I've read nearly every other thread and comment on eBay's new Markdown Manager complaints...and there are a boatload of them. So far, not one seller has applauded these changes. In fact, nearly all have shown disgust, or are just perplexed on why the changes at all. But, it appears there were two main reasons for them.
1) Every seller, especially the little guys, are being SQUEEZED into accepting eBay's recommended pricing when listing items. Doesn't matter what YOU think, or want, out of YOUR product. Ebay's master price sheet is to be used, or you can just sit and watch your product sit as well. At least until you lower all prices to where they want them, without using MM of course.
Or, 2) start using their promotions. Pretty slick. Your prices are frozen, or you'd at least have to manually change each and every one (I have 2500 myself). And it looks like a number of sellers tried to lower prices prior to the changes, only to regret it.
Beyond that, I see no reason for what they did from a sellers standpoint. They have totally changed my routine and penalized me in the process. And this is on top of BLOCKING the 'request total' link in buyers shopping carts for when items are on sale, claiming the seller has already gave a discount (when all we're trying to do is combine shipping on multiple items). And most sellers do not realize that when they refund money for a buyer paying multiple shipping charges, eBay pockets all of those uneccessary % shipping charges, unless you call and beg for a credit each and every time. They're making millions for doing absolutely nothing. Go ahead, crawl through your invoice and see if you can find where they refund/credit those excess shipping payments. I had someone pay for 10 separate shipping charges of $5.50@ and it only cost $7.25 to actually ship. The buyer lost $5, as I wasn't going to eat it. But eBay got $5 free because I wasn't going to sit on the phone and beg for a credit.
So, with all the constant changes that only benefit eBay, the continued blocking of the 'request total' link, losing Power Seller status, the useless listing offers that usually arrive a day after they started, the amount of time I waste on this forum and jumping through new hoops with every change or glitch (and stress), and the constantly increasing fees, I've decided to pursue my own eCommerce website. I've wanted to do it for a long time but dreaded the amount of time it will take to start over, versus what I've already done here (again, 2500 items, and down from my original Anchor Store). Honestly, if I hadn't had a large order by a single buyer (54 items that I manually combined), I would have closed my eBay Store this month. Hopefully I can hang on until this Fall and get things relaunched, using eBay at a minimum and mainly to draw buyers to my own site. The only good thing eBay has done the last few years is make this decision easier.
