Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Ebay is going to hell this month.

Ebay is going to hell this month.

evil_lurker - 7-2-2008 at 13:19

Ebay has seriously fucked up now with their latest TOS. I imagine this is the straw that will break the proverbial camel's back.

I just got this email from a sellers group I belong to.... explains the new changes better.

Subject: eBay Changes for Sellers & Upcoming Strike
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 19:22:20 -0600

If you are an eBay seller or buyer, I found this information regarding
eBay changes for sellers. Check out the feedback on the CNN Money link
at the bottom of the info.

I'm not sure if everyone is aware of this, but Ebay is making drastic
changes for people who sell and buy on Ebay. If one looks at it from the
surface, the changes don't seem too bad. But if you look a little
deeper, they're really very scarey.

Many sellers and buyers are going to be having a strike on February
18th through February 25 that includes no buying, no listing, no selling,
no auctions on those days. If possible, if you are an Ebay buyer and
seller, I would really appreciate it if you could honor those dates, for
nothing else, then on MY behalf because the changes have the
possibility to really hurt me as a seller.

Right now, the Ebay marketing machine is billing these changes as 'fee
reductions' and that is what the media initally reported because they
way the changes were announced were quite deceptive. But, for those of
you who aren't really super active on Ebay and are wondering what all
the changes entail, a summary of them follows.

First, they are reducing the listing fee by 5 cents and making Gallery
free. On the surface this looks great and this is how they are
marketing the change - as a 'fee reduction'. However, if you read the fine
print you'll find that they are slyly raising Final Value Fees (The fee the
seller pays when the item sells at auction) by as much as 33% to 66%
for some sellers. The percentage of increase differs by seller because
all sellers sell items with different values and the Final Value Fee is
based on the dollar amount of the item. So we save a nickel to list an
item, but pay 33% more after the auction is over. This first part of
the changes, while quite disgusting, IS bearable.

Second, they are removing the ability for sellers to leave feedback for
buyers. Now, Ebay has always been successful on the basis of both
buyer and seller being able to rate each other based on the success of a
single transaction. They are removing this for sellers. This is very
scarey for the seller population because as sellers, we already are held
hostage by what we call 'Feedback Extortionist Buyers'. These are the
buyers that buy something in an auction and then send an email that says
'You send me the item free or I will leave you a negative and ruin your
Ebay reputation!'. While people like this are quite few and far
between, they do exist. I've got over 792 transactions and I've come across 4
difficult buyers who no matter what I couldn't please them. I managed
to scrape by without a negative because they were booted from Ebay, but
the point of the matter is that while most buyers are wonderful, these
psycho types of buyers DO exist. Now with this new feedback system, ONE
rogue buyer (and even my selling competition) could ruin my reputation
very easily. Even if I provided a 100% perfect transaction and the
item was received the very same day and all was perfect with the world,
that one person could ruin me if they wanted to. All they would need to
do is buy 5 or 10 items from me and leave five feedbacks separately -
because each and every negative will count against the seller. This would
mean the end of my store and my business on Ebay over one rogue buyer.
Why? Read the next section.

Third, as if one and two weren't bad enough, if a seller has below a
95% satisfaction rating on Ebay, Ebay will not display your auctions in
the search engine. For example, if I sell 20 items one month and 1 of
them has a neutral or negative left for it by a buyer (deserved or not),
I can no longer list auctions on Ebay and have them be seen in the
search engine. Yes, thats right. I can list, Ebay will take my money, but
all of my auctions will be on page 857 of the listing and never be seen
by any buyers. So once I get one negative, it is virtually impossible
to recover from that by selling additional items becuase non of my items
will be seen to be purchased by another buyer later. Its a no win
situation for a seller.

Fourth, as if all of this wasn't the most horrific thing you've ever
heard, they're making changes to Pay Pal - which is the method most
people use to accept payment over Ebay. From now on, if you have less than
100 feedback and you sell an item Pay Pal will not give you your money
for 21 (TWENTY ONE DAYS!). Yes, you read that right. Say, Susie sells a
50 dollar item and the buyer pays through Pay Pal. Susie is then forced
to ship the item FREE without any payment. After 21 days has passed,
THEN Pay Pal will forward Susie her money. This folks is just horrible.
Do you know anywhere else on the planet where you can demand that
someone selling you an item give you the item FREE and ship it to you FREE
while you hold on to your money for 21 entire days? I sure don't. On top
of this 'under 100 feedback' thing, again if I have less than a 95%
rating or get one negative or get one neutral - again - Pay Pal will hold
my money for 21 days. Imagine how must interest Pay Pal and Ebay will
accumulate on billions of dollars being held in 21 day incriments - yet
another disguesting way for them to squeeze MORE money out of the
system.

Fifth, they instituted 'Seller Rewards'. Essentially, if you meet
certain criteria as a seller you can earn 15% credit on your account. The
catch is that you have to sell 1,000 dollars or more on your account
every month and have to have a 4.8 rating on all your 'stars'. I feel that
these guidelines are impossible to reach and that they were designed to
be impossible to reach on purpose so that Ebay, yet again, would not
have to actually pay out the discounts. To give you an example of how
hard these are to reach, out of Ebay's top 500 Powersellers (These people
are the creme of the crop on Ebay and make lilke $100,000 a month on
Ebay)...anyway out of tje top 500 of them, only SEVEN qualify for the
15% discount. SEVEN.

And finally, when all these changes were announced, the Ebay sellers
went ballistic. The response from Ebay management? We were told that our
complaints and nager and frustration and tears were - and I quote -
'NOISE!'. Yes, we are nothing but 'noise' to the Ebay management, yet they
are making million dollar salaries off of us.

I know I am so mad, myself. I have 100% positive feedback and I've
completed almost 800 transactions. I'm not a bad seller and I bend over
backwards to make a buyer happy. I have a very good record. But ALL THAT
HARD WORK and ONE rogue person could ruin it for me. Or even someone who
competes against me can very easily get a new nick, by stuff from me,
leave negs - and take my listings right out the search engine!!). It's
not fair at all. Not to mention, if somehow I do screw up or get a
rogue buyer, Pay Pal won't even let me have my money for 21 days. When you
do this type of work full time, that is a terrifying thought.

So I'm here to beg you guys, if possible, and even if you don't
understand all the ins and outs of Ebay and what a seller has to go through to
sell on Ebay - PLEASE RESPECT THE STRIKE we are organizing. Please!
Please don't buy or sell on Ebay from Feb 18th through Feb 25th. Please
tell your friends and family members to do the same. We know that not
everyone can respect it - some people make ends meet by selling on Ebay.
But for those of you who can, us sellers would very much appreciate it
if you could respect the strike on those days.

Also - if you are an Ebay seller - and you are angry like the rest of
us, CNN and FORBES is quite interested in how we feel. Quite a few
people, including myself have flocked to CNN MONEY to get their attention.
So far, the comments and anger and speaking out are actually working -
the media is starting to pay attention and Ebay has stepped up their
marketing tactics. We feel that they're getting a little worried over all
the outrage.

Ebay seems to forget that its the sellers that make Ebay the money, not the buyers. After this latest round of assault, it will become just too damn expensive to list items on Ebay, not to mention a big risk, and I imagine that it will drive off a lot of sellers which will hurt everyone.

undead_alchemist - 7-2-2008 at 13:50

Quote:

Fourth, as if all of this wasn't the most horrific thing you've ever
heard, they're making changes to Pay Pal - which is the method most
people use to accept payment over Ebay. From now on, if you have less than
100 feedback and you sell an item Pay Pal will not give you your money
for 21 (TWENTY ONE DAYS!). Yes, you read that right. Say, Susie sells a
50 dollar item and the buyer pays through Pay Pal. Susie is then forced
to ship the item FREE without any payment. After 21 days has passed,
THEN Pay Pal will forward Susie her money. This folks is just horrible.
Do you know anywhere else on the planet where you can demand that
someone selling you an item give you the item FREE and ship it to you FREE
while you hold on to your money for 21 entire days? I sure don't. On top
of this 'under 100 feedback' thing, again if I have less than a 95%
rating or get one negative or get one neutral - again - Pay Pal will hold
my money for 21 days. Imagine how must interest Pay Pal and Ebay will
accumulate on billions of dollars being held in 21 day incriments - yet
another disguesting way for them to squeeze MORE money out of the
system.

Well here in Canada, I don't think that Paypal will be allowed to get away with this.

jimmyboy - 7-2-2008 at 13:54

What's the big problem? -- F**k Ebay.. go somewhere else to sell your stuff.. if they are truly getting that bad then someone else (another site) will pick up the ball where they drop it.. the internet is always about who can supply the information cheapest because it is infinite... Ebay hasn't been cheap for quite some time now.. but stupid people continue to use them -- I have been waiting for the dark day when the government will start taxing sellers on there and everyone flees that site like rats on a sinking ship - but it looks like they are doing a good job already at killing themselves

End of rant.. hahaha

eBay

MadHatter - 7-2-2008 at 13:59

If enough people boycott then eBay will get the message. I'm sure that they don't want
to do a song and dance for their investors/stockholders when their profits start heading
south, or worse, to competitors. Large-scale boycotts are an effective method of punishing
corporate shitheads ! Their competitors must be drooling already !

woelen - 7-2-2008 at 14:20

Indeed, I would say, vote with your feet.

I have serious doubts that they are allowed to keep money for 21 days. PayPal is just a money transfer agent, and that is exactly what they should do.

In the Netherlands, banks also used to keep money for a short time between transactions (one, sometimes two days). But that practice has disappeared now, because the government has taking measures against it. Since some time (don't remember exactly) a money transfer is real-time. If I transfer money from my account and the screen tells me the job is processed, then the recipient can see on his screen that he received the money. The only flaw remaining is that the transfer day itself does not count for interest, not for the person who pays, nor for the person who receives. So, banks can take one day of interest. But even that practice now is discussed in politics in the Netherlands. So, I hardly believe that PayPal can keep money for 21 days, at least not in the Netherlands.

bfesser - 7-2-2008 at 18:37

In the US PayPal can do practically anything they want. If you don't believe it, just Google 'PayPal' and click on the links that aren't paypal.com.

I feel sympathy for eBay sellers for several reasons. First, I have sold several items on eBay myself, and it's been a great way to get things out of my house I'd normally have to just throw away (like books no used bookstore would take--throwing them away should be a crime). Second, I rely on eBay to a large extent as a means to obtain apparatus, chemicals, and other odds and ends that I simply can't get around here no matter how much I'm willing to pay.

I hope eBay realizes that it's the users who built the community, not the corporation. The users are also the ones making them all the money. If they start alienating the users, they're in trouble. If sellers can be knocked out of competition as easily as claimed, prices will rise due to a 'monopoly' effect. The low prices are one of the main drives for people to use eBay in the first place (one of the only three I can think of--it's cheap, it's good for rare things, and it's good for lazy people). If the prices go up in this way, eBay (the service) will lose it's appeal, and it's (the company's) huge profits.

Finally, I disagree with what you've said about competitors simply filling the gap and everything being fine and dandy. This would be a huge issue for the people who rely on their eBay selling for income. They've spent years building up positive reputations and trust with buyers, and probably invested a lot of money in their 'businesses' too. They're almost exactly like real businesses, just with different expenses--by the way, the government does tax in-state eBay transactions as far as I'm aware. It would be very difficult for these people to simply go to another site.

Anyways, sorry for the rant...

[edit]
Quick Link -- http://www.paypalsucks.com/

[Edited on 2/7/08 by bfesser]

chemrox - 7-2-2008 at 22:56

Paypal screwed me twice and I cut up the card they`sent and closed the account. Boycott ebay by all means. BTW-the one good thing I heard is getting rid of feedback. Try giving negative feedback and you'll find yourself receiving same. I never waste my time with it unless asked and then i always gush.

anotheronebitesthedust - 8-2-2008 at 18:34

Quote:

If one looks at it from the surface, the changes don't seem too bad. But if you look a little deeper, they're really very scarey.

Only for sellers who do bad business.

Quote:

However, if you read the fine print you'll find that they are slyly raising Final Value Fees (The fee the seller pays when the item sells at auction) by as much as 33% to 66% for some sellers.

Out of all your complaints this is the only thing that would piss me off. And I'm sure there's more to it than that.

Quote:

This first part of the changes, while quite disgusting, IS bearable. Second, they are removing the ability for sellers to leave feedback for buyers.

Are you kidding me? You care more about leaving feedback for your buyers then about that 33% - 66% of your money?

Quote:

Now, Ebay has always been successful on the basis of both buyer and seller being able to rate each other based on the success of a single transaction. They are removing this for sellers.

I'm sure the success had more to do with the buyer's ability to rate the sellers and not vice versa. Kind of like the Better Business Bureau for Ebay.

Quote:

This is very scarey for the seller population because as sellers, we already are held hostage by what we call 'Feedback Extortionist Buyers'.

Yet you don't mention 'Feedback Extortionist Sellers' ie: "If you leave me negative feedback I leave you negative feedback. Even though you paid me in a timely manner and did everything right as a buyer."

Quote:

I've got over 792 transactions and I've come across 4 difficult buyers who no matter what I couldn't please them. I managed to scrape by without a negative because they were booted from Ebay

So what the fuck are you complaining about?

Quote:

All they would need to do is buy 5 or 10 items from me and leave five feedbacks separately - because each and every negative will count against the seller.

This is just a lie. If you buy 5 or 10 items and leave 5 or 10 negative feedbacks it only counts as ONE negative in the feedback percentage.

Quote:

if a seller has below a 95% satisfaction rating on Ebay, Ebay will not display your auctions in the search engine.

This seems kinda messed up. But if it's true then it emphasizes the need for you to make your customers happy. Ebay is becoming more of a retail store than an auction site and I'm sure they make more profit off of the store items than the nifty gadgets grandma is selling for a nickel.

Quote:

For example, if I sell 20 items one month and 1 of them has a neutral or negative left for it by a buyer (deserved or not), I can no longer list auctions on Ebay and have them be seen in the search engine.

So the feedback is monthly now? Your 792 previous feedback don't count? I call bullshit.

Quote:

Pay Pal will not give you your money for 21 (TWENTY ONE DAYS!).

Bullshit.

Quote:

only SEVEN qualify for the 15% discount. SEVEN.

Only 7 people on all of Ebay make over $1000 a month and have a 4.8 rating??? Bullshit.

Quote:

I'm not a bad seller and I bend over
backwards to make a buyer happy.

Then you have nothing to worry about.

Quote:

Ebay seems to forget that its the sellers that make Ebay the money, not the buyers.

Ebay wouldn't make any money if nobody bought shit. Ebay is a place where sellers should feel privileged to be able to sell their items. However sellers have become spoiled. They charge insane shipping prices to avoid Ebay fees and if a buyer wants to leave negative feedback then the seller will simply leave negative feedback for the buyer without just cause, even if the buyer paid for the auction within 2.2 seconds.

Drunkguy - 9-2-2008 at 05:43

I dont really see how people can flee ebay *that* easily. It's easy enough if you are living in the USA. However, in the UK if you listed something on LabX, it's doubtful that anybody would even see it there and you wouldn't get the fullest possible level of competition among buyers.

I guess the best way to ensure a good price is to sell the item and a fixed rate, that way you ensure that its not a total giveaway. However, it's easy enough to do that on ebay already.

Drunkguy - 13-2-2008 at 08:45

The problem we are witnessing is like google search engine.

This can be explained follows... With microsoft everybody felt roped into buying windows operating system unless they opted to go with apple or linux etc in which case they are in the minority. This was sorta unfair because its almost like windows was the *only* choice and microsoft knew this. They exploiting this to the full like any neocon and charged through the ass for XP, 98, and 95 where the packages represented almost pure profit on every sale. In the end they got sued for this.

The other side of the coin is people use sites like ebay and google out of pure lazyness. With google, I could just as easily use www.ask.com as my homepage, but the fact that everybody else has the same mentality as me has led to them getting an advantage that they arent going to lose unless they do something absurd in an act of pure stupidity.

In the UK, its similar for football clubs (soccer in the USA). People inherently like things that are popular. The premiership is run by either Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea, or Liverpool. People could just as easliy support lower ranked teams, but theres something about inertia that keeps the flow of money being channeled into the top clubs.

Having considered the above, the logical question to ask is if there is a solution to the above "problem" that we are witnessing in this "winner takes all" culture? With football clubs, they have a stranglehold over their customers wallets and know that they can charge through the roof for people to come and watch their games and the fans will reluctantly still feel obliged to part with their hard earnt money.

Alternatively, with globalization, as soon as a pharmaceutical turns generic, its necessary for the company to immediately have a replacement up their sleeve since they lose their customers if they dont have a fresh batch of bullshit to sling. *If* an alternative can be offered that is virtually the same but just costs less money then people will flock to it like flies and shit. Where business is concerned, it's not really about "loyalty" anymore, its simply a question of people wanting to get the best possible "bang the buck" and service providers know this.

Phosphor-ing - 13-2-2008 at 10:27

So how are buyers supposed to get a feedback rating with the new system? I don't sell on Ebay but I have a 20+ feedback rating. Is that the highest my rating will get unless I start selling, or will they just scratch my rating completely?

Quote:

They exploiting this to the full like any neocon and charged through the ass for XP, 98, and 95 where the packages represented almost pure profit on every sale.

insert capitalist in where that inane asinine comment goes.

stoichiometric_steve - 13-2-2008 at 12:10

dont forget that ebay is not a country or a community devoted to serve mankind. its a company meant to make money. dont complain - or dont use ebay. i dont think there is a "right" for you to use ebay. it's a privilege...

i dont think that they need to raise their fees even more, though. they make shitloads of $$.

MagicJigPipe - 13-2-2008 at 23:26

Errr... The word privilege seems to be thrown around carelessly a lot of the time. It has a certain connotation with it that gives the impression that the person being granted the priveledge is being "dominated" by the granter.

For instance, when people/police say that driving is a privilege, I become extremely irritated. It's as if they're saying, "Us, in our infinite power and wisdom, have been nice enough to grant you the ability to operate a motor vehicle on the roads that your hard earned money paid to create." I don't know how exactly to put it into words but it just sounds SO wrong!

Driving is a privilege? Bullshit! So, getting from point A to point B via a mechanical device is a privilege that must be granted? No, travelling anywhere by any means is a human right. I sometimes think of it this way. A people being controlled by an occupying force are given privileges, not supposedly free people.

Here's the definition of privilege I was looking for. Close enough.

10. to authorize or license (something otherwise forbidden).

Sorry for the rant guys.

woelen - 13-2-2008 at 23:41

This comparison with getting from A to B does not hold for eBay, nor for any other web-based service. Even your possibility of posting on sciencemadness is a privilege, and not a right.

kilowatt - 14-2-2008 at 03:32

I will honor the strike, but remind me again how any of this is going to help. It's only one week. The people who run ebay are so filthy rich that a week without pay will not affect them. They know as well as anyone else that the strike will be temporary, everyone will come back, and they can go on to impose their further bullshit without consequence. The only real way to get their attention and make them think twice is to actually quit using ebay as long as the undesirable policies stand. That would only work if practically everyone agreed to do it too, since if even say 10% of ebay users stayed behind, it will still be enough to make money for the owners, and they will just have to step up fees further in order to reap as much money from those 10% as they did from everyone before.

stoichiometric_steve - 14-2-2008 at 05:16

there are free alternatives to ebay, one that i know of is in german and called "hood.de". find alternatives for your region/language and you're fine.

Intergalactic_Captain - 14-2-2008 at 11:02

Hmm...Probably should read through the newest TOS update, usually I ignore them and just assume they're trying to screw me out of more money.

What particularly bothers me is the inability for sellers to leave feedback. Ebay needs to realize that they are not Amazon.com, they're the local international auction house. Yes, I will acknowledge that a lot of ebay's income comes from the "whatever I can unload" types of sellers - Large volume equals higher profits. When you get this big, your customers stop being considered as such and simply become numbers, transactions and nothing more. As such, one could care less who's purchasing their items.

Personally, most of my ebay business deals with laptops and consumer electronics. As such, 90% of my time considering an auction is going through the feedback of the seller, tracking the item back, and trying to find out where they got the item from. I also read the sellers feedback as a buyer, to see what kind of customer they are. If someone took a week to pay a seller, odds are they're going to be a slow shipper. If they left poor feedback on an as-is auction, and are trying to resell it, it's nice to know the history of your item.

The one area of ebay that I feel this will drastically compromise is the use of the "as-is", "untested", and "for parts" labels on ebay. As an example, I bought a second PSP a couple of weeks ago that was simply sold as non-working...Turns out the screen was cracked, something that wasn't listed in the auction. Under the new system, I could ream the seller out in feedback for a mis-listed auction, and he wouldn't be able to leave a return feedback stating the situation.

I've sold a few laptops in the past in untested condition. The idea with something untested is that it may or may not work...Every buyer knows this and takes the risk. Personally, I've never had any issues - my buyers have understood the risk, and the majority of them have gotten working systems anyways. However, a lot of the sellers that do this end up getting negative feedback from dissatisfied buyers. Under the new system, the seller can't leave negative feedback for the buyer for misreading the auction details...The seller looks bad, and the buyer gets away with it.

Hmm...I'm guessing that made a lot less sense than it did in my head. Either way, what I'm trying to explain is that the seller->buyer feedback is necessary for a feeling of a secure purchase. On ebay, the only way to know what's going on is to track buyer/seller trees back as far as you can. By removing half of the feedback system, you make the sellers look that much worse and the buyers out to be untouchable. Ebay has been and always should be a community, not a storefront.

chloric1 - 14-2-2008 at 14:48

Quote:

Originally posted by MagicJigPipe
Errr... The word privilege seems to be thrown around carelessly a lot of the time. It has a certain connotation with it that gives the impression that the person being granted the priveledge is being "dominated" by the granter.

For instance, when people/police say that driving is a privilege, I become extremely irritated. It's as if they're saying, "Us, in our infinite power and wisdom, have been nice enough to grant you the ability to operate a motor vehicle on the roads that your hard earned money paid to create." I don't know how exactly to put it into words but it just sounds SO wrong!

Driving is a privilege? Bullshit! So, getting from point A to point B via a mechanical device is a privilege that must be granted? No, travelling anywhere by any means is a human right. I sometimes think of it this way. A people being controlled by an occupying force are given privileges, not supposedly free people.

Here's the definition of privilege I was looking for. Close enough.

10. to authorize or license (something otherwise forbidden).

Sorry for the rant guys.

MagicJigpipe-I agree with your philosophy, but unfortunately, mankind has spent most of its history under tyranny. The reason is simple, the general public need to be dominated. That is why the great American experiment is coming to its conclusion. I think the next step should be that people, by there own intellect and initiative, should be allowed to EARN their liberty while the ignorant masses can remain dominated and micromanaged. That is if we do not destroy ourselves first.

bfesser - 15-2-2008 at 10:36

Quote:

The reason is simple, the general public need to be dominated. That is why the great American experiment is coming to its conclusion. I think the next step should be that people, by there own intellect and initiative, should be allowed to EARN their liberty while the ignorant masses can remain dominated and micromanaged. That is if we do not destroy ourselves first.

I'm sorry, but that's an incredibly stupid thing to say. (I'm also sorry for taking this thread slightly more off topic.) I don't think that I even need to justify my statement, but how would people 'earn' their liberties, and what exactly would those liberties include? If you consider the freedom to educate yourself to be a liberty, then you're pretty much boned.

[Edited on 2/15/08 by bfesser]

kilowatt - 15-2-2008 at 14:22

I couldn't have said it better, which is why I didn't say anything before.

chloric1 - 15-2-2008 at 16:35

Well, obviously my statement could not work if education was a liberty, duh. All I am saying is our current situation seems to persecute the independent thinker to protect the rights of those who don't deserve them. I have much more to add to this discussion but I must stop it here. I am sorry I continued the discontinuity of this thread so I shall restore it to topic.

How about we start posting alternative sites to sell on as this is far more effective than a strike. If any have experience on these other sites, good or bad, please share.

Ephoton - 20-2-2008 at 00:22

greys online is not too bad. its oz based but hey my old man
has a nice collection of antique porn from it

as for ebay there biggest prob is the underdog email servers.
or even people who use onion routing with a mail server behind
it. I can have thousands of ebay accounts with out any one
being the wiser. personaly I only use ebay to find people then
I deal direct with them. why pay some web merchant to let
the poor seller advertise when you can just send them an email
then deal direct.

another great site is www.techtrader.com.au

sorry I reread that I was way out of line. to say that one nation
does not see beyond there boarders then totaly slander them
is to be a hippocrit. I was wrong to type that.
it has now been deleted. the actions of a goverment is not the actions of its people. please accept my appology.

[Edited on 20-2-2008 by Ephoton]

leu - 20-2-2008 at 02:03

There is a competitor to E-Bay that would like more customers:

http://www.ubid.com/

:cool:

LSD25 - 20-2-2008 at 03:19

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The fact is that ebay has it all their own way and have done so for way too long.

Perhaps it is time to talk to the other sellers that you associate with and try and co-operatively set-up a co-op type of arrangement. Going on how this works with agriculture (actually set up because the big-market players could effectively freeze out anybody who they didn't think bowed & scraped enough to earn the miniscule amounts they were being paid - ie. much the same thing) I'd suggest it is possible.

If you can contact enough quality sellers and work out the details of pooling a percentage of the proceeds for the purpose of improving the site(s), but allowing for 'individual online stores' which contribute only a percentage of their income to the co-op, you may have a chance.

Find out how much 'Google' wants to give you the result-page placement (stress that you WILL grow), keep the quality high and do not tolerate fuck-up sellers, and this might well work nicely. You will need access to serious legal advice (I suggest that you cut them in for a piece of the action), I'd also suggest that you limit the type of 'stores' allowed into the set-up - ie. keep those fucking annoying 2c jewellery fuckwits from asia OUT. Try and keep the offerings and the associated stores at least semi-legitimate and you'll go a long way to earning and retaining the trust of your customer base. Perhaps it may even be necessary to organise a committee to scrutinise each proposed sellers store, and to conduct spot-checks upon established stores, measuring them against the criteria you will need to establish.

Then again, you may not have the access to the sheer volume of sellers that would be needed to set this up... In which case you'll just have to suck this up and live with it or get a better job. It is up to you.

PS I honestly believe that 'ebay' is doomed by virtue of the sheer volume of crap products which clog it up, the autocratic ownership and the bloody minded stupidity of the set-up. It looks, acts and feels bloody amateurish - someone will set up an online mall type of set-up, with a collection of semi-professional online stores which advertise and sell obviously quality merchandise for a decent, non-ripoff price. The simple fact is that it remains the leader by virtue of there being no serious alternative (at least which does not offer the same crap products & prices and equivalent problems). Oh, and get rid of the silly fucking auction-preferred format - if I want to buy something, I want to know a price and when I can have it - I have neither the time nor the inclination to wait to find out if I 'won' the bloody auction, the other thing is, make fucking sure the sellers are solvent, the goods are as advertised and everything is above board.