TRS discount going from 20% to 10% on May 1st

[z50com]

I WON'T DO IT

For 10% I will no longer jump thru the hoops

I'm going back to 3 day handling and paid shipping

I'm also raising my prices

I DON'T NEED THIS ANYMORE

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/comments///1488296012.html#

[*heather_lee*]

Hmmm. OK. I didn't consider/think of that. Yeah, I can see them needing to "make up" the loss of profit on those.

[*heather_lee*]

(Ooops! Responded to the wrong one on that previous post up there, labs118. Sorry.)
Well, that is an interesting point about less competition. Who knows what changes will happen by the time I get there.

[brandsandcollectibles]

I love how ebay "sells" this price hike and service reduction as good for all of us? This is their marketing speak quote:

"eBay Top Rated Sellers have told us they want more tools and options to grow their business. The changes we’re making reflect our ongoing investment in helping them do just that and to ensure the best marketplace health and competition."


Translation: we're charging you more, giving you less.

[*heather_lee*]

Well, if that isn't a bit of a contradictory statement. How exactly is eBay "investing" if/when the sellers suffer a subsequent cut? That makes not a *lick* of sense.

[mr_lincoln]

@fern*wood

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@fern*wood wrote:

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@retrose1 wrote:

Yeah, sellers have been jumping through hoops and paying ebay for a store to now only be paying just about the same amount fee % as the average little seller.

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I only keep a store as long as the math makes sense.  So far it has saved me money but the lines on the graph are slowly beginning to converge.

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In looking at the monthly store fee for the basic level it runs about 20 bucks on a 1 year commitment.  The break even level of sales is about $ 1,000 per month whereby the TRS Plus discount of 20% puts 20 bucks back in the store owner's pocket, meaning having that basic store and selling about 12 grand a year means a free store ... eBay recoops 1/2 that by changing to 10% TRS Plus discount.  Larger stores with higher sales, etc. can run their own numbers but I suspect they might be similar.  I am sure good sellers on different store levels were getting their stores free or close to it with the 20% discount on FVFs ...

[cjcustomcreations]

My thoughts exactly,  "eBay Top Rated Sellers have told us they want more tools and options to grow their business. The changes we’re making reflect our ongoing investment in helping them do just that and to ensure the best marketplace health and competition." ............how in the world does this help anybody, and what Top Rated Seller asked to have  their discount cut by 10%? 

[discountwarehouse2u]

Honestly reducing the top rated discount is such a insult. Ebay really does try to get every penny from you. So annoying. I will be raising my prices as well.

[teklifestyle]

Migrating over to amazon is looking very attractive at the moment.. I lost my TRS over christmas first time in 4 years due to a minor mistake on our part. But I will be getting it back in 3 weeks... This change is going to cost me 1000's of dollars a year and ebay is trying to spin it as good for us ? Imagine these stores doing over a million a year in sales they are going to be losing 50k + a year. Start Charging basic sellers more fees and quit hurting your bread and butter ebay it doesnt make sense. 

[baggs-2024]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

They're removing third party ads across the platform. Sellers need to remember when they ask for something that Ebay then provides, they lose something else. This is not a charity.

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You know that they are only being removed, (read:  moved), so that they can place the new paid for promo sellers' ads there.  If they sellers don't pay, you will see 3rd party sellers there again.  This is the new carrot, pay for placement, which will be right on other seller's ads that do not pay.  Sooner or later there will be no small sellers to share their real estate, and this will collapse.  But for now, they are selling YOUR listing space to other sellers.  

[hodgepdg527]

except they are not really the last line say some third party ads will remain.

[*heather_lee*]

Well, when the time comes, I'm just going to have to do what I do, and let the cards fall where they may. The time I *just* spent getting excited over the store options (for future encouragement) was a waste of my time. So much for that. I'll lay that to the side for future consideration. Obviously, when the time comes, if the difference in "benefits" is a barely there margin, I'll forego going with one of those and just remain a very good, small seller (and leave it at that). I'm not interested in playing games with my money.

[around-the-block]

I agree. 10% is not worth the hassle. I will no longer offer returns at all and my handling time is going from 1 day back up to 3 days. I will also go back to just throwing my packages up on the counter and leaving and not caring if they get scanned or not. I will also be concentrating much more heavily on Amazon, since the fees will now be so much closer together, the extra effort that ebay requires to create listings isn't worth it either. Would rather just click a few buttons on Amazon and sell quickly than pay the same ridiculous fees and sell slower and spend 10 minutes or more per listing. Really, Ebay, the ONLY thing you have over Amazon is fees. If you take away that advantage, why would I sell here at all?

[blade-runner-2049]

So they want more tracking (95%) to give us less money (10%)? What a terrible decision.

I've been selling on eBay since 2006 and I've always achieved (or tried to achieve when I've lost status) the Top Rated Seller status so I could get the 20% discount and give my customers the best possible price.

No more. I'm switching to 3 day handling times and my prices are going up. NO returns ever either.

I just bought a bunch of inventory at super low margins based on the 20% discount. Thanks for screwing me over eBay.

By the way, just a few months ago I listed about half of my inventroy on Amazon and made some sales almost instantly. Time for me to consider listing everything over there now as well.

[rlramirez77]

I think raising prices will continue to be a necessity, but I sell Electronic parts with super low margins and have to compete against ebay sellers in China receiving government subsidies for shipping for something like 2 years. I cannot match $0.99 and free shipping, but still do OK with buyers that do not always (or never) buy from China. Tarriffs may come along too, so I'll wait and see what happens.

[cad777864]

How encouraging to sell here.  Thank goodness spring is coming, everyone needs to just start selling locally where you can make a LOT more money anyway.  This will be the final nail for many many sellers.