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I've been an avid ebayer since the early days, both buyer and seller. While my feedback rating is pretty high, I haven't sold anything in a long while.
Ebay has made some profound changes to their operating model.
Sellers will no longer be able to leave negative feedback to buyers.
Paypal now has the discretion to hold incoming funds for 21 days for people with lower feedback or items they "feel" may cause trouble (expect to see lawsuits over this one)
Listing fees have gone down, but final value fees (FVF) have gone up (basically, the fees have gone up overall since the FVF's are where the real money is)
They now have "sell limits" on certain items- for example, I recently tried to list a few Omegas from my watch collection... I was informed that I couldn't list more than two at a time, since they're an item that is "frequently counterfeited". The thing is, they let me schedule the auction, they would let the auctions to live, but they just wouldn't let me add any pictures to it???
The search utility no longer defaults to auctions by end time, but now has a "best match" sort of thing where items are prioritized as a result of seller feedback. If you're a power seller, you're golden. If you're Bob from Minnesota trying to sell his old digital camera, forget about it.
Basically, they're retooling everything to be better for huge volume sellers, worse for high volume sellers, terrible for low volume sellers and almost impossible for occasional sellers.
It's been several years since I did EBay. Had major problems with them and my site being hi-jacked 3 years in a row. Finally had too get my local police too do a investigation. Very weird situation 3 years in a row same month some one would hi-jack my site.Same item...... I had too change my name 3 times and re-register both EBay-PayPal. Just gave up so much hassle..... I read that "NEW" way of doing business. It would be so much easier if every one that had a account would use one of these new thumb drives flash things. Have that issued by Ebay and you set your own pass word, That would save all kinds of problems. Just my 2 cents...........
When E-bay aquired Paypal----Changes were going to happen for sure--
Getting harder and harder for the small time seller to manage a profit-with all the fees involved from Both E-bay-Paypal -adding in the new shipping rates from usps -ups
Several High feedback sellers have left- more will follow as time goes on--When sellers are forced to charge huge shipping and handling fees to offset the fees they are charged-- the lack of sales will show.
Still some great deals at E-Bay for the buyer that takes the time to search --those deals come mainly from newbie sellers-where a profit is not the issue as much as just some pocket $$ to spend .
Anyone shipped a package via USPS since the new rates went into effect?--hmmmmm did Greedbay buy USPS too---
I left ebay couple years ago and the listing fees was crazy. The more item you list the more viisibility you have. It really hurts this time of year and summer you might as well take time off it wasnt worth listing with the very few buyers.
What sold I was happy with but the listing fees on what did not sale ate up the profits.
I haven't put anything up on ebay for more than 2 years and therefore hadn't followed their new guidelines or looked at the restructuring. I was going to put up some items this month--you've given me some pause.
I haven't put anything up on ebay for more than 2 years and therefore hadn't followed their new guidelines or looked at the restructuring. I was going to put up some items this month--you've given me some pause.
Well, I am a buyer, not a seller and last nite, when I was trying to do a search, I was so frustrated . . . I like to do my searches several ways and instead of bringing up a gazillion matches on Waterford crystal, for ex., it gave me one page. ONE PAGE!!! I thought - what the heck? So I kept trying my search different ways. I got really really really frustrated.
I didn't know they had restructured anything - realized the "look" of the webpages has changed. I noticed that around Christmas sometime.
I have several things I collect and so I am looking for things that are not selling, are not getting traffic/bids . . . and after last nite . . . I was so frustrated w/ the whole process.
I told my hubby - something must be wrong w/ the server. ????? Guess not!
I am more a buyer than a seller, myself, but for every 10 things 100 things I buy, I might sell 1-2. I also did a search on something last week, and few items came up.
So what has changed?
Quote:
Originally Posted by anifani821
Well, I am a buyer, not a seller and last nite, when I was trying to do a search, I was so frustrated . . . I like to do my searches several ways and instead of bringing up a gazillion matches on Waterford crystal, for ex., it gave me one page. ONE PAGE!!! I thought - what the heck? So I kept trying my search different ways. I got really really really frustrated.
I didn't know they had restructured anything - realized the "look" of the webpages has changed. I noticed that around Christmas sometime.
I have several things I collect and so I am looking for things that are not selling, are not getting traffic/bids . . . and after last nite . . . I was so frustrated w/ the whole process.
I told my hubby - something must be wrong w/ the server. ????? Guess not!
Hello, my name is AliceT and I am an eBay addict. This is my story....
I found eBay shortly after discovering the computer which was in 1998. I have become more addicted to the Internet, but eBay is a real close second. I became a seller on eBay with a lean on books, VHS and DVD and laserdiscs. Then I started selling Disneyanna. Who doesn't like Disney? Then when Disney got involved selling their own stuff, it all but threw a wrench in it for everyone else.
I got a call from a lady once who identified herself as one of my buyers on eBay. I called her back and asked what the problem was. She said she didn't get her item and she wanted her money back. I asked her for the title and she said, "what title are you talking about? How many Tiffany lamps do you sell?"
What?
Yeah, seems someone was using my handle, getting emails meant for me and taking money for items that didn't exist. Somehow, the complainants were given my home phone number (and unlisted number) for complaints. Talk about twisted. I did get that part straightened out - after changing my user ID as well as my email address.
So now we get to the changes within eBay. It's a good thing and a bad thing. I own stock in eBay, so whatever money they make, my stocks are more likely to increase in value. As for selling, I proceed with caution. I found that out when I put one of my houses up for sale and because a house is such a big ticket item, was charged $500 payable in advance and the listing would not appear until that was paid - and after the sale, there would also be the final value fee to contend with.
That alone should have thwarted me, but you have to admit, selling a house on eBay is very attractive because you are literally putting your house in front of the whole world to view and if you do it right, can usually close within 60 days of listing it. How many home sellers can say that? I say it's worth it for such a big ticket item.
I've purchased two houses and two vehicles off eBay. One of them is in my driveway right now. That driveway is to one of the houses I bought off eBay. It is my residence.
The other house was a mistake from the get go. Oh well. When I took old hardware off the house, I sold it on eBay - seems the items that were not only antiques but cannot be found in stores anywhere. And to think I considered throwing them in the trash as garbage! Thank goodness for eBay.
USPS is a whole other matter. You understand of course that letters don't fly into their hands anymore thanks to the Internet. They gotta make a buck too. So the fewer people that still send letters and cards to each other have to pay higher and hgher prices for stamps and when that doesn't seem to be suitable any more, they start upping the cost of sending packages. That hurt me especially because media mail was the biggest and best kept secret for ebayers who focused on tapes, films and books. Apparently the USPS wanted a bigger piece of the pie and now media mail is almost equal to the first class rate without the first class treatment. Go figure.
Now, with these increased rates both at eBay and the USPS, the biggest factor that I am struggling with is that there is no increased concern for the clients. Ebay states rules but no longer follows them or enforces them as needed. It is against eBay policy to charge a "handling fee" or inflate shipping rates to buyers. Is there anyone here that is unaware how inflated so many of the quoted shipping rates are? It's rampant. Is ebay watching? Apparently not. So if they aren't enforcing that, what are they doing, to keep it all above board, exactly? When you have an answer, let me know.
This thing about not being able to leave negative feedback to a buyer has me puzzled. I've had bad buyers. You know the ones, they pay through paypal for the item and refuse to pay the shipping. Or they send a check that bounces. And now it seems that we can't warn other sellers about this by leaving negative feedback. But if the seller doesn't get the item that their bounced check didn't buy, they can leave negative feedback to the tune of "paid but never received item." This does not compute.
I am aware that a lot of sellers have bailed out of eBay. They had no choice. Ebay has become too big - too many sellers - too many wholesalers - and the average Joe or AliceT can't compete with wholesalers. So yeah, they bailed. It seems eBay doesn't understand why the clients are leaving, so rather than fix any internal problems, they just upped their rates, stripped the seller's ability to warn other sellers, much less protect themselves from non-paying bidders and are laughing all the way to the bank.
But, like I said, I'm an eBay addict. Addicts don't break their habits easily.
Maybe they are just trying to make people use Craigs List
That may be; all kidding aside
I bought my 1990 Suburban, met my present girlfriend, etc. on CraigsList
As for eBay; I have an account as well but, it seems to me that quantity of items of interest to me (automotive stuff) has declined dramatically in the last year or so.
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