I totally agree with Joliztoyco.
My wife and I have been selling on eBay for 23+ years with over 13000 items currently listed. We have approx. $3,500,000.00 in value on eBay and we own it all, It's in our warehouse, on our shelving. We were planning on doing this for another 20+ years which would put us into our early 70's but have now decided to liquidate and within 12 months be done with eBay altogether.
Here is my "OPINION"...
""""Only my opinion:"""" Instead of eBay just raising their selling rates a few percent to make the money they are looking to make for their shareholders (I understand shareholders wanting to make their money on what they have invested in eBay), they are forcing sellers to fight against other sellers in a downright dirty battle on who wants to pay eBay the most out of the profits they make in order to get their items looked at by buyers first - and in most cases the only way it will be sold. Your feedback doesn't seem to make much of a difference. The way you take care of your account doesn't seem to make much of a difference (accepting returns, shipping on time, etc). To me, it seems like it's more about how much extra you are willing to give eBay for allowing you to list your item(s) on their platform. So basically if you give them an extra 20-30 percent or more (promoting) and then add the regular high fees they charge, you might as well give them close to half of your selling price. We have to buy the item, clean the item, list the item, store the item, pay fees on the item until it sells, sell the item, pay selling fees on the item, buy packaging for the item, pay to ship the item, and then deliver the item to the shipping company, and THEN... pay eBay EXTRA money above and beyond their normal high fees for what they call "promoting fees" is icing on the cake. And, that doesn't include returns, refunds, partial refunds, chargebacks, etc. Those are more losses for the seller. Then you must let the IRS know you are making a few dollars (actually, eBay will do that for you) and they take their cut! Have any money left for you? Maybe if you buy it cheap enough because you can't sell it for much more than the other seller that just promoted their items and is willing to do what they have to do to make a few dollars.
I'm not sure how eBay thinks this is going to work for them on a long-term basis. I believe I have learned sellers are leaving and sales are down... but profits are up. This to me shows short-term thinking only. But, who knows... I could be totally wrong as I'm not a CEO or money guy at their level. But, when we get rid of our items at a local auction, most will never be put on eBay again and then all those buyers trying to get their old cars and boats, etc. up and running won't find that super rare part that my wife and I have or "had" on ebay.
Again, as the sellers leave eBay, the products they have in inventory will drop, or at least the unique, rare, and hard-to-find items. Drop shipping will be where it is at for eBay. Their long-lasting reputation of having rare, hard-to-find, new and used items will be gone and then eBay will be just "another" selling sight like the big "A", which they will never be able to compete with.
Conclusion:
After my wife and I have sold millions of dollars of sales on eBay and had our sales drop 60+ percent for the last 6+ months... and not willing to sell our souls on the "promoting" option that is now trying to be forced upon us, we are starting to move on. It will take us a short while, but it's now time. eBay has forced our "selling" retirement early. I only hope that the eBay pioneer/founder, Pierre Omidyar, is not approving of how we, sellers, are being treated. Pierre never treated our family like this when we were selling under him. If I had known in 2000 that he would allow this to happen to our family today, I would have done something else and not started eBay at all. They have wasted our time and investment for our retirement years. I also recommend to everyone who says they haven't/don't know how to sell on eBay - don't do it. It's not worth the migraine.
We wish all of you sellers the very best in your future ventures whether it's on eBay or on another selling sight. With all due respect - Good Luck to all of you!
