eBay Replaces Community with Commodity

by: nancybusinraleigh

uh oh, looks like ebay bought a pig in a poke:

from a blog on NYTimes today comes this gem:
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Earning a 15 percent or so commission on goods it doesn’t have to stock and ship is good business for Amazon. Indeed, in a shaky economy, the company may well be able to reduce its risk of being stuck with unsold inventory by relying in part on other merchants to fill demand for some products.

Still, Amazon is hardly open to all competition. It doesn’t accept eBay’s PayPal system, which goes head-to-head with its own online wallet. Amazon did have the good form not to stop accepting the Bill Me Later credit system after eBay bought it.
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Glad to see Amazon dumped Bill Me Later, dumb in this economy anyway.

by: Mechelle

not to stop accepting the Bill Me Later credit system after eBay bought it

Says they didn't stop accepting Bill me Later.  Though they should because eBay's acquisition serves two purposes to eliminate competition for PayPal's Pay Later and to undermine Amazon's success.

by: Monster

Last year John Donahoe had this to say about the “community”…

“Finally, even I may have underestimated how important organization and culture are. Antonio [Perez] talked earlier this morning about needing to get rid of 70 percent of the people to change a culture.”

John Donahoe says that he “underestimated” the importance of culture.

He even suggests that it is possible to “change a culture”.

Donahoe & Co. want to destroy the eBay culture… I believe they want to extinguish the “flame” that so many eBay Users used to hold towards the OLD eBay… So many were dedicated to the community, and now they have to go… For the Users who remember eBay during the good times, John Donahoe was brought on board to make you hate eBay… In wrestling vernacular, John Donahoe is a “heel” and he is very good at it… He knew people would hate him… But he does not care… I think he enjoys it…

With Seller information from PayPal having to be turned over to the IRS right around the corner, eBay wants to rid themselves of as many Sellers as possible… It will cost eBay a lot to keep track of all the sales from each small to mid-sized Seller, and all of the problems that will undoubtedly arise… And there will be many problems…

I really don’t think that John Donahoe is going anywhere… Things will continue just as planned through 2009… There will be no Auctions by this time next year, and Sellers will no longer be able to leave Feedback for Buyers by the Summer of 2009… eBay will continue to buy back their own stock…  And I would not be surprised if eBay went Private… Then they would have to answer to no one…

eBay will soon enough be nothing more than an Advertising Platform…

eBay’s evil…
And misery’s their middle name…

by: Nero fiddler

Who cares anymore?

That's right.
WHO CARES!

After everything last year,
Apathy will be ebays repayment,
and downfall.

by: ref

"who cares" is right.
eBay has alienated their once-loyal base.

by: ref

There was a time when eBay could have put forth a plea like this, and the sellers would come running to their defense.

Within the past year or so, that time passed forever.

by: nancybusinraleigh

Anyone bother to TRY to continue in the old "community" of the ebay boards lately?

Threads are moving all over the place.  You post a thread and you quickly find that it has been moved from Seller Central to one of the following:

feedback board
Soapbox
Paypal
and anywhere else they choose to stick them.

So sellers looking for information are finding they can't find it once they post it on Seller Central.

Sense of Community?  

No, it's chaos, intentional and disruptive, innovatively of course!

by: Jim

Sure Amazon is picking up steam, but there are still MILLIONS of customers pouring over the listings on eBay.

I notice no one is addressing this obvious point among all the sobbing...

The customers (maybe not quite as many) are STILL THERE.

My business online (and on eBay) is going great.

Leave with your tail tucked if you want, but I'm sticking around.

eBay might not be as easy to work with as they used to be, but in my book it's called ''THE PRICE OF DOING BUSINESS''.

Things change. Deal with it or go get a ''real'' job working FOR someone with some INGENUITY.

Are you an entrepreneur or a whiny victim?

You all sound like my third grader when he doesn't want to study his spelling list...grow up. It's a big world that needs some grown ups in it.

Merry Christmas!

Jim

by: nancybusinraleigh

Jim,

Yes, some sellers are still getting hits, views and even some bids.  Sadly however, it's a constantly diminishing number unless you list thousands of items or are one of but a couple sellers in a category.

No one is being whiny victims here.  The reality is theirs, not yours.  So you can complain about others, but that is their reality, their sales have tanked.

In fact, ebay's sales have tanked in total.  One only need to look at the sell through rates on Terapeak or Medved to see that ebay has lost serious ground this year, and the traditional fourth quarter figures are not winding up the year in good shape at all.

Paypal is ebay's cash cow now, hence the forced used of it on all their global sites.  

And those Diamond Sellers?  They don't pay the listing fees but list hundreds of thousands of listings, so much for the level playing field ebay gives so much lip service to.

DSR's?  Not a problem for those Diamond sellers either, just look up the latest one, smartbargains ID, they have more than reached 5% buyer disatisfaction which is suspending good sellers left and right but not smartbargains.  Again, that level playing field has serious bumps.

Read the boards, see how many have been suspended for 30/60/90 days due to a buyer or two in the last 30 days when ebay rates the sellers based on the opinions (DSR's) of buyers on a small volume seller.

Ebay has no interest in concerning itself with the sellers who have always offered the widest variety and interest in the listings.

Now it's drop shippers and those Diamond Sellers offering mass produced items you can find in any store in any town.

I'm glad you're happy with ebay.  But I fear you're dancing just outside the net and will find yourself caught in it sooner rather than later.  Unless, that is, you're a Diamond Power Seller.

by: nancybusinraleigh

Oh, and Jim?

Many have left, opened up web sites, listing on other venues already.

So your advice and comparison to your young child was really an assumption, and a wrong one at that.

by: nancybusinraleigh

Drat, one more thing there Jim.

The traffic you refer to of millions of customers on ebay?

You might wish to check out the Alexa traffic data on ebay, you can access it here:

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/ebay.co
m

MAKE SURE YOU SCROLL DOWN AT THAT LINK TO SEE THE NUMBERS UNDER THE GRAPH


Site Stats for ebay.com:

   * Ebay.com has a traffic rank of 20  (down2)
   * Speed:  Slow(73% of sites are faster)

by: tornado-lynn

Yes, the end is coming for eBay and it's going to be ugly.

Those who are involved in eBay Community Forums and Groups should be   preparing now ~ saving important information from Group Discussions, sharing member contact information and establishing a meeting site outside of eBay.

However, when this is mentioned to other Group Leaders and Moderators, they are momentarily concerned ~ but then most go merrily on their way, posting in Forums, creating games and graphics for their Groups, and zoning out ~ aka ''eBaying''.

WAKE UP!! The Titanic eBay has hit an iceberg and most eBayers are still dancing in the ballroom.

My guess is that, one day soon, the LiveWorld contract will not be renewed and eBay Forums/Groups will just disappear. To announce this fact in advance would create an enormous PR problem for eBay, so I doubt they will give any warning.

It's sad to contemplate what eBay might have become if they hadn't been so obsessed with having it all.

by: Eunice

ATTN Jim
When I left eBay in August my business was also thriving.  I had in excess of ten thousand 100% positive feedback and 4.9 DSRs.  I also had moral scruples and ingenuity.
Since my departure from eBay I pay dramatically LOWER FEES, I have an ever growing honest reliable customer base and am struggling to keep up with skyrocketing sales.
I think I heard somewhere that we are in a recession?????!!!!  If a recession means huge revenue boosts then I will have to agree.

by: Barbara

I'm just a small fish in a very big sea!  The 4 years I've been in ebay, I have spent alot of hours in and ebay group, which I learned about my collection and thus spent alot more money in ebay because of the knowledge I gained in that group.  I also became a seller to make money to extend that collection.  

The new stuff on ebay stops a true collector from having time to search for what they really want, power sellers if this is the direction ebay wants, most people can go to their local Flea Market for that type of goods.  

Ebay sometimes we all have to look at ourselves and say what got us here?

Ebay fees and Paypals fees have burdened the sellers to the point of not listing alot of less expensive items,  but remember some of those items that started extremely low, other people knew what it was and the items went for high dollar amounts...

by: jim

nancybusinraleigh - thanks for brining up Alexa. In the U.S. eBay ranks higher (#8) than Amazon.com (#13)! How is that possible? I thought everyone hated eBay now?

As for those of you that are taking proactive steps towards diversifying your business...that's very SMART. I'm all for that. Never put all your eggs in one basket. I've been teaching people to have multiple online income sources for nearly 10 years now. I was saying that same thing during the high point of eBay.

Here's a lesson that will help explain my position and hopefully be helpful. If you have the chance to spend $1, $5, or $10 per lead and each time you spend it you know you'll earn $20 which leads should you go after?

Most people will say you should get all the $1 leads that you can, but that's only partially true. The actual answer is...

Buy as many $1 leads that you can and also as many $5 leads and also as many $10 leads. They are all profitable. Right now eBay may be the $10 lead, but WHY THROW IT OUT?

KEEP SELLING ON EBAY UNTIL IT'S ENTIRELY NOT PROFITABLE. No emotion needed - it's crazy to let emotion influence simple math.

by: ebay "hater"

@ jim

True!

I will keep offering my items on ebay until "they" close me down or no more profits - whichever comes first....

I am also listing on Bidtopia, iOffer and Online auctions (Bidtopia has the most sells).

by: nancybusinraleigh

Since ebay used to be the world's online yard sale and that's what brought them their huge success before going public, many sellers are still in the mindset that they can do that.  Such isn't the case anymore.  But to blame them for not being "business" minded isn't their fault, it's the misleading advertising ebay did for several years.  

Ebay has changed their business model and made it entirely hostile to sellers of all strata.  It matters not if you are small seller, a medium volume seller or any level of Power Seller (except Diamond), ebay is hostile toward sellers.

Many people don't tolerate working in a hostile environment and being addressed like children in all the pop ups and prompts and dashboard nonsense.

Actually, many sellers don't like ebay telling them how to run their businesses as ebay always told their members they were only a venue.

They certainly aren't acting like a venue anymore and are edging into dictating business practices many don't agree with, at any cost.

Fees go up, service goes down.  Not exactly the kind of business I would support locally or online.

by: Patrick Alexander

It's sad to see something that was so great end. But no amount of bitchin' we do here or elsewhere will change a thing. They have their minds made up.

If you are a small to medium seller, they want you out now.

Larger powersellers will be tolerated -  for the time being.

As far as the boards go, they have completely ruined them. Moving & deleting posts at a record pace on Seller Central. And if you have a history of being a ''trouble maker'' (like me) - your post get deleted no matter what it's about

None of this surprises me in the least. Donahoe & his lackeys want to squeeze every drop of fun out of the site. Preferably by Christmas....

by: Patricia

There is no doubt that sellers, especially small sellers, have to expand their horizons.  Sitting at Ebay and watching your items be buried in search and roll off without bids will not change a thing! If you have not already begun to list elsewhere today is a great day to start!  DON'T FORGET to go thru your list of past customers - write them - and let them know where you'll be.  Or list on Ina & David's fine site ''everyplaceIlist.com'' and fill in the spots where you will be listing.  Then you only need to give the customer that one URL link in your email.  Market yourself!  If you sit and wait you will be steamrolled in the end and will be left with nothing to fall back on!  Right now I'm convinced they are bleeding small sellers of fees in order to rake in the revenue that allows their diamond sellers to list for free!  You are, in effect, paying their way!!!

In the meantime keep on posting on threads and articles - everywhere you can.  Make sure there is nobody in your social network who does NOT know what Ebay has become.  Don't embellish - just be honest - that's enough.  Keep up that noise!  Who knows?  They may still end up grovelling to us and I want to make sure I can be in a position to laugh in their faces!

by: nancybusinraleigh

Patricia, very well stated!

And before I forget, I want to thank Ina and David profusely for always leading the news on the important things sellers need to know, especially during these very disturbing changes on ebay, so many needed to know what you covered and ebay failed to inform their own customers.

Truly the leader in all things online small business e-commerce oriented and I thank you very, very much.

Just incredible and always timely work you both do for so many!