Ebay is automatically lowering the price on sellers items?

[debvor]

I read an article this morning that was about an Ebay seller that was saying Ebay was lowering her selling price. She got a message from Ebay about and item that read "Make sure your item gets sold: Starting 10 days after listing, we'll lower the price (5% every 5 days) until your item sells or gets to $80.99. We'll notify buyers who showed interest each time the price drops. Turn it off anytime by going to your listing." Ebay seems to have a two fold formula for selling "free shipping" and "lower your price". Maybe three fold I forgot about "free returns". That's not much of a business plan and now if Ebay is taking it upon themselves to lower prices that is just unacceptable. Why can't they just be a venue? Why do they have to interfere in our business? I realize there needs to be some ground rules but that needs to be kept to a minimum. Sales stink bad enough as it is and of course it has nothing to do with the things that Ebay is doing. Just ask them they'll tell you. 

[davlinschneider]

I'm a little tired of complaints about eBay (aside from obvious glitches).

EBay is a business and just like your business, they want to maximize profits. How they do it is up to them.

Do you complain about Walmart's practices? Maybe, but you probably would just shop somewhere else.

So instead of griping about how someone runs their business, there is an easy solution. Stop using eBay.

[ozarkjoe]

Another gimmick dreamed up by MBA bean counters to boost sales by 2% so that they can pad their resume and then  go to their next host corporation and do the same thing.

[equid0x]

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@davlinschneider wrote:

I'm a little tired of complaints about eBay (aside from obvious glitches).

EBay is a business and just like your business, they want to maximize profits. How they do it is up to them.

Do you complain about Walmart's practices? Maybe, but you probably would just shop somewhere else.

So instead of griping about how someone runs their business, there is an easy solution. Stop using eBay.

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Businesses don't necessarily exist to maximize profits. The only time they would be required to do so is if their corporate charter states that as a goal, and they are publicly traded. 

[zamo-zuan]

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@davlinschneider wrote:

I'm a little tired of complaints about eBay (aside from obvious glitches).

EBay is a business and just like your business, they want to maximize profits. How they do it is up to them.

Do you complain about Walmart's practices? Maybe, but you probably would just shop somewhere else.

So instead of griping about how someone runs their business, there is an easy solution. Stop using eBay.

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Sorry just thought I should give a little input regarding this.

If eBay were making business decisions that were to strengthen the marketplace of eBay, I would not think complaints are reasonable.

But eBay is making business decisions that will strengthen the company profits, rather than the marketplace of eBay. Considering that, I believe every seller has the right to be upset about the direction of eBay.

Making decisions that hurt the marketplace directly hurt all of us. They also hurt eBay in the end.

A successful marketplace = more profits for eBay. Not just more profits, but sustainable profits. 

Instead, they've made changes that make it harder to survive on eBay. Changes that make eBay less competitive when you compare to other marketplaces. If you were going to advise someone to sell on eBay rather than other markets, how would you even "sell them" on eBay? EBay fees are now higher. EBay exposure is lower. EBay protection is worse. The only area it's even arguable is you don't have to deal with China sellers claiming copyright on your items. But eBay's VeRO implementation is arguably just as bad.

There's no good reason a marketplace would put company margin ahead of marketplace health, unless they were planning on selling the company. As they do that at the sellers expense, us sellers have to have our livelihoods at risk.

[nc-daydreamer]

I am weary of babysitting listings - either they are making things for pick up, lowering prices, changing BO... I am scared to see what's next. 

[themanstuffstore56]

I would like to turn on easy pricing on all my listing but can't seem to find how to do that.  Is it just available for new listings?

[brian@ebay]

Hi everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began, we have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread here.

Thanks.