eBay Changes Pricing Schemes for Auctions, Struggling to Regain Edge

i do not use ebay anymore, they are a monopoly they own paypal so now you have a insert fee and a final sale fee and then another fee for paypal. YOU ARE LOCKED IN and then now what they have been doing is holding your money when you make a sale until the buyer gets there item and leaves you feedback and then they release the money. what a joke. i hope ebay goes under!!! maybe they will get bought out and a new owner will run things right.

I don't want to comment on home businesses or true love...this is about eBay and these fools who use these columns for their own benefit should be kicked the hell off. Their comments are not relevant to the subject and contain email addresses...suposedly a no-no.

My comment is that eBay will never regain its footing because it became too complicated...and expensive. When it started it was for ordinary people who had personal things to sell, people who had a few items they no longer wanted. But the small guy got smothered by the big "store's". EBay has become a dinosaur...it will continue raising it's 'fees' until it puts itself out of business...becomes extinct. Too bad, it used to be a great place to shop.

I used to love ebay both selling and buying but will look for other avenues such as esty.com and craigslist, it is too bad greed has got the better of them.

I sold on ebay for years... ebay lost me when I sold an item and the buyer refused to return the item for a refund after stating that they didnt want the item afterall. .. (A quick search of there recent purchases on ebay showed they had won another like item the next day for less)...Before returning the item to me for a refund the buyer opened a dispute and ebay locked down my bank account for 30 days..... They then took the 750.00+ dollars from my account and returned it to the buyer, "before I got the item back".. (which I ran for someone else and had already paid them the $750.00 for the item). Before it was over A $750.00 sale cost me $1400.00 out of pocket in bank fees and service charges ... I contacted ebay and they told me and I quote....It was my fault the bank account was frozen and that I as a seller had no rights on ebay! ... well, needless to say...that was it for me. And it would appear, just from doing key word searches and looking at the # of items available on their site, "nearly 3/4 of the items missing from their online shelves as they are accustomed to."... They obviously treated many of their top-rated sellers the same way. I dont have any bad feelings toward ebay I just hope that those who run it, go bankrupt, get kicked out in the street with nowhere to go and starve to death in the streets, pennyless.

I agree 100%. Not only has ebay continued to raise it's fees and all but require Paypal payments, but they have become very seller unfriendly. It not takes nothing for a buyer to leave negative feedback, say that they received a damaged item and do other things to scam a seller without the slightest concern from ebay about the fraud and tactics from buyers.

I'm moving more to esty, Amazon, Abesbooks, Ruby Lane, Amazon and other buyer friendly sites.

Too bad, I was a 4000 item a month ebayer.

eBay caused their own problems. They shot themselves in their proverbial foot last year when they heavy handed how sellers would be paid,(Paypal which they own, they also bought Bill Me Later)) changing auction fees etc. eBay became a giant under the old CEO and most, sellers and buyers LOVED it. Everyone made money, are they now? The old way is what made them. Auctions ARE what made them. They ruined themselves by trying to be a wannabee amazon, but guess what? There all ready is an amazon and it's called amazon. They should lose more money and then maybe they will get the message that they made poor ( read here greedy) decisions but I won't hold my breath. Note to Yahoo, now that eBay is losing their edge so to speak, it's time bring back your auctions.

Sleazebay was great when they first started, but since they commercialized and got greedy I haven't used them in years and I will not return to them period. They are just what greedy corporate America is all about. Support those that care about you and not the slimeballs that only care about the dollar.

Ebay has really cranked up the final value fees. The old fees were 8.75% up to $25 and then 3.5% after that. This is a flat 9% for whatever amount you sell up to a $50 fee. So if you sell an item for $100 you are paying $9. Under the old system it would cost you $4.82. This is a huge increase.

THIS MESSAGE IS TO EBAY: As long as you have sellers, you will have buyers - lose your sellers, you lose your buyers. You need to start treating your sellers like the GOLD MINE they are! Speaking of gold, I no longer sell gold on ebay - get more money from the flipping pawn shops (and they treat me like a valued seller - go figure) and US Gold Buyer - and they don't charge me to sell it to them! I went from selling $3000. to $5000. a month on ebay to ZERO, why? Because I get treated BETTER anyplace else on the planet. I was one of the first 100 people to sign up on AUCTION WEB (ebay's original name) when it started. It was fun, exciting, affordable - now ebay is losing it's sellers by the thousands - and of course all of the revenue their sales would have generated - why? BECAUSE WITHOUT SELLERS, YOU DON'T HAVE BUYERS - DUH

I agree, they are not seller friendly. I used ebay here and there to buy things through out the years to buy things, but I sold some books recently (selling for the first time) and I was shocked and pissed. They held my money till (or if) the buyer confirmed they got it. I have an account with them for over 7 years, the buyers where new...and they had the nerve to tell me I need to sell more. No thank you!! I told them I will looking to other avenues to sell things if I want to, I will not be using them again.

Boy you hit the nail on the head with that one... well spoken!

Thanks for showing the $ aspect to this Adam. All other comments are excellent & I couldn't agree more. We used to sell a lot and quit when they really complicated it for sellers. If this new tatic doesn't make them go under, what will ?

eBay is definitely AFU! They screw the seller - the backbone of the service - with high fees and "guilty until proven innocent" policies in disputes.
One buyer badgered me within hours after winning an auction (on a Sunday) wanting to know when she would receive her item. I sent it on Monday, sent her a tracking number and she STILL badgered me - then filed a dispute with eBay and PayPal for not receiving the item THAT DAY and eBay/PayPal took the payment back out of my account.
She received the item BEFORE the time specified in the auction and she still complained. (She eventually dropped the complaint after I threatened to file one on her.) Two weeks later she emails me asking when am I going to leave her positive feedback! I replied simply "Quid Pro Quo".
eBay/PayPal automatically assumes the sellers' complaints are valid and punishes the seller.

Add another nail to the coffin for Ebay. This has been in the works for a while and I turned to Craigslist as my main point of sales once they started the "post 5 free auctions a month" garbage and ran the numbers.

I have one more comment, but first I agree 100% with the person who said "without sellers you don't have buyers." I started out being more buyer than seller and I still am. I was into vintage items. As with most collectors after a lifetime you end up with too much stuff. So in comes eBay, lets sell some! Many changes with eBay through the years. At last call you could list the first 5 items auction style in any one month for "free", ahem, no matter the start price to be knocked over the head with the final auction fee. After the 5 items you would pay the listing fee. Now it's free to list if you start under a dollar.With the last "old way" it was okay to be able to start an item somewhere near what you needed to get for it and hope to get a little more or break even or even sell it for that matter in this financial climate. I've heard a lot of people over the years not like the reserve auction. I would never start an auction for under $1.00 for a fine collectible. So you're right back to where you started, listing fee and exorbitant final value auction fee. I mentioned earlier that I hoped Yahoo would bring back their auctions, maybe they would have learned something and made improvements but I forgot they went to bed with eBay in a deal to have them listed as advertisers. Last year eBay did their most dirtiest and they haven't stopped yet. I said then it may take a while but they will see a decline in their piggy bank jingle and may it continue to do so for their bottom line. Arrogance and greed. Does GM et al ring any bells with you Mr. eBay/shareholders?

I used to be a power seller on ebay. I gave it up when t hey jacked their fees up but what really turned me off to ebay was when they changed the feedback policy so sellers couldn't leave a negative feedback for a bad buyer. The buyer can leave the seller a negative for whatever reason but a seller can only leave a positive. Your only choice is positive or don't leave feedback at all. So it basically puts you at the mercy of they buyer and the mercy of the control freaks at ebay!

ebay is a rip off. I tried selling stuff on there. In fact I DID sell stuff on there but their rates are so rediculous that I would be in the poor house if I had continued using it. Good bye ebay.

I have never sold anything on ebay. I also tried to stay away from the power sellers after one would not send my send my item, but filed a complaint aginst me for non-payment. I had my cancelled ck in my hand. I tried to file a complaint against him for not sending the item, but ebay would have none of that. ebay would not intervene. Shock (NOT). The guy finally sent the item. (NO, they are not all bad. -- Ernesto is THE sweetest man on the planet! -- I have had some very good dealings with some.) I also had a large seller file a complaint against me, for non-payment, after she rec'd my check, but decided not to take it. She said she sent it back. I told her I would send a PO MO AFTER receiving my ck back. (I'm not gonna pay 2x for the same thing. Sorry 'bout your luck.) When I contacted her about the complaint she said she had not filed one. Uh-huh. She got her $$ and I got my item in the end. (It spoiled it so much for me that I have never removed it from the box) Aditionally, power sellers usually do not leave you + feedback, because they don't give a crap. They don't need the feedback, but as a small buyer, it makes a diffference. (FYI - since I joined in the 90's I have 1 neg. feedback) When I first joined ebay, it was a blast. Everybody was small. Then they got popular and the power sellers got on there and it went downhill. Now they require you to pay with paypal, because they own it, and it has gone downhill again. I haven't bought on there for over a yr. I don't even look. Makes me sad, but the antiques dealers in IN are probably happier. They are now getting my $$ that the ebay dealers won't get.