If eBay very publicly and LOUDLY announced they were ending pay-to-play...

[stevemartin60]

...they would quickly corner the market for this type of platform, and force all the other bad eggs to end the practice also.

Just think, eBay would be the only major platform of its type to have a truly open and fair playing field where sellers would succeed or fail base purely on the quality of their merchandise and their service!

(Geesh...sounds like eBay circa 2003, doesn't it?...lol.)

[whatmorefabric]

All major sites are a pay to play .      The money increases revenue and pays  Google for more visibility.

Ebay would corner nothing by giving up a major stream of revenue that everyone  uses.    They would also not corner the market.

Times have changed from when Ebay was a used market place to where it is now.    It is not going back and it would be stupid to do so.

[buyselljack2016]

eBay is here to make money for............................... eBay.

eBay is not concerned with a "level playing field".  Just as any other "for profit corporation", ebay is concerned with increasing the size of their mountain of $$$, not ours 🙂

[stevemartin60]

The "but, mom, everyone else is doing it" argument has never cut it in my household, and like my good friend (now deceased) used to say, "You don't have to agree with me.  You have every right to be wrong."...lol.

Cheers.

[joliztoyco]

And there are different ways to increase that mountain of $$$.
Ebay Germany has decided to remove FVF's from small sellers... to bring back SELLERS. Who are also responsible for BUYING enormous amounts of merchandise on Ebay. (According to Ebay's OWN STATISTICS.) 
And much of that "merchandise" is purchased from "high volume" sellers which increases Ebay's PROFITS .
Gee...what a novel idea....

[vintagecraze50]

Well then, many of the sellers could possibly reduce their prices as well. Sounds like a win to me.

[iamalwaysright]

Related topic. I used to dominate in search exposure before Best Match was introduced. No listing violations and I'd guaranteed be in the top 10 or so listings. Even after Best Match and Cassini, I slowly got the hang of it and was able to do very well in exposure too.

Maybe I wouldn't do so well now since more sellers have gotten smarter with that.

[inhawaii]

You complain about this almost every day, sometimes several times a day.

That's fine. You have every right to.

But you still have 100+ items listed.

If you don't like it and think it's so unfair, why do you continue to do business with such a unscrupulous company?

[joliztoyco]

My Grandfather use to regale me with stories of buying alcohol from the Mob during prohibition to keep his "speakeasy" open. 
Sometimes you have to deal with the devil.
Doesn't mean you have to like it.

[stevemartin60]

That's why, Hawaii.  Thanks, toyco.  

I know you and yours would love to see all the "complainers" just go away.  Let me just say that I am not the one who keeps changing the rules and moving the targets.

[stevemartin60]

Yep.  Greed brings down everything, in time.

[bonjourami]

What 'rules and targets' would that be?

[luckythewinner]

If eBay very publicly and LOUDLY announced they were ending pay-to-play... ..they would quickly corner the market for this type of platform 

eBay had not already cornered the market before they introduced Promoted Listings, so clearly it is not as simply as you think.

and force all the other bad eggs to end the practice also.
{snip}
eBay would be the only major platform of its type to have a truly open and fair playing field

First you said that if eBay did it then all the other players would have to do it to. Then you said eBay would be the only like that. Which is it? You can't have it both way.

[pjcdn2005]

I was thinking the same thing.  Before they started promoted listings they had not cornered the market and there were still complaints about how they did things.  There are always going to be people that don't like the way things are being done.  I doubt that most here like what seems to be constant changes to the platform but some can adapt, others seem unable to do so or want to do so.

[stevemartin60]

The emphasis is eBay should do it first, and then force the others to try to catch up, instead of always beaing reactive.  Someone needs to lead the way out of this swamp.