Increase In eBay Fee Structure

Hello Friends,

Well, our buddy eBay has done it again.  They have raised the fees for certain auction enhancements and for certain categories.  And I just have to wonder what the motivation really is here.  Now don't get me wrong - I don't begrudge anyone a profit.  That's why we are all in business.  But sometimes, to me anyway, it seems that eBay just doesn't get it.

The reason I'm not happy is that they have selectively chosen particular areas to target for higher fees.  Areas that are, in my mind, the most popular eBay features for sellers.  For example, to place a gallery item was $.25 and now is $.35.  To use the "Buy It Now" feature was once a nickel and now the pricing is a sliding scale according to the price point of the "Buy It Now" item.  To use this feature on an item over $50 now costs $.25 to the seller.

And there are other changes that have been made in areas such as eBay Stores and eBay motors.  What really bothers me is that they are sticking it to the people who have made them successful.  If you are going to have a change in the fee structure then overhaul the whole system.  Don't just target certain areas because you know they are the most popular.  Some days I wonder if eBay gets this concept at all.

I have another article that I'm going to write about PayPal a little later that basically expounds on the same subject:  Why do they bite the hand that feeds them?  I don't know.  Maybe some one can explain this to me.

I would hope that a correct thinking billion dollar company would be finding ways to reward it's sellers instead of finding a way to penalize them.  The sellers are what make eBay work.  Don't ever let anyone tell you different.  The sellers are the ones paying all of the fees, not the buyers.  The buyers have it easy in this un-equitable system.  And eBay should recognize this because it won't be long when they aren't the only game in town.  Companies such as Overstock.com are getting into the auction game and are having some great success.  And eBay continues to alienate the people who pay their bills. . . .

Well, thanks for letting me vent . . .

Tiger Todd

The Dawn of a New Era.  Overstock.com Auctions!

Comments

[Sydney Johnston]

Todd, you are right that eBay is truly amazing. Every quarter they report astronomical profits, yet they are raising prices - again. Their defense is that it's "only" a nickel or a dime, but anyone doing volume business on eBay knows how quickly it can add up. At this time in history, eBay seems invincible, but management needs to remember all the unassailable top dog companies who have gone the way of the dodo bird. I have often wondered if eBay's very success might not doom them one of these days ... there are so many products for sale on eBay that it's sometimes hard to sell just because of the sheer volume. Add increased sales cost to that and eBay just might find itself in trouble one of these days. This venue definitely needs some real competition. It would be nice if Yahoo or Amazon, for instance, really started pouring money into making auctions worthwhile on their sites. Competition is almost always best for the consumer, or in this case, the eBay sellers.

[ebay_is_a_ripoff]

I hate ebay, they've become extremely arrogant and ass-nine.