Fewer Ebay Sellers, Ebay Finally Shooting Itself In The Foot?

One day listings use up 7 times the computer resources than a 7 day listing.
Three day listings use up 2.3 times the computer resources than a 7 day listing.

Computer resources being listing addition processing, listing ending processing, invoice processing, etc.

Although reducing those duration listings might save ebay a bit of money, they are willing to CHARGE people that insist on them. So it is a WIN-WIN (for ebay).

OP: I don't see a correlation to your premise as compared to the argument you make.

Also, the " ebay is greedy" argument is tired. Try selling anything and reaching such a wide market with a lower operating cost.

I think it is like that -- longer duration listings mean less trips to the gas station.

Every listing takes up a bit of storage. ebay has to keep that listing stored for a fixed period of time. Longer listings mean LESS total listings. So I think it does save them storage, or the need to buy more storage (gas cans).

It could be that ebay knows that longer listings lead to higher final prices. Whether you believe it or not, ebay does want to help sellers. So, discouraging shorter auction listings is their way of giving you "business advice".

Also, I assume 1-day auctions aren't charged? Could be because it's a sacred selling technique for many sellers.

It seems that established sellers can trust the bidding process on ebay ... maybe enough to use 0.99 opening bids. But for less established sellers, it seems very risky.

Oh darn only half a billion PROFIT.

The ebay is greedy argument is not fantasy. And I was a math teacher!

The problem is context. Yes, the market you reach is wider than anything else and so people who were not around when ebay started out think people are nuts for saying ebay is greedy.

However...
I was around close to when they started out. How they became a giant was they made it so inexpensive to sell something compared with the percentages of current prices. I kept a LOT more money from an ebay sale as compared to today.

They used to allow you to contact anyone through their personal email address. So when I had multiple of one item, I generally made 3 or 4 sales at the closing auction price of the original winner b/c I contacted the other sellers who had bid close o the ending price. ebay allowed this, OK'd it, and got nothing from it... but did not care. They were becoming a giant by allowing such perks.

It was the over-friendly atmosphere that made them their empire.

When they aquired Paypal, those of us who were around figured they would do wht any business that desiures to become greater would do and, since they now owned it, would offer the services as a perk. Remember, the company was growing by leaps and bounds from a garage-born business into a world changing giant - and ti was because almost everyoine using ebay LOVED the system and so used it often.

Then when they started selling stock, the entire system changed. prices went up, percentage of the take for ebay went up, no more contacting multiple sellers unless ebay got their cut also, and then their putting their nose into private affairs by automatically reporting profits to the IRS were just some of the "wonderful" changes they made.

The issue I have with them auto-reporting profits is NOT about honesty in reporting income. The issue I have is that I don't want or need a nanny. I am a big boy now. My business is my own - they need to keep their nose out of it to make me happy.

Yes... they HAVE the RIGHT to do these things since its their business. But the ebay of today is a LOT more greedy than the company they used to be when they were growing.

Their growth was a typical example of what REAL (not today's media-tainted definition is) Capitalism can do and how it works. But now that stockholders are wanting their monthly pay, there are too many fingers in the pie, and the service ebay provides simply from market exposure (unfortunately) is the best available. Today's ebay is a lot more greedy and controlling than when ebay was loved by all its users. You did not hear complaining back then. When you heard the name ebay it was always on a context, of "Wow! This place is great!"

And they also used to listen to us sellers. I have not used it to sell for years now b/c it is so terrible compared to what it was. They spoiled me.

That is true but not in the case of the Wall Street Journal's data reporting in the article cited. ebay by itself did not net almost $1 billion in 4Q14 as is implied by "......Profit dropped by more than half to $477 million."

ebay and Paypal combined made $966 million in 4Q14. Here's the release from Jan. 2015 when they were one company. http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...Year-Results

The WSJ resorts to sensationalism like other media.