OT: It will be interesting to see what eBay screws up this time...
coinpictures
Posts: 5,345 ✭✭✭
Major announcement/changes supposedly coming later today.
Selected bits from AuctionBytes:
Seller and PowerSeller Program eBay will introduce new PowerSeller requirements and will introduce a "Top-Rated Seller" designation for PowerSellers.
* eBay will raise the minimum DSR criteria for PowerSellers from 4.5 to 4.6 and introduce a new requirement based on the percentage of low DSR ratings.
* A new DSR rate calculation based on the percentage of low DSR ratings (1 and 2's) will classify sellers into Underperformer; Valued/Casual; PowerSeller; or Top Rated. Only DSRs from domestic buyers will factor in the Low Score calculation.
* High volume sellers will be evaluated on a 3-month period, all other sellers will be evaluated on a 12-month period, for DSR calculations - there will be no deduping.
* eBay will remove PowerSeller branding from buyer-facing pages. Only Top-Rated Sellers will have a badge appear in listings and public pages.
* Top-Rated Sellers will receive increased exposure in Best Match and receive 20% FVF and 20% Free Shipping discounts.
* PowerSellers will receive "neutral" exposure in Best Match and will receive 5% FVF and 10% Free Shipping discounts.
* Valued/Casual sellers will receive "neutral" exposure in Best Match and will receive no discounts. Under-performing sellers will be demoted in Best Match search and will receive no discounts.
...
* To ensure product availability, sellers may not list out-of-stock items or list an item they are selling outside of eBay.
* When offering free shipping, no other fees related to shipping, handling, insurance or packaging can be charged.
...
Sellers will not be allowed to charge a separate fee for insurance, although they still need to make sure their item arrives as described. Sellers may incorporate any insurance fees into an item's price or handling cost. (My comments: apparently sellers making insurance optional or an additional fee is a thing of the past.)
And:
The Wall Street Journal published an article speculating on Monday's announcement. The newspaper, citing sources familiar with eBay's plans, said the changes are "designed to help large vendors sell new goods in greater volumes" and eBay will:
* Limit communications between buyers and sellers. (My speculation: the ability to email a buyer or seller will be removed)
* Tweak its search algorithm to favor new products.
* Allow sellers to include more and bigger photos in their listings for free.
* Do away with features that sellers have used to dress up their listings. (Could be horrible if eBay cripples HTML, removes ability to link to external CSS, or forces sellers to use eBay's picture hosting rather than link to external images; given the mangling that eBay's compression and sizing do, this could be the death knell for coin sales... sheer speculation on my part)
* Introduce a series of categories to describe an item's condition.
end quote.
Apparently eBay really is courting the buy.coms of the world and the "We want to be another Amazon" approach. What happened to "embracing their roots" that was put forth a month or two ago?
And eBay's downward spiral continues. Donahoe is driving eBay into the ground, IMO. Probably not all that much that affects coins per se, but it would be nice to see something done about the proliferation of Chinese fakes flooding eBay. Not likely though.
Selected bits from AuctionBytes:
Seller and PowerSeller Program eBay will introduce new PowerSeller requirements and will introduce a "Top-Rated Seller" designation for PowerSellers.
* eBay will raise the minimum DSR criteria for PowerSellers from 4.5 to 4.6 and introduce a new requirement based on the percentage of low DSR ratings.
* A new DSR rate calculation based on the percentage of low DSR ratings (1 and 2's) will classify sellers into Underperformer; Valued/Casual; PowerSeller; or Top Rated. Only DSRs from domestic buyers will factor in the Low Score calculation.
* High volume sellers will be evaluated on a 3-month period, all other sellers will be evaluated on a 12-month period, for DSR calculations - there will be no deduping.
* eBay will remove PowerSeller branding from buyer-facing pages. Only Top-Rated Sellers will have a badge appear in listings and public pages.
* Top-Rated Sellers will receive increased exposure in Best Match and receive 20% FVF and 20% Free Shipping discounts.
* PowerSellers will receive "neutral" exposure in Best Match and will receive 5% FVF and 10% Free Shipping discounts.
* Valued/Casual sellers will receive "neutral" exposure in Best Match and will receive no discounts. Under-performing sellers will be demoted in Best Match search and will receive no discounts.
...
* To ensure product availability, sellers may not list out-of-stock items or list an item they are selling outside of eBay.
* When offering free shipping, no other fees related to shipping, handling, insurance or packaging can be charged.
...
Sellers will not be allowed to charge a separate fee for insurance, although they still need to make sure their item arrives as described. Sellers may incorporate any insurance fees into an item's price or handling cost. (My comments: apparently sellers making insurance optional or an additional fee is a thing of the past.)
And:
The Wall Street Journal published an article speculating on Monday's announcement. The newspaper, citing sources familiar with eBay's plans, said the changes are "designed to help large vendors sell new goods in greater volumes" and eBay will:
* Limit communications between buyers and sellers. (My speculation: the ability to email a buyer or seller will be removed)
* Tweak its search algorithm to favor new products.
* Allow sellers to include more and bigger photos in their listings for free.
* Do away with features that sellers have used to dress up their listings. (Could be horrible if eBay cripples HTML, removes ability to link to external CSS, or forces sellers to use eBay's picture hosting rather than link to external images; given the mangling that eBay's compression and sizing do, this could be the death knell for coin sales... sheer speculation on my part)
* Introduce a series of categories to describe an item's condition.
end quote.
Apparently eBay really is courting the buy.coms of the world and the "We want to be another Amazon" approach. What happened to "embracing their roots" that was put forth a month or two ago?
And eBay's downward spiral continues. Donahoe is driving eBay into the ground, IMO. Probably not all that much that affects coins per se, but it would be nice to see something done about the proliferation of Chinese fakes flooding eBay. Not likely though.
0
Comments
interesting CNBC announced eBay changes as way to make it easier for large sellers to sell more items.
I guess small sellers of beanie babies are screwed and not worth much to eBay.
<< <i>... Probably not all that much that affects coins per se, but it would be nice to see something done about the proliferation of Chinese fakes flooding eBay. Not likely though. >>
Just the opposite. Chinese fakes probably count as new products that are moved in high volume.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Their attempt to become another Amazon will fail.
This is what happens so many times when specialty companies go public. The management, in a fruitless attempt to drive growth, instead drives the company into the ground.
<< <i>It looks like eBay is throwing the door open for a competitor who wants to embrace the original, mom & pop auctions.
Their attempt to become another Amazon will fail.
This is what happens so many times when specialty companies go public. The management, in a fruitless attempt to drive growth, instead drives the company into the ground. >>
I don't see this affecting me in coin dealings as a buyer or seller much, although I do offer optional insurance, but that is really no big deal.
I highly doubt redoing the search to favor new items will just bring up Chinese counterfeits first, and even if it does, it is easy enough to eliminate those from your search request.
I guess when it is official we can see what will really shake out.
K S
They've moved the goalposts yet again. Now having high DSRs doesn't matter any more, it's the raw number of 1s and 2s within a 12-month period that now dictate whether you get the highest fee dicsounts and best search result placement, regardless of overall DSR average.
First it was "Get that feedback score up!" Then it was "Get those DSRs up!". Now DSR average means nothing.
Furthermore, eBay has arbitrarily decided to exclude international transactions rather than making it a seller option, which penalizes those of us who do a large proportion of international sales. Joy.
According to their tool, I am not eligible for Top Seller Status:
This apparently trumps my now meaningless 4.92 DSR average:
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Ebay has allowed publications like coin world, num news ect...to stick
around. a large % of coin collectors are over the age of 50, and set
in their ways. some have tried ebay and left, some never tried it.
KISS......keep it simple stupid is just not in their plans I guess.
I get more and more customers on ebay all the time e-mailing me
talking about how they can't keep up with all the changes ebay is
constantly making.
Back to my shipping room for me.
--Jerry
Edit: thinking about it, ebay just figured out too many sellers are getting the discount and they had to raise the bar to raise the bottom line. Making the criterion .5% means that you just have to be lucky each month not to hit the wrong buyers. You still need to work hard to provide customer service but that won't do it by itself any more. They're treating us a little like rats on a treadmill.
<< <i>Ebay has a button to click to see if your numbers will get you the "Top Rated Seller" discount. I just clicked it and I don't qualify. Seems that 1.62% of my buyers have rated me slow on shipping. I ship every day. I've had a couple of packages get misrouted lately--tracking shows they went from CA to the midwest and back to AZ or something similar. I guess the buyers thought that was my fault. One buyer accused me of shipping it from the midwest because that's what the local PO told him must have happened.
Back to my shipping room for me.
--Jerry
Edit: thinking about it, ebay just figured out too many sellers are getting the discount and they had to raise the bar to raise the bottom line. Making the criterion .5% means that you just have to be lucky each month not to hit the wrong buyers. You still need to work hard to provide customer service but that won't do it by itself any more. They're treating us a little like rats on a treadmill. >>
Your analysis about the why is spot on and, like you, I will not qualify as a top rated seller for the same reason even tho I ship within hours of payment 6 days a week.
It has become painfully obvious to me that Feepay has zero interest in retaining sellers of collectibles.
We really, really, really need a viable alternative as our square peg is not made for their round hole.
"Everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything." - George Malley, Phenomenon
http://www.americanlegacycoins.com
<< <i>... Probably not all that much that affects coins per se...
>>
Just the opposite. It especially effects coins (negatively) because it is designed for Chinese widgets with a 200% markup shipped from a sweathouse. --Jerry
<< <i>Speaking of changes, you might want to consider changing your web based business name to include the correct phraseology. The word numismatography would be more grammatically correct.
OT, but anyway:
Actually, my choice was deliberate. The existing term numismatography has a completely different meaning, specifically "A treatise on, or description of, coins and medals" which is not the meaning I wish to impart.
The word "numismotography" doesn't actually exist, therefore I've created it as a contraction of Numismatic Photography.
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