about the new PayPal Only payments requirement???? Is this legal???? Since PayPal is owned by Ebay and PayPal is the required payment method, this smacks of a monopoly scam or at the least, unfair practice as was decided by an Australia commissioner when Ebay tried it there. Isn’t it unfair practice here too?? Can someone who knows comment on this?
I now only use Ebay to buy or sell a few items occasionally. BTW, I was a 10+ year user with 1485 positive FB’s and a couple retaliatory negs from deadbeat non-pay buyers from years ago and I helped make Ebay the great site it WAS..but will never be again!!
eBay is over the hill:
1. The auction concept is d-e-a-d due to the automated last-few-seconds proxy bidding machines.
2. S&H fees are as we all know, just an attempt to show an attractive listing price and hide profit.
3. Too much stolen stuff on eBay. To wit, the news story about the US TSA employee busted for selling $200,000 of on-the-job confiscated items on eBay. One month or more later, that user, whose eBay ID was in the newspaper, had not been purged from eBay’s database, including past sales.
Yeah – eBay has definitely jumped the shark in many ways. It all went downhill when they started focusing on buyers rather than sellers. Even more dangerous is their assumption that sellers don’t have alternative platforms to sell their products.
Between the listing fees and the shipping fees issue, they’re attempting to squeeze every cent out of sellers, when in fact said action will result in wholesale abandonment of their platform. Online competitors will continue to poach eBay’s once loyal users (buyers and sellers) until all that’s left are auctions for vintage quilts and bumper stickers.
When you say “at its nadir” are you implying that there are better times ahead?
eBay’s new feedback ratings basically require every ebay seller to be a shipping expert. That is tough for a small business. Shipwire is an expert in order fulfillment out of the U.S., Canada and Europe with automation tools to ship automatically when an ebay auction/fixed price listing closes. Automate shipping, save money on shipping and get your ratings up. Also if you decide to move from eBay we have connections to PayPal, Amazon and most shopping carts. http://www.shipwire.com/trial. Check out our affiliate/partner program too.
P.S. Shawn B. HUGE bonus points for the Fonzie “Jump the Shark” reference…I haven’t heard that in years and it is perfect in context.
Nate
http://www.shipwire.com
I’ve said it a hundred times, to Meg, to Sanjay, to John – eBay needs to stop penalizing good sellers and institute a “PowerBuyer” program that will maintain customer loyalty by offering a discount in return for consistent payments and performance as a buyer. As a seller, I will more be more than happy to give a 5-10% discount to a buyer I know won’t be a non-payer, and has a confirmed address, etc. This would really re-energize the site as the “powerseller” program got people really into selling on the site.
Anyway…I don’t sell on eBay anymore because it is a horrible marketplace (feedback 60,000+)
Ebay Stockholders and Sellers Calling For Immediate Termination of John Donohoe CEO
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?jdonohoe
I gave up on eBay months ago. As a small seller, eBay did all it could do to push us out for the big retailers. Out to be the next Amazon. Us small sellers are so bitter because WE made eBay and eBay has p****d on us. Nadir? Good riddance.
I haven’t used Ebay in over five years because of sellers using fake accounts to raise the bidding and canceling auctions when the winning price is lower than they want.
Ebay has sucked for ages.
I used to sell a lot of stuff on eBay to the point where it was my primary source of income. Their policies have made that untenable.
But (in Australia) they started changing everything to suit the buyers years ago. I can’t remember the last time we were able to post a reserve price on anything smaller than a car. They also made it impossible for sellers to give buyers negative feedback and recently tried removing every payment type except for PayPal. Our ACCC ruled the last one as anti-competitive, but they are still fighting that through the courts.
With competing sites that don’t charge a cent until the item is sold, and a variety of cheaper payment methods, it’s just not worth it to deal with them (as a seller) any more. Occasionally, I’ll look for stuff to buy that I can’t get within Australia, but as a seller it’s dead.
Ebay alternatives :
http://www.dooblet.com/a/_/ebay/