eBay's Woes Won't End With Sellers' Boycott

DenverDave · February 24, 2008 11:40PM

Many feel the full effect of the policy change will not be played out till mid summer of 2008...

As of today, eBay's shares have slipped 33% from their 52-week high...

Talk about closing the gate after the cows got out...

What says you...?

FLBuffaloHunter · February 24, 2008 11:49PM

I say the boycott really showed eBay who the boss is: eBay!

options26 · February 25, 2008 12:19AM

<< I say the boycott really showed eBay who the boss is: eBay!

>>

I agree 100%, my normal searches actually produced a bigger number of available lots during the boycott. I don't think it bother them one bit. Not to mention the people that were boycotting will now be listing everything they didn't during that time. So ebay will be out zero anyway.

DenverDave · February 25, 2008 12:19AM

FL, I think your right but there was much more descend this time...

Wait till they side with Uncle Sam and start taxing the site...

So... You buying there stock...

MadMarty · February 25, 2008 12:22AM

The market as a whole is down in the past 6 months, not just E-bay. BTW, the boycot proved squat!

TwoSides2aCoin · February 25, 2008 12:22AM

What will I do without beanie babies ?

TwoSides2aCoin · February 25, 2008 12:24AM

291fifth · February 25, 2008 12:29AM

The boycott amounted to nothing. What you really saw was sellers deciding that it was not worthwhile to put low price items up for sale anymore. That may soon change since realizations seem to have risen as buyers are chasing fewer duplicated items.

eBay is now a mature stock. Their attempts to find another eBay, with the exception of PayPal, which was a perfect complement to eBay, have been unsuccessful. eBay should have stayed private. If it had done so, management would not have felt so pressured to try to achieve growth through acquisitions. Skype anyone?

ebaytrader · February 25, 2008 1:07AM

Wait till you see how they intend to increase revenue with the new feedback program.

Michigan · February 25, 2008 1:27AM

The boycott was little more than a temporary sideshow, I wouldn't read much into it either positive or negative, the real effect of
the policy changes will play out longer term with fewer lower priced items (a mistake on Ebay's part IMO if that is what they intended)
and the new feedback system.

pf70collector · February 25, 2008 1:32AM

They are catering to the powersellers now. Offering them discounts on listing fees now. Ebay could careless about the little guy and seems to be glad to get rid of them.

MadMarty · February 25, 2008 1:34AM

<< They are catering to the powersellers now. Offering them discounts on listing fees now. Ebay could careless about the little guy and seems to be glad to get rid of them. >>

It's like that with any large business! The biggest customers get the best deals!

ricko · February 25, 2008 2:23AM

As I have said before... a tempest in a teapot... Obviously, most small dealers have no concept of how to run a mega corporation, and how little effect minor ripples like this will have. Perhaps it makes a few individuals feel good just to say "I did it."... However, in the big picture, it is less than nothing to ebay. Cheers, RickO

Michigan · February 25, 2008 2:26AM

<< As I have said before... a tempest in a teapot... Obviously, most small dealers have no concept of how to run a mega corporation, and how little effect minor ripples like this will have. Perhaps it makes a few individuals feel good just to say "I did it."... However, in the big picture, it is less than nothing to ebay. Cheers, RickO >>

The US automakers used to have that "who cares" attitude toward customer complaints and look where it got them?

VicThrust · February 25, 2008 2:30AM

Just listed 5 07 Sac proof 69's on Ebay with BIN for 12.99 for quick sale. Listings fees and FVF with BIN will be $2.00 of sale. That 16.6% of the sale price never mind the Paypal fees - with Paypal it's 20%. At that rate Amazon.com looks pretty good at a flat rate of 15%. I am pulling the auctions and moving them over there - Ebay is not worth it on the small items anymore.

When people selling low price items realize this they will stop listing on Ebay.

Texast · February 25, 2008 8:10AM

I don't blame Ebay for the economy being in the crapper, that blame is for the Federal Reserve and the Mortgage Lenders among others. As far as the Coin Market I have to give a lot of the blame to the Mint for flooding the market with too many options.

As far as Ebay I'm done, I put all my stuff in my ebay store on sale and will close the store in two weeks, if I want to list something it might just be an occasional item.

BTW anyone want to buy a domain name? (PCGS-Store.com)

19Lyds · February 25, 2008 8:34AM

Personally, I think ebay has successfully shot itself in the foot that same way that AOL did so many years ago.

Their "customers" will slowly migrate to where the sellers end up as many, at least in the coin world, are actively seeking new venue's both due to the new pricing and the new feedback policies.

I can only take so much kissing & huggin while being lied to and I think many feel that way. No, it won't happen overnight but it will happen!

Dave99B · February 25, 2008 8:51AM

eBay just keeps rolling right along. Why? Because there are little to no options for serious sellers.

I mean, are you going to list coins on a 100% free site, but get 33% to 50% less for your goods, in order to 'save 8%' in eBay fees?

Of course not, and eBay knows this. It’s Economics 101, and it’s beautiful! eBay is selling eyeballs.

The stock price of many companies is suffering right now. It’s a bit of a reach to infer that eBay stock is down because of feedback and final valuation fee changes.

BTW, can someone explain why eBay’s revenue growth keeps climbing? Last quarter was over 2.1 BILLION. How can this be if everyone is bailing? I think we all know the answer. They’re not!

Dave

BECOKA · February 25, 2008 8:54AM

People will get used to the new structure and life will go on. People adapt, what did they do before e-bay?

WinPitcher · February 25, 2008 9:10AM

People adapt, what did they do before e-bay?

before Ebay they sold to a local B/M and got taken most of the times.

Steve

mach19 · February 25, 2008 9:17AM

How big of the market on The 'Bay is coin, bullion ect...

DenverDave · February 25, 2008 10:46AM

I agree the market in general is down, 2%, 3%, maybe 5% but 33%...?

Good news tho, there up .30c today..."-)

Dave99B · February 25, 2008 11:04AM

Dave - Boring GE is down 20%. GOOG down 30%. AAPL down 40%. Wake up and smell the Starbucks (down 60%) !

Dave

shark1970 · February 26, 2008 1:02AM

math on store items sold

$20 item........listing fee's, final fee's, paypal fee's comes to 16.2%

$10 item........listing fee's, final fee's, paypal fee's comes to 18.5%

a $5 item must be over 20% bottom line.

Michigan · February 26, 2008 1:11AM

<< Personally, I think ebay has successfully shot itself in the foot that same way that AOL did so many years ago.

Their "customers" will slowly migrate to where the sellers end up as many, at least in the coin world, are actively seeking new venue's both due to the new pricing and the new feedback policies.

I can only take so much kissing & huggin while being lied to and I think many feel that way. No, it won't happen overnight but it will happen! >>

AOL once had 25 million subscribers, now they are down to around 9 million and still falling. Time-Warner is concerned but don't know
exactly how to turn AOL around. AOL was slow in responding when other services with faster connections began taking a large
number of people away from them.

Michigan · February 26, 2008 1:16AM

I don't expect Ebay to go out of business but slower growth and lower profits in the years ahead would not be a big surprise.

Sometimes companies believe the hype about their own invincibility and get caught napping.

In the early 1970s it was announced at a General Motors board of directors meeting that Honda was entering the US car
market and the room erupted in laughter. GM thought that Honda autos were a joke and they would never be successful
in the US. Who is laughing now?

dac076 · February 26, 2008 1:53AM

AOL once had 25 million subscribers, now they are down to around 9 million and still falling. Time-Warner is concerned but don't know
exactly how to turn AOL around. AOL was slow in responding when other services with faster connections began taking a large
number of people away from them.

I was an earlier AOL adopter because at the time, that was the only easy way to get on the Web, read e-mail, etc. I left early when I realized that I could do all that without paying AOL $25/month. By that time, there was a ton of competition and AOL was selling a commodity at a premium price. Still, a lot of people stayed because AOL made it easy for the average user.

EBay makes the auction process very easy for the average user. So the only way competition will arise is if the same # of eyeballs can be had for lower commissions. That will take one of the big boys to be successful. I thought it would be Yahoo, but obviously not. Eventually though, if Ebay keeps raising fees, they'll kill the golden goose.

dorkkarl · February 26, 2008 1:56AM

<< I say the boycott really showed eBay who the boss is: eBay!

>>

could'nt of said it better

K S

wayneherndon · February 26, 2008 2:29AM

The changes at eBay over the past 6 months have soured me on that venue as a selling source. As a result, my listings (always a small part of my business) have been dramatically reduced. I suspect others share my feelings. I won't say I'll quit selling on eBay as I'll probably list some stuff off and on.

eBay still offers some value as a source of sales and advertising. With lower fees and less hassle, the value was greater. As the cost of doing business there rises, the amount of business I do will decrease to find a new cost/benefit equilibrium.

This has nothing to do with the economy and everything to do with eBay being essentially a monopoly. If a realtor wants to make more money next year, she doesn't try to raise her commission from 6% to 8%. Instead, she tries to expand her business and list/sell more homes. eBay too should focus on expanding the pie rather than getting a larger percent. If they build their model on regularly raising the commissions, they'll be stuck when the reach the point at which they can no longer increase the rate.

WH

wayneherndon · February 26, 2008 2:30AM

math on store items sold

$20 item........listing fee's, final fee's, paypal fee's comes to 16.2%

$10 item........listing fee's, final fee's, paypal fee's comes to 18.5%

a $5 item must be over 20% bottom line.

Don't forget your monthly store fee....

WH

shark1970 · February 26, 2008 3:12AM

yes forgot the store fee, even a couple hundred listings still

adds 10 cents per listing. makes a $10 item just under 20%

VicThrust · February 26, 2008 7:19AM

<< math on store items sold

$20 item........listing fee's, final fee's, paypal fee's comes to 16.2%

$10 item........listing fee's, final fee's, paypal fee's comes to 18.5%

a $5 item must be over 20% bottom line. >>

I just listed a few $12.99 bin items and the fees with Paypal are over 20% - Amazon.com's 15% is a bargain at that rate. I am pulling the items and cutting my losses and moving them over to Amazon.

Snowman24 · February 26, 2008 8:16AM

what was ebay's original final fee rate? was it 5.5% ?

and now its 8.75% up to 25 dollars & 3.5% over the $25

shark1970 · February 26, 2008 10:00AM

monthly store charge is $15, I guess they lowered it when I wasn't looking.

so if you have 150 items on all the time it costs you another dime per listing.

also, we have a merchant account with paypal due to high volume, so if you

do not have this the fee's are a tad higher.

shark1970 · February 26, 2008 10:34AM

silver is up almost a dollar today, WOW!

ChangeInHistory · February 26, 2008 11:30AM

<< 

<< As I have said before... a tempest in a teapot... Obviously, most small dealers have no concept of how to run a mega corporation, and how little effect minor ripples like this will have. Perhaps it makes a few individuals feel good just to say "I did it."... However, in the big picture, it is less than nothing to ebay. Cheers, RickO >>

The US automakers used to have that "who cares" attitude toward customer complaints and look where it got them? >>

Yes, but not until there was viable competition.

shark1970 · February 26, 2008 11:47AM

I guess we will have to focus on higher profit items,

as most sellers will start doing, or just raise prices

on things, which is not good if your market has a

lot of competition.

shark1970 · February 26, 2008 12:25PM

wow, I see silver is over $19 an ounce overseas right now.

still way behind $900+ gold. it would be nothing to see $25 silver.

wish we did more in bullion, missing out, just paying higher EBAY FEE'S LOL

DenverDave · March 2, 2008 12:45AM

Ebay Stock near the 52 week low and falling...

Ebay listings down 13% during strike...

Talk of extending the Boycott by sellers fired up by media attention...

Ebay pads listing numbers with a .20c listing day just before the Boycott...

Breaking News...

Ebay charged with listing 100's of Thousands of "fake" auctions during strike...

I'll say it again... Ebays Woes are far from over...

PS... Dave, $5 coffee is just wrong..."-)

eBay's Woes Won't End With Sellers' Boycott

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