eBay Announces Fee Changes, Will Eliminate Store Format

by: fruity

I ain't going anywhere near Yahoo. David or Ina, does auctionbytes have a facebook account too like on twitter?

by: Another ps

Thank you for your perspective from an eBay site that has gone through these changes. I am a bit confused though.  If sales have remained steady, but fees have increased, does that just mean you are losing on your profit margin while eBay simply takes a bigger cut?  I don't intend to sound negative, '''

Well, firstly I agree that Ebay introduce changes that increase profits for them via paypal and/or ebay marketplace. But overall I think this new change can be a win-win situation , because sellers can list more items (both on site and off site, since sponsored links have so much visibility there now)

I think the reason our sales have remained steady but fees have gone up is because of the learning curve with the new system, and figuring out when to use the auction format and how to use the fixed price format for optimal search visibility.

I know how gut wrenching these huge changes are for all of us who depend on Ebay for a living, that is why I wanted to share my semi-positive experience. I hope it makes someone sleep better.

by: fruity

Did you read the AB article on the homepage, that talks about heard on the street. what Imran Kahn said? I'm fuming!

by: Jennifer

According to eBay's fee Illustrator, my total fees will go down by about $30/month if my sales continue as they have for the past two years - I am pleased. I switched to fixed price listings exclusively a year ago and realized a decrease in fees from auction listings as well as a higher sale price per piece - in reviewing what works and what doesn't and moving my strategy along with that over the past five years or so, I've been able to go with the flow and remain somewhat happy with my sales on eBay - to me, this is a bonus and I signed up for my store yesterday to take advantage of the postponed store fee promotion. This is good for me and I am ready to go with the flow again.

by: soon to be ex-powerseller

AuctionBytes is live-blogging the Town Meeting here:

http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/201
0/1/1264635165.html

Can you say, buh-bye Griff? LOL!!

by: Marsha

Ya'll need to look at this closer.  My fees on my small store will triple.  If I sell 25 items out of my 350 items a month and sell for an average of $10.00 each, Ebay will charge me $100.00 for my $250.00 income. This is according to their calculator.  They are forcing out the small seller.  And lying to the public.  This is a dramatically huge increase that will cost me over $600 in added fees this year, minimum.  

by: just a peon

Imran Khan of JPMorgan Chase & Co
"Price discrimination. We think the new fees improve eBay's ability to price-discriminate between casual sellers - who are unlikely to manage to a selling margin and thus less responsive to every penny of Final Value Fees - and professional sellers with a greater focus on margins and listings costs. We think the company also expects larger sellers to offer a more consistent buyer experience. We think the new structure could put some pressure on the middle of the curve: sellers who sell regularly but not in enough volume for the discounts to kick in."

Chase gobbled up my bank. I immediately opened an account at a huge, but privately owned bank (rec'd no bailouts) and keep the majority of my money there, but after mr kahn's statements, I'll go close my 3 Chase-hijacked accounts tomorrow and move it all to the other bank.

I'm much too small for Chase to bother with, right?

Mr kahn obviously hasn't spent any time buying anything on ebay, as it is the small seller who gives you the outstanding, personal customer service that the large ebay sellers lack.

Kind of just like Chase.

Ohhhhhhhh, now I get it!

by: fruity

I called the FTC about deceptive advertising. I said they were falsing advertising the benefits of the programs and the content of the message, that they are not disclosing to paying consumers that they are paying higher costs. Use the phrase clear & concise and that its half a dozen pages long

by: just a peon

Forgot to elaborate on this:

"I immediately opened an account at a huge, but privately owned bank (rec'd no bailouts)"

My new bank rec'd no bailouts, unlike Chase who rec'd BILLIONS.

The flipping nerve. grrrrrrrrr

by: Smitty

Meg adjusted me and John has now simplified me. I wonder what the next CEO is going to do for me.

This post only has to do with the final value fees regarding auctions. A few posts and the Google link are in error regarding this. It looks like those folk forgot that the current final value fee drops to 1.5% after $1000.

These are the current final value fees and the simplified final value fees that are coming down the pike.

$50 now = $3.07  simplified = $4.50

$100 now = $4.81  simplified = $9.00

$500 now = $18.81  simplified $45.00

$1000 now = $36.31 simplified $50.00

$1900 now = $49.81 simplified $50.00

$1912 now = $49.99 simplified $50.00

It appears that auctions ending under $1913 will see an increase in final value fees. The increase in the $500 range looks brutal.

David & Ina, thanks for the very helpful site.

by: fractal

As a small but quality seller this is the pits!  My goods are going to be buried under an avalanche of miscategorized and falsely listed copies from China.  Sales will go to near zilch.

As a buyer, I will stop using search because of over load.  Now I can (and do) search stores but when the change happens there will be just too much stuff for results when it's all lumped together.  Sorry sellers but if you aren't on my favorites list as of the change, I'll never find you anyway.

I'll start listing vintage beads as a one of, use my economy paypal account and pay a total of 25 cents in fees. All jewelry and silver smalls will go to Ruby Lane and modern jewelry to Bonanzle.  Time for the yearly change business directions.

Signed - small seller since 1998 with 100% feedback, great stars and really bad attitude tonight

by: Duncan Crawford

E-Bay's new pricing structure comes as no big surprise. Ever since they opted to prevent sellers from leaving negative feedback, their message has been very clear to sellers - grow up and act professionally. As a long time E-Bay seller, I could not agree more. E-Bay has been consistently making positive changes to improve the standards of their sellers. It is the only area that they can change. Buyers are buyers - period. Some good - some bad - but buyers nevertheless.
The successful sellers on E-Bay are not complaining and groaning about the supposed inequities imposed on them by the Evil Management. Instead, they adapt to the change and move forward to become many of the TRS and SS.
E-Bay's future business is going to look alot different than it does now, but the new changes tell volumes of the direction they are taking - Fixed Price only. Although auctions are fun and attract cusomers to my store, their time is over. I can exercise a great deal more control of my busiiness model through fixed price selling. Let's face it - that is the way retail works in the real world and and with online sales. Auctions are an unreliable way to sell a product day in and day out.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the small and inefficient medium size sellers are not going to ultimately be part of the greater equation. They are not cost effective and will be priced out of the market. How else will E-Bay compete with Amazon. Certainly not the way they started out.
Today was a big step forward for E-Bay and I am encouraged by these new changes.
Duncan Crawford

by: Craig Clark

I don't consider myself a large seller. I do about $5,000 per month is sales (vintage, antiques, collectibles etc.), with 50% coming from my store.

I created a spreadsheet that allows me to see what the fee change is really doing for me. Because it uses some average price data, it is not completely precise, but is probably about 95% there.

When I loaded my December 2009 sales activity into it, I was pleased to find out that my overall fees will go up only about $30 per month.

If (and the jury is still out on this), I see even a small increase in store (now fixed price) sales because of increased exposure, the changes will be a positive for me - and worth the $30.

I have spoken to other sellers in this same niche and when eBay did this in 2006 for several months, all of those that had stores saw a noticeable increase in store sales. When eBay tested increased exposure for stores  for several weeks last fall I to saw an increase.

I do understand that those that sell more consumer or commodity oriented items may loose exposure, especially if you use predominately fixed price. But, you need to do the math to determine what the impact will be. It seems that some are reacting to what seems like bad news, before they have done the work to see if it is really bad news for their business.

Would be happy to share the spreadsheet if anyone wants it.

by: Carol

It is unbelievable to me that anyone thinks they will be paying less with these new ''lower'' fees.  Get out your calculator.  Right now it costs $.03 to list an item in an eBay store for 30 days.  With the new fees it will cost $.20 to sell that same item at fixed price.  That is a nearly 7 times increase!!!

Lower final value fees???  An item that now costs $2.36 (a $30 item) will now cost $2.70.  I really don't think $2.70 is less than $2.36, do you?

eBay claims to be supportive of sellers........well, I just don't see it.  But, not to worry.....pretty soon they won't have any sellers to worry about at all.  Then they can cater to the buyers outright.......oh, buyers of what?????

by: Vitreous

I concur with some previous comments.  There are two motives to this fee restructure.  No. 1 - eliminate the small seller - they generate no huge profit for eBay and are a perceived annoyance.  No. 2 -  push sellers to open a Premium Store.  Why?  It's a bankable level of sustainable income for eBay.  Think about it, once you commit to a Premium Store eBay knows you will generage $599.40 in annual income.  If you are a casual,storeless seller, it's a crapshoot for eBay to predict future revenue from you.  Hence, the more Basic-to-Premium Store sellers they can move in that direction, the higher eBay's profit margin.

by: Again.............

Please see Ina's article (on the AB home page - url below) about what some Wall Street corp execs, like the following are saying:

Imran Khan of JPMorgan Chase & Co
"Price discrimination. We think the new fees improve eBay's ability to price-discriminate between casual sellers - who are unlikely to manage to a selling margin and thus less responsive to every penny of Final Value Fees - and professional sellers with a greater focus on margins and listings costs. We think the company also expects larger sellers to offer a more consistent buyer experience. We think the new structure could put some pressure on the middle of the curve: sellers who sell regularly but not in enough volume for the discounts to kick in."


Now....... Imran Khan didn't just come up with those remarks on his own......... no, that was over scotch and cigars with john boy............. there is no way a corp like JPMorgan Chase would merely "speculate" on just wtf ebay is doing.......... he was TOLD.

Why else would CHASE BANK, not associated with ebay, be even commenting on EBAY?

In other words, YES, ebay wants to ELIMINATE the small sellers from ebay.

Small sellers: fees affect you more, selling quantity quotas/requirements affect you more, TSR/DSRs affect you more and in that article of Ina's they're flat TELLING you that they want YOU GONE!

Please go back and read it again.
(then perhaps close your chase accts)

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y10/m01/i27/s02

by: G

So Duncan, how much does John Donahoe pay you to type such pitifully unbelievable nonsense?

You sound so brainwashed by the Ebay corporate apparatus, I can literally see the strings that are operating the movements of your mouth.

95% of current Ebay sellers would find your corporate-subservient nonsense to be completely void of credibility or facts whatsoever.

There is a company that has been making all the right moves, and that company is Amazon. Its stock has soared. Ebay stock with all the changes has remained flat at best, a tiny fraction of what it was in the glory years.

There will always be ignorant people who buy the garbage that John Donahoe is selling.  Thankfully, the Duncans of the world are growing increasingly scarce.

by: David

PULEEZE! Everyone - READ the notices completely!!!

I have read pages of your comments and with but a few exceptions, y'all got some explaining to do on how the heck you interpret the various chnages! Or r u just going by what somebodies brother's sister's cousin twice removed has said!

For example: So the SIF is being changed to Fixed price... it's at the same 3c price BUT >>>NOW<<< you get full exposure. And unless you want out, it's convert w/o any effort on your part.

....OR....

NO NO NO  - you don't need a premium store - unless you're selling more than 250 items which is the break even point for cost per cents over a basic store...

BUT....

ALL this boy n girls is explained quite well in the notices as well as in support news media such as AuctionBytes newsletters.

So... yeah, there's changes. I'll probably have a few cents increase in some areas but over all I'll be doing better this year than last. And my TRS 20% disc still stands to boot.

For some of you it's going to depend on the type of products you sell ie. electronics & media, but for those of us who deal in collectibles/antiques/OOP Books/etc. eBay's global market cannot be beat. Period. I keep checking other selling platforms like Ruby Lane & all the ''hot'' spots but when I check to see what the have comparable to my inventory I get next to nothing - nada, zip zilch. At best less than a dozen. Maaaaaaybe a bit more shows up once in awhile. But on eBay... it's 100's and 100's and 100's. Ok 1,000's! Honest.

I'm not a die hard eBayer either and no, I still don't trust them. But I can't argue the customer base they have provided or the products that I can buy - as well as sell!

Now if they can just get the PayPal down to 2-1/2% to match my Credit Card Merchant rate then we'll be just peachy.

So... go back and read the fine print. It's NOT the end of the world as so many of you have deemed it to be.

'''Nuff Said!''

PS: Thanks for reading my position.

by: ma

dont overlook the fine print for the FREE listings. I wont qualify and many of you wont either. and no way Im listing anything for 99c that is just not happening My time is worth more at walmart... I will drop Auctiva, and my store and invest the money in Bonanzle or keep it for myself. It is time for me to do some other things. even my auctions are in the toilet so making my store items have more visability wont change anything. Actually my store has been doing really well compared with most of 08 & 09... I used to list 300 in my store when things sold. I slowly cut back to 50-100... I have to learn some new skills with picture storing etc but I can do it. Im tired of being an ASS.

by: ma

Not sure where my post went but if it shows for those that dont know. ASS = Above Standard Seller as apposed to TRS Top Rated seller...