With Slowing Sales Growth, Should eBay Be Raising Fees?

by: Ebay Seller-Ebay Buyer

Raising Fees is what's caused the slowing growth.  John Donahue came on board and did major fee hikes on sellers 6 years ago and this led to sellers raising prices, which drove buyers away. Raising seller fees also put many sellers out of business and led many others to begin over grading some of their used items.

Instead of raising fees on struggling sellers; Donahue and Ebay's top people and board members should cut their undeserved salaries in half  

by: iheartjacksparrow

Ina asks, "Will people listing valuable items think twice before selling them on eBay...." I think sellers have been hesitant to list valuable items on eBay for a while due to all the scamming, "rentals," and SNAD claims.

Ina also states, "eBay has eliminated the three free relists..." Apparently this change was in effect prior to the announcement as a I remember a letter from a seller about this issue in the Letters section.

by: aim04744

Of course they are pushing people toward store subscriptions, and I am sure, the yearly subscription for store subscribers. Because that is the only source of actual income they get. Nothing is selling so they arent getting much in the way of FVF's.

To many sellers are done with Ebay. Sites like Tradesy, ShopHers and Thredflip are now getting a large portion of the pre-owned clothing market that used to dominate Ebay's listings. Amazon and others like eBid and Bonanza will get electronics and Etsy will get a large portion of what is left. I cant believe that the powers to be at Ebay REALLY believe they are invincible. To many other options in the internet world now, not at all like when Ebay first got rolling.  

by: Philip Cohen

Clearly, eBay is getting more and more desperate for revenue, and their reaction will simply drive more and more sellers away, or stop anyone that was thinking of trying to sell something from proceeding; surely, the implosion cannot be far away ...

The eBay executive suite—where the incompetent mingle with the disingenuous, the malevolent and the outright criminal, and the just plain stupid ... http://bit.ly/11F2eas

by: Map

Just like I already said....

They are going to sell ebay.

Sellers are going to be shaken down for every last dime they can bleed out of us.

This will probably be the biggest yank that Carl Ichann even achieved.

I say lets sink ebay and make it worthless for anyone to want to buy it.

Sellers we need to file a class action lawsuit asking for a Judge to bar any immediate & future sale of ebay because there is criminal activity by the CEO & company that need to come to light because a sale of the company will hide those crimes and hinder compensation that sellers are justly due to us.

Plus we can one up Carl Ichann's slobbering all over ebay by taking it.

He got paypal that's enough for him.

Let us take ebay we built the damned thing anyway.

by: P.Dorf

Greed, greed..nothing but corporate greed.

Do these clowns not learn from history.

I bet JD thought Lehman brothers were invincible.

AOL (with their clunky software - sound familiar?)
got greedy, and were losing 70,000-80,ooo customers
per month.

My ex-ISP was sold to SKY (another greedy corp whose
CEO should be in jail) - the account cancellations started
coming in at 500 per day.

Personally, I think NegMeg told JD he had 10 years to
''fill yer boots'', and EVERYTHING he has done, including
so-called glitches, is to manipulate stock price, turning
company profit into personal gain.


Receive gifted shares.
Pump & dump.
Depress stock price.
Stock buy-back.
Receive gifted shares.
Pump & dump.
Depress stock price.
Stock buy-back.
Repeat.

Like commentators say here, I cannot believe this goes
unnoticed by the regulators.

But there again, in the case of Enron........

by: windsorbear

... just more reasons to never list anything worth more than a couple of bucks there ever again.

by: Massachusets Howler

(Perhaps somebody can show us a silver lining to this)??
MH

by: Ebay's Slow Death

I got one of those Ebay phone calls today.

I can't figure out why they keep calling every few months, to tell me about all the great changes and how I had better get ready for all the Buyers they are sending my way for the holidays. What Buyers?

She asked if I had seen their new ad campaign? I said I had, but it only featured new items, and no antiques or collectibles like I sell.

She asked if I had looked at the list of Hot Selling Items. I happened to have earlier today. I asked her where I was suppose to be getting new Samsung TVs, and other new electronic items?  And said, I thought those brands didn't like Small Sellers like me selling them, because they liked to sell them themselves.

I told her my sales were dismal, and that I was transitioning to Etsy. I said I thought Ebay was hiding Small Seller's listings. I'd only sold two items in seven days on that account. Later that afternoon, I sold something. Coincidence?

I cancelled the store subscription on one of my three accounts today. Why pay even the minimum, when you aren't selling hardly anything?

I am so fed up with Ebay! Go ahead and raise your fees. I won't be around to pay them!  

by: eBankrupted

I believe that ebay should raise its fees as a total now that Paypal is separate.

Amazon's 'all in' fees are 9%, so ebay should be somewhere in the 12% range to keep us all fleeing in droves.

Love that river! Boycott ebay 11/18/14 = FREE AT LAST!

Only co-dependents will sell on ebay after 11/18/14! Just my opinion (and prediction). Ebay sellers will soon feel DOOMED! Bring on the DOOM!

by: maya

Like Billy Preston sang
"Nothin From Nothin Leaves Nothin"

Not an issue- There's no buyers it's a ghost town. I'm getting emails about live webinars for the Holiday season.

I have 2000 items and have 2-3 days a week that I get skunked nada zilch zippo sales.

Meanwhile on the River 200 items and am selling 10 items or more a day.

by: Rexford

Mass Howler says "(Perhaps somebody can show us a silver lining to this)??"

Don't worry Mass Howler, she will.

by: Rexford

You can count on the fact, that with the current CEO in place, any decision made is all about revenue generation for Wall Street.

What this so called leader has never grasped is, that if EVERY seller on eBay was successful, then eBay's bottom line would be successful.   And if every seller was successful, and shared in the wealth, then they would likely take some of that revenue and buy products on eBay.  And furthermore, it would generate a lot of much needed good publicity that eBay so desperately need.

But again, old Mr. Hardheaded knows a better way, always has, always will.  He thinks like a company destroyer, not a company builder.

by: LDS Brother

No sellers existing, or new should be EXTORTED of COMPELLED by Wenig or eBay into worthless stores !

Reason being, there is NO BUYERS !
eBay is dead, there is no traffic, no sales, this close to Christmas, and I sell very popular hot items, and NOTHING !!!!!

I am not even grossing $100 a week in almost November !

To H E L L with this site ! I say close it down, sell it off to be closed, don;t care Wenig !

Donahoe destroyed all of our lives, I really at this point don't even care, I am going to be applying for a real job soon.

No more stress, for $100 a week, no more knots in my stomach after a buyer gets my item 80% less than any brick and mortar store on earth, then can still hurt me with defects and ratings from PMS, bad hair day, bad mood, plain old meaness, etc.

It was a fun ride in the beginning, but Donahoe ruined EVERYONE'S dreams, but his own.

Wenig, your a fool for taking on this obsolete, dead company !

I mean seriously, raising fee's ?

eBay does not provide SHIT to us sellers, no traffic, no support, treats us like dirt even when we are screwed obviously unfairly, and they raise fee's ? LOL

At first when I heard Wenig was taking over, I thought give the guy a chance ? But then I camre to my senses, and realized eBay is dead, and sorry but no other sites work either, 4 sales a year at Etsy, 1 every 2 years at e Crater, ZERO at Bonanzle, 1 in 4 years at Ioffer, forget it they all don't sustain anything !

But seriously, eBay is becoming as dead for me personally as the other sites, which tells me there is NO TRAFFIC, the hack did not help, but it was GOOGLE that did eBay and my sales permanently in to a state of no recovery, yet Donahoe acted like eBay and sellers don't need google, one his FAMOUS researches I believe concluded GOOGLE really makes no difference

I hate the Buyers, they are PRICKS ! Most all of them treat me like dirt, because they know they can.

They act to me like they are doing me a favor, by winning my $100 item at their nearest brick and mortar store for $12 with FREE Expeditied Shipping, then they act like Hmmmm, I guess I could give you 5 stars ?? Maybe 4 though as it took 2 days to go 3,000 miles from when I paid

Each year I say my sales are so bad, it can't get any worse, yet it did, I had weeks where I made $30 gross net profit back in June and July

Bidding wars ? What the hell is that ?

I am seasoned, I sell hot items in demand, there is NO REASON when I am TRS I should be doing this horribly, other than eBay is ruined for good !!!

$35,000 to $40,000 I built myself up to, Donahoe took over, I did ALL as he and Norrington COMMANDED, I was suppose to do good !

I steadily went down hill each year, and at the end of John Donahoes reign of terror I do not even believe I am going to crack the $10,000 mark for the first time in my life

No more games or abuse for me, I am seeking to FREE myself from this abuse, and MASSIVE DEPRESSION and I suggest you all do also, Devin Wenig will not be eBay's savior ~ He is just gonna accelerate small sellers exterminations and ultimately the entire site sooner rather than later

BEST MATCH is Evil ! I got items that sold like mad, and now 1 year on Fixed Price, and not 1 sale with World Wide exposure
supposedly ??

And eBay wants to raise fee's ?

Like I said in my opinion they are steering the views to the sellers with the BIG Priced items, that way a big FVF to beat out all the small sellers with the bargain, and have less of a chance of a headache

Lowest Price on a hot item, does NOT entice buyers no more, as eBay hides the bargain, so they can get a bigger FVF

What an evil company !

by: maxmad

This peanut brain company doesn't have one bit of logical business sense..

Another short term gain, only to fall even harder

Oh well it really doesn't mater at this point, they are so finished, like burnt toast, once it's already burnt, another 5 minutes in the toaster won't make much difference.

Our website and other venues now outsell ebay by a huge margin,  , we scaled back on ebay listings and all unnecessary features a few months back, we could pull the plug completely anytime we want,

Ebay taught us a valuable lessen, that we are grateful for, and will never forget.....

We now control our business 100%, and we will NEVER put full control of our business in the hands of ANY venue ever again,  

by: maxmad

I agree, ebay manipulation of search is one of the top business killing items ,

Your shown the same items over and over, and over, this type of manipulation only works short term, ebay has no clue what the buyer already owns, and when  buyer's continually see the same items they don't need or want they eventually go away,

And when the sellers items don't Best Match the seller cannot profit, and the seller finally gives up, and goes away too.

And if your items do not get to the first few pages of a best match search, you WILL NOT SELL NOTHING PERIOD.

And that's the situation you have today, no buyers, sellers leaving, and no profit for ebay.

Unfortunately Best match is only one of many seriously flawed underhanded profit killing corrupt tactics,  

History has proven and shown us many times over, when you place the power in the hands of a sick individual with alternative motives, the final result will be grim.

by: ignatz

May I speak plainly?  This fee increase is another attempt to push sellers into ebay "stores".  Well, they can take their stores and shove them.  The upshot for the small seller is to turn OFF the "free" relist, since as Ina pointed out it's no longer "free."  There's never been a more deceptive retailer - oh, "venue", excuse me - than this miserable company.

by: LDS Brother

CONSIDER THIS DEVIN WENIG !

Donahoe says, research shows when a buyer leaves a NEUTRAL or 3 star rating they are less likely to ever comeback to eBay again

WELL ( PROOF ) Shows when eBay F*CK'S a small to medium seller over, they, their friends, their family ALL do not BUY on eBay either !

And from the lack of growth, this fact should be apparent Wenig !

So foolw Donahoe and keep screwing us small sellers, who were buyers also, who tell ALL friends, family, and wannabee sellers, and potential buyers to RUN !!!!

Hey it work's ! Word of mouth Built eBay, and not to much longer until it completely destroys eBay the MOST HATED Venue on earth !

by: maya

This whole thing is eerily scary. There's no traffic,no sales,no questions,no offers,no views

And last but not least NO customer service. I wait 40 minutes on hold for a minor issue only to get an overseas REP who repeats everything I say (yet has no clue) as to what I'm talking about.

5 years ago I had my own personal rep with a phone number to his desk.

That went away because I needed a "team" to work with me in case he was busy. Now it's 40 minutes on hold to reach the inept.

This is like the guy who puts in his notice and just milks it the last week on the job.  Ebay is just going through the motions until it's sold. Then what? The old "Be careful what you wish for",could it be any worse with a new owner?

by: tango

Love the comment by LDS Brother -  it is true.
 While I am a TSR - I actually had a CSR from Ebay say to me while trying to get a Case removed '' Why do you feel this is a negative''....lol... Case not as described, cause the guy didn't know how to install part, part was correct, guy happy after i talked to him, BUT I GOT A DEFECT from it.  and the CRS tried to tell me that it is not NEGATIVE, lol...what?  I wonder what he smoked.
Streamlining stuff is good, but Disallowing true and honest conversations between buyer/seller is BAD for EVERYONE and that indeed costs Ebay dearly...=hence, bad quarter and it was not the hack, it was indeed their messing with sellers and buyers alike because they actually think they are better at running your business then you are!  NOT!  Good luck with this quarter ebay,it ain't looking too hot :)