Changes at eBay - bringing in more people or making people run away?
I used to sell a lot of stuff on eBay. Most of the stuff that I was selling were digital items. A while back eBay made it so that digital items were no longer allowed in auction listings. Instead, if you were selling digital items then you needed to use the fixed price listings that were good for 30 days. When they made this change I looked into it as I was making around $400 a month selling my digital items. Guess what I found out? I would end up losing money instead of making money since I sold low-cost items.
Now there have been even more changes on eBay. And I have to wonder what they are thinking. Do they really think that they are making eBay more attractive to people? And are they? Or do they have people running away from eBay?
A few months ago eBay changed its feedback system, for the worse in my opinion. With the changes, sellers could only leave positive feedback. So if you sold something, got payment, shipped it and then had a seller file a chargeback with PayPal you could only leave positive feedback. That is when I stopped using eBay.
Now there are more changes on eBay. And these ones are even worse in my opinion.
First - maximum shipping and handling costs. Apparently eBay has decided that they know how much it costs to mail a variety of things and had imposed maximum shipping and handling fees in some categories. About a year ago I sold one of those really big heavy dictionaries on eBay. It was so large I had to go buy a box for it. Under policies now, the max I would be able to charge for shipping is $4, which would not cover the cost of the box and postage.
Second - limiting how you can accept payment. Since eBay owns PayPal I guess they have decided that they are losing too much money on people that pay by money order. So, starting October 20, 2008 checks and money orders will no longer be an allowed payment method.
So, I am done with eBay. There are alternatives out there. I just need to investigate them and see which ones are the best options. Any suggestions?
October 18th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Ebay’s problems are many, and solutions are few… Its current CEO tried to make eBay more big business-friendly by alienating small sellers (such as yourself) and fighting the “fleebay” mentality that made the site so great once upon a time.
The problem is that there isn’t any real alternative to ebay. During the week-long strike to protest the new feedback rules last spring, many were dismayed to find out that there isn’t another well-known auction site. What little competition eBay has is too small and poorly organized to be a worthy substitute. Right now, the only hope eBay users have is that Google will start its own auction site. As for right now, your only other option is craigslist. It limits your outreach area, but you don’t have to pay fees and there’s no paper trail.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:40 am
I used to buy and sell on eBay quite a bit but with all of the changes I can’t remember the last time I bought or sold.
With the new feedback structure I can’t see myself selling again.