New eBay Fees

[gmarguli]

In response to seller concerns eBay has lowered fees.*

 

Closing Price Final Value Fee Final Value Fee (effective 02/20/2008)

 

$0.01-$25.00 was 5.25% of the closing value, now 8.75% of the closing value

 

$25.01 - $1,000.00 was above plus 3.25% of the closing value, now above plus 3.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($25.01 to $1,000.00).

 

Over $1,000.01 no change.

 

A $100 item used to cost a seller $3.75, but now it will cost $4.82. That's a 28.54% increase.

 

*By lower, we mean higher, but in eBay speak that is considered lower. Feel free to leave them honest feedback on this change.**

 

**Only positive feedback now allowed.

[James_OldeTowne]

Gee, so today's lower is yesterday's higher? Things get better all the time!

 

Big impact on me, since most of what I sell is cheaper stuff (.01 - $25).

 

I so wish someone would take eBay down a notch or two.

[rons]

OUCH!!!!! How long until the other shoe drops? By that I mean, how long until paypal "lowers" their fees? They are ridiculous already but with "lower" fees perhaps they will just become sublime

[DC Dawg]

Ebay lowered listing fees by 10-cents and now offer free gallery pictures, which was 35-cents. It cost 45-cents less to list your item even though they will make up twice that amount when the items sells!

 

I so wish someone would take eBay down a notch or two.

Yahoo auctions went out of business last year. But an existing alternative are the auctions at overstock.com.

 

Scott

[DWLange]

Think of the savings when your item fails to sell!

[CHABSENTIA]

I mentioned before that the Sales of EBAY are down. This is one of the reasons they are expanding into China as they need more Sales. If they can't increase Sales then then just increase the Fees.

 

[BillJones]

The coin business is a low mark-up affair. I can only get 10 to 20 above cost to cover all of my overhead. Now between eBay's higher fees, Pay Pal taking its cut and charges for photos and the like about only people who can make money on eBay are the Chinese since many of them seem to make their own inventory including of late, the slab.

 

EBay is not a friendly place for coin dealers who try to sell really nice stuff. Those who buy there should realize that in coins you get what you pay for if you are treated fairly. And on eBay it's hard to treat you fairly because eBay won't let their customers make much, if any, money.

[rons]

One side effect might be an increase in the use of The Money Market here and Buy Trade Sell ATS. Maybe this will get the creative juices flowing for someone to begin an alternative auction site. I believe cmerlo1 has started one and this new policy can only drive business his way

[CHABSENTIA]

I agree but it is still think that the reason for all this is the decreasing Sales on Ebay . Might be the real reason Meg is stepping down.

 

 

E Bay has obviously goe to the other extreme with the Sellers because they feel one of the reasons is that the Buyers are becoming dischanted with some of the Sellers for reasons already mentioned. Again any co incidence that the New Polices are implemented after Meg announces she is stepping down.

 

 

The recent Program on CNBC that put E BAy in a bad light had a guy who is an Expert in Risk analysis. He said E Bay is not doing enough especailly in the field of Automation. Obviously they would have to hire more people and Machines etc.

 

 

This would be more Expense. Looks like EBay is instead initiating Policies that would not cost as much but in order to please the Buyer/s who are deserting them.

 

A new Sheriff in town?

[hoard]

I finally got around to look at this new policy and it really stinks. It is set up to penalize the lower priced infrequent seller. If you do the math, fees went up 67% on $25 hammer, 75% on $100 hammer, then they begin to fall to about 10% by the time you get to $2000 hammer price.

 

Then the idea of only counting feedback in the preceding twelve months just stinks. I last sold something three months ago, in nine months I am out of luck. This stinks.

 

 

[CHABSENTIA]

Maybe E BAY wants to get rid of the Lower Infrequent Seller?

 

Sales on Ebay have decreased and are decreasing. Less Sales = Less Money for E BAy.

 

 

I don't know how many times I can say it. I have mentioned several times here that an Expert in Risk Management has stated that EBAY is lacking in several of these areas and that Automation is one of the worst. It is too late now. These things should have been implemented much earlier.

 

 

Automation means extra costs for the Machines to implement it. It also requires Programmers to make the Programs to monitor its various Policies and it also costs Money to pay the People to track and monitor them.

 

Meg Whitman has stated that " EBAY has 132 million sellers and if EBAY was a Country then it would be the 12th Largest one".

 

It takes Money to run a Country. E Bay is a Public Comapny and has Stock holders. Stock Holders do not like to see decreasing Sales. It cost Money for Meg and crew to fly around the 12th Largest Country and give Pep Rallies and Perks.

 

The only Avenue left if they don't want to pay for Programs to Monitor their various Policies etc and to ensure a smoothly run operation is to force out the worst performers and rasie the fees on the rest of the 12th largest Country.

 

 

I would be curious to know the terms of Megs "Golden Parachute" as I am sure she will receive one.

[Keigwin]

(sent to billcobb@ebay.com)

 

Dear Mr. Cobb,

 

I am a power seller on ebay with 100% feedback. I am also a long time ebay customer (from the late 1990’s). I buy and sell rare US coins as a hobby.

 

Selling on ebay is not my living. However, I am passionate about my hobby and I have bought and sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of products (mostly coins) over the last few years.

 

The recently announced change with regard to not allowing negative feedback for buyers is simply untenable. I won’t repeat arguments you have already heard many times. Instead, I would simply like to express my strong unhappiness with this policy change.

 

In spite of the enormous outcry you have heard I do not expect ebay to kill this new policy. I know how difficult it is for a large corporation to reverse newly announced changes.

 

I would, however, like ebay to know that as a result of this policy change I am ceasing all selling on ebay. There are other auction sites, some specialized, that I can avail.

 

I hope that in time ebay will correct this very serious mistake and we may again enjoy a healthy business relationship selling products on ebay.

 

Very sincerely,

Lance Keigwin.

 

(ebay handle kattman-gsxr)

[Just Bob]

Judging by your last 8 auctions, ebay stands to lose a fair chunk of change if you leave them, Lance. Just a drop in the bucket compared to total sales, but if enough sellers followed your lead, it could sting them pretty badly.

 

 

(I'm assuming that ebay charges dealers a percentage of the total sale price)

[thebeav]

That's a great letter Lance.

I'm still steaming pretty well also. We've heard you and lowered our fees.....

These kind of tactics are infuriating. Luckily, most can see through them.

 

Paul

[Keigwin]

ebay's reply:

 

Dear Lance,

 

My name is Dave, and thank you for your email to Bill Cobb. We have

received your concern, and I am responding on behalf of Bill Cobb. I

can understand how frustrating the feedback change is for you, and your

business on eBay.

 

eBay's goal for the public Feedback system was to provide an honest and

accurate record of the buyer's and seller's online experience to ensure

safe and satisfactory trade. This goal was driven by the desire to

create an open environment and to ensure that eBay members were

accountable for their transactions

 

Over time, we found that the open nature of the existing Feedback system

makes some members reluctant to hold others accountable. For example,

buyers fear retaliatory Feedback from sellers if they leave a negative.

 

Therefore, we'll be making a few important changes to eBay's Feedback

system, both public and private, to continue to improve accuracy and

accountability. Within six months these changes should help to

differentiate and reward sellers who provide a positive buying

experience on eBay.

 

We will continue to change eBay's public and private Feedback system as

the Community and the online marketplace evolves.

 

The change in the Feedback system is designed to improve the eBay

marketplace which should benefit both buyers and sellers. Improving the

Feedback system should increase buyers' confidence making them trust

sellers more.

 

We believe that we will reduce any imbalance in the Feedback system with

these changes. Buyers will be able to more accurately assess sellers,

and sellers will be protected from buyers who violate our policies

(through the Unpaid Item system and other reporting) without risking a

reduction in good buyer activity.

 

Lance, although I do understand that this will affect your business,

please understand that we have made these changes for the betterment of

eBay?s marketplace.

 

Thank you for your time.

 

Sincerely,

Dave

On behalf of Bill Cobb

President of eBay North America

 

[coinman1794]

What a touching, cut & paste response from ebay

[Houston Investor]

Ebay is biting the hand that feeds them with this absurd catering to the boo birds who now will have the capability to trash a seller out with impunity. Ebay and paypal already have policies and options which provide buyer protection - this manipulation of feedback is not needed. If you are a seller, I would be advise you to be careful of the scam artists who may take advantage of this policy to manipulate a seller.

 

As a businessman, I can not believe a company would initiate a policy which would alienate sellers who provide income lifeblood with listing fees and commissions. It costs me approximately 15% of sales to operate on ebay considering the high ebay and paypal fees which means my lower markup, big ticket items > $1000 can not be listed there for the most part. These costs includes the fixed cost of running an ebay store with approximately 200 items.

 

Feedback should be an equal two - way street. I believe it is my constitutional right to post my opinion of someone in a public forum who in turn who has the ability to post their opinion of me.

 

 

[jgrinz]

Didnt even have the balls to give his name .. How unprofessional

 

[Larry Dreher]

I've been thinking about this a lot. While my first reaction was negative to the feedback changes, I'm starting to think that in the long run they will be good.

 

I sell and buy about equally on ebay and have had over 1000 transactions since I started. There are a handful of times I've failed to leave negative feedback where it was warranted because I was afraid of retaliation. Those sellers were getting off way too easy and probably screwing other people which in the long run affects the whole ebay ecosystem.

 

From a sellers perspective I know there will be unreasonable insufficiently_thoughtful_persons out there who will now leave unwarranted negatives. But, think about it... Those buyers should be equally distributed among all sellers. Let's say those buyers are 2% of the ebay community. That would mean that an excellent seller might have a 98% positive feedback rating but now those truely bad sellers might now have a 90% positive. What's wrong with increasing the standard deviation in these scores so really good sellers stand out? It will take a little while for the community to adjust but I'm starting to think these changes will be positive.

 

The new fee structure is another matter...

 

Ok, Where am I wrong?

[Larry Dreher]

Wow, aren't we puritant here? I got my first "spoon" replacement and I used the word i.d.i.o.t. I would have thought it was reserved for more forceful language.

[gmarguli]

The biggest problem I see is that it is a one-way street which now gives 100% of the power to the buyers. How eBay can believe that all transactions are "positive" on the buyers end and all problems originate with the seller is beyond me. They traded a small problem for buyers with a major problem for sellers - the people who pay the fees.

 

Now a seller not only has to deal with PayPal bending over backwards to give money back to buyers, but the sellers have no way or warning other sellers.

 

I know of one instance where a buyer in India filed a claim for non-receipt about a week after the auction ended. The seller (not me) provided mailing info to PayPal showing it had been mailed a couple days earlier. Common sense would have told PayPal that the package wasn't going to get from the US to some small city in India in a couple of days. Instead, PayPal yanked the money out of the account and gave it back to the thief in India.

 

What does eBay call the above? It's called a POSITIVE transaction, because soon that's the only feedback the seller can leave for this buyer. As it stands now, the seller gave the buyer a negative to warn other sellers. In the future, there will be no ability to warn other sellers.

 

Can a seller warn others about a buyer who bounces checks or sends fraudulent checks or does chargebacks? Nope!

 

As this continues and the bad buyers are insulated from honest critiques, the good sellers will continue to move away and the bad sellers will stay as they don't care.

 

In the last week I sold around $5,000 worth of stuff that would have absolutely gone on eBay before they announced their nonsense changes. I find I need eBay's heavy hand less and less. Instead of listing on eBay and giving them their 10%, I just offered it to a couple of my clients directly and give them a discount off what they'd likely have to pay on eBay. I'm happy as I make a little more and don't have to support stupid eBay policies. The buyer is happy as they got a discount and didn't have to take the chance at losing at an auction. eBay is the only loser, losing about $500 in fees. Multiple that over and over again by the number of times I will do this and then over and over again by the number of sellers that will do this and it'll catch up to eBay.

[CHABSENTIA]

Believe it. I was a Manager for a Branch of Retail outfits here in Jacksonville and South Georgia. When they were the only game in town they did just about everything that came to mind.

 

When Walmart, Target and Walgreen moved in and expanded they only changed the things which would not cost them anyhting.You would not beleive the stories.I had one instance where a clerk in Grocery called me back and told me that we had received an 8 ounce bottle of a popular cleaner at 8ounces that was twice as much in cost as the 16 ounce of the same cleaner.

 

 

I called the head buyer and Groceries and was told this was not a mistake and that since we were now the only people in Jacksonville that sold this in the 8 OZ bottle that we could charge any price we wanted.

 

 

I told him that this might be true to some degree if the 16 oz Bottle was not on the same shelf as the 8 oz in order to compare it.

 

I was told by this Head Buyer that this was the way it was to be done.I went back and explained it to the clerk and told him that if a Customer ever mentioned it and I was in te Store to call me. Two months later it happened.

 

I complained to my District Manager and was told to forget it. THis was one of many acts when the competition moved in.

 

Managers had their Bonuses reduced when Sales started to increase.

 

 

It is more common then one thinks for many Businesses to raise Costs and Fees and to reduce Incentitives.

 

 

I can tell from the Letter from EBAY that this is the direction they have decided to take and that they feel that they have a captive audience and 132 million Loyal sellers who might compalin but will not desert them in any numbers that would be a problem and that the increase in fees will be enough to compensate for the few who depart.

 

The rest is hype to camaflouge and try and make people feel good.Automation to track the patterns of the Sellers would be all that was necessary but EBAY does not want to spend the Money.

 

State Lotteries have different Ball sets and Machines used to pick the numbered Balls. A different set is picked at random each drawing. If only one was used all the time it would be possible to track certain patterns over time. This is one of the reasons that people who play the same numbers all the time hit. This is because eventually the Machine with that pattern will be used.

 

 

[jom]

I absolutely LOVE that eBay response from above. They go on and on what this is supposed to do to eBay but never once explain how. They guy should write speeches for politicians.

 

jom

[Zoins]

Has anyone read about how Walmart treats their suppliers?

[carson city]

The beatings will continue, until morale improves !

[CHABSENTIA]

EBAY isn't for everybody.