Ebay is so Generous at this critical time - NOT.

[drews-books]

Wow!  Ebay gave us 50,00 Free listings it use in just over a month.  So how would a single bookseller use even a 10th of that and if I forget to end them in 30 days they will automatically re-list and I get a huge bill.  So generous.

I've been a book-seller for over 25 years on Ebay and help build it.  They also offer to defer 50% of payments for 30 days - how about cancelling all those stupid Promo Ad and Shipping Fee & other charges Ebay keeps adding.  Help us sellers by dropping Ebay charges at this time and help us old-timers rewarding us by the years as sellers not $$$$.  There will be other future sites to sell on and We Will Remember.

[lja440]

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@glenmorecollectables wrote:

I don't have a store subscription - I'd gladly take some of the 50K free listings you received.

Ebay doesn't owe us anything other than a platform to sell stuff; It's up to each and every one of us to do the work and chart our own course, in my opinion.  i've been here for 22 years and appreciate eBay being a place a good do a little bit of business and make some extra cash!!

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I don't have an eBay store either, and my B&M is shut down as non essential.  I have a large walk in closet that is floor to ceiling shelves of books and audiobooks, the B&M has over 6000 LP's and other media sitting.  If I had the time I could list that many, not sure if I could scare up enough boxes for even a third.

The Post Office is still working and we either have people afraid to touch their mail or people ordering like mad (it's like they expect Zombie Hoards to arrive any day now).

[dhbookds]

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@cowgirlup824 wrote:

Deferring payments is a joke! We still have to pay it. How are we suppose to pay for an ebay store that is not making money to pay it with? My sales have gone from over $100 a day to if I'm lucky $10 a day and at $10 a day it won't even pay my store subscription. What they need to do is wave the store subscriptions until things calm down so those of us that have been with them for over 20 year so we don't have to close our stores.  I have over 4,000 listing if I have to close and lose my listing it will take me years to catch up again. They are not thinking.... How much money are they saving by not having to pay people to answer the phones, because customer service sucks right now. Sellers could get away with anything and it would be forgiven????? Higher standard please..... It's honestly hunting the good sellers, once customers have a bad experience they don't come back. 

You've had 94 sales in March, and most sales are over $10.........I presume you have an anchor store which costs more than most of us......but you really can't afford to pay it? 

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[totoro470]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@totoro470 wrote:

That's kind of a false equivalency. Ebay depends on us as much as we depend on them. The point is, ebay helping sellers is beneficial to ebay as well.

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The growth in the number of listings on eBay has far outpaces the growth in total buying. 

When a seller leaves, his buyers will simply buy a similar item from a similar seller for a similar price and eBay still makes its fees and get along just fine. 

eBay does indeed depend on having sellers,  but they do not depend upon any individual seller. I suspect that 10% of sellers could disappear tomorrow and it would have minimal impact on the level of buying. 

Try it. Just take down all your listings, and see if it hurts eBay  as much as it hurts you. 

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I personally list a lot of things there is limited quantities of, lots of collectibles and toys of finite quantities. I also list things uniquely in large lots that nobody else does. I am not a drop shipper, I believe what I do is partially why people come to eBay- to find things you can't find anywhere else (at least online). The sellers you speak of that are easily replaceable can be found pretty much on any other site, they are not what makes ebay unique. That said, I don't think it matters exactly what I sell or how much I stand to lose, what matters is how much ebay stands to lose if I leave. eBay is a corporation, how much are they willing to compromise to maintain a revenue source?  If nobody can replace me and my $1000 a month that I send to eBay, how much am I worth to them? How much do they want to keep me?  What about the thousands of others like me?

Wouldn't it be worth it to have a little compromise in fees or subscriptions (that more directly affect smaller sellers) in order to save hundreds/thousands of sellers and future profits? I'm sure there is some sweet spot they could figure out to dictate the most profitable scenario, do you really believe doing practically nothing for large amount of smaller sellers is the most profitable decision they could make?

-Those saying it's not ebay's responsibility to pay our bills and keep us in our houses are absolutely right but that's not why corporations do nice things or compromise... they do these things because it ensures future profits. Sometimes it's just worth investing in your revenue sources, you can't always assume they're all replaceable. Not only that, if they did more it would be good PR, it would boosts seller confidence, and it would (most importantly for them) be an investment in their future profits. 

[mantle1951]

There are very few reasons for anyone to get "hammered" with relisting fees.

Totally agree!!

[luckythewinner]

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I personally list a lot of things there is limited quantities of, lots of collectibles and toys of finite quantities. I also list things uniquely in large lots that nobody else does.

Of the first 10 items I saw in your current items, none were truly unique and all had competition from other sellers. I suspect your items are not as unique as you think.

Wouldn't it be worth it to have a little compromise in fees or subscriptions (that more directly affect smaller sellers) in order to save hundreds/thousands of sellers and future profits?

I suspect eBay has a much better handle on how many sellers are leaving and how it is affecting their profits. In fact, I suspect they have a full-time department dedicated to analyzing seller activity, behavior and trends.

I doubt cutting fees for millions of sellers to save hundreds of sellers is a priority for eBay. Hundreds of sellers is a rounding error. 

[m60driver]

Ebay, in effect, is giving every store owner unlimited free listings and you are complaining?   Yes, you will have to be extra diligent to end these listings before they renew without being free but that is no big effort.  Meanwhile I am finding old dead inventory to list that was long forgotten, one item was first listed in 2015.  This is the perfect time to clear out old inventory at cost to turn it all back into cash.  

[shirtmile]

eBay has come a long way since it started. It's now into milking the user for every penny. Outrageous fees and policy that hurt the seller.

eBay was know and famous for hard to find items and weird things.

Now ebay will ban certain non life threatening items. In this time of Great depression you'd think they would let people sell items such as mask and sanitizer.

Their excuse is price gouging but someone like my unemployed neighbor cannot sell her home made sanitizer and hand made face masks even at a cheap price. The recipe for hand sanitizer is available on the world health organization website. Proven safe.

eBay also has a toxic community of snowflakes who will tell you "get over it" as a reply. They might also say " Donate those items". Ya donate while you need donations to survive. I spat on those users.

[mam98031]

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@lja440 wrote:

If I weren't working I probably have enough stock to list that many books. However I don't have enough shipping supplies unless there are mass multiple sales. 

Yeah they could offer a much better promo. They could at least cut FVF's in half or something that would benefit across the board.

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I agree, but the promos should go to the buyers.  We need buyers shopping.  So more advertising and more promos to draw in the BUYERS is what we need.

@lja440 

[kittykat.949]

SO , SO SICK of the ME, ME, ME, FREE, FREE, FREE, Mentality----50,000 thousand FREE listings thru the end of April & still people complaining----SHEEESH---I cannot help but wonder if this virus is Gods way of thinning the herd a bit to get our attention---WAKE UP AMERICA

[totoro470]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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I personally list a lot of things there is limited quantities of, lots of collectibles and toys of finite quantities. I also list things uniquely in large lots that nobody else does.

Of the first 10 items I saw in your current items, none were truly unique and all had competition from other sellers. I suspect your items are not as unique as you think.

Wouldn't it be worth it to have a little compromise in fees or subscriptions (that more directly affect smaller sellers) in order to save hundreds/thousands of sellers and future profits?

I suspect eBay has a much better handle on how many sellers are leaving and how it is affecting their profits. In fact, I suspect they have a full-time department dedicated to analyzing seller activity, behavior and trends.

I doubt cutting fees for millions of sellers to save hundreds of sellers is a priority for eBay. Hundreds of sellers is a rounding error. 

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 Do you not understand the principle behind what I'm saying or are you too concerned with being right? I never said my items were unique... I said the way I list many of them is unique and also that my items would not be "replaced" by another seller. THERE ARE LIMITED QUANTITIES and each of these items is a sure sale for everyone that has them listed, I know because I have sold them for almost 10 years. If there is 20 Hasbro Star Wars tie fighter pilots listed on ebay, they WILL ALL SELL EVENTUALLY. The question is, if nobody can get anymore, how is someone going to replace the ones me or my competitors are selling? Capice? If I left ebay, those items would be sitting in auctions or collections to be bought by someone else in my area months from now. The only way ebay will get a dime from these items is if someone lists them on ebay. In order to do that, someone needs to list their own items or find the items and sell them only on ebay. I'm not going to say ebay will lose all of the money for losing me and my items, I never said that was the case. What I said is that I guarantee that I am worth something to them, to argue otherwise makes no sense and makes me think you are purposely not grasping what I'm trying to say.

-Given ebay's past, eBay doesn't know how much they stand to lose until people can't get product for months. I'm pretty sure nobody can see that far into the future when it comes to a virus. They have no idea how long people will be unable to get products, the only thing they can bank on is that regular people are so stressed for cash (with the rise of unemployment) that they sell these items on ebay for themselves. Question is, once this is all over, will these people stay on ebay or will they go back to their regular jobs? What will happen to the sellers that got left behind?Again, this is not a whine or asking for a handout, the point is, what are people like me worth to ebay and their profits? If you really believe the answer is "nothing" then this conversation is pretty much over.

[evry1nositswindy]

No complaints here!  I will list as many as I possibly can.  We are under lockdown here in Ohio, so what else do I have to do??  Thanks eBay.  Now offer the buyers a little something to get them going!

[upgradedendmills]

Hard to say how much any individual seller is worth to eBay. The real question is how are we worth to ourselves and how much we are willing to invest in ourselves.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

I had a huge vet bill this week! I think the vet should charge less because of the National crisis. She should help me out.

people complained that eBay was not helping. eBay offered free listings and deferred store fees. Now some sellers are complaining that listing that many items is too much work. eBay could be going to their house, selling the item for them for free AND shipping for them and some would still not be satisfied.

[clu3]

I thought it was good of Ebay to give an abundance of free listings.  I definitely won't use them all but I did refresh all my listings.  It's remarkable that sellers complain that Ebay isn't doing enough.  What are sellers doing for others?  Is everyone deeply discounting their merchandise?  Waiving shipping fees?

[yuzuha]

Right? The sheer amount of selfish entitlement I'm seeing on these boards is staggering.  GIMME GIMME GIMME FREE STUFF, and then when we get free stuff, WAH WAH WAH IT'S NOT THE RIGHT KIND OF FREE STUFF.

Wow.  And people call us millennials entitled!