Here's the staight dope...
AMZ courts large sellers hard. It is hard for eBay to convince large sellers to spend time listing here. It takes a lot longer to list on Ebay, and more often than not the products take longer to sell, and/or they sell for less.
In contrast, AMZ hates the little guy. They don't want Joe Anybody listing the cheap pair of cheap clearance sneakers he found at Kohls, along with a bunch of other random stuff in his garage that he bought to flip. This should be eBay's opening to capitalize.
There are millions of Joes, and their money adds up. The problem is - this is not Joe Anybody's primary source of income. If he's not making at least $500 on every $1500 he sells, it's simply not worth his time. Sure, Joe could decide he's happy with $200 on every $1500 of sales if he can sell 3 times as much, but Joe does not have the time or capital for that. There is a more important factor at play however...
Joe does not want to cross the $20k tax threshold. He has no intention of having to deal with the government for his eBay business. Yes, yes, shame on Joe for his evil deeds here but without getting into the morality of it all, let's just face the music -Joe is probably in the majority of the small sellers regarding obligations to Uncle Sam.
If Joe can sell $18k at $9k profit a year, it's a nice little source of extra income. If Joe does $18k but at only $3k profit, he's making less than minimum wage for his effort. He doesn't want the tax hassle so he won't jist try to sell more to make up for the low margins.
It seems like eBay is doing whatever thay can to push Joe to sell at a miniscule profit. They tell him his price is too high if he lists it at anything but the lowest. They default his listings to best offer and hide it so he can't tell. He gets rid of the best offer and they automatically enable it again a few days later. Bootleg knockoffs are allowed to flood the site and will not be taken down if they are reported.
Joe decides he's done. EBay lost the large seller money, and now they've lost Joe and millions of other Joes like Joe. eBay decided the Joes weren't giving them enough sales. Now the Joes aren't giving them any sales.
It doesn't matter what eBay does now with short-term sales driving schemes. There is nothing they can do to make more money but convince the Joes to come back. I sincerely hope that this post finds it's way to an exec at eBay and sparks an "aha!" moment. I don't see a lot of hope for the site if things continue the way they are.
Improve the seller and buyer experience, gain membership - more items will be available and sales will grow organically. Otherwise eBay's future may be just a fire-sale acquisition of AMZ.
