Why is Ebay pushing out the small independent sellers?

[treasurequeen916]

How many more increases to fees and stores subscribtions - raising a store subscription that I was recently renewed for a year.  You guys don't even have your customer services here in the USA so we know you are saving millions why don't cut corners and pay your top execitives less then pull money out of the small independant sellers!   It's bad enough we have to compete with all the oversees sellers, you offer very little reward to us, I am not happy

[twnpopcards]

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@palmspringscards wrote:

Just wondering if the Fee Scale after the FREE Listings will stay the same ..... For example, after my 2,500 , I pay $.05 per listing ... Am thinking of downgrading one level of Store Subscription and want to know about the Fees after the free ones ... Thanks

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The premium store extra listings run as follows:

fixed listings will be $.10

auctions will be $.15  (not counting the extra fees for the shorter auctions)

One of the blues said the extra charges for listings will stay the same as they are now.

David

Twnpopcards

[twnpopcards]

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@gamersbaystore wrote:

Given the current economic state of the U.S, their is no room for small players in ecommerce any longer, and there won't be unless the econonmy picks up. I highly doubt the economy improves enough to increase anyones sales. This country has been on an ecnomic decline for close to 2 decades! While the media touts waging are going up, they are no where near what they were 20 years ago. The middle class has shruken to a fraction of the size it used to be. No more $60K jobs, as the average paying job in the midwest is about $9.00 to $11.00 an hour. These people don't have money to buy anything.

For the sellers who plan to stay and accept the new fees, you need to get serious or throw in the towel. I had over 650 listings at one point last year, and my sales were almost completely dead for 7 months! 650 listings is no longer enough to survive on ebay, you need a 1,000 minimum, and you need good products with comparable prices, otherwise its epic failure!

At present, I have no choice but to close my store and call it quits with ebay, as I don't have enough stock to sell, and can no longer afford the fees. I still have over 400 listings, but you can't conduct business with such little inventory. I wish I had more money to invest in more products, but I don't so I must leave for now.

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I think you have hit it right on the nose.  Ebay has made the decision that they really no longer want the casual part time seller on their platform, they want full time businesses.  The problem that they keep ignoring is that the quality of products that are being sold is getting lower and lower due to the lack of protection for the sellers and the ability of the scam artists to basically "steal" from the ebay sellers.  This new pricing structure will chase many more sellers out the door, but it will also chase at least the same number of buyers since most of the casual sellers are also the buyers.  

I will maintain my store at the premium level and I will continue to survive as this is not my main source of income, however, I will be buying less and less on Ebay because many of the items I want I can now get on other web sites from the sellers I used to buy from on here but who are no longer here.  I will also limit my listings to the 1000 per month unless they accidentally give me a free listing promotion which I understand Griff said will be far fewer going forward.  

Ebay needs to increase their revenues for Wall Street, but unfortunately the people running it have no idea how to go about increasing them.  With the changes that Ebay has made they will lose more in FVF revenue than they will gain in listing revenues which means barring a miracle, Ebay will continue its current yr qtr vs prior yr qtr slide in revenues that is now at 4 consecutive quarters and will probably be five after the current quarters results are announced.  Ebay is banking on all these Anchor stores stepping up and paying the additional $120 per month so they will have additional fixed revenues of that amount going forward, but I believe they will lose at least half of their anchor stores going down to premium stores and saving $120 in costs by reducing their store size.  I also believe that more sellers are going to just be pickier about what they put out for sale so they can still come close to their current sales levels even with reduced listings.  

My sales have been increasing consistently month to month and I now know they will go down some, but my cost will be a steady amount each month as I will not pay any additional fees for listings and I will just be smarter about what I list on here.  I will move a lot of my slower but nicer moving items to other sites so that I can survive on the 1000 listings per month.

Congratulations Ebay, you have once again shot yourself in the foot.

David

Twnpopcards

[riverexchange]

EBay has gotten greedy and wants to only keep the big sellers and anchor stores around. I have already moved nearly all of my inventory over to Amazon.com as well as another up and coming auction site called Ebids.com. Oh.. and the fees are not straight up! What's with the double dipping on shipping costs. When we buy shipping labels through ebay it show's the discounted ebay member rate then on the back side they charge a shipping fee on all things shipped. I have yet to pinpoint an exact percentage or scale of what and how I am being charged by ebay over the course of all the charges. Monthly fee, listing fee, final evalutation fee, shipping discount fee. I bid you good day ebay. I will happily sell my unique inventory elsewhere. Soon enough you will see that without us you have nothing.

[alexnbj]

And let's not forget what we lose when they force us to take a return from a buyer having "remorse", even if there's nothing wrong with the item. Not only is the item out of circulation, but we wind up giving shipping costs back to the buyer that comes directly out of our pockets. 

I can't do Amazon because I sell pre-owned apparel & accessories, but at the rate I'm losing sales to eBay's absurd and business-killing "rules & policies", I'll get more from the tooth fairy.

[gibsonbk]

I really wish ebay would conside a middle ground store.  The Premium is too small for me but the anchor store is also a little big.  I would be happy with a 150.00 fee and 5,000 free listings, 500 auctions would be just right.

Goldilocks

[twnpopcards]

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@gibsonbk wrote:

I really wish ebay would conside a middle ground store.  The Premium is too small for me but the anchor store is also a little big.  I would be happy with a 150.00 fee and 5,000 free listings, 500 auctions would be just right.

Goldilocks

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That middle ground was intentionally omitted as Ebay wants you to step up to the Huge Anchor Store and hope that you will also make the annual commitment as the difference between monthly and annual is $50 per month.  They are trying to force the sellers to make a decision to either step up and be a full time Anchor Store Business with all of these future benefits that we have yet to have in place, but want to charge you for them now anyway, or step down to a part time business with 1000 listings and survive on that or pay additional listing fees.  If you were to list 3500 items per month under the premium store you would pay more than you would have for 10,000 listings under the Anchor Store so they want you to commit to the Anchor Store so they have a FIXED MONTHLY INCOME that they can count on and not have to worry about fluctuating revenues from listing fees.  Its not just one or two stores they want to do that, its all of the Anchor Stores as that will help show that revenues are beginning to grow since they have a 12 month commitment at the $299.99 rate.  Most stores will not use all 10,000 listings so Ebay will also cut down on the number of listings that buyers will have to look at for their choices.

In my opinion Ebay is trying to basically rid itself of the smaller sellers who depend on the free listings and also use a lot of the CSR time and have the most issues since they do not totally understand the new rules.  They will tolerate the basic and premium stores and give you a bone to appease you, but they want Anchor and above stores that don't cause issues for them and don't need hand holding through a ton of issues.  Best Buy and Target have their own CS staff so Ebay doesn't even have to deal with it.  The Anchor Stores are going to have their own personal CSR's so that will also cut down on the staffing, and the rest of us get whats left.  

The biggest mistake that they never will understand because they have never been involved in this business on the ground level, is that every time they lose a seller or a seller downsizes, eBay loses not only a seller but a good buyer who buys products and understands the process and rarely if ever returns items or causes issues for a seller.  So they not only lose their listing fees and FVF fees on the sale and shipping charges, but they lose the fvf on the purchases and shipping costs that this seller no longer makes because their revenues are down.  They also lose the revenues they make as a USPS reseller so their postage revenues are down on both the sales and purchases this person would have made.  This is why these changes are not going to increase the revenues as they need to be, but again nobody looks at the overall picture because they do not understand the big picture, nor the loss of business due to the word of mouth that all these changes and suspensions bring.  Every time Ebay announces these changes Social Media lights up with all the comments, not just on here, but these comments wind up appearing on Google searches and then Facebook, Twitter and Instagram start with the comments and all of these wind up adding to the lower traffic that Ebay has.  

I really wish that Ebay could make nice with Google and fix the issues that caused Google to give them a slap down because it is killing all of us sellers.  If Ebay could increase their traffic back to the levels they had before Google knocked them down these price adjustments would be warranted and there would be so few complaints, but when you cannot get that issue fixed and every time the programmers start working on something there are so many new issues that happen on other parts of the program that it is ridiculous and then those take a week or two to fix, if they ever get fixed.  Its pretty bad when the biggest announcement that has not been riddled with issues and problems is that you "REVISED THE LOG IN SCREEN".  Why would that revision be so important that Ebay had to make this big announcement.  

If Ebay hired the personnel necessary to improve the traffic and resolve the issues with Google, that alone would boost your stock price so much you wouldn't be scrambling to change everything.  But maybe Weinig doesn't want these changes made because that would effect the dealings with China as they would have to also obey the counterfeiting/pirating laws that Google does not want their customers subjected to and that would hurt his plan for China to be Ebays future.  How has that worked out for Ebay so far??

David

Twnpopcards

[theheadphonecompany]

@twnpopcards

%101 of what you mention is correct 🙂

Its not that eBay is pushing out sellers "on purpose" - its about "not caring".

Long ago in eBays 10k SEC filing, eBay stated that:

1) smaller sellers are unreliable sources of income and that they cost eBay alot of money to "carry"

2) eBay KNOWS that its new policies will anger its seller base but that they are prepared to go through with them anyway - prepare for lower revenues

3) eBay (even though it said in court that iwas just a venue) has transitioned itself to a managed marketplace (which gives them the "right" to do to you - meddle in your affairs as they see fit).

Those are all the things you mentioned in your post - it was spot on.

I happen to collect toys. Some of my BEST buys were right here on eBay.Now, 1) most of those sellers are LONG GONE and 2) each time eBay beats me up with a fraudulant return - I search for the item on eBay, then try to but it from that seller at their store or website - thus cutting out eBay.

Im not looking to leave eBay, sue eBay, threaten eBay - I just want to be treated with RESPECT, and eBay doesnt want to "love me back".

Ive had sucess with eBays GSP - and I tell everyone I meet who wants to sell overseas, that GSP takes the hassle out of it and that its one of eBays best ideas. Ive never had anyone complain about shipping or duty fees, and every time there was a crackpot buyer (Royal Mail put my item in the rubbish can and it was taken away)(LOL), GSP has made me whole in (1) phone call. THAT is success. Its just alot of the rest thats gone south especially returns.

I would LOVE to offer a better returns policy then what I have (currently Im at NO RETURNS), but Ive been burnt 1 too many times, and each time eBay tells me "drop dead". "Once you agree to take returns, you have to take ANYTHING back from the buyer - regardless of what it is or what condition its in). THAT is unfair. NO business would run on those kinds of rules - its insanity. Now though that Im in NO RETURNS, eBay punishes me for protecting myself - by lowering my listings in search. The vindictiveness is unparalleled. Is it me with %100 and 7000+ positive feedbacks or the guy from North Dakota with 6 feedbacks, whos been on eBay for 2 months whose lying?

I cant seem to reason with eBay on things like that, and these "seller updates" with their crazy new rules, instill little confidence in me that eBay "takes this all seriously" as a selling platform (as apposed to an advertising generating platform).

I miss the days when there were reps, when the CS was GOOD and knew their stuff, and when eBay was actually HELPFULL when issues arose. Now its all "taking losses is part of business, here please take another". Sheesh.

Its sad, it pushes me MORE to other platforms, and it makes me tell everyone I know to NEVER buy on eBay... after all if they will willfully hurt me, then they would have NO QUALMS doing it "to you".

best of luck and good selling!

[grayirongolf]

Have you gus looked at who PayPal is partnering up with now-a-days?   I'm not sure how well it works but I have heard good things & they did steal eBays wallet.. 

[alexnbj]

Do tell!  Would be interesting to know.....

[thin-icedancer]

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@twnpopcards wrote:

I really wish that Ebay could make nice with Google and fix the issues that caused Google to give them a slap down because it is killing all of us sellers.  

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David, eBay cannot make nice with Google.  eBay was/is trying to compete with Google in the advertisement game.  Google is not going to facilitate competition.

We Sellers make the mistake of assuming eBay wants to be a selling venue and pull our hair out at the stupid moves they make.  All of us need to accept that everything they do is aimed to monetize the site with the least amount of investment in time or money.  They want the monkey-bot to drive the train.  They want no-fuss income from selling information, advertising space, and a bigger chunk of the ecommerce delivery system (shipping, boxes, etc).  They don't mind collecting $ via store fees, FAV fees, or any other fees while the bot train goes merrily on it's way because it puts information in their hands and eyes on the site, but don't expect them to show your merchandise, provide a reliable site platform, or hold themselves to the same high standards they demand of the US-based mid to small Sellers that they use to weed out those that suck time from them.  It's the cost of doing business with them...not normal ecommmerce/business costs.

[alexnbj]

They keep telling us they are not trying to get rid of small business and individual sellers, but I haven't seen one single spokesperson from eBay explain why they no longer offer the promotional listings to non-store sellers.  They either ignore this issue (like pleading the Ffth), or give circuitous responses that do not answer the question at all.

So, eBay, I'll try one more time:  WHY HAVE YOU DISCONTINUEd THE LISTING PROMOTIONS???

[theheadphonecompany]

Alex - I cant swear on it - by my take on the free listings is this:

1) it offsets the illegal TOS verbage that states they can hide your listings or not show them at will. That statement is fraud (if you go to a McDonalds and pay for a burger - by law they HAVE to give it to you - they cant say "we are going to hide it or possibly not give it to you because you have a purple shirt on)

2) Being theres so little traffic these days on eBay (no sales), free listings cost them nothing to give out - its not "real" money, so why not do it? It makes eBay look generous, when its not. If you make a sale from any of them, then it was worth it to them, if you dont then it didnt cost them anything.

3) Amazon doesnt charge to list - this eBays way of trying to "one up them".

In any and every situation, its always about whats best for eBay and not whats best for the seller. When you sell on Amazon - its their rules PERIOD. Dont like them? then dont sell there. eBay goes around telling people how great of a marketplace it is. How you as aseller have freedom and your store/listings can reflect who you or your company is as an individual.

However the reality is that thats NOT what eBay has become. Starting with the last CEO, eBay has become a managed marketplace. They INSIST (its in the TOS) that they have the right to tell you and do ANYTHING they want. They just dont tell the PUBLIC this. You find this little fact out, once you sign up and decide to list something.

They tell you how big your picture must be

They tell you you cant put words on it/in it

They tell you that you cant have a border on it

They tell you that you MUST have "product identifiers" in the listing

They tell you what kind of payment you must take and cant take

They tell you how long you have until you ship

They tell you that EVERY part of the sale is your responsibility and they are "not involved"

They FORCE you to take returns (or you get punished)

The list goes on and on. eBay has become your UNasked for business partner - whether you like(d) it or not. That fact ... will never change, ever.

eBay tries different tactics at different times - the Chinese are just the latest gimmic for eBay. Hiring people with out ecommerce backrounds means you "dont know what to do NEXT" to make your company grow. Copying Amazon only goes so far.

First it was GIS companies, then they sold them off. Then it was cozing up to big retailers like Pennys and Macys and then when they realized that those companys were just using eBay to data mine and send to their own websites, that ended. Then eBay cozied up to large auction houses. It even let them create their own policies. I was suspended for 1 month for explaining all this in another post so I wont do it again here. BTW that failed too.

The Chinese ?  Im sure the money flows thick and fast between eBay, the Chinese Government and the Chinese makers themselves.  The question is how long it will last until the NEXT golden opportunity arrises.

Instead of having the worlds most cutting edge C2C or B2C site on the planet (with their 5 billion in offshore funds), its easier to this stuff .... when it doesnt work, its not "your money" so eBay doesnt care.

eBay will continue to function as it is for YEARS. eBay doesnt pay dividends, the money goes to compensation for BOD members and other execs. As long as there are hungry sellers who need eBay  (cant sell on Amazon or the items arent for Amazon or other platforms) there will be "sheep" for the wolves to feed on - and thats all that REALLY counts here.

I wish eBay was different. Business on eBay for me and the people I know on here (most are MUCH larget then I) is off %35 or MORE!

Not allowing video reviews in listing wont fix anything, neither will higher fees or tighter listing rules ...... but then again you need someone with experience to know how to fix it.

I miss the old eBay - its like a long lost friend you never see anymore (all we have now is the new noisy SOB neighbor who puts trash on thelawn and makes noise all night).

[alexnbj]

I agree with every word you've said.  Been selling for 15 years, but I'm small potatoes for them. Used to be able to make a good living, now it doesn't even supplement SocSec adequately. No traffic, business-killing "rules", and too much competition that shouldn't even be selling on the site.

As soon as I can get rid of my inventory (at prices so low it makes me sick) I'm outta here. Not that they give a rat's hiney, but I think the media might be interested in some of the comments on the discussion boards about what eBay has become, and the Nazi tactics they use to control everything. 

The "outing" of eBay is a nice goal, once I'm not part of it any longer.

[grayirongolf]

Go to PayPal's home page. They have a few new options.   Unfortunatly your gonna have to move away eBay or your not going to survive.

You as a seller can't continue to pay for your mistakes, the buyers mistakes & eBay's mistakes.  You need to grow your business. If your not already flushed with cash / credit eBay will destroy you & if you are flushed with it, your next on the chopping block.    Its about as simple as that.

[alexnbj]

Not quite that simple, but yes, I'm selling off my inventory (at ridiculously low prices) and will look to find a new eBay like this one used to be before greedy management took over. It was a good run.....but I can't work in a "Nazi" like atmosphere, with rules & policies set by people who have never sold a thing in their lives.....