Massive eBay Changes Announced - Fixed Price Listings Get New Emphasis
My husband and I have been eBaying for over 11 years. So, we were among a group of devoted eBayers sitting around tonight waiting for the "big" announcement that Internet rumors said were going to be announced Wednesday, August 20th. A "little bird" told us that the announcement would actually be released tonight--and it was--and it is big.
We are sorting through it all, but here is what you, the doll buyer and seller on eBay, may be most concerned about. First of all, no more checks or money orders will be allowed on eBay. I know that will effect many of the older collectors who still prefer checks or money orders, as well as transactions for some very expensive antique dolls that are often paid for by personal check.
Second, there is going to be a new emphasis on fixed price listings over auction listings. Auctions will still exist, but especially in search they will be presented in a slightly different way. For more information, read EBay Is Planning to Emphasize Fixed-Price Sales Format Over Its Auction Model in the New York Times. The changes will go into effect on September 16th. And, do you remember when eBay was fun? I mean really fun? If so, join me for a Walk Down eBay's Memory Lane
Comments
Why cant e-bay use fixed price listing for new items but leave the antiques, collectables and vintage as they are. Collectors like the auction foremat.
Is Ebay getting ready to take it’s money and run, like the banks?
Ebay owns paypal, so they clearly benefit from not allowing checks and money orders. I do love the convenience of paypal - and it’s been years since I bought anything on ebay that necessitated a check or MO - I don’t have the patience to wait for checks to clear, and I’m concerned about sending MO to strangers. However, it’s the fact that ebay owns paypal and makes money off of it that makes it leave a bad taste in your mouth with these changes.
I miss the old auction days too. It’s just going to turn into a big store.
I had been thinking about putting some antique dolls up for auction ebay but now I will send them to one of the auction houses. I will not pay fees for something that may or may not sell.
I agree! I hope Ebay leaves the collectibles and antiques with the option of an auction format. Also, if Paypal is going to be the only way to pay, don’t you think that their fees should be reduced? All these FEES! It is getting out of hand. If I see more of a down turn to the Ebay community, I’m selling my Ebay stock!
It is getting to be a big pain with all the charges that Ebay and Pay Pal receive. The cost of mailing a package has gotten out of line also. Hardly anyone sends by Priority Mail. Pay Pal takes their cut from the sale AND cost of S/H. I have cut back on selling on Ebay.
Greetings!
Yes, it is just so sad all the changes concerning E-bay. I too have been with them since 99′. A lot of yrs and a lot of dolls plus many lovely things. I just retired and invested in a load of supplies to start my new business on e-bay, and alas, here they go changing everything again! I will be so hard to make it in this new endevor and make any profit. I make doll clothes for vintage 50’s dolls and just about everything. But hearing all these things about e-bay makes me wonder if I should even try? I also want to thank you for all the information I have gleaned from you Denise over the yrs, it has helped me greatly. Sincerely Barbi
Are you sure about not allowing checks or money orders? According to Yahoo Finance (Wed., Aug.20), I understand that, “…requiring sellers to include at least one electronic payment method.” I interpret this to mean that sellers must offer PayPal or some OTHER form of electronic payment. It doesn’t mention the elimination of checks or cash. I could be wrong.
Hi There!
Shayla in Anaheim, CA
EBay policies are definitely becoming unpredictable and increasingly expensive. I would like to recommend a new auction site for doll lovers to try: www.horsengoggle.com, run by Cindy Stevens (who also owns the PrillyCharmin.com doll & doll supplies site). I have not yet used horsengoggle.com, but I have dealt several times with Cindy in doll & doll supplies purchases from the Prillycharmin website. I can say that the transactions and products have always been great! Hope this helps. Time will tell us whether EBay will be around later on or not!!
the new changes will drive away the mom and pop casual sellers. i’ve been an ebay seller for 11 years and won’t be listing anything after october. and yes, i do remember when ebay was fun… and now it just isn’t.
I stopped using paypal when they told me they would pay me $1.42 on the loss of $175 to a fraudulent seller. Fortunately, visa refunded by money in full and reversed the payment to paypal.
I was lucky, other lost much more on this seller.
So I guess I wont be buying from eBay. I’ll just look for pricing and get my goods elsewhere.
How about a massive protest to your consumer affairs watchdog. You surely must have one. Ours is the Australian Competion and Consumer Commission. Promoting competion and fair trade in the market place to benifit consumers, businesses and the community, and surely with all the small businesses in the ebay world, you need that. We protested here and our Commission would not give them immunity to do it.
Dennis -
You are right and the article’s author was wrong. eBay has not mandated that transactions be paid with paypal.. only that it is offered as a payment method by the seller.
Dennis wrote: “Are you sure about not allowing checks or money orders? According to Yahoo Finance (Wed., Aug.20), I understand that, “…requiring sellers to include at least one electronic payment method.” I interpret this to mean that sellers must offer PayPal or some OTHER form of electronic payment. It doesn’t mention the elimination of checks or cash. I could be wrong.
Sorry, gentlemen–it is true. Unfortunately, eBay is completely eliminating checks and money orders from allowable payment methods.
Here is a link–right from eBay with this policy change:
http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/Payments/
It should be clear, I am a wholesaler and not a good writer or a stock expert, but I have a first hand inside look having been a powerseller almost from e bay start, for over 10 years, 1.7 million per year sales and account for $156,000 paid to e bay per year for seller fees, this is the bases in which e bay shows profit or loss in a great way for there core business, this does not account for paypal fees charged, seller manager pro, e bay stores. Buyers and sellers are leaving e bay, this can be proved by http://www.sellerdome.com
It is interesting how the 1500 employee lay off received so much attention, however, OVER 10% of total powersellers were laid off/suspended because of flawed aggressive policy poorly implemented has not had a placement. This is proved by:
http://blog.sellerdome.com/?p=16
This study shows that between 15k-30K e bay powersellers who account for $3000-$20,000 in seller fees paid to e bay each month from sellers. This is the only company separating itself from its long time customers, many, like myself, who has been with the company fatefully since inception and made it a community before new management. This seems a larger story than a simple layoff of e bay employees. Ebay saves money by laying off paid employees, but e bays profit takes a hit by getting rid of partners who contribute to e bay profit. For example: 20,000 powersellers/partners laid off/suspended that account for an average of $5,000 per month seller fees = $100,000,000 each month in seller fees not received by e bay. That is $1,200,000,000 per year in revenue given up for aggressively flawed policy by current management. Figure that on 20% margin and facing the headwinds of a slowed economy. The idea current ebay management had was by getting rid of 10% of its selling partners was going drive back 32% of its buyers, however, that has clearly not been the case, because the policy change was flawed and implemented with such aggression over a short period of time, 6 months total, 3 months aggressively.
Ebay seems to have driven away buyers by this and the new search method that sellers or buyers don’t like with no concern of management. The company has managed to drive its investors away in the same motion as stock prices show a drop since new management put in place 6 months ago, before market crash. Ebay management charged its sellers/partners for decline in its core business and seems not to have taken into account the increased competition of walmart, best buy, circuit city and many others putting marketing dollars into the online sector of business. Ebay pushing away its partners, sellers and buyers, is only going to make profit softer and push away investors. With 70% more competitors in the market e bay only dropped 30% seems a strong market hold for e bay and a reason to support its partners in a currently working policy rather than place blame partners and will prove to decline its future market share as pointed out by many market analysis and Powersellers.
Ebay, through the wild west style new management, took a look at itself and realized it had a drop in the number of sellers buying on its site. It decided it was because of bad “buyer experience” and immediately, it seems without full thought of backfire, decided it was the sellers fault. In some cases, this may be true, but it is most likely because of a misunderstanding or lack of communication between ebay, the seller and buyer. If e bay would set up a system so that all involved understood the agreement that was fair for all, then buyer satisfaction would be a great number and managements approval ratings would not be in the 20% range “22% “Approve”, see the link below and see what employees are saying about CEO John J. Donahoe:
http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/eBay-Reviews-E7853.htm to see Mr. Donahoe’s DSR rating.
Note the 168 Reviews under the rating.
This is the only CEO that I know of that has its partners/buyers/sellers asking for them to step down:
http://www.petitiononline.com/jdonohoe/petition.html
It is doubtful that the sellers, as well as buyers, who make up the success or frailer of the core business rating of John J. Donahoe would be that high. It should be noted that there was a lay off, but this rating was only 1% more well before the layoff. All you have to do is see the off e bay blogs of e bay sellers and buyers to know how they fell now. I say “off ebay” because e bay understandably deletes any blog on there site where people speak out.
Instead of working within the community, that once believed that “people are basically good”, took on a policy that made its tight net community fell like “criminals under big brother” and strong feelings of dislike for the symbol that was once regarded by its employees, buyers and sellers. Ebay has aggressively pushed away its partners will prove to decline its future market share and a relationship that may go un repaired when new management is called upon. When the culture was “people are basically good” employees at e bay were chronic buyers on e bay, now that has changed. It should also be noted that the sellers they suspended are also big buyers on e bay generally.
Ebay has withstood the .com storm because of a superior system and its ability to hold steady to the working core business policy. Its customers fell that is no longer the case and many companies like bonanzle.com and OLA.COM (onlineauction.com) and Ebid.net are rushing to try to meet seller and buyer demands that ebay seems unwilling to meet. Many small auction sites have tried to compete in the past but been successful in driving traffic. Now a once complacent audience of e bay buyers and sellers are seeing the changes and the likely hood they are being driven away through aggressive, unfair, flawed policy changes and are taking note to change to someone with the old values that made ebay a community that worked. You can see from the link below the demand that is being driven away from e bay by Bonanzle, Ebid.net, onlineauction.com Ubid.com that would have been unheard of 6 months ago.
http://www.quantcast.com/bonanzle.com
http://www.quantcast.com/ebid.net
http://www.quantcast.com/ubid.com
Notice the chart of hits per month going up on these auction sites. Now look at e bays chart, it shows the amount of volume coming to the site is declining:
http://www.quantcast.com/ebay.com
This is a small amount of buyers and sellers compared to e bay, but it does show a market who is hungry to meet the demand of current buyers and sellers, and what is maybe most important that buyers and sellers are finding the ability for change. A safe sales platform that is demanded, products that are truly less for buyers, not just advertised as less, but are less for now because sellers are driving buyers to the site.
When e bay was a “venue”, now it is felt by many of its sellers that it acts as an employer or landlord or big brother, by design of new policy, it was profitable for sellers and a great value for buyers. Sellers drove traffic to the site because buyers knew they could get many of the items for a large percentage below retail, at or below wholesale. Seller fees, total have gone up, $0.35 listings are great, but the back end is higher making the total successful sale higher for the buyer and then pushed to the customer. All the discounts given now with the new promotion is good marketing, but those discounts/profit must come from somewhere, it is a known fact that nothing is free. I suspect the seller will foot the bill for this discount, this will cause price to go up or profit to go down. Profit for sellers once offering wholesale prices. This will mean to raise prices or move to a site like OLA.COM or Ebid.net that does not charge listing or final value fee. This will make that seller profitable and give its buyer a low price.
E bay is being accused of being a follower in the last few months and is trying to make itself like Amazon and other .com retailers. Ebay sellers who use Amazon report little to no sales. E bay has a niche (wholesale products) and Amazon has a niche (books, CDs with unmatched distribution etc) and both worked independently of each other, this is why Ebay sellers are not successful on Amazon and Amazon sellers are not successful using ebay. New ebay management, and even investors, have had a hard time realizing Amazon is a different market plan. Many e bay sellers are leaving to do Amazon but it is feared this will not prove successful for them. The e bay system worked and most were satisfied, buyers and sellers could realize other bad buyers or sellers. I sold $30,000 on Amazon per year with my 82 unique product catalog, but sold 1.7 m on ebay with the same catalog. It would be much different if the items were not $100+, if they were books, cds then Amazon would by far be superior.
Buyers and sellers are not happy anymore and the numbers will continue to show as long as this management stays. Economy will play a roll, that is why ebay can’t afford to gamble with management that has proven to drive its partners, sellers and buyers, away. The company is large enough it will be around for a long time, maybe not in the online auction sector effectively as it was before, but it is still a mystery to many who use or used to use the site why this management has been allowed to make this aggressive of a change. If this is where they wanted to go, it would takes years to change a company this size effectively, it can’t be done in 6 months times and certainty not given a slow in the economy.
Things are not happy under new management/John Donahoe management has made no one happy, employees, sellers or buyers or its investors. It has been a 6 month meltdown since new management fumbled a working system.
I talked to the owner of onlineauction.com 1-800-900-2828, Rowen Grisham, a previous e bay powerseller who seen improper change coming long before many sellers and buyers realized. He said he had seen a flood of sellers and buyers calling to learn about the site in the last 4 months. Rowen Grishamw says they are about to roll out a goggle search program that will make it more visible. This is just one example of where e bay buyer and seller base is going. Grisham seems to want to supply its sellers and buyers with a fair service, as when the ebay site was born and acted as a venue rather than an employer. Small companies that are hungry and taking advantage of a situation where ebay is not satisfying its demand.
Anyone considering investing or putting time into future sales may want to take a look at the aggressive, flawed policy’s they have put in place, there are little to no direct policy as there has been. Sellers, buyers and investors wouldn’t be leaving if there was any good reason to stay.
Some of E bay’s management ideas were good, however, has done a poor job or implementing the new changes and communicating to its buyers, sellers only after a few months of effect, some loosing there e bay business because of improper, unmonitored data, is still learning and it seems no one knows the answers even at the top account managers level. Its buyers do not realize that the DSR DETAILED SELLER RATING, the 5 stars under the feedback rating is not based on a 100 point scale like every other system in the free world. For example, from 1 to 5, 1 is poor, 3 is average and 5 is excellent. With e bay, 4,5 is average and 5 is good, I am glad they didn’t have my math teachers in Collage. So many times buyers rate a 3 when they don’t realize they are giving the seller a unacceptable rating that could potentially suspend his/her account from e bay as so many has been suspended in the last 3 months because of improper data that has been now used as the bible of e bay to rate seller performance. It should also be noted that a flaw in the data of the 5 star DSR is that if a customer is happy, they fell that leaving positive feedback served its purpose and they have caused a positive vote to the seller, e bay has not educated the buyer, so they do not leave a star rating at all, and are not required to and a large % do not, but leave a positive feedback as it is not required. But the buyer who is mad and is leaving hasty feedback will be more than motivated to leave a 1 or 2 for all stars. For this reason, good sellers offering great service and products are being suspended from e bay by record numbers, this cuts the life cord of the seller as well as core business at e bay and the reason buyers come to the site and investors invest in the company.
Ebay may have ruined their market flair for both buyers and sellers forever. Too many restricting rule changes, increased charges, paypal demands, seller ratings. This has ultimately destroyed their bottom line.
Many sellers, buyers and investors alike have a dedicated special interest and hope management changes and ebay will turn themselves around, but it is going to take some quick and correct policy change back to the system that worked to undo what has been done in what would be considered by many as well as a powerseller account manager in a telephone conversation said that this is “the most aggressive change e bay has ever done” it is costing sellers there business and driving buyers away from the site. The Best Match search is fatally flawed and $0.35 listings are not going to fix that.
Sellers of the unique items that made eBay famous (and who paid listing fees) are leaving in record numbers, while eBay brokers deals with corporate sellers of new stuff you can get anywhere who don’t pay listing fees deteriorate the profits. And their buyers are following them. Watch the Q4 and Q1 09 figures. A company of this size can keep up appearances for some time, but its customers, its customers customers, that is sellers and buyers, are speaking up and cannot be ignored in the long term, the leader of these policy’s are and continue to drive away the core business of e bay and investors are taking notice.
E bay bought Bill Me Later, I would have been surprised just 6 months ago, but I am unhappy to report that I am not at this time, the reason is this management has taken down the tread that holds e bay together as can be seen by its buyers and sellers everywhere complaining about the flawed aggressive policies that have taken place over the last few months, maybe you have heard some of them or are one of them. Every comment citing that the previous system was not broken. E bay has had community and trust, this 13 year trust has been violated and has failed both sellers and buyers in just a few months of unfair, faulty policy change that has taken a ship this size and turned it so fast that it is out of control and is facing a challenge to bring the ship back to course as it was before in the core business, although still ignored by management at this time, this is just in the core business, this shows the danger of a lateral move like credit right now. Take into account there couldn’t be worse timing as the world economy will not view this favorably given recent events. This policy change was over a short aggressive period, but the negative impact will make it difficult to navigate back in position, if this venture is not successful, it will be even worse for ebay, its investors, and the management that follows. The core business has taken a great hit world wide, now it is committed to a market that is new. A new market during the time when its core business is in jeopardy due to flawed policy and a slowed economy with management proven only to drive away customers. This will prove a challenge that may take years to repair relationships of its sellers and buyers when it has been realized by investors concerned on top of unpopular credit service. Migration back to the system with effective proven 12-15 record, built by previous management over 12-15 years, seems to be the only way to save the future profits and stability the company once enjoyed.
It could prove to be a successful venture, but e bay current management wants its investors to trust it in a huge risk buy, when the investors are clearly concerned and most can see that e bay can not run its core business in a way that is satisfying to its customers, causing them to leave, look for other suppliers that will eventually be able to meet demands of the once complacent sellers and buyers. Employees, buyers, sellers are all saying the same thing, why is e bay letting this happen. Nothing to gain, much to loose.
It would be hard for anyone with basic knowledge of the problems with recent policy of the core business to buy this, having been a seller and buyer for 10 years, it makes it even harder to buy. Why would smart investors believe they will run it any different than there core auction business.
I can say, I am happy to report my family, who bought stock when they seen my success on e bay back in the late 90s, sold there stock when I explained the new managements flawed, unfair, and aggressive policy handed down. The stock has followed since this and many are betting with there dollars fell it will continue to fall. Maybe Jim Cramer, hyper as he is, has a point when he said he could not get behind the company, and that someone should buy the company “and put them out of their misery.” It is hard to argue with him, stock sold back in march, when these policies were being talked about, not yet implemented aggressively, sold ebay seems to be the smart move. Stock was $30-$32 per share at that time, March 2008 new management took over, it dropped every since as can be tracked from any stock quote chart. Yes, the economy took the abrupt hit, stock price had already plummeted by 1/3, $19-$22 per share, before it happened that our country was in trouble from bad credit/debt. Some say they wouldn’t want to touch this a credit market at this time. I would also not want to answer to shareholders when they learn what long time sellers and buyers have seen in the past few months.
I think this report on NYtimes has some good in site of the problems facing the company with the current buy:http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/ebay-plays-warren-buffett-buys-online-lender/#comment-55807
Maybe enough people will sign to make it worthwhile?
http://www.petitiononline.com/jdonohoe/petition.html
Let me say, I LOVE E BAY, it is just sellers and buyers don’t like what new management has done to its strong culture. We have a vested interest and love for the old e bay culture.
Just one of the PAST buyers and sellers temporarily driven away by new management, it will be interesting to see what the new management that is suspected to come will do to the culture. Hopefully Auctionbytes is right in looking for a replacement for JD and you can see the 150+ comments below the article shows not one good thing to say about this management http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2008/10/1224177689.html
Good thing for golden parachutes I guess, maybe that will soften the fall?