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Replies: 26 / Views: 2,697 |
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Valued Member
Australia
205 Posts |
ebay has announced a Fee Increase for sellers. Their justification? Here it is: "We have carefully assessed these changes and believe they are necessary to improve the buyer experience, which will ultimately improve business for sellers." Ridiculous, no matter which way you look at it. For me, fees for listing in my ebay store now increase by 500%!!! That's outrageous. --Peter
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Pillar of the Community
Belgium
2078 Posts |
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Forum Dad
 United States
24174 Posts |
We will be closing our ebay store before the increase.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4870 Posts |
Sorry to hear your closing down. I personally think the increase is meant to make up for the lost revenue from fee avoidance. quote: Originally posted by bobby131313
We will be closing our ebay store before the increase.
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Valued Member
United States
94 Posts |
To the best of my knowledge, ebay has never had a problem attracting buyers. So for them to say "improve the buyer experience", I feel is being less than honest.
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Rest in Peace
United States
2684 Posts |
Meg Whitman and Bill Cobb gave a litany of rationalizations for the increase including "a return to core values" meaning a shift in concentration back to true auctions instead of stores. Of course, their basic intent is to raise earnings and increase the value of ebay stock. I don't think these continued shifts in market strategies are going to help the value of ebay stocks which, for me as a shareholder, have gone into the toilet ever since December 2004 and January 2005. Instead, I think this latest shift is gonna introduce yet one more degree of uncertainty about ebay. I also suspect that unless a miracle happens and ebay's earnings and stock values head sharply upward, we're gonna see yet one more shift in ebay management personnel and Whitman's and Cobb's names are gonna appear on CraigsList.com. Fred
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Rest in Peace
United States
2684 Posts |
quote: Originally posted by bobby131313
We will be closing our ebay store before the increase.
Bobby, this is a major decision for you and Susan. Will you return to straight auctions and BINs or are you gonna get out of the ebay business? Fred
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Forum Dad
 United States
24174 Posts |
We'll still run auctions. I'm thinking of setting up an automated BIN style format for approved forum members on our soon to be announced new sister site. It would be like ebay, except no auctions, just BINs. Users could upload their own listings. I think it would generate some interest here.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
853 Posts |
ebay know that the site is not fuelled by sellers....it is fuelled by buyers. If you look at a magority of the listing on ebay it is just muliples of the same thing...ie inkjet cartridges, books, cameras etc. The number of unique listings is small compared to the majority of the same type of listing. The ulimate end to this is that a fee hike for sellers may reduce the number of sellers (I doubt it though) and if it does it makes supply scarce and prices go up. This again means more money for ebay in the way of final value fees. It also has the effect of less auctions for the same or even more revenue. Less auctions means less server space which again means more money for ebay. ebay know sellers will sell regardsless of fees. ebay also now buyers will not buy if a buyer premium is there...their thinking is to bleed sellers dry.
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Pillar of the Community
Belgium
2078 Posts |
As far as I know the only people in the world that sold more by upping their prices were Rolls Royce Wheter price times sales = gross revenue goes up depends on price flexibility I for one think ebay has to live with the fact that they tried to corner the market and the market is not growing or too slowly So share prices are bound to go down wheter they like it or not Certainly with the recession in home property coming For one thing I am happy that at least in Germany several sellers are fighting back offering products on their own site at a price significantly below ebay's and essentially the fees Like 5-10% lower prices
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4870 Posts |
I think the price increase is to target those sellers who engage in fee avoidance. Unfortunately this harms the honest sellers.
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Forum Dad
 United States
24174 Posts |
The short reason.... It's designed to do exactly what Bill Cobb said. Increase auction listings and decrease store listings. The long reason.... reduce clutter. I am very active on many ebay related forums. Not the ebay owned forums either, where you can't really say what you want. The main problem buyers have is clutter. Forcing people out of store listings will reduce clutter. Sellers aren't going to pay a 35 cent listing fee on a $2 coin, but they would pay a 2 cent listing fee on a $2 coin.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4870 Posts |
If I am understanding this right, only the ebay stores are affected?
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Rest in Peace
United States
2684 Posts |
quote: Originally posted by nds76
If I am understanding this right, only the ebay stores are affected?
That's affirmative. And the stores most affected will be those with low profit margins per item. Regular auctions are unaffected... so far. If ebay's strategy is correct and the emphasis returns to auctions instead of stores, it will be in a good position by this time next year to raise auction rates. Fred
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Valued Member
United States
458 Posts |
I'm wondering, I logged onto my account yesterday and I could not find 1 peep on this fee increase. Where did you guys hear of this increase? email to store owners only?  CiScO
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Forum Dad
 United States
24174 Posts |
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Replies: 26 / Views: 2,697 |