Very interesting comments on eBay. As one who both buys AND sells there - and has for years - I have some opinions.
I've seen eBay growing more and more seller-friendly as opposed to buyer-friendly, almost to the point that buying there is just like patronizing an ordinary business. In the past, it was America's Giant Yard Sale, but now we deal with rapacious, uppity, bossy sellers who (often ungrammatically) demand their payments instantly while striving to hide their names and addresses!
I'm definitely becoming alienated from the eBay scene, but for opposite reasons than the ones many sellers seem to have.

I have never been ripped off by a buyer - only by SELLERS who misrepresented items or never produced them at all. It's true that eBay - and its adopted child Paypal - are just about useless in case of a ripoff. I recommend using a credit card that takes care of these problems for you - Capital One has been very good in this way.

It's true - eBay may sicken or die, but to make it better, sellers need to quit believing that anyone who buys from them is their slave, or that they are somehow in charge of the situation. It was the equality, the community, that made eBay great - and that's what's eroding. Craig's List, anyone?

SO much crap about fees..fees, Ebay will not be losing anything except "peasants".

AN ALTERNATE TO USING EBAY IS: WWW.WTOPNEWS.COM
YOU CAN PLACE A FREE CLASSIFIED AD. IT IS NOT
AN AUCTION SITE. PLACE YOUR AD AS YOU WOULD IN
A NEWSPAPER AND INCLUDE YOUR ASKING PRICE. YOU
MAY MISS OUT ON OVER ZEALOUS BIDDERS BUT IF YOU
HAVE A PRICE IN MIND THAT YOU WOULD BE HAPPY WITH,
THIS MIGHT WORK FOR YOU. SITE IS RELATIVELY NEW,
BUT I NOTICE MORE AND MORE ADS AS TIME GOES ON.
YOUR AD IS LISTED FOR 30 DAYS. FREE FREE FREE

A lot of artists already found a new home with ArtByUs.com . Artists list their artworks for free. Also, the artists invite their past customers to visit the site. In the art category on eBay, you are left with cheap imports from China.

With "an alternative to eBay" check over
at powersellersunite.com for how fast
some of these other sites are growing.
The buyers of the lower cost items will
have to go elsewhere since many of these
businesses can no longer afford to list
on eBay.

With "perceived as a monopoly" and "Unethical" one can only hope the Fed
steps or savvy reporters and diggs out any facts. An example of unethical could
be them having the knowlege of plans to
destroy many small businesses back in May
while really encouraging many to put many
items in the stores after that. There are
so many examples, try reading at the above link.

Yes, every company has the obligation to
make money and needs to if they are going
to survive but there are many ways to do
that without ruining many small businesses after what many believe are
Bait and Switch tactics.

And this 10 cent two day event, at the
last very sneaky but have to read the
fine print. How many more dollars will
many small businesses lose out with this?
Unknown but ....

Dear Mr. Liber:

As with most things financial, the truth behind a company's actions seldom matters - only the results are seen. The Street sees what it wants to see. If you would like to see more, please visit this site:

http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/ebay_strategies/2006/08/whats_going_on_.html

Go below the charts and read the comments from some sellers. Speaking of sellers, where you state that a large percentage of sellers can leave eBay and it will have no impact, that is to be seen. If the 'right' number leave, perhaps only 10%, that could amount to 60% of ebay's revenue.

"There are no eBay police."

That statement is incorrect. The Trust & Safety (T&S) division of eBay enforces the rules within ebay. Recently, when the fee hike was announced, several sellers used their expertise to offer "Fee Hike" auctions of various goods - those auctions were cancelled within hours by T&S.

Yet, you may go into ebay and search for "Plasma" within categories that usually wouldn't have such items - Jewelry, Books, Dolls - and find dozens of listings. Most are 1 day listings, have an email link that begs to be used for "the best price" and are generally Hijacked accounts. Pure scam.

ebay is aware of such listings, but complains that they can not monitor their site. With only 11,000 employees, they ask that ebay users report such listings. They do get reported, typically by those that have been scammed out of their money.

Such a situation points out that they do have a police force, but only for the purpose of eliminating bad PR.

What is your opinion of 'Unethical' at this point? Perhaps you would be more convinced if anything unethical were unearthed in regards to Financial Statements?

Do you know that all of the eBay China site is free? That is, China sellers pay no fees to list on that site. NO fees to operate a Store? Their only hindrance to totally engorging the ebay site with listings, is their ability to actually get on a computer with Internet access.

That certainly makes ebay's numbers look good, in regards to total listings. Trouble is, those numbers mean no revenue. When those China sellers list on the US site (.COM), the pay the insertion fee and the Final Value Fee (FVF) on the selling price.

Since they sell their items for 1-cent, with $25 shipping, the FVF is charged only upon the 1-cent. What is the revenue produced from 5% of 1-cent?

Like most businesses, ebay is a child of the 80/20 model. That 20% of users that account for 80% of the revenue is based in the US, not China or any other country. That 20% will feel the effects of this latest fee increase and they will respond.

Go to ebay's home page. Click on 'Stores' in the upper-left box. Now, click on 'See all Anchor Stores'. See those top 7 Stores? Their monthly bill will increase 3-fold. The largest seller on ebay (gauged by stocked items), will have a bill that increases from $8K per month, to $25K per. Think they will remain?

The above direction is in answer to your words, "eBay could lose a high percentage of sellers and be fine. WHY shouldn't they do this?"

Peasants are revolting? I don't think so. I think it is the fat cats & politians that are revolting. Pass me the gag bag please!

Actually, I don't think that either eBay or you has any inkling of the huge amount of seller good will and trust that they have lost by raising the fees in this harsh manner against the eBay Stores sellers.
Many of these sellers have spent good chunks of their time and business capital building these stores with eBay's constant encouragement. To have a whopping fee increase of 500% (!!) in many cases (from 2 cents to 10 cents per store item per month--this is, literally, the store rent, so if you have 3,000 items priced at over $25 dollars, your store rent just went to $60 to $300 per month, before your store subsciption fee, final value fee that also increased, PayPal fees, etc) is unprecedented. Many of these sellers cannot just pull up stakes and move all of a sudden with the holiday season around the corner. These sellers are angry, resentful...and telling their friends and customers.

If your landlord raised your rent 500% could you simply up and move--especially if no true viable alternative existed? Would you sit quietly while your electric bill went up 500% in one month?

Sellers are simmering and furious--this announcement was made over one month ago, and they haven't piped down yet.

As far as eBay wanting to grow their auction business by this move? Well, most of us eBay Store owners run quite a few auctions already, and we are pretty disinclined to do this right now. Also, for most of us, the eBay Stores format works much better than the auction format; if it didn't, we'd be running all those extra auctions eBay wants already! Final point on the auctions--if the store owners leave, they take ALL their auctions with them.

I don't think you can calculate how devastating, over time, this blow to eBay's trust and good will may be, especially for such a company that IS built on its community. Many of us who have no choice, in the short term, except to continue with eBay, hopes that eBay understands what a terrible decision this has been and that they reverse at least part of it as soon as possible.

Dee, I feel your pain and I do understand. I mentioned the poor way eBay has treated sellers in both posts. I also mentioned that this was a public relations blunder and killed much good will as well. However, while simpathetic about these issues I am less so about the financial end. 3,000 items x $25 (or more you said) = $75,000 in merchandise. Forgive me but the $300 ($240 additional)is chump change and if you cannot afford it, you do not have a business. It seems to me you are more upset about how eBay has treated you and others, and that you will have to change and adapt. Regardless of this poor behavior on their part, they offer a service that has not been replicated by others and does not look to be soon as you have agreed. Also, no one has mentioned it but I am curious, if someone has any knowledge of the subject, doesn't selling one vintage car or a house equal thousands of small store sellers? Can they realy be affected by a revolt of small stores? They have a severe communications and business relations problem but not an economic one.

Since I have had to restructure, I decided to go back to my other occupation. Deputy Director of nograf at www.nograffiti.com In that job we attempt to prevent vandalism. So to reduce time listing on ebay, I converted to search out illegal sales. Below is the 4th item I purchased on ebay, but first ebay was told of the problem and like the fee issue I was ignored!

ETCH MARKER

This marker has a 2cm nib (much like the Montana L or OTR 080 markers...see my other auctions)

The difference between these etch markers and all other paint markers is that;

THESE BABIES ETCH GLASS PERMANENTLY!!!

The longer the etch is left to work, the more frosted the glass will become!

Sweet!

The seller was from the United Kingdom and this acid based product is being air shipped in violation of FAA safety concerns. It will be presented at next months LA County Task Force meeting, with other products marketed and sold for Vandalism purposes. I already warned ebay, then purchased Aerosol Spray Paint from Canada, refillable inks and markers from New York and MEAN STREAK Paint sticks also from NYC. ebay facilitated the sale and the transactions were aided by Pay Pal. The sellers promoted these for the purpose of graffiti and ebay was notified using their monitored blogs so as to have hundreds of witnesses and downloaded PDF files.

Today I have heard from the city of PORTLAND, yesterday the city of San Mateo, the New York Queens Neighborhoods Coalition and from Australian members who have already written ebay. ebay demonstrated a concern when they pulled the first related product, but retreated when they realized there were hundreds!

In long or short, ebays lack of understanding has credible opponents ready and willing to fight the auction giant. There is nothing they can now say to appease those who feel wronged by them. Some will stay, but all will remember this attitude. Because they facilitate the shipment of classified hazardous materials, all to easy this could end up with serious delivery setbacks related to 911 changes in Homeland Security concerns. They should of thought about the professional backgrounds of their part time sellers. If they think they can simply discard sellers, they may learn a bit about what these sellers were doing for a living, before sellers migrated to a home business. If I can't survive in the ebay venue of these past 9 years, then most certainly I can return to my law enforcement consulting business, which has had real concerns about the types of items accessable on ebay, but unregulated.

If you doubt my sincerity, contact these cities above, to their graffiti control departments. Vandalism cost the public 15 Billion a year and yet forewarned, the auction giant didn't seem to care when I later purchased each item I complained about. So if they earned $40,000. from me in 9 years and I help several cities seu them under a new civil ruling for several million to pay for damages going back 6 years since I originally addressed this, it will be just municipal business and a botto0m line they had not considered!

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced Monday that his office obtained a civil injunction and $20,000 in financial penalties against Romero, whom Herrera called "one of San Francisco's most prolific graffiti vandals."

The case marks the first time the city has filed a civil lawsuit against a graffiti tagger.

He also isn't alone. In 2001, a civil grand jury found that San Francisco spends more than $22 million in taxpayer money annually to clean and cover over graffiti. Today that price tag is believed to be significantly higher. Officials say San Francisco has a reputation among taggers as a "destination city," meaning people travel from afar just to leave their spray-painted mark on its surfaces.

I think its safe to say, that ebay has been set up by a civilian taxpayer with the intent of a civil lawsuit to recover tax dollars paid to control vandalism that ebay for 6 years has contributed too. It all goes back to a letter ebay recieved from the Santa Clara County District Attorney 6 years ago.

Controlling vandalism is what I did before ebay try a GOOGLE search of "Jay Beswick" so in leaving ebay to survive, ebay is still my best opportunity! There is to many illegal items sold and to much stolen property being fenced on ebay. What would you image ebays future is? Spending a lot more on lawyers!

Hi Sheldon! I love your blog, thanks for responding. Well...you can call it chump change if you want, but it adds up quickly especially if your store is/was growing. Remember, its $300 a month on top of all your other eBay fees(which are considerable), and also remember that many profit margins on eBay are already razor-thin. You are correct, perhaps, that we are all "more upset about how eBay has treated you and others" and their insulting non-responsiveness, and we feel stuck with a company that we no longer trust. A 500% increase (really, have you ever heard of a 500% increase in anything in a month besides this?) today, perhaps a 400% increase tomorrow. Who knows? And...eBay Stores certainly feel like the poor stepchildren at the moment--troubling, un-magical, and maybe in the future unwanted? We don't know and that aspect of our business is totally out of our control.

Also, I have a pretty solid eBay business with several hundred to a thousand+ a month in eBay fees. Maybe that is a small business for eBay, but multiply it. If someone comes in and sells a car, maybe they do that once, but I've been selling year in and year out at these levels on eBay for years. I just don't think I'm the type of eBay business they intended to upset. In any event, thanks again for the response and for covering this!

WHAT IS TAKING YOU SO LONG...Just Leave and set up yours ..you are REPLACEABLE JAY BESWICK & El al... EBAY IS EBAY. THIS is not the forum for resolve.

NO NEED TO BLUFF, ALL EBAY HAS TO DO IS REMOVE THESE ITEMS, BUT SOME LAWYER IS PROBABLY TELLING THEM ITS AN ADMISSION OF GUILT? IF THATS TRUE, THEY WERE GUILTY IN REMOVING THE FIRST ONE I COMPLAINED ABOUT. ESCALATION IS WHAT I'M GOOD AT

THEy STILL DON'T GET IT "INVEnTORY DO NOT SELL". these Jay Beswick & el al...ARE REPLACEABLE.. what is taking them so long to leave. Ebay is Ebay.
This is NOT the Forum for resolve.

It is because my store had 2040 items in it on July 19th, it has 1320 now! ebay has taken fees from me for 9 years, well over $40,000. My feedback rating is 13,400 I transitioned to ebay from GANGS & GRAFFITI. If I return which no doubt I will part time, I will chip away at a giant whom lacks ethics.

Its the place because if you have kept up with the news, ebay has been caught selling stolen property and other illegal devices and if they want to ignore Jay the seller, thats cool its just business. However if they ignore Jay the graduate of Sant Rosa Criminal Justice Academy for federal law enforcement, when I tell them to remove a product that violates California's penal code, that Jay will carve them a new As_!

We wear hats and it depends on which one I am wearing at the time. So "skippy" I own ebay shares and still have a store, so that gives me plenty of rights to vent here.

ebay cost me a lot of money and they lured me in, I have the emails, the store was to be the place where excess inventories could be moved out. The adds are still up, for ebay hasn't bothered to pull them.

Then if you go to ebay item 9500823648 you will find in good faith I purchased a 8300 square foot building to establish a network of 10-14 ebay stores and took possesion on June 12th 0f 2006. I set up a second store and transfered it on June 29th for a client in our new building. I then prepared to double my inventory, planning to go from 2000 store items to 5000 store items, but Mr. Cobbs letter on 7-19 stopped all this.

You guys need to redo the math, cause you don't get it. The percentage of successful sales even calculated over a year is not 100% in a ebay store. Quite simple for morons who have never been self employed, upfront fees on unsold items, have to be factored into that percentage of successful completed transactions. It was piss poor on auctions, which is why there is 541,000 ebay stores. Its marginal even in the stores. Its a calculated risk and with 2000 items we have them roll over each month, so are calculations are over a 1 year period.

When you consider a store listing that has several pictures, bolding, the gallery and other for fee options, that 2 cent to 5 cent debate is minor to the actual cost. Then of course changing the search method was noticed durring the first quarter, so yes we feel ebay misrepresented its services, given the press release in July.

If you are in love with the auction giant so be it, but remember those on the titanic that went down with the ship. If you are on ebays side, its simply that you are not a PowerSeller effected by reality. Investors, ebay monitors and disatisfied buyers are welcome to free speech here as well.

This all sounds so familiar to a recent cartoon I saw about ebay

http://www.ioffer.com/feepay/

They even got the "Peasant" idea down...

Interesting, post #13 had the responses from Portland Oregon and Australia but this system cut them out! Maybe Ann is right, I need to leave here and return to the more proactive side of addressing my ebay concerns to and with law enforcement.

So Ann, do you think its OK to sell vandal tools and stolen property on ebay, as long as its not your wall being defaced or your property being resold?

This is the part of the equation that has me most upset. eBay promised and promised more exposure for stores, they said that stores were a very important componant to eBay. Many many of us went out and purchased more inventory to stock in our stores based on these promises. What we received was very much the opposite. No new inclussion of store listings in core search, (and I am counting that rediculous new store tab at the top in that statement), and this was to be a KEY PART according to eBay. What we did receive was a very clear message that eBay is indifferent to the needs, concerns, and selling strategies of it's current store owners. If you are a store owner you are very much a second class citizen.

eBay and it's sellers have a common goal and that is profit. If eBay took the approach of being PARTNERS with it's sellers instead of landlords I do believe that everyone would profit in the end. This approach would lead eBay down a path of working with it's sellers instead of against them.

They had a goal with this store fee increase in mind and that was to push our inventory to auction. This could have been done in a MUCH friendlier seller manor certainly less harsh and manipulitive.

I have adjusted my business plan to accomodate this latest eBay power play and I will survive it, I have no choice....for now, but should the option arise, I will cut eBay out of my business plan like a cancer. And when I take my business off eBay as a seller, I also leave as a buyer.

Tony, some great insights, I did look at the ref. but did not find it convincing.

Dee, I appreciate your inteligent and thoughtful comments as are most of them.

Scout, Thanks for the Cartoon Satire reference. I had not seen it and it's perfect.

Jay, I had to trim it back some...you need to stay on topic or start your own blog. Appreciate your comments though...and you do have a right to vent as much as you want.

Melanie, all excellent points, did eBay make a written commitment or public statement to store owners? Is there anything you think might be binding in some way? That could get very interesting.

To all, eBay may stay silent and unresponsive but there is no way they are not seeing this and other posts, or knowing of your frustration. Peace to all.

Sorry, accidentally arrowed down and hit the Add Your Comments button.

The USGL certificates have ridiculous inflated evaluation/insurance values in excess of 800% for the actual item that they are selling. As I try to imagine getting my insurance company to cover this poorly made, low grade piece of jewelry, I can also imagine him having me arrested for attemped fraud. A search of the address on their website indicates that it is only an address with no existing business/laboratory. No phone number? Wonder why my jeweler, who holds exhibits, has never heard of USGL? A search of CA business listings does not reveal USGL as a business? Who owns USGL?

The USGL certificates have the "terms and conditions listed on back" at the bottom of the certificate. There is no picture of the back included with the listing. Isn't it against Ebay policy listing?

They also had a link to the USGL website which is located outside of Ebay. Isn't that against Ebay policy?

Read an article recently that said that neimans-jewelry has had three user ID's since 2003. Is that where all of the negative feedback went?

Similar searches for a more expensive item such as a 20.0 ctw diamond tennis necklace - 7 identical listings, USGL insurance/replacement value at a whopping $78,900 each, all sold between $9450-$9856, and ended with the floor bidder. ????????? Each one on different days, too!

Isn't Ebay auctions sponsering these auctions?

How is it that some of the same jewelry stores on Ebay can have a "buy it now" price on a listing for less money than an identical item that they put in the auction that actually ends in a higher average selling price? An earlier search revealed several item listings, but a more recent search strangely, revealed nothing.

Ever since I started researching this stuff, my computer has had over 1500 attempted intrusion attacks. I read somewhere that somebody said that there is a trojan attached to the toolbar. Of course, I had recently downloaded it. With some time, it's gone now. Yesterday, I had 355 attempted attacks in two hours. I'm not accusing Ebay of doing it, but it does seem strange that it has never happened before. I now have my computer so locked up that I can't hardly get into it!

Oh yeah, did I mention that I was sucked in for a few thousand, cancelled my order asap (just after my credit card hit), but haven't been issued a credit? My order to cancel, in addition to some emails to Ebay auctions, was received by Ebay and Neimans Sunday pm. No replies or answers as yet. Neiman's jewelry has recently listed with more sites. Oh, and Overstock jewelry lists Neimans as one of their customers. Who owns RV & AV Jewelry?

Was a bigger buyer than seller. Made a major purchase last year over $30,000 and spent a few thousand this year. My last items to sell just ended. I certainly wish that my now, current money problems had ended also.

On a positive note, I have not had one problem with individual buyers or individual sellers.

I'm with you that have made Ebay what it is today. It does seem as if the increase is somewhat high. Perhaps, they could have made a gradual incrimental increase, like a few cents every six months. Or perhaps Ebay just decided to have an evaluation for insurance/replacement purposes by USGL that indicated they were much more valuable and members weren't paying enough? Ha!

Guess ya'll know where I'm at.