eBay Makes Big Changes in 2017 Fall Seller Release

by: eBay Shill Buster

Devin is extremely delusional and needs to be forcibly removed by the Board of Directors, eBay has no traffic or growth and he still thinks return policy is going to increase traffic on eBay.

I have never once considered in all my buying on eBay a return policy unless the item I purchase was completely misrepresented by the seller.

by: ySirTinLee

I don't understand those that sell on Ebay. Oh!  I get it, lots of traffic, but how many realize that sellers made Ebay popular?  So, why not make another site popular while you put up with Ebay's BS?  Please, check out "webstore.com".  It's not popular right now, but basically has an excellent selling format.  Take back control of your business with freedom to sell without fees!  By the way, I only have a small free store on the site and receive no benefit for promoting Webstore, but I no longer sell on Ebay.  It sucks.

by: eBay Shill Buster

LOL Marie, sellers with common sense do not fall for eBay's idiotic policies, selling with NO RETURNS is he only way to fly on eBay.

No way I play along with executives who are living in a fantasy world who think they are cult leaders and sit around trying to brainwash sellers into policies that are bankrupting sellers and in the end will bankrupt eBay, just a matter of time before the Board of Directors boots Devin out of the HQ building now, he is a monumental flop of the greatest magnitude.  

by: mamie14425

Well if eBay thinks we're going to remove our watermarks they have another thing coming.  We have 997 items in our store.....eBay listen loud and clear..we have been on your site 14 years and you are not the only game in town.....we can move most of our new items over to Amazon.....eBay is shooting themselves in the foot...and Wenig is holding the gun.....  

by: psykick

I no longer frequent Ebay as a buyer or particualarily as a seller for a number of years now...I just go straight to Amazon when I want somthing I need in most cases or just plain want.
I pay a minimal once per year for all my shipping under Prime. I get some free steaming of videos on prime as added value..maybe I might have to deal with a chinese seller once in a while I did not figure was who I was buying from..but I always get my item.I can pay to have it faster if I want.No problem..businesses don't stay alive if they dont make money and I am okay with that because as a average buyer I like an trust the venue implicitly as a customer.If theres an issue with quality or damage, pre opened when ordered new..I just print out a label and send it back. No questions asked.
Ebay... far,far to many costly glitches,search problems and on the far end of VERY expensive when you factor in all the charges from this way to that imposed on the venue..The seller has to recoup them somehow and I dont blame them.
Then you have the Disney Video tape for $2000 type hoping for a lottery win fall to make up for the money lost listing it over and over..To these things and many more I believe the answer from Ebay  recently to sellers was '' lower your prices''.
And This...I Never understood or will acept how Ebay can take a percentage of the shipping paid wholey by the seller...thats crooked and just plain morally wrong.I once had someone try to sell me a stolen item on the street '' he said $50 dollars and its your's and then once produced he sensed my curiosity..''Oh yah, I got to charge you the tax'' so its $70. Thats that street mentality I see so  very, very wrong here with that.
So now its trying to take your creation, your intelectual property by not allowing watermarks.
Again,completely, morally wrong no matter how you slice it.I cannot and will not buy or do business with a company so out of touch with with whats right and wrong. Its not safe to shop on Ebay and particularily unsafe for sellers especially dare to list  small valuable items or electronics.
Its amazing to me from a strictly pedestrian point of view, that alot of sellers post a great many problems with Ebay here and just go on and on expecting somthing to change.
Yes, you may have right to be unhappy and certainly complain..But ....If you really want something to change, Then do something different....
Ebay does this to you all the time through these changes to your detriment as a seller.
I left Ebay along time ago as a buyer and sellerafter watching my listings literally pile up like cord wood, rolling black outs, theft through the post and much more. I realised I was sitting on my hands. I stopped posting on the boards and I am a very happy to have gone over to the River as Ebay would have you say ...Lets just freely call it Amazon ..Its called free speech..again, immoral.

by: Whatever

Ebay's sandbox - I'd leave in a heartbeat if there was another viable place to sell. Where is it? My particular product is a closed category on Amazon so that's not an alternative for me.

by: Marie

@ebay shill buster
I'm not sure what you consider funny about what I had posted, but OK.  What I posted was accurate.  To say that sellers that do not have a No Return Policy lack "common sense" is ridiculous.  

You have the right to run your business in whatever way you see fit within the rules of whatever site or sites you are selling on.  All other sellers have that same right.  Because you prefer to have your return policy read one way and someone else has a different one does not make either one of you wrong.  It only means you do it differently.

This updated return policy is not that much different than the one that is in place right now.  Sellers have always had 3 days to respond to a Request for Return before a buyer had the option to escalate the Request to a Claim.  And many times when a buyer escalated to a Claim, they disregarding the sellers opinion of what is going on and auto refund and close the claim in the favor of the Buyer.  This isn't new!

by: eBay Shill Buster

Devin is a delusional lunatic Marie, if you want to participate in his lunacy that is your decision, NO RETURNS is a sellers way of telling Devin that we want nothing to do with his 'ever changing return policies'.

Sellers hate Devin's sellers hub that he is forcing sellers into, he is doing that for one reason, because that is the interface the moron wants to use to sell promoted listings to sellers with.

Devin is history at eBay, it is just a matter of time, Sellers hate the dude, go read the Sellers Hub forums, I'm sure the Brain Dead Board of Directors will at some point.

by: RKTOYS

"Sellers should only list on eBay with free listings and should always sell with NO RETURNS."
Agreed.  The only one I caved a little on was "free" shipping.  But I balance that out by only doing "free" shipping on duplicate listings.  More than likely, eBay's stupid algorithms show my cheaper calculated listings and smart customers buy those instead.  So really all it's doing is hijacking the "free" visibility.

Anyway...if I could just get a solid week off work, I'd be able to finish my site.  Another week and I might be able to offer a platform to others.  But let's be real here, I don't know how to market to save my life, so you'd be on your own and wouldn't get much out of it.  That's the _only_ value eBay has - its ability to market to buyers.

by: uppercutknives

Watermarks are no longer accepted. Guess I'll just have to start putting my fat face in the middle of every photo I take. I've had several sellers steal my photos and have had to go through the Vero process to have them removed from the offending sellers listings. I work hard to take good photos.

As for free returns that's bull. I have buyers remorse folks play games with me regularly. Its a generational thing... get something for nothing by "protesting".

I've been on ebay since 1997 and now its a JOKE. Barely worth my time for the grief and frustration I get from those wanting to scam, steal or fraud me.
Ebay used to be fun and profitable. Now its become neither. Penny's for one's efforts. Time will tell how long I have left as a small seller.

by: Vernfern

Remember what you were doing before eBay came along, you jumped aboard and started selling? Time to go back to whatever that was. There was life before eBay, and there is life after eBay... and let's just let eBay crumble while they pat themselves on the back for thinking they fooled investors once again.

I am a 20 year veteran (and veteran is the best term here) of eBay and when my store is due for renewal, I am not renewing. I already fell back from premium to standard store last time. Not worth the frustration to do anything beyond basic hobby selling to clear out the garage / attic / basement.

Thinking over the past 10 years in particular, a lot has been done by those who run eBay's sandbox to get rid of the problem players. The scammer sellers, the poor performing sellers, the ''I don't know what I am doing'' flippers - this thinning process was done via the DSR nightmare. Okay, us good sellers made it. Now we have the China sellers and the big box sellers kicking sand in our face and eBay protects them as they ruin the sandbox.

Now we have all that extra advertising for eBay... promoting the big time sellers and the China sellers. I still laugh over the promo email I received from eBay with the flaming hot deal on summer athletic shoes that were super cheap - then I looked at them closely. The brand name was ''abidas'', yes, with 3 stripes. A China clone lookalike rip-off and eBay was promoting it on a sales ad. OMG!

The time has come for a mass exit from us sellers. I have throttled WAY back on buying to flip. Selling what I can to liquidate. Brushing up my resume' and ready to leave. When enough of us are gone, it will be too late. The big box sellers will bail. The China sellers will be all that is left with their countless duplicate listings with subtle title changes and Wall Street will finally grasp the pure BS that has been coming from the Oval Office in San Jose.  

by: LasVagueness

So, if a seller sells a 2 ct diamond engagement ring and the buyer returns the setting (sans the stone) they get a 50% refund?  

by: psykick

@RKTOYS
''More than likely, eBay's stupid algorithms show my cheaper calculated listings and smart customers buy those instead''

Yes, As a smart customer I can say they are very poor stupid algorythms to boot..

Can't speak for everyone of course,But I use Google and then  research Ebay against other venues For Worst Case Senario for quality vs cost in what I really Need to buy. Somtimes when I dare follow through to Ebay to search out costs etc the cost can be completely different vs what I just came in from  OR it dumps me into a plethora of completely fustrating semi related things...one click and its all over.Typically for me a If I see a google hit on Ebay its because I had The EXACT Title found at the header of the listing...thats pretty limited.

'' So really all it's doing is hijacking the ''free'' visibility.''

Yup,and what little it very poorly plucks out... just look at Kijiji for something local and see the completely unreated listings from Ebay pop up in between the ads. G*d awful value for what people are paying.
As per the aformentioned, Google has had it in for them a long time as well so thats definately not helping anybody.

by: timeaftertime

@ Alex5512

Check out Ruby Lane  -  mannequins welcome ! and so are watermarks.  

Question - I'm not clear!  I know that inserting a ''watermark'' into a photo requires software but is that how eBay is going to find ''offending'' photos with watermarks? I tried watermarking and don't like it so I do not use it.

Instead, what I do:  If scanning, I write ''EBAY'' on a post it note, trim to size and stick on the document I am scanning.  If editing a photo/picture, I use ''ADD TEXT'' and add letting that says ''EBAY'' right into the picture.

I'm sure that eBay must be appropriating the pictures for their own use in catalogs or wherever they want to use them. So of course they don't want someone else's watermark in the pictures to spoil them!!  I agree 100% with other posters wanting to protect YOUR ownership of your pictures.    

by: timeaftertime

Lovely use of mannequins:  https://www.rubylane.com/ni/clothing?cat=Vintage%20Fashion%3aWed
ding&cipp=1&ipp=180  

by: timeaftertime

Oops, sorry for the typo above, I meant  ''If editing a photo/picture, I use ''ADD TEXT'' and add lettERing that says ''EBAY'' right into the picture.''  

I have been under the impression that either the final scan .JPG or the final photo with text added onto it .JPG is not the same as ''watermark'' technology, so hopefully will be skipped over by eBay's seek-and-destroy-watermarked-pictures machinery ?  Am I mistaken? Thanks.    

by: Chicago48

If Ebay wants free returns, here's a thought.  Open a warehouse, and the buyer can return it directly to EBAY bypassing the owner.  Store the return in the warehouse and resell it as an Ebay product.  This is similar to what Tradesy does and what AMZ does.  Otherwise, Ebay should do like Kohls is doing with AMZ and open a section for returns.  Ebay could partner with Sears and all Ebay returns could go their Ebay kiosk at Sears; or at JCpenny.

by: lamplady

I am so grateful I decided to give Ruby Lane a try several years ago when they became a vetted site. If you sell antiques and collectibles and know your stuff, give it a try. Flat monthly rate, small listing fee, no commissions and great customer service. Not as much traffic of course, but over the last several years their cost to sales graph shows I've saved a bunch over eBay commissions when I was a seller there for over eleven years.  

by: Mark4

Bonanza.com folks.  If you want your own website which is really the way to go Shopify.  Screw ebay, they are a sinking ship and a dead marketplace.  

by: pace306

Ins - I read the update - what's the news about refurbs??? As usual eBay was as clear as mud

Most of this update is unneeded and unnecessary.

It's just busy work for sellers but it accomplishes nothing.