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Posted by gojody on 03/23/07 19:36
At one time I had months where I
paid over $1000 in seller fees. And an average month was
$700+ in fees. The last few months, I've had this down to
about $60 a month -- and next month, it'll be $0. Each time
Ebay did something to try to steal more from me, I adjusted the
amount that I was willing to pay out to them in fees.
If you do a completed search on my ID, you'll see I had about 300
items listed in the last month, and you can also see from my ID
history, that I've been around for quite awhile (since
1998). In addition to the few thousand feedbacks I have on
this ID, I also have several other IDs with additional
buying/selling feedback. So I really do speak from some
experience.
What I've found is that almost every single Ebay change over the
last few years, has been specifically targeted to gouge sellers,
increase fraud, and to reduce customer service.
The fees have spiraled out of control, not just with listing and
store increases, but with the "silent" increases like
making changes to increase fraud so there were more failed sales,
adding more "features" which were necessary to use in
order to be competitive, or making it difficult/impossible to get
credits, etc.
Fraud is apparently Ebay's friend, as it allows them to charge
sellers many times to "sell" the same item. So
Ebay has done everything possible to encourage deadbeat bidders
with multiple IDs. There is no verification, the blocked
bidder list is useless (deadbeats can sign up for more IDs and
bid again -- even use an alternate ID registered to the same
name/address -- to get around the blocked bidders list).
And even if you report someone as a deadbeat, and provide proof,
Ebay will often remove the strike if they ask.
Any communication to customer service is either completely
ignored, or responded to with a form letter that has nothing to
do with the problem. "Store Support" is allowed
to scream at you on the phone and hang up. Emails to any of
the "Bill Cobb" addresses aren't even answered with a
non-responsive form letter anymore, they're just ignored.
And as a "buyer" I've found that the prices aren't
competitive with other websites anymore, and many times the
seller is trying to scam, and just sends garbage (if anything at
all) instead of the advertised item(s).
Congratulations Meg Whitman, you destroyed what was once a
fantastic site, and one that had held out promise of helping a
lot of people fulfill their dreams!
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I have done the same thing! One month my fees were $2,400 and
when the fees kept going up I would list less and less and with
no bidders I closed my store because they were not showing in
the searches.
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Ebay has never taken a win/win approach with their sellers.
Sellers who provide all the items and 99% of the work that make
eBay what it is.
Most of my family and friends are former eBay fans. Now, most of
them will have nothing to do with eBay.
You can only act like tyrants for so long before people will turn
their
backs on you and leave.
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Most of my sales come from Yahoo Groups and craigslist.
EBay has become a farce. EBay stores being the biggest farce.
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Great post.
PMD
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Yes, a rarity in these parts.
Mac
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you have to keep raising the price of products just to cover what
you're paying ebay to list!
for instance, i listed a mere 6 items the other day (not thru a
store),
at a cost to me of $2.40. these were items listed at $9.99 or less.
i've sold ONE item for $9.99, so i have to deduct what I paid in
insertion fees for all of them, plus the final value fee of the ONE
sale..
only to find out how much it sucks!
sales are not as good anymore, & whoever said listing a 7-day sale on
saturday is nuts.
it's wayyyyy too expensive to list many items these days!
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Ebay has really become a place where the only one that makes money is
EBAY.
They and their sister hit you for most if not all of the profits. Im
done
after this month. My store actually will close the 14th. I wouldnt
care if
the place went away after the way the treat the good sellers.
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Ebay USED TO BE A FUN hobby for me. Now it's become
too expensive to list inexpensive items that may or may not sell.
It was finding good homes for those small, day-to-day items
that made me enjoy the hobby.
I don't list much on ebay anymore. There's too much competition
elsewhere that costs little or nothing to list on.
Yeah, I still run a few ebay auctions, but not many.
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Logan1, I'll be joining you shortly in the next few weeks, working
on lot listings for a big sale. Having to go back to college to
get another degree, the time vs the hassle is not going to be
worth it. Getting a part time job seems more logical to help pay
for school expenses.
I also do not see eBay getting better. Once a downward spiral
starts to happen it is very hard to stop that momentum. eBay will
never be what it started as and I really do not see how they can
pull themselves back up working in the best interest of the buyers
as well as sellers. They have gone too far down.
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I hope no one will take this personally.....but eBay sellers (as a
group)
have never given eBay any reason to "give a crap about sellers".
For the last 9 or 10 years, eBay sellers have proven that eBay can
disregard their sellers and do whatever they want.
Most eBay sellers will stick with eBay regardless of how much
eBay tightens the screws.
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heh...I quit selling on here a couple years ago as well.
It wasn't as much the fees as it was other idiot sellers
who were new and didn't understand the fee structure.
You know and I know how much that auction they ran costs.
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It's like the sellers listing their DVDs which consitently sell for $6
including S&H
40 cents listing fee
30 cents FVF fee
48 cents PayPal fee
$1.50 postage
25 cents Bubble Mailer
$6.00 minus -$2.92 = $3.08
And the same sellers are buying DVDs in lots for $3.00 to $3.50 each.
No matter how you spin/crunch the numbers for them, they still
believe they are making a profit. And more sellers join the bandwagon
every week.
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I didn't include trips to the post office (gas) or paying to relist
unsold
items (sellthru rate 15% to 40%). Defective DVDs that you end up
eating.
They still insist they are making a profit.
I would estimate 80% to 90% of sellers listing DVDs, CDs, Books, etc
individually, could cut their hours in half and make just as much
money
selling the same items in lots of 10 to 20.
1 DVD - Postage $1.50 x 20 = $30.00 media mail
20 DVDs - Postage $4.50 media mail
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I just wanted to add that after 5 years on EBAY I am in the process
of
closing down as well. There are three different events changing EBAY
from an auction site to a low price garage sale. 1) Far two many
sellers
listing items dirt cheap not realizing they will probably lose money
on
the transaction. 2) Fees have continually gone up, slowly eating away
at
any small profit that sellers were making. 3)All of EBAY emphasis is
on
sellers either offering Discount Pricing, Free Shipping, or some
other
cost savings for the buyer. Hell, as far as they are concerned they
couldn't care less about the sellers making a profit. They get their
fees regardless.
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add me to the list, i'm done too. i have just a few more items to
list.
i have been a power seller for the last 8 years or so on my real id.
i have weathered all i am going to weather. fees have gone thru the
roof.
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And, I absolutely don't need you to coach me on running a business.
My business is doing just fine WITHOUT Ebay, and your 9 MONTHS of
selling
on Ebay doesn't qualify you to lecture me on the 9 YEARS that I sold
on Ebay.
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You can list your items for free and pay absolutely no fees.
Depending on what you sale, the price range, sellthru rate, etc.
you may be better off paying fees and sticking with eBay.
It's not always an either/or decision.
I wouldn't list anything on eBay that doesn't consistently sell for
$15.00 and up (with a starting bid of $9.99).
I keep 500+ DVDs CDs Videos listed for free, and let the buyers
choose the titles they want.
It would cost me $200 to list the same titles on eBay for 3 to 7 days.
I wouldn't consider listing them on eBay.
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Good for you, Logan. These fly-by-nights patronizing a seasoned
seller....
they are the problem for eBay's deterioration, in big part anyway.
Wise guys knowing it all, so they claim.
If it wasn't for the high numbers of these gullable ignorants, eBay
could
not (would not) be getting away with their garbage.
But, hey, these "surplus dude" types.... no problem, shooting off
their
big mouth, while no substannce is behind it... travesty!
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OK, I've been in this as long as you. And despite the inevitable
responses we will get from the half dozen regulars who seem to live to
respond with such incites as "dont let the door hit ya in the ass" and
such, I find your experiences identical to mine.
Ebays changes are very similar to the demise to the "flea market" in
the 80'sand 90's. Back then I sold there and did pretty good. I used
to sweep thru a few markets during my first ebay years and did well
with that also. I'd go home with a truckload of stuff to auction off
and a Sunday morning usually netted me a few hundred bucks easy.
Look at the scene now: Most of the so-called sellers are dollar store
owners, over-ripe produce sellers, junk jewelry sellers etc. It's not
a flea market anymore. Its a bizzar or a carny sideshow. Last time I
was at a big one there were two forture tellers! Many semitrailers
parked in the back rows. these are not guys cleaning out their attics.
The place is sold out before sunrise. The few real sellers are swamped
by the bulk dealers with their tube socks and brand new dollar store
junk that nobody wants.
this same mentality has taken over lots of catagories in ebay. You
cant fight it. These people will sell hundreds of lots and if they
make a starvation wage doing it they will hang in there. If they dont
make enough bucks, they can always just keep the money and forget
about shipping the product.
Meanwhile ebay makes it all the more difficult for us. 10 years ago
listing was a breeze. Forget "Mr. Lister" or "Turbo lister" or
whatever. The regular "List my Item" was ONE SINGLE PAGE! You could
bang off listings in a minute. You could even modify the page yourself
and make it even faster. There was no NEXT......NEXT.....NEXT
nonsense, no Javascript.
And just about everything sold! With multiple bids! You had bids days
before the auction ended, not minutes or seconds. I'd gladly pay the
listing fees if this was the situation today. But if you sell only
half your stuff, you are paying double listing fees. Sell the average
of 30 % and you are paying triple. And thats if you shun PayPal that
syphons off another 5 to 10 percent. Way more if you have a sale of a
cheap and heavy item.
I'll never give up altogether. There are always a few items that make
sense to auction off. But the glory days are over for sellers of
collectibles, personal stuff, household odds-n-ends. Ebay belongs to
the pros who work on very narrow profit margins.
It was a sweet ride, but now its over.
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