Fee, Feedback Changes at eBay Still Vex Users

I do very limited eBay traffic anymore, but have something over 100 feedback (for whatever it's worth). I know another user who had just started putting a bunch of stuff (some custom-milled metal items, and some degrees of junk) out there right when the new fees hit, and he's been right annoyed. To him, eBay just went from one of the Internet's "honest brokers" to another corporate money vacuum that is more interested in showing its shareholders that it can hold its gains than continuing to provide its users with the service and the prices that they expect.

Mostly selling these days, not real happy about either the fees or the feedback changes, but eBay is still the place with the most eyeballs. I feel another site with better policies still may not get you the sale prices that eBay would (and that's probably what they're counting on).

I was a powerseller with perfect feedback, but I will not continue to sell on eBay as long a the situation with the feedback is not appropriately resolved nor the 21 day hold by Paypal on payments disallowed.

One leaves the sellers open to extortion by the buyers, the other to extortion by eBay.

The problems eBay has with fraud has to do more with poor eBay management and little policing of categtories. Many of us have reported bad sellers to eBay many times over and eBay does nothing.

And of course, the fact that the Chinese have overrun eBay with fake antiques is completely ignored.

I have been selling on eBay since March of 1999. The biggest problem I have with the eBay changes is their lack of thought. I must now become a LIAR in order to get the most exposure time on my items in "Best Match" and to remain a Power Seller. I must say that I give "Free Shipping" (no such thing as free shipping or the Easter Bunny) or I must take some of my shipping cost off and shift it to my item price (dishonest). LAST I must LIE and give all buyers positive feedback in order to avoid them giving me a negative such as "Seller does not leave feedback".

Family, friends and myself are not happy with Ebay's new changes. Whether a buyer or seller-Ebay has lost that feel of friendliness-knowing that you can no longer count on the feedbacks(since Feb 20th) to guide or judge whether to buy or sell from or to.
Since sellers can no longer leave "the truth" as feedback-it makes it impossible to judge if the previous buyers who left negative feedbacks (especially since Feb 20th) are just disguntled people -and the seller is a good seller, or Is the seller "trading favors etc" with buyers to leave positve feedback.
The majority of sellers on Ebay work to establish and build a friendly atmosphere so people will come back and buy. But with the new system of Sellers not being able to leave truthful feedback.. it's impossible to sort out whether "to buy" or "not to buy" from a seller- small or big. Ebay should look back (2003-2004) at their highest point and see what they did then and do business they way they did at that point. They should stick with what worked.
Thanks

I've sold on Ebay for 8 years. I used to be fun and a great way to get some extra cash. Also it was a nice way for people to get stuff they needed for their hobbies, that would have otherwise been impossible to find.
What a shame that Ebay is taking that away from the buyers and sellers. It is basically selfish on their part. Money got the best of them and now they don't care about the people.
The changes they have started is not going to show big effects for a while, but will bring them down. It does not concider the human factors. If they do know, then something more "inside" is going on. Many can see that.
There's a bunch of financial people saying to get out. The other auction sites are gaining people, so as the cool things are gone from Ebay so will the buyers. It's just a shift, those things happen.
They are basically now going into the scam business. Advertising for more sellers to join, that have no idea that their efforts and money will be eaten up by fees, like so many other "make money" scams out there.

Just wanted to let all know - that there is still an
ACTIVE EBAY BOYCOTT going on...
it has not ended. No buying, no selling, no activity on Ebay

I'm a buyer of antiques and the unusual. Normal monthly spending in the range of 1200-2000. Rely heavily on being able to see my sellers feedback. With the new change to feedback it will be a scramble to see if that negative or neutral received by the seller was justified. Without being able to see both sides of the story, who's to know what the facts are? This will definetely limit my spending on ebay.

I have sold on eBay for nine years, have over 10,000 total transactions and a perfect selling record. The issues affecting most sellers are NOT related to the ridiculous fee increases. It is about sellers having no feedback rights WHILE eBay uses the buyer's opinions to restrict our visibility in searches while we pay for full listing rights and hold our money in Paypal for 21 days.

It is about their telling the buyers that a four star rating on a scale of 1-5 stars equals satisfaction while placing a RED warning and a list of alternate sellers for the buyer to consider on a seller's page when that seller has a 4.1 average star rating. The buyer thinks that they are giving their sellers a stellar rating while eBay is penalizing any seller who does not remain above 4.6 or 4.8 on star ratings.

The detailed star ratings are intentionally misleading the buyers, which in turn, causes a loss of reputation for the seller that the buyer would not have expected. This, in turn gives eBay carte blanche to keep our funds tied up in paypal.

There are many bad buyers, it is not only sellers who can be problematic. We sellers pay for ALL the services, including for the buyer to have the convenience of using paypal and we have absolutely no protection or rights.

Finally, the fees.....eBay decreased most listing fees by a NICKEL and then raised their final take off the selling price from 10% to 12% for store listings and from 8.25% to 10% for core listings, for some, a 66% increase in fees.

eBay has totally ignored fraud and scams for years even though buyers and sellers begged them to take actions.

That neglect has now come home to roost but eBay refuses to acknowledge that people leaving is by and large their fault and not because a person got a random negative feedback.

Many of eBays policies encourage fraud and the new policies only add to that.

Been a member for almost 10 years now as a seller and a buyer. There is no being "vexed" by the changes at all.

They are horrible, untenable, hostile and punitive changes. And the beta tests being conducted now and split screen format presented to shareholders are unannounced changes coming up, we just don't know when.

All this and a fee increase too. There is no business I know that can treat their customers so poorly and with such total disregard and survive and increase it's presence and business volume.

Word of mouth is free, cannot be purchased, doesn't come in a glossy mailing or a 30 second tv ad and is invaluable to the long term health of any business.

And that will be the demise of ebay. They think advertising will overcome rank disatisfaction and that sellers leaving can easily be replaced. I believe they have way underestimated the damage they have done.

Even if they did an about face right now, the trust is gone.

Ebay is the biggest bunch of hyprocrites in the entire world.

They tell sellers its all about the DSRs. They even give classes on how to get higher DSR scores. The two biggest areas they are pushing is Free Shipping and International shipping. Taking that into mind go to the Ebay store (Yes Ebay has a store where you can purchase their items to advertise for them). Guess what? They do not offer free shipping they even have the nerve to charge you a shipping and handling fee. In addition, they do not ship there own items internationally. Why is that? Why would EBAY give sellers pointers on being better business people when they do not even follow their own advise.

I buy and sell on ebay weekly. For every dollar I make I spend 2.

This is a very unique new system they have come up with. It's all circular and it all ends up with forced paypal and holds on funds. Bad buyers could have been handled very easily by vetting them. Bad sellers could have been removed as well. The DSR's and feedback are the keys here. A 4 is good, no a 4 is bad, no a 4 is good. Look at the entire package as we know it. If theres a penny to be squeezed it's been accounted for in this plan. Add to that shoddy security, absolutely no customer service.

I dont need ebay, it was fun. I wont be buying a GM car there, you wont see my FB from Sears.

Too much, too fast and way off in the wrong direction IMHO.

I have closed my store and removed my listings, can't seem to close my account, sorta like the Hotel California, you can check out but you can never leave, have to wait 180 days.
Ebay does not value their sellers anymore, they have a crazy star system in place, telling the buyers that three's and fours are satisfactory to leave, but when they do leave the lower numbers our seller ratings go down,a double standard ebay is spitting out.
Raised the fees, and taken away the only defense the seller had against dead beat bidders and scammers, no negative feedback can be left. It's a JOKE!
I have packed up and moved to eCrater, a 100% free selling place. I hope ebay drowns in it's own greed.

I have recently read where a spokesman at eBay had stated that in the ''REAL WORLD you would not get away with that behaviour'' Meaning --->( SELLER LEAVING BAD FEEDBACK FOR A CUSTOMER ) Well that is totally true, I agree, HOWEVER though, it is a fact that in the REAL WORLD I the CUSTOMER cannot go downtown, walk in a store or shop, feel the clerk was not as nice as I would like him/her to be and, then be unhappy that the product did not meet my expectaions, (even though it was described accurate) and then go out to his/her BUSINESS FRONT where customers see before coming in to shop, 3 Days after sale and Paint on his Door ''ROTTEN ATTITUDE, OVERPRICED JUNK ! DO NOT BUY HERE ! AVOID !'' Then go my Merry Way !

So if we want to talk about the REAL WORLD eBay spokesman, then it is my opinion that feedback should not be allowed by either side on eBay if only 1 can have it, cause in the REAL WORLD I cannot do what I just mentioned for an example to a business store, and I am sick and saddened to think in May someone can do that to my business on eBay ! Please eBay think of a better way !

This is totally not fair to us sellers, as no seller in the REAL world gets remarks damaging to them Posted on the Front of their Business ! And their are torturous, extorting buyers, they DO exist. This is way to much power for the buyers, who could care less that a sellers Rep means everything, that he like me has a family to take care of, bills to pay, food for their children.

I know from 9 years of sellng, this will be abused by nasty buyers, who steal the stuff off of us sellers for way less than any brick and mortar store could ever match. Then will enjoy killing our reputations cuase they decide 9 days later they don't like it, or they break it !

eBay I beg you to not implement this policy, on behalf of all the GOOD SELLERS, find a better way to get rid of the bad sellers.

I have sold on eBay for over 8 years, 7500+ feedback - 100% positve. The fee increases do not bother me-part of the cost of doing business. The new, unbalanced feedback system does bother me a little. I will leave honest feedback-only the colored symbol in front of my comments will not change (right now, positive feedback gets a green symbol - neutral gets gray and negative gets red - after May, a buyers feedback will ONLY be green/positive). I try to keep in mind that eBay's only concern is to show financial growth and appease stockholders - which I believe management will do AT ANY COST. I believe that they will spin their statistics to achieve any result that is asked of them. Their lack of customer service, their arrogant response to technical glitches (the problems not on our end-it must be your computer, your IP, the way the wind is blowing) is also part of their problem. The biggest change that will affect any seller is their new Search Function or BEST MATCH which intuitively is supposed to show results based on what the search engines "think" you want. Put Levi Jeans in the search box and you may come up with a cast-iron pan in your results (well... that's a little farfetched even for Ebay standards). Everyone pays the same amount for listing an item (except for the Chinese-they get to list and sell as much as they want for free-and they get to list it on the US site), we should expect our items to appear in a uniform order, EVERYTIME OUR TITLE MATCHES THE SEARCH WORDS-not because Ebay's search engine knows the searcher really doesn't want all the matching results. I will continue to be an active seller on eBay but I am also branching out. I have had some limited success on other sites and only have Ebay to thank for pushing me out of the nest. My goal is to be completely off Ebay in a year or sooner (or the first time Paypal holds ANY of my money for 21 days and gets to deposit it in an interest bearing account-where they get the proceeds of course).

We've successfully sold on eBay going on 6 years and we are PowerSellers.

While the increase in Final Value Fees (FVF) is unpleasant, the change to feedback scheduled for May 2008 is what really upsets us.

eBay has decided to heavily weigh sellers' feedback in determining how much of a FVF sellers will pay, whether we are protected by PayPal's confirmed address shipping policy, and whether or not to place hods on PayPal funds while simultaneously making it more difficult than ever to protect our feedback reputations from thieving or disgruntled buyers.

In other words, eBay will make stellar feedback crucial as it makes earning and maintaining good feedback far less likely.

What a great way to treat loyal sellers who pay CEOs' salaries.

eBay is opening sellers to scammers and thieves and leaving us no way to give warnings to other sellers via buyers' feedback pages.

This is appalling in an online environment in which feedback is all we can use to judge our trading partners.

eBay has been worried about how its feedback system impacts buyers' perceptions of the site for some time. That is understandable. What is not understandable is opting to leave its sellers voiceless.

For the first time ever we're moving off of eBay.

We've been listing (and selling) on other sites. I do not wish eBay doomsday, but I would love to see other sites equal or match its presence in the online marketplace.

SCORE: 10,001 corporate giant, 9 little guys

If you folks aren't going to sell on eBay, where will you sell? Tell those of us who buy things where to look instead.

Ebay's new policy has just opened the door for all the theives , cheats and con artists to come out...
I can hardly wait until the changes in May that Paypal has instore for the sellers..
i've closed my paypal... and am done with EBAY... there's too many other auction sites coming up in the ranks .. to be bothered with Ebay..
So long... good riddens EBAY !

Ebay needs to get someone in the CEO position that understands the dynamics of what made Ebay the great success if once was. The people who are running too many major U.S. corporations live in Ivory Towers and have no knowledge or understanding of their customers and
the customer's needs. Perhaps Ebay should hire a team of consultants who are Power Sellers on the site and who understand and know what the REAL problems are and propose possible working solutions. The CEOs in major American industries at this time only understand short term profits at the expense of long term growth and stability....and that is a prescription for eventual failure. Always has been and always will be.

I have bought & sold on ebay since 1998 & have seen many changes. These recent ones are the final straw. There seems to be no recognition that without sellers there is no ebay & yet the powers that be continually fail to see the seller's viewpoint.

The new feedback policy is especially one sided & the DSR (stars) rating is so poorly worded that a happy buyer can rate each item with a 4 & feel they have given a seller a good rating. Ebay says a 4 is not good enough & yet the difference is between a 4 or 5 is "satisfied" & "very satisfied". Ebay also fails to educate the buyers regarding these distinctions & their effect on a seller. What a mess!!!

I have been selling on ebay for over 2 years. I sell reproduction collectible items which I clearly state as NEW in my listings. There are many seller's who sell the same exact items but sell them as vintage/estate "RARE". I have been reporting the same seller's for over a year and a half and the same "RARE" items are sold week after week and ebay has not only done nothing to stop it, they are profiting from this. It could not be more obvious what these seller's are doing and the mere fact that I have been reporting this for a year and a half and every time a listing ends with a buyer ripped off, another listing is in auction and I just see week after week, another victim. An item I would sell for $10.00, these seller's will make $50.00. This is not a small amount of money... a fake collectible cookie jar costs $5.00-$10.00 one sold the other day for $180.00. I have watched ebay make Millions and millions of dollars off these types of sales and I hope that when I am done spreading the word a class action lawsuit will begin and Ebay will finally be exposed. When I spoke to Trust and Safety on the phone their responses to my concerns were nothing less than ridiculous and after a year and a half reporting these seller's, it is time to let ebay know that they cannot laugh in my face because they think that I can do nothing to them because they are such a big company... and I am "ME". Well.... I have seen enough and it sickens me that hardworking people come on ebay because of the image they promote "The Safe Marketplace", when the safe ebay is referring to is the one they hide the cash in.

From a power seller..Ebays new expectations are set up and designed to ruin the majority of sellers. These changes are also going to increase the fruad and scams tremendously.I have yet to meet one single person who understabds why they are setting us up to be destroyed , EBAY is the Hilter of 2008.

I'm a seller under two different ID's and I really have no problem with the changes. The additional costs ( which are very minimal ) can easily be sucked up by my buyers and also by increasing my starting bids ever so slightly.

The feedback isn't really a problem. Fortunately it's going to get rid of a lot of the retaliatory feedback that was left by vindictive sellers who didn't think they deserved a negative for their shoddy customer service / badly described lots etc. I can live with not leaving negatives for non paying bidders. In fact I think that of all my years of selling ( over 7 now ), I've only left about 5 negatives all told - not bad out of over 20,000 transactions.

People keep saying they're going to move to other venues. I guess that would be an option if only those other venues had the customer base that Ebay does. Maybe they will in a year, maybe not. If they do, then of course I'll give them a try.

I'm a small seller with 700 Power Seller feedback, no negatives, no neutrals, no mutual withdrawals. When I read Mr. Donohoe's statement about getting rid of the flea market auctions, that was the turning point for me. It was the small mom and pops that built eBay with their auctions. We small sellers lure buyers with our unique listings, hard to find objects, handcrafted pieces, real antiques (not the fakes from China), relic car parts that you can't find anyplace. It's a shame, but he wants us gone and the biggest sellers will stay, those that sell new items and have fixed prices with free shipping, sort of like Amazon, after all Amazon did have larger sales over the '07 Holidays. It was fun while it lasted! Now he wants just business and they (eBay and Pay Pal) are getting greedier, with no care of how eBay was built.

i have been selling on eBay for almost 5 years. the latest changes are just another step towards the self-destruction that seems to be the goal of eBay policies for the past couple of year.

this is just another nail in the coffin. we are spending the next few months (May is when the feedback changes take place) scrambling to sell sell sell on eBay and then close up shop and open a more traditional boutique.

we started a business on eBay because it was a trade-off, the ability to run our own business without dealing with the public face to face and autonomy from having an overseer breathing down our neck.

eBay is now moving into full on 24 hour all encompassing micro-management mode. they are going to push hard working sellers off the site and open it up for frauds and thieves before it's final sad gasp before Amazon or Google swoops in and pulverizes (or takes over) the whole kit and kaboodle.

it's too bad too. eBay really had a great niche market for one of a kind really cool stuff, but now they're becoming just another "bargain basement" dumpster for all the junk nobody wanted to buy in the first place when it was sitting on a Wal-Mart shelf.

I'm a part time seller, 400+ feedback with a 100% rating, stars are 4.9 and above; for me, losing the right to leave feedback for buyers is a much bigger issue than the fee increases. I worked darn hard to get and keep that 100% rating. Mutual feedback is what makes the system work, the opportunity for both partners to rate the experience encourages both sides to honor the deal and communicate with each other. Without it, both buyer and seller lose.

We are fighting and yelling , Sceaming for help . DO YOU HEAR US ? Some one with major pull and grit needs to step in NOW. This is on the level of hurricain victims loosing everything. Tens of thoudsands of hard working peopole are getting the shaft .Ebay must be above the court system and above our constitution. MOST DONT UNDERSTAND THE DEVISTATION THESE CHANGES WILL BRING . WAKE UP NOW PEOPLE

The changes are DESIGNED to get rid of the "small" sellers -- those folks, like me, who have less than 50,000 feedback. We've been eBay's bread and butter for years, but that isn't relevant to them.

And they will succeed in doing that. All the good small sellers will go out of business gradually as their DSRs nosedive and Paypal holds their funds and gives them back to scammers.

The site will end up just another Amazon, but less successful.

I wonder how long Pierre's non-compete clause is?

I've been selling on ebay 10 years, with well over 3,500 satisfied customers - many of them repeat bidders on my collectibles.

Here's an example of how it would work if you wanted to operate a store at a local Mall owned by eBay.

They would profess to be "just a venue" but would collect a fee everytime you placed merchandise in your store for sale. Then, they would collect a fee every time you sold something. They would also REQUIRE you to process payments from YOUR customers through their bank-thats-not-a-bank-and-not-FDIC-insured - PAYPAL - who could arbitrarily hold your payment until the customer gets home with the merchandise and calls in so say they like it, then they would Poll your customers on their way out of your store to see how you did on a rating system that they don't understand - DSRs - wherein a score of 4 is maybe good or maybe bad, then they get to hang a RED BANNER in front of your store if eBay decides your DSR scores are merely GOOD (4 stars and not 5), then they showcase competitor's wares in front of your store so that your customers will see it first, and then they will bring in shoplifters and deadbeats to slap you around in front of your customers with no other recourse than for you to say positive things about the experience.

Now you know why sellers are so upset. I stopped listing when the boycott started and have stopped buying too.

I'm a troll on the eBay discussion forums. I post anything I can against boycotting but I don't make any sense.
I think ebay will reward me someday in a big way. I am not worried about eBay fees or feedback, I am using my moms eBay account and she pays the bills.

The changes they're making will complete eBay's transformation into a scammer's paradise. I'm a big buyer, but even I can see that sellers are getting a raw deal here.

I am one of those power sellers that is suppose to benefit from the changes I won't. I have been with ebay over ten years. However it has become to expensive fee wise to keep selling there. I also will not be held hostage with the feedback changes coming in May.

Over the years I have bought a lot on ebay. I have sold a lot I have made ebay a lot of money. As of May I am gone. Both as a buyer and a seller. It is no longer cost productive to sell on ebay. Even as a power seller. . .

I've mostly sold for the last 7-8 years but I USED to buy on eBay a lot too. I believe the feedback changes and DSR changes were simply done to coerce sellers into accepting Paypal, so that they can place the 21 day hold on your funds and draw interest on it. Their customer service has always been non-existant; they simply respond to any questions with a form letter blowing you off. The management of eBay has an EXTREMELY bad attitude towards their sellers and are so insulting and offensive. They've turned the eBay marketplace into a very negative and trust-less place and the new changes will make it much worse.

To the buyer who asked where eBay sellers are going so they can find them to buy from them: Go to Google, click on the SHOPPING link and search for your items there. Google has created a way to find items to purchase no matter which website they are on. It will find them on eCrater, Bidville, iOffer, Amazon, eBid, OnlineAuction, or WHEREVER those items may be. Easily.

I have been buying and selling on ebay for almost 10 years. I have lived with and changed my selling plan every time ebay has made changes. I keep adjusting.

Each time the changes were implemented by ebay, it was more and more difficult to sell successfully. They talk sellers into getting a store, then take the stores out of search and then don't educate the buyer as to how to find the stores listings. But I and other sellers adapted. Now they want to offer best match. If sellers ratings for any reason drop just one tenth below their level of standard, their listings will drop to the bottom of the barrel. Their money(listing fees), their time and efforts will be for naught.

Ebay has continually raised their rates and sellers on the whole have to increase their selling price to compensate for the additional fees and costs. This is all part of doing business. This cost is usually passed on to the buyers. Why would a buyer want to buy online when they can get the items for less locally?

But now, ebay is really stacking the deck against sellers. Fees though disguised as a decrease, but for most sellers are an increase, are a normal part of the cost to do business. It is the many other changes that are crucifying most sellers.

In an effort to rid its masses of bad and fraudulant sellers, ebay has closed their eyes on how their changes are affecting not only the good sellers, but the buyers as well. You cannot have one without the other.

Ebay is setting an unlevel playing field and that is my major concern. They are putting all of the control of OUR businesses in the hands of the buyer who in turn can wreck havoc on sellers abilities to continue selling and in many cases they won't even know they are doing it.

By making for a more pleasing buying experience, they are also setting up a bar of performance expectation that is doomed to wipe out many sellers livelihoods. Good sellers, sellers like me who offer honest respresentation, fair shipping, ethical business practices and try to treat the buyer fairly are being relegated to the bottom of the heap.

The standard given to the buyer for feedback leads the buyer to rate sellers lower than the performance level ebay is demanding sellers attain. Ebay tells the buyer (on a 1-5 scale) that a 4 is very good rating; however if a seller has a 4 rating, ebay tells them they are lousy sellers. Not only that, they are then planning on telling the buyer before they bid on items from sellers with less than 4.6 rating that the seller is not doing well. This is the killer for me.

Ebay makes many false promises that they will implement a means for sellers to protect themselves from the unethical and criminal buyers who may be a small minority of all buyers, but who will have the ability to create such mayhem as to cause many sellers to throw in the towel and just give up.

How can this be good for the economy? for the buyer? or even ebay ultimately? I fail to see how it can be a positive effect. Ebay has failed the sellers so many times in the past, we have no faith that they care one whit about us now.

I have enjoyed my online selling career and in the ten years I've been on eBay I have realized more for specific goods than I ever would have in my real store. That's what I thought. At the end of 2007 my accountant pointed out to me the stark reality that I wasn't really making much when all the fees were deducted and the time to list and maintain were figured into the equation. Imagine my chagrin when I learned they were going up even more.
I had not seen the stark reality in the numbers until I read this article. eBay is increasing their take from 5.25 to 8.75 percent!!!
In response to Jon's question, I joined www.onlineauction.com as a charter member and paid $96.00 for a charter membership. For that fee I get unlimited listings and no closing fees.
I urge anyone who goes to a new site to do more than list. Buy a few things even if they are inexpensive in order to keep the energy going.
Personally, I hope a lot of vendors return to antiques shows. I never did better anywhere than at Don Scott's in Atlanta.
Thanks for giving me this opportunity to express my feelings.

I am a buyer only, using my ID.

I agree that this feedback decision made by Ebay is a nightmare.

Ebay says they are going to use this to weed out the scammers. Ya right! They get complaints about certain sellers each and every day. They do not take action now. I doubt they will, come May.

Buyers will not know who to trust anymore, so they won't buy.

Ebay has not made it's site safer for us buyers with this new feedback rule. I feel that is whitewash. Now the good sellers will have NEGs from 'bad mood buyers' and be mixed in with the bad sellers.

Nope that isn't a safer enviroment at all.

One poster here asked for sellers to let them know where that are selling at. I ask the same.

You can look up my ID on Ebay and email me and let me know.

I'm a buyer and I am thanking the above post who posted about onlineauction.com. I will look to buy there.

but about ebay. I have been scammed by the Chinese sellers, reported it to ebay, and they do nothing. I know better now, but so many others won't.

eBay states they are a venue, bringing buyers and sellers together to complete a transaction.

How can a venue:
1. accept a fee for a specific ad, then place a competitors ad directly on the listing page (and ahead of) the one paid for by the seller
2. limit exposure of that paid for ad based on hearsay criteria
3. specify how and how fast and for how much an item must be shipped
4. hold payment for a transaction (for which they are only a venue....) based on....hearsay from another party.
5. allow a buyer to offer his/her opinion of a transaction, but not allow a seller to offer his/her opinion, and allow that buyer's opinion (hearsay) to determine where (or IF) in search a seller's item may be found, and when (or IF) the seller will be paid for that item.

The venue status is no longer, and eBay is acting like an employer. I want unemployment compensation!

As a seller/buyer for more than 6 years, I'm gone by mid-March, if not before. ebay's changes are completely ridiculous and the blatant hypocrisy of saying that it's all being done for a "better buying experience" just makes the whole deal that much harder to swallow. It's all about the money, as ever. The lopsided feedback and stupid grade-school stars (inflicted by all-powerful buyers who are being told that a "4" is good when eBay deems that score "bad") are simply a ploy to get sellers' money tied up in bogus PayPal "holds," reaping a ton of interest. It's been fun, and it's been somewhat lucrative, but it is over.

The sellers, not the buyers, are ebay's customers. The buyers are the seller's customers, not ebay's. The sellers pay ebay to provide a service for them and to protect their interests. Why would we pay a corporation that WE hired to work for US, to stab us in the back?

If you are an ebay seller, have you ever had a problem and tried to get customer support to help you? Have you ever tried to reach a real person, or get an unscripted response instead of "I understand why you might feel that way..." or "I understand how it could look like that....?

Have you ever managed to reach the same customer service rep twice? Have you ever called customer service back, after getting a scripted email response from them that has nothing to do with the actual problem, only to have the person who wrote to you have no clue what the original problem was and no way of looking it up, so that you had to repeat every detail again from square one?

No one I know has ever been able to talk to the same customer service rep twice. No one I know has ever had an ebay customer service rep actually LOOK UP their file, investigate the problem on an individual basis, and get it resolved, without necessitating so many emails and calls from the customer that it finally became prudent to just give up and go away, which is what they want you to do. Problem solved.

I find it mind-boggling that a company with absolutely THE WORST customer service I have ever seen has the gall to dictate to the sellers how THEY should be treating THEIR customers! If I treated my customers the way ebay treats me, I would have been out of business years ago.

I had a feedback of over 700, 99.7 rating, DSRs all 4.8-4.9. Just the kind of seller ebay supposedly wants to keep. The feedback thing is intolerable, and the fee INCREASE is outrageous. I have moved all my inventory to other venues and closed my ebay store.

I started out as a buyer many years ago. Then became a seller on ebay.

These recent changes are designed to remove any dignity from sellers. Moreover, the suits have carefully formulated a plan that tied a sellers hands monetarily, makes items invisible in the search and manipulates the feedback system so that is no longer fair to both the sellers and the buyers.

They have created ill feelings in their own marketplace between sellers and buyers.

Expecting a seller to be able to have any control over ever rising costs by shipping carriers, coupled with expecting sellers to use free shipping is simply absurd.

They keep raising fee's, but want the seller's to keep it real (their words) when setting shipping costs.

They certainly don't practice what they preach on many levels.

I have lost any faith that the powers that be have any idea how to run the company anymore. These last changes sealed the deal for me and I am calling it quits.

Ebay's seller forum: get an eyeful, stockholders:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=143

Be sure to read threads start to finish, as some are started by ebay employees cheerleading the company, only to be laughed off by real sellers.

Ebay has no understanding of human nature, no understanding of who sells on ebay and why, and no concept of continuity or consistency. Their Marketing 101 attempts to manipulate the buyers and sellers of ebay are transparent and pathetic. They're almost quaint.

Ebay needs a good corporate enema, and soon.

We are Powersellers and have been selling on eBay since 1998. We have a large inventory in our eBay store so the new fee structure may not hurt us. It is the new feedback procedures that bother us. Buyers are able to rate sellers using subjective evaluations based on situations that the seller has no control over. A seller can ship within an hour, but if the USPS takes 2 weeks to deliver the package the buyer can ding the seller's stars. We have a friend who offers FREE SHIPPING and she was dinged for "TOO EXPENSIVE SHIPPING".

eBay says that it will protect sellers from feedback extortion and all that a seller has to do is contact Trust and Safety. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to locate Trust and Safety on the website so that you can report someone.

eBay is trying to promote FREE SHIPPING so that the seller increases the selling price and eBay will get more fees.

eBay has been playing around with the item pages and is even testing a page where they warn buyers in BOLD RED LETTERS that the seller has low (4) stars for shipping time or shipping fees. This while blatantly advertising 4 stars as ACCEPTABLE.

eBay used to be fun as well as profitable. It is quickly becoming neither. We would have no qualms about moving to a new venue if one developed that had the potential to attract the buyers. We have already started testing items on some other venues.

I am a power seller,but am a small to midsize seller compared to other sellers who list thousands of items at once.I have heard from fellow sellers small & large,and they are not happy.This is also having to do with paypal,the online pymt service that ebay owns.In conjunction with these changes ebay made,paypal can,at its discretion,hold your funds from a buyer for up to 21 days,without paying you interest.The feedback policy change also stinks.How can ebay say ,"okay,buyere -you give the sellers any rating you want,but sellers,YOU HAVE TO GIVE THE BUYER PERFECT RATINGS" its is redicuolus.I am not so upset by the fee increases,as anything eventually goes up milk,eggs,cars,ebay fees,etc. It is all the othe rstuff that upsets me.By the way the boycott is STILL GOING,AND GOING WELL-Ebay is losing $

There is another boycott in the works that will be better planned and organized on May 1st !

We believe that another boycott is something that needs to be done. We have picked the date of May 1st for a number of reasons. It gives us time to organize and spread the word. It coincides with the month the new feedback changes go into effect. And personally, I always think of May as the month when things really begin to grow. I believe that this boycott will really, really grow!

THIS TIME IS DIFFERENT

THIS TIME EBAY HAS GONE TOO FAR

JOIN US MAY 1st

EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO JOINS US MAKES US STRONGER

As Far as the Boycott with E-Bay,it has just begun.No Bidding,No Selling No Listing.Enough is Enough.We the people by the people are speaking out.
Just like a stone,you skip over the water, the ripple has just begun to show the effects and it is catching on with other countries.BOYCOTT-HELL YA

I'm a low volume seller, buying and selling since 2000 on ebay. 1539 positive feedback, 6 negatives are from sellers. I buy little treasures cheap and resell them for profit. I get my little treasures from auctions, estate sales, etc. I do this to support me while I wait 3-4 years for SSDI. In the last 2 months I sold 19 items, made about $1,700 before the fees and the cost of acquiring the items. In the last month, I got 13 feedback, and one was negative. An unhappy buyer that didn't communicate with me first, didn't read my terms, where I say I'm happy to take returns. That one negative hurts me now, but come May, that one negative is going to put me out of business. I live on a shoe string as it is. That one negative, that one buyer's uneducated OPINION, is all it will take to trigger a Paypal freeze on any future transactions. Because it will, come May, be based on a rolling 30 day window, I would be considered a "risky seller" on ebay, despite the fact that for 8 years I've been selling and keeping my customers happy.

That is just intolerable.

Listing elsewhere - eCrater and NeoLoch

Wow Rob,
Did you have any idea you were opening Pandora's Box?

So, now what will you do with this very specific information? Where are these people selling their merchandise? It can't go on Craig's List because that isn't "national." Where shall we find these good people who have shared with us? I have only sold textbooks on half.com (owned by eBay), and my only concern is that their shipping reimbursements don't adequately cover the actual shipping!

We have been buying and selling on eBay since 2000. Every year eBay increases its fees...it's a given and you learn to live with it.

This latest round of changes came as Meg Whitman and Bill Cobb are leaving. The bodies aren't even cold and CEO John Donahoe is making remarks to the media that the eBay community is just making noise and that he wants to overhaul eBay....making it a better experience for the buyers....even if it means crushing the sellers. We have a real issue with this man....he has never once addressed the sellers concerns in any way nor does he show any respect. After all it's our hard work that pays his salary!!

Our biggest gripe is taking away our ability to leave negative feedback. It makes for a very uneven playing field and threatens our credibility as sellers.

With almost 2000 transactions under our belt you can see that we rarely leave negative feedback. And our feedback is only for buyers who fail to pay AND ignore our emails or eBays Unpaid Item Dispute. We feel in leaving a negative feedback it may prevent the next seller from experience a bad transaction.

We feel that this new CEO needs to address the many problems that that has plagued eBay for years and have never been fixed. Our community has asked for better customer support, drastically overhaul or eliminate the DSR's, rollback the increase to the final value fee's, crack down on fraud, new sellers to the site need to be confirmed with a credit card and get rid of the bad buyers and sellers.

The eBay that we all loved and enjoyed is now gone. We are exploring other venues and opportunities.

Thank you for allowing us an to voice our opinions on this matter.

I am a seller and a buyer. I have nearly 1000 perfect feedback. I sell original art under self representing artist. eBay has been a real boom for us artists, opening up markets I could not have dream of here in the middle of nowhere in the midwest.

The feedback thing really has me stopped in my tracks even though thus far I haven't had to deal with negs. or neutrals. I also do not like the DSR rating which is strictly done on opinion with USPS (who I work for btw) being a big part of the rating (was it fast enough, were you over charged, mandatory delivery confirmation to release PayPal funds. NOT GOOD!).

Angry? Yes. Frustrated? You bet. Not one word from eBay but the usual canned responses. I have been testing waters elsewhere. I cannot "work for" a company who doesn't give two figs about its users.

I have sold on Feebay for 9 years now and this is how I feed my children and pay my mortgage.After these fee changes and the 21 day hold I was upset.But now bad buyers can demand money back in exchange for a positive feedback.I gave a buyer back a partial payment last month just to keep my 100% positive feedback rating.I hate to see how many good honest sellers are going to get ripped off now and still end up with a negative feedback.Also ebays protection policies are a joke and to this day I have yet to hear of a buyer or seller collecting on a fruadulant transaction.I know I have filed a few and never got my money back and a few of my friends that were buyers shared the same fate .
I NOW BELONG TO WWW.ONLINFAUCTION.COM UNDER THE NAME FAST97TA . Please check this auction out to help our cause .........

http://www.onlineauction.com/index.php?page=auction:view_item&auction_id=480043&auction_name=

Ebay allows just anyone to sign up without any form of identification of any kind..This is one way fraudulant buyers get to rip sellers off on ebay...But they do not care because they still make money off the bottom line..Us sellers built ebay and we can tear them down..Its only a matter of time before ebay falls..People holding stock in ebay needs to seariously think about dumping it before you lose your money..The day is coming..Dont let another enron happen to you.

I buy more than I sell and have feedback of 1500+ with only 3 negatives. These were all left by what I call "partial refund scammers" who want a refund but do not want to return the item they bought. Their way of getting my item at a lower price than they bid is to try to force you to give them a "substantial refund" and keep the item. The new feedback system is going to encourage more of this type of scams and worse. I will not be back buying or selling under ebay's new terms. They keep calling the buyer their customers when in reality the sellers are ebay's customers and the buyers are the sellers' customers. The sellers make all the money for eBay!

I have been selling and buying on eBay for over 9 years FT/PT. I retired from 30 years in the Federal Government and I went FT with eBay. I am a Trading Assistant and I sell other people's things for them on eBay. I have OVER 6000 POSITIVE FEEDBACK!!!

The fact of the increases (decreases) in listing and FVF are tough to take, but really do not affect me as I pass those fees along to the owners of the items.

However, when it comes to eBay hiding buyers ID's so I cannot check on their ratings, making me as a seller "responsible" (by buyer feedback) for the increases in the USPS shipping costs and the USPS lenght of time to deliver - THAT I object to.
-- I object to eBay hiding bidder's IDs so that I cannot protect myself.
-- I object to being rated by buyers whom I do not know and who hide their reviews of me.
-- I object to not being able to give Not-Positive feedback to horrible and non-paying bidders!
-- I object to being punished by having my listings appear below others because of a buyer's remorse or downright cursedness.
-- I object to eBay stating that a 4 out of 5 rating means that I am a BAD SELLER and then announcing it in bold red letters on my auctions!
-- I object to eBay and PayPal colluding so that they can hold my funds for 21 days AND that I have to ship my item to the buyer BEFORE BEING PAID.

This entire scenario is totally ridiculous and obscene. No financial institution in the United States does this, that I am aware of. This is just plain Highway Robbery.

Sellers made eBay - Sellers brought the customers - PayPal and eBay charge HORRIBLE fees and they get away with it. They are a monopoly and they act like it.

Lots of sellers on eBay are also buyers on eBay. Lots of sellers on eBay are poor, reired, single income, bolstering small incomes, handicapped, disadvantaged, etc.

The feedback issue is the most important issue that needs addressing!!!!!

1. The feedback issue is in direct correlation with the PayPal hold!

2. The feedback issue is in direct correlation to the new about to be implemented best match search.

3. The feedback/DSR issue is in direct correlation to whether or not ebay will put in the red warning that you are a slow shipper because someone gave you a 4 for shipping quickly according to EBAY!!!

4. Ebay is a venue and as such they should not be able to tell people what they can and cannot do on the VOLUNTARY part of the transaction.

I agree that ebay snuck the fee increase in by calling it a decrease & thinking I was too stupid to know the difference; that REALLY ticks me off. BUT, I think people should be even more ticked off that ebay doesn't think they are intelligent enough to know...

1. Buyers don't leave because they get negatives feedback, they leave because they sent money but didn't get their item.

2. Most buyers are NOT too stupid to know who buy from by looking at the feedback left for & left by the seller.

3. The fact as a seller we set our settings to stop negative feedback buyers purchase from us yet their new feedback system circumvents that because according to them, ALL buyers are positive.

4. If you leave a seller a 4 & ebay tells you that means quickly, then they tell you that means slow that indicates to me they are condescending & don't think I know the difference from quick to slow & that REALLY ticks me off!!

There are many things that I am thoroughly disgusted with regarding the new changes but they ALL boil down to the new feedback.

I am moving to onlineauction.com and sell under the name Jeanh2 - come visit me there. I signed up to be a Founding Member and paid under $200 for FREE LISING AND NO FINAL VALUE FEES FOR 1 WHOLE YEAR. onlineauction.com or ola.com will be using my money for advertising and bring more buyers to the site. It is right now either number 2 or 3. eBay has move from number 1 to number 10 or 11 in the search results

MAKE SOME NOISE!!!!

I am primarily a buyer on ebaY. I was a seller, and still once in a while list an item. I only list items that I need to 'move quickly' or that I know will draw views. My single purpose when listing on ebaY now is to market my items on other venues.

While I completely understand the anger and animosity of a few above me, I am not certain WHY the BLAME game. EbaY is changing their business model. The changes this year are more expansive than in the past, but if you have been following e-Commerce and specifically ebaY, these changes should have been anticipated. For 3 years now, there have been adjustments in fees that affected ALL sellers. Some left, some stayed - but ultimately, each seller is responsible for their business.

If ebaY has been your only business model, you should be off here and rethinking your business plan. If you've already diversified you're moving in the right direction. If you decide to stay, then you have no choice but to accept and embrace the changes, and make it work for you.

ebaY is a choice; a means to an end. You have other choices and there are other means to the end.

We all should be far more concerned with the policy changes ebaY is implementing with Paypal. What other institution in our country can detain disbursement of OUR money, not pay interest, and release 'at will'? This should be of more concern to all ebaY members than the fee, feedback and search changes.

After all, if you're not on ebaY to make money, your definition of fun is greatly different than mine.

Folks need to rethink their priorities and begin boycotting Paypal or finding alternative solutions for payment processing.

And for those above who are here just to market onlineauctions - please get real. That site suggests on it's home page that it has almost as many listings as eBaY. There has been a multi-year long debate about those 'funny figures' at PowerSellersUnite, and finally there is consensus that listings are around 200,000.

All sellers from any/all venue, including their own web site should be able to come here to read, share and learn. Nobody truly desires to see spamming for another auction site.

In summary, I'd really like the press to 'walk a mile in our shoes'. Many have tried to share the life of a seller, and how these changes affect sellers, but until/unless you've don 'it' - it's hard to understand where the passion comes from.

Everyone I talk to every day says, "ebaY used to be fun. It's not fun any more." I do agree that the magic has disappeared. ebaY has matured, and has lost touch with their Customers. Until they truly decide their future direction, and solidify the strategy to get there, they will flounder and all who 'belong' will be treading water right there along.

Ebay only wants to keep the Power Sellers from now on, and to get rid of the rest they've created the new feedback system - NEG VICTORIOUSLY! - to do the hatchet job for them. They have no room for sellers who can't bring in at least a thousand a month or 100 sales a month. Anything less is taking up space, space they want maximum profits from the likes of mass-produced importers. I don't know what happened to Ebay but this new regime appears ruthless. I'll be giving my business to OLA and ECrater for starters.

Why don't we talk about the quite dirty secret that makes sellers really scared. And that is that eBay does not take the proper steps to stop cyber stalkers on their site. Therefore, buyer and sellers are left totally at the mercy of people intent on destroying a person's reputation and business as a seller and to make the buyer miserable.

The reason sellers are so concerned about the new eBay feedback rules is that eBay won't even stop the stalkers on their discussion boards.

Here is a link to a discussion on this subject from over a year ago, it has gotten worst, not better.
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000508051&tstart=0&mod=1202562078750

No wonder sellers and buyers alike are scared to leave it up to eBay to make sure they are safe.

I am currently a power seller with a store... Have been on Ebay since 1998... I have no bad feedback, so 100%, and have never left anyone bad feedback, although I probably should have... I sell lower priced items and have opted to cut my losses and block a bidder rather than to mark up their score on ebay...

However with this new system, I believe that Ebay has set even the best seller up for failure...

When they came out with the notice that they lowered insertion fees, it was such a relief only to continue reading on to discover that most people would pay up to 67% more on the end of the sale... Very deceiptful... Lost my trust right there!!

It was then that I realized the magnitude of the proposed changes on Ebay... The holding of funds by pay pal for 21 days??? And the possiblilty of losing my merchandise AND the packageing supplies & shipping fees??? Not a good idea for me, and I refuse to be party to it...

Doing the math, I realized that my many hours and hours of creating listings and promoting my business there would have to come to a halt unless I wanted to risk losing money and having my sales reputation at the mercy of some con artist... But ebay's new theory is that the buyer is honest and the seller is a liar...

The facts are there and anyone who looks over the contract as they plan, would run for the hills...

Its going to cost them in the long run though... Stores are closing and people are moving on from this monopoly nightmare... Other ecommerce sites are beginning to blossom, and eventually ebay will be history... They stole a little bit too much this time... It's not good to call your "bread winners" nothing but "noise"...

My store is set to vacation and I am going to move my listings to Online Auction, where I will again make a profit and not living under the communist control of ebay...

I will take an active role in the next BOYCOTT and I will continually BOYCOTT EBAY FOREVER!!

I'm a PowerSeller in good standing and have been on ebay for over 7 years. I'll still use the site for a few items but only to drive traffic to my website and the new stores I've opened on the Internet. I don't think I'm alone there.

Ebay obviously has an agenda that they're not letting us in on. Their platform is changing to be more in line with what Amazon puts forth, so they probably want to get rid of the auctions all together eventually. In the meantime they'll leave us hanging to keep their stock prices up because of the deals they have going on overseas.

Slowly we'll all be leaving because the fees are cutting into profits while there are free shopping carts and free-list auction sites out there that will welcome us.

Of course it's their business and they have a right to change it, but it's pretty immoral to do this to people without much warning. They are hurting a lot of little people who need this income and who have spent money to stock up on merchandise to sell. I hope someone comes up with an auction site that is really successful and eBay bites the dust.

I'm most irked at the feedback and PayPal changes. Ebay's feedback system has been broken for a very long time now and these new changes make it even worse. There is in my mind absolutely no protection for the sellers. Ebay should really spend some time listening to suggestions on how to rectify their enormous mistake unless they intended to trim the sellers down to the "big box" sellers. Ebay is even more broke than before and I will probably not ever list or buy there again if things don't change.

I am a seller of Museum-Quality Military Miniatures, and I am very unhappy with EBay's recent changes. Although I am not a "Power Seller", I sell often (My products are hand-made pieces of art...they take time!).

Now, I have no protection from illegitimate buyers who may leave negative feedback, and I now have to pay 8.75% of my profits for that vulnerability? It's time to look around for other ways to sell my products, as EBay has pretty much made it no longer worth my time, effort, and money to participate with them.

I am a seller from the UK, I have 100% positive feedback.
The new feedback system will certainly reduce this to a level(95% positive or less) where ebay will reduce my listings visibility, thus my sell through rate will drop substantially, meaning less earnings. On top of this, once this feedback level of 95% is reached paypal will hold the funds for 21 days (I still cannot believe this is legal!), all the scammers out there will see this as a golden opportunity to get free goods, without fear of reprisal.
Get a grip ebay before you crash and burn.

I would like to add that eBay has lousy customer service even to powersellers. They have an answer center staffed with volunteers that can't even do anything about complaints.

They are advertising outside ebay merchandise right on our own listings. But if we link to our own stores in a listing - they pull the listing off.

It also tries to deny any responsibility for site content. Even when items are reported for being inappropriately categorized - like frontal nudity that should be in the mature audience section - it is often not taken down. The site is also replete with counterfeits and scam artists which makes honest sellers look bad.

I don't mean to be singling out frontal nudity as the worst thing - but it is the most obvious example. There are over 2,000 showing up in the search right now. 1,020 with swastika - which is supposed to be banned as a hate item.

Ebay's solution - They expect buyers and sellers to report every single one of these items. What the heck are they spending the higher fees on - it's certainly not hiring more people to make their site better.

The FCC ought to stop turning a blind eye and hold eBay accountable.

Ebay's arrogance and overblown sense of self worth will be shown for the plain old hot air it is when the first quarter 2008 financials are come out. Those of us who have thanklessly toiled in their trenches know their income will not outdazzle their out-go.

To quote Rodney Dangerfield... "Wadda-ya, Wadda-ya, Wadda-ya, Kidding me?" COULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED TO A NICER BUNCH OF LOSERS.

I closed my paypal account and my store today. I can get shoved around anywhere... I don't have to pay for it.

Future generations will learn how to NOT run an internet business from these Klass Klownz... present and soon departing.

I have over 100 positive feedbacks on eBay as both a buyer and seller with only one negative. My response to feebay's fee increase is to put my cassettes on the free marketplace at http://Blujay.com with over 300,000 items for sale where people get to buy without waiting for the bidding to end.

The system at eBay is so unrealistic and distorted that the rating is meaningless. I cannot see the situation improve in May when no negative can be received from a seller. Sellers will be at the buyers mercy.

I understand that feedback extortion exists on the sellers side, too, with feedback withheld from the buyer until after the buyer submits his. But this "Solution" is not the answer.

I agree with the comment that Ebay has to have a hidden agenda. I am a small seller and buyer. I have a feedback of about 400 and have bought and sold for a hobby.
Ebay was a fun concept. Anyone could find their old high school yearbook, perfume they used to wear and was discontinued, gorgeous antiques..etc. With the new changes, those things will be gone.
How sad. And how sad is it that Ebay has really sought to ostrasize the very people that built it.
Aside from the outrageous increase of fees....the ridiculous feedback system that will come into effect that leaves buyers no protection......there is another concept to think about. I think this is so appropriate to describe Ebay. They have put into place, a system whereby the buyer rates the seller. One of those categories is shipping. Sellers cant control time in shipping, especially customs. If a seller receives a low score on shipping because customs took 3 weeks....in big red letters, Ebay is putting on the rating for the seller "seller ships slowly". Interestingly enough, Ebay has been pushing sellers to offer "Free Shipping" which basically means, put the shipping cost into the selling price. If a seller does that.....then his/her items sell for a higher price, and EBAY GETS MONEY ON THE FINAL EVALUATION FEES! It doesn't take an Einstein to figure out what is basic math.
Im not sure whether they didnt think sellers would be this upset, or they thought they were big enough not to care......but they have made a very large bad business decision.
I closed my Ebay store and won't be back. I know many others that have done the same thing. I know Ebay thinks we all will be back but I can tell you, there is no way in hell. And oh......that yearbook or discontinued perfume? You won't find that on Ebay anymore. Those sellers have gone to other sites like Neoloch.com, Onlineauction.com, Bidsville wherever. As for me........I'll be at one of them, not Ebay.

Aside from the outrageous increase of fees....the ridiculous feedback system that will come into effect that leaves buyers no protection

I meant leaves Sellers no protection. ^

I have a 300+ rating and Powerseller status, and my selling price usually averages around $300/item. Of which, I find myself losing approximately 10-12% to fees for eBay and Paypal.
I am outraged that eBay leaders think that lowering insertion fees will help disguise the increase in final value fees. While insertion fees may be lowered by 40-60%, that merely represents dimes or quarters when compared to the 40% increase in final value fees that result in $1-5 more in charges. Essentially, eBay is going to make more money and is trying to look sincere. My boycott continues, as should ever other user's involved with eBay.

We were POWERSELLERS for quite a few years
at ebay, but several years ago we saw to
what extreme ebay was changing. No advantage to sell or even buying there any more. We are very active at WEBIDZ.com, Yourhighbid.com, Plunderhere, We made many
sales in the past at Overstock.com and Hibidder.com. Ebay used to be such 'fun'
for buyers and sellers.
Please join our very active online auction
community forum.
Http://www.powersellerunite.com
You do NOT need to be a power seller or a ebay member to join. We discuss many and
almost all alternative sites, and learn from each other. WELCOME!
Http://www.powersellerunite.com

Ebay forget very quickly that sellers have made them billions..OK without buyers eBay would Also be nothing...but without quality items eBay will die..not everyone is looking for e-books or DVD's etc

Fees are a blatant rip-off for NO customer service from eBay, No sellers allowed to leave Neg Or Neutral..just plain crazy..not even the chance for mutual feedback withdrawal after May

eBay you have totally lost the plot and you WILL die ...what ever your idiotic CEO's are saying

DSR what a complete 100% (100% will be a thing of the past ) stupid idea that is really a fee rip off from ebay..lower stars = lower exposure in listings = fees for no sales???? wow what a business plan...I call it a rip off & must be against many states laws as it is not fair business (same fees for less exposure where's the level playing field)

eBays mega power sellers selling cr@p are the only winners with all these new changes...what a disaster

I am sorry to post again, but that should
have been:>>>
Http://www.powersellersunite.com
(I left the 's' out, sorry)

Rats on a sinking ship.
http://www.hbsslaw.com/files/Class_Action_Complaint_secured1178576984126.pdf

6,700FB Powerseller 99.9% With all 4.8 or higher DSR's over 1000 completed transactions a month.. moving on to another venue. eBay has made it's thoughts clear... we who built ebay, are no longer needed.

Screw the boycott.. QUIT! Move on! Other venues are increasing. I am a seller who knows almost all my buyers are also sellers.. we (sellers) go they (Buyers) go! Ebay wasn't built over night either. When I started they had less listings then several other sites already have.

Move on Victoriously!! We will watch the ship sink from the side lines..

The boycott is STILL ON.

eBay does not DESERVE your business. eBay is in the business of ignoring and insulting its members. Megamillionaires think they need even more and they are extracting it from the small mom-and-pop sellers who can least afford it.

We're a bunch of "noise" to those megamillionaires. Well, one company's "noise" is another company's "music," and there are dozens of other sites that we have been exploring.

ioffer, bidville, ecrater, wagglepop, and onlineauctions are only a few of the places that sellers are taking their wares. Once the buyers find out where the sellers are, it will be all over for eBay.

All that will be left are Chinese scammers and purveyors of fake handbags.

eBay doesn't care about its customers -- THE SELLERS -- and is interfering with sellers' relationship with their customers -- THE BUYERS.

So . . . let's just see how much money eBay can make with a gazillion buyers and nothing to sell them.

Buyers don't come to eBay because of eBay. They come because of the items they want to buy, and millions of those items have gone to the other sites.

eBay currently shows about 13 million listings -- well, the other sites have about 7 million already and are growing every day.

If eBay does not get its corporate head out of the sand (or wherever it keeps it) and realize that they are NOT the only game in town, well, they will reap the harvest they are sowing with their insults and indifference.

John Donahoe is a moron. He is so out of touch with his customer base it would be laughable if it weren't so destructive and sad.

Well, I'm a buyer, and he's a seller of sorts -- trying to sell the concept of eBay to the world. So how do we leave HIM the big fat negative HE deserves?

BOYCOTT VICTORIOUSLY . . . until they get IT.

forgot to mention that I am primarily a buyer but have done some selling. I am currently selling AND BUYING on eCrater and onlineauctions.

The eBay fees are way too high for most sellers. eBay has been worrying about their investors so they raise fees. They make a stupid move with the purchase of Skype and lose money. So sellers get their fees raised.

The BIGGEST oversight that eBay has made is they forget who their customers are. Buyers do not pay fees to eBay, only sellers. UNLESS you are some big auction house then eBay will make an exception for those high powered sellers by making BUYERS pay the fees like in a real auction house.

Most of the major changes in the last 5 years have always favored buyers and hurt sellers and this is just another nail in the coffin for eBay sellers. I can adjust me business and afford even more fees than the service is worth but the feedback policy will destroy sellers and eBay's knows this.

I started on eBay back in January of 1999. I have 4 Power Seller accounts selling different items. If you added up all 4 accounts my feedback rating would be over 30,000 with a 99.5 percent positive rate. That doesnt reflect that I have really sold over 150,000 items on eBay because at this time, eBay only counts multiple feedback as a score of ONE and many buyers will not leave feedback at all unless they are unhappy. I have maintained these ratings despite being active duty military and deploying several times for months at a time in the last 9 years because I do try to make people happy as long as we both can retain our dignity and honor. Neither party has to grovel to the other. That is how Person to Person Marketplace works. Mutual respect.

eBay stopped becoming a fun auction site when they added their "WATCH feature which meant people no longer bid on an item but tried to grab it for pennies at the last minute. Sellers could no longer count on an item being bid up to a fair price when the WATCH feature went into effect. They had to start raising their starting prices higher so they wouldnt lose money which took the excitement out of the auction.

I and many other honest sellers have suffered through VERO attacks by rival sellers who falsely claim copyright infringement and have had listings removed on many occassions. They get their competition wiped out and have no problem being successful. Ebay never cared that my claims were true in these matters and finally, only by spending a few thousand dollars on lawyers fees and with VERO owners backing down did eBay come around. BUt they never apologised for what I went through. That horror story would take a week to write but compared to the Feedback changes, that is nothing.

They base some of their fees incentives on a Detailed Sellers Rating which I have been able to maintain but will be unable to maintain when buyers no longer have to fear that I might show the world how unhappy I am with THEM. And you will find buyers starting to wield their newfound power by demanding unreasonable terms from sellers because they know the seller can do nothing about it. Most of my customers are great but there are a few who will take advantage of this and that number will grow just because they can.

Ebay is hurting sellers not rated so high for whatever reason by burying their listings in search results while elevating sellers who they feel are worthy. The rich will get richer and the poor will get driven out into the snow with just a bunch of unsold inventory and the shirts on their backs.

It has gone too far. I have seen posts where buyers want to know where they can go if their favorite sellers leave eBay. Here are some suggestions. I feel that enough people will support these sites and they will grown.

The sellers who have been mostly indifferent to the new changes will start to realize the full impact of these changes as time goes and and will start to wean themselves away from eBay within the next 5-6 months. This month we have only seen the first migration away from eBay. In 4-5 months the migration will be bigger and more substained. It is best to get yourself extablished on alternative sites early.

For myself, I will still sell on eBay at the higher prices because I will raise my prices but the majority of my stock will be in other locations. Between my 4 accounts if I listed everything at one time I could put up over 25,000 auctions. Maybe 10 percent will stay on eBay but the rest will be sold outside of eBay for prices 10-25 percent lower than I will sell on eBay. And my customers will be aware of this.

There are many choices out there for buyers and sellers. There are many eBay style auction sites which I dont feel have much of a chance at this time but as niche sites start to eat away at eBay a couple these of Sell Everything sites will compete on a more level playing field with eBay.

For me, my choices for e-commerce sites which will challenge eBay in the future are
www.ebid.net - A Sell Everything site with over one million listings between the US and UK alone but they have many other sites and their global reach is almost as big as eBay's. Very easy to use. Low fees and other than your initial membership (also reasonable) Final Value Fees are 2 percent. No listing fees. If it doesnt sell. You dont pay. Large membership base.

www.ecrater.com - Ebay style site. Completely free. They earn money only when sellers choose to pay for more exposure within the site. No auctions, just Buy It Now storefronts. Closing in on 1 million listings. Large membership base.

www.blujay.com - Very much like ecrater. Relies on advertising for income. No fees. Large membership base, over 325,000 listings and growing very fast.

There are also niche sites which I think will do the real damage to eBay in the future. Consider eBay as being like Walmart with a little bit of everything. Niche sites are large specialty stores like Michael's Crafts or Barnes and Nobles books. Casual book buyers go to Walmart. Serious book buyers go to Barnes and Noble.

The biggest niche site I have seen is www.delcampe.net based out of Europe.
The have over 250,000 members and have over 13.5 million listings. They are bigger than eBay in the collectibles market. Coins, post cards, lapel pins, postage stamps, refrigerator magnets and countless other collectible items. You wont find printer ink here but if you are a serious collector of anything, you will be best served by trying delcampe.net

The great thing about niche sites is that they can be tailored for the community's needs and they are not forced into a "one auction mode fits all" which is eBay mentality.

A great niche site for books is abebooks.com. They boast over 13,500 sellers and over 1.5 million books.

I think there is room in the market for a Media niche site focusing only on books and movies. A site like that could really hurt eBay but it hasnt transpired yet. Even eBay recognized they were vulnerable in that area and they reversed their own fee structure for sellers of items in the media category. Apparently they do not yet feel threatened that sellers of other items will migrate enmasse.

For sellers of buyers of Craft Items, try www.etsy.com. Huge niche site with a large membership. Fees much lower than on eBay. I havent researched too much but craft lovers seem to like it.

If there isnt a site out there that caters to your particula "niche" yo ucan make yor own auction site and lease it for less than 50 dollars per month until it gets big enough that you need to move it to your own hosting. That is a little more money but that is a good problem because it means that you are getting the traffic and making money.

A niche site I love is www.mommyauctions.com which is a community for expectant mothers and young mothers to meet, network and help each other find things they have in common at this time.

Other niche sites which can chip away at eBay are www.movieposterbid.com (for movie poster buffs)

www.atomicavenue.com for comic book collectors. Over 600,000 comics listed and growing.

I made my own niche site just for collectible patches. www.patchauctions.com it is less than 5 months old but growing slowly. Next the site is just in the hobby/building stages but soon I will start to get serious and promote the site when it has enough inventory to hold a collector's attention.

There are many choices. Sellers are out there building them for you. Just be patient and understand they may run a little slow as unprecedented traffic is coming to these sites and the owners are upgrading to meet demand as soon as possible.

No one auction site will hurt eBay, but a lot of little sites wiull cripple them within 2-3 years. I know that I will be here 3 years from now selling. The question many people are asking is, Will eBay still be here?

As for Paypal. eBay is chaining us to Paypal even when there are so many other options. Why? Money of course. So be it. Other choices out there for buyers and sellers are

www.revolutionmoneyexchange.com
Google Checkout
www.moneybookers.com (for your international buyers and sellers)

These are just a few choices. There are more.

eBay started as a great idea and I loved it at one time. It changed my life. But they have changed too and have been making it clear that the honeymoon is over and they want a divorce from what they used to be and from the sellers hwo made them the success that they are today.

So we are weaning ourselves away from Paypal and eBay and learning to make it on our own. I will always remember fondly how good eBay was at one time and will use it on a limited basis to promote my other interests. But I will never let myself get fooled again by them.

To learn about your options, you can go to www.powersellersunite.com

Ken, Power Seller 4X

I have been on eBay for over 10 years. I have 700+ feedback, all positive. Tonight I had a troll who has numerous eBay IDs , which were NURD but seems able to create IDs at will, bid on a $250.00 item I had up for sale. She also bid on a couple of other gals items that she has had disputes with under different Ids. Luckly, she had come to the jewelry board and exposed this other ID and I was able to cancel her bid. Unfortunately, others weren't that lucky. She eve bragged about leaving the sellers bad feedback.

WHY do I want to sell on eBay?

Who ever said this is eBay's naughty secret is so right.

All that is going to left over there is the scammers and stalkers.

I'm a modest seller and buyer with several years on ebay. My feedback is only 300 but it's still 100%.

If I sell again on ebay, it'll only be for large, local pickup items paid in cash. No more mailing and no more Paypal. The feedback changes and ebay's new "buyers hold all the cards" credo have ended my sell and ship days. Even if I do some limited selling I'll have to be careful as any listing over $1000 attracts all sorts of scammers and flimflam artists, crooks that ebay seems to have no interest in banishing.

I'd continue to be a buyer but I expect the small sellers I trade with for vintage and collectables will be leaving ebay. I expect the future ebay has in mind for themselves is that of an online WalMart filled with expensive Chinese junk. Even if I was interested in Chinese junk, why would I mess with ebay instead of simply driving into town for the "genuine", cheap WalMart Chinese junk?

Ebay was a cool place for a while but nothing lasts forever.

I have a lot to say. I am a buyer and I stopped going to eBay the day these changes were announced and started searching the Web for alternatives. I found there is a whole world out there - it may be scattered, but it can be found. With a little more help from Google, it will be found easily, and we will have our world market back again - just not in the hands of a callous and foolish monopoly.

I deplore eBay's corporate mentality and horrible customer service. I adore all the sellers of the unique and hard-to-find items. What made eBay great was having a single place where millions of buyers and sellers could come together and FIND each other. What will kill eBay is forgetting that what made it grow was all the sellers, not just those that sell the most.

I believe that ANY seller that achieves whatever standard of quality is set should receive ALL the benefits of that, not just those that sell the most. The retaliatory feedback problem was caused by eBay itself. It directly told sellers to engage in this behavior, and now blames them for following eBay's own advice. There is a large community of concerned eBayers who help the victims of scams, despite all the difficulties of doing so - yet eBay will very rarely act on a single report of abuse.

eBay could be a wonderful place if it would remember its roots and stop trying to be the mega-mall of the ordinary, the fake, and the unwanted remainder merchandise. I will never go to eBay looking for stuff I can buy at Wal-Mart or Dollar General. It is precisely because it is the world's largest flea market that I did go there.

There was a well thought out thread on an ebay forum that posited that what eBay really wants is to become a centralized selling location for all the large on-line sellers. That post claimed that if one searched eBay for some item - jewelry, purse, not certain - you would find links down the page that look like eBay listings but take you to TJMaxx or some such. The deal with GM seems to support this theory.

This would be a true shame as I have NO desire to do standard retail shopping online except MAYBE at Christmas for media items, and then I would go to Amazon. I truly wish eBay had stuck with find IT and not Shop Viciously - IT is why I come to eBay, and if eBay is determined to change that, IF this supposition is true, eBay will fall. What I came to eBay for was vintage clothing (I HATE the Thou Shalt Buy New Clothes Every Season Even If The Style And Colors Don't Suit You 'fashion world' mantra), and items I liked that were discontinued, like a favorite coffee cup - in other words, IT.

Following is a fine example of eBay's "Customer Service" A detailed history of my experience with a problem seller and eBay support. For those that don't care to read it all, I will make my closing remarks here:

eBay keeps trying to automate their dispute resolution processes, but as in many things they do, the software is poorly conceived and badly designed. They continually utterly fail to enforce the most basic of their Terms of Service and User Agreement Provisions - except those that put money in their pockets. They will designate no human beings to ever intervene and have no plans to do so based on statements we have seen. Every process is designed to be unfair and abusive. They encourage through their own statements and policies the problems that have arisen. The following is one small example of an extremely simple situation with clear and compelling evidence of a problem, and they still muck it up. I utterly sympathize with the sellers who do not believe one word of the "new" Seller Protections.

THE EVIDENCE OF EBAY INCOMPETENCE

Item 120197331279

Bought & Paid for 17 Dec 07 expedited ship
. PP Transaction ID 4PS09672VM2751356

Shipment Status Inquiries Made 26 & 27 Dec 07

Refund issued by oddbanana 27 Dec 07
. PP ID 62A27779J92488243

Unpaid Item Dispute 153175757 opened 27 Dec 07
. An Unpaid Item dispute has been opened for the following item: Grave
of the Fireflies - New DVD LOW PRICE (#120197331279)
. Reason given for Unpaid Item: The buyer has not paid for the item.
. Buyer actions reported by seller: Other reason.

Proof of Payment provided 27 Dec 07 via Dispute Console

Item repaid through PayPal 29 Dec 07
. PP ID 96H717037G691931H

Above Abuse of Unpaid Item reported to eBay

Email from oddbanana stating Item Not Available 31 Dec 07

eBay responds suggesting I contact seller

Above Non-Performance Reported to eBay

Refund for Repayment issued 31 Dec 07
. PP ID 19F42151K1015692P

Same Item Relisted by oddbanana 31 Dec 07
Bought by me 1 Jan 08

eBay responds that they have my complaint but due to privacy cannot discuss it

Dispute closed and STRIKE ISSUED by oddbanana 8 Jan 08
. The Unpaid Item dispute has been closed for the following reason:
. The seller has ended this communication and filed for a Final Value
Fee credit.

Unpaid Item Abuse reported to eBay

Appeal of Strike asked and granted in 2 hours - eBay advises it is because I never asked before - not because I provided proof of payment.

eBay advises in response to Abuse complaint that I should talk to my seller.

oddbanana continues to list and sell this DVD - their 90 day neg FB passes the 5% mark which is supposed to remove Power Seller status. They remain a Power Seller.

Item: 120204798944
Won through Buy It Now 1 Jan 08

Paid through Paypal 1 Jan 08
. My Transaction ID 3TG58714JC812854C
. oddbanana's Transaction ID 4PN372887C896052A

PayPal INR Dispute filed 26 Jan 08
. Case ID PP-410-631-847 - escalated to claim - requesting oddbanana provide shipping information or stop listing unavailable item.

Claim Refunded through Paypal 26 Jan 08
. My Transaction ID 4YL95485EU124412X

Unpaid Item Dispute opened 26 Jan 08
. Dipute Console Number 156523702
. An Unpaid Item dispute has been opened for the following item: Grave
of the Fireflies - New DVD LOW PRICE (#120204798944)
. Reason given for Unpaid Item: The buyer has not paid for the item.
. Buyer actions reported by seller: Other reason.

In an attempt to automatically clear the Unpaid Item Dispute
Repaid through PayPal 28 Jan 08
. My Transaction ID 4L249095U2546633W

Unfortunately, this did not work as the checkout page through
channeladvisor.com was disabled by oddbanana and the direct payment for
an ebay item (the same one through PayPal) did not link back into the
dispute console.

Now the seller states in the Dispute Console (04 Feb 08):
Because your order was refunded, Ebay recognizes your account as being
"unpaid." As a result, the
seller is entitled to a refund, from Ebay, of the listing and final
value fees for the transaction.
Ebay has been notified and your account is in good standing with us.

Thanks
TM

Then they close the dispute and issue a strike.

They are NOT entitled to FVF for an item they do not have, do not ship,
and continue to list, both as oddbanana and as bigrockmedia.

They are NOT entitled to make libelous accusations against honest buyers whose only fault is to buy an item they don't have.

Abuse of Unpaid Item Process reported to eBay
Non-Performance of Seller reported to eBay
Appeal of Unpaid Item Strike filed

eBay responds that the Unpaid letter was a test and there is no strike - another stupid robotic reply with no factual basis.

eBay responds with hints for a better buying experience and a suggestion I communicate with my seller.

eBay responds, with a copy embedded in the email of the receipt of payment I had provided that its not possible to remove the strike based solely on the evidence provided and suggest I talk to my seller or submit a receipt of payment.

Appeal of Unpaid Item Strike refiled with same receipt.

Strike removed by eBay with the implication that I should have communcated better with my seller and that I might not be so lucky the next time.

oddbanana sells and relists the same DVD. More buyers have left negative feedback for this same problem. 90 Day neg down to 5.8% and oddbanana is still a Power Seller.

This is the reply I sent in response to an email I received by Ebay on 2/15/08 (I changed my ID to xxxx's):

Do you really think that this is going to make any difference? I have strived to make sure that my buyers had excellent service from me via good communication, accurate descriptions, extremely fair s/h charges (at a loss to me by the time I've bought all the packaging materials). very quick shipping within 2 business days (usually 1 day) etc. etc. but now I feel too scared to list anything in case I end up being the victim of an unscrupulous buyer (my only negative in a rating of 3859 positives was from a deadbeat buyer who didn't decide to pay until he got a non paying bidder notice - then sent me a money order 6 weeks after listing end and wondered why I returned his money order to him and why I had relisted it and sold it to someone else! I am proud of my feedback rating and do not intend to do anything to change that which means I won't probably be selling anymore as it's far too risky to sell now - you've left us wide open to buyer scammers who know they can get away with it. I have lost all trust in Ebay.

(their email to me):

eBay wrote:
eBay sent this message to (xxxxxxxxxx).
Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay.
Learn more.




Seller Update: New Media Pricing Effective February 20
xxxxxxxxxx,
By now, we hope you've had the chance to watch the Keynote and Executive Q&A webcasts from our annual eCommerce Forum held recently in Washington D.C. We heard your comments about the need for media and category-specific pricing and are accelerating our plan to phase it in. This fee cut will coincide with the site-wide pricing changes previously announced (see Basic Fees and Feature Fees) and will take effect on February 20.
In the Books, Music, Movies and Video Game software categories, we will be offering even lower insertion fees for the first three insertion tiers as follows:
Starting Price Current Fee New Lower Fee
$0.01 - 0.99 (auction-style only) $.20 $.10
$1.00 - 9.99 (auction-style & fixed price) $.40 $.25
$10.00 - 24.99 (auction-style & fixed price) $.60 $.35

For more information on these changes, please see the latest announcement for details. By rewarding and differentiating our best sellers, we will together deliver more of the great shopping experiences found nowhere else but on eBay.

May I ask how will a buyer who is responsible to a group of investors be able to distinguish reliable sellers from unreliable sellers in the future when these new feedback changes come into effect ? I would hesitate buying items ( especially high-end items ) under these circumstances . I am afraid a wait and see attitude is required here .

Boycott aside left Ebay for Ioffer several years back. Have no desire whatsoever in returning. Ioffer is not only more seller friendly but less expensive.

It is becoming more apparent that Ebay is looking to shed its more "troublesome" "less profitable" small independent business sellers and follow the Amazon model. The new feed back and Paypal policies more or less is Ebay showing these people the door.

I started selling when Ebay was in it's infancy and people looked at you sideways when you said the name Ebay because they had never heard the name before. Ebay has gone through many changes and while yes I am not happy about the fee structure what has been my motivation to leave is what they are going to do to feedback. I have worked very hard to have the feedback rating I have and I bend over backwards to please my customers but even as hard as I work there is inevitably one unreasonable buyer which can cause you grief. For what ever reason, there is no pleasing them and at times the only way I can keep the communication lines open is by having the power to give them a negative feedback for how they handle the transaction (In 9 years I have left only one neg back in 03 for no response and no payment. After a month of trying I left the negative). This same power is given to the buyer as well if they should encounter an unreasonable seller. As of May we sellers will no longer have that power to leave negative or neutral but the buyer will. This is not a balanced system and for us small time sellers it will ruin us. We don't rack up as many feedbacks in one month as a power seller and therefore the percentage of one or two negative feedbacks will severely effect our rating. A rating that buyers will judge us on. They will not see my long history and know that I am not going anywhere. Buyers understand how much us honest sellers value our positive feedback. Not to mention, that unreasonable buyer I spoke about, will not care about negotiating. He will just give the seller a negative and say he no longer wants the item, leaving the seller with the listing fee he cannot re-coup (Ebay will make more money) and a lower feedback rating. If this happens to the power seller, he will no longer quality for listing discounts and will lose his power seller status not to mention that Pay Pal will put a freeze on his money for 21 days if he receives to many negative feedbacks (Ebay makes more money. Higher fee's and interest on that money). Ebay is leaving us sellers defenseless. They want us to believe that they will be there in our corner to make sure we are protected but I will give you a little history of my feedback profile to make a point. Years ago you could leave feedback on each others profile without having completed an auction with the other person. An Ebay user did that to me leaving me a negative which was meant for another user but she made a mistake on the user's names. She apologized and even went as far as leaving a second positive feedback as well as asking for Ebay not to count her mistake. We both contacted Ebay to correct it. Years later Ebay still refuses to remove it since they could not contact the buyer. (She was no longer a registered user right after the feedback was left and never responded to Ebay's emails). It did not matter her apology was in black and white on my feedback profile. If you go to my seller's ID feedback you can read it for yourself on the last page. If that was not there I would have a percentage rate of 100% satisfied customers. So I do not believe Ebay when they say they will protect us from retaliatory or unwarranted feedback. I could go on all day but I will only present one more example. A buyers competition will be able buy items from your auction, not pay you and neg you to bring down your rating to put you out of business. Seller's will have no recourse because that Id will be dumped. ID's are easy to get and change when you are just a buyer. Of course this can and does happen now but the effect will be a lot more powerful when all sellers get a new feedback rating every 30 days and cannot build up big numbers to buffer themselves.

This is just the tip of the Ice berg of examples when we talk about the feedback issue. I am a good seller and treat my customers as I would want to be treated. Fairly, honestly and with respect. I expect the same back from my business partner. Ebay will no longer be my business partner with these new restrictions.

Many companies have already released media stating they are aware sellers are looking for new homes and I guarantee they will be willing to work with us giving us a fair selling and buying venue. After all, we all are buyers as well as sellers on Ebay. The buyers who want quality merchandise at a fair, honest price will find us. We need to send the message loud and clear: We define Ebay. Ebay does not define us. I think they have forgotten we are a country full of people who fight for our rights and find solutions to our problems. This problem will be solved, the question is, which company will benefit?

to all- remember- let's stick to the
SUBJECT -VERB- AND OBJECT..

TO THE POINT... Please!
Thank you

I've been a prodigious buyer (over $10,000 last year alone) and power seller (way more than $10,000 a year) since almost the beginning on ebay, when it was a friendly and fun place. Now it is deliberately being turned into another online WalMart. It is nice to see sites like onlineauction.com, ebid.net, and a host of niche sites now benefitting from a flood of honest and conscientious former ebay sellers (whom, I might add, are the bulk of honest and conscientious ebay buyers, as well). The new roundup of buyers from the inane "win victoriously" commercials are a mainly rude and crude bunch, leaving negative feedback and stupid comments to demonstrate--what--power, or merely their ignorance?? It is no longer safe to sell on ebay, so I have been diversifying for several months, opening my own webstore, getting my listings found in searches, and listing my unique vintage high quality goods on other auction and fixed price sites. Just over the past few weeks, my income from those sources has finally risen enough that I can now consider continuing the ebay buying and selling boycott permanently. Now I am able to find the same inventory for a lower price on the other sites, so why go back to shopping on ebay? I do think I might keep my account open and list something now and then, but only to be able to point people to my historical feedback. This plan of ebay's is deliberate, and I think if nothing else, the boycott accomplished two things for a large number of very unhappy sellers: 1) got them to step out of their comfort zone and develop alternatives and 2) got them to accept that ebay is probably not going to reverse even one of the changes (that would be too great a loss of face). Ebay is now going to be engaging in a battle with its competitors while dragging along behind it a huge load of bad PR and the corpses of dead sellers. Now with the new feedback rules coming up soon, it will be a wild west cattle drive for evey more buyers who are scammers, extortionists, and fraudsters. Most of the new breed of power sellers will have IP addresses in China. Talk about a place no self-respecting person would want to patronize!

I sell on the site all the time and also buy. I am definitely not happy with the feedback changes. Deadbeat buyers will suffer no reprecussions. I have also been the victim of fraud on the buyer side and ebay or paypal did absolutely nothing for me. My feeling is that if sellers do not agree with ebays recent changes then they need to move on to another site. And hopefully they all move to the same site. This does not seem to be happening. Everyone is going all over the place. But you vote with your feet. Ebay made a decision and let them live with it. The other thing is how can they rate you on timely shipping when its really the responsibility of the carrier. If you mail your buyers items out in a timely manner and USPS or UPS screws up you get a negative. They should remove this aspect of the feedback. Not fair.

As an "occasional" seller and more frequent buyer, I think this is a bad move on Ebay's part. Typical overpaid executive Ivory Tower thinking. "Gee, let me see how I can increase my already HUGE bonus. Oh yeah, increase fees and screw my customers. Hold their money for 21 days without interest (but I can earn and keep the interest).

Well this part-timer is staying with the boycott and Feebay can keep their website. It seems to be all Chinese products these days anyway. Hmmm did there stock get bought by the Chinese?

Anyway try other sites. I like bidville.com and bluejay.com. Very good sites for buyers and sellers alike.

Go PSU. There is power in numbers!!!!

Ebay is greedy and crooked, and most of the changes they've made over the last few years have been designed to cheat and gouge money from sellers at the cost of the site's long-term health.

Many of these changes have increased fraud on the site. But Ebay is fine with that, as they figure the more failed sales, the more people will relist to sell the SAME ITEM, and Ebay will steal additional money.

Ebay figures there will be a big influx of scammers who will intimidate sellers into letting them have whatever they want. Meanwhile the (stupid) sellers will be paying Ebay for the right to be scammed and Ebay's bottom line will go up temporarily with this added traffic as the scammers clean out what is left of the sellers.

Meg Whitman trashed the site, and drained Ebay of billions of dollars. Now the executives are looking to finish exploiting the remaining sellers until there is nobody left stupid enough to try to sell on the site.

Have been a seller and buyer on eBay since 1999. 100% positive feedback, primarily for selling. I'm still boycotting victoriously. EBay can charge whatever they want, that's their business model. I have a huge problem with their new feedback policies and will not sell there again under those terms. I sell on Ruby Lane, and it's been a much better venue for me than eBay for the past few years.

There are choices. There are always choices. You can chose to continue at ebay and pay their fees... after all, They are the 900# gorilla who charges you for every little enhancement and perk. They are the ones who also have the advertising budget.

Or you can join ALTERNATIVE TO EBAY sites. Don't just join one.. Join several.

Don't expect any of them to be the EBAY of today. There isn't one. You will have to actually do some of your own shipping calculations. You will actually have to do some of your own invoicing. But, you can keep more of your money from the sale.

These sites are the ebay that used to be.

For a list of popular sites... see www.powersellersunite.com for the auction site count on the left side bar.

Or www.kenzy.com for a near complete list of sites, both active and defunct.

I am not boycotting eBay...

I am EVACUATING A DISASTER ZONE!!!

ADIOS Mr. Donahoe
It was fun for a while
Bucky

I am a Powerseller with a feedback off 3235 positive and have been on eBay since 2001. I sell books and magazines as a supplement income as I am retired. I usually list from 50 to 100 items a week but have not listed anything on eBay since the boycott. After the notice of the price increases and the feedback policy change I started a web site and have gone to two other auction sites. The up coming feedback changes are down right stupid! Please tell me why I would want to leave positive feedback for a buyer who stops payment on a check??? Someone at eBay is not clearly thinking or has mislaid their brains!

I am a longtime ebayer and powerseller with 100% feedback. Despite the fact the I only charge actual shipping, I cannot meet ebay's DSR requirements for reduced final value fees. I can no longer offer my customer the prices they expect because of the fee hikes (a nickel on insertion is nothing!) It's the Final Value Fee that that kills my profit. In the near term, I'll continue listing on ebay; but, will decrease my listings. I've already begun listing items at online auction.com and will eventually be opening my own site at eCrater.com. I'll let my ebay customers know where to find my site as I take my eCommerce elsewhere. As for the feedback changes -- that's laughable! There will be no way I can warn other sellers about deadbeat, slowpaying buyers. Ebay should show average time a buyer takes to pay. That would be a helpful rating to see!

I too am leaving Ebay. The greed has just gotten crazy. I have been both a buyer and a seller with over 3000+ feedback. I have slowed down my selling in the last year due to the search issues for the stores and also because of the higher fees. Now I lose all my hardearned feedback to just sales from the past year? You really suck Ebay. I sell on Ecrater now and am developing my own site. It was fun for awhile, now it's like taking a continuous beating. Buyers check out the other online auctions. Email your Ebay sellers and ask if they are online anywhere else.

I have over $10,000 in items that I NEED to sell and in order for me to do that, I will be giving Ebay/Paypal between $1600-$2000 in fees to do so. I already see the tide turning in attitude with Buyers. One Canadian demanded that I lie and say the items shipped was a Gift, in order to avoid import fees. With the new feedback system, I can't warn others. She on the other hand can slam me. I have really had it with Ebay this time around - I am tired of canned responses for all these years,"We are sorry that this happened to you, let me see if I understand what has happened so that I may send you the appropriate link to email to the Safe Harbor Team" - a team that also hands out canned answers. These latest changes only show how narrow-minded and greedy Ebay has become and I am working hard to move AWAY from Ebay - praying that Google will step up to the plate with a better Auction site, that isn't a bottomless hole of greed as well. I hope that one morning Ebay awakens to see that we have ALL migrated elsewhere.... I can only hope and do my part.

One more thought: If Paypal holds my funds even once, that will be it. I say goodbye to both Paypal and Ebay.

I won't be visiting eBay to buy until the new feedback goes in place, then I will buy things from the scabs that were stupid and stayed on and leave them a negative feedback. May 1st is your last chance to boycott by the sounds of it. Then you're shark bait!
So you'll get it twice, once from me and then again when eBay pulls the same stunt on you dummies in another 3 months or so.
You think they are satisfied now, that this fixes things for the stockholders? Ha, greed is never satisfed until it kills itself.

I have been buying and selling on ebay for 8 years. I am a high end Power Seller of Antiques. This last round of changes will break the backs of most high end Antique sellers on ebay. No more refunds for reserve listings will kill the great Antique listings on ebay. It is no longer worth the fees, the feedback headaches, the Pay Pal issues, and the hand holding of ebayer buyers. ebay will be the great dumping ground for junk, the days of high quality great antique finds will be a thing of the past. It's sad, it was fun and profitable while it lasted

ebay has done it this time. They're sitting back saying we're just a bunch of noise and we'll go away. You know what, they're right and going away in BIG numbers. The only problem is we're going in too many different directions. I have went to onlineauction.com and ecrater.com for my store. I know others have gone to different auctions also. Maybe we need to do what this site is trying to do, which is all get together. Read it.
https://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/subat

Yes, a lot of us would like Google to step up to the plate. If they build it, we will come.

I used to love buying things on eBay. Before I ever placed a bid on something, I checked the buyer and seller feedback, both positive and negative. Usually I found that the buyers were being jerks on the negatives they left. As a result, I never had a problem by using that tool to determine if I was working with a good seller. Now with the feedback changes coming how am I, as a buyer, going to be able to tell the truely good from the bad sellers? When the feedback policy goes into effect, I won't be buying on eBay!
Also, I would like to point out that last week's big-to-do about the sale of the record collection by a seller through eBay for $3 Million was a big fraud! It turns out that the buyer had highjacked an account to bid the $3 Million. What does eBay do to keep this from happening? How does eBay keep accounts, like mine, from being hijacked? I see nothing on eBay's part to deal with this type of situation.

I am a Powerseller with just over 1400 feedback and a 99.9% rating. I sell mainly new/used clothing, collectibles, books, etc. I consider myself a part-time seller on Ebay and am horrified by the new policies that Ebay has come out with.

I understand Ebay is also a "business" that also needs to make money, but quite frankly I think they are getting greedy. I had a store up until Feb 18th...the new final value fees for store's went from 10% to 12% for the initial $25 and 8% for all amounts over $25. The free gallery upgrade and "reduced" listing fees were just a mask for the final value fees. When I took last month's Ebay bill and switched the percentages...it would have been 40% higher than it was...that isn't a savings, no matter how you spell it.

The new feedback policy is absolutely ridiculous. Ebay "generously" told Powerseller's that IF they can keep their DSR high they would get a percentage off of their FVFs...after May, it will be impossible to keep DSRs high enough...I believe that was/is Ebay's plan. I've only ever received one neg...and that was from a buyer who never contacted me and took over a month to leave the feedback. Most buyers and sellers are honest individuals, but I would say that 1/20 of my buyers are con-artists out to try to get something for nothing. Most buyers who leave feedback don't contact the seller prior to leaving feedback. I think it would be appropriate to set up a system similar to the NPB system that sellers currently use to report non-paying bidders...if a buyer tries to click on "leave negative" a pop up window will direct them that they have to contact the seller before being allowed to leave a negative. The seller would then have 7 days to respond/fix the problem. If the buyer and seller do come to an understanding then each would get a positive with a note they worked out a disagreement. If they cannot work out the problem, then the problem would escalate to a claim which an arbitrator would look at.

I am also against the new PayPal policy to with hold a seller's funds on an item that Ebay has deemed "high risk". A seller would have to ship the item out-of-pocket and hope that a buyer will leave feedback so that the money would be released...if not, then they'd have to wait 21 days. PayPal will earn the money during this "limbo" time. In my opinion, after this is allowed to take effect, it will only be a matter of time before ALL catagories are included under the guise of "customer service".

Over all, I think Ebay needs to rethink it's new policies. There are other auction sites...they may not have the traffic currently that Ebay has, BUT as more people get fed up, they will look for other venues...and when the unique, collectible, hard-to-find items start diminishing, the buyers will follow. I for one am continuing to boycott and have started listing on other sites.

I have been an ebay seller for almost 3 years. For me and many others it has always been an uphill struggle. To sell ANYTHING on ebay means competing with thousands of other sellers and selling at rock bottom prices. And now ebay's new CEO imported from Wal-Mart has declared that "ebay looks too much like a flea market".
Ebay's new direction, in the opinion of many, is to emulate Amazon. Amazon was not built on ebay's core of sellers. Ebay was built on people selling household items that were no longer needed to complete strangers on a new medium called the internet. Sadly, ebay has decided that this venue is no longer acceptable to the higher-ups.
Ebay's feedback system and overall business model has made them a very unique part of American history. Now with a new CEO at the helm, ebay has decided to change their course. How many thousands of small mom and pop businesses, disabled people, and even people like me who sell on ebay for extra money [and for the fun of it] will be put out of business?
Ebay's corporate greed will be their downfall. Wake up ebay, look at what you are doing to your customers AND YOURSELF!!

As an additional comment...I have to wonder WHY Ebay is being so self destructive...as stock prices begin to fall ~ are they going to buy up their stocks and then all of a sudden have a change of "heart" regarding the new policies (so all the sellers will return feeling victorious) and then "cash in" and make a killing? They certainly can't truly believe that these new policies are the answer to anything...they will only make matters worse for buyers and sellers alike. Something has to be up the proverbial sleeve...

I've been on ebay since '99, mostly selling, occasional purchases.

I've hung in thru ups and downs, but this is the last straw.

I enjoyed a business relationship with ebay. I posted auction ads and paid ebay an upfront fee + % of sales.

I then dealt with the winning bidders to get their item to them in as good or better than the ad description.

Ebay's new policies work for me, and I being an intelligent, educated, businessperson, in sound mind (almost) and body, intend to find other venues.

I hate to start over, but I have no intention of ever paying another cent to a company managed by an uncaring, upstart pompous oaf with no producitve experience except as "yesmen" who starts his new career by alieniating his customer base (EBAY SELLERS).

These new policies are absolutely the most air-headed, unprocessed ideas to come from supposedly intelligent, supposedly educated business people that I can imagine.

I have been screwed over by Ebay more times than I can count - some of the stories are unbelievable, but I'm sure that other Powersellers have been through similar nightmares! I have never felt like Ebay cared about sellers a bit, but put up with it because I couldn't sell much of anything on other sites and because I had so many great, loyal customers.
This is just a little too much to swallow and a real slap in the face, especially the inability to leave negative feedback for buyers. That is downright scary and completely outrageous. I have dealt with some real jerks that would have left negative for no reason other than they didn't like my handwriting if they didn't know that I could leave them negative, too. Now I know it is just a matter of time before a buyer will leave negative for no reason other than because he/she can, or because I won't give in to some form of extortion (believe me, it will happen!). Sellers don't get protection from Ebay or Paypal now and we won't in the future. Our only form of protection was the feedback, and now that is being taken away.
I have listed items on four other auction sites, and have sold to my loyal customers directly. I will list some on Ebay until I can move completely to another site, but I refuse to continue to be treated like a doormat by a money hungry company who cares less for the sellers than they do for some irrelevant garbage they toss out without a second thought.
Mr. Donahoe, I won't be contributing to your multi million dollar salary and bonus next year. Maybe YOU should try selling on Ebay to see how much you can earn!

I've been on eBay since 1998 and was a Powerseller. I dropped it by choice. I have a store and I am very unhappy about the new fees, especially they way they were presented. The new fees and feedback rules put me at a disadvantage. In response I've opened up accounts on three other sites and I'm looking for more. I am also looking for blocked bidders lists from ethical sellers and will provide my list to those that want it. I want to block the trouble makers in advance.

correction:
.....ebay's policies DON'T work for me ....

The new feedback changes have not even taken effect yet and I have one member baggering me.. He has sent 4 messages that the parts I sold him were nice but has filed an Items Not As Advertized due to the fact I did not post feedback for him..I have now contacted customer support (for what little good that does)but reguardless of his messages stating the parts were great their only concern is Items not as advertized which is bogus charge as he has openly addmitted!

I also have one bidder that has failed to pay for three items, sure wish he would get booted as fast as the record collection scammer so I can move on with other business..
Ebay is going to get much worse in the very near future but this seller is not going to be there to get kicked around.. My paypal account was closed 2 hours ago, my ebay account will be closed by mid March unless some of the new changes are reversed...

I am a power seller with over 2500 feedback (99.9) and took part in the boycott last week. I am dismayed over the feedback, the increase in final value fees, and mostly the callus regard the eBay executives have shown toward the sellers. They have also publically lied about the boycott, saying it had no effect on the listings, this simply was dishonest of them.
Finally, I have listed at Online Auctions (OLA) as have many, many eBay loyal sellers who felt they were forced to list on new sites. Many, many sites saw a surge of new sellers last week. Now, we are hoping the buyers can find us.

Meg is leaving (good thing) Taking her ill gotten gains. Places an idiot in her position (bad thing) Investors should be thinking Enron.bay

Been selling on Ebay for 10 years, just small things. Not a power seller. Cannot handle these increases and not being able to leave neg feedback for bad buyers. I cannot make a profit, and if I raise my prices, I will get charged more by Ebay. Ebay does not want the little sellers anymore, the ones who made Ebay what it is today. They want another Web store where you can buy anything. I am still selling some things on Ebay until I can get established on the other sites I am now listing on too. They are much more reasonable but as of yet, do not have the traffic that Ebay has.

I have been an eBay member since 1998. I mostly purchased unique items from small sellers until the last year when I started to sell my treasures. At this point I and my household (two other seller/buyers) have stopped listing or buying on eBay since the boycott. It is a shame that eBay has lost its roots and focus - the ability of small sellers to provide "treasures from the attic" to a broad audience. We will miss it but it is obvious that we are no longer welcome and time move along. The other sites will flourish with the eBay refugees!

1. eBay's fee increase is inevitable & legal & We all know the buyer will absorb the increase.

2. eBay / Paypal withholding sellers $$ for 21 days? I can understand applying this to an unknown or shady seller but not to everyone.

3. eBay's feedback policy is legal but unbalanced & irresponsible. One of those "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?" moments.

Any seller's competitor can easily cause the seller to go out of business. All they have to do is buy a few small items from this seller; Leave a few negatives as a buyer and that seller's auctions not only disappear and becomes invisible but eBay puts a BIG RED SCARLETT LETTER "NEGATIVE COMMENT" on all the sellers auction listings.

4. eBay's manipulating a sellers listing visibility in search results, while still charging the seller full price is for a service is BORDERLINE CRIMINAL. Nah! IT'S CRIMINAL! and it's already started.

Ebay claims the search manipulation won't
start until May, but I sincerely believe it's already started.

Several months ago, I noticed I was finding more eBay auction listings using Google's search then using eBay's own search engine. The fact Google's search would bring up eBay auction listings that never appeared in eBay search results seemed ODD! VERY ODD!

The seller is eBay's customer. If eBay accepts the customer's money then every customer is entitled to the same quality of service as anyone else. eBay is required by law to provide the same services without any manipulation. Otherwise, isn't that fraud?

I could be wrong, but it seems eBay's
hidden agenda is to make money while deceitfully getting rid of small sellers!

What's the point??? these are the same sellers that helped build eBay in the first place.

Bottom line:
ACCEPTING MONEY FOR SERVICES NOT PROVIDED
IS FRAUD!

OBSTRUCTING A SELLER'S AUCTION FOR ANY REASON IS CRIMINAL!

Since the main purpose of the feedback change campaign is to enhance the buyer experience as eBay has promoted, shouldn't they do the same for eBay sellers (which in fact, the sellers are direct buyers of eBay services) as well?

Perhaps eBay should build a new rating system (eBay vs sellers) and under this new rating system, eBay can only give positive feedback for all sellers (I don't really know what this will serve but it should be the same as the feedback changes proposed by eBay just for the symmetry). Sellers can give eBay a positive, neutral or negative for every transaction depending on the services you received as a seller under their platform.

Also, sellers can rate eBay under a DSR star system on aspects like
1) Are the purchased services & functionalities as described?
2) Communication (how eBay CS responds to your question)
3) Delivery (I believe this will be the technical performance of the site - whether the services are delivered as expected in reasonable fashion)
4) Service charges (just as an eBay seller, buyer is able to rate the shipping & handling charges even through they are stated upfront on the listing)
This eBay rating should be made available publicly as a reference for potential sellers who wish to join eBay in the future.

I will accept the new feedback changes if eBay agrees to implement this so sellers (buyers of eBay services) can rate the site performance.

I have dumped both Pay Pal and Ebay in protest of the new policies, after a 3 month selling blitz as a Power Seller. When I complained to the BBB about Ebay, I was 'suspended' with no reason given. Fine. I cancelled my account, closed my credit card account that Pay Pal had on file, as well as the bank account associated with them. Oh, by the way, I didn't pay my $400 in seller fees, either! Mean while I have opened a new FREE store on ecrater, which is my own website that has no fees or ebay mafia rules ! Hooray!

I have dumped both Pay Pal and Ebay in protest of the new policies, after a 3 month selling blitz as a Power Seller. When I complained to the BBB about Ebay, I was 'suspended' with no reason given. Fine. I cancelled my account, closed my credit card account that Pay Pal had on file, as well as the bank account associated with them. Oh, by the way, I didn't pay my $400 in seller fees, either! Mean while I have opened a new FREE store on ecrater, which is my own website that has no fees or ebay mafia rules ! Hooray!

I have dumped both Pay Pal and Ebay in protest of the new policies, after a 3 month selling blitz as a Power Seller. When I complained to the BBB about Ebay, I was 'suspended' with no reason given. Fine. I cancelled my account, closed my credit card account that Pay Pal had on file, as well as the bank account associated with them. Oh, by the way, I didn't pay my $400 in seller fees, either! Mean while I have opened a new FREE store on ecrater, which is my own website that has no fees or ebay mafia rules ! Hooray!

I have dumped both Pay Pal and Ebay in protest of the new policies, after a 3 month selling blitz as a Power Seller. When I complained to the BBB about Ebay, I was 'suspended' with no reason given. Fine. I cancelled my account, closed my credit card account that Pay Pal had on file, as well as the bank account associated with them. Oh, by the way, I didn't pay my $400 in seller fees, either! Mean while I have opened a new FREE store on ecrater, which is my own website that has no fees or ebay mafia rules ! Hooray!

I have dumped both Pay Pal and Ebay in protest of the new policies, after a 3 month selling blitz as a Power Seller. When I complained to the BBB about Ebay, I was 'suspended' with no reason given. Fine. I cancelled my account, closed my credit card account that Pay Pal had on file, as well as the bank account associated with them. Oh, by the way, I didn't pay my $400 in seller fees, either! Mean while I have opened a new FREE store on ecrater, which is my own website that has no fees or ebay mafia rules ! Hooray!

I have dumped both Pay Pal and Ebay in protest of the new policies, after a 3 month selling blitz as a Power Seller. When I complained to the BBB about Ebay, I was 'suspended' with no reason given. Fine. I cancelled my account, closed my credit card account that Pay Pal had on file, as well as the bank account associated with them. Oh, by the way, I didn't pay my $400 in seller fees, either! Mean while I have opened a new FREE store on ecrater, which is my own website that has no fees or ebay mafia rules ! Hooray!

I have dumped both Pay Pal and Ebay in protest of the new policies, after a 3 month selling blitz as a Power Seller. When I complained to the BBB about Ebay, I was 'suspended' with no reason given. Fine. I cancelled my account, closed my credit card account that Pay Pal had on file, as well as the bank account associated with them. Oh, by the way, I didn't pay my $400 in seller fees, either! Mean while I have opened a new FREE store on ecrater, which is my own website that has no fees or ebay mafia rules ! Hooray!

I have dumped both Pay Pal and Ebay in protest of the new policies, after a 3 month selling blitz as a Power Seller. When I complained to the BBB about Ebay, I was 'suspended' with no reason given. Fine. I cancelled my account, closed my credit card account that Pay Pal had on file, as well as the bank account associated with them. Oh, by the way, I didn't pay my $400 in seller fees, either! Mean while I have opened a new FREE store on ecrater, which is my own website that has no fees or ebay mafia rules ! Hooray!

I have dumped both Pay Pal and Ebay in protest of the new policies, after a 3 month selling blitz as a Power Seller. When I complained to the BBB about Ebay, I was 'suspended' with no reason given. Fine. I cancelled my account, closed my credit card account that Pay Pal had on file, as well as the bank account associated with them. Oh, by the way, I didn't pay my $400 in seller fees, either! Mean while I have opened a new FREE store on ecrater, which is my own website that has no fees or ebay mafia rules ! Hooray!

I am a Powerseller with 2 sites on Ebay. I have been selling for over 2 year. Ebay claims that the New changes help the sellers but really they are unrealistic and the DSR star rating will be almost impossible to achieve.

Ebay so far has been unwilling to hear the Sellers Voice. Calling it just Noise.

First let me start with the Fee's. The Powerseller Discounts are based on weather or not the Seller can keep his DRS Star rating 4.8 to 5.0 5.0 being perfect.
Even a Powerseller with a 100% feedback can have his stars dinged when the buyer is new and doesn't understand the questions system. This in turn knocks the Sellers star down lower that required and the seller now doesn't qualify for the Discount. Ebay has now sent the message to get good star ratings for the Shipping we need to offer Free Shipping, cutting into the Sellers profit even more.

Sellers being able to give a negative is the only thing that helps to alert other Sellers of Bad Buyers who abuse the system.

Ebay needs to put in place a system that when a Buyer has a problem, the feedbac on the buyers part cant be give right away.. The Buyer needs to be in communication with the Seller, when that fails then they need to escalate a claim threw Ebay so that Ebay can know that there is a Problem Seller.

If Ebay would listen to the Sellers concern instead of dismissing them this Feedback problem could be tuned in to a win win for both Buyer and Seller

I feel very disappointed and saddened by eBay's new policies. I have been a member for about 10 years and selling regularly for 4 years. It has been a fun hobby and I made extra money for my family. Now most of the "extra money" will go to eBay in the form of fees. That combined with the one-sided feedback policy makes selling on "feebay" a lose/lose proposition for me.

I live in suburban DC and would be happy to talk to you if you want comments on the record for a story. My phone number can easily be found.

Ebay is about to immolate itself.

I am an occasional seller and have a positive feedback score of 203. Ebay is no longer a site that caters to yard sale merchandise--which is how it started out. Obviously the huge increase in the cut ebay is going to take from most small time sellers is going to make it uneconomic for many to continue. What really annoyed me was that ebay parlayed the fee change as a fee decrease. It was only when you read the small print that you realized it was a huge fee hike if you basically sell stuff on ebay in lieu of a yard sale.

By the way I am a Power Seller at the lowest level because I tend to use ebay intensely to sell and then go off the site. I started a huge sell off of stuff in November and about two or three weeks ago was asked if I wanted to be a Power Seller. After the feedback changes go into effect, many long time Power Sellers will lose their status. There is a group of nuts on ebay. They compulsively bid on things and then don't pay. I think it is a shopping addiction (like gambling). I had one the other night claim she had lost her job on the day after the auction (which I did not believe). The person has a lot of bad feedback. She should have had her account pulled long ago (but ebay has no effective way of preventing troublemakers from simply getting a new name and doing the same thing over and over again). So, because I insisted that she pay and told her I would report her as a nonpaying bidder if she did not, she gave me bad feedback coupled with invective. Ebay does not remove such feedback (They claim they are going to do better in that regard with the new feedback changes but I will believe it when I see it). What inhibits many nuts from doing that, is that they know the seller will give them bad feedback in return. I did give my nonpaying bidder bad feedback (in return I got a lot of nasty email in all capital letters filled with invective and calling me things like "TRASH"). What the person wanted was for me to let her out of the transaction. I never negotiate with people after the auction. NO ONE forces anyone to bid. You bid, you pay or I report you as a nonpaying bidder.

Come May when the feedback rules go into effect, the whole site will be run by the same sort of flamers. This is similar to what happened when AOL removed monitors from its message boards. If no one is deleting posts and making people somewhat behave, the nuts rule. So, the crazies will run around putting up bad feedback and undermine all the sellers. A lot of Power Sellers will lose their status (which I will lose anyway because my yard sale is almost over).

By the way being a Power Seller at my level (the lowest) doesn't entitle you to much. With the increase in the ebay fees I still pay more after the recent increase. I did feel that the Federal Trade Commission should have gotten after ebay for deceptive advertising in the way it announced the fee "decrease". Ebay is, in effect, a monopoly. Until one of the other auction sites takes off, it will push people around. One thing I cannot stand is the unending cheerfulness is in the ukases handed down from the ebay czars. They really talk down to the users of the site and assume we are all idiots. Heck I am an attorney. I have bought one thing on ebay (a computer part). Other than that it is just a way for me to get rid of stuff that has outlived its usefulness in my home, but I realized right away that the emails about fee "decreases" were idiotic.

Then there is the feedback stuff that is programmed to allow the flamers to rule. That is going to run sellers off the site because even now many sellers are fed up. You complain about something (such as bad feedback from a person who refused to pay after the auction) and you get canned responses from people who are only allowed to give canned responses. That really insults people. I know I am insulted when I get something like that. It means that ebay does not care about the sellers--and they don't. Ebay cares about its bottom line--fair enough it's a business. What the people running ebay do not see is that they are setting out to destroy themselves. At this point they are dug in and determined and to do what they are going to do and ruin the site (and themselves). If I can see it, why are the people at corporate headquarters, well, just so damn dumb? Don't they see what they are doing? It is no skin off my back because I will be gone (until I accumulate more stuff) but what about the others. Not only is ebay a monopoly that pushes people around, it is run, in my opinion, by a bunch of dummies. They are concerned about fewer people using the site and because sellers give more bad feedback than buyers, they have decided that sellers are running people off the site. The people "run off" should not be there in the first place.

There is a lot of fraud on ebay. Sellers will say something is new when it is very old--or the listing will omit something and give people the impression that something is better than it is. On the other hand, I sold some WORN china dinner plates that I put up as WORN. The person who bought them claimed that they were WORN and I was selling junk. I did notice that she was buying new plates in the same pattern for much more money than my WORN plates (they went for very little). My reaction to her complaints was "Please go look at the listing." I got a lot of nasty email from this person. I have no doubt if she did not know I would retaliate she would have given me bad feedback for self amusement. That will happen come May. Feedback for buyers will be essentially worthless. In fact, as a seller, if I sell anything while these idiotic policies are in effect, I do not intend to give feedback at all. What is the point?

The so called ebay strike was ineffective. The strikers hurt themselves more than they hurt ebay. Again, there is no alternative site and ebay is a monopoly; you either trade there with whatever rules ebay deals out or you don't trade. When ebay sends you one of those cheerful emails about fee decreases, it is never a fee decrease. They have a right to make money but to do it they are going to have to change their ways or one of the other auction sites will take off and ebay will go bankrupt. If that happens I won't shed any crocodile tears. After all, I am in business too and I am not happy about how they treat me. I deal with them only because there is no other game on the web.

Thank you for your interest in this issue.

I've been buying on eBay since 2000, and selling seriously since 2006. I agree with with and support what everyone else has written, here. I have lived many of the same experiences.

What eBay really hopes to accomplish is becoming less and less clear. Initially, it was clear that they wanted to rid themselves of the smaller, lower-volume sellers, such as myself. But, these changes affect power sellers even more than small sellers. If there are neither small nor large sellers, there is no venue. It almost seems as if eBay is trying to put itself out of business.

At this point, the general frustration and anger are widely-known. I would like to stress the economic impact of these developments. This is a bad economy. No one -- large or small -- can afford to lose business, right now.

This will have a particularly disastrous effect on the many independent merchants who need the infrastructure of a multi-merchant venue like eBay. We need a venue with a ready-made customer base, who will buy our merchandise as soon as we present it. We need a venue that has an established traffic pattern, and that will continue to market itself, and in doing that, draw business to our stores. We need the payment processing services. We need the Internet infrastructure. Together, these things can become prohibitively expensive for most independent sellers.

I would also like to draw attention to the significant percentage of the eBay population that consists of individuals who need to generate income online from home. We can't just "go get a job". We're disabled. We're retired. We live in rural areas. This is much more than an inconvenience for us. This is threatening our very livelihoods.

I began selling on eBay in the fall of 2005. I soared to power seller status within a few month and maintained the rating until I decided to take a break this past Nov.

To become a power seller you only have to sell a mere $1000.00 for a 3 month period and maintain that level of sales. Not a hard task. So there is really little difference in a small seller and a power seller. A seller considered small could be just dollars away from being a power seller.

Now to ebay changes. Wow! It seams the new CEO simply wants to eliminate everything that has made ebay successful. Why/how could this be a good thing.

I feel there are 2 type of sellers. One that connects with a huge return item wholesaler to sell plastic or electronic items. The seller purchase 1000's of these items and list them on ebay simply to make a penny. Ebay tries to make everyone believe these sellers are their rock. If this type of seller ever finds another site to list cheaper, easier, etc, their gone!

The other type of seller meticulously goes shopping at goodwill, estate sale, tag sales, to search for treasures to list on ebay. Okay the "flea market seller" I believe we have been named. It is an addictive rush not only to find the items buyers are willing to buy, but a rush selling the items. This is the type of selling that would stick with ebay, well until now.

The feedback changes are really a stab in the heart of truly committed sellers. It's as though we caught our lover cheating. The loss of trust, even if ebay was to change their minds about the feedback, will be hard to over look. Even if ebay announced tomorrow they will leave the feedback alone, I still will begin selling on another venue. I may sell some items on ebay, but never again all my items.

I just found out that there have been other boycotts in the past, never knew anything about them. This time is different, ebay has touched a soft spot not allowing sellers the same right as a buyer to leave appropriate feedback.

I recently received a neutral feedback, the buyer said I packaged my item excessively creating extra shipping charges. Did you get that! She purchased 2 dinner plates, 2 side plates, and a matching wall plaque. I had to ship the items from KY to CA, the shipping using USPS Priority was $9.75.
The buyer never contacted me to discuss the fact she was upset, she simply choose to leave a neutral without trying to work the problem out. I left the buyer a negative feedback in return. Ebay would say that I left retaliatory feedback, simply because the buyer left me a neutral. No, I left the negative because the buyer obviously does not have communication skills. Without communication, where would ebay be. Communication is imperative for a successful transaction on ebay, period!

Let's just say for the sake of argument I should have left the buyer a neutral, oh wait I will no longer have that option. The only option I will have is to leave this buyer a positive feedback. Are you with me? How fair is that!

Now as far as the fees changes go, in order sell an item on ebay the total fees including Paypal to sell an item will be approximately 20% of the sell price. I think that is steep considering ebay is basically just providing web space.

Ebay may be worth billions, but their only commodity is there sellers. What happens when all the devoted sellers leave? I wouldn't want to be a stock holder right now.

See you at Ruby Lane!!!!

DSR came as a surprise to me since we have an antiques and collectibles shop and only come to eBay in the off season. This system has put me at the bottom of the search results.
eBay has crossed the line. I am not recieving what I am paying for, in regards to exposure. This is contary to the Province of Ontario Consumer Protection Act, and falls under the Fair Trade section of The Competition Bureau, Industry Canada.
Any legal eagles need a Class Action suit?
http://www.hbsslaw.com/files/Class_Action_Complaint_secured1178576984126.pdf

I've just left. Not boycotting, simply Not going back. I'm tired of having ebay and paypal chip away at my meager bottom line. I'm a small seller but I started as a buyer and was inspired by some other small sellers. I loved the give and take of feedback and good communication that characterized 99.5% of my interactions.

I'd been selling for about 6 months when I realized the prices people were willing to pay kept going down - along with the USPS price increases! I also started to get non-paying buyers. Since I am selling to pay some medical bills and liquidate part of my parent's estate, I need to make at least a little money. I started to look at buyers feedback (just like I looked at seller's before I bought from them), especially if they were bidding on something fairly expensive, or more than one of my items. I could also see if someone has been a trustworthy buyer when things come up (like the atm machine eating the debit card, etc) so I know they are good for the money. Most good buyers worked as hard for their 100% feedback as we did as sellers.

Their changes will take that away. Then there are the DSR stars and the new highly absurd "best match" secret algorithms that will bury the small sellers way down the list of potential items (instead of just listing by time ending, etc!!)

So, I've left for some important reasons: 1) the new fee structure would cost me even more than I pay now, and my margins were too small already, 2) they just took away the mutual trust by changing the feedback system, and 3) they've stacked the deck against the small seller and any seller who gets a less-than-perfect "star" rating (which they've rigged to be impossible too).

But mainly I've left because I can no longer trust them and ebay is no longer the fun place it was.(to buy or sell)

The people (automatons?) who have made these decisions are bat-excrement crazy!
How many times do they think sellers will rollover and take their price gouging. For a place that claims they're "just a venue", they certainly interfere with the seller-buyer transaction a heck of a lot (unless there's some trouble - then you'll never find them...)

Sellers are scattering to competing websites, and learning not to depend on anyone site (ONCE BURNED...) I've put my main store on OLA.com, and am experimenting with Wagglepop.com and PlunderHere.com. I've even been inspired (and encouraged) to start an etsy.com store for some of my artwork.

I feel sorry for people who are making their living through ebay. I hope that they can diversify slowly so they can move off ebay and still feed their families. Me? My bills aren't going anywhere, but it's not worth standing for extremely offensive treatment by a major corporation who couldn't care less about us little "fleas".

Now, I'm focusing my energies on building up my new stores, and becoming part of those communities. Many of us have joined a networking site powersellersunite.com (you don't have to be a powerseller to join!) and are supporting one another through these changes. The world of online commerce is going to look radically different in 5 years. I don't think ebay will still be an 800 lb gorilla.

Sell your ebay stock. They won't listen to those of us who are really their customers (after all WE are the ones who where paying ebay, not the buyers!), maybe they'll listen to stock holders. Or maybe someone up there is just listening to the voices in his head....Sigh. I'm just tired.

start sellIng on EBID.NET online auction with no or low FEES. Get the hell away from greedbay.

I will have to say I have been selling on ebay since 2005 In June of 2007 I quit my full time job to embark on my business and really build it up using ebay as the main source of my selling and have been doing very well with it i was able to survive by paying
my bills food ect , Now that eBay has made these changes which some have not really taken affect yet I have already noticed a big drop in buyer to my eBay store as well as traffic to my store I pay over 1200.00 to eBay in fees and have no say so over my business Since this has caused me to lose a lot of money over this last month now I do not have enough to survive and pay bills
I just think that is does not even realize
who there customers are they are the sellers , I have tried to sell on other sites and nothing sells I am really considering filing a lawsuit against eBay for my loses

I, too, live in the DC metro area, and would gladly be interviewed on record. Turn the name I've used to post this into a URL, and you've found me.

I have both bought and sold on ebay since 2002. I have barely been eking by as it is, but now with a FVF INCREASE of 67%, it's just not worth it. I'm more upset by how sneaky they were about the whole thing, making it seem like *WE ASKED, THEY LISTENED!* What a joke! On an ebay workshop session concerning our DSL ratings, the channel adviser used words like PUNISH the seller, PENALIZE the seller etc...we were encouraged to list internationally and HIRE someone to converse with them in another language...well here's the thread here
It's long, but worth going through...listen to the very TONE he uses.
It's so sad how they treat us like second class citizens...a 4 DSL rating is actually BAD but buyers think it's good, so we are encouraged to EDUCATE the buyer and AIM for a perfect 5, otherwise our listings will never be found.
I have over 2500 feedback's...ALL Positive, 100% FB score.
I've closed my store, and am taking my listings to Plunderhere.com
This boycott isn't ANYWHERE NEAR over...I'm in it indefinitely!
BOYCOTT VICTORIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?start=160&threadID=2000509113&anticache=1204176325956

I have used eBay since 1996 and will buy occasionally from there but will 'NEVER' sell again. The overall service and fees and attitude to sellers is disgraceful and with that in mind - -they do not deserve to have such a loyal user base that most blue chip companies would dream of. Now they have just made millions of people so unhappy they are looking for good eBay alternatives.
I now sell on http://www.Plunderhere.com as it offers me, free listings and my own store and real customer service that I have never experienced with ebay.
Whatever you decide I wish you all the very best but I am happy now and why shouldn't you be?

We have been selling on eBay since 2002. We provide handcrafted wooden products with wood burned designs, something you will not find at the local mart. We also do custom work which makes us very specialized.

This may just be the push we needed to truly 'sell victoriously' for ourselves rather than for eBay. We hired them to provide a service. They are no longer fulfilling their commitment to us, as sellers. Long ago they abandoned us as far as promoting our shops, we got buried in their searches. When they got mad at google and pulled advertising, we were crippled as there was no visibility for our specialty merchandise. This last increase in the disguise of a decrease and feedback issues have gone to far. The 21 day hold on PayPal may never affect us, but it is an unfair financial practice that will leave many people who depend on eBay for basic needs out in the cold. So in essence we have the right to say: eBay, YOUR FIRED!

We have begun moving listings to ebid.net and ioffer.com. We may also move some to onlineauctions.com. In the meantime we have our website, DragonOak.com and other specialty auction venues available.

The boycott continues, permanently if necessary. My selling goes back to 1999 and I am a Power Seller with 99.8 feedback rating. The higher overall fees as well as new feedback policies are an insult to those of us who built ebay. The old chief took billions of dollars in shares and left. The new boss, not even installed yet, has started by inflaming sellers who built this site up and are selling at deep discounts to begin with. We don't have these margins to just give away to ebay. It's cheaper to close down, sadly. I met lots of nice customers on ebay. I hope they keep in touch, without feebay.

I buy just about everything on ebay. I invested in ebay a few years back and watched my stock tank over the last few months without much concern as I've always felt ebay would be around for the long run.

I have to say I was surprised when I heard about the changes that were put in place a few months ago. Since I'm not a seller the fee increase wasn't all that much of a concern for me. The changes to feedback that are scheduled for May concern me a bit.

I have developed a system for researching sellers. I personally have never had a bad transaction. I think for the average user looking for a good deal it might be a pain to actually take the time and read each and every auction, terms and run through the sellers history. I myself would never enter into a legal contract with any business or individual without first researching the company I'm doing business with.

If a seller has a negative I always click through and check the buyer that left the feedback. Sometimes the buyer has a history of bad behavior. If the majority of the sellers customers are raving, I can still bid with confidence.

I was reading one of the articles about changes this morning which prompted this post. A representative for ebay was going over concerns about the star system for fast shipping. Ebay did a test that displayed a message to bidders when seller had a history of slow shipping at a 4.1 rating. The only reason this really struck me as a little off is I had just left positive feedback for a seller with 4 stars for fast shipping. The ebay text stated that 4 stars was "great". Not very many people ever leave 5 stars. The rep for ebay stated that it may seem like a conflict but 4.1 isn't very high compared to other sellers and ebay is just calling for a higher standard from sellers. I consider great to be a higher standard. The definition of great is notable; remarkable; exceptionally outstanding. If ebay puts 4 stars as great it means that the service was outstanding by definition. I clicked 4 stars for shipping time and I recieved my package in 3 days from payment. Is the seller poor or great? It can't be both.

I sense a pretty nasty tone from ebay exes towards the sellers. I watched that forum for the top 200 ebay sellers and it was pretty amazing listening to them snub a couple of the largest sellers with some pretty backhanded comments. The new CEO kept talking about competing with Amazons free shipping. Free shipping is overstating it a bit. I do buy from Amazon but the free shipping option is only for Amazon products, it does not flow over to the fixed price auctions. Amazon also defaults to paid shipping, you have to choose the free option and it ships Fed Ex ground. My items took 10 days to receive using the free shipping option, not 4 stars. Also amazon ships more items than any other ecommerce site in the world. They can eat some shipping. I do not mind paying shipping if I get my item for 25% off retail on ebay.

I shop on ebay for the best deals. I rarely buy from the large sellers. I look for the best deals from the smaller guy that's trying to pay rent. I save thousands a year and most of the time my service is far above average. I would rather not give up the great deals for more security. Ebay is just about the only open marketplace that is large enough to find everything you need.

I hope it stays that way.

I find it offensive that ebay would bite the very hand that feeds them. aka the sellers. I was offered power seller status a long time ago and couldnt be bothered and thats when they were nice guys. Honestly I wont be selling and or buying from them again I have had it with there non chalant way of doing business as if we owe them seomthing when it is the other way around. My prediction is etsy will take off it is being featured on the Martha Stewart show this month and has a format similar to Ebay however its FREE, yes there are still places that dont look to rip off every nickle and dime you make and suck off sellers then treat them like garbage..

Ebay and I dont see eye to eye and I will never use them again

What a shame that Ebay has chosen this path, but then again when a company feels that they don't have to be accountable to anyone, this is where they head.

Ebay use to be fun, have learned a lot, met great people, but can't handle the aggravation anymore.

When I look at DSRWatch.com, and see the answer that is listed on how many feedbacks it would take to adjust the DSR rating...made me sick.

Virtually with this program Ebay has set in place to make sellers fail.

Even the Power Sellers need to beware, if their DSR's go down so does their visibility.

The one poster earlier who said things have already started is right...people have complained for quite sometime that their items weren't coming up in searches.

There was also complaints on items only showing up in different parts of the country.

Time for me to move on, it was fun while it lasted.

Don't need to have the other shoe drop before I leave.

I had been a buyer on ebay for a long time. I had sold on ebay a small amount, untill the first of this year. I had just started a business selling for myself and others on ebay. I had my store on ebay a little over a month untill the boycott started. I will no longer use anything ebay owns or has any ownership in...such as ebay,paypal,rent.com,skype,half.com,shop.com,craigslist,plus a few others. I will also not support or buy from anyone that sells on ebay...such as GM or Sears...etc. I think this is what it will take for ebay to ever really feel the NOISE. I will also try to give onlineauctions.com (or ola.com), ewaey.com, milbid.com, ioffer.com as much support as I can. It may take a while for ebay to notice but they will......BOYCOTT VICTORIOUSLY.....FOREVER

After scrolling and scrolling and scrolling down through ALL of the comments posted so far, my feelings and frustrations, and probably the feelings of tens of thousands of eBay sellers and buyers, have been echoed time and again. The unfair feedback changes and enormous fee increases came as a slap in the face to a community of people who pulled together to make something great, for without the sellers and their drive to succeed, eBay would never have flourished. eBay has forgotten where they came from and they've lost their moral compass.

As a seller and buyer on ebaY, I see problems for everyone with the new feedback changes. The fact that ebaY has always said that feedback is voluntary and not mandatory is no longer true.

For new sellers with less than 100 feedback, they will be required by ebaY to offer Paypal as a payment option.

It does seem funny how ebaY touts themselves as only a venue platform for buyers and sellers, but those in the top echelons of management are all now millionaires. I know many sellers but I have never met a millionaire seller.

For all the ebaY buyers who liked how ebaY used to be, go check out the other online auctions. You will find many ex ebaYers there who are waiting for you with open arms. I will be one of them with my old ebaY ID of ligafra69....where I sell nothing but vintage collectables.

My personal boycott of ebaY will go on forever.....come join our campaign at www.thepoint.com for ebaY fair seller policies.

Ebay has been removing posts by the thousands , pink slapping anyone who dares to speak against them and tell people the truth and then telling you , you can't speak about it,or else !!! you would not believe the things I have seen in the last few weeks ,I will never buy or sell on ebay again , I'm done !!!!

The idiot-in-chief CEO at eBay should be fired for creating this new crazy feedback policy. What good is the feedback system if it's one-sided? One of my friend at eBay said this new CEO is not very keen on technology but have a very good resume as a executive. Hey, guess what? This is a clear case of a non-technical but "creative" management type getting hold of a technology company. Sadly, he will take the company down while ending his own career. I bet the guy never sold anything online to understand what online selling is all about.

Well, I don't like it either, but they are the only game in the park that actually works and gives the seller a venue to actually move his or her goods. I tried OnlineAuction.com and found that they dont' feed into any search engine, don't have any rules in place to deal with non-paying bidders, the selling of live animals, the selling of profoundly explicit material with a sexual content. And those a just a few of the problems there. Other sites that don't cost a dime don't have a good sell-through rate and neither does OLA. So, what do you do if you want to actually sell and not have your inventory sit and rot? You keep plugging away on eBay and hope that the current Anti-Trust Suit that began last summer shakes them up a bit and that the Federal Government finally takes notice of their blatant monopoly of not only auction sites but of payment venues with PayPal.

SC (one post above this)

Try Ruby Lane!

This new feedback rating system is unacceptable. Even though I am a many years eBay seller and 1000+ feedback ratings, it's time to find a new auction site. Can anyone recommend other auction sites? I need to switch!

These people are ebay helpline pros.
http://www.powersellersunite.com/portal.php?sid=fefbbd8a90d878ca2926b790c34cb711

With the economy slipping into a recession only a fool would try to slip a 60-70% price increase past his customers. The customers of course are eBay's sellers.

I've been on eBay for 10 years but it only took me 8 days to move half of what I sell off of eBay's site to others. I'll not trust another company with 100%.

I am both a seller and buyer. But I have boycotted and closed my store. Besides the fee changes on feebay..and the absolutley ridiculous feedback change I want to say this. We little sellers with our "fleamarket" items is what made them. Now with these changes imposed on us..they want to have nothing but powersellers and items that look like "walmart".
Ebay...do not think we are stupid...we see thru you...Ebay I have found many sites who are letting me be there "FREE" unless I sell something. Ebay I don't need you! I can and will sell my items without you treating me like and idiot. I got an email today from PayPal. telling me as a seller how easy it is to refund my customers money...Does that tell you where this is headed. Me I am heading out the door... For buyers who want to buy elsewhere just put a search in on google for auction sites.. you will come up with alot to choose from

I am a seller, with 361, 100% positive feedbacks. My number of sales may be small but my per item final values are generally high and my sell through percentages even higher...hey eBay, you do a great business with me!

So, I've sat here writing out my thoughts for the last three hours...please bear with me...here I go:

My little daughter and I DEPEND upon you eBay. I pay you to rent a stall in your mall to sell my wares... And we agreed, eBay, didn't we? I agreed to pay my monthly rent (and by the way, to my small family, $50/mo to rent in your mall is no small price) and you agreed you would help bring the buyers in and maintain some order. I even agreed, by doing business with you that I would give you a portion of my profits, because, well, I just loved my job! I loved the eBay community and I loved my customers!

But, eBay, isn't it through my hard work and the hard work of other honest sellers who put in time, late hours seeking out unique items, buying them, cleaning them, to supply the most credible, honest listings we can? Isn't it the hard work of us sellers, our monthly fees, our choices to buy those BOLD or highlighted listing promotions that is responsible for the success of OUR businesses?

It was a win win agreement we had with you eBay. It was a win win agreement between me and my buyers, too. I mean, if I or the buyer gets or give negative feedback, any future buyers can look at all of that feedback (both sides) before making a decision to buy? I do that, don't you, eBay? Dual feedback was revolutionary and it became our best protection.

But eBay, you changed our agreement, you changed the whole deal... Instead of getting ahead, getting a raise for my hard work, you decided that I needed to take a pay cut. And oh, you also decided to take my away my job security. You decided to change the most important part of our agreement, the link that holds the whole equation together... MY hard-earned feedback can now be toppled faster than my toddler's wooden blocks were.

So, let me get this straight... Before these new and improved policies were in place, if we, sellers or buyers, didn't make the grade, well....we were at high risk of loosing customers and loosing our businesses...at least the little flea market guy like me, right? There was a good balance for a good number of years and it kept the system working pretty well.

You big guys have even been able to handle the negatives, the extra losses and unforeseen overhead, because, who can find a hundred negs buried in the huge, thousands of sales volume-per-month, lists of feedback, right? You big guys can weather the storm of a few disgruntled buyers... So why is it you needed to change things? What was broke?

Before your new and improved changes, as a little guy, I couldn't afford extra overhead for poor performance, failure to deliver, etc...so I worked my tail off for my positive ratings, my weekly paycheck, my livelihood. And with strength in numbers, you had thousands of little sellers holding up the integrity of the system.

So my question for you ebay, regarding this new and improved ebay buyer's arena: Why will my excellent, hard earned feedback be so vulnerable to the whim of,what only needs to be ONE, slack buyer?

With your new feedback policy, eBay, you are basically opening MY door, telling anyone with any kind of credit to come right in and buy like crazy---and on my store credit, even! If my fellow sellers can't leave negative feedback to a non-paying buyer, how am I to know if I should give them this credit you say I need to extend? (REMEMBER? You will now have PayPal hold my money for 21 days, right? While I have to mail the item I agreed to sell, in order to receive the buyer's good feedback and the money they agreed to pay me, right? Oh, oh, right...details, details...my new feedback dings, my new, lowered seller ratings from the last buyer who left me hanging - I mean, I mailed them their item! But now, the 21 days are up and the payment has still NOT been received. What now, eBay? I can't leave them a neg...but to strengthen their case, they decide to leave me the neg...which I hear, even if I do win the dispute, you won't remove? So, you say you can manage this dispute...amidst the thousands of nonpaying deadbeat buyers you will have created by May?

Hey, buyers, try it this out! I have in my store a so very hard to find item...you want it, but you don't have enough money in your account or you've maxed out credit card (shhh...no one has to know that!) So, you buy the item and then agree to pay through paypal... But you know that you are going to turn around, right away, and make a complaint to paypal, because, you tell PayPal and I, the item you received wasn't "really" as described. And presto, you get your money back...er...well you don't get YOUR money back, cause you have an extended line of credit with me! You won't even have to mail it back to me because you know I can't leave you a negative! If I complain, my words are just blowin' in the wind. You the newly strengthened buyer, the new savy ebay buyer said so....its your word against mine...and hey, I have the bad feedback, right?!

Oh yeah, I got a neg from that last buyer, remember? You know, that buyer, probably a buddy of yours, the customer that eBay let walk right the front door, allowed extended credit AT MY RISK and then well...Hey eBay, PayPal, I still haven't heard from you about the complaint on that old deal, what's up with that? In good faith, I sent the item, but they complained so you gave them a refund. I am now a looser...I've lost my inventory, lost my investment, my money, time, fees, etc... Oh, ok, I need to take this as a write-off, a business loss. Hmmm...b..b...but I was planning on that $75 you gave back to the buyer for next week's groceries... What now eBay?

Well, I'll tell you: So sorry, eBay, but I just can't let you run down my good name & my hard earned business... You, eBay, and your partner in crime, PayPal...you are both a train-wreck-waiting-to-happen and I'm getting out of the way before its too late.

Buyers and Sellers have already decided to boogie, in DROVES! Yep you heard it right, buyers too, are joining in, on principle, and saying they will not buy until ebay halts their new "improvements"! Boycotting buyers are even asking exbay sellers, "Where are you going? I want to follow!!"

Choo Choo, Choo Choo we boogie ...ola way to the moon...our etsy bitsy spider web will hold our community of sellers and buyers together, river or no river to guide us....ola way outa' here! Ets-the only way to go!

I've been doing Ebay for 4 years, active store, over 5000+ positive feedbacks. The hiding bidder names, lack of support, and outrageous fees really bug me. I would expect costs to decrease as ebay got more efficient, you'd think they'd want to attract/keep more sellers. But no, they act just the opposite. And their software is STILL FULL of bugs. I am constantly seeing my items not appear in searches when they should, not able to combine items like I should, and so on.

Why is it that selling a car has a fix final value fee, but other items use a percentage. If you think about it, selling a $10 bike part or $100 bike part really costs eBay the same amount of computing cost, so why charge more for a more expensive item. The answer, because they can. That's the whole problem, because there is no one running the company that says "WHAT's THE RIGHT THING TO DO", instead, they think what can we do. Used to be all listings had the same final value fees, but someone got the idea they could charge store listings a higher fee, and they could get away with it. That sort of began the fall. The whole problem is the lack of competition, and that's starting to solve itself. Ebay is destroying itself, but in it's destruction is the beginnings of other new eBays, places like iOffer and eCrater. Just think if placing an ad in the newspaper was based on your price of the item, people would laugh !! Ebay should have an insertion fee and a selling fee, both fixed. And they do in one of their successful parts of the company their auto sales. Is this because of COMPETITION ?? So, everyone do their part and LEAVE EBAY, it's run by OLD thinkers, lets all find the new eBAYS out there !!

9 days ago, I first logged on to a seller site different than ebay.
since then I have done zero business with them and will NOT return. OLA

I to have been buying and selling on EBAY for many years. 100% feedback Over 2000 sales and a power seller for now. (-1DSR in shipping and that will be gone.) I might be able to live with the higher fees but the feedback situation... The Paypal situation.. and the Search Engine situation are intolerable. I belive ebay wants to turn into a giant corporate search engine. They already stuff MY selling pages with advertising. Ebay's new CEO doesn't want me or any other small seller working from their home. I guess my $4000.00 in fees a year are just not enough for them to worry over. So I have left. I am now selling on onlineauction.com and have a nice store at Ecrater.com. Yes it is more work but I will at least be working for myself again, Not FEEBAY! http://randomvill.ecrater.com/

http://www.powersellersunite.com/viewtopic.php?p=148644#148644

Rather than write my story that is the same as everybody else's. I too have left eBay and gone to www.onlineauction.com I just want to say thank you for giving us the chance to tell our stories. I doubt anything will ever come of it. By the way, 100% Feedback is good, I'm impressed! Thanks again, MJ

I've been selling consistantly on eBay since 1998. I have over 1,560 feedbacks and over 3,400 unique feedbacks - which means I have a lot of repeat customers. I have no negatives - no neutrals. I make everything I sell on eBay. In all that time I have handed out only two negatives! My way of operating my business has always been to leave feedback last. In that way, the buyer would come to me if there was a problem and I had the opportunity to make things right. With the new policy - that has been stripped from me and I am vulnerable to any buyer who may be having a bad day and wants someone to take it out on. I hate what eBay has done. I believe the new CEO needs to be fired and an experienced person with good business acumen put in his place. I guess it wasn't enough to have Whitman throwing money away into China and buying Skype - now we have this new fellow who wants to change the whole system so that it goes from bad to worse. Ebay is in trouble today because of fraud and scams on the site which eBay has ignored for years! Its easier for them to put in some automatic voodoo instead of rolling up their sleeves and ridding the site of bad sellers AND bad buyers! They are losing buyers and good sellers because of their own neglect and now we are being made to suffer because their money isn't rolling in as it once was! Whitman and Cobb forget that eBay is the size it is today because of small sellers like myself. Seller's who depend on eBay to provide a fair platform in which to sell our wares. That's coming to an end. Ebay is no longer fair. They will soon manipulate our listings and though we will each pay the same price, some of us will be buried and will not make the sales we need. These facts and the new policy of holding a seller's money for 21 days if they have less than 100 feedbacks is outrageous. I defy any seller to be able to live with these new policies.

I boycotted for the week, many of my buyers honored the boycott because good, honest buyers are as outraged as us sellers at the treatment eBay is giving us. The end of the boycott is not the end of the problem - its just the beginning. Ebay has so many users that a LOT of sellers still don't know about the new policies and/or don't understand them. As they sell and experience the changes I expect the anger and outrage to grow and more sellers to leave.

We are being courted by other online auctions and selling sites. I have closed my eBay store and I'm running less than 10 auctions instead of the usual 50+ items I list. The rest of my stock is listed elsewhere. I don't know of another seller who isn't actively listing some of their stock elsewhere. If eBay wanted to get rid of sellers then their plan is a complete success.

With ebay changing the rules for small/medium sellers (new requirements for powerseller status, discounts only for those that "play ball." like a gestapo run state) It's just another generic online mall experience. I've sold on ebay for about 3 years, mostly computer parts recovered from scrap pallets and was planning on moving into custom builds. As it is now, sellers have always been at war with buyers, who can reverse payments at the drop of a hat, make unfounded demands or complaints and get credit card payments reversed directly, and use all manner of manipulation and tactics to abuse a seller.

As a seller with 700+ positive feedback, any buyer with 2 or more can bid on my items, pay with paypal, send me a box of rocks saying the item was damaged, and get a refund. They can send me a broken motherboard for a working one, and get a refund. There is no critera for a good BUYER, just for a good seller. Thats a double standard and it's plain and obvious. Now there are some bad sellers, but a decent volume bad seller, is gonna do himself in with a string of negatives from his own bad behavior, his business with suffer. a bad buyer? No punishments. No limitations. Hell, they are even immune to fair judgement (positive only? my ass.) It's now officially a money laundering service exclusivly for big businesses to do what they ALREADY do everywhere else. Sell huge volume of generic crap.

Woo f**king hoo.

I've been a part-time seller on Ebay since 1997. The extra income I made from Ebay helped pay for my daughters wedding. It also helped pay for another child's college education. Although I don't depend solely on Ebay for an income, it has been a blessing to have this in our time of financial need. i've sat down and crunched numbers and simply don't see how I could continue selling on Ebay with the rising cost of fees. Although they dropped the insertion fee, the final value fee has skyrocketed to a point that the small seller, such as myself, can no longer afford to sell on their site. I feel that Ebay is now catering to the very high power sellers that can generate a couple of thousand dollars worth of sales each month. I'm that little old lady who goes to the garage sales and local resell stores in hopes of finding good enough deals to make a couple of extra dollars for my family. It's been said that my opinion doesn't really matter since I'm such a low item seller, but everyone needs to remember that it was my "junk", as well as others, that put Ebay on the map! No, I don't sell wholesale items, I don't resell designer clothes or jewelry, I don't make a fortune selling top of the line electronic gadgets - I sell the very things that the average person is always looking for. And my sales in the past proved it. But now Ebay is going to discourage me from trying to make some extra money for my family.
The new feedback rating policy is geared strictly toward the buyer. I no longer have much protection now that I can no longer voice my bad experience with a buyer but the buyer could easily ruin me with their feedback.
It seems as though Ebay has forgotten their roots. And that is really a sad thing. This site was a wonderful place to go to. You met people, you sold and purchased from each other and in a short time it became known as a community. 1 that everyone took pleasure being a part of. You no longer hear the pleasantries. I for I will have to find another site to sell my "junk" because I will not be able to afford the fees. But the advantage will be that a new "community" will possibly grow from this experience and I'll be on the ground floor with them!

Right now I have over 850 feedback at 100% as a buyer and seller on eBay.

I'm so disgusted with these changes that I have not bought or sold on eBay since February 18th and I usually buy more than sell. I am going to other sites and hope they grow with the influx of ex-eBayers.

The powers that be are winning - they have us so fed up we are missing all the other "small" issues being tossed in the mix. One example : if your dsr on any level falls below 4.5 you will be considered a high risk and pay pal can/ will put a freeze on your acct-the only way to have it released is to receive a positive feedback or wait 21 days. I called paypal- guess what? they don't have clue as what any of this means.If they don't have clue now , what makes us think they will be reliable enough to release our funds in the future. Did you also know that in order to be covered by paypal as a seller you MUST use the post office with insurance or Fed Ex? Use of UPS is unacceptable as there is no way to track the item(see paypal updates) -if your acct is frozen they MIGHT consider letting you use part of the funds for shipping if you use PO or Fed Ex- if you send UPS you must use your funds from another source to pay for the shipping. Makes sense to have the UPS calculator but not the Fed Ex calculator. As well did you know that for every sale paid thru paypal you must go to the transaction detail page in paypal and submit all tracking information. You must also get delivery confirmation on your outgoing package (another .75). If there is a dispute and you have not followed this to the letter you DO NOT have pay pal protection. On the issue of free shipping - DON'T DO IT. When final value fees are tabulated if your shipping costs are included you will be charged! Of course they want to squeeze us to offer free shipping - such a deal - for them! If on that same sale a customer pays via pay pal - guess what? the final fees are tabulated on the final cost and shipping. You have just paid final fees twice on shipping alone. Ebay stores are a thing of the past - have you sat down and actually worked the numbers - the only sellers that will make any profit will be those that sell by volume. I wonder if Dumbahoe ( I apologize, I have now stooped to their level) has ever tried to ship a package all by his little lonesome- John, I dare you! I want you to absorb all shipping materials costs and then explain over and over to your customer why shipping is high - can you explain dimensional shipping? Will you explain to the customer that your item was shipped out 6 hours after payment but because the customer wants parcel post and lives on the other side of the country it will and does take 10 days to deliver. I bet not. Granted changes are to be expected HOWEVER wouldn't a prudent business executive actually sit down with his "crew" and look at the potential for problems with these ideas - not just to say we will look at the results 6 months from now. Using that theory John, I now want to put your paycheck into the "playground" and if there's a problem we'll talk about it maybe in 6 months. You have referred to us as noise, have treated us as buffoons and made sure we stayed focused only on certain things while other policy changes are being slid in. Your condescending and patronising stance is not appreciated nor is it acceptable. Anybody who actually listened to the e-commerce forum soon realized that you and your staff repeated the same pat answers, failed to actually listen to those who grant you a paycheck (the sellers and buyers) and that the response from the audience was pitiful- I would have been embarassed but then I tend ti think before acting - can you say the same? Oh yes, would you please quit having an actual person call my home to squeeze to sell internationally? Signed, One of your Power Sellers that has DSR's 4.9,5.0,4.9,4.8.

I am so done with Ebay & PayPal! I am also a powerseller and have been selling since 2002. I have just finished moving my products over to several other auction houses. IMHO the most popular sites and in no particular order are:

iOffer 2,697,662 Listings
Bidville 1,097,880 Listings
eCrater 972,564 Listings
CQout 640,144 Listings
us.eBid.net 514,745 Listings
uk.ebid.net 500,078 Listings
blujay 325,059 Listings
OnlineAuction 260,790 Listings
SpecialistAuctions 121,834 Listings

I am mostly a seller and have powerseller status. Right now my fees for the month are over $155.00 and I am not that big a seller. You have to sell a lot to pay these fees and come out with anything left over. It is only going to get worse. I have never had a negative feedback, but since the no Neg for buyers I have been threatened with negative feedbacks 3 times. So far I haven't gotten one but I feel at least 2 of them are coming soon. It will only get worse in May. Some buyers are confused and think it is already in place. This is going to all be bad for buyers and sellers alike. Our prices are going to have to go up to cover everything. and then in May the USPS is also raising prices so that will make our DSR star ratings go down so ebay will not have to give us a discount at all on the back side of selling. Of course they will make more money at our expense. I feel that they have take no one but their selves into consideration. By doing this it just might be the DEATH of eBay. I owned a clothing store and large companys started making us buy in such large quantity's and we couldn't affore to buy that much of one line of clothes. What happened.. A lot of them no longer exist. They depended on large retailers to keep them going and forgot that the little man was a large force driving their business. all of us put together made them fortunes but they decided they didn't need us and then we didn't need them. Take a hint eBay before this happens to you!

I bought and sold items on ebay infrequently. I was about to start doing so regularly. Big change of plans. I will not sell a single thing on ebay. And it looks like I won't be buying either. Since the sellers that sell what I like are already in the process of packing up shop or have left. And this is roughly 48 sellers that I've been watching from all over the USA, Korea, Japan, China and Singapore.

The collectors are leaving. The small scale antique / estate / junk dealers are leaving. The small DIY designers are leaving. The random listers are leaving.

And Ebay's response, given through the CEO of ChannelAdviser was essentially suck it up, pay up or get the F*** out or we'll destroy you as a seller.

To quote his response to someone's complaint about the DSR system:
"Well if we all want to clean up the marketplace there needs to be some way to measure bad/good/great sellers and eBay chose Feedback 2.0.

It's hear to stay and if you fight it, you're going to eventually show up less in search, lose PS status and potentially kicked off the marketplace.

So if you're serious about eBay, it's about time to get serious about DSRs!!!"

And yet this ass-hat keeps preaching about communication and Customer Service. When if he, his company or ebay were to be evaluated by a DSR rating system...

Ones across the board would be much to kind.

I'm hoping Google steps up to the plate or Yahoo re-opens Y!Auctions

I've been a pretty frequent ebay buyer for a couple of years now. I was just setting up a selling account when I immediately got hit with spoof mail that compromised both my ebay account, my personal email and my PayPal account. Both PayPal and ebay blew me off with their typical form letters suggesting future ways of protecting myself. They surely weren't going to do anything helpful. Just make more work for me.

Shortly thereafter, ebay announced it's unbelievable new policies. I considered swallowing the fee increases, but the DSR star rating, potential 21-day PayPal hold and lopsided feedback system caused me to instantly join last week's boycott. As a new seller, I envisioned myself being subjected to every nightmare ebay or unethical buyers could throw at me.

The official boycott is over, but I still have not participated in any ebay activity and most likely will keep it that way. I'll probably only use ebay as a way to search the value of an item before I sell or buy it on another site. I imagine they will eventually find a way to charge for that too! Instead I have been researching other sites like Bidville, iOffer, Online Auction, Estay and eCrater. Estay is a terrific source for crafts, handmade items and other artistic creations. eCrater was especially clean, well organized and appeared user friendly. I noticed that some sellers on eCrater offered Google Checkout (in lieu of PayPal). Take Google's short demo tour to view how their checkout system works. Very cool, just like everything Google does!

I will probably end up selling on eCrater and realize that my items won't get the same exposure as ebay. But I also know that is the way ebay started. Those that stuck with it eventually did pretty well. Maybe if enough buyers and sellers bail from ebay, sites like eCrater will become the new ebay without the abuse.

The very best of luck to all those who are sticking to their principles on this and not rolling over to ebay's tactics.

I have also left ebay. I was a 1500+ 100% seller. I list only a few items to promote where I have moved on to. The changes have finally pushed me to create my own store front. I listed a few items after the boycott, and WOW, the fees they take out ARE A LOT. You don't think they are a lot until you notice the chunk ebay is taking.

I hope ebay reads these comments and reverses their changes. In fact, I now demand they LOWER fees. If not, I'll never come back, and I will continue always to let people know how horrible of a company they are.

I guess I'm one of the few sellers not affected by the changes that much.

I SELL PORN.

Ebay doesn't let you use paypal for 'mature' items.

And bidders dont want feedback, so noone can tell what they been buying.

Here's to Ebay, still the largest distributor of adult entertainment products on the web

I was a casual buyer and seller on ebay, with a 70 feedback rating (100% positive and 5 Stars on the DSR ratings) I am no longer going to buy or sell on ebay. Because of the new rules, I will be required to take credid card payments (something I chose not to do in the past due to fees and fraudulent charge back risks) Even with perfect feedback and a several year history of happy customers, I am a high risk, because I do not have 100 total feedback count. Now I have another 2.9% fee to pay, on top of the higher final value fees.

What do I get for my money? I get to be subject to a 21 day hold (interest free). I get to be at the mercy of Paypal's chargeback policy. I can state that a sale is as is, with no returns, but Paypal decide that they are going to take the money back and give it to my customer, even if they send me a box of rocks back!

If I can not sell, and they have made it impossible for me to do so, I also will not buy. Ebay was a venue for sales, putting a buyer and seller together. Now they want to control my terms and conditions. I will go elsewhere, I know when I'm not wanted.

EBAY IS SHOOTING ITSELF IN THE FOOT.

NO ACCIDENT THAT THE AD BUDGET IS MISAPPROIATED .

SHOULD EBAY ADVERTISE CORRECTLY, SELLERS WOULD HAVE MORE SALES ; BUYERS WOULD KNOW TO BUY FROM SELLERS WITH FEEDBACK UNDER 4,000.

ITEMS WOULD SHOW ON RSS AND SELL, EBAY WOULD MAKE MORE MONEY ON FVF .

EBAY HAS YET TO SEE THE VALUE IN THAT . THEIR POINT IS EASY SALES FROM OVERSTOCKS AND SECONDS AND RETURNS FROM LARGE STORES.

THIS MAKES EBAY JUST ANOTHER DISCOUNT OUTLET.

THE UNIQUE TEMS ARE DISAPPEARING AS SMALL SELLERS GO TOOTHER SITES.

THE POWERSELLERS ARE DISERTING; THE PLAN IS TO HAVE AN EBAY SITE THEN HAVE CUSTOMERS COME TO THE WEB SITE.

a SHAME AS THIS IS REMOVING THE FUN OF THE UNUSUAL THAT IS FOUND IN THE SMALL STORES.

PEOPLE ARE TREATED BETTER BY SMALL STORES AS A CUSTOMER MATTERS, TO THE LARGE STORES ALL THAT MATTERS IS NUMBEROF SALES.

THE DAY OF THE EBAY FUN WILL BE OVER SOON IF THE PUBLIC IS NOT BUYING FROM AND LEAVING GOOD FEED BACK INCLUDING 5 ON STARS TO SMALL SELLERS. LESSS AND SELLERS ARE PENILIZED.

VISIT SMALL STORES ON EAY ; SHOP WITH SELLERS WITH LOW - UNDER 4,000 FEEDBACK- OR THE UNUSUAL WILL CONTINUE TO VANISH FROM EBAY.

BENGALTIGER55 AN EBAY STORE
WELCOME TO VISIT.

P.A. POINTON

POSTED BY P.A. POINTON

I will not buy or sell on E-bay until they change the feedback policy back. Buyers and sellers both should be able to leave feedback. E-bay needs to get it head out of the sand, no sellers = no buyers = no E-BAY. There are other sites to sell on.

Ebay used to be a fun place to shop and occasionally sell, but not anymore. Corporate greed has taken over the world's online flee market and turned it into the world's fee market. Personally, I was planning to start supplementing my income by selling items I no long use. But, with these new FVF,I stand not to make anything on my sales. Not to mention, you are hit again with paypal fees and the ebay/paypal monopoly offers you no protection unless you use both. So basically ebay is double dipping into the consumers pocket and yet our government is more concerned with the anti-trust issues of XM/Sirius, a company that would hold 5% of the music market, but does nothing about the ebay/paypal monopoly. Which holds almost entirely all of the online auction marketplace. It's time for the consumer to take a stand. We will not stand for this. Personally for me, I have taken my business elsewhere and will not use FEEBAY until things change. Thank you.

I have been buying and selling on eBay for 10 years come this April. I have accumulated a 100% positive feedback rating of 2861. 2/3's of my feedback is as a buyer so I can speak from both a buyers ad seller's perspective.

Regarding eBay's recent fee changes, I expected some increase in overall fees, but it was insulting to have those changes touted as fee decreases, when in fact there is an overall increase.

As a seller I am appalled at eBay's feedback changes that are stripping sellers of what little means they had to protect their reputations from those few unscrupulous buyers. Buyers can expect to discover that in order to minimize seller risk, sellers will be excluding more and more buyers from bidding on their auctions.

As a buyer I feel that eBay has diminished the value of my hard earned excellent feedback rating, because in the future all buyers will have 100% positive feedback. In addition I feel even less able to rate a seller negatively, because if I do so I may find myself blocked from bidding on other sellers items, due to their fear of troublesome buyers.

The perks available to PowerSellers, this is eBay's way of throwing the seller's a tiny bone at minimal cost to eBay. Under the new, complicated and flawed rating system that eBay will be using to evaluate seller's status far fewer sellers will qualify as PowerSellers. Sellers who have just one or two dissatisfied buyers will quickly find their ratings drop, their PowerSeller status gone, and their listings will be given less visibility in the site search system.

Giving buyers that much power may seem like a consumers dream, but most sellers are buyers on the site too, and those sellers are very unhappy. There are equal numbers of bad buyers and bad sellers. By taking away seller's rights the number of bad buyers is going to sky rocket. Feedback extortion against sellers will run rampant.

Add to this antagonistic environment the new threat to sellers that Paypal will arbitrarily place a hold of up to 21 days on payments made to sellers, yet still require the sellers to ship goods out of their own pocket. Paypal(which is owned by eBay) will not be paying the seller interest on this held money unless the seller is participating in Paypal's money market fund. Paypal is dismissing the income they will be making from these held funds as insignificant, but it certainly is not insignificant to the sellers.

Bottom line for me is that eBay is now no longer a viable venue for me to sell on. I can give thanks to eBay for pushing me ahead towards developing my own sales elsewhere. As a buyer it appears that eBay is moving away from the unique collectibles market that is my milieu. It used to be a place where you could find anything, even the most unusual item. Now it is going to be just another big box store filled with identical new items I can pick up elsewhere.

Buh bye eBay. It's been a fun ride for the past 10 years, but you've changed, and it isn't for the better.

Washington Post,
Do you realize just how big of a story this is/could be/and has all the ingredience of being, as large as Watergate scandal??? From a legal standpoint, it could be hugh. Just one investivgator, from your staff could unleash scores of documents, showing Ebay perpatrated fraud upon its customers. Wether it be, the stuffing of Paypal down our throats (Wholly owned by Ebay), plotted DSR's under the guise of better protecting the buyers, when in fact they were collecting data to be used to make certain, not any seller, would ever see any discounts on the FVF. Cutting behind the door deals with large entities such as GM, Sears, and others. Making payment schedules different for larger customers (unfair business practices). Holding up payments to the sellers, under the guise of immediate payment back to the buyer in the case that the deal was not fair, when in reality, being able to hold, in Paypal, our money for 21 days without the benefit of interest, while collecting interest themselves in a daily sweep account. I doubt if the Washington Post will even read this let alone do something to help you reading community, but at the very least it is out there. Thousands have reported these practices to both their Attorney Generals offices, and to the F.T.C. without any known responses. Does that tell you something?

Like others, I miss the old ebay! My biggest problem is the new feedback system. Even before the new feedback, I had a buyer use extortion attempts, while threatening negative feedback. I offered a full refund, and he refused to send the item back. He even filed a claim thru Pay Pal trying to extort money. Pay Pal agreed with me, and told him to send the item back for refund. He again threatened me with negative feedback if I didn't succumb to his extortion. Needless to say I got the neg from him. Afterwards (in my messages) he wrote and said, "So, how do you like your first neg feedback, HA!"
Now, tell me I'm supposed to leave him a positive??? I've written to Ebay Customer service, and to BILL COBB about this guy. They will do NOTHING! So here's the scoop on this guy (BUYER). He has 5 negs. Three of them for extortion as a buyer. All three within a month or two. But now, everyone will have to succumb to his extortion, or leave him a positive?? It's not right!
Thanks for reading!

I am saddened to see what ebay has become. I was one of the original members of Pierre's Auction Web which later became ebay. I used to have phone conversations with him. I helped him choose some of the antiques and collectables categories for the site.
His original intent was that it be a community where people who collected antiques and collectables could gather, exchange information and buy and sell their goods.
I realize things change, companies grow, and that's fine. When all the retail type stores started opening and selling new products I then started suggesting that ebay branch off into two separate areas:

Allow the large sellers of new TVs, computers,handbags, shoes, etc. to have their stores with rules and regulations and run it more like an Amazon site.

Then keep the antiques and collectables running the way Pierre had originally intended it and the way that worked so well in years past that it turned ebay into a household word.

This way ebay could accommodate both types of sellers and buyers and there would be no need to try to alienate the core sellers (antique dealers) who were the reason Pierre started ebay in the first place.

I haven't sold on ebay in over a month now. This is the first time since I joined in 1995 that I have felt so alienated and defeated that I have taken my business elsewhere.

How I yearn for the days I could pick up the phone and talk things over with Pierre. Those days are long gone. If I even could reach him now, he surely would have forgotten me as he has forgotten his roots and the roots of ebay.

Thousands of people have used ebay, (the "small" sellers, just to help make ends meet. The newly adjusted fees may well spark an up-tick in one business - food banks.

I am a powerseller on ebay and one of the one's promised the extra discount with the new changes. Well yesterday we received a notice from ebay saying their feedback star system had not been working and it would be adjusted over night. I woke up to find my shipping star had gone from 5.0 to 4.7! They did it because a powerseller can not get the discount unless 4.8 or higher. With 3,000 feedback and only given a few from very satisfied customers over the last few days, there is NO WAY possible it could have dropped like that. It was a set up to not give the discount. I'll bet there are thousands of powersellers waking this morning to lowered stars so they can't get the discount. They are so sleezy that I told my husband they would do that the day they offered the discount. And exactly like I said. Someone needs to audit every single record in this company. They also set up thousand of "fake listings" under different search names such as: testing auction... to off set the drastic drop they had from the boycott so stocks wouldn't drop. There is a lot going on illegal here and it needs to be exposed. Please help us in any way that you can. Thank you. Been selling here for 4 years and watched it go to the doghouse rather rapidly. It is not hard to see the illegal wrongness going on. Thanks.

I started as a buyer on Ebay, over 8 years ago. I'm a seamstress, and was able to buy a lot of my supplies at a good price.
Things were good, transactions were smooth.
About 7 years ago, I decided to start selling. I've sold mainly doll shoes, which is a small priced item. I don't take Paypal, since the high fees would take away about 1/3 of my profit. It's a good thing I started as a seller, when I did, since back then you weren't FORCED to accept Paypal, as you are now, if you begin to sell.
I have over 2000 positive feedbacks, with only 1 negative in all this time. Now, due to the increased FVF, and the ridiculous Feedback changes, and the DSR, and the minipulation of the Search engine, I'm thoroughly disgusted with Ebay, and will no longer be a seller.
This will make Ebay very happy, since it seems like they want to get rid of the small sellers like me. Their profit on my items is minimal,compared to high volume,and high priced sellers, and they're not making any money on me through Paypal.
I will remain a buyer, but only for items I can't find anywhere else. My browsing days are over, and Ebay will see very little of my money as a buyer.
They seem to have forgotten that the sellers are their customers, and every item listed, is guaranteed income for them, whether is sells or not.
I've already found 2 other sites on which to sell, so it's bye, bye, Ebay.

Its quite a mess & eBay does it to the sellers every year .. I don't think its a matter of need on eBays part or higher cost to eBay to maintain the site .. I believe the higher fees is to puff the bottom finacial line in an attempt to keep the stock prices higher by giving their piers on wall street the false impression that ebay is doing better than it actually is .. I think what they really fail to relize is that this push has finally gone to far .. Unless they want a site simular to Amazon with just large commercial sellers instead of the unique smaller sellers it now enjoys then it better start treating them better before the last one jumps ship ...

I used to buy & sell on eBay - it used to be fun, and the ONLY way you could pick up replacement parts for a 1920s lamp, find a toy from your childhood to give to your grandchild, or unload a bunch of stuff found in the attic.

NO MORE! In order to buy & sell successfully, you have to wade around scammers, feedback extortion, fake payments, false "I-never-got-the-package" claims, "I-changed-my-mind" and "I-only-wore-it-3-times-I'll-get-Paypal-to-make-you-take-it-back" emails.

And for all this trouble, eBay will now be charging higher selling fees and Paypal will hold buyers' payments for 3 weeks; AND I can't leave feedback to indicate which buyers tried to scam me, which filed false claims, which refused to pay, and which screamed about "high shipping charges" on an item that was shipped for free.

I don't need this any more. Local flea markets, CraigsList, and all the other, smaller auction and resale sites are a lot less trouble and are a lot more fun.

The feedback changes that are due to go into effect in May are a serious threat. On the surface they appear a logical way to protect buyers: higher feedback sellers have prominent exposure at the top of search results, lower DSR sellers face suspensions, customer service-challenged sellers face holds on PayPal funds until delivery/satisfaction is confirmed.

The problem, however, is an extension of what we've been seeing in the last couple years by way of winning bidders (notice I did not say "buyers") dinging good sellers for a myriad of disingenuous reasons.

>Winning bidder bid on multiple auctions of same item with intention of only completing one (dings other seller(s) for filing UID to recover FVF).
>Winning bidder has change of heart and blames bid on "child" "account hi-jack" "martians" (dings seller for filing UID to recover FVF).
>Winning bidder unsuccessfully attempts renegotiation of end price/shipping method, backs out of sale (dings seller for filing UID to recover FVF).
>Winning bidder is stealth account created solely to mess with particular seller, either because of previous encounter or is a competitor.
>Winning bidder receives item and sees that deliver confirmation was not used; applies for refund from PayPal saying item not received.
>Winning bidder receives item, applies for refund from PayPal for damaged/not as described and returns for refund their damaged example of it, keeping the minty fresh one.
>Winning bidder receives item, says is damaged and demands partial refund with veiled/blatant feedback extortion.
>Winning bidder receives item and dings seller's DSRs because the delivery time while in the hands of the shipper was excessive.
>Winning bidder receives item and files unauthorized charge with CC.
>Winning bidder receives item, everything went smashingly well, but dings seller because seller did not leave feedback first.

That is just a sampling of the ever increasing havoc winning bidders visit upon honest sellers. With the removal of a seller's ability to warn other sellers via the feedback system it will mushroom. And to add insult to injury (actually more injury to injury), sellers (especially low-volume sellers) will see their ability to sell damaged or destroyed with a simple numpty (at best) or dishonest (at worst) click of the mouse.

You need only read various posts on the eBay message boards to see that buyers are already spreading the word about how to get "IT" for free or at a discount. Other posts describe how some sellers are planning to sabotage their competitors.

No, it's way beyond a simple measure of customer service quality. The impending changes are a direct threat to increasingly unprotected sellers.

I've read the comments posted since my last post at 1 am.

Interesting that there isn't a SINGLE positive post here, EH? When's the last time you saw a discussion on one of your blogs with 100% negative feedback? Where are the people who are "happy" with these changes? (except for that lovely sarcastic post from porn-man LOL)

You'll see nothing but negatives on the ebay - that is, if you look quickly enough before the censors ("pinks" and "'bots") delete them. Almost anything positive comes from "trolls" - trouble makers either supported by ebay or just wanting to whip up a good (bad?) fight..... Ebay is practicing information suppression and damage control on a huge scale.

Check out the PSU (powersellersunite) discussion boards for the uncensored versions!

Quite sad really.

Dragonmum's Hoard on OLA.com, Wagglepop.com and Etsy.com

Thank you for your articles on eBay and it's regressive ideas. We would like to encourage you to watch this unfold in both the short and long term. The recent "competion" of the sale of over $3M record collection is a great example of eBay spin. Yes, the BID was over $3M. That is only half the story! Admittedly the part that eBay would like everyone to know, hence their immediate "spin". However, eBay managed to show us yet again they are totally unable(or unwilling because of the potential fee loss) to intervene in bad/fraudulent buyers being able to bid and the whole sale fell through. The same thing goes for the bad sellers, eBay will NOT take them off the site, their fees are far too important. This is yet another example of why the future one sided feedback system of eBay has so many thousands of buyers/sellers actually working in UNISON (perhaps for the first time) to try to encourage eBay to see the errors of their many dubious changes. This lead to the recent eBay boycott (which many are still participating in past the initial dates), and the HUGE boycott slated to start May 1st which will be organized FAR better (due to having more time to have everything in place) and will also be open ended. This is the beginning of the end of eBay as most know it, the future will see thousands of cheap imports (which are frequently more expensive when you take into account shipping charges than buying at a local retail store) by multi-level powersellers, and the likes of GM, Sears, maybe Wal-Mart etc all using it purely as an advertizing medium. "IT" (remember the ad campaign?) will no longer be available on eBay, so buyers will start looking elsewhere, and any successful "market ready" competitor, either one of the existing ones, or a new starter if a company like Google want to get involved, will very quickly see business increase dramatically as eBay declines. It is time for the LIES to stop, the spin merchants to leave the building, the outright corporate GREED to stop, and let eBay return to it's former glory (say 2002/3) before IT is beyond repair. Whatever happened to "if it isn't broken don't fix it", a few years ago eBay was a thriving community and the bottom line and other figures proved that. Will it happen? I very much doubt it which is why we WILL be listing a little during March and maybe more in April, ONLY to get rid of some inventory to raise capital to invest at other internet auction sites like OnlineAuctions.com We are still evaluating all the alternate websites, and we believe hundreds of thousands are also doing so, including those of us who have not been vocal so far on the eBay forums. We are refraining from that, or posting at other forums where we need to use our eBay ID, we KNOW eBay will try some type of retalitory measures, don't need that until we have USED them rather than them using us.

I have been with ebay for 6 years, with over 1600 Positive FBs, 99.9%, but can't take it any more! I agree with nearly everyone here, & for the person {buyer} wanting to know where everyone is going, a ton of them are at onlineauctions.com,ola, thats where I have taken my quality vintage,& antique jewelry, along with a lot of others. Give it a try,$8.00 a month, and no other fee's!

Dear Mr. Pegoraro,
I personally would love to see The Washington Post as well as other media
dive into this- and 'Open The Door' regarding Ebay Inc. and Paypal ! We want to know more. From reading just a small portion of the comments posted- Your readers would look to you- favorably to see you continue to follup up on this story.
I enjoy reading The Washington Post-as they have articles of interest which don't follow the usual repetitious rhethoric that are usually found on-or in the pages of other News-Media exchanges.
It's becoming evident that Ebay
will and has just recently started to play an alarmingly negative role in an already failing economy .The "Domino effect" is starting and is on the move. I urge you - to give this more attention! Please!
Thank you,
A loyal reader

After 9 years on ebay, and a former Power Seller, I am leaving as well. I have been scammed by a few buyers who keep their item and then complain to Paypal that it was the wrong size, wrong color,etc. Paypal then reverses their payment or they make a chargeback.

I have opened two stores on other sites and I am in the process of opening a third.

Wagglepop.com "Connecticut Yankee Pedlar" and ioffer.com "kidboutique" are now opened and are in the process of being stocked.

bidville.com "Connecticut Yankee Pedlar" is in its infancy as well.

It will take time to transfer my 2000 items from ebay and list my new inventory, but it will be worth it.

I hope to be ebay-free by May 1.

Ebay is never helpful in situations where there is fraud involved. I have been a victim as buyer and seller.

Their response is "we a just are venue". But when it comes to setting policy, they are President and CEO and you seem to be the employee.

Excuse me ebay, but I pay YOU! That makes YOU my employee!

Feedback. You remember. The brilliant idea Pierre had when starting auction web, (Now eBay) - way back when.

It was a system where we could rate our trading partners and they could rate us. It was simple in the beginning. You could leave feedback for anyone. You didn't even have to buy from them or sell to them. A little later on it became transactional.

The comments built a trust between members - (read cu$tomer$.) Feedback was permanent.You couldn't change or remove it. Unless you cussed or mentioned an investigation & a few other things no one I know ever did. This new feedback thing was an amazing concept. It made the average Joe or Mary selling stuff from their garage, home or trailer look like a respectable large merchant. (Think L.L. Bean.) People would talk to other eBayer's in line at the post office. What's your feedback? 216! Wow, mines only 84... We would "log on" each day to see if our feedback number changed overnight. It was a source of pride. Feedback - who would've thought?

Feedback became the backbone this new web phenomenon was built on. And eBay grew by leaps & bounds.

The feedback system was viewed by some as flawed. Well after all, nothing is perfect. But Pierre's feedback system was very, very close. Brilliant in concept , execution & yes, even consequence. Yes, you could leave a negative or a neutral for someone - before trying to work the problem out. They could neg or neuter you back though. And both of you kept that red or gray mark back then. If selling - it could affect your business. When buying, sellers might cancel your bid - if they thought you were a troublemaker. Well, no one much liked those things to happen to them, so people worked their problems out like adults & not too many bad feedback were left.

There was peace in the community. And after awhile, even the skeptics viewed feedback as sacred....

Then, a couple of years ago, the tinkerers that Pierre hired to run eBay decided they would tinker with the feedback system. They thought they were smarter than Pierre, I guess. No one really knows what brought on this idea to change the feedback system. It could have been some overcooked Eggs Benedict at an executive brunch, or perhaps something in the air conditioning system. At any rate they decided change was needed. Change is always good - right? Besides, things were different now. Or were they?

They let a new company called Square Trade remove feedback in certain cases. Of course there was a fee. They tell me eBay didn't get a commission from Square Trade. I suppose that is true...

About the same time eBay instituted a program called "Mutual feedback withdrawal." Some say this was initiated at the request of larger sellers to give them a means of getting rid of bad feedback, without paying a fee to Square Trade. I really don't know....

What happened next isn't hard to fathom, knowing human nature. Negative feedback soon started being exchanged in record numbers. Sellers, especially some larger ones - became a little bit more difficult to deal with. Customer service? What's that? Hey, if someone negged you you just negged them back. After all, you could get a mutual withdrawal. Many sellers had hundreds of mutual withdrawals. They played this great new feature like a well oiled trombone....And no one at eBay regulated this process - or limited the numbers.

Soon buyers began to complain about this unfair treatment. Some left eBay and never came back. Management seeing all of this, decided the feedback system needed a little more tweaking. And that brought us to where we are today. More tinkering to try and fix what THEY broke.

You know what I think? It won't work. Sometimes, you need to get back to basics. Sometimes, the simplest ideas are the best.

The Genie however, is out of the bottle, the sacred trust is broken.

Can it be put back, before it's too late?

I really don't know. A smart person would try .....

People shopped on Ebay to look for the collectable they couldn't find anywhere else. They were looking for old china to add to their set, GI Joe figures to complete their collections, Nancy Drew books to hand down to their grandchildren, not mass producted items from China. I am a power seller who has been selling these items since 1999. Most of my items sell for under $10.00. With the new fee structure, I cannot afford to buy the item, pay the fees and purchase the packaging supplies. I would have to raise my prices or list groups of items. Both of these steps will cost me sales and make my unsold items skyrocket again raising my costs.
Also the new policy of lising my items according to feedback based on shipping is ludicrous. I ship all my items the day after they sell and it can still take a week to arrive. This is a post office problem and I have no control over it. Ebay tells buyers that a satisfied response is a 4, but they tell the seller a 4 is a bad rating. How can I win this game?
Ebay and PayPal both have the worst customer service for sellers. You cannot talk to anyone and email replies are canned responses, which never address the issue.
Ebay has to understand that without sellers, they cannot have buyers.

Buying & Selling on eBay for 8 years now. 100% positive feedback. PowerSeller elegible but never "signed up". I took an hiatus last year and was planning to return to selling just when the new policies were announced. My plans have completely changed. I have checked out many other Internet selling options.

50% of my inventory is books and these will be added to Amazon.com via Alibris. Once I've done that, I will be paying for a ProMerchant account at Amazon, and will therefore add any other items that I feel may sell well at Amazon. The remainder -- antiques, collectibles, art, will go onto one of the specialist sites. I am planning to have my own website up and running by the end of the year. I doubt I'm going to run anything on eBay again -- not even to drive customers to my own website. It wasn't the fees,it was the Paypal/DSR Feedback issues that were the killers.

Oh, and further: During my year hiatus from selling, I discovered that I bought almost nothing on eBay. I wasn't listing or otherwise "paying attention" to the site and I ended up at Amazon or at individual websites to purchase. It was just an easier experience all around. I buy plenty on the Internet. I think that eBay has badly miscalculated how many "buyers" are actually primarily "sellers". I know I won't be coming back to buy except in one very specialized category where Amazon doesn't permit sales and no other site has more than a couple of pieces at any one time.

I signed up with e-bay in 1999.It was an exciting experience everyday. At first I started buying things.I can honestly say I have never been ripped off by any seller over the years.My real headaches started when I began to start selling.This last four years It was obvious that organized scammers were at work on e-bay.Now it has became a real scary place to be sometimes.You never know who you are dealing with.With the new feedback changes coming in, it will only cause more anxiety.E-bay should remember us sellers are also buyer too.

eBay's a great site

Low entry fee...many eyeballs

As a buyer, I just want to select, pay, checkout and leave

Most complainers about eBay can stand the competition

If they want to leave, go
jake

one of the biggest issues to me is that ebay does not make money from buyers, all that money comes from seller fees.
Still, they pander to a buyer's needs while ignoring those of the seller.

why does ebay hide behind its "just a venue" status when it is a "bank" (paypal), an "escrow service" (with the new selling restrictions on some accounts), and now it is big brother?

the buyers can rate sellers with the star system at a 4 meaning a good, solid transaction, but ebay tells sellers this is a bad score...

ebay is purposefully setting buyers & sellers against each other and in the long run no one will win.

all sellers will have negs, buyers will all have perfect feedback, ebay will have more money than ever and service across the site will suffer.

One thing... if paypal holds the funds for 21 days so that the buyer can recieve the item, the sellers would be out that money if the buyer says he never got it but really did correct.. if so that is bullsh**
The whole ebay paypal thing makes me sick.. For small sellers like me ther is NO chance on ebay.. Like ebay only wants the Big sellers. thats bull.. If they thought about it, have descent fees would eventually give the smaller seller a chance to become bigger sellers.. a chance to afford it anyways.. and as far as feedback system wont even give the small sellers a chance because i know the buyers arnt as honest as they are cracked up to me.. i dont know how many items i replaced for free just to keep my feedback
one too many i didnt get my item but they really did would suspend an account.. this is rubbish.. wish i had themoney to get an auction site up..a fair one,

For the person who asked where people are selling, the sites they are going to most often are:

ebid.net
onlineauction.com or ola.com
etsy.com (for homemade items)
ecrater.com
amazon.com

I am currently a power seller with a store... Have been on Ebay since 1998... I have no bad feedback, so 100%, and have never left anyone bad feedback, although I probably should have... I sell lower priced items and have opted to cut my losses and block a bidder rather than to mark up their score on ebay...

However with this new system, I believe that Ebay has set even the best seller up for failure...

For those who don't agree, I believe that after you've been terribly affected, that you will begin to see the light... I'm just glad I can read and see what the changes will do to me and get out before they damage me anymore than they already have...

When they came out with the notice that they lowered insertion fees, it was such a relief only to continue reading on to discover that most people would pay up to 67% more on the end of the sale... Very deceiptful... Lost my trust right there!!

It was then that I realized the magnitude of the proposed changes on Ebay... The holding of funds by pay pal for 21 days??? And the possiblilty of losing my merchandise AND the packageing supplies & shipping fees??? Not a good idea for me, and I refuse to be party to it...

Doing the math, I realized that my many hours and hours of creating listings and promoting my business there would have to come to a halt unless I wanted to risk losing money and having my sales reputation at the mercy of some con artist... But ebay's new theory is that the buyer is honest and the seller is a liar...

The facts are there and anyone who looks over the contract as they plan, would run for the hills...

Its going to cost ebay in the long run though... Stores are closing and people are moving on from this monopoly nightmare... Other ecommerce sites are beginning to blossom, and eventually ebay will be history... They stole a little bit too much this time...

It's not good to call your "bread winners" nothing but "noise"...

My store is set to vacation and I am going to move my listings to OLA, where I will again make a profit and not be working under the communist control of ebay...

I will take an active role in the next BOYCOTT and I will continually BOYCOTT EBAY FOREVER!!

I have been a member on Ebay since 2001 mostly buying and occasionally selling. As soon as I heard the latest changes I cleared out my watchlist and have not surfed new auctions. I do not intend to buy on Ebay if they follow thru with these new changes. I support the Sellers boycott because I feel as though Ebay no longer wants the Mom & Pop sellers of rare, vintage, and collectibles who made Ebay what they are today. They now seem to want to go in another direction to compete with other big boys by selling new imported widgets. I am not interested in new widgets - I want what Mom & Pop offered. Ebay has lost sight of their mission statement that they believe everyone is basically good. What a great philosophy, however they did nothing to keep vigilence to make sure the obvious scammers did not invaid their playground. They now believe that all buyers are good and only sellers are scammers. In all reality it's a fact that scammers exist in both buying and selling but Ebay does not want to put forth the effort to police their own playground. It's true they are the biggest now..... but the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Ebay needs to remember it's roots and go back to working hard for all their members instead of taking the easy and safe way out for them.

The increased fees, feedback changes, and Paypal 21 day payment retention make it impossible for small sellers to operate and they will find another place to sell their wares. They seem to be forcing sellers to accept Paypal which they also own and collect fees from. I have to wonder about the legality or morality of Paypal holding a person's money for 21 days and pocketing the interest. Meanwhile the seller has paid their Ebay & Paypal fees, shelled out money for postage - not to mention whatever they paid for the item originally and they have to sit 21 days in hopes that their buyer is honest, will leave feedback in a timely manner so the seller can finally get paid. Good grief, Walmart is smarter than that - they don't allow customers to take their wares out of their store on approval and assume they'll come back to pay if the widget is what they hoped it would be.

I am so disappointed that the little company who started out on a simple trusting premise, has become a greedy monster that does not appreciate what their Mom and Pop did for them.

I disagree completely with the new feedback and best match features. I have sold on ebay since 2003 as a powerseller and even though the new BEST MATCH idea would currently work great for me, I think back to who I was when I began and I am not willing to put my items before the hard work of others if their items would suit the buyer better! The feedback opens the fload gates for all the scams and blaqckmail that has always been there but fewer and farther between. Now it will be daily! "Give me this item for 50% less then the auction price or I will leave negative feedback" So what then is the point of even selling? Now our hard earned income will be held based on our customer satisfaction, just as they have given them the control? Seems all a big plan, to rid the site of the little guys who the site was actually built on. Poor feedback changes, new best match search features, and Paypal money holds. eBay isn't worth the risks when other sites have the arms wide open to us. I am personally moving-victoriously! I will take slower sales (for a bit) to build and be apart of a better system. All the pride in my 4000FB is not going to be ruined by some horrid bidders, or even the new members who don't understand how much damage that little red dot has for us, our kids, our bills. The DSR was a sign of the end and the beginning of their/ebays poor poor mistakes that made it all to obvious what they were after.. Us out!

The others who remain who fell for the "Price reduction" will sadly learn the truth over time too. I give ebay a yr before all sellers are gone and Amazon style is all they have, and that isn't going to stay a float long..

Started with ebay in 98, watched it distroy some business's also watched it let real crooks get by. I have been abused by buyers that refuse insurance. Then give you bad feedback when they want it shipped parcel post across country and the post office destroy's it. It needs to be fair on both sides or stop it all together. Personally I have found there are other sites and services that work better for me. (FEEBAY at its finest.)

Might as well go ahead and change the name from eBay to freeBay because with the eBay/Paypal combination of holding funds for 21 days all a buyer has to do is leave a negative feedback no matter how the transaction went and the powers that be (eBay/Paypal) will can just refund the buyer thier money without ever having to go through the seller to hear their side of the story. It was never really the Seller's money anyway. That will make the buyers happy and bring them running back to FreeBay for more free items.

FreeBay. Steal Victoriously (and legally because we ALL accept the User Agreement).

Anyone who is thinking they are getting away from Greedbay by selling on Craigslist is under false impressions. Here is a brief excerpt from an article published by Time in September 2005:

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1111746,00.html

Questions for Meg Whitman

Thursday, Sep. 29, 2005 By JEFFREY RESSNER

Last week, eBay CEO Meg Whitman sat down with TIME's Jeffrey Ressner in Los Angeles to talk about the online auction site, its acquisition of Skype, and her favorite (other) online communities. Here are some highlights:

......TIME: Are there any other communities that you'd like to collect?

WHITMAN: We're always interested in communities forming on the net. Shopping.com, our shopping comparison site, has a different but equally dynamic community of buyers and sellers. There's also a very strong Craigslist community in every city.

TIME: eBay owns 25% of Craigslist.com. Are there options to acquire more?

WHITMAN: No. We own 25%. When this chunk of stock became available from one of their original partners, we were offered the chance to invest and I said, absolutely. There was no right of first refusal [on future opportunities]. We have a seat on the board, but we don't have any more say in the business than any normal board member would have.....

[So now if you want to really free yourself from ebay's clutches, do you *think* you might want to be be looking at onlineauction.com, blujay.com, ebid.net, specialistauction.com, etsy.com, ioffer.com, ecrater.com, and other similarly quickly growing sites, rather than using craigslist??]

People still use eBay? Who knew!

As a small time seller on Ebay since 1999 with over 1700 feedback, I am no longer listing as much on Ebay. A measly five cent decrease in insert fees and a huge final value fee increase.....Ebay thinks I'm an idiot???? It is costing me more to sell on Ebay than before, regardless of how Ebay tells me I should be thinking. Facts are facts. And don't even get me started on the feedback changes!
I am now listing on several other venues as well and although I probably won't sell as much, at least I won't be made a fool of in the process. I think Ebay feels we all fell off the turnip truck and can't do the math.

EBay has reached its end in its growth now with the upcoming feedback system AGAINST the sellers who got them on TOP; and We can take them down as they have been doing with their absurb policies and that is the near future for FEEBAY!! DOWN YOU GO!! YOU AND YOUR T&S DEPARTMENT; YOUR NO PHONE TO SPEAK WITH A PERSON. . YOUR EMAIL ONLY SYSTEM!! YOUR TOTAL LACK OF CUSTOMER SERVICE. .YOUR INEXPERIENCED ANTI BUSINESS TRUST DEPARTMENT ; THAT ASSUMES EVERYONE IS A CROOK AND FRAUD. . YOUR ANTI SELLER PLANS AND SLAP TO SELLERS ON NOW THEY ARE SNUFFED OUT FROM RESPONSE!!! GOODBYE FEEBAY. .THERE ARE MANY OTHER SITES SELLERS CAN SELL ON ; WE have started already on several. .and THANKS for pushing us to getting OUR OWN WEBSITES!!
SCREW YOU DUMB JERKS ALL!!!!!

Paul is correct; we THE SELLERS are fed up. . after selling for 10yrs there ; we have established our OWN website too!!
WAKE UP PEOPLE ON EBAY; The traffic they have is dying; are your sales what they were: NO!! Do they do anything for you!! NO .. does EBay listen to sellers or buyers NO!!!!!!! that is why they shut you all down with NO PHONE NUMBER TO CALL AND ZERO CONTACT. .Except their generic emails.. EBAY SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FEE BAY WILL CEASE . . AS SELLERS WAKE UP AND GO TO : Their own websites and other sites springing up . . GOOGLE OR MICROSOFT Will eventually see the REAL NEW BILLION DOLLAR Opportunity and OVERNIGHT. . EBAY IS DEAD!!!!!!!!!! JUST EXACTLY WHAT THIS INSULTING, NO CUSTOMER SERVICE SITE DESERVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been a buyer on ebay for almost 10 years now and I'm very disappointed with these new changes. I don't mind getting feedback from sellers - I've always held up my part of the deal, so what is there to be afraid of? If you're legit, there are no problems. Now, with these new changes, ebay will scare away the very sellers that have had the items I've been searching for. I can't go to every flea market, antique show and garage sale in the country to track down the items I collect, but the smaller sellers do! Most of the power sellers sell new stuff - I have no interest in that. It reminds me of when flea markets used to be great and then the next thing you knew, it became tube sock city. Well, in my opinion, ebay runs the risk of becoming a "tube sock city", too. And that will be the end of my buying days on ebay.

Everyone i know that has used Ebay(been USED by ebay) HATES EBAY.. MEG started the hate and the trust and security department .. is ABSURB!! BE A VENUE!!YOU ARE NOT COPS!!! Your trust department(DIStrust dept. .has been ATTACKING LONGTIME SELLER WITH FEEBACK .99% AND HIGHER. . THAT IS NUTS... CAUSE YOU HIRE NUTS WHOSE JOB IT IS TO "KEEP THEIR JOB(SCREWING HONEST SELLERS). . IT IS THE WAY THE TRUST DEPT ON EBAY OPERATES; ATTACKING SELLERS; NOW EBAY HAS FULLY DONE THE SAME. . GOODBYE FOREVER FEEBAY. .YOU ARE ON YOUR WAY OUT WITH BUYERS AND SELLERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1)eBay's biggest problem is it's lack of focus and direction. Take the great Ebay Express fiasco. No body likes EE, it's a flop. So what does eBay.com say..."We are going to take parts of EE and incorporate them on eBay.com." Duh...there's a reason EE doesn't work, it's because nobody likes it. So why would anyone want to take parts from a losing site and put them on what was a winning site?

2)eBay's second biggest problem is it's refusal to make the site a safe place to do business. For 10 years people have asked that users be verified, that fake ID's be an anomoly instead of rampant. Instead of making eBay safe, they just play games with feedback, which is meaningless in protecting against fake ID users.

3) eBay's third biggest problem is lack of communication with it's sellers. eBay pretends it wants to have professionals on the site, but then doesn't give these professionals the information they need to plan ahead. Last year out of the blue, ebay decided there were too many media sellers in stores, so they drastically raised the prices, thus sending many medica sellers to Amazon. This year they are drastically cutting prices to try to woo those same sellers back. What eBay seems to not understand is that it takes a huge investment in time and money to build a store, stock it, promote it and make it profitable. Then to have eBay play games with these sellers through fee manipulations, search manipulations and rotating server issues. That is not communication, that is reckless management.

I have no idea, what eBay plans are for building it's future. I have no idea what the rest of the "sweeping changes" that are yet to be announced. I have no idea how I should plan my business model to work with eBay's. I get mad that I have no idea, I get scared because I'm not sure that eBay even knows what it's planning.

No wait a minute longer - -get your ebay feedback imported to http://www.Plunderhere.com and list for free and open a store for free.

I have had it up to the eyeballs with Fleabay - - NO MORE NONSENSE!!!

I love the changes! The fee changes work for the amount of selling I do, and the FB works as well. I'm a wonderful seller and will not have any unhappy buyers; ever. Most that are upset can not say that and deserve all that they will get.

Wow....so much pontification... whew wears me out

Guess if someone doesn't like eBay...why don't they leave

such long diatribes are worthless

I took this lower coment for the boards?? Isn't illegal to manipulate the stock prices for personal gain, Whos watching over this?? Posted by rr212:
"it kind of shakes your confidence when you see the exces at ebay dumping their own stock? I wrote in another post about manipulating the stock prices & that post went mia quickly but check out this list .. If they really believed in what they were doing then why not hold on to their stock & watch it grow?? .. From money central msns website a list of insider stock trades for ebay execs.

Date Name Transaction Num Shares Price(s) Value
12/28/07 COBB WILLIAM C Sold 5,000 $33.74 168,695.00
12/14/07 COBB WILLIAM C Sold 5,000 $33.06 165,284.50
12/14/07 JACOBSON MICHAEL RICHARD Sold 70,000 $33.29 2.33 Mil
12/06/07 WHITMAN MARGARET C Sold 640,000 $33.62 21.52 Mil
11/29/07 COBB WILLIAM C Sold 5,000 $33.64 168,192.00
11/16/07 WHITMAN MARGARET C Sold 640,000 $32.43 20.76 Mil
11/15/07 COBB WILLIAM C Sold 5,000 $32.40 161,982.50
11/08/07 DUTTA RAJIV Sold 62,500 $32.86 2.05 Mil
11/08/07 WHITMAN MARGARET C Sold 640,000 $33.20 21.25 Mil
10/30/07 COBB WILLIAM C Sold 15,000 $36.52 547,846.50
10/25/07 DUTTA RAJIV Sold 125,000 $35.75 4.47 Mil
10/22/07 COOK SCOTT D Sold 18,100 $36.39 658,659.00
10/22/07 COOK SCOTT D Sold 44,937 $36.05 1.62 Mil
10/22/07 COOK SCOTT D Sold 33,100 $35.90 1.19 Mil
10/22/07 COOK SCOTT D Sold 3,600 $35.80 128,880.00
09/28/07 COBB WILLIAM C Sold 40,000 $39.14 1.57 Mil
09/21/07 WHITMAN MARGARET C Sold 640,000 $38.75 24.80 Mil
09/17/07 JACOBSON MICHAEL RICHARD Sold 70,000 $37.20 2.60 Mil
09/14/07 COBB WILLIAM C Sold 15,000 $37.88 568,198.50

.. Funny thing is that they are now buying it back up now it tanked??"
Isn't there a law against this type selling??

EBay is your Employer sellers: wake up! they can fire you! You cannot do jack to them; they set ALL the rules, regulations, changes; and YOU beg them to do this or ask that .. no one cares at EBAY. . Smell the oxygen. . WAKE UP!!!

Ebay is nuts.

I am no longer selling or buying on ebay until they change their feedback policy and lower their fees.
I have closed my store which had 1800 item in it inventory.
When I first opened my store I was able to make a reasonable profit.
Now after years of Ebay fee increases and policy changes I am barely breaking even, it is no longer worth my time.
I have opened a store at Ecrater.com I do not have no where near the sale that I had at Ebay, but I do not have all the unfair fees.
I will no longer allow Ebay to treat me like a peasant and pay them ast the same time.
Ecrater slow and steady growth and respesct for it sellers.

I have been selling on ebay since 1998. I am searching for new sites to sell at. One-sided feedback is my main problem with the changes coming up. I will not sell on EBay again unless they rescind this change.

Samantha , your comments above.. .People leave long diatribes. ..BECAUSE...They are venting their opinion and its having an effect and causing eBay to re think its policies.. .as they are NOW considering feedback changes due to the fact many sent long winded complaints!!! It's the first amendment STUPID!

I am a seller with well over 2,000 transactions and the new policies will cripple many sellers like myself. eBay has not made it easier for anyone to conduct business on their website. It will make it increasingly difficult for sellers to make a profit and as a result the small seller will be leaving in a methodical exodus.

Come May the new feedback program kicks in and that is when you will see much more action in the form of boycotts, and seller migration to sites that actually want their business.

eBay totally missed the mark. They appear to want the small seller gone. They will be getting their wish it appears.

I've been buying and selling on eBay since it was a subdomain of aw.com. Over the years, eBay has made a number of changes, few for the better, each one whittling away a bit here and a bit there from what is or is not permissible to sell, hiking fees, implementing new--sometimes draconian--rules. It's become an overgrown and muscle-bound behemoth that believes it answers to no one. Perhaps. But I've started buying and selling on other sites, and completely quit eBay.

Perhaps some folks will remember a similar situation some years back, when the internet was still new and frightening to many, and a company by the name of Compuserve sprang up, offering a bridge of sorts between 'bulletin boards' and the raw internet. Soon, computer hardware and software manufacturers referred users to Compuserve to obtain updates, tech support and such like--usually for a price, sometimes a steep price. At the time, there was little choice but to pay the price, since there was no generally available venue. Like eBay, Compuserve hiked prices even as service quality fell. But then along came user-friendly graphic interfaces (web browsers) and users flocked to the internet on their own, dropping Compuserve like a hot penny. The seemingly invincible Compuserve is now...a bit player scrambling for crumbs.

I suspect that eBay may well be destined to join Compuserve in the ash heap of history. There are too many alternative venues, some of which will thrive even as eBay's star fades. Whatever else happens, eBay has lost my business and that of many others.

I have been an eBay seller & store owner since 7/2005. My feedback score as of this posting is 697 at 100% positive. Initially, I gave feedback just as soon as the payment was received. It was when I received the only "neutral" feedback on my record (just over one year ago) that I realized I was leaving myself open for unfair feedback. I received an order for an UZI flashlight, left "positive" feedback for the customer, and mailed it the next day. The neutral feedback was received saying the item was new as described, but was of poor quality. The customer had not contacted me prior to leaving the feedback so I sent him an e-mail saying I was sorry he didn't like the flashlight, and to please return it for full refund including the shipping and handling charge. The customer replied saying that they had decided to keep the flashlight and had given me the "neutral" because in their opinion the flashlight was not as good as a MagLite. It was a good flashlight! The customer knew that it wasn't a MagLite when they bought it. At the time, this wasn't a big deal in that neutral feedbacks were not held against sellers & store owners. Now, this has changed and a seller can be out of business if there are too many buyers like this one. This is not fair, and only serves to increase the risk level a seller experiences. To be honest, I find myself wondering if I should invest money in inventory for my eBay store any longer if I can be shut down over the whims of buyers like this.

We have been selling on ebay for eight years as a means of earning extra income to help support our family. Our feedback score is currently 944 with a rating of 100% positive. We will stop selling on ebay until they reverse their decision on the feedback changes. Negative feedback to buyers is the only protection we as sellers have to protect ourselves from fraud. If we see a buyer with numerous negative feedbacks we should reserve the right to block this bidder from bidding on any of our auctions. Ebay was supposed to suspend bidders with numerous negative feedbacks but now this will leave the door open to scammers and fraud. I as one powerseller on ebay will not be a part of the upcoming fiasco. Good luck to any who stick it out but the best thing you can do for the ebay community and yourself is to stop any and all transactions with ebay until they reverse their feedback changes. The boycott should be considered a STRIKE until ebay comes to their senses and reverse this horrible feedback change!!

Although I'm not a seller I don't think the hike that Ebay gets off a sell is right. I do however think that seller shouldn't be able to leave negative feedback. There are just too many bad sellers out there that leave negative feedback when a buyer rightfully leaves them negative feedback.

I am a PowerSeller and have sold on feebay for 7+ years. The downright hostile attitude feebay has toward sellers plus the persistent gouging through higher fees will drive many away. The proposed lopsided feedback system in favor of bidders (note: I said bidders, NOT buyers because many never pay) will result in a sellers' good reputation being ruined; bidders/buyers in turn will be less likely to buy because of a falsely negative feedback picture of the seller. Bad for everyone.
The opportunity is ripe for a competitor to start an auction-style format website that is sensible and member-friendly: it will be an INSTANT success due to the mass exodus from feebay.

I was a small seller and avid buyer. I pulled my stuff months ago when these changes were blowing in the wind. AND I'M VERY GLAD I DID! As a seller I'm done this is not the same place it used to be! Before there was a way to have your own little corner and treat buyers well and with respect. I've left only 3 negs my entire time on ebay. But now with all these changes it seems impossible to have that little corner any longer. So I've opened a store off ebay and I'm very happy with it.

As a buyer the new search engine is the worst thing I've ever seen! Best Match is far frome the name! The searches yield results that are totally useless. Instead of bring up items I'm looking for it brings up items Ebay feels are best sellers and Sellers I would not buy from if ebay paid me to!

I'm seeing good smaller sellers I've dealt with for years buried in the searches (if their stuff is showing up at all) and huge mega sellers that I would never buy from rammed down my throat! Ebay don't you realize the huge mega sellers that triple charge on shipping and don't answer email are just the people who buyers hate!

I spent 4 hours last night doing my normal searches and could not find what I was looking for. What I did want was pulled out of my search results (because ebay seems to know better how and on what I want to spend my money). Now it's amazing I could not find these items as they were there just one day prior to my searches being flipped to Best Match.

Well ebay you lost my selling business and now you'll be loosing my buying business as well. I CAN FIND WHAT I WANT ON GOOGLE AMAZON and LOTS OF LITTLE AUCTION SITES THAT YOU SEEM TO DEEM AS NOISE.

Hear the noise ebay because soon it will be deafening!

I have been buying and selling on Ebay for five years.Overall, I have had good experiences with buyers and sellers.I can count the bad experiences on two hands.But..all of those incedents involved bad BUYERS..not bad sellers.I am sure that there are abuses on both sides, I was just lucky enough to wind up with all good sellers.But, that is just the point, buying and selling online should not feel like Russian Roulette.These new changes are going to further my feeling that the shopping experience on Ebay is not very secure.As a seller, I am certain that sooner or later, I AM going to get scammed by someone who knows the loopholes, and probably get undeserved negative FB feedback to boot.IMO it would be better for Ebay to actually crack down on the problem buyers and sellers rather than force everyone into this new system.I am now looking at other online venues, many of them free or low cost.A large list of these other online sites to buy and sell can be viewed by anyone who is interested on the forums at powersellersunite.com.

I'm a long time seller on Ebay - and it was great! But I find that they've added change after change and it's really become over-developed and it's lost a lot of what worked so well. Reminds me of when Apple fired Steve Jobs and went for the easy money with a closed high-priced computer system - the accountants said it was the way to go - drove the company close to bankruptcy of course until they hired the guy (Steve) with the vsion back again. Where's the guy/gal with the vision for Ebay - the accountants are ruining it with their "logical" steps. How do the accountants factor in the huge amount of ill-will they've generated - is there a place in their spreadsheets for that? I used to be a loyal Ebay backer and user - now I really don't wish them well at all.

Has eBay begun a slow decline into madness???

When I started with eBay ten years ago, eBay was a friendly VEHICLE which enabled me to sell items to supplement our income. Over those ten years, I worked hard to perfect how I described items (in detail and honestly), how I communicated (the night the auction ended, and when item is shipped), and when I shipped (within 24 hours after payment is received). I also bent over backwards to be patient if a payment was late.

When fees went up, I understood.

But, when they announce that someone like me is simply "noise" and an unwanted "flea market" seller, that was STRIKE ONE. Then, when they say that my Detailed Seller Ratings is from God Almighty...that I should get a lower rating because the PO was slow, or that I charged a clearly-stated handling to reimburse me for my time and gas to send a package...or that I should fall in the search results because my star total was from God Almighty, that was STRIKE TWO.

But the final blow was when they tell me that beginning in May, the Buyers can now have a free-for-all and leave you negative (i.e. why not since the seller can't tell the truth about the buyer anymore), that was STRIKE THREE.

Ebay has ceased to be the VEHICLE, and now has become the DRIVER of my business, heading straight towards a brick wall.

Fine. Because I'm getting out, and moving on to greener pastures. And I hope to hell that the other auction sites takes note of Ebay's stupidity and capitalize on it, providing the friendly vehicle once again for the SELLER.

p.s. And by the way, Ebay, when you crash into the brick wall, as is GOING to happen sooner than later, take the lousy PayPal with you.

I left ebay for good, last March. After going from a tiny, insignificant seller to a Powerseller, and then back down to a small volume seller, I took down shop and quit. Ebay's listing fees and final value fees got to be outrageous for me; more and more fraudulent buyers, or buyers that were so scrutinizing they got their hot energy out by yelling at me over emails; zero customer service from ebay; troubles with Paypal and ebay's catering to only huge volume, major Powersellers. Ebay was no longer the site or company it once was. It aims to be an exclusive place to shop, not a unique community anymore.

I left ebay and found a wonderful community called Powersellers Unite. After getting over the initial anger and depression of leaving ebay, I found that there are others out here who have gone through similar experiences. Leaving ebay felt like quitting a job that I cared about with tons of passion. Ebay sure didn't give a hoot that I left. Maybe when people leave in large numbers, and ebay is left scratching their heads, perhaps then they will wonder what they did wrong. Their bloated business ego doesn't seem to want to change though.

Additional comments, it is good to see some familiar names mentioned but some were over looked and some not mentioned strongly enough. Revelation Money Exchange instead of Paypal should be considered strongly. Webidz and Squeagle have had little attention here as auction sites. Low cost and better than some sites that are not so great like wagglepop. Bad experience there - same attitude as ebay - really not good at all! Point is - instead of complaining so much, just get on with it to another site. Keep the market going but somewhere else. You will know when you find your comfort spot.

As a buyer primarily on ebaY, I can say that in recent years, deals are better found on other sites.

It appears with the recent changes, and those of the past couple of years, ebaY intends to change from the 'lead' position of open-market transactions to Major e-Tailer, chasing behind Amazon and Wal-Mart.

I started on ebaY as a buyer. I remember being completed ecstatic when I found a very special, very unique item that I just had to have.

I remember the sellers who treated me as if I were known to them for years. Pleasant, helpful, kind, fair prices, fair shipping and a smile I could feel through the web.

I then became a seller. The thrill and excitement of putting an item on ebaY that no longer had a need or a place in my life and watching for a new owner was priceless.

But...it all changed. The bills for ebaY fees rolled in, and when items did not sell, ebaY was making more than I. The fun quickly turned into frustration. Smarter sellers spammed with key words, inflating their shipping, and used every 'disallowed' action to 'beat my item'.

When I search ebaY today, the magic is gone. Those items that were well-loved treasures from another generation or era that I love and 'respect' are no more. If you find one, the seller is charging $20 to ship something that's clearly First Class.

The attempt to discipline the ebaY membership has dismissed good sellers. While many good sellers may remain, those which treated their customers as an individual, a friend, a new owner for a treasured object are no more. Instead, questions go unanswered, issues are handled with a 'neg' and First Class parcels are overcharged - upwards of $20+ to avoid ebaY fees.

As many who passed before me and many who've passed since, I quickly realized that the rules, guidelines and policies were applied differently, depending upon your value to ebaY. Instead of playing the ebaY game, and sacrificing my own values and ethics, I moved on.

I moved on one month after opening a store in 2005. I'm glad I did, and have found alternatives for buying and selling. If it works for you; go with it. If it doesn't, move on - and trust me when I say - There is Life After ebaY!

WOW Ebay! wake up and smell the coffee. Listen to US SELLERS Your Customers. READ these comments and understand what we are saying.
Times have changed it is a Big Big World with lots of VENUES for us to sell on.
We will, and have left you FEEBAY. The exodus has only started.
Your reputation is almost destroyed. Word of mouth is the most damaging to any company. Your glory days are gone and so are your customers, The sellers.
I know you wont listen Ebay but I guess I can try.
Randomvillecrater.com

You know it's strange to see the only thing people are concerned with is just the feedback. This is a major problem yes! Buyer fraud will increase. And it does leave a seller vulnerable.

BUT THE REAL ISSUE IS THE NEW SEARCHES BEING TIED TO DETAILED SELLER RATINGS AND BEST MATCH!

When these new searches roll out 100% effective the rest of this stuff is a mute point. You as a seller will be paying huge fees with no seller protection and you will get no visiblility. Your items may or may not ever hit the first pages of the search engines.

I know I saw items closing in minutes buried 5 pages down in my search results. If buyers can't find your items negative feedback is a mute point! You won't have any buyers to worry about!

And the counter to that is that you can change the serach results in advanced settings. Well I'm a seasoned ebay buyer and changing to ending soonest option doesn't hold! It flips back to best match! And if your DSR is deemed bad because right now the #5 star has a bug and buyers can't pick it so you get a bunch of 4's your toast! YOU WILL NEVER BEEN SEEN IN THE SEARCHES!!!!

Sellers wake up the feedback issue is the least of your problems!

After reading all the comments I must concur they are all very correct. I am a Disabled Vet and have been selling on Ebay for over 10 years, I do not sell a lot but I enjoyed doing it. My feedback is about 939 at the moment. I stopped selling after the announcement Ebay made, the fee's have reached a point where it isnt profitable to sell anything. I relied on small vintage items and then found if it wasnt a lot sale and real deal bid's were way off. I closed my store that I had just opened and I just stopped selling there as of 2/14/08. My wife who is a larger seller of vintage clothing did the same. She now has her own web site and continues to sell. I have a lot of items I still need to sell but doubt I will return to Ebay. I recently lost money and merchandise to one of Ebays famous blackmailers..I reported it to Ebay and recieved an automated reply some 2 months later, so I had already returned the thiefs money and he kept all the merchandise, loss of about 100 dollars to me..of course no refund of fee's. They sent me a performace survey about it about a month ago, and I told them how I felt about Ebay, of course nothing was ever done about it. I dont feel I can trust Ebay's judgement based on there past performance and do not feel comfortable selling there again. The best revenge you can take on any business is to simply not support them anymore, and that includes buying there stock. Personaly we survive well without Ebay, however there are many people who need the income they make from there sales, including some of my friends, I feel very badly about the position they are in now. Best of luck to all the sellers, I suggest you move on to your Plan B. JW

I've been buying and selling on ebay since 2001, they've been a source of joy and frustration but that is neither here nor there. They are a business, an online auction business, evidently they decided to fix what wasn't broke with the dsr's and mistakenly thought the buyers were their only customers or even their customers, the sellers are ebays customers and the buyers are the sellers customers, as many have stated if the buyers are eBays customers the sellers are employees of ebay which is how we are now being treated without the benefits of being employees.

Many sellers who can are leaving, maybe not right away and maybe not totally but they are going, whether it be to onlineauction.com, ebid.net, plunderhere.com or where---- they are going. The buyers will follow partly because the sellers were also buyers.
It's a shame that this had to happen. People don't go to ebay for mass marketed things, they go there for the unusual the hard to find the flea market things. I go there to find decent name brand clothing when I shop or books that I don't have to pay an arm and a leg for. My husband bought several thousand $s worth of toy tractors there, we have a toy store 13 miles away, why did he buy on ebay? The selection, the price, the ability to find what was old and unusual.
IF eBay wanted the flea market crowd to leave it would have been more honorable to just say we are discontinuing that side of our venue, adios, see ya later, etc.
As with the previous posts the feedback is what got me, my one and only guide was "why I want my ebay feedback on my tombstone", yes it was that good. Now HOW do you think I reacted to a complete reversal of how the feedback system worked, it wasn't pretty.

Gaging sellers on shipping time is assuming that sellers control the post office and UPS. These ratings then determine whether the sellers get discounts in eBay fees and ultimately can get most of the payments to sellers held up in paypal for 21 days. This means the seller can ship an item, pay for it out of their own pocked, not get the money for 21 days AND then if the buyer decides that the item isn't quite to their liking or they just have buyer remorse they can do a chargeback and keep the item in some circumstances? Sellers will HAVE NO idea who these buyers are because we can only leave positive feedback now. This is a worst case scenario but I'm not selling on ebay to give things away and pay for the postage to ship them out of my own pocket. Just doesn't make sense? Makes MUCH more sense to take things to my local charity.

powersellersunite.com has MANY discussions on these changes and what to do and how to succeed, not only for sellers but for buyers to find what they are looking for. AND we try to stay calm and cool while doing it.

I'm sad to watch what I think will be the demise of the greatest experiment in self government of online commerce, it worked for awhile and worked beautifully, that's why the idea is still alive in the smaller auction sites.

I've been selling at eBay, on a part time basis, since 1998. It was such a great venue. I recently closed both of my stores and am listing only a few auctions per week. I have begun listing items at Blujay and Onlineauctions. Will I sell as much at those site? No, I don't expect to. But I will be dealing with honorable sites which offer a fair playing ground for both buyers and sellers. This latest feedback brainchild of eBay's - the star system and the upcoming inability of sellers to leave any feedback for buyers that isn't positive, while the buyers may leave negatives and nuetrals, must have come from a kindergarten class. I think eBay has now put themselves on a downhill slide.

I love the new changes, personally. Every time eBay changes ANYTHING, people go hysterical. It's boring. I hope all of those who are boycotting and threatening to leave will actually go away permanently.

I have been both a buyer and seller on eBay since early 1998. Sorry, but now it must end.

ALL BUYERS: Go to Goggle--type in auctions---you will find me and many others at one of them.

There is a powerseller with a stellar reputation who finally gave up this month with ebay. His ebay ID is magidavid.

His website is www.NeoLoch.com (Neo=NEW Loch=BAY)

He opened an incredibly intuitive auction site and many are flocking to help him get rolling in style. Since he has been in the trenches of this latest fiasco, his complete understanding of the turn ebay has taken is to his benefit in creating a worthy auction site.

I suggest to all to check it out, in less than a week, over 230 members. That speaks volumes that

1. He has what people are looking for.
2. That ebay is suffering a death by a thousand cuts daily.

The exodus is on and will reach critical mass come May when the feedback changes begin and ebay becomes even more hostile an environment than it is now.

The changes are awful, espcially not allowing sellers to leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers. I am dealing with a situation right now where a bidder tried to pay for an item via PayPal's echeck. Well, the echeck bounced -- twice -- because the buyer didn't have the money in their bank account. In the meantime, while I'm waiting to get paid for the item, the buyer gives me a negative feedback because they haven't gotten the item yet. Luckily, I can still leave the appropriate feedback for this non-paying bidder, but in a couple months, I won't have that option.

The "fee reductions" actually amount to fee increases for most of the items I sell.

The search rankings based on DSRs is ridiculous. Why should I pay the same amount as someone else for a listing, but never get the exposure they get just because I'm a part-time seller who doesn't ship daily, but lets my buyers know that up front in the auction?

I could go on all day, but I won't. Let me just say that I have been on eBay for about 9 years now, but that is quickly coming to an end. I'm boycotting, and have moved most of my items to another site.

'Buyers will only be able to receive positive Feedback' - This is quite possibly one of the most outrageous decisions made by an internet company in it's (the internet's) 17 year-old-history old history. I don't understand why people continue to deal with this operation. I understand that it's due to the current traffic but we need to take out businesses to another site and buld them out and quit feeding the pig. We had the second largest vintage toy store on eBay and it is now on eCrater.com. Enough is enough. Someone has got to shock the People's Democratic Republic of eBay back to reality. It is all in our hands.

eBay's new changes will do much more harm than good. If some of the conspiracy theorists are correct in saying that eBay did it on purpose to drive out the small sellers, that will backfire too. An eBay with only large sellers is an eBay that those large sellers don't need. The IMA and PESA could very easily set up their own online shopping mall comprised of eBay's largest sellers. (perhaps that is already underway? Donohoe must be too shortsighted to see that coming)

The feedback changes will enable the bottom 1% of eBay's buyers to ruin the reputations of all eBay sellers, good and bad alike. The typical eBayer's expectations as to "good feedback" won't change. This is because these numbers haven't changed much in over a decade. The results will be even lower sell-through, lower selling prices and much discord among eBay users. Most "powersellers" already have or are developing their own websites and simply use eBay as an advertising medium.

eBay and PayPal ruined eBay by catering to the lowest class of buyers and treating ALL sellers like the lowest 1% of sellers. eBay is a dying business model and nothing will change that at this point. Individual websites and search engines optimized for product searching are the future. eBay's only real hope for continued growth is PayPal.

the "positive" only feedbacks for buyers is a green light for the nigerian oil minister scammers and career bad check passers. without ebay's help in concealing their dishonesty, they'd likely only be able to sting a few ebay sellers. with the new ebay policy, those scammers can score on each and every one of the millions of ebay sellers.

I refuse to sell on this new eBay. I'd rather take my time, and my chances, on other venues than stay on eBay. After an almost 4 year exit the last time they 'improved' their site, I came back and they made me a powerseller three weeks later, but ... enough is enough. I can sell my goods anywhere. The dishonest way they maneuvered their fee increases were insulting, but I left due to the other changes.

I'm a low volume seller that used eBay to sell things I no longer need and that would be hard to sell otherwise; computer parts for example. The fees were high before but now it doesn't even make sense to spend some much effort to gain so little. I'd rather give it away then deal with eBay and PayPal's extortion techniques. It's the principle...

And I'm realizing there are other auction sites out there; other people are figuring that out as well. And as more buyers figure it out then more and more sells will move off of eBay to better sites and lower fees.

Also its important to note that even though sellers pay the fees directly, economics requires that all costs be past on to the buyer. Therefore, higher eBays fees hurt buyers and alternate sites with lower fees help buyers. Buyers are smart and will move to the alternate sites as well.

I have read all the comments posted here.

My advice....Run away from ebaY and never go back. Let the Power Sellers be the only sellers to support ebaY with their huge monthly revenues and fees.

Everyone says they get no exposure or traffic at other auction/BIN venues but seem to forget that ebaY was a small fish in the ocean when it started...but grew into the huge whale it now is. And as any gambler knows, whales always get comped at the expense of someone else, in the hopes you will spend lots of money with them.

If you want to know the number of listings on other selling venues, go to http://www.powersellersunite.com and check out the auction site watch on the left hand side of the homepage. Just keep in mind that ebaYs listings will always be inflated due to ebaY listing test auctions.

Put your money where your mouth is by supporting any of the many other auction sites and by boycotting ebaY indefinitely.

There is strength in numbers...all it takes is one to get the ground swell started.

Good luck to all the sellers who remain with ebaY....I feel you will need all the luck you can get.

Fire Ebay!!!
Best Feebay alternative Neolock.com

Craigslist is a great way to sell imo - I don't care that ebay has as take in it since unless you're selling a house, you pay nothing to post or buy. As long as Craigslist is free, ebay's not making any money on it, and I'm not using ebay, or PayPal for that matter.

I am a occasional buyer on ebay, never have sold anything. I think it's unfair if sellers can't leave negative feedback for buyers. I have no vested interest since I would never have to leave feedback for a buyer. Feedback is a two way street.

I am a little seller, but a big buyer.

I recently listed many items and charged exact shipping amounts. Finally got 10 or more DSR ratings and wow..what a huge dissapointment!!
Everything is a 4.7 or higher except for the Shipping and handliong DSR..I have a 4.3 : (
Come to find out this could get me a Red warning on my auctions in the future warning people I have a poor rating & also Paypal can now hold any payments to me because of the "Low" DSR rating.

In the meantime when I leave feedback to sellers The description of a 4 star is actually good. So, buyers are leaving me real good feedback and a 4 star DSR sometimes thinking it is good when it really is bad.

I'm an eBay'er and a Powerseller. Ebay was built on being a community of buyers and sellers. The feedback system was a vital part of that community. It allowed an anonymous internet community to police itself. Buyers could use feedback to warn other buyers about bad sellers. Sellers could warn other sellers about bad buyers. Sadly, that system is going away. With sellers only able to leave positive feedback for buyers, the last vestiges of a true "community" will be gone. Sellers will have no warning about potentially fraudulent or dishonest buyers. It will become unsafe to do business there.

I agree with everything..I am moving on ro other sites and never going back to Ebay.

As for Paypal, since the hold on the monies is only thru Ebay I will keep using them even though Ebay owns them.

I, too, have been listing on www.NeoLoch.com. There is a personal touch you are not going to find anywhere. It may be new, but you can get in on the ground floor and help mold it to work with you, not against you. I have over 1700 positive feedbacks with ebay, 1 neg from a seller who had every excuse in the world for not shipping in a timely manner (3 weeks).

Uneducated buyers are now running amok, bidding and not paying. They file for refunds about any imaginary problem they can make up and are being encouraged by ebay & Paypal. Someone in the equation should be an Adult. Tell the children (bidders) they cannot have their own way and make them stand by their bids, pay and communicate, but not with feedback.

I can afford to move to Neoloch. I sympathize with those seller stuck in ebay hell. They pass the fee increases on to the buyers who will complain about the cost. They will then neg (with impunity) the seller who will soon be unable to sell and will quit. No sellers, no buyers. No problem.

I have 18,000 plus unique feedbacks, and have received 19 Negs and left 15 negs for buyers. I have never done a mutual feedback withdrawal ever.

In spite of this, the ebay brain trust has decided to tar me with the same bush as the real bad actors. We all know who they are. we have all complained for years to ebay about them.

As a result, Ebay has now decided that we, the good sellers and buyers, will have to pay for EBAYS inaction.

I have been working on diversifying for over a year and as a result, Ebay now gets under $200 a month from me. They used to get almost $2000 a month. I just wonder how many more great seller/buyers will ebay chase off before it realizes that we are all important and they need to take care of all of us.

Yes, Ebay has it's share of issues to resolve this time. Amazon.com is actively taking advantage of seller discourse - run, run for the hills!

Ebay has done little for the sellers and year after year they do less and less.

Do you realize that while we pay Ebay over $3000 each month we can't get a simple answer on the phone?

Yes, the customers are still at ebay but with Amazon receiving the #1 spot for customer service and lots of good press vs Ebay's continually stream of bad press - like this blog - I think we'll see a major exodus of sellers although most will use both venues.

The worst is yet to come. They should start rolling out best match next week and I believe it will make all the other changes pale in comparision.

If your item is ending in 10 minutes, and is still on page 6, you have little or no chance of it getting sold!

No one realizes how bad this change will really be but I am terrified! I have been with Ebay for 9 years now and this is the worse thing they have ever done!

Guess we will all find out next week but I don't see how this can have any positive effect on sell through for the majority of the sellers.

WOW!!! I see this important thread has become HUGE! What an amazing response to this Washington Post reporter's request for our opinions!! Thank you Mr. Pegoraro!

But, how do we know whether you or the Washington Post community have been reading this? Do you plan to respond to this outpouring of dissent? I have been looking for it today and as of yet not seen anything. My apologies if I appear impatient, its just such a powerful issue and it seems to warrant a reaction from the Post. Have I missed something?

It seems that 99.9% who have responded are in direct opposition to eBay's new and improved buying environment. (LOL! If you translate that to eBay's new seller's DSR system we probably come in at a 4.1 out of 5 due to technical tweeks to which comments have most weight).

I hope we hear a reaction soon!

THANK YOU all for sticking together!

If I may be so bold, let me quote Donald Trump,"Ebay you're FIRED!"

Ask and you shall receive, I just hope you have enough room to post all the comment.

I have had an ebay account for over 6 years, started buying and then opened a store. It was so much fun and I would look forward to checking my email several times daily. Then in the 06 fee increase I closed up both of my stores and started looking elsewhere.

There are a lot of other venues to sell at: my personal favorite is eCrater.com and PowerSellersUnite.com has a big list of the other places, some are auction type and some are stores only, but most are customer service friendly, helpful, nice, no fee or low fee, and very helpful.

When I opened my store at eCrater it was slow going, the listings were less than 250,000 items and now our listing counts are close to the one million mark. My sales are going up and I am real happy.

The feeling of freedom when I left ebay was fantastic and a little scary, but it has been victoriously triumphant for me. Yes, pun intended!! Do check out Powersellersunite.com and stop by eCrater.com, too.

As a Long-Time Seller and Buyer (since day one) on Ebay, I feel qualified to complain about the policy changes and rate hikes.

I sell one-of-a-kind antiques and collectibles. I am a second-generation dealer; I charge no shipping or handling fees, other than the exact cost of mailing the items I sell. I ship internationally, and have sold items to individuals as well as to museums. Ebay has made THOUSANDS of DOLLARS from me.

It is a UNIQUE Marketplace, and at one time was a fun and exciting venue. But no longer.

On February 12, 2008, someone, a CROOK -- stole my account! When I reported it to Ebay;s management -- and security team -- as advised on the site, I received NO ASSISTANCE. Under the GUISE of protecting ME, I was not allowed to access my account for a solid week, causing me to lose business, and credibility with my existing customers (I had over 40 auctions listed at that time.) I wrote letters, emails and called during that frustrating week trying to gain access to MY ACCOUNT to NO AVAIL.

During that time, an Ebay customer service rep removed my Power Seller Status!

When I finally was given access to my account again on February 20, the first thing I did was CLOSE MY STORE.

The second thing I did was JOIN the BOYCOTT!

Can You Understand WHY??

Ebay Management doesn't care how they get their money, who brings them their money,
only that they have money!

Prior to getting my master's degree in social work, I was a buyer for a major department store, and then a sales representative for a nationally-known jewelry company for ten years. I have had plenty of experience with corporate greed.

Ebay's management has exhibited corporate greed to the ultimate degree when they pay no attention to our failing economy yet they hike final value fees under the guise of lowering listing costs. I guess they must think we sellers are dumb and cannot see through their lies.

And as to their feedback policy changes: Not allowing sellers to leave Non-paying bidders NEGATIVE feedback comments is absurd! This is an auction venue. We must have some recourse. We cannot allow someone to bid up an item and then change their minds at the last minute--An Auction is a Business Contract!

Please.
Are they (Ebay's management) attempting to rewrite definitions (auction terms)?

I do not think that the folks who made these changes took into consideration all the ramifications of these policy changes.

Nor do I think they realized HOW MANY people's Livelihoods they would be affecting!

Sincerely,

Madeline Roberts, MSW

Hate to hijack this post Rob but I vented on my blog already about this one.

http://www.adwords-articles.com/blog/ebay/why-ebay-will-keep-making-the-news-for-this/

I am a former powerseller left eBay and went independent long ago. eBay will continue to make the news for this
type of behavior.

Many years ago a man had a dream. He built a tiny primitive path. I discovered the path by chance ten years and a thousand positive feedbacks ago. I used to talk to the man about the path and how to make it better so the journey could be smoother and more rewarding.

I was a patient little burro. I started plodding along this crooked narrow little path. The work was hard. Much of the territory ahead was unknown. The carrot dangling in front of me, was that by following the path, I could help my family to make ends meet by selling on eBay during the winter months when our farm income dwindles.

The sweet juicy carrot was worth the hard work. There was also some pleasure in knowing I helped to grow something much bigger than anyone expected. I was part of a herd. It seemed tangible and real. So many of us were plodding on the path, shoulder to shoulder, working together; that the path started turning into a road, and then a highway where others could share in the harvest.

Times have changed. The carrot is now much smaller. It is shriveling up from the inside out and frequently tastes bitter. New men and women now oversee the path. For some inscrutable reason they have placed many stones and boulders in the roadway. Sometimes you don't even know they are there until you've inadvertently bruised a hoof. You try to find a map to guide you around these obstacles but the information is elusive and often incorrect.

My little burro self is feeling both confused and disenfranchised. Not only is the carrot much less appealing, but now the road's new owners have brought out a switch. Somehow they believe that the best way to keep me plodding along the road is to force me into submission. To keep me in line. I didn't know I had strayed?

I may be only a burro, but I feel deeply insulted. My little hoof prints helped to turn a dusty little narrow path into a paved highway. Today my tiny hooves are bruised. My spirit is tired. I need to look for paths where the road is more welcoming. Where my dedication and hard work will be rewarded. In the meantime my tummy is rumbling and life must go on . . .

I am a newer (1 year) seller on ebay and was just ramping up to make a run for PowerSeller status. This was a kick in the pants. Cost of doing business was already expensive, but I have 100% positive rating. That is a prescious and hard won 100%, but I have much doubts of keeping it.

I am disappointed since I was hoping to build my business on ebay, but I am now diversifying my selling venues and will eventually open my own site. This may be a good thing for my business in the long run, but not good for ebay as people keep doing this.

Another unfortunate side event are the sites springing up where a seller can report a bad buyer. Helpful for us sellers, but it did not need to happen that way. Too bad.

I've bought and sold on ebay for years, quite happily.

Choice, value, personal service from mostly small sellers. What wasn't to like?

As a buyer, I'm buying less and less. As a seller, I am going to have an ulcer over some of the things I have to deal with to maintain carte blanche "customer satisfaction" decree ebay has issued forth.

I got a neg from a new buyer simply because an item coming from California got there before my item got there, by a day. They had their item in hand in less than a week of paying! That cost me $30 to have ebay's recommended mediators to remove. It was a $3 item.

Sold a sweater, a full month after delivery the buyer sends an email "it unravelled in the wash". They hadn't left me feedback, so what am I to do? accept the return or refund, of course, can't risk a negative that will shut me down on top the the last one I got! Doesn't matter that they threw a wool dry clean only item in their washing machine. Stupid.

So, I'm out over $45, for maybe $8 in profit, just so ebay won't sanction me with restrictions or holding my funds. All because because some buyers are idiotic and hold ebay sellers to standards no other online retail would have to maintain.

I've about had it. This isn't fun or worth it any longer.

I have sold on eBay since 1999. It was great I made money. Slowly I started to make more money. At the same time eBay persuades you to open a store. I do that. Then like so many others - I quit my job & do eBay full time. And now they have another fee increase & that feedback scam.

It kills me that they are allowed to get away with this. I will look for other sites to sell on. eBays attitude is reprehensible!

Little ole flea market me has been selling and buying on eBay for 9 years with 830 positive feedback and 1 negative (from an overseas buyer who did not read a very clearly stated and photographed description of a collectible item that he got for a pittance, but he wanted the perfect 180.00 version for his 20.00). My rating is approx 2/3 from buying and 1/3 from selling, so I have no problem looking at all of this from both viewpoints. Frankly, I'm disgusted with eBay. First, the flea market aspect is the ONLY reason I buy and sell on eBay. I almost never use eBay for any other types of purchases, so to have the eBay CEO blatantly state they are trying to rid eBay of the flea market riff-raff (which includes me), and to structure the changes to hurt us further and encourage us to leave, means that I will no longer have any reason to frequent the eBay site. I have already set up seller accounts on iOffer, eBid and OnlineAuctions and am going to start selling there instead. And my buying will follow where I am selling. While it is true there isn't currently the buyer market on non-eBay, at least I won't be gouged to death in fees, and won't have to worry about the new ridiculous feedback system eBay has seen fit to force down sellers' throats. The whole 5 star rating thing is a joke too. I never charged a buyer any more for shipping than it cost me to ship, but I still ended up with a 4.1 on my shipping stars. I can't fault the buyers, because eBay has the star system worded in such a way that buyers think that leaving a 3 or 4 means they were satisfied with the shipping charges, when in reality, a 3 or 4 kills your rating. Since we cannot control what the post office charges, we either have to pass on what it costs us to ship, or take it out of our own pockets. To get a 5 on shipping, you literally need to ship it for free. Not a way to do business. eBay used to be my favorite online site. Now just the thought of eBay makes me sick to my stomach. . . . .

I am primarily a buyer on ebay, I've sold a few things in the past and was considering trying again, but with the new changes in policy, I have decided not to.

I've read that the policy changes will make my buying experience better. As I looked into them I have yet to determine how. Because of the shabby way ebay has treated some great sellers they will be leaving ebay. Increased fees and decreased supply will raise the prices. I will no longer be able to determine which sellers to buy from using the feedback system the way it is proposed to be. I won't be able to determine credibility through the DSR's either, if GOOD sellers with SATISFIED buyers are getting low scores and red warnings. I won't be able to find what I'm looking for when the Best Match goes in place. I don't want my sellers to have to wait 21 days to get my money or to have to pay out of their pocket the shipping I'm paying for. I don't want them to be limited on what shipping methods they can choose. How is any of this good for me, a regular buyer?

But most of all, I am insulted by Mr. Donahoe's remark that a flea market is something to be ashamed of. The items I buy on ebay would all be considered to be flea market items. They are the treasures that wonderful sellers bring to us from their grandmother's attic or the estate sale down the street, from the neighborhood thrift shop or a public auction. I've bought wonderful items from all over the world on this giant international flea market. If only Mr Donahoe would wake up and realize that this is what made ebay great and it's nothing to be ashamed of! He's insulted me and I believe his plans are to take away something that has been very enjoyable to me and as you can see, many more people like me.

We are powersellers and have sold on E-Bay for over nine years. Due to their new procedures, our customers will now be held hostage to purchasing higher quantities (2 or more) and in return paying higher shipping cost. E-Bay has succeeded in pushing us to open our own website and to also find other avenues to sell our product. E-Bay treats their customers (sellers) as a pox to be getten rid of. Maybe the stock-holders will find a cure. It sure won't be E-Bay management.

If any of you remember eBay in the old, friendly days, you'll love NeoLoch.com.

Please join an exodus of eBay sellers who have found a new home at NeoLoch. It's just starting out and holds a lot of promise!

Don't miss out!

NEOLOCH.COM

After the 2007 fee increase, I shut my eBay store and took several months off from eBay. I came back on with reduced activity. I am going to give the new system a try. My concerns: new fee structure will severely impact my bottom line, buyers will give me negatives on a whim, and the number of scammers who claim they never received items I dutifully mailed will increase. I sell sports cards and in 2007 increased the number of sports card shows I sell at. I will probably return to the pre-eBay days of strictly selling at card shows because it is soooo much more pleasant than dealing with eBay. It has also been a few years since I set up at a flea market but this summer you'll find me back out there partying like it's 1979.

I have been on ebay since 2003. I am a power seller with 100% positive feedback but at this time, my store is and will be on vacation at least until March 3. The feedback issue is my main concern. It is totally unfair and all the hype about discounts for power sellers is just that.. hype. The overall increase will be slight for stores and power sellers who list about 1500 items and average about $3000 in sales each month, but I did the math.. not ebay math.. and the cost will still be a few dollars more when you take into considerating store subscription, listing and final value fees.

If and when I relist items, I will list much less and mostly "leader" items and certainly raise prices and eliminate any free shipping offers I had before. Before long, buyers will start to see there are better places to shop than on ebay as most sellers will be doing the same thing. I have taken the gouge for the last time and, while I sell mostly from my website, those who think they have to buy off ebay will just have to help pay to feed ebay and their greed.

My sympathy goes out to those sellers who sell on ebay for a few extra dollars here and there as they have even less control over the fees and feedback than the larger sellers. Any way you look at it.. it is a totally unfair system.

Ebay is Broken.. possibly beyond repair as long as the present management is in control. I think a lot of people leaving now may never return. I started my website over a year ago after the last increase .. or the one before last.. , predicting further ebay ghastly acts so fortunately, I can live just fine and "JUST SAY NO" to ebay if necessary and they don't get their act together.

In all of this discussion... does anyone remember one of the early ebay tv commercials? Guy is sitting in his cubicle at work, sees an ugly old lamp that looks just like his wife's lamp. He buys it. He comes home to see his wife packing up the lamp... "Why?" "Oh, I sold it ebay today." Next scene, he has the lamp at work.

Yeah, ebay lost its roots.

I am a poweseller with over 80,000 sales, and between the fee INCREASE and the feedback changes, I have about had it!

I've only ever been a buyer on eBay, and I don't see how this system would help me one bit. I don't want Power Sellers to come up first in my searches, I don't want this screwy feedback system, I don't want "free shipping" if it raises the price of the item. And as someone who always pays promptly, usually immediately after the end of the auction, and has always gotten good service from sellers in return, I hate that PayPal would withhold the money up to 21 days while the seller has to ship the item immediately or get dinged.

The new system looks terrible for the majority of sellers. The whole thing was either wildly poorly thought-out or an attempt to change eBay into something utterly different from what has made it successful in the first place. Is there any chance they'll reconsider when they see the firestorm this has set off?

I have been an eager ebay buyer and seller for 4 years - I used to sing Ebay's praises to anyone who would listen. No more.

Lower insertion fees (the price paid to list an item) are nice, but they were always the lower of the fees one paid to post on ebay anyway. The higher final value fees (ebay's cut based on sale price of item) are ridiculous. I won't bore you with the math, but trust me, unless you're selling a high dollar value item, it's not even worth it to sell on ebay anymore. And then there's paypal's cut (paypal is owned by ebay) of around 3%.
And heaven forbid, a seller (or buyer) has a bad ebay experience. In 99.9% of cases, Ebay will NOT intervene. (not to mention there is no way to phone ebay unless you're a platinum powerseller) One must open a case with SquareTrade, a mediation service (also owned by Ebay), at a cost of over $20 and even then you're not guaranteed a resolution to the issue.

The new 21 day waiting period to withdraw paypal funds is not only unfair (how many employers are allowed to withhold paychecks for three weeks?), but it's going to put a lot of sellers in a bind - those who use revenues to replenish stock on a rolling basis.

The picture isn't rosy for buyers either. Contrary to what Ebay's public relations people would have you believe, sellers are flocking from ebay in droves. That means less merchandise for buyers to choose from. Plus, sellers most certainly plan to pass the new ebay fees on to the buyer, which means higher prices for buyers. If sellers can't command that higher price in the market in order to maintain his/her profit margin, then those sellers will defect to other auction sites just like the rest of us.

Another commenter asked what alternatives to ebay are available. Here are a few:
www.ubid.com
www.onlineauction.com
www.ioffer.com

It's a sad day in the history of American commerce. Ebay was, in my opinion, one of the greatest success stories of all time. I fear (and given ebay's current level of disregard for its members - I kinda hope) that this is the beginning of the end for ebay.

I am one of those people that are being stalked in ebay right now on both the boards and in my auctions. I can't sell there without my auctions and store items being targeted. I even sent it all to Bill Cobb and John Donahoe's email, since it isn't being handled through the Moderation Teams. I was told;

"Thank you for writing eBay in regard to Bill Cobb and John Donahoe in
regard to ongoing Board issues.

Although I appreciate your desire for a quick response, please know that
contacting eBay executives directly will not expedite a response.

I have forwarded your message to the appropriate department within eBay
and you should receive a response from them shortly. I would respectfully ask that you use the support options available to you. If it is Boards related, those options include reporting links on Board
pages, and contact with Moderator Maeve. She can be reached directly at (I won't put here email here)

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Terri
Office of the President"

They totally ignored the auction interference. Does anybody else read this as ... we don't care?

Guess I will be forced to sell else where not due to the fee increases, but do eBays continued looking the other way while people are being threatened while selling there. As Maeve has been informed with examples as to what is going on. No one over there wants to ensure a safe place to do business, just a place to make money. I remember the good old days.

Where to begin?

So much venom and such a small comment box! We have been on "the site" since 1998 and it has been a slow and steady downhill slide. Management is unresponsive, the site is inexplicably complicated, sales get worse and worse, fees get higher and higher, there is NO customer service. It will soon not serve our needs at all.

We have a small need for occassional auctions. If there were a viable alternative we would be happy to shut our account down.

I have never seen such a self-defeating company.

ebay is padding its auction count by having their employees list auctions --- and thousands of more auctions than they normally list:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000526589&tstart=0&mod=1204232810596

Ebay will pull an auction if you use Goggle checkout listed on your auctions. Perhaps its time Goggle started a very big push into the on line auction business. PayPal needs to have the feds look into them and hold them to all the normal banking regulations. All you people need to get involved way more by reporting PayPal. PayPal is the key! To bring Ebay to its knees.

I'm a (soon to be FORMER) eBay Powerseller with 100% positive feedback and 4.9 out of 5 buyer rating including shipping.

I normally list just under 1000 items per month but have begun dispersing those on three alternative venues.

I'm not sure what the future holds for my side-business, but leaving eBay is worth doing just on PRINCIPLE.

Ebay is like a well-intentioned government agency gone BAD with over-regulation, over-taxation and utter failure to achieve any of it's goals - and lots of high-priced executives and PR people putting a positive spin on things while their hands are under the table trying to keep a dirty rag on the gushing wound.

ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, ALL BLEEDING EVENTUALLY STOPS.

FLEE VICTORIOUSLY!

I have moved my store to ecrater- no more feeding the monster that ebay has become. I am also working more in another field and will continue on, watching ebay succumb. oh, and I didn't pay my $400 in dues, either, in protest :)

I'm one of the people CNN Money interviewed that succeeded leaving ebay. I quit selling on ebay after last years fee hikes. I also pretty much quit buying due to non-performing sellers, rude sellers, and threats of negative feedback should I address their lack of performance.

With that said, the DSR's should be dropped. No more DSR. A simple green or red for the seller. Ebay claims they want to address shoddy sellers by getting rid of the retaliatory neg threat, but in the same breath, tell buyers that a 4 on DSR's is good, and out of the side of their mouths, tell sellers that a 4 is bad.

What gives? Are you trying to ruin your own business ebay? If I ran my own site the way you are running yours, I'd be out of business in six months.

You have spent years avoiding enforcing your own policies on sellers, people report sellers for fee avoidance, for keyword spamming, for an entire litany of policy abuses, and you've done nothing, especially if its a powerseller.

So, now you slam ALL sellers?? Have you had a mental health check lately? Or are you that sure that sellers will come crawling back? Reality check-- I didn't. I made a go of it on my own, and more than quadrupled my business in the process.

I own a bricks and mortar 'ebay' drop off store - as of last week. Between the fees, policy changes and slap in the face from FEEbay I am closing as of 3/14. Go back to your roots ebay. All you have done is forced us to find other auction sites to use - glad you want to take care of the buyers but if no one is selling anything there...guess what...

Because of all the scams and fraud, ebay has become just another four letter word in the American vocabulary

I stopped selling ages ago and have not been buying at all lately.

eBay has hacked up the fees so high that things I used to purchase there are cheaper elsewhere. The private guy selling his stuff was a good bargain until they had to jack up their S&H to cover the fees. And most of the eBay stores sell stuff that is cheaper in other places.

This new feedback system is a joke. Sellers feedback will plummet and buyers will lose trust. Then the only people selling will be the high volume stores with over priced items that can be found elsewhere for less money.

eBay certainly shot themselves in the foot on this one.

Let's begin by first stating that PayPal is not a bank and does not provide its merchants with a Real Merchant Account. PayPal provides its merchants with a PayPal account.

There is a Very Big Difference.

With a Real Merchant Account, your funds are deposited into your personal or business bank account, which you control and which is also protected by Federal Banking Regulations.

With PayPal, your money is deposited into a PayPal Account, which PayPal Fully Controls.

Since PayPal is NOT a bank, they do not need to follow federal banking regulations. These regulations are in place to help the "Average Joe" avoid issues like having their bank account frozen for 6 months with no explanation...(Imagine if your bank was permitted to do that!)

Because PayPal is not regulated in the same way as a Real Merchant Account, Paypal accounts are frozen for almost anything and without warning. The account can usually receive money while it is frozen, but it certainly cannot withdrawal money. Once an account is frozen, the funds are often held by PayPal for months on end with Absolutely No Recourse for the merchant.

Merchants finding themselves on the wrong end of a frozen Paypal account will still have to find some way to pay their obligations and fill orders for the weeks and months while the account is restricted. A domino effect occurs when a merchant's account is frozen, leaving them with No Means To Fill Orders. Those orders are then disputed by customers, creating more chargebacks and the illusion of fraudulent activity on the part of the merchant. "Welcome to the PayPal Nightmare."

I'm disappointed that eBay maintains an "all or nothing" approach to their fees. The new fee structure is fine for certain types of items. The old fee structure was fine for certain types of items.

If eBay let sellers choose the fee structure for a given item (low insert / high FVF or high insert / low FVF), they would ATTRACT MORE ITEMS to their site.

Instead, they seem content to drive away sellers, so long as they think the number who leave will be relatively low.

eBay's slogan used to be "whatever IT is, you can find IT on eBay". That may have been true in the past, and it may be true in the future. But every fee "adjustment" makes some IT's non-eBayable.

There's no reason for this other than lack of imagination on the part of eBay's management. Just once, I'd like to see a fee adjustment that brings more sellers to the site, and where eBay is content to take a smaller piece of a larger pie.

How Does PayPal Make Money With My Money?

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, there are approx. 100,000 complaints outstanding at PayPal (Are any of these yours?). In many instances disputes can run on for months leaving people frustrated and out of pocket as they are unable to access their accounts. So what happens to the millions of dollars tied up in frozen accounts and disputes? Well, here is a clip from the San Francisco Chronicle that basically sums it up:

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose refused to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks class-action status on behalf of thousands of PayPal customers nationwide. A common allegation is that the company brushes off or stalls customer grievances for months and meanwhile freezes the customer's account and pockets the interest (So that's how they make their money!). No wonder they freeze so many accounts!

As a seller with 100% feedback(1048)I'm astonished how one sided these changes are.

It's like Ebay is trying their best to rid themselves of all small sellers(what the company was built on) and go to a more retail format(less bidding just buy it now) like Amazon(just buying from Powersellers).
I read an article that stated that a financial firm told Ebay that they would like to see Ebay get 15% of EACH sale(between fees and Paypal) LIKE AMAZON does.
These changes do that and more.

I only sell my excess inventory on Ebay and have been on the sidelines honoring the strike since Feruary 18th.

Will I list on Ebay again? Perhaps.
Thankfully I have had my own website for 3 years and have a customer base that use it.

These other sites -Neoloch, OLA, Ioffer etc. are ok I guess to explore and try to develop a following but it will take a good long time for them to get traffic where you can just list and sell like you do on Ebay.

I don't like it but Ebay has most of the traffic and eyeballs-they are the 800 lb Gorilla.

Once again the little guy helps build the empire and gets left behind.

Like everyone else here, I'm mostly upset by eBay's new lopsided feedback system. It's obvious that eBay has pulled this stunt in an effort to make it look like their marketplace is a more positive place; this they do by taking away our ability to say anything negative. Meanwhile, scamming buyers have a free-for-all because they are no longer accountable for their actions.

For years, the eBay community has honestly and effectively policed itself with a fair feedback system. Now it's no longer trustworthy. For that blunder alone, I renounce eBay. Boycott on.

At first I was excited about free gallery and lower listing fees on ebay. I have been a small store owner on ebay for 3 years now. The store owner's closing fees have gone up to about 13% (depending on categories) and when I called for assistance with an ebay tool problem with Picture Manager the "live" assistant never responded after she was logged in with me. Service is terrible, postage will be going up again in May, eBay is pressing us to offer free shipping or face the consequences of low stars and red flags posted as people open our listings, we can't give deadbeat buyers a negative...the list goes on. I am not a powerseller. I have 1047 100% positive feedback. I am the kind of small seller ebay should cultivate. I don't feel that they want me there anymore and I am spending my days checking out and registering at many alternative sites and working on creating a free store through Buyitsellitnow.com. I will still be on ebay for a while until I can get all of the details worked out. I worked very hard to build my reputation on ebay and it makes me sad to be treated this way. I think this is just the beginning of a groundswell of seller reaction to the changes. I think we are only feeling the tremmers before the big earthquake. I believe sellers are leaving now and it will get worse. I hope the other sites are working hard to get ready for us. I will miss the dream that was ebay.

yes, I wish we had more support in the media, as the only ones who are going to benefit are the 10% of sellers, who are powersellers and have high dsr scores which is based on is a huge mistake in the first place, making it mute, and even those sellers are unhappy as read from some previous post, but we dont have a union, or really any support i want to thank you Rob Pegoraro for putting this out there, eBay wants you to think its just about a 1,000 people unhappy with these extensive changes, not a big deal, its not if you think about it, if only 7% in the long or short run will hit all ebays marks for great sellers that equals 80% of the ebay sellers unhappy with these policies, some voice them here or every where they can, and word of mouth, I hope we can have a major protest somewhere, as this is so wrong to do to ebay market for sellers and buyers, its terrbile that they own most of the auction market place. cause i would be gone in a heartbeat. thanks fro letting me vent.

I am a teeny-tiny seller. I had a newbie buyer win FOUR auctions (price 2.50 each) and insist I accept a credit card. When I politely referred her to the VERY CLEAR payment terms, she left me four big fat negatives fifteen minutes after the end of the auctions.

Ebay would not remove the negatives. However, they were glad to charge me $20 PER AUCTION for the chance to "negotiate" feedback removal with the bidder through something called "Square Trade." Oh, I didn't get my listing fees back, either.

By eliminating the ability for sellers to leave negative feedback for a buyer, Ebay is ENCOURAGING this type of behavior. In addition, they are now tying item search display and seller fees to the subjective ratings of buyers.

Square Trade? I don't think so!!!!

I want my $80 back.

Shame on Ebay. Their policies are creating a huge war between buyers and sellers. Now NO ONE feels safe.

Sound like fun?

"The feeling among my forum members is that this new [21-day hold] policy is beneficial for buyers but negatively affects sellers," said Bob Lee, who runs PowerSellersUnite, a popular outlet for entrepreneurs who run businesses on eBay. "A seller is at risk of being taken advantage of by the buyer. Not having access to revenue and having to wait for a buyer to leave positive feedback leaves sellers in the lurch. PayPal and eBay are not allowing sellers to play on a level field."

The new policy has some questioning its legitimacy: Can PayPal legally freeze funds at will for up to three weeks?

The answer is yes. While PayPal offers interest-bearing accounts, debit cards, and other trappings traditionally associated with banks, it legally isn't one.

PayPal is classified as a "deposit broker," according to David Barr, a spokesman for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). A deposit broker can perform some of the same functions that bank might, but it ultimately depends on banks to hold its money. Other examples of deposit brokers include companies like Charles Schwab (SCHW, Fortune 500), the discount brokerage house.

Buyer and seller money passes through PayPal - "a conduit, so to speak," Barr said - and is then deposited in a traditional bank. That means money parked with PayPal can be eligible for so-called "pass-through" insurance by the FDIC. However, that protection doesn't apply to funds held in a PayPal money market account, which are not FDIC-insured. (Coincidentally, PayPal money-market holders were recently issued incorrectly low January dividends, but that mistake stemmed from a third-party glitch and is now being corrected, according to a PayPal representative.)

While PayPal's operations lie outside of U.S. federal banking regulations, states can individually decide to regulate the company - and in the past some have made overtures in that direction. In 2002, Louisiana banking officials asked the company to cease offering its services to the state's residents until it received a money transmitter's license. PayPal did, and hasn't faced any significant state-level action since. A spokeswoman for the Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions confirmed this week that PayPal is a registered money transmitter with the state.

Some sellers have talked of challenging PayPal money freezes in courts, something that's been done before. In 2002, PayPal users in California sued, arguing that PayPal violated the state's consumer-protection laws by locking accounts containing money involved in a fraud investigation. (PayPal froze all cash in affected accounts, not just the money involved in the investigation.) However, the case did not result in any determination of liability: PayPal paid a $9.5 million settlement to end the case in 2004.

PayPal spokeswoman Amanda Pires said the issues at stake in the California case were "totally unrelated" to those being raised in relation to the new 21-day hold provision.

"Obviously, it's legal. We wouldn't do it if it wasn't," Pires said of the provision, noting that the right to temporarily hold funds is reserved in PayPal's user agreement.

PowerSellersUnite's Lee conceded that point: "Everyone who joins PayPal agrees to their terms. Unless a court finds PayPal subject to the same regulations as a bank, it would be a hard case to make."

PayPal's Pires says the changes will increase buyer confidence and generate more sales for eBay's merchants. Some eBay entrepreneurs agree with that assessment.

Jon and Stacie Sefton are the owners of B & H Factory Outlet, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, designer-clothing retailer that sells exclusively on eBay. What began as a home business five years ago now has 70 employees and is eBay's largest clothing merchant. The Seftons are in favor of PayPal's new policies, and believe the changes will achieve PayPal's aim of boosting protections for both buyers and sellers.

First, I encourage folks to check out powersellersunite.com. A great independent site for help and info. related to ebay. I've been buying and selling at ebay for around 8 years, primarily for my vintage car hobby. It was tons of fun 8 years ago, but ebay has become a cesspool of problems. They either refuse to, or are incapable of addressing fraud issues. Buyers refuse to pay for items, sellers refuse to send items, sellers refuse to acknowledge payments (money orders, eg.), buyers claim they never received the item, yet ebay does NOTHING! Paypal withdraws money from your bank or credit card account without approval. You can get totally unwarranted feedback ratings (negatives) and ebay does nothing. Now, only a buyer can give a rating!? Unacceptable! Now, Paypal can hold your payment for 21 days if they *think* there is a problem. Ebay cancels listings all the time if they *think* something is wrong. The problems just go on and on. Ebay has simply angered and upset MANY, MANY ebayers. Not to worry in the longer run though, as in business school, they emphasize that when an organization delivers on-going poor service to its customers, other organizations will step in and take over. I think we are starting to see the beginnings of that already.

"It's like Ebay is trying their best to rid themselves of all small sellers(what the company was built on) and go to a more retail format(less bidding just buy it now) like Amazon(just buying from Powersellers). I read an article that stated that a financial firm told Ebay that they would like to see Ebay get 15% of EACH sale(between fees and Paypal) LIKE AMAZON does."

I agree with this earlier post, I don't believe that ebay expected all the negative publicity generated by their push to rid themselves of smaller sellers. This negativity will not be in their favor in wooing larger retailers .. ebay's not only losing small sellers, they are antagonizing current and potential BUYERS. They're losing lots of goodwill, and word-of-mouth advertising.

Not good ebay.

"Obviously, it's legal. We wouldn't do it if it wasn't" (Amanda Pires of PayPal, as quoted in a previous post)

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHH!!!

Because nobody does anything if it isn't legal. Obviously.

If there is another viable inexpensive selling venue, I will be one of the first to switch. I have no loyalty left for eBay. I am a PowerSeller, but most of my profit will now be suck into eBay's greedy snout.

I'm still selling and buying at eBay. For me the fee changes equated to a 58% DECREASE on my monthly bill on one account and on the other account it will be a 2% increase, but that ID has a 100% STR. The feedback changes? Personally I'm not worried, but then I've never worried about it. I give excellent customer service and have never had a problem. Why cut your own throat and leave over something that MIGHT or MIGHT NOT happen? Makes no sense to me.

According to Power Sellers Unite these are the latest listings of the 5 Largest internet sales sites (not including Ruby Lane or Tias)

Ebay (Feb 28, 2008 5:06 pm)

14,077,781 listings (-108191 auction listings down from yesterday, -0.77%)

++++

iOffer (February 28, 2008 4:14 pm)

3,046,784 listings (349122 auction listing up from yesterday + 11.46%)

++++

Bidville (February 28, 2008 5:03 pm)

1,096,835 listings (-605 auction listings down from yesterday, 0.06%)

++++

eCrater (February 28, 2008 5:11 pm)

973,571 listings (2318 auction listings down from yesterday, -.24%)

++++

CQout (February 28, 2008 5:05 pm)

640,307 listings (-19694 auction listings down from yesterday, -3.08%)

The CEO of Ebay described disenchanted soon to be ex-sellers as "Noise." He wasn't entirely accurate in that description. They are "Killer Noise", as he will soon learn.

Next week a few friends of mine will be listing on ioffer. That should amount to about another 5,000 listings. In the scheme of things, not much. But hey, every little bit helps.

We've seen a huge surge in business at http://hosted4.us as a result of ebay raising their fees. A lot of merchants seem to have decided that it's more cost effective to pay a flat monthly fee and run their own website without someone taking a cut of their profit margins. We have sold more of our prepackaged ecommerce solutions http://qcs.hosted4.us in the past week than in the past few months.

Thanks eBay!

Ebay wants to model itself after Communist China. It's a bit of a turn-off. I miss libertarian Ebay.

You failed to mention the 21 day hold on Paypal funds:

Your payments WILL BE NOT HELD if you meet all the following requirements:
* eBay Tenure: Greater than 6-months
* Total Feedback score: More than 100
* Dissatisfied Buyers %: Less than 5%

Or if you meet all the following requirements:
* Detailed Seller Rating: Greater than 4.5
* Total Detailed Seller Ratings Recieved: More than 20 in the last 12-months

This means the new, or small, infrequent seller must ship out the item on their own dime, then hold their breath waiting for the buyer to leave positive feedback, at which time the funds will be released. (And the interest on all these frozen funds is going into whose pocket? Hmmm...) This and the other new, incomprehensible policies seemed carefully crafted to destroy the small sellers who built Ebay in favor of large companies selling Dollar Store, made in China junk. Or else it's a deliberate attempt to sabotage Ebay from within. Whichever, it appears incredibly foolish to me, and I will no longer be buying or selling on "Feedbackbay".

ebay increased its fees while its value to sellers was decreasing.

It's the wild wild west on ebay and they are doing nothing to clean up old accounts that get hijacked or clean up items selling for .01 with $30.00 shipping from china. They want the chinese/asian sellers but want the U.S. sellers to pay for them.

LOL "better protection for powersellers" and what was that exactly? It's empty words with nothing behind them except you can now bloke many more ids than before...good luck, you're going to need the extra storage.

They're NOT Just loosing the little guys.

My Wife began selling on ebay in 1999. I began in 2002 after leaving the police force. I am a silver level powerseller today with 12,700 items in my ebay store, my wife a powerseller also with a ebay store of approx 3000 items. Between her and I we listed 700 auctions weekly. Packaged mailed 100's of packages each and every week. No breaks no vacation and we loved it, fees kept rising, so our prices rose. That we could handle! (We purchased estate sales and storage units-- we sold hard to find rare items, not the mass dropship or China knock low quality- over priced junk-- So we are not exactly the little guys but we sell and share the same passion for those little things)

Now, with the new best match feature and feedback system and paypals 21 day hold we both have moved our inventory to Ola and ioffer! Took over 2 weeks to complete this, just prior to 2/18 but it has been done!

I will not have my money held up due to a lower 4.3 star rating for Shipping time when I am certain we couldn't get things to our customers any quicker with out a telaporter! Also do to the DSR ratings my funds will be held against my will while Paypal collects interest.

I maybe just a seller but ebay isn't the only bigwigs in town who are internet and business savvy. I see lawsuits on the horizon. This isn't just hobby town, this is the bread and butter for many different types of families for a variety of different reasons.

I am excited actually, ebay had become bland tasteless and nerve raking when ever so often you know you have a scammer on your hands, ebay does nothing you take the fall and now that fall can cost us much more then a bad mark on our FB but now in our pocket book.. bills food gas and restocking isn't going to wait 21 days!

We have had we have moved on! We have researched VICTORIOUSLY the other venue's and many have already surpassed ebays marks in early 2002.

Bad idea boys bad idea... They need to impeach that john donhav guy before they loose it all.

Auction hunting and bidding is enjoyable, addicting even especially when you wind up with that rare hard to find item! What fun will it be now? What will keep buyers coming? Nothing.. because auctions is what they come for!

Looked like a butterfly stung like a bee...

BIG MISTAKE

PLEASE everyone come visit/or JOIN:
http://www.powersellersunite.com
(we are NOT a auction site, but a great
forum and also have web site hosting available on-site, with many people to help
you get started).
It is FREE and very informative! WE are a HUGE group of sellers from MOST alternative sites, and most are or have been ebay sellers! Give your opinion and listen to what others have to say!
You do NOT have to be a power seller or any
kind of seller. Buyers are very welcome, as well!!
JB
http://www.powersellersunite.com

Unfair business practices.....that's what eBay should be prosecuted under.

How can seller 1 be charges the same as seller 2 then get almost no listing exposure; because they have less of a score in the DSR ratings due to some deadbeat scammers????...or someone who believes their item was charged $1 more for shipping & then retaliate in giving the lowest DSR score on shipping.....again destroying your listing position and meaning your paying eBay fees for almost NO listing exposure???????

A feedback system that is one way...FEEDBACK is just that FEEDBACK from all party's involved not just one side.....that is not feedback that's just an opinion then.

eBay you are killing off your most loyal customer base ...SELLERS you know the ones who PAY YOU.

eBay will become one of those company's that get too big for their own good, and slowly believe they are bigger than they really are in the scheme of things...don't kid yourselves you can still go down the pan......as you are

I have been selling on eBay for over four years and have a 100% positive feedback rating under my selling i.d. The changes proposed by eBay are totally unacceptable and I am in the process of moving to a new auction site, OLA.

What does eBay mean to its users?

Sellers:
High selling fees, poor customer survive, restriction on payment services, large buyer base, low profits, hard work, stress, NO GUARENTEES, listing restrictions (dreamt up by some nitwits), many web site glitch's that end up costing sellers more fees, almost NO control over your business practices (shipping costs, listing descriptions, etc etc) and don't forget all the scammers trying to rip you off

Buyers: Good selection of items, very low prices, and don't forget all the scammers trying to rip you off

http://www.powersellersunite.com are the only true website that show all these facts

What's not been talked about is the fact that from June 08 the average seller feedback score on eBay will drop from 99.8% all the way down to 80% due to the feedback changes >>>>>> so get ready to loose your 100% those who have IT

Smart move eBay ..give your buyers confidence??

I have a 100% rating on over 200 transactions about half are selling and have never left negative feedback on any transaction.Ebay is totally unfair only allowing buyer feedback and acting as if sellers are the problem with feedback.I've tried hard to be a good seller, but Ebay rewards me with higher fees a not trusting me with feedback. Seller feedback protects other sellers and ebay when someone buys that has issues that the community should know about. Now they are playing with checkout and its a total joke. I use to have fun buying and selling. Tonight I'm checking other options.

I had an eBay store from 02/2004 till I closed the door on 02/19/2008 because of the new eBay fees and policies. Most sellers were griping about the changes to the feedback policy, but my major complaint was eBay taking away our freedom to set our own pricing in our stores. My store traded in sportscards, and eBay's decision to prohibit store owners from having prices under $1 kills a large portion of the sportscard market. Many collectors live in remote locations with no access to card shows or stores, and rely on the internet to find cards of their favorite players or teams. I also consider this move by eBay to be illegal, and have sought legal advice on the issue. Can a landlord rent a store in a strip mall to an individual, and then go in 4 years later and tell that store owner he/she can no longer sell items for under $1? Would the Dollar Store survive if it's landlords said you now have to be the $2 Store? Under the eBay User Agreement, I agreed to them having the right to increase their fees any time, and if I did not like it, I could go elsewhere. Well, i have, but more because my pricing is not a "fee" of ebay's it is the price I ask from MY customers for MY merchandise. Goodbye eBay.

Wow, the Washington Post! I have been selling on eBay 9 years, Powerseller status, and will be getting the top discounts on my listing fees. WILL NOT be coming out ahead though, in fact will be paying more for my fees when the final values are added on. The unfairness of the feedback system, since sellers will not be able to tell the truth anymore really ties our hands and opens up the door to massive fraud from rogue phoney buyers. Items we sell will be in limbo, tied up in Unpaid Item Disputes, not to mention our Paypal accounts will be frozen until the disputes are settled, eBay says 21 days. I pay bills, eBay fees and the like from my Paypal account, and they can freeze that account? Unfortunately I am a fulltime eBayer, looks like I will have to pull up my stakes and move to the new site, Neo Loch. Neo Loch sounds like a flashback to the days when eBay actually gave a damn about the little guys that helped to build their auction site.

I have been a seller on ebay for almost a year now and heave met some great people! WITH 100% FEEDBACK :)

HOWEVER...

I WILL NOT stay after the feedback changes are made. Most of us sellers put a lot of pride and heart into what we do everyday and we can not and will not be walked on as the new ebay would like us to be. DOORMATS! I thank ebay for the wonderful year it has given me, but come may--See you later!

I have already started with my main website-- www.bellachi.net

&

I also sell on ECRATER.

I also thank all of the other wonderful sellers and wish them luck where ever you may end up or be! :)

I have been a seller on ebay for almost a year now and heave met some great people! WITH 100% FEEDBACK :)

HOWEVER...

I WILL NOT stay after the feedback changes are made. Most of us sellers put a lot of pride and heart into what we do everyday and we can not and will not be walked on as the new ebay would like us to be. DOORMATS! I thank ebay for the wonderful year it has given me, but come may--See you later!

I have already started with my main website-- www.bellachi.net

&

I also sell on ECRATER.

I also thank all of the other wonderful sellers and wish them luck where ever you may end up or be! :)

I have been a seller on ebay for almost a year now and heave met some great people! WITH 100% FEEDBACK :)

HOWEVER...

I WILL NOT stay after the feedback changes are made. Most of us sellers put a lot of pride and heart into what we do everyday and we can not and will not be walked on as the new ebay would like us to be. DOORMATS! I thank ebay for the wonderful year it has given me, but come may--See you later!

I have already started with my main website-- www.bellachi.net

&

I also sell on ECRATER.

I also thank all of the other wonderful sellers and wish them luck where ever you may end up or be! :)

The fees will always go up but what bothers me is the inability to leave buyers feedback. For example, right now I have a car for sale on ebay. Some of the buyers who sent me questions had enormous negative feedback. This allows me not to waste my time with them and not sell to them. Buying and selling is a two way street. The success of ebay was treating all equal. Why would they want to change that?

I have been a seller on ebay for almost a year now and heave met some great people! WITH 100% FEEDBACK :)

HOWEVER...

I WILL NOT stay after the feedback changes are made. Most of us sellers put a lot of pride and heart into what we do everyday and we can not and will not be walked on as the new ebay would like us to be. DOORMATS! I thank ebay for the wonderful year it has given me, but come may--See you later!

I have already started with my main website-- www.bellachi.net

&

I also sell on ECRATER.

I also thank all of the other wonderful sellers and wish them luck where ever you may end up or be! :)

There is another important change that was not listed in the original article. I've been a casual buyer and seller for the past two years. As a seller I have less than 100 feedback, because I only sell when I have something I want to get rid of. The new policy states that until I get over 100 feedback I will be required to use Paypal and Paypal will not release my monies for 21 days after the transaction. This is outrageous as that is an overly excessive time period to escrow monies especially considering this is a private party transaction. Since when did ebay/paypal going into the escrow business? Combined with the new rule giving volume sellers listing preference, any new seller joining ebay is already going in disadvantaged and discouraged. I would think that a for profit company would want to attract new business, not discourage it -but what do I know, I'm only a corporate attorney. As a buyer, some of the neatest items come from the casual and new sellers such as from estate sales. It would be a shame if ebay turned into a marketplace with new items only. Unless this policy changes before summer, I think I will just have a traditional yard sale and let one of the high volume yard sale scavenger sellers deal with the headache that is ebay.

I have been a seller on ebay for almost a year now and heave met some great people! WITH 100% FEEDBACK :)

HOWEVER...

I WILL NOT stay after the feedback changes are made. Most of us sellers put a lot of pride and heart into what we do everyday and we can not and will not be walked on as the new ebay would like us to be. DOORMATS! I thank ebay for the wonderful year it has given me, but come may--See you later!

I have already started with my main website-- www.bellachi.net

&

I also sell on ECRATER.

I also thank all of the other wonderful sellers and wish them luck where ever you may end up or be! :)

I have been a seller on ebay for almost a year now and heave met some great people! WITH 100% FEEDBACK :)

HOWEVER...

I WILL NOT stay after the feedback changes are made. Most of us sellers put a lot of pride and heart into what we do everyday and we can not and will not be walked on as the new ebay would like us to be. DOORMATS! I thank ebay for the wonderful year it has given me, but come may--See you later!

I have already started with my main website-- www.bellachi.net

&

I also sell on ECRATER.

I also thank all of the other wonderful sellers and wish them luck where ever you may end up or be! :)

Poor middle class America, honest hard working people that are for the most part just getting by ...we are always good enough to get things going...our blood, sweat and tears lies beneath every good idea this country has ever had and in the end, we just don't matter. Our complaints are deemed, "noise" that will go away. It's really a sad commentary on life in 2008 and sad for e-bay that they don't seem to see or care. Perhaps when enough people find other venues to sell their wares on...and e-bay begins to realize lower profits they will hear better.

I sold exclusively on eBay. Not anymore. I have diversified and look to eventually leave eBay completely.

I don't know what they are thinking, but this last barrage of changes is not something I can live with. PayPal changes with holds, the rate hikes presented as rate cuts (like we as business folks can't do the math), penalties attached to DSRs, and removal of mutual feedback.

I've never left a negative feedback and don't think I'll ever have to, but with the removal of the checks and balances that both parties being able to rate each other provided, I don't think eBay will be a safe environment for sellers.

I am a one of the small ebay power sellers that built ebay.I have almost reached 1000 feedback after 3 years and 3000+ lisings. I work hard to offer collectibles and antiques I find at AZ estate sales and auctions at reasonable prices. I have shippped securly and fast, my customers appreicate it by leaving honest feedback. But I am disabled and my wife is also disabled with AML Luekemia. SO this little ebay thing has made ends meet and keep us from losing everything.
Now I see the HUGE discontent and THE EXTREME frustration building among the many sellers I meet and know. They have had enough and are leaving. They see the GREED has engulfed the top dogs at ebay it will soon be WALBAY, were will I go? Will I join the May 1st boycott and hope they see the error of there ways? I have to survive, who will pay the electric bill, buy gas to go to the oncologist appointment, does Meg really care? she sold 22 mil in stock in the past 60 days (insider trades)bought a new home.
I am distrught,angry, and sad I love dabbling with the past but the future for Ebay does not look good , they have my money and have taken my trust too. I am rambling because after 3 days of reading all the negitive words on the boards dicussion, pages etc... ebay is killing it self, they are driving away the very thing that made them who they are the little guy like me just trying to survive!!
Lets hope theres not some crazy out there who goes postal because ebay want to please the investors above anything else? will they drive some poor guy over the edge.
God will watch over me and my wife we will survive,because we did the right thing, I do unto others.

Donahoe's mission is to reinvigorate a company that remains dominant ~~whats the point?
They should can him before ebay continues its self destruction "the new WALBAY" they have taken away all the checks and balances what little there were, spoofs hijacked accts,stolen goods
Ebay, in its desperation to stop its stock slide, is sweeping the dirt under the rug, hiding bad behavior on its site (negative feedback), and raising fees dramatically on the small seller who was eBay's lifeblood throughout its early history.
Misguided, incompetent management is destoying what eBay was all about: REAL community. In their desperation to increase profits, eBay is ripping apart that community in favor of big business: a nice neighborhood smashed to oblivian to put up another Walmart. The residents of that neighborhood "eBayers" are, yearning for a viable competetitor to eBay to come along. When that day comes, eBay's stock will slide into oblivion.
Over the last 12 Months there have been 6,626,999 insider shares Sold the rich are richer but only in dollars.
Steve Normandin
sznative@aol.com

I'm a small time seller. These changes aren't really a big deal. Most boycotters have their knickers in a twist because all the other boycotters they talk to blow things way out of proportion, make inaccurate claims about what the changes actually are, and just spread fear and half-truths.

ive been on 8 months june 07
i have 867 score as of 2/28/08
4.7,4.7,4.5,4.6 these are my DSR's respectively
one lady left me negative feedback after i offered to refund her item (only $4.50)
i was like whatever, ill deal with it.
but she gave me negative.

i have 10 negatives total
ive averaged 1 per month untill this month i have 3????

of all of them only 2 i deserved
one lady claimed i upped the fee
it goes on and on.........
im still fairly new..but i am a power seller
if things get bad.(as bad as everyone else says)
i may have to downgrade from premium store to no store (ebay loses $50 bucks a month)
i can already see my shipping time going way down
it just annoying
i sorta see what ebays doing-but they gotta know it just wont work
if they lose so many sellers(trusted sellers)theyll lose good buyers
then when theres to many bad buyers the big platinum sellers will lose money
and then....BOOOOOM
ebay is pretty much history

!@#$ you jon
to save money

For more information please go to

www.myspace.com/boycottebay

FORMER eBay Seller AND Buyer

I live nearby the Washington Post in Montgomery County Maryland. I also work for the county government in a professional capacity. I am a keen observer of behaviors, and have been praised by my superiors as having well documented work. I ALSO tend 2 small antique booths that I rent in Frederick, Maryland, when I have free time, which, when I was selling on ebay, was very little. So my business has been slow in the "live" venue. I WAS primarily selling on ebay. It was fun and profitable, and with the new changes, it is now NOT fun and NOT profitable. You see, I never made it to powerseller status. I have a stellar feedback, and DSR's but that won't be enough to make it worth my while to continue selling antiques, jewelry and collectibles.

My interpretation of the changes is this: Ebay is saying to me "Go away, we don't want to be bothered with you, you don't make enough money to make it worth OUR while, so we will inflict higher sell- through fees and leave you defenseless against the buyers who we count on to eliminate you. Our real interest in this business is gone, and we only want to sell high volume walmart merchandise, and $2K tech programs that dress up the remaining seller's store websites.If you can't provide this to our customers, the buyers, then you deserve to get rated down by them in a plan that we devised to automatically force you to fail"

This is my take on it...and it is not in the least bit inviting for me to continue using ebay's services. I will pack up my bags and bring all the rest of my large stock items to my booths, and then complete the process of filling up all the 6 registered auction and selling sites that I am now set up on and ready to start listing with.

I, unlike lots of other sellers, am not hopeful that this will change. This was a mandate that was already determined a few years ago, it is just now becoming more apparent.

having done all the number crunching with the new unfair fee increases , as well as the difficulty and definite problems that the new unfair feedback changes will cause for mid-range sellers like ourselves , we are closing out our ebay store and account before May after 11 years on ebay. we have been moving over to the much friendlier ( for both buyers and sellers ) auction + listing sites out there such as OnLineAuctions.com as well as eCrater. unfortunately the ebay that was once so much for so many of us , is now gone.

I'm a 75% seller, 25% buyer and am absolutely disgusted with ebay. 1600 total fb and 99.6 positive which I have earned thru thorough market research, detailed descriptions/pics, and tireless customer service. In the past six months I have been forced to accept paypal thanks to ebay's never ceasing campaign to tell my potential customers I'm a threat if I don't. This increased my total cost to sell by approximately 50%. NOW they raise the fvf by 65%+, which effictively raises my costs another 50% !!!!! I will not sell on ebay unless it's a life and death, need to eat, situation. THEY ABSOLUTELY DISGUST ME !!!!!!!!

Someone else said "All this and a fee increase too. There is no business I know that can treat their customers so poorly and with such total disregard and survive and increase it's presence and business volume."

The ONLY reason ebay can get away with this abomination is because it's a MONOPOLY. Can you imagine McDonalds telling their customers "if you don't like our food or prices just go eat elsewhere" ? Of course not, because there's competition.

When I started selling on ebay in late 1998 everybody was singing their praises, wearing ebay t-shirts/pins/hats, and telling everyone they met how great ebay was. Nobody even mentions ebay anymore, me included, they simply say "yeah I sell stuff on the internet"

It's so very very sad :(

I think the changes are dishonest. eBay plays up the paltry lowering of insertion fees and downplays the extreme hike in final value fees. "Free" gallery is most certainly not. It's paid for in that FVF hike, and is more accurately a "mandatory gallery".

Of course, gallery makes sense since a large number of buyers fail to read the ads. I'm weary of those buying 40 year old vintage items - treasures to many - who complain and say "but it's not new!" Of course it isn't. I spent an entire paragraph detailing the age and any flaws. But if you don't read, you'd never have that information.

Buyers also fail to read the terms of sale and often neg sellers if they won't take their personal check (many don't take checks, but I do) or Paypal (I do not take Paypal... the scams associated with that are too numerous). So now, unable to respond to a buyer with a neg for not reading what is clearly listed in an ad, sellers are vulnerable to being beaten down with negs, thus lowering their exposure, subjecting them to a free 21 day loan to Paypal (if they accept that as payment), or whatever other punitive measures eBay decides they want to come up with.

eBay loves to push the FUD factor with Paypal. When a buyer checks out indicating payment via check or money order, they're reminded that "it's not safe!", which is malarkey. USPS has been selling money orders and dealing with fraud since before the internet was even around. The best protection against fraud is common sense, which is lacking in many. You really think you're getting a real, working iPod for $25? I've got a bridge for you too.

If a seller gets too many negs, even unwarranted ones, they may be forced to take a "safe" payment, aka Paypal or merchant account. All it takes are a couple of people who don't read the terms of sale, or a competitor to buy just for the joy of negging (it happens!) and the victim seller is stuck.

Smaller sellers are especially vulnerable, and they are why eBay even exists in the first place. If I want a new, mass produced item, I'm going to shop at a local store, or get my books from Amazon, and DVDs from a DVD online retailer. If eBay squeezes out these smaller sellers, they lose their niche that made them what they are.

If they want to become the new online outlet mall, then none of us sellers can do anything about it - but I sure won't be shopping there. Buy a used GM car online? From eBay? HAR! Not in this lifetime.

I primarily sell - my household items as I downsize -so I am one of those odds n ends people.

I've been a member since 1999 and used to enjoy buying and selling on eBay.

With the fee increase that eBay tried to pass off as a decrease, the Detailed Seller Rating System (DSR) which is a joke, the increase in the now non-refundable Reserve Fee, the new search feature "best match" and the "new and improved" feedback system that will take effect in May it's just not fun or worth it anymore.

I'm now looking for other venues to buy and sell on and keeping my fingers crossed that one of the other venues out there becomes the new eBay.

I really don't need to make any more comments on what ebay is doing to the sellers and buyers. I think it has been said many times in this forum. I, being a seller and a few times, a power seller, find that the big thing missing is, what now?? All the ebay'ers that want to unite? Well, it can not be done without picking a good, new auction site and then get the word out. Use your ebay account and sales to tell all your buyers where and when you plan to make that move. Say, the end of this year, all ebay sellers will be leaving ebay so if the buyers want to find the same great deals that they now get on ebay, follow them. Put this on utube, and make it a big deal. Let every buyer know that every seller is looking to leave. I will continue till the end of this year. Mean time, I will also be selling on other sites. I may not be big Mr. eBay, but I do not need a "HIT MAN" to run my life as you feel you can do. Hope you all know that being a hit man is to take and make the big profit, then sell. They care less about anyone but themselves. I know. I have been there and lived with it for 8 years. Thanks for the learning lesson, I know how these people think. Oh, I also closed my paypal. 7 years with them. Too bad huh? Google will get my business. By the way, email google and push them to start their own googbay. Who better to get the word out and all of us would run to them. Thanks for the chance to vent.

EBay likes to use "real world" scenarios such as. . . "Customers in the real world don't get rated." But thieves and scammers in the real world, whether buyers or sellers, are dealt with on the same level. EBay has tilted the feedback system 90 degress in favor of the buyer. The new feedback system was conceived to try and assuage buyers from their complaints, grumblings and threats to go elsewhere at the expense of the seller's good name and finances.Retailers are not like Fast food restaurants. When you go into a restaurant, you see their Health Department rating posted and you very well might walk out and go elsewhere if it is bad. Retailers do not wear their customer satisfaction ratings (compiled by whomever?) all over their store. EBay's new policy is tantamount to every disgruntled customer (legitimately, crookedly or for the fun of it)being able to post their opinions, lies, or jokes on every entrance to a sellers store 24/7 without any means for the seller to refute or respond to the accusations when the next customer comes along to possibly do business with them.
Regardless of whether eBay thinks silencing sellers will increase customer traffic for which eBay will increase $$. . .IT IS WRONG!!!!!

EBay has created an unbalanced separate reality and ignores the reality bites and voices of reason offered it, not because they do not recognize the rational, but because they believe themselves to be an unequaled, all-powerful marketplace that doesn't have to play fair in their quest for further monopoly of the e-auction industry. No one else has reached their level of e-traffic and they believe most will stay or come back and take whatever they dish out. But if not, let the small and large fall as they may and good riddance if they don't accept every fee and fetter imposed to enlarge eBay's dominion. My understanding is the bulk of their $$ comes from powersellers and they now want to shake off the "feamarket" sellers who built their empire. I'm one of those sellers and I will be finding other venues when these changes are implemented. My personal belief is that used items generate more "item not as decribed" reports and they don't want the headache (translated - pay the manpower) of dealing with it. Their current mediations defalt to all things buyer. The new 21 day hold on PayPal transactions is just the lastest evidence of this bias.
I copied this from a recent post, though strangley, I can't seem to access the policy updates on own PayPal page.

"Amendment to the PayPal User Agreement
Effective Date: March 14, 2008
Beginning March 14, 2008, the PayPal User Agreement is being amended to include a new section 10.4 as follows:
10.4 eBay Item Hold.
eBay item hold. PayPal, in its sole discretion, may place a hold on a payment you receive for an eBay transaction when PayPal believes there may be a high level of risk associated with the transaction. If PayPal places a hold on your payment, it will show as "pending" in your PayPal Account.
Release of eBay item hold. PayPal will release the eBay item hold after 21 days unless you receive a Dispute, Claim, Chargeback, or Reversal on the transaction subject to the hold. PayPal may release the hold earlier if either of the following applies:
(a) The buyer leaves positive feedback on eBay, or
(b) PayPal can confirm delivery. PayPal will confirm delivery if you use USPS or FedEx to ship the item and (i) use PayPal shipping labels, or (ii) upload tracking information to PayPal via the transaction details page. This applies to US domestic transactions only.
Additional hold period. If you receive a Dispute, Claim, Chargeback, or Reversal on the transaction subject to the eBay item hold, PayPal may hold the payment in your Account until the matter is resolved pursuant to this Agreement."

If sellers truly "take full responsibility for their auctions", why are decisions at eBay's sole discretion. What right do they have to hold monies at all and then outrageously expect us to send the item and pay shipping before we've been paid? Where in the "real world" does this ever happen? And who is getting the interest for those 21 days?
I have NEVER understood the complaint about shipping charges. When you go to a department store and see the prices, you don't ask, "How much of this price is due to shipping?" The price you see has included every cost up until it was placed for sale. If the item is worth the final price tag, you now decide if you want it for that price. Buyers never ask me how much I really paid for the pair of shoes I'm selling. Maybe it was $100 maybe it was $5 at a thrift store. They decide by the pictures and description if the item is worth the bid plus the shipping. They KNOW what they are paying for the ENTIRE transaction and whether it is worth it to them. If I were to combine the price and shipping into the opening bid and say FREE SHIPPING, they would be paying the SAME amount. EBay would like this practice because they would then be getting a final value fee for everything including shipping costs. As it stands, eBay doesn't make anything for shipping. That is why eBay is so concerned that we keep shipping costs down. That is why they want to rate us on shipping costs because they know customers will never give glowing feedback about any price they had to pay for shipping and it will keep overall scores down so they will rarely if ever have to give those discounts for 4.5 stars. (the same is true for shipping time which is beyond our control after drop off, yet customers hold us accountable for the transit time even when we shipped the next day)
And before you say I'm the type of seller who inflates shipping charges, let me say that I have tried everything to reduce my shipping expenses. (I don't hide the item costs in my shipping costs.) I have a room dedicated to boxes I have collected and the wonderful selection of USPS boxes that USPS will send you FOR FREE to your door for the asking. I haven't ever had to pay for a box. I have a postal scale and weigh my items to set the shipping calculator and give shipping discounts for multiple purchases.
I just don't see why it is an issue AT ALL when you can plainly see the price plus shipping before you ever bid!!
It should not be rated by stars.
Get rid of the stars. They are only ambiguous information to other buyers (one buyer says 5 stars to another's 2 or 3 for the exact same product or service and is unreliable as such).As incentives, they are designed to encourage sellers to attempt the impossible under the guise of rewards. To borrow from a recent post I read, "The DSR rating with shipping is akin to asking taxpayers how they feel about paying taxes." OR "How about that colonoscopy? 5 stars Enjoyed it big time! It is a no win situation and eBay knows this."
another good alternative borrowed from reading posts:
Simply ask "Would you buy from this seller again?"
I have loved selling on eBay and really hate to be leaving, but as I read from a recent eBay response to a sellers complaint. . .(paraphrased)If I can't get past the new changes, eBay and I aren't a good model for each other anymore.
EBay, do you listen to your conscience? We wish everyone would.

There once were two visionaries, named Pierre Omidyar and Meg Whitman, who followed their dreams of beginning a small on-line marketplace, where anyone buying or selling anything from a pair of used sneakers, in good shape of course, to a Russian scaled-down Bor-5 VKK spacecraft for $2 million, (item 1178647016 for those non-believers) could post their prized possession in an international auction house.
Under the leadership of those two exceptional individuals grew an exceptional on-line power broker, branching out from simple collectibles into nearly every type of market. eBay's vision for success transitioned from one of commerce--buying and selling things--to one of connecting people around the world under one large flea market. Ebay grew because there was nothing out there like it; anyone with something to sell could post it, at a reasonable price, and have millions of people from around the world bidding on their item. Any problems were always smoothly and efficiently resolved with the use of professional mediators like Square Trade or Paypal, if the item in question was paid through them.

In time, eBay has endured growing pains and a few unpopular changes, but nothing comes even close to the abomination put forth by John Donahoe, the new so-called visionary who is contemplating changing eBay into what some consider the beginning of the end for what once was a unique idea. As an eBay Power Seller, I have been a member of this great marketplace since the year 2000, currently enjoying 100% positive feedback on my transactions, which number over 3,800, therefore I speak with a certain amount of knowledge on the subject.

Mr. Donahoe's new vision lies in converting a successful and fun worldwide flea market into an on-line Walmart, or shopping mall, and there are many veteran sellers who are ready to split town and go elsewhere. We are not talking about a few, but large enough numbers to bring down eBay sales by millions, even though the power giant has been scrambling trying to keep the problem under wraps from investors and the media, who are currently occupied with the Presidential election.

Mr. Donahoe's ideas are not only, in my opinion, narrow minded and boring, but some of his demands towards eBay sellers are downright reminiscent of what socialist and Nazis expected of their subordinates. For those of you who are not aware, communism and Nazi SS control mechanisms are alive and well, living obscurely in the fine print of eBay's Terms and Conditions. I invite you to read them carefully.
I don't have to repeat what they are, anyone with a few minutes of their time can read, on this and eBay's own Seller's Forums, the thousands of posts detailing Donahoe's new future nightmarish marketplace. Doesn't he see, as well as eBay's Board of Directors, that they are going to change something that is unique, and needed, into just another cookie cutter multi-store conglomerate, selling items one can easily find in their neighborhood department store WITHOUT THE EXTRA SHIPPING EXPENSE AND THE EXTRA WAITING TIME UNTIL THE ITEM ARRIVES IN THE MAIL?
What lack of vision! What typical Yuppie cookie cutter mentality! If he wants to see an on-line store conglomerate all Donahoe needs to do is create a parent company, right alongside eBay, that would attract those type of businesses.

We sellers, who are the real heartbeat of eBay, can only pray for another visionary to take Pierre Omidyar's place and continue the unique idea of a world-wide marketplace, or flea market if you wish (Donahoe, eat your heart out). Is there one valiant business person out there who refuses to follow modern-day cookie cutter mentality? Ah Google, what we Power Sellers would do for you if you took your enormous power, assets, and technical knowledge to create the next worldwide bazaar! The possibilities are endless.....

After all, just look around you, no matter where you live; who doesn't like to find that one-of-a-kind bargain in a flea market, auction house, or garage sale?

I think your new policies stink. I have no idea what you were thinking when you put these new things into effect but you are dead wrong to think we are going to take it laying down.
We are the ones that made EBay what it is today. It is not the buyers that pay your fees. Nor do they do the leg work to find the things up for sale. They do not do the packing,shipping,or worry that is arrives safely and in a timely manner. We do it ALL! Ebay has taken a total downhil slide this past year and this time it is at the bottom of the heap.
We are suppose to send out something while you sit on our money? Then if the person getting the item decides they don't want it,you return our money to them and they still have our merchandise? What makes you think for one minute this is not going to open up a hornets nest for people to rip us off? What makes you think the buyers are so honest and all of us are only here to take their money? What about Us? This equate to Blackmail. EBay's though is."It is Our Way,or the Highway."

Putting my thumb out and looking for a new avenue to sell my things on. Won't be buying any of the junk I see lately either that has come up for sale.

As An eBay User..I Really Hate to see that eBay.com is ruining the lively hood of so many Honest and Disabled and Veteran Sellers!!!!... Many Of The Smaller Sellers Who Helped Build eBay Have No Other Way To Make A Living!!....I Think Sellers Are Right To Take Control!...And,This Strike Is Most Definitely In Order!!!!!...If most of the Sellers abandoned their listings for a Week or MORE!! and Buyers "Don't Bid Or Browse"..It May bring eBay Management to their Senses!!...My Favorite Business Management Professor at GA. TECH always said "If It Ain't Broke...Don't Try to Fix It" ...In My Humble Opinion....The Proposed Feedback Change and the 21 Day Paypal.com Holding Period may be "Unconstitutional" & "Very Illegal"...."One Sided Feedback" may be a violation of the "Equal Protection Clauses" in the the various State and the Federal Constitutions!!.....Additionally....Both The New "Unequal Feedback Policy" and the "21 Day Holding Period" may require that eBay act as a "Law Enforcement Agency" and a "Court Of Law " in order to settle contractual disputes between Buyers and Sellers!!..Both Of These Actions May Be Extremely Illegal!!.... We Need To Help Ebay Save Itself!!....If One Strike doesn't work, Sellers may need to do it Again and Again--->Until it Does Work!! .... Hopefully!!, Persistent Sellers Will Convince eBay Management to Withdraw these proposed changes and return to Business As Normal Before The Law Enforcement Agencies and The Federal/State Courts Bring Them DOWN!! I have heard that One Of The Best Civil Trial Lawyers in Atlanta imay be waiting until the proposed changes take place before filing a multi billion dollar Class Action Lawsuit (On Behalf Of "ALL" SELLERS) against eBay, Paypal and their new cohort General Motors for Violation of the "Equal Protection and Numerous Other Clauses" Of The US Constitution!....Additionally....He may be requesting that US Magistrates and the Attorney General issue Felony Criminal Warrants requesting immediate arrest of all eBay Management and all employees involved in making feedback decisions(in which they act as a Law Enforcement Agency...AND... A Court Of Law!!) I Am Afraid That "Good Attorneys" and the almost Trillion Dollor "Class Action Suit" may Bankrupt eBay, Paypal and General Motors!! It will be Interesting to see how much it may cost eBay, Paypal and Genral Motors to reimburse all of the Sellers that are being be forced to leave eBay and give up their only source of income because of these New Feedback and Paypal Rules!!!! .....Probably Trillions!! ....My Professor Also Said..."Nothing Is "Forever"...Except Death And Taxes!!

A comment about Sandra who is having AUCTION INTERFERANCE.

Just wait until all these new changes happen, wait till buyers show up as A**J in all your auctions... Auction interference and shill bidding will run rampet!

Want to get rid of the competition or knock them down to your level? interfer with the auctions and nail the DSR and feedback...

Ebay IS TURNING THE SITE INTO A SHILL BIDDERS HEAVEN! AS WE ALL KNOW YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY TO LEAVE FEEDBACK OR A DSR SCORE!

BUYERS BEWARE!!! DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE BIDDING AGAINST?

I'm leaving now because ebay also owns Verisign so everyone that excepts credit cards is being FORCED to also accept paypal.

SELLERS ARE YOU SURE THAT IF EBAY PUTS A HOLD ON YOUR EBAY ITEMS THAT IT WON'T FOLLOW YOU TO OTHER VENUES???? I HAVE ASKED THAT QUESTION AND THEY WON'T GIVE ME A STRAIGHT ANSWER!

So I'm out of here before they have a chance to burn me!

I SAY GO GOOGLE CHECKOUT!

I have been selling on ebay since 1999 and loved it, and would recommend it to anyone. That is not so now.
I see the site as only a money grab that will get worse. I see it as stealing when you are being forced to do free shipping - this means your price goes up to cover, and ebay gets more in fees as shipping doesn't come under fee structure. Holding money also constitutes stealing too. The longer in PayPal's pockets means more interest for them, none for me.
The star system is just outright mean! To be judged on things we have NO control over like shipping time, and fees that change at the post office depending which clerk you have. Then to get slapped for having less than perfect stars.
Gallery photos always should have been free, but the cuts will never make up for the increase in fees.
If I leave as a seller, I will also be leaving as a buyer. Often buying only because I was on the site selling and decided to buy something. That is what ebay doesn't realise. Because I am only one of thousands who now no longer get enjoyment out of the site. Especially with fiascos like 'indexing' when listings didn't show up for hours - losing buyers sitting there wanting to snap up new listings, and recently when the gallery pix I, and MANY, MANY others weren't showing up. Ebay offered a 'one time' refund - what a joke! It was/is THEIR glitch. I only found out by accident that it was happening. Again, stealing - charging me for something that I wasn't getting.
Thanks!

Dave

A PAT ON THE BACK TO YOUR TEACHER!!! I'LL BE WAITING TO HEAR ABOUT THE CLASS ACTION SUIT! IT'S ABOUT TIME!

THEY ALREADY WIGGLED OUT OF ONE SUIT... THEY CAN'T WIGGLE OUT OF ALL OF THEM!

I THINK AMERICANS SHOULD FOCUS ON WHERE OUR COUNTRY IS GOING' FOCUS ON WHO WILL GOVERN OUR COUNTRY' WAKE UP AMERICA!
TAKES A WOMEN TO GET THINGS DONE"

I am known for my long winded comments about Ebay but I will keep this one short.

The biggest problem with the changes, feedback, DSRs etc, is that everyone is concentrating on all this stuff within Ebay and there are few positive exciting developments to motivate its base.

Ebay is the most undersold, poorly advertised company with the best potential I have seen.

There are many great people within eBay. Unfortunately many also left the company.

They need to get their focus back on their community and what brought them here.

Marty

the basic problem is to be the one paying the bills as the seller does whether he gets paid by the buyer or Not.

basically the seller gets shafted on both ends and by a third party Paypal.

basically i have as a seller i have 3 idiot partners, ebay who controls how, when, i sell something, ebay's little brother paypal the imbeciles ( who when ever you talk to a customer service agent has no idea what ebay is ) who hold my money and decide whether or not through what i would term Eeny meany miney moe policy, ok the buyer is right and you are wrong and my third partner is the shipping company the idiots at the post office who lose and or don't scan the bar code so i have tracking. then of course there are 99% good buyers but that one that is a theif can make your life miserable and we are not even talking about how many times ebay looks the other way when other older wiser sellers target newer competition sellers and destroy there feedback and or extort them financially.

the basic problem is you as the seller have all the resposiblity and basic you are subject to all the other partners whom can screw up on a whim and cost you in many ways

there are just too many hands in the pot and the stress factor because of the extremely low margin or non existent profit amplifies every little annoyance to a explosive flashpoint.

don't tell me a buyer can do what ever and i have no recourse to even speak my mind.

ebay is going to go down and already had

ioffer the second largest site auction listing have now reached the 3 million mark and will continue to climb because there is just no more money to give eBay because must sellers already sell items at cost and then after the fee kick in from eBay and Paypal you think to yourself why do i need all this responsiblity and aggravation to make less then what i paid for this item

it a sad sad world where profits for the stockholders are put at a premium and i believe at this point eBay is padding the books

if i was an investor i would say if you have eBay stock dumb it...

it is over and can only be good if someone is commiting fraud on the corporate end

i sincerely believe eBay is going to be the next enron, their is non existent customer service, no accoutability to the customer and extremely bad press and i see many higher ups dumping their stock options.

someone is going down and the is a lot of manipulation of the numbers of auctions

you can't even find anything anymore on eBay

I sell antique and collectible vintage dolls and toys and I have steller feedback and a high "star" rating. I've been a powerseller several times in the past 8 years. Come May though when the new feedback policy goes into effect I will no longer sell on eBay. The following are all scenarios that have happened to me (numerous times) on eBay: Someone bid on my item then did not pay, Someone bid and then delayed payment for weeks, Someone returned their less desireable item hoping to then keep the nicer one to upgrade their collection, someone switched parts and tried to return my item. Had it not been for the possibility of my being able to leave honest feedback I'd be the victem in these scenarios. eBay claims to be just a venue but is treating their sellers unfairly by taking away the sellers ability to warn other sellers of dishonest troublesome buyers. There are other venues and many will seek them out if not already. I've sold at shows and antique malls and Craigs list and will do so with much greater frequency after May.

I sell a variety of vintage and contemporary glass and pottery. Sometimes powerseller with 100% feedback and high DSR ratings. Shortly after the announcments, we closed our store and have moved most everything to a another site and will plan to only use eBay sparingly, if at all. The fee hike will hurt the smaller seller. The Power Seller status discounts will be hard to attain for smaller sellers as they are changing the DSR's to only reflect 30 days, rather than the months of built up ratings. There is no real protection from NPB's from leaving negative feedback. It will be a very uncomfortable atmosphere to sell in.

I have been selling and buying on ebay for about 4 years. Due to other commitments, I have not listed anything for about 4 months.

When I first read about these changes, I didn't really think much about it because I only sell part time when I have unique items that I know I can turn a profit on. I don't have the time, or desire, for my own website or to seek out other sites.

However, the more I read, the more depressing it gets. The idea that ebay wants small sellers gone is hard to imagine. But everything points in that direction, heck I guess it has been said straight out!

The changes are nuts in that why would buyers be allowed to have so much power and be able to hold feedback over a seller's head? And like others have said, having buyers using DSRs to rate sellers and believing that 4s are good then telling sellers that they have to have higher than 4s to actually be considered good is the height of lunacy.

I don't know that I am willing to take the risk of losing my item and having my reputation tarnished.

I received a message from ebay, telling me how to be a "better" seller. Well, I do all those things ebay suggested but yet I may have warnings posted on my auctions, may be lost in search, may have my money held? I don't think I want to play that game.

As a buyer, I have no interest in huge sellers who offer cheap items such as cell phone or video game accessories, or any of the other enormous amount of cheap fake antique jewelry and stuff out there. I am interested in other sellers offering good items at a fair price. Many times I do a search, I give up and buy locally.

I will miss ebay and it was a great side job for me. I will check out the other sites but will only be interested if they can offer what ebay used to offer...a place to buy and sell, easily, with other people like me.

DEAR WASHINGTON POST. PLEASE READ THE COMMENTS LEFT HERE BY THE REAL EBAYERS - THE ACTUAL USERS OF EBAY. THIS IS NOT "EBAY-SPEAK" DOCTORED UP TO LOOK PRETTY...THIS IS THE TRUTH ABOUT EBAY. MAKE SURE YOU DISTRIBUTE THE FACTS STATED HERE AND NOT SOME HIGH MUCKETY-MUCK NONSENSE FROM EBAY OR THE TOP POWERSELLERS GROUP! THESE ARE THE PREAL ROBLEMS FACING THE MAJORITY OF EBAY'S SELLERS AND BUYERS!

I have extended the boycott already by leaving the site permanently for ecrater.com http://theeclecticcollector.ecrater.com/

I was mainly a buyer and occasional seller on ebay (venturecrew145) with 100% positive feedback as both. But what sane person would continue to do business with a company that treats us the way ebay does?

I spent the week of the boycott looking for a new home and defining the reasons it is no longer viable for me to continue a business relationship with ebay.

1- Mr Donahoe, new ebay CEO, stated he wants to rid the site of the embarrassing sellers of "flea market" items- otherwise known to buyers as unique vintage items and what a great many of us searched ebay for- in favor of large powersellers who drop ship their items (JUNK) from China.

2- If I wished to continue to sell my items on ebay, I would be required to pay a 66% increase in fees.

3- If I did sell an item I would be required to use paypal, ebay's own bank, to receive the money from the sale and pay them a fee as well.

4- Paypal will also now be holding for 21 days with no interest, the money paid to the small seller, while ebay still requires that I ship the item as soon as paypal receives the funds, meaning that I have to ship an item using MY money to cover shipping! And if the buyer ends up deciding they want my item for free, and initiates a charge back with paypal, I can bet they get their money back, leaving me out the following- Money lost on listing fee paid to ebay, money lost to ebay on Final valuation fee when the item was "sold" errr "Stolen", Money I had to pay to ship the item, MY item which I will never get back, Fees to paypal for money I NEVER received AND........

5 To add insult to injury, I will only be allowed to leave this wonderful buyer POSITIVE feedback, while I receive Negative feedback for being robbed!

6- BUT.....it does not end there. Additionally, for the pleasure of paying 66% more in fees to list my item, ebay has created a new DEFAULT search matrix, called "Best Match" which will give the powersellers selling the same items as me TOP placement in the search results, meaning my item, because I am a small seller, will never be seen, therefore never purchased :)

WOW! What a deal ebay is! No wonder buyers and sellers alike are leaving in droves!

I have included information about where I relocated to and my past ebay ID not as advertising but as factual substantiation to prove that what I have said is true.

This entire new set of rules is a ruse to make eBay's site 100% Paypal (therefore gaining another 3% on top of the already high 8.75% fees, without any additional work).
First they changed the rules so new and untested sellers had to open a Paypal account (which--surprise, surprise--THEY own and profit from).
Then in this new batch of rules they said they could hold Paypal money for up to 21 days on "bad sellers."
Their newest challenge is to make every seller into a bad seller, hence the one-sided feedback, the DSR star discrepancy (they tell the buyers that a 4 is good, then define any seller with less than a 4.6 as bad).
The point of making every seller "look" bad, is to define them as needing to use this Paypal credit card clearing house as if it were a bank, so that they can earn interest on the seller's money for as long as possible, as well as collecting these vastly increased fees.
I have been a seller (of vintage collectibles and automobilia) for 10 years.
And I do not want even one cent of my money to be kept in this non-bank of Paypal.
I have over 2200 unique feedback points.
And I will be gone as both a buyer and seller the day they try to force me to join Paypal.
All this talk about making eBay safer, or intimidating new buyers is pure baloney.
It is all about their money in a very underhanded and obvious way.
I will be selling one more batch of items (to use up the credit I have in their system, since I had no idea this was coming) and then I will most likely never sell again.
I know for 100% certain I will never be a member of this Paypal--ever, ever, ever.

I'm a relative newcomer to eBay having joined 4+ years ago. I'm not a powerseller, but have turned down invitations to become one. I have a 99.9% rating with 800 positive feedbacks and high DSR's (detailed sellers ratings). I've bought and sold vintage, one-of-a-kind items among other things. I loved eBay, and the great experiences I've had trading there. I've traded with some of the highest caliber people I've ever met! eBay's service, philosophy, and deep sense of community was very impressive to me when I first joined. They seemed to represent a progressive business model not unlike other businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area where I live; success being measured by everyone's success, not just a few. I was such a cheerleader, that I half-joked with my husband "I should go work for eBay". But I didn't stay altruistic for long. Back in 2005 or 2006, eBay gave me the hard sell to open a store. It felt weird, like I was beguiled by them, but I didn't give in, didn't sign up, and was glad I didn't. Within a year, eBay announced that they were increasing fees to stores, and making other major changes (removing store items from search) that negatively impacted store owners. I was flabbergasted! I felt so frustrated for the sellers who got hoodwinked into opening a store, because I understood how it came down. Bait and switch! I became a little more skeptical after that, but I thought that it was an honest "bad call" on eBay's part, believing that they were still the benevolent giant.

Fast forward to 2008: When I first read eBay's slick announcement about their new policies, I was very happy because they made sense and I truly thought eBay's intentions were good (remembering their credo, that people are basically good). Who could argue lower listing fees, free gallery, discounts to good sellers, and no more seller retaliatory feedback, which I had been a victim of 3x. Then I started reading the fine print and soon realized it was a bait and switch again! They lowered listing fees by one nickel but increased commission fees by up to 67% (many, many, many nickels). Their fee discounts only applied to powersellers, most of which don't even qualify (come May, nobody will). And last, taking away the seller's right to leave negative or neutral feedback (I later thought) would create a real imbalance to an already fragile system. I believe this imbalance will create a perceived instability and risk because buyers will have a difficult time telling good sellers from bad sellers. They won't bother sifting through all the negative feedback comments everyone will have. Instead, they'll shop elsewhere. When this happens, eBay will blame the remaining sellers while announcing their new business plan...

Logically, no successful multimillion dollar business unveils a plan to undermine itself, unless that's their intent. These people at eBay aren't stupid, they are cunningly shrewd. They are preparing for a radical change in their business model and this is just the first phase of their plan. I think that the only reason they're keeping this platform intact during "remodeling" is to finance the remodeling. The fee increase will provide the necessary capital to court their new loves, GM, China, and other big businesses and third-world labor camps, to jump onboard the eBay train (for free). The rest of eBay's policy changes will cut the deadwood (small sellers) and string along the cash cows (power sellers). When the project is finish, the power sellers will be finished, too.
This is my gut feeling . I'm no street analyst, no Sylvia Brown (ha), but my intuition is telling me to get out while the gettin's good. One thing is perfectly clear: Ebay's intentions are not good. Ebay is basically not good.

* I will keep my eBay account open for data, but not to buy or sell.
* plan to sign up with ecrater and ioffer
* keeping an eye on OnlineAuctions
* opened a merchant account with Google Check Out
* will no longer use or accept Paypal

I disagree with the theory that all sellers need to go to the same site. DON'T CREATE ANOTHER MONOPOLISTIC ENTITY! DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY. Diversification creates a healthly competition between websites, keeping costs down and CEO's humble. It will take time to build up traffic at these new sites, but we can all start by shopping there ourselves.

Stop calling on Google to take up the slack! They've been making backdoor deals with eBay for a long time! I don't know if I'd trust them. But use their adwords and check out by all means.

Good Luck to all you fellow xeBayers! I look forward to doing business with you soon!

Friends don't let friends ebay

ebay is just another four letter word.

Friends don't let friends ebay

ebay is just another four letter word.

There is a mass exodus of us former ebay sellers to iofffer.com
Join the revolution!

OK I keep hearing this 'in the "Real World" sellers can't leave feedback for buyers nonsense.'

In the REAL WORLD there is such a thing as a LIST of bad buyers, those that Bounce Checks, those that use credit cards over the limit, those that do not pay their bills on time or at all. I would call everyone's credit report FEEDBACK!

That is the reason there are Credit Bureaus!

Feedback on ebay was the equivelent of a Credit Bureau, it allowed the seller to view the buyers credit history (how they handle buying) and make an informed decision as to wether or not they wanted to extend credit (allow them to bid) on their items.

Without that check and balance system it is no longer a prudent business decision to sell on ebay. Sorry about the rant and spelling it is 2 am and I am ticked :)

I have to start applying for jobs, the fees are brutal and I for one cnnot afford them. It was a nice ride but now its bumpy and harsh, goodbye Ebay.

I sold antiques on eBay for 9 years with 100% positive feedback. I have decided enough is enough, and have stopped selling on eBay, as of Feb. 18. I have moved my business to a fixed price online venue and in less than a week, I've made 4 sales. I emailed all my former eBay buyers from last year and let them know that I will no longer be selling on eBay, and directed them to my new online "shop".

With the new policy changes and increased fees, I cannot afford to continue selling on eBay. It makes no sense to continue when they are making it virtually impossible for me to conduct a successful and profitable business. These latest changes are the last straw. I'm done. I am sad my days at eBay are over, but I almost feel a sense of freedom and exhilaration at leaving....truly, eBay is NOT the only game in town. Buyers as well as sellers have had it with eBay, and are looking elsewhere for their shopping needs.

It's really a pity that they ruined such a wonderful thing...eBay was successful, popular and fun. Now it's just a huge mess, thanks to the corporate greed of the big dogs.

Ebay is no longer My main income biz. A few years ago when the fees in the stores jumped way up... I got rid of my store....
with all the garbage going on now, I have dropped my listings to over 100 a week down to 15 to 20. I only use Ebay to try & get customers over to my Ecrater stores. My "plan" for that wonderful new feedback system will be, if I am left a neutral or neg... I will just respond to it & simply not leave any for crappy customers. That is IF the new system will allow responses.
Everyone has to make their own decision base on their own circumstances. I will be thinking of ebay fees as my "advertising budget" & try to "use" them like they are "using" us.

As a fair minded Aussie seller who has given feebay and Paypal an healthy 6 figure sum (for them !!) in ever increasing fees over the last few years,enough is enough , not sure in the history of commerce and trade have so many customers been treated with absolute contempt as this mob has done.
No right of reply to a fraudulent buyer ?? These creeps are already practicing their soon to be gained (May and (legal by greed bays standards) fraudulent rippoff ways and are already advertising and bragging about it on forums.
How could management of this company possibly expect this to work with buyers and sellers already at each others throats inspired by screwbays totally discriminatory new feedback rules and different rules for larger sellers.
Sellers if you play sport would you take it if someone changed the rules and shifted the goalposts every week ?
If this or future boycotts are not successful this 800 pound gorilla will just keep on bankrupting good folks who falsely believe they can run a viable, profitable business on this battleground .
Haven't yet mentioned the fake, false, blatantly dishonest listings tens of thousands of Chinese sellers list amongst genuine items.
Sellers keep up the rage this has to be guerilla warfare against these dictators, the only way to get through to their thick heads is through dented stock prices this will get media and shareholder attention like nothing else .
It is hard for folks who may be making this as their only form of income however start looking for alternatives , list elsewhere, start your own web site don't get mad get even !! This is one greedy , insensitive , mongrel company who will not rest until they have drained every last dollar, pound , sheikel or coin out of your pocket .
For once can't tens of thousands disgruntled sellers (and buyers it is for your benefit also) unite to beat some sense into these clowns.
Check the forums on how some disadvantaged and less fortunate folks have had their heart torn out due to feebay greed, it is sickening to see this disregard for humans .

I am mostly a seller (just got power seller status over the hollidays...
I am very frustrated with fee hikes, bad buyers, bad sellers, their feedback system sucks..
feedback & dsr's are optional in the 1st place!
soo- these changes are stupid and ueless to sellers!!!

I want what they at eBay are smokin' !!!!!

Ebay used to be a great place to be and people wanted to be there,
Then they started to treat their customers who have made them rich like crap,But they tell their sellers they are rated on how they treat their customers,Ironic aint it,When the sellers complain they have the balls to refer to them as :noise:? ,HEY EBAY THE NOISE IS GONNA GET REAL LOUD COME MAY 1,BOYCOTT EBAY Sellers and buyers Alike,EBAY SUCKS!!
go to http:ecrater.com for your shopping needs,Screw Ebay

THIS COMPANYS STUPIDITY CONTINUES TO AMAZE ME. EBAY MAKES SO MUCH MONEY OFF OF FRAUDULANT TRANSACTIONS THAT THEY NOW HAVE NO INTEREST IN MAKING THE SITE SAFE FOR SELLERS OR BUYERS. THEY KEEP ALL THE FEES OFF OF CHARGEBACKS FILED BY BUYERS AND THEN CHARGE YOU ON TOP OF THOSE FEES. THIS COMPANY IS SO SHORT SITED AND I HOPE A GOOGLE OR MICROSOFT DECIDES TO END THEIR DOMINANCE IN THE AUCTION MARKET. IT WILL TAKE ONE OF THESE LARGE COMPANIES WITH THE BANK ROLL TO MAKE MANAGEMENT WAKE UP. AS OF NOW THERE IS NO LOYALTY FROM SELLERS TO THIS COMPANY, THEY HAVE NEVER SHOWN ANY TO THEIR SELLERS AND I AM SURE EVERYONE WOULD JUMP SHIP IF THERE WAS A RIVAL TO EBAY THAT HAD THE TRAFIC THAT THEY DO.

http://ecrater.com

I am a power seller on ebay selling low priced self created educational CDs - the changes ebay has made have increased my insertion and final value fees. New feature plus fees are based on the total value of items if they should all sell - so instead of the old $19.95 fee or the new advertised $9.95 fee I am paying a higher $24.95 fee. The lower fee is only for a single item - who uses feature plus for a single item??? MY FVF have doubled, and Ebays new rating policy makes it difficult to recoup the costs as raising S & H, providing a cheaper S & H method, or raising my prices will likley lower my ratings. In addition, I will be scammed to send free replacement products as buyers can use the threat of negative feedback. Ebay in its infinite wisdom has blocked me from leaving negative feedback for buyers who bounce payment, complete chargebacks or use extortion to get free replacements.
To recoup costs I am not using any features, and am looking for a new site to sell my product.

I am not a power seller and do not aspire to be one. Ebay is becoming a rather scary place to sell. I am also planning to diversify and move by things to o ther sites. I haven't shut down but am getting my ducks in a row and am gradually moving things to other sites. And am definitely getting rid of paypal. Google is also international and is cheper than pp. I don't expect to sell as much as I do on ebay, but it will cost less to sell and will be a lot less stressful.
I feel bad for all those people who feel that they can't afford to leave. My only advice is try a couple of the free sites and see how it goes. Diversification will help, and some sites will allow you to bring your feedback from ebay.
Good luck to all.
Janet

As a power seller on ebay since 2001, I am totally disgusted with ebay and their antics. With over 12,000 total positive feedbacks, I know of which I speak.

I sure wish we could give them DSR ratings!

No since me going into details because we all know what they are!

I encourage my customers to buy direct by having lower prices on my web site and sending bonuses! AND it works!

I chalk up the ebay fees to advertising and go out of my way to encourage buyers to buy direct.

I would rather give MY customers a discount rather than pay greedbay!

Bonnie at bonniesplants.com

PS ONLY the media can make ebay see their evil ways

Bonnie at bonniesplants.com

To assume that every seller is a cheat and every buyer an angel is showing a distinct lack of business sense. Placing all the financial risk on the seller, while simultaneously exposing their reputation (DSRs) to manipulation by unexperienced/ unscrupulous buyers and dishonest competitors will lead to some dissention amongst the ranks.
Plastering ads all over the site, thus taking buyers away from our products, or manipulating what items are seen and what items are buried (regardless of the fact that sellers have paid their equal share for the same exposure as the next seller) is unethical.
Nevertheless - ebay knows that they are the THE auction site in town, that they dominate the online sales network and that the majority of sellers can not afford to go elsewhere. In the end, there really is no other alternative for the average seller and ebay knows that. The are betting on it. They are banking on it. That is why they will continue to eek every dime out of the seller and place unfathomable barriers to successful sales for certain types of sellers. The only winners will be the stockholders. Now isn't that what capitalism is all about?!

We are an Ebay powerseller, selling on Ebay since 1998.

All these new rules and extra complications, are just a continuation of the trend of Ebay turning from the most laissez-faire marketp[lace in the world, to a prison-like dictatorship, where the only choice is 'to leav eor not'.

Clearly both buyers and sellers do not like this, so they are leavinbg in droves. Ebay is just barely surviving by getting more first-time ignorant buyers and sellers and advertising for third parties.

It looks very much like the business strategy AOL developed, which in the end also resulted in a mass exodus trend of customers, which has not been stopped yet.

We've been selling on eBay since 1998, and really had a great time doing so, up until the last few years. The enjoyment factor is gone. The new changes make it even more difficult for a small time seller to compete in the market today. I can accept the fee increase, but whoever thought the feedback changes, PayPal holds, and search results based on DSR's were a good idea? Don't these idiots do any market research (other than a few at the top). And, don't get me started on the whole DSR thing.

I'll probably sell a few items here and there on eBay, but it will be drastically reduced over the coming year as I search for alternative venues.

The decision makers at eBay need to sell on eBay for about 6 months to one year and see what it's like for them (I know it will never happen, but a good thought anyway). Only then, will they perhaps grasp what is actually going on out here in the eBay world.

I designed a website to allow power sellers to block problematic bidders according to their buyer feedback rating. BidBlocker.com.

I sell and buy on eBay. However, I'm scouting other places to do both, because I'm tired of the way eBay treats me as a seller. No, I'm not a "Power Seller." Probably never will be. But I'm an HONEST seller. I charge actual shipping charges. I don't classify everything I sell as "RARE!!" I just don't like to rip people off, and I won't. However, I'm not going to offer to ship things to people for free, because I don't make that much to begin with.

My disgust with eBay started last fall. A high bidder did not respond to my after-auction email, didn't pay--nothing. I went through eBay's useless "non-pay" routine. The day after I filed that complaint, the bidder sent payment to my PayPal account, which I returned.

I relisted the item, at my expense, of course, and blocked the original bidder. Guess what? The same jerk won the second time, in the last few seconds, under another ID!! There is no way to "unsell" to anyone, even if you can show that it's someone who ripped you off before. They just tell you that you can block people (I DID--but it didn't matter to eBay that they came back with another ID)--but you can't when it's something that you don't see till the auction is over. This was NEVER resolved with or by eBay, and this idiot is still out there, ripping people off. And what's up with keeping your feedback private? This person had private feedback--that should tell you something, too, right? Again, I didn't know till it was too late. I figure, if you have to hide it, there's a reason. So why does eBay allow it? It's just another way they allow people to rip off others. Now, they're taking away the ability to even LEAVE negative feedback for these people. I'm tired of it. I'm going somewhere where I can judge people for myself, have people there to back ME up as a seller, and not charge me to screw me over.

These new policies are just more ways eBay has devised to rip off people and turn their backs on them--not necessarily in that order.

"

ebay is padding its auction count by having their employees list auctions --- and thousands of more auctions than they normally list:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000526589&tstart=0&mod=1204232810596

Posted by: Kim | February 28, 2008 04:27 PM "

That post has been pulled by ebay. This is the post that got it pulled. I've removed names because I have no proof that it's all true. But if it isnt, why was it pulled. Again the names have been removed. The ebay employee/seller went from 1000 items a week to 19,000 during the boycott. And didnt have it on all their listings that they are a ebay employee. Something that ebay requires.

Ebay seller *xxxxxxxxx* also has a store using the name
*xxxxxxxxx*. This eBay employee has been reported too
many times to mention for "Circumvention of Fees", and
more recently for alleged sales tax fraud. They are one
in the same seller, located in Salt Lake City.

What is VERY problematic is that this person's Frogswamp
listings charge sales tax as follows:

Seller charges sales tax for items shipped to: KS
(6.850%), KY (6.850%), ND (6.850%), WA (6.850%).

Now, we all know that those states do not charge the
same rate of sales tax. That is the tax rate for Utah
only. Odds are, this person does not possess a resale
license in those states (which are coincidentally the
same states that Amazon charges tax in). She does this
so she does not have to eat the sales tax when she turns
around and places your order through Amazon.

This has been reported to eBay, and they have chosen to
ignore the problem. They state, as always, that they are
not responsible for anything.

While true that they are not responsible for erroneous
or fraudulent listings as they are made, they ARE
responsible after an alleged criminal act has been
brought to their attention, and they are required to do
something about it, if they find the act fraudulent. In
this seller's case, they are protecting her, in my
opinion. I have no idea if it is because she is helping
to pump up their listing count, or if she is just well
liked by the employees that we have to report these
things to.

I do not think that any District Attorney would agree
that eBay is immune to prosecution in protecting a
person that is fraudulently charging sales tax after
they have been notified of the alleged crime, or in
failure to investigate.

I don't mind the fees. I would gladly pay $5.00 per item and just sell my best stuff-- if they would LEAVE THEIR SYSTEM ALONE.

Far worse than the fee hikes or feedback is the star rating system. Buyers are presented with 5 stars and told that a 4 is excellent. Meanwhile, on the other side of the 1-way glass, sellers are told that consistently recieving 4's will result in removal from the site.

I believe removal of all small sellers is the eventual goal. As opposed to simply throwing them off however, this method allows ebay to continue getting their listing dollars as the seller sinks lower and lower in the ratings. This is consistently 'ebay'.

Lastly, items no longer appear in search transparently. They are reshuffled according to popularity, price, and seller standing which suppresses antiques, unique & collectible items terribly-- the very stuff that spawned ebay.

I thought you had to turn '40' before you have an identity crisis??

Fritzelchat!! What a great read. So well thought out and so well written. And so right. And so sad, that in this case, this entity is now, for all to see, NOT basically good. What happened? They should have stayed a private company. Instead, they made themselves shark bait. Sold to the 'highest bidder.'

I am an 8 year veteran of eBay...and I say this because after the January 2008 announcements concerning Feedback & Fee changes, sellers seem to be at war with eBay and we, as eBay's core of small sellers, feel pretty beat-up and war-weary from years of changes that seem to whittle away at our financial well-being, not to mention our morale and our freedoms to conduct our auctions within the confines of our own personal situations while trying to comply with the ever-changing eBay guidelines, for we all are individuals, not large companies. We are retired folks, we are housewives, we are single Moms or Dads, we are college students, we are all individuals trying to make ends meet in an increasingly difficult economy. After 8 years of being PAYPAL-FREE, I may be forced to accept Paypal on all of my future auctions. eBay owns Paypal. With the exception of merchant credit cards, eBay does not, at present, accept other forms of online payment services except their own Paypal...a monopoly in it's truest and purist sense of the word. If forced to accept Paypal and if I continue to sell on eBay (which is looking less and less likely), I have contemplated using the following in my auction text:

PAYMENT OPTIONS: After selling for 8 years on eBay, due to recent eBay changes, I have been forced to accept Paypal on my auctions. Please be informed that if you choose to pay through Paypal, eBay, at it's arbitrary discretion, may place a 21 day hold on your payment to me, which will ultimately result in financial hardship for myself and my family, and may make it impossible for me to ship your item to you during that 21 day period. This will further result in my INABILITY, NOT UNWILLINGNESS, to offer the level of Seller Performance that I have provided to my buyers for the last 8 years. If you prefer to make funds available immediately and to guarantee your item ships in a timely fashion, please choose from the other payment options accepted. Thank you.

Seller

Again, we sellers are trying to adapt to eBay feedback expectations that make staying on eBay less attractive, less financially feasible, and nearly unattainable. The magic is gone.....

First to answer the question...Yes, I still buy and sell on eBay and I will continue to do so as long as it works with my business plan. For me, the fee changes were not devastating, nor were the other policy changes.

Second, I think many of the comments here are a sad reflection on Online Sellers as a whole for the following reasons:

1) Many posts were made by the same individuals under different names.
2) Many are claiming to be Powersellers on eBay when in reality they haven't been for quite some time (if ever).
3)The spamming by the Alternative sites and one particular forum is obviously being done for self-promotional/selfish reasons.
4)The authors questions have basically been ignored and instead this was used as an opportunity to try to interject life into a failed boycott/protest.
5) The number of posts have been grossly inflated (see #1) to portray a vast outcry that in fact is not as widespread as these people make it appear...hence the failed boycott/protest.

In my opinion, these people are damaging the reputations of ALL online sellers and I resent them implying we all think/feel the same way or that sellers like myself are in the minority.

Thank you for your time and allowing me to comment.

The cat is out of the bag. Stock's down another dollar:

http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/ebay

There have been so many comments criticizing eBay's recent decisions that it was only a matter of time before an eBay shill like AshamedofFellowSellers came to spew the party line.

I'll agree with the eBay cheerleader that some of the spamming is getting old, but disagree with the rest of it.

1) Can you prove that "many posts were made by the same individuals"? If you can't prove it, you should say it. It makes you look stupid. You know who can prove it? Rob Pegoraro and the staff of the Washington post. They are the only people who could find out how many posts came from the same IP address.

2) Can you prove that the people who have claimed to be Powersellers are not really Powersellers? Of course you can't. If you can't prove it, don't say it. It makes you look stupid.

3) The author's questions have not been ignored. Have you taken the time to read all of the posts? Sure, many have not, but many have.

4) Can you prove that the number of posts have been "grossly inflated"? Once again, no, you can't.

Whether you choose to believe it or not, sellers in general are fed up with eBay. If you are a Powerseller and you spend any time on the Powerseller board on eBay, surely you are aware of how attitudes towards eBay have changed over the past several years. Sellers who used to love eBay now have contempt for eBay. It is widespread and deeply rooted. eBay will likely decline further and eventually become irrelevant to online commerce.

Susan, please. Do not feel shame or embarrassment on my behalf.

I can make a lot of money on eBay if I choose to. Instead of toeing the party line I chose to minmize my eBay activties and expand into other areas.

But this isnt about money or my ability to make a living, this is about my dignity which has no price.

eBay is the biggest game in town when it comes to online selling for most people. I do not dispute that. But when it comes to these DSRs, Feedback changes, lack of common sense and response in the customer service area and totally out of touch management, and dozens of other decisions they have made through the years at the expense of the sellers who made them great, they have plummeted to the bottom of the e-commerce field.

Do not be ashamed of your fellow sellers who are not willing to price a price on their dignity.

In fact, I am embarrassed by YOU Susan. I am sorry and embarrassed that you have sold your dignity for a few dollars and you will do better at the expense of others who are fighting for you whether you realize it or even care.

I am ashamed of you and sellers like you who have no dignity or self esteem. They say rats abandon a sinking ship first. In this case, the rats will remain onboard until the very end and THEN they will jump ship to join sites which I and other like myself have built for them.

The same way we built eBay, we will build alternatives. When eBay can no longer meet the price tag you have placed on your dignity, you will leave them too. Be sure to thank us for making it possible when you do leave eBay.

Ken

I am a powerseller on ebay and have worked very hard to keep my 99.9% feedback rating with Stars at 4.9 except for shipping Stars at 4.8. I love what I do & strive very hard to please all my customers. Now, since the announcement of Feedback changes I still want to please my customers because I think they deserve to be happy with their orders, however, I no longer love what I do.

I can handle the fees even though it is taking a large chunk out of my pocket, feedback is what makes me literally sick every time I think about how unfair this system is. I am VERY concerned that paypal can and will hold our hard earned money. I was always taught that when I took something that didn't belong to me it was stealing, am I missing something here? Has times changed that much that keeping something that doesn't belong to you is now OK? One good thing has come of the changes and that is I have gotten off my rump and started listing on other sites and will list less on ebay, not that it bothers ebay that many sellers will be listing less.

I appreciate Washington Post for allowing us to voice our opinion concerning these issues, unlike ebay they never allow us to voice our opinion even though we do hand them a pay check each week.

Thanks so much ebay for forcing me to see there are other venues to list on that doesn't take all my profits. Listing_Less_On_Ebay AND One Day Soon No_Listing_On_Ebay

My new motto is: Stay Away from Ebay

As a buyer or a seller, there are great alternatives! I have found what I need at specialty sites, Craig's List, Amazon, and other auction sites.

For selling, I have my own site, and for the really valuable finds I am using Bonhams.

I live in a small town that thrives on gossip, and have started my own 'rumor' ( the truth) about ebay. Amazing how quickly this has circulated and people here are also staying away from ebay.

Stay away from Ebay!

I have sold on ebay for over 8 years and have over 320 feedbacks @ 100%, with DSR's of 4.9, 4.9, 4.9, 4.9.
I just closed my ebay Store two days ago. Why?
It's being made obvious to me as a seller that my business is no longer wanted at ebay.
I can complain about DSR's, Feedback, Bad Buyers, Final Value Fee's, etc., but the big picture is that ebay doesn't want me anymore. (I wouldn't argue if a boyfriend didn't want me anymore, right? I'd just move on...right? )

So, I've picked up my toys and moved on to a new site, ecrater. I'll be looking into other sites, too, and will be diversifying. I plan on creating my own website, as well.
There can be no rainbow without a storm, right?

In response to CMI...

Yes I can prove numerous posts have been made by the same people and that some have portrayed being Powerseller's when in reality they aren't. They have been gleefully bragging about it over on the PSU forum. Here is a link if you're interested: http://www.powersellersunite.com/viewtopic.php?t=16820

Ok, AshamedofFellowSellers, I looked at your link.

It looks like 2 out of 40-something posts were people who posted multiple times. It looks like at least one of the persons had so much to say, they posted several times, but all under the same name. I just don't see any substantial evidence to back up your claims. There are way too many responses here to think that a few people who made multiple posts have skewed anything.

Of course, I have now posted a total of three times, twice in response to you. It looks like at least one other person took offense to your post as well. It was a good read, good opinion on the sheep who are content to let eBay do as they please.

Ashamed of fellow sellers. Just one question to ask you?
Which department of ebay do you work in?

Susan,

This is my 3rd post here. All under the same name. I have 4 eBay user IDs that are all currently Power Seller IDs (3 silver and 1 bronze) but that will change within the next 2 months as I have decreased my selling activities on eBay and I will no longer meet Power Seller requirements.

These are the facts and now you are calling me a liar or saying that others here are lying? And you have no "proof" just a link which encourages people to post their opinions on this blog. A link which I freely admit to posting on as well.

Am I "freely bragging"? Am I "bragging" at all? Or am I just stating the facts which is what I am doing in my opinion.

I suggest you get some facts yourself before you further embarrass your fellow sellers.

Ken

With the new fee strucure and feedback policies eBay has changed from a niche market to a soon to be shopping mall. No longer will you find great deals due to the inability of the search engine to find results that match. Merchants with small ticket items will be forced to raise the price due to the "free shipping" results that show up first. eBays attitude is take it or leave it, we don't care. I hope Google is reading all this, they could make enough to settle the deficit of this country with the profit they would make from launching an auction site!

I sold on Ebay for almost five years. Today I thankfully no longer sell on Ebay and my sales far exceed anything I accomplished on Ebay. Past Ebay management decisions have taken the site to the brink of extinction. Site user statistics are flat and nothing management has done has turned the site around. In fact today's Ebay management is even more clueless about how best to even try. The ever increasing animosity with their own sellers is a prime example. How many businesses can survive when they anger their primary user base?
The entire site is in chaos and it shows to the buying public. A once mighty monopoly now limps along with flat sales, angry sellers, and an ever declining buyer base. It's a shell of it's former self and Ebay is helpless to stem the exodus.
The few pro Ebay sellers left like AshamedofFellowSellers are in the minority. Most are angry and fearful that adverse publicity will scare away the few remaining buyers. It's a sad site today thanks to Meg Whitman and Bill Cobb. I don't think it can be saved.

Wow, after reading these letters above, I can only agree. I have been on eBay for 7 years. My husband has been on for 10. We are primarily sellers, but also buy a lot including high priced items for a museum my husband works for. That has all ended with the new policies. We will not lie to protect bidders that extort. We have seen it too many times. We are creating our own websites for sales. Yahoo charges less than 15.00 per month.

My feedback is near 2,000, my husbands is near 1,500. No more selling, no more buying. What was a very good thing in 2000-20003 is now a farce.

Not sure how to change my business model this time. Every time I make changes to stay profitable Ebay pulls the rug out.

Have tried other venues, but don't get the exposure on my hard to find toys. Moved some inventory to another venue, but then ebay bought 33 percent interest in them too.

The general public just doesn't have the spending power lately that they had in 2003-05. So I don't know where the money is going to come from. I wonder if anyone realizes that Ebay's biggest buyers are the sellers.

In response to some other posters concerns regarding Watched Items, Sniping, and Feedback, they are correct in their opinion that realized price has gone down and feedback is a problem. I have the very first sniping program on a floppy disk. Within 8 or 9 months of improvements to this original program Ebay outlawed the use of them for 2 or 3 years. Without Watch people used to check on the items they were bidding on daily. Regarding Feedback, whatever happened to the old 3 strikes and your off forever rule? In the early days, if you got 3 legitimate negs you were done. You did have a chance to give your side of it to a live person on a live chat though...and their decisions were final, but fair.

The Washington Post must understand that Ebay before the big board was a different place. They catered to sellers to get there. They gave you ten dollars worth of free listings at a quarter a listing to sell something. Many old line antiquers took advantage of this by opening numerous selling ids, selling 40 items, getting 40 feedback, and creating the next one. On one old hard drive alone I had 267 ids, all with 40 good feedback. I had around 700 and some total. I knew dealers who numbered over 1500. The Ebay core seller database looked very solid for the initial stock offering.

There was very little fraud. Much of the early fraud was started by buyers after pictures were added. They would try to presell the item locally off the pic and if the person sold to didn't want it after it came they complained to get a refund.
Ebay's new take on buyers is touching. If you think the people in your community are basically "good people", get rid of the cops for a few days and see how you like them now.

One of the previous posters stated Ebay's goal was to be the largest retail search engine. Many have commented on "Best Search" and it's shortcomings. An example of both is available on a local "classified" site in, of all places, Bismarck, ND.

Every thing listed has Ebay listings such as you receive on a watch list appended to the bottom of the item for sale, even the "Wanted" section. I have found the same thing on a comparable site in Virginia.

This URL
http://www.bismanonline.com/merchandise/suvs/121721.php

is for the sale of a new towel by a local lady who also has a store on Ebay. It must be frustrating to put the time in to list something hoping for a local sale and to get people to visit your "Ebay Store" and then find your competitors on Ebay listed on the same page.....for less money...in Bismarck, ND...at the edge of the known universe. Although she is trying to sell her towels for $16.99, when I first looked at the listing a couple of days ago, some were selling the exact same towel for $6.99 to $8.99 on the EBay listing tacked on.

It shows why many people have voiced concern regarding new search policies. It gets humourous when you go to the want section where people are advertising to buy collectibles they then attempt to resell on Ebay. With the Ebay addition of like items at the bottom they will find out their wholesale price has gone up considerably.

This also illustrates just what happens when a person is talked into selling "drop ship" or "wholesale" product by Ebay staffers who call to talk them into stocking a store with goods from an "approved" wholesaler with no distribution rights or "protected territory".

As a side note, Rob, I have a problem with the term "Powerseller". A title is something corporate America offers instead of more money and the title Powerseller is "offered".

The term "Powerseller" or the number of feedback does not describe the bottom line. I have read discussions between 5 and 6 "Powersellers" as to what they were doing wrong when they were paying $2000 to $6000 a month in listing and store fees and only netting $400 to $600 a month profit. My take on this was obvious. The thing they were doing wrong was not taking their prescribed medications. I have observed other discussions on Seller Central bemoaning the lack of a wholesale product with a 30% profit margin. In B&M malls the average product is marked up 400 to 500%. You can not profitably sell online and be competitive with a "new" or collectible product without buying your stock at the lowest price possible. Most manufacturers, importers, and liquidators have online venues to grab retail profit already, many on Ebay under different selling ids.

Brick and Mortar Chain Malls used to target ex-government workers, teachers, retired union and military to sell their various small francises to. The reason for this was that the aforementioned groups had no real understanding of money. I asked one manager what happens when they go broke, doesn't the next guy on the list want to know why? Her reply was, "We just tell them it was poor management." The Mall commission on the sale was 40 to 50% of the initial fee. The mall anchors, Kmart etc, are supported by these small franchises who have to pay for combined advertising, snow removal, roof repair, etc. The small operators learn that in a turnkey operation, the key turns both ways. One day they come to work and the francise owner has cleaned out the store and locked the location.

Ebay has followed this "business model" well.

By the way, Ebay was not the first doing online auctioning. Coin Net and Sport Net, paid subscriber online BBs had auctions in a forum format going for years before Ebay. It was dealer to dealer and the action was awesome. I watched a dealer sell $17,500 in unopened cases of waxpacks in 5 min. in 1990. No Fees....and sales took minutes. The Sportline chat forum used to have show results on Sun. evening where dealers would talk about what was selling at shows in their area. Most of these dealers were young and only experienced in new sportcards. They used to laugh about the slow shows where older dealers would buy memorabilia and older mid grade cards. They thought these guys were fools and didn't understand the game. Most of these younger guys went broke in the early 90's. The older guys they laughed were on Ebay selling the stuff they bought for top dollar. The old antique axiom for show was dead and you can't sell ....Buy!

Ebay is a buyer's market now.

I have been buying and selling on ebay for almost 9 years. I am a powerseller. I have a 99.8% feedback with over 4000 feedback. Most of the negative feedback I have received was due to misunderstandings and lack of communication of the buyer. It is easier for some buyers to leave a negative feedback than to email a seller and say "the item arrived damaged" or "this isn't the same shade or color as the picture". We have always refunded our buyers for any problems they had. We have even refunded when the green was a bit darker on their screen settings. With this new system coming I am sure my percent will go down rapidly. I have had buyers through the years say "give me a discount or I will leave a neg". Well in May they can do that without worrying that the seller will be able to give one back. Extortion will most certainly grow.
As for the discounts for powersellers. One of my main competetors is a powerseller with only a 97.2 percent feedback. To remain a powerseller eBay says you must maintain a 98% or higher. This is a bad seller. This is one of the ones eBay is complaining about that drives buyers away, and yet they let this seller maintain their powerseller status. As a buyer I rarely give a 5 star dsr. They way eBay states it to the buyer when filling in the stars a 4 is good service, good communication, quick shipping times. Very few sellers will ever rate a 5 in all catagories. Buyers (and people in general) do not give the highest ranking to anyone for service on a daily basis. If ebay is going to tell the buyer a 4 is quick shipping and then penalize the seller because it was not super super fast shipping then they better change how they word the dsr star ratings.

I am both a buyer and a power seller on eBay. I have been using eBay since 2003. I am completely overwhelmed by all these new changes, both from a buying and selling viewpoint. I leave HONEST feedback. If a buyer does not pay, after 14 days, I get my Final Value Fee credit from eBay, leave a heagtive stating the buyer was a non paying bidder, block the bidder and move on. If a customer has been extremely nasty in dealing with me, or left negative feedback without even contacting me to let me know what the problem was, I will SOMETIMES return that with an honest begative: ie, buyer was extremely rude in emails, or called me names, or left negative feedback without contact, or left negative feedback when they did not even READ the listing. Unlike many sellers who just never leave ANY negatives, I do-when they are called for, I leave them. This does not mean I am a BAD seller. This means I am an HONEST seller.

Being unable to SEE that a person was a non payer, or whatever in feedback will make it difficult to tell the good from the bad. Many sellers are starting off eBay lists of BAD BUYERS, where everyone can go and add their own or copy and paste the list into their own blocked bidder list.

Also, many times a BAD buyer who was NO BUYER AT ALL, but a non paying bidder who DID respond to an unpaid item dispute, but DID NOT PAY, will still be able to leave negative feedback for a seller even though they are NOT EVEN A REAL BUYER. That is HOGWASH and eBay knows it.

I have registered on a few other auction sites, and am planning to diversify as much as I can to THOSE sites, so that I am not depending on eBay for my income. It is just too unstable, and unbalanced and UNFAIR! I am going to look to BUY on other sites as well, because I do not want to support such an entity that treats its own sellers with such disrespect and disdain.

In the past ebay asked me several times to join the power seller program and each time I would respond to them that I wasnt interested because of there disregard for sellers and their lack of prudent problem solvinG, if and when a dispute did arise between a buyer and a seller.It was almost like their employees had been trained to be unresponsive to the idea of actually being fair mediators.I will be looking for another place to do business as this is the final straw. MY FEEDBACK WAS 99.6% GOOD BY FEEBAY

I am a buyer on eBay, and I am unhappy about these new changes. I rely on feedback, both left for and by the seller, to determine if it is a good risk to buy from a particular seller. Also, many times, a seller buys and sells on the same ID, so they can increase their feedback scores tremendously and not necessarily be a good seller. For me, I will begin to look at other online auction sites to see if what I am looking for is available elsewhere first, and if it is not something that I absolutely must have, I may just not buy it at all, because this new feedback rule really sucks for everyone, not just the sellers. Now there will be no balance, no equality. And what the eBay CEO Donahue said about eBay's homepage looking like a flea market, HELLO, that is WHY so many of us even come to eBay in the 1st place Mr. Donahue.

I was a buyer for many years. Found myself in financial difficulty and decided to sell stuff from around the house - some of which had been ebay purchases. I started selling on Black Friday and ended at the boycott. I was able to list about 200 items in that time - all but 2 sold. (Average sell through rates are about 50%.) Wow was selling fun, but it was most definitely work too! My stars and feedback are all great - but compared to the big boys I have very low numbers. So come May 2008 all it will take is one testy buyer and I'd be destroyed - I won't end up in searches if I list and I could have my money held for 21 days while expected to ship items out of my pocket. In those 200 transactions, yes I encountered one buyer who tried to extort additional items from me. What will happen when all the power shifts to buyers? More threats and extortion? So I'm gone with regrets. No more buying, no more selling. Wish I had had the guts to be a seller sooner. Ebay's path of self destruction is so typical; turning a deaf ear to those who want to help, employing a manipulative stance, coveting (other on-line companies' selling models) and a very nasty, insulting attitude. What a shame.

This is my 2nd post...so that the individual I am directing my comments to can have her proof. I resent that you, ashamedoffellowsellers, are thinking that the majority of the individuals here or on other forums are any less honest than they are portraying themselves to be. And as far as bragging goes, I won't even dignify that accusation.

This is serious business, my dear. Thousands of us are totally distraught at loosing our only source of income, our JOBS...have you ever lost a job you loved and worked so hard at and did well and had hundreds of satisfied customers?! We are making our choice to walk, true, but there is a moral principal here at stake and we do not want to go back to eBay and knowingly be hung by the necks!

Many folks are multiple posting at some of the other forums as a means to seek out and give help...so that we don't have to feel alone in this...the incredible support being shown for one another in our attempts to keep the heart of our businesses beating by going to other sites is amazing...

But here on this forum, what you are seeing are individual experiences, stories and angst that by now has been well thought out and we are trying to get ourselves heard! Who has the time to keep writing long books, we are beating feet elsewhere to try and keep the money coming in.

If a physical plant, say GM, had a strike, the media would pick up on this quicker than you could blink. But in this new era, in the online world of ecommerce, physical representation is almost nonexistant...we are people with full time jobs, physical store fronts, we are moms, dads, military spouses!, students, the elderly, the disabled...and we are all over this country (US), all over the world --- its a new age of protest and a much more challenging environment to be heard. The mainstream media hasn't totally caught on to this new forum.

Also, not only would those striking GM be watching the nightly news to see what others are thinking and doing and feeling about their plight, but they would be able to talk to each other at the coffee shop, on the front stoop, to the grocer....and they would also be worrying about how it was going to affect each one of them, GM employee or not.

So don't deny the few forums, the only voice we have to congregate, commiserate, discuss, and inspire one another to action!

Last, and I touched this quickly above...but the local economy of a city where a huge layoff occurs will feel the affects i m m e d i a t e l y and when that first week of missed paychecks hits... Well, ours is spread out...this is going to take time...but with a failing economy, little available work in many of our communities, this pain you are reading about is just the tip of the iceberg in how the boycott will affect the economy at large.

You are talking millions of dollars lost weekly, but spread out, that millions of us depend on, ebay sellers or not. Our incomes, our paychecks, if-you-will, is expected tomorrow to pay the electric bill, the doctor's bill, the pharmacy...and don't even get me started on how this is going to impact Goodwill, the Salvation Army and other thrift shops who depend on us to help others while we help ourselves.

If you, ashamedoffellowsellers, are in better shape and you can weather the lower profits, the inevitable lowered feedback & DSR scores....well good for you. But there is no doubt about this...the businesses you patron are going to feel it when you cut back on your spending and things you hoped you might invest in down the line... The businessperson who hoped you might hire him or her this summer for some lawn or landscape or painting work...well, they don't even know yet how bad, this already bad economy, is going to hit them.

There, my last post here...but I will keep reading and watching and hoping to read stories telling me I'm not alone...stories that are hopeful and tell about those are finding support and good buyers elsewhere.

God help us...as if this country didn't already have enough to worry god about...

Whether you like or dislike what eBay has done, I just CAN'T BELIEVE that eBay is not responding to all of this. It's just stupid on their part, absolutely stupid. And I also CAN'T BELIEVE that major shareholders of eBay are just sitting back and not applying pressure to eBay to resolve these issues. It's mind boggeling!

It's the DSR ratings that are upsetting me. eBAY tells buyers that a 4 star is good, but if you have under a 4.6 you DO NOT qualify for powerseller discounts and you DO NOT get your listings up at the top but instead at the bottom of this asinine new BEST MATCH search. What is this horse----???
Ebay knows damn well what they are doing, they are trying to make it impossible to get the discount, all the while telling us that we need to up our service in order to obtain it. They are trying to push sellers into giving free shipping. (THAT WILL NOT HELP THE STARS ANYWAYS BECAUSE BUYERS THINK 4 STARS ARE GOOD) It is insane!!!!!!!!!!
Get rid of Donahoue NOW before he makes a bigger mess of things at ebay!!
SO UNREAL!!

I am an Ebay power seller with 100% positive feed-back. The new feedback changes are unfair and Ebay will go down when they start. Why would I, a seller, ever send out my quality merchandise blind to a stranger as I've been doing since 1998, if I can't read their feedback left by other sellers like me, and get a relative idea who they are based on the marketplace we inhabit?
It just ain't gonna happen!
I'm looking around for other online venues.
Ebay used to be a fair place but this new tilt to the buyer leaves a playing field no good for me a seller.

So eBay wants to change its business model, no longer cares about the business generated by its 80% of small sellers who only generate 20% of sales. Okay, fair enough.

What they don't realize is that those millions of small sellers ARE ALSO THEIR BUYERS.

Now that eBay has managed to alienate, outrage, and insult almost all of them, where are they going to find the buying market for all the cheap Chinese junk that's the majority of what they want to continue to offer?

This is one "small" (feedback "only" around 2000) seller who will now buy anywhere but eBay. And I used to spend upwards of $10K a year there.

I am a Power Seller on Ebay who will be closing her store on May 1st. I am outraged over the new feedback policy. I have over 11,000 feedback on Ebay, ALL of it positive for a very good reason. With the new policy, customers are less likely to work out any potential difficulties other than to leave a hasty negative or threats to leave a negative. I do not do business this way now and will not do business this way in the future. I am an EBAY CUSTOMER and deserve far better treatment for my 10 years on their site. If nothing else, this miserable experience has made me diligent in finding other means of business. So far I have been successful, but these things take time. It is a shame that my years on Ebay will end on such a sour note. They were once a beautiful company. Now they are biting the hand that feeds them. They should be so ashamed at what they have become.

I helped build ebay and have been paying ebay/ Paypal about $2000.00 per month in fees. My feed back is over 50,000 with 99.99 % positive I have had it with ebay & PayPal and will no longer waste my time giving into ebay's abuses. They claim to be a venue only but micromanage everything that you do (while having both hands in your pocket). Goodbye feebay

I once had over 5,000 listings in my ebay store, over 2,000 auctions a month and was a power seller giving ebay at least $700 to $800 a month. In fees, that ended when they pulled there little fee stunt with the stores in summer of 2006. The new changes are fee hikes, they lied to everyone when they announced it. They reduced the listing fees by a nickel, but raised the closing fees by 3.75% per dollar. The feedback changes are designed benefit ebay, they say it'd to reward good sellers with discounts, the truth is they are really designed to raise more money for ebay. Paypal which is the payment service that ebay owns, they more or less force this down your throat, if your feedback is low they can hold your payment for 21 days, of course they will keep the interest, this is Corp. Greed at it's very worst. Ebay has suffered from poor management for years, the new CEO is a continuing there downward slide. Ebay is copying Amazon, ebay can't forge there own path, they have to follow in someone else's foot steps. Maybe this is way the value of ebay's stock is about half the value of Amazon and why Amazon beat ebay last Christmas with traffic to it's site. Ebay should not be rewarded with higher revenue as a result of bad behavior.

Somewhere in this world a village has lost there idiot, but if the look on ebay they can find him, he's the clown running the company CEO John Donahoe

AshamedofFellowSellers I AM a powerseller, won't be much longer but do a search for my name (that's just part of it but I'm sure you can find it) and I have 350 100% positive feedbacks on this ID, or you can do a search for my guide on feedback I mentioned above, I doubt if you do it because it's just easier to call people names and say they are not telling the truth. I resent being called a liar. Many on the forum that you are flaming are powersellers or were. I also have 3 other ebay id's and have probably well over 1000 transactions or more with 1 neg and 1 neutral on them since 2001.
I am not a jump the gun sort of person but ebay has made it impossible to conduct business in an honorable and profitable manner on the site and we all need to realize it and decide what to do about it whether go to another site or hope for the best on ebay. I'm sorry you are ashamed of us, I find it incomprehensible that someone can watch ebay commit a slow suicide and criticize those who protest it.

Hello everyone. What many do not realize is that eBay truly does not care about sellers or buyers. They care about their bottom line and their wallets only. Now, that is fine to care about your bottom line, we all do, but when you do it at the expense of your customers and you run them off as eBay has done, that is a very foolish business decision.

We all have different stories, but I can tell you that if I did not earn a living on eBay I would have left long ago. However, they have cornered the market right now, but I have now diversified and gone to other venues such as ola.com and ebid.net, etc. There are so many eBay refugees going to these other online auction venues that soon, they will be able to compete with eBay.

eBay is digging it's own grave and it is truly sad. I really don't want to see eBay go out of business. Most people don't, even those that are truly angry right now. What we would like most is if eBay would go back to like they were in the old days when eBay was more of a family community.

eBay "seems" to care more about the buyer than the seller and yes, in any marketplace there must be both buyers and sellers to make it work. What eBay seems to forget is technically, the buyer does not put ONE PENNY in eBays pockets. The buyers on eBay are OUR customers, not eBays. WE, the sellers are eBays customers. WE pay eBay's fees, not the buyer. WE work our behinds off 10-16 hours a day sometimes for not a whole lot of money sometimes, but this is what we choose to do to make a living.

Changes are fine when they benefit ALL, buyers AND sellers. However, these recent changes by eBay benefit no one but eBay and buyers. Even buyers will end up leaving because so many of their favorite sellers are leaving and those that are staying will have to raise their prices in order to keep up with eBay fees. This hurts the buyer AND the seller.

Don't forget also eBay, that WE sellers are ALSO buyers! I sell a LOT on eBay and I buy a LOT on eBay, however, I am slowly moving my buying AND selling to the other online venues. They are much more friendly and helpful than any of eBays form letters could ever be!

John Donahoe, swallow your pride before you put eBay out of business! Take the feedback changes back. It is not right to have the buyer be able to leave us negative feedback, especially Undeserved negative feedback, and we are powerless to do anything about it. Then due to negatives we may not even deserve, the fees we pay monthly to eBay, will be for nothing because your Best Match search will have our listings so far down in the search results, we will sell very little. Perhaps you do not care about MY $2200.00 worth of fees I pay you every month, but mine times thousands of other sellers, will end up hurting you.

eBay will help to ruin our economy worse than it already is! So many of us rely on eBay for our income, to put food on the table, to pay doctors bills, prescriptions, etc. Many are disabled veterans, military spouses, retired people trying to supplement their meager social security, single mothers trying to support themselves withOUT going on welfare, THESE are the people that eBay is hurting with their UNfair business practices.

Again, I ask you, John Donahoe, new CEO of eBay, to REthink the disastrous changes you are making to eBay and help our nation and our communities. You make over a million dollars a year, John Donahoe, something most of us can only dream about. How can you step on the little people that made eBay such a success?

I am a seller with over 5000 ++ FB and a 100% rating.

After seven years on eBay, I am moving off the site. Our listings are down 65% since these changes and the plan is to be eBay free by June.

eBay has made it impossible for us to do business on the site and they're charging more for it.

I expect eBay as we know it will disappear within 6-9 months after these changes. In its effort to mimic Amazon, management will destroy the site.

It's a shame. We make a living and employ a number of folks with our eBay business, but we are gone. Good bye, over, finis.

Ken,

I am the Susan who you have been referring to at least twice in your comments. Please stop confusing me with the poster who wrote the comment below me signed AshamedofFellowSellers. I, Susan, posted the comment above that particular paragraph and am wholeheartedly willing to leave eBay...I have already started listing on other sites, as many sellers have done. I participated in the boycott from the 18th-25th and I am planning on boycotting in May as well. Your beef is with AshamedofFellowSellers, not me...

I've sold on eBay for several years and have maintained 100% postive ratings from both buyers and sellers. I signficantly cut my sales on eBay back in 2006 when they last jacked up their absurd fees and, as a direct result of their latest increases, have stopped selling all together.

I've also despised the unethical practices of PayPal for years and even received a fair amount of money back as part of the successful class action suit against them.

Due to eBay's and PayPal's latest fee hikes, I have moved elsewhere.

BTW, I didn't learn about the boycott until a few days ago - as far as many sellers are concerned, the boycott is still on.

I was a smaller seller and buyer. I had a feedback of 449 with 100% so in the scheme of things, Im pretty much like shark bait BUT these changes infuriated me so much that it will be a cold day in heck that I will even BROWSE Ebay. Some of these changes are ludicrous like the feedback. The fees I can understand but even though Im smaller, I worked my proverbial butt off to get that 100%. Now, they are going to make it impossible for me to retain that and even better.........because Im a smaller fish in the sea, my listings would be at the bottom of the list! I would have paid the same amount as another seller! Then the 21 day hold???? With no interest? These things can't be legal. If they are, this is disgusting. They say that the boycott had no effect on their stats. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA of course they would say that. They didnt mention the 45 Test auctions that were there for $3000 a piece or all the rest of them. Im just disgusted and thats the reason why this boycott did succeed. It made many people aware.........and understand that Ebay just called people "noise". Even now, when you go to sign in, there is a notice to find out how wonderful Ebay is because they lowered their listing fees and GAVE us the gallery picture. Well, basically, they just added that into the final value fee hike. So...they MADE us take the gallery picture. What sports. This isnt going away, because too many people have had it with the corporate greed of Ebay. AND AND AND......they MAKE us take paypal. Hmmm can we say monopoly?

Hello everyone. What many do not realize is that eBay truly does not care about sellers or buyers. They care about their bottom line and their wallets only. Now, that is fine to care about your bottom line, we all do, but when you do it at the expense of your customers and you run them off as eBay has done, that is a very foolish business decision.

We all have different stories, but I can tell you that if I did not earn a living on eBay I would have left long ago. However, they have cornered the market right now, but I have now diversified and gone to other venues such as ola.com and ebid.net, etc. There are so many eBay refugees going to these other online auction venues that soon, they will be able to compete with eBay.

eBay is digging it's own grave and it is truly sad. I really don't want to see eBay go out of business. Most people don't, even those that are truly angry right now. What we would like most is if eBay would go back to like they were in the old days when eBay was more of a family community.

eBay "seems" to care more about the buyer than the seller and yes, in any marketplace there must be both buyers and sellers to make it work. What eBay seems to forget is technically, the buyer does not put ONE PENNY in eBays pockets. The buyers on eBay are OUR customers, not eBays. WE, the sellers are eBays customers. WE pay eBay's fees, not the buyer. WE work our behinds off 10-16 hours a day sometimes for not a whole lot of money sometimes, but this is what we choose to do to make a living.

Changes are fine when they benefit ALL, buyers AND sellers. However, these recent changes by eBay benefit no one but eBay and buyers. Even buyers will end up leaving because so many of their favorite sellers are leaving and those that are staying will have to raise their prices in order to keep up with eBay fees. This hurts the buyer AND the seller.

Don't forget also eBay, that WE sellers are ALSO buyers! I sell a LOT on eBay and I buy a LOT on eBay, however, I am slowly moving my buying AND selling to the other online venues. They are much more friendly and helpful than any of eBays form letters could ever be!

John Donahoe, swallow your pride before you put eBay out of business! Take the feedback changes back. It is not right to have the buyer be able to leave us negative feedback, especially Undeserved negative feedback, and we are powerless to do anything about it. Then due to negatives we may not even deserve, the fees we pay monthly to eBay, will be for nothing because your Best Match search will have our listings so far down in the search results, we will sell very little. Perhaps you do not care about MY $2200.00 worth of fees I pay you every month, but mine times thousands of other sellers, will end up hurting you.

eBay will help to ruin our economy worse than it already is! So many of us rely on eBay for our income, to put food on the table, to pay doctors bills, prescriptions, etc. Many are disabled veterans, military spouses, retired people trying to supplement their meager social security, single mothers trying to support themselves withOUT going on welfare, THESE are the people that eBay is hurting with their UNfair business practices.

Again, I ask you, John Donahoe, new CEO of eBay, to REthink the disastrous changes you are making to eBay and help our nation and our communities. You make over a million dollars a year, John Donahoe, something most of us can only dream about. How can you step on the little people that made eBay such a success?

One of the many problems with recent changes are the DSR's (Detailed Seller Ratings). These RED stars rating a seller on four different criteria are totally misunderstood by the buyers.

eBay is telling buyers that a 4 Star rating is good and a 3 is neither good nor bad, but when enough people leave you a 3 or 4 star rating on ANY of your stars, it does not take long to have your ratings fall. I have been a PowerSeller for years on eBay but even though my buyers rave about fast shipping, great communication, wonderful products and accurate descriptions. I still have only a 4.3 on Shipping Time and a 4.4 on Shipping Charges. This is because NOBODY enjoys paying shipping. Shipping has gone up partly due to gas prices. We pay for boxes, tape, printer ink and paper for shipping labels, gas to go to the post office, etc. I charge a minimal handling charge that in some cases does not even cover my real costs, but no matter what, buyers think we are gouging them on shipping because they have NO clue what it really costs these days to ship a package.

My stuff is heavy, helmets, leather jackets and chaps, but these people just do not understand how much shipping has gone up just in the past year.

There are also people who just will not ever leave you 5 Stars because they say that NOTHING is perfect, even if they had a wonderful experience, they will flat out not leave 5 stars. I will lose my powerseller status in May unless miraculously people start leaving me all 5 stars. Even though my other stars are higher than 4.5, the 4.3 and 4.4 for shipping will ruin that.

eBay, you need to REthink the DSR's. They are not working right! Buyers are being told that a 4 is good, and WE as sellers are being told it is NOT good enough to be a powerseller and it is NOT good enough to have our listings show up under your Best Match search any more. EVEN though we are PAYING you, eBay for your services.

If buyers knew that a 4 Star rating was actually NOT good, then more people would rate me and others a 5 Star, but eBay PURPOSELY tells buyers one thing and sellers another.

eBay, you are going to run everyone off, but hey, isn't that what you want? Don't you ONLY want GM, Home Depot, and other giant corporations on your site and want all of us mom and pop stores OFF of eBay? If so, you are doing a wonderful job at it.

All I have to say is Ebay sucks, Ebay's CEO's suck and I can't wait to see the downfall of Greedbay that this company has become. The only thing they are intested in is filling their pockets with our (the sellers) hard earned money whether it be from listing fee's, FVF's,Paypal fees interest on millions of dollars on OUR money with a 21 day hold, or just collecting all the fee's that they generate from all the scammers and fraud that it's become. They are encouraging all the scammers to take over. When the new feedback goes into effect in May tons of sellers will be on their way out the door. (what's left of them that is, but that's what Ebay is hoping for. How very sad because ebay used to be a fun place. I hope the S***of*a****hes sleep well at night knowing what they are doing to millions of people that "loved" and needed ebay for a second income, or lively hood. Shame, Shame on you EBAY aka GREEDBAY.

I have been both a buyer and a seller since 1998. As each fee increase was announced, I adapted. Unfortunately, after the last fee hike, I was forced to add a handling fee to the actual shipping costs to recoup some of the ridiculously high fees which ebay and PayPal charge. Did you all realize that ebay HATED paypal when it first came onto the scene? Ebay bad mouthed it as unsafe, etc. and generally tried to knock it down. They were unsuccessful so BOUGHT the company and have now created a monopoly. There is a class action lawsuit against ebay and PayPal which sellers may join. Go to www.hbsslaw.com (Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro)to sign up. This new feedback system, however, is why I have relocated to onlineauction.com. It is totally unfair for one side (whichever side!) to rate the other, yet side B can not rate the first. There are unscrupulous sellers as well as buyers and ebay has known of them for years. However, they make too much money off them to do anything about it. I am unsure what ebay really is trying to accomplish here with the new feedback system. It makes no sense no matter how one looks at it. All positive for ALL buyers? Excuse me!! That is as crazy as ALL positive for ALL sellers. Each transaction on ebay is unique and must be treated as such. Free shipping?? Excuse me again! I make little to nothing on some items due to all of the fees. When my time and gasoline is factored in, I am probably more in the hole than I care to admit. I can't afford to offer free shipping. There have been sellers dinged for their shipping even when it WAS free! OLA is slow at present, as many buyers are not aware thousands of great sellers have listed there, but the price is right, you get real, live customer support, and others in the forums will welcome you and help in any way they can. Long live OLA. RIP, eBay.

I just want to say that The Washington Post is the best Newspaper in the country! I'm not partial just because I'm a native Washingtonian, it's just really a good paper that represents this Metro area. I am proud to have posted here, (my post is above dated 2/28/2008 at 8:44 PM) and I only wish this whole article would be read by ebay CEO's. Even though I realize that the goal is to eliminate the small sellers on ebay, it would have been so much classier and tasteful to just give them the whole truth and let them know right up front they were no longer needed, and the small seller industry is now over. Wouldn't that also have be the "kinder" thing to do?

I both buy and sell on ebay. I don't find the feedback issue too worrisome yet. I understand the basis for change from a buyer's viewpoint because as a buyer, I've WANTED to give seller(s) deserved negative feedback but didn't because I didn't want the seller to give me retalitory negative feedback. I'm a seller with integrity & honesty...I give honest and detailed descriptions, good photos, good communication and fast & fairly priced shipping. I have one negative feedback in my profile...from a lousy seller who is now no longer registered on ebay. I have a wait-and-see-what-happens feeling about the feedback issue. Just as there are bad sellers that use negative feedback unfairly, so will there be bad buyers that use it unfairly.

I am very disgusted that ebay has hidden a large FEE hike in final value fees while sneakily hiding behind a headline-grabbing, but miniscule reduction in the listing fee. It's underhanded and CHEAP. Not only the fee hike, but now they're also trying to persuade sellers to offer "free shipping". Why? To save buyers a buck or two? Oh, heck no!! They know the sellers offering free shipping will just add those costs into the selling price...and THEN ebay can finally get their cut of the shipping costs! Greedy bastards.

Diversify!

Amazon
Auction Fire
Bidville
Bidz
Blujay
craigslist
Domestic Sale
ebid
eCRATER
ePier
ePlantAuction
ETSY
Expo Online Classifieds
GoAntiques
Google Base
HiBidder
INET
ioffer
LiveSimon
NeoLoch
Northwest Blvd. Auctions
Online Auction
Overstock
Plunder Here
RUBY LANE
Specialist Auctions
Wagglepop

I started as a seller in 1999, and quickly also became a buyer, an avid buyer. I have 3300+ transactions and 99.9% rating. The most wondrous thing about the early Ebay was that you could find just about anything and you had a fair chance at getting the winning bid on it. The auction format was just the best idea, for both sellers and buyers. I had 99.9% trustworthy sellers and buyers. It was grand.

But now I see that Ebay forgets who its customers really are: the sellers. It forgets what its buyers really want: items that you cannot just buy anywhere, or that you cannot buy for such a good price anywhere else.

Instead of putting its money and personnel to work ensuring continued safe buying and selling, Ebay has seriously fallen short in its own job. It is seriously lax about the authenticity and wherewithall of new persons signing up for accounts, and how many accounts that person can hold.

Ebay completely fails to adequately monitor listings to stop the selling of fraudulent or illegal items. It relies on users to report bad auctions or bad transactions, and then often ignores the reports or responds so slowly that buyers are scammed in the interim.

Ebay fails to protect sellers from scam buyers. There are some failsafes that could be put in place fairly easily but Ebay does not do it.

Software could be developed to educate new buyers and sellers. Buyers could be prevented from buying without thorough buying and feedback tutorials. But Ebay doesn't develop software, no matter how easily or inexpensively that could be done.

Ebay does not make it easy to contact any real employee of Ebay who might resolve any complaints. And when you do reach a live person you may get an erroneous answer or a canned response. That is terrible customer service.

The smaller sellers are the backbone of Ebay. Ebay wants to break that backbone now, in favor of higher volume, cheaper product sales with extremely poor service and little to no "customer service."

They are not protecting me as a buyer or me as a seller.

Ending the auction format which was the basis of Ebay to begin with is just nuts. Going to all fixed prices or trying to set themselves up as competition for places like Amazon is just nuts. If I want Amazon, I go to Amazon. I don't need an Amazon clone. If I want to go to Sears, I go to Sears. I don't need to go to Ebay to get to Sears.

I think the folks in the white tower have lost all touch with marketplace reality in their own marketplace.

Their fees are far too high for smaller sellers (the backbone, remember?) and those get passed on to buyers who, especially in this economy, cannot or will not be able to purchase.

As a buyer I am opposed to the coming feedback change for sellers. As a Ebayer at all, I am totally opposed to Ebay telling buyers on thing about star ratings for sellers, then telling sellers something entirely different.

I see a surge of scam buyers, buyers who have unrealistic ideas about the Ebay buying experience, who place ridiculous demands on sellers (e.g., I paid yesterday, so why isn't my mailed item here right now?), and who are trigger happy with regard to hitting the negative feedback button on sellers, without even trying to work with the seller on their perceived (and often imagined or created) "problem."

I am sincerely distressed and saddened by the loss of the Ebay I started out with and have been with all these years.

Where is Richard Branson when we really, really need him? Richard: create it and we will all come.

I buy a lot on eBay and sell every once in a while.
I have been a member for 10 years. My area of interest is
silent films and in particular glass lantern slides of silent films.
This is small and though competitive on bidding friendly world.
I have never heard of any fraud, Sometimes I get absent minded
don't pay promptly, sometimes I am slow to ship but have never gotten or placed any negative feedback. I have made a ton of friends and met some of them in person. Alas this community
is now breaking down. eBay can't seem to tell the diference between rare and valuable items and pirate DVDs. My day job
is working for a film distributor EVERY film we sell is bootlegged on eBay from Asia , they will do NOTHING to stop it
despite our filling out the documents . The pirate sellers have high ratings and eBay apparently thinks it is normal to sell a film sometimes one STILL IN THEATERS for 99 cents with
$10 shipping from Hong Kong.
Like most folks here it is just sad to watch what is happening.
I will keep an eye on alternative sights but the stuff I am intereted has been too specialized to show up in any other spot. I will still buy a little on ebay but I won't sell and when I buy I will NOT USE PAYPAL. I will send a check and I can wait for as long as the seller wants ( most will take checks if not I can use paypal). I won't give eBay that 3%. Barring something very
very bad I will leave only 5 star ratings across the board.

Some day we will tell young people about this great place
called eBay that used to be fun,interesting and cool and they will ask if that is the same place that went bankrupt a few years back after a wave of scandel's over fake goods, cooked books
and the anti- trust action that put Paypal out of business.

I am fed up with eBay, both as a seller and a buyer. Closed my store and buy only inventory to sell it elsewhere, when I REALLY can not find something elsewhere (will be less and less, because many more sellers chose to turn their back to eBay, thus it will increase availability of unique items on other sites). What ebay has done to its sellers is unacceptable, unethical and needs to be reversed. While I do not wish them any bad fate, I think it is time they get in touch with reality! There are many wonderful new sites now which are either completely free, or charge only a small FVF after the sale actually happens. On eBay, sellers pay for the right to make their wares VISIBLE. BTW, it also would be beneficial to use the only allowed payment service to accept credit cards: PayPal. No Google Checkout payments are allowed on eBay, which is a rival to PayPal! Something like a Monopoly would do this, yet eBay can get away with this. Then your items might, just might, be found in the ever-changing search results based on how ebay ranks your items. Did I mention the countless times somebody was searching for his own store which was filled with merchandise, and getting the error message: "This store doesn't exist?" Or: "No items listed by this sellers at this time." Then, ebay turns around and openly announces, this right of your items to be found in search needs to be first EARNED by listing on auction format, not just stores. So, we go like little obedient rats in the treadmill and list a few items on auction (higher priced than store listings). Then eBay says, non-no-no! We have a new rule: if you want your items be visible, you need to have such and such high star rating on your feedback. Like little obedient mice, we go about swallowing this, too; but then some of us start reading the fine print and see what it is all about. Our feedback rating older than 1 year will now not count into the statistical data determining how good our star rating is. eBay is playing the role of a STATE in STATE, or a GOVERNMENT within the GOVERNMENT. Like we were snotty little kids in the schoolhouse, our experience, expertise, good records and dedicated, hard work does count for nothing anymore. Yet, pay we had to, in order to subject ourselves to continued abuse and being ignored as principal CUSTOMERS of a service WE are paying for! I am too old for this non-sense and take my business seriously enough to see it is jeopardized by the current changes. So, I closed shop.

As a buyer, if my selling activity is this drastically reduced, I don't see why I should be spending my hard earned dollars for a company's growth that has flawed business model and non-existent customer service. I find that buyitSellit.com and shopit.com have much more advanced software technology, both offer a free store, and sellers can choose to accept payment ANY way you want. Shopping cart and inventory control included, plus RSS feed to insert in your blogs or chat rooms. ebaY IS passe; it has been managed into the ground and alienated some of its most avid supporters and cheerleaders. To all who care to check out these two sites: Best of luck, I hope you will get soon BISI and ShopIT!

As a seller with over 7,000 feedback and a 99.9% rating, I agree with a lot of the changes. There have been too many sellers who sell an item for a dollar and then charge $20.00 to ship when the actual cost of shipping is about $3.00. They do this to avoid paying fees to ebay and they put the shipping in fine print so the buyers don't always see it.

There was a seller who had over 130,000 feedback with 5,000 negatives and another 4,000 mutually withdrawn when he gave the buyers a negative to retaliate for them giving him one. He was one of the first to start the boycott but he is the kind of seller ebay doesn't need.

My sales have dropped but most of the other sites don't have the sales either. Also, why pay for a year upfront when we don't even know if they will be here for a year since the just started up by former ebayers. Plus both sites have had major problems.

Ebay needs to make some changes but they are still the best.

I'm a powerseller with over 3000 feedback %99.9 Positive and have been selling & buying for about 5 years. I started when my husband lost his job it was a great way to bring in $ and still be home with the kids. When my husband found work I continued to sell because it gave me passion and was a fun way to make $ without having to put the kids in daycare and go back to work full time.

Ebay took my fun and passion away with the latest announcements. As soon as the announcements were made with Fees & Feedback Changes my customer complaints more than doubled the majority being bogus because they never sent the items back for refund that they were complaining about. I used to be an A1 Seller. I shut my store down a week before boycott because of a Negative received from a Scammer with 0 feedback. Scammers already trying for freebies and it's not even May!

I moved my store to ECrater.com along with alot of other Ebay Refugee's. I emailed all my customers to tell them where I was going and how much they will save now because I'm no longer being gouged by FeeBay. Free to run a store on Ecrater. Cheaper for me, Cheaper for my customers. It's a win, win situation!

For all of you leaving Ebay make sure to tell your loyal customers where you are going so that they know where to find you.

Boycott Ebay Forever!
Buy & Sell at Ecrater, Ioffer, Bidville, Bluejay, Online Auctions, Amazon......

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsdc_prod_434012

is ebay padding their listings??????????

take a close look people 35000 listings with no price posted by a seller with zero feedback

I agree that some sellers gouge on shipping but what are the buyers reading? Certainly not the seller's listing or the buyer wouldn't bid on the item! I have always charged close to actual shipping BUT I can't fault the sellers for overcharging on shipping - I have to fault the buyers on that one. If they didn't bid...these sellers would go elsewhere or lower their shipping charges! Time and time again they've been told not to bid of shipping is too high and time and time again they come onto the discussion boards and cry they've been ripped off by some seller who gouged them on shipping. Pure nonsense! Its because of buyers who don't read that sellers who gouge on shipping are on that site in the first place. Its because they bid without looking and then complain later that all of us honest sellers are being made to suffer. Let's put the blame where it belongs on that one.

Fake ebay listings!

35011 x up to 342 quanity per auction! How fast could this pad ebay's listings?

member who is listing the items:
sdc_prod_434012

One of the listings auction number:
320199385359
Look at the very bottom of each auction for the quanity available.

Proof ebay is padding their listing count. If these auctions were test auctions it would be in the description.

I have been a member of ebay for over 4 years. I've sold from $5 piece of glassware to a $8000 trackhoe on ebay. I enjoyed everything ebay had. Then the drama started. First of all, if you can only leave positive feedback, then why have feedback at all. That leads to non paying bidders, cost of relisting, and more work for the sellers all the while ebay picks up the checks. I moved to Ecrater, have more hits on my items than I ever did on Ebay. I get to put my price and it stays listed till it sells. All for FREE!! So no more drama for me. Happily selling on Ecrater.

I think it should be noted that Ebay is up to their tricks again....posting over 35000 fake listings from one seller to inflate their numbers..

Going... going... gone... I believe that sums it up for me. I've put my heart and soul into ebay for four years now, with all the changes, ebay is forcing me to leave. I cannot afford for paypal to hold my funds when ever they like, too many bills to pay to take a chance. Not being able to leave feedback other than positive for buyers is the next killer for sellers. I don't intend on using ebay much longer with the changes. Going... Going... Gone

ebays FAKE LISTINGS the 35000 fake listings are much worse than the initial number reflects most of those listings are fore multiple items if added correctly the numbers could reach 1,000,000 plus listings one listing alone is for 372 items.

Now ebay has lowered themselves to padding there listings, one such "Pad" is from a seller sdc_prod_434012, with (0) feedback, located in California, listings are high priced, using stock photos you can get off the Internet on a CD image program, eBay is a publicly traded company, FTC are you listing .

We are seeing the demise of an entity (meaning something with separate and real existence) which used to be ebay but no longer is. It has - or should I state - is trying to be something of the corporate world which doesn't work because ebay was never set up to be that. Ebay was suppose to be EBAY!! Something that everyone could enjoy, make money from, get bargains from, find everything you could think of from - a world wide market and a wonderful place to go. A person comes home from work and you could go into ebay to find maybe a certain book someone suggested to you, or a cd or older vcr's, maybe some type of clothing you were looking for. A piece of art that one would enjoy - and the list goes on and on. But now with all the restrictions it is actually - and ebay you might not believe this - but it is actually annoying the BUYER's - because I am not only a seller (since 2001) but am also a buyer which, (oh belive it or not ebay sellers are also buyers - oh my is that really true - but of course - how stupid can one get - a person makes money and than buys!! well what is that all about a new concept!!) Anyway being a buyer as well as a seller this whole situation is appalling!! JB

FAKE EBAY LISTINGS
Heres one of sdc_prod_434012 fake listings.Place a bid
Starting bid:
Quantity: 570 available hmmm 35000 x 570 = ????????

BALL TEE. Each 00-704/3
Item number: 320199387620

Item title: 19140 THATCH RAKE 15" 19T EA 12912226
320199384960
35011 items found (Save this search)
Show only: Items from seller sdc_prod_434012

35 thousand more padded numbers , no big deal , keeps the stock holders happy !!!

There use to be a time when it was fun shopping on line at Ebay. Well it's not much fun anymore.

When you tell a Seller the items isn't what you expected and want to return it. You get a nasty email or you have to wait days for them to reply back.

Now instead of the Seller thinking their always right and the Buyers are wrong. The shoes are now on the other foot.

They always say, If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.

220197809289
More suspisious actions. The member with 546 feedback has 90,000 clocks listed. The auction number above states there are 12 quanity available.

90,000 x 12 LOL!!! GO_LIE_BAY!

MORE EBAY PADDING??90,000 fake EBAY auctions

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZcollect2000

IF IT WASNT SO FUNNY ID CRY.They made 7 billion last year and have to resort to these underhanded taticts to keep the stock from falling..

Well alot of them Clocks have different spelling. Not sure what the point is?

It's a very simple solution to all of this.

If you don't like Selling on Ebay, you go somewhere else and sell. I'm not so sure what's hard about that.

Which I had a job where I could sit home all day. That would be just great.

Is eBay pulling an Enron -- cooking its books to make shareholders think everything is just ducky?

You be the judge -- these three sellers have nearly 100,000 listings (times many multiples) -- but you can't bid on any of them.

sdc_prod_301013_74
sdc_prod_9090
sdc_prod_9352_67

Are these fakes? Is this legal? Should the SEC be taking a look?

Speaking as a long-time eBay seller AND buyer, hiked up fees and ridiculous feedback policy changes are one thing (well, actually two things) -- but if eBay has resorted to FRAUD, how will it respond and rebound from this?

do you work for a very large company ,EBAY PERHAPS ?you have less reason to post here than most,so either your posting for your company or you have more free time than your admitting to.

No I don't work for the company. I'm not that stupid yet. I just think the whole thing is funny.

There's a lot more other Auction site's then just Ebay. Some people act like Ebay is the only one.

Since it's 1:30am EST, Yes I would say I have some free time right now. lmao

WASHINGTON POST....HEY GUYS, TAKE A LOOK:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000527568&start=0

Seems some Ebay users found 35,000 phoney auctions listed by a seller with zero feedback! I had a feeling they were padding the listings all along! Hope you get to see it before that thread gets pulled.

Biker sellers and Biker buyers. Here's a new place to try: http://www.bikerbids.com?nrs2=101170

Yes, that's a referral number in the URL. The actually give you credit for bringing new buyers and sellers to their site. Good idea! Too bad eBay doesn't try to reward their members like this.

Sellers, give it a try, and bring your buyers there too.

Evidently eBay doesn't understand that we sellers are what keeps them in business -- no sellers, no buyers. Leave eBay and sell your items on blujay.com
Great site!

I have nothing hateful to say.
I am just very, very sad about this whole thing. Many of us have opened stores like this one:

http://allmyclosets.ecrater.com

and we're happy to be elsewhere.

Hello everyone. What many do not realize is that eBay truly does not care about sellers or buyers. They care about their bottom line and their wallets only. Now, that is fine to care about your bottom line, we all do, but when you do it at the expense of your customers and you run them off as eBay has done, that is a very foolish business decision.

We all have different stories, but I can tell you that if I did not earn a living on eBay I would have left long ago. However, they have cornered the market right now, but I have now diversified and gone to other venues such as ola.com and ebid.net, etc. There are so many eBay refugees going to these other online auction venues that soon, they will be able to compete with eBay.

eBay is digging it's own grave and it is truly sad. I really don't want to see eBay go out of business. Most people don't, even those that are truly angry right now. What we would like most is if eBay would go back to like they were in the old days when eBay was more of a family community.

eBay "seems" to care more about the buyer than the seller and yes, in any marketplace there must be both buyers and sellers to make it work. What eBay seems to forget is technically, the buyer does not put ONE PENNY in eBays pockets. The buyers on eBay are OUR customers, not eBays. WE, the sellers are eBays customers. WE pay eBay's fees, not the buyer. WE work our behinds off 10-16 hours a day sometimes for not a whole lot of money sometimes, but this is what we choose to do to make a living.

Changes are fine when they benefit ALL, buyers AND sellers. However, these recent changes by eBay benefit no one but eBay and buyers. Even buyers will end up leaving because so many of their favorite sellers are leaving and those that are staying will have to raise their prices in order to keep up with eBay fees. This hurts the buyer AND the seller.

Don't forget also eBay, that WE sellers are ALSO buyers! I sell a LOT on eBay and I buy a LOT on eBay, however, I am slowly moving my buying AND selling to the other online venues. They are much more friendly and helpful than any of eBays form letters could ever be!

John Donahoe, swallow your pride before you put eBay out of business! Take the feedback changes back. It is not right to have the buyer be able to leave us negative feedback, especially Undeserved negative feedback, and we are powerless to do anything about it. Then due to negatives we may not even deserve, the fees we pay monthly to eBay, will be for nothing because your Best Match search will have our listings so far down in the search results, we will sell very little. Perhaps you do not care about MY $2200.00 worth of fees I pay you every month, but mine times thousands of other sellers, will end up hurting you.

eBay will help to ruin our economy worse than it already is! So many of us rely on eBay for our income, to put food on the table, to pay doctors bills, prescriptions, etc. Many are disabled veterans, military spouses, retired people trying to supplement their meager social security, single mothers trying to support themselves withOUT going on welfare, THESE are the people that eBay is hurting with their UNfair business practices.

Again, I ask you, John Donahoe, new CEO of eBay, to REthink the disastrous changes you are making to eBay and help our nation and our communities. You make over a million dollars a year, John Donahoe, something most of us can only dream about. How can you step on the little people that made eBay such a success?

Just when I thought I was wise to the ways of eBay they turn around and show me how naive I really am.

I read the rumors of eBay posting Shill Listings and took them with a grain of salt. I didnt think they could stoop so low. I was wrong.

User ID sdc_prod_434012 has 34998 items listed. No feedback. When you click on the feedback profile it shows User Id SPECTRUMSUPERSTORE member since 11 April 2007.

sdc_prod_9124_14 HAS 48391 ITEMS LISTED. 253 Feedback. When you click on the feedback profile it shows User Id THENERDS, INC member since DEC 2007

sdc_prod_9074_35 HAS 21401 ITEMS LISTED. 0 feedback. When you click on the feedback profile it shows User Id PCRUSH.COM ,member since 28 FEB 2008. And get this NOT A REGISTERED USER WITH OVER 20 THOUSAND LISTINGS? eBay is starting to cover this up.

sdc_prod_9452 HAS 24471 ITEMS LISTED. 75 FEEDBACK. When you click on the feedback profile it shows User Id eTronics, INC member since JUL 2007

sdc_prod_301013_74 HAS 27291 ITEMS LISTED. 503 FEEDBACK. When you click on the feedback profile it shows User Id THE TWISTER GROUP (EBAY DOES HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR AFTER ALL) member since OCT 2006

sdc_prod_9352_67 HAS 30782 ITEMS LISTED. FEEDBACK SCORE OF 915.
When you click on the feedback profile it shows User Id Digital Foto Club. member since MAY 2007

sdc_ prod_ 9055 WAS NOT FOUND SO i CAN NOT VERIFY THAT.

OK, in summary there are over 185,000 listings for the sellers above which I could identify. One of them is not registered yet has over 20K auctions.

None of these can be bid on.

And the USER ID CHANGES WHEN YOU CLICK ON THE FEEDBACK PROFILE.

I bought eBay's story about doing "test" listings. This is way behind test listings, this is actual fraud on their marketplace to try to provide their investors with false data on the state of their business. We need some whistle blowers. I am posting this on the Washington Post Blog and saving some of the pages.

It will not let me save the listings pages for some reason and as I am typing, eBay is removing auctions. Items I could view 15 minutes ago are no longer viewable.

EBAY IS DEFRAUDING THE STOCK MARKET BY POSTING SHILL LISTINGS!

I hope someone is keeping an eye on the Auction Site Count to see if there is a huge drop over the next couple hours while eBay tries to cover this up.

Ken Power Seller 4X

Since I first used ebay in 1999, I always believed that the best part was the feedback forum. If this fiasco doesn't turn out just like "New Coke" did; if ebay doesn't learn from this mistake and go back to the old ways, it will be probably mean the end of "my" ebay.

First, Susan, I just read your post and I apologise for the confusion.

Second, eBay is removing their shill listings at a lightning pace. A seller that had over 35,000 listings 1 hour ago is down to 90. He might be completely gone in a minute or 2.

eBay is destroying the evidence. There is a cover up going on. And now they will start asking us if we saw flying saucers tonight too and wink. Such arrogance!

I have copied the entire message board that was just full of those fake listings and have it saved in my computer, as I figure that thread will not survive. There are no bid or buy buttons on most of the auctions, and they all link back somehow to some dot.com. Now they are all vanishing since someone caught wind of them. Sounds a little fishy on eBays part. Their stocks are WAY down from this time last year, and with the boycott and sellers walking off to new online sites, maybe they needed to bandage the bleeding wound with some fake listings? Who knows-but they were real and MANY of us saw them.

Been selling and buying on ebay under 2 ID's for 9 years and have 100% feedback on both accounts.
Yea the fee changes are all about greed and too big a bite considering you pay again with Paypal (also ebay owned), but the real problem is the feedback changes coming. Totally out of touch with reality.

I'm moving to eCrater and just opening my store. FREE is the word on ecrater with Excellent help from the other members. I hope eBay falls flat on their face.

Ebay used to be an actual site to buy and sell items on. Now it only exists as a platform for Paypal to get its hands on Ebay users' money without the usual consumer protection of credit card/banking laws.

PLEASE do an expose on Paypal and why they allowed to operate outside the law. THERE is where the REAL problem is.

For all of you who are worried about all the "mystery listings" disappearing, it doesn't matter if they disappear. If the number of "mystery listings" have changed the overall number of listings on ebay significantly enough to have an impact on the shareholders financial reports, then eBay must disclose that information to the shareholders, with the corrected numbers. If they do not, they can be prosecuted for violating the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Of course they can only be in violation of that act if it can be proven that they were made aware of the errors and did not disclose the information to the shareholders.
Someone needs to find out who the general counsel is for eBay and make them aware of the "mystery listings", the total number of them and the potential impact on the financials. They will then be obligated by law to investigate the situation.

I, too, am a powerseller who has redirected my energy to my website, www.shootingst