Curious if anyone thinks ebay "improvements" justify a fee hike this year? Reflect on past year....

[siamjane8]

Obviously absolutely nobody like when fees go up....... but when simultaneously the product and the customer services goes down..... it makes no sense.

    Has anyone seen any actual improvements to the site this year?.... not just changes but actual improvements?

    Just looked at our 1099-k from ebay and wouldn't you believe it!-  $15,000 less in sales this past year with all the site "improvements".

    It seem more like ebay causes disruptions with all the unnecessary site changes and sales go down so the answer is to raise fees to cover the effect of the bad decisions...... does nobody ever take responsibility for the actions anymore?   How to the CEO's an management still take millions in bonuses while the platform relevancy decreases?

       One nice feature they made was the repeat buyer notification- that was helpful- but does not counteract the bad search engine and promoted listings debacle they have created- no buyer wants unrelated junk shoved down their throat when they search- JUST GIVE US 100% of the results that match our keywords!, not what some slightly **bleep**ed AI system thinks we want to see.

[mam98031]

Ok, your choice.  That doesn't mean he wasn't being truthful, it only means that you choose not to believe him, nothing more.  I didn't offer my opinion of what he said, I just told you what he said.

There are so many things that Ebay does not do in their policies that Amazon does and it does not appear that Ebay is moving the direction to be more Amazon like, in fact I see the opposite.

Amazon charges more in fees.

Amazon doesn't even allow sellers to be involved in the return process on many claims.  Amazon will just refund the buyer.

Amazon negotiated USPS shipping charges cost the seller more than what Ebay offers in many cases.

Amazon does not offer auctions.

Amazon competes with many of their sellers.

Amazon will freeze listings that they deem are priced too high.

Amazon has FBA.

And the list goes on.

There are far more differences between the sites that there are similar things.

I realize that you have many grievances against Ebay and sometimes they are justified.  But that shouldn't color everything to do with Ebay.

[nuclearomen]

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@mam98031 wrote:

Ok, your choice.  That doesn't mean he wasn't being truthful, it only means that you choose not to believe him, nothing more.  I didn't offer my opinion of what he said, I just told you what he said.

There are so many things that Ebay does not do in their policies that Amazon does and it does not appear that Ebay is moving the direction to be more Amazon like, in fact I see the opposite.

Amazon charges more in fees.

Amazon doesn't even allow sellers to be involved in the return process on many claims.  Amazon will just refund the buyer.

Amazon negotiated USPS shipping charges cost the seller more than what Ebay offers in many cases.

Amazon does not offer auctions.

Amazon competes with many of their sellers.

Amazon will freeze listings that they deem are priced too high.

Amazon has FBA.

And the list goes on.

There are far more differences between the sites that there are similar things.

I realize that you have many grievances against Ebay and sometimes they are justified.  But that shouldn't color everything to do with Ebay.

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doesn't mean he was being truthful either. CEO's say a lot of things, a lot of things they say are just that...things, no real meaning to it either way. 

I do? the only thing I see is that you like to believe I do. And just as classic form, here as well, twisting what I said into things I never said or intended. In fact I was giving reason towards how ebay is better in places then amazon. 

[mam98031]

The proof really is in what he has done since becoming the CEO.  I don't see anything that makes Ebay more like Amazon, only changes that make us more different.

[svbooks]

eBay now charges HIGHER fees than Amazon on higher-ticket media items.  eBay fees are based on the total INCLUDING SALES TAX/VAT (on orders from most states and on many international orders too); Amazon fees are not inclusive of this tax.

If sales tax is 9%, then the eBay fee is higher on media items where the total w/ shipping is about $134.  At 8%, that figure would rise to a bit over $150; and so forth.

On the $450 book we just sold, the eBay fees were $7 higher than they would have been on Amazon.  Going forward, we're going to need to take that into account.

Also, Amazon lets you use their Bound Printed Matter permit, saving money on every book shipment over 1 lb. (up to 15 lbs.).

Please note I'm not an Amazon shill, I like dealing w/ eBay WAY MORE overall, but just saying ...

[Anonymous]

Its not about improvements.

Its about their long dying site and losing millions of buyers and sellers.

They've now dropped to #3 behind Shopify.

Never has never been any evidence of innovation by eBay management in the history of the company. The company has always been managed to achieve short term sales goals at any cost so management gets its bonuses.

eBay was found guilty on infringing (stealing) early online auction patents - they didn't invent them.

All early innovations like pictures in listings, picture hosting, scheduled listings, listing software, eBay's own API, electronic payments and more were all created by other people who eBay then copied or bought out.

Ayn old time eBay knew Meg Whitman's move to HP would be a complete disaster because there she would not be able to take other people's ideas.

More and more of their income comes from dishonest business practices, which have propped up the company for years to make up for declining sales and users.

U.S.S. eBay Titanic will continue to sink at full throttle.

[mam98031]

Thank you.  I don't sell high end books, so VAT isn't something I need to be concerned with.  My fees on Amz run between 16% and 18%, or thereabouts.

I don't call people names, so it would not even occur to me to call you an "Amazon shill".  Besides just stating how something works for you is nothing more than that.  I know there are some that don't see it that way, but I would guess the majority see it like I do.

[mam98031]

Tell us where you are getting your information from.  Some come to the threads every now and again to educate everyone else that Ebay is sinking and about to go out of business.  Some have said that since close to the beginning of the Community.  It wasn't true then any more than it is true some 25+ years later.

Have you reviewed Ebay's financial statements?  They are public info.  What part of the financials is telling you they are sinking?

You are posting with a brand new ID.

[gurlcat]

I just thought of another improvement (I believe this happened in the past year) that I wanted for a very long time: on the Listings page in Seller Hub, the ability to sort by 'Views'.  This enables me to QUICKLY see which listings are getting the least amount of views, so I can try to figure out why, maybe change the title a bit, change the category, use a different photo for the main/thumbnail one, or (I know some of you will NOT like this) raise the promotion rate.  In one of my recent sort-by-view checkups, I discovered that I had a listing with mismatched title and photos, must have done 'Sell similar' and forgot to swap the photos from the last listing.  
So anyway, there's another thing in addition to the ones I said before. 

[siamjane8]

There have been improvements to a few sections.  I like the more transparency and ease of seeing the fees detail and total sale statistics on the orders page at the bottom right- very helpful.

   Also the year end report that now total your common expenses for the year so we dont have to download a 600 page csv file and import into excel to calculate

Those are nice features for sure.

[ryanrobyn]

The ONLY justification  is that with the dropping sales, sellers and buyers Ebay still needs to prove to its' stock holders that their revenue is increasing. This it does by charging sellers more. 

[mam98031]

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@ryanrobyn wrote:

The ONLY justification  is that with the dropping sales, sellers and buyers Ebay still needs to prove to its' stock holders that their revenue is increasing. This it does by charging sellers more. 

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Not exactly.  Since FVFs are charged on a sale that has been paid for, Ebay needs successful transactions for earning money from this source.  

For sellers that ship internationally, their costs went down by a good amount due to the new EIS [Ebay International Shipping] program.  The Monthly Chat is on this subject on the 8th.  A great time to ask any questions you may have about the program.

[gurlcat]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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For sellers that ship internationally, their costs went down by a good amount due to the new EIS [Ebay International Shipping] program.  The Monthly Chat is on this subject on the 8th.  A great time to ask any questions you may have about the program.

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Not to be contrary (what's hilarious about this thread is that it prompted a pretty long list of decent improvements in the past year), but how does the EIS bring cost down?  It costs me the same to ship to the EIS hub in Illinois as it did the GSP hub in Kentucky.  

[mam98031]

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@gurlcat wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

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For sellers that ship internationally, their costs went down by a good amount due to the new EIS [Ebay International Shipping] program.  The Monthly Chat is on this subject on the 8th.  A great time to ask any questions you may have about the program.

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Not to be contrary (what's hilarious about this thread is that it prompted a pretty long list of decent improvements in the past year), but how does the EIS bring cost down?  It costs me the same to ship to the EIS hub in Illinois as it did the GSP hub in Kentucky.  

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Are you serious?  Have you read the policy pages?  If so I'm unsure as to how you would have this question?

EIS no longer charges the seller the 1.65% international fee.

If a return claim or chargeback is filed, Ebay will handle it and the seller doesn't even need to be involved.  If an item is going to be returned, Ebay supplies the label at their cost and has it returned to their facility and they refund the money to the buyer.  Seller keeps their money.

[gurlcat]

I'm unsure why you have to be so hostile when someone simply asks you a question.  I was obviously only talking about the shipping cost itself.  A 1.65% fee savings isn't literally nothing I guess, so there's that.  As for returns I almost never get them (I checked yesterday and my last one was in June of last year) and I've never had an international return or chargeback, but a friend I was corresponding with had one and the GSP handled it the same way, didn't cost her anything.  

[lucia2512]

I don't like it either but Ebay still has the lowest fees of any site by far. Poshmark wants 20% and forces Priority shipping even for items under 1 lb.