a somewhat concise explanation of why ....

... the most recent eB@y changes suck.

Yeah, I'm a boycotter. A forever boycotter. I have moved away from ever buying or selling at eB@y ever again.

Someone asked on a board I frequent for an explanation why people people are angry enough to boycott.

Of course I had to flap my trap!

[RANT]I think the crux of the matter even before the changes was that the prices we pay for listing fees on eB@y keep going up while the quality of customer service keeps going down.

Combine that with the fact that the changes they made this last time have nothing to do with improving the buying experience - that was a fine example of marketing jargon, ie: blowing sunshine up our ... skirts.

The changes have everything to do with driving away the small sellers; forced escrow, forced use of P@yPal for new sellers, imbalance in the feedback system, fee increase ...

Those things *might not* ever hurt the small sellers with high profit big ticket items because they *generally* have a dedicated set of customers.

It's also a matter of the 80/20 rule.
20% of eB@y's customers bring in 80% of eB@y's funding - that's the large Power Sellers
80% of eB@y's customers bring in 20% of eB@y's funding - that's you and me.

Large sellers are mainly automated, they don't need the hand-held service that a smaller seller may need.

For example; large sellers eat the loss in listing & final value fees when they get a deadbeat bidder.
This link is to a transcribed conference call between three large eB@y Power Se!!ers ... 39 pages if you want to read it - I did. Link here - it is a PDF file
Even they ain't happy. One of these large sellers estimates that his yearly fees will go up by $30,000. So he's going to have to lay off his most recent hire and push back expanding his business for a while.

Smaller sellers jump thru the hoops to get their money back after getting stung by a deadbeat buyer.

There's an estimated 6-10% of auctions/listings that end without payment ... figure that into the last fact ...

Now understand, that those 80% are those that give eBay the "flea market" look their new CEO finds so distasteful.

To add insult to injury, he also refers to the customers that protest any changes as "noise" - never mind that many of those protesting are living off of the small margin of profit they get on their eB@y sales.

Now with the new fee change those who have a higher sell-thru rate on their smaller ticket (under $50) items are going to see a substantial increase in fees.

I've yet to hear of someone who makes a living on eB@y who sells larger ticket items.
And those of us who sell the neat "It" items have a higher sell-thru rate.

Does this effect me as a seller? Not really, I can find other venues to sell and choose to do so.
I am upset for all the people that are living on the margin that use eB@y to keep afloat - these changes will hurt them most of all.

And for buying I also have a handy-dandy link index of sellers of all my favorite items (dolls and fabrics).
And today my darling hubby is working on making the sites on the doll index search-able too.

eB@y doesn't want me. And I don't need them.[/RANT]


Amazingly I didn't expound on why it stinks that sellers can no longer leave anything but posistive feedback for buyers ... it's kind of hard to get thru some people's heads that eB@y was started with auction house rules; if you don't pay for something you've bid on or generally act like a twit you get shut out from attending future auctions.

And then someone else asked a more specific question about feedback changes ... somehow my explanation there led into the issues about the forced escrow ...


Your total positive feedback stays - negative feedback for everyone disappears after a year.

But now the DSR/star ratings are coming more into play ...

Your star rating is good for 30 days.

Your star rating, Power Seller status (or lack thereof), and most importantly how much you've sold in the category you're listing in all figure into how far down in the results you are found when the new search engine "Best M@tch" kicks in.

The DSR rating also comes more into play in determining if the item you are selling is at risk for escrow - in fact it seems to be the deciding factor.

For instance you sell a repainted doll or high-end doll gown once or twice a month ... you haven't sold in over a month, or one of your few buyers in the last month has "dinged" your star rating (even out of ignorance or simple pure malice).
Your star rating is now either non-existent or low.
Meaning your high-ticket sale being paid for thru P@yPal is at risk of having the payment held for up to 21 days.

You still need to ship the item before receiving funds.

[RANT]What if you were depending on payment to afford shipping because of the item's bulk and/or value?

What if buyer decides to tell P@yPal that item was never rec'd?

I smell lawsuits in the making. [/RANT]


Of course Murphy's Law needs to rear it fugly head ... weeks ago I contacted a favorite eB@y fabric seller about some much coveted silk velvet she used to have. She said she'd let me know when more arrived.
More did.
Right in the middle of the boycott and she has no off-eB@y website that I know of.

Gah.

- - - - - - - - -

editing to add: HA!

I just found them online!!!

Happy fabric days for me!!! Whee-hee!!!

at time of last post I thought I had enough fabric ...

I was wrong.

I am a bad bad bad fabric whore.

And I still want more.

Vicious cycle this.

I'm keeping a short list now.
(And sticking to it!)

Not buying on evilB@yP@l anymore should help.
(The fact that I have an index site doesn't.)

Oh yeah, I think I'll finally start selling on Etsy.
(and opening a Google Checkout acct - fuck Eb@yP@l!)

And I need to e-mail my favorite sellers and see if they're bailing from eB@y too - enough is enough ya know? The lube tube ran out.

*sigh!* Change sucks, but is sometimes necessary.