Crap, Ebay just changed fees and feedback policies.  Fees skyrocket!!  Buyers only can get positive feedback.  



Ebay Sucks



http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/rewards/



http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/basic/



How can we sell properly now, combined fees between paypal and Ebay are around 17% now

Blackmoor wrote:Buyers only can get positive feedback.

What?

On the other hand, this item:

"We will remove, not just de-score, negative and neutral feedback when a buyer doesn't respond to the Unpaid Item process"

tilts the playing field towards those who know how to game the system.  So instead of seeing the complaints (justified or non-), you just know that the feedback was removed.

Now that I'm over my shock of seeing the new "never say anything bad about buyers" feedback policy (which is really just the Amazon policy that's been in place since that site allowed users to sell items), I must admit that there is some really interesting stuff in those announcements.

I'd recommend that all interested parties here (especially sellers) read Bill Cobb's note and also the one directly above it.

It's nice, for example, to see the DSRs (the orange stars) finally begin to mean something. And the 12-month rolling score for feedback percentage is a welcome change. As far as reduced listing fees ... well, we'll have to see how that goes once all the final math is calculated. And there's lots of Powerseller announcements ... anyone here who has Powerseller status should probably read every word of those messages.

g026r wrote:
Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but I interpret it as follows:

Under the old/current policy, unpaid item notifications cause the rating to be withdrawn, but the comment still stays.
Under the new policy, the comment will be removed as well.  All that will be there to show that it was removed will an increment to the feedback mutually withdrawn count.

The key to this again is if and only if the buyer doesn't not respond to the NPB.  He can repsond to the NPB and say, "Go shit in your hat seller" and Ebay won't remove the negative comment left by the buyer.  Its only if the NPB gets completely ignored.

Well, this just blows my sack, seeing as I just now started to try and sell things. Oh well. Guess I'll have to try a different way.

Gallery pictures are now free, which is the way it should always have been.  Making the site easier for buyers to find what they are looking for will result in increased bids.  Good thing they finally figured that out.  
The increased final value fees will obliterate any savings from listing fees.  That huge jump is hard to justify.  And only being able to leave positive feedback for buyers is going to lead to less willingness among trigger-happy buyers to work things out with sellers.

VermilionFire wrote:Any thoughts?

I did Half for quite a while, too ... maybe I'll see how dusty my account has become over there.

Is it still tied in with eBay? Do the feedback scores still count at both places? That would be something to consider for those of us with established eBay accounts and non-established Amazon reputations.

I just remembered why I left Half, actually. It was a few years ago, when eBay announced it would be closing Half and migrating all the listings to the regular eBay site. And, then, weeks later, they completely reversed their stance, but they had already generated an enormous amount of ill will by that point. I also wasn't impressed that such a large company just basically couldn't seem to make up its mind.

However, that being said, it is an interesting site and well worth investigating for any sellers who have books, CDs, DVDs, video games, etc., that they want to list at a flat BIN-type price.

OTOH, it also has some weaknesses, the most blatant of which is a playing field that is ridiculously tilted in the buyer's favor. Which is ironic, considering it's sellers who pay all the fees, every time.  

While I don't agree with this sentiment entirely, it is nevertheless true that it makes sense for eBay, on the margin, to focus on the buyer.

Given that buyers are very fickle, the biggest challenge facing eBay is making sure people buy stuff on their site. If they start to lose their customer base, then eBay's success can quickly derail. After all, one of things that makes eBay great is not customer service or anything like that, but the scale of people using it. These network effects are critical.

On the other hand, sellers are not nearly as sensitive. eBay knows that if they offer sellers the best game in town (i.e. largest consumer base), then the vast majority will put up with slightly higher fees. Besides, some of these costs will be passed onto buyers in the form of higher initial prices, less timely customer service, refusal to use paypal, fewer shipping options, etc.

From a practical perspective, the effect of these changes is probably just equalizing the returns for online/offline businesses. Just anecdotal evidence from conversation around here -- with respect to gaming, at least -- seems to show that online stores have had it great for a while, while brick and mortars stores are out. Given the alternatives, I can't imagine very many sellers wanting to give up selling their wares on eBay over an extra few % on sales.

Again, I don't think it is entirely one-sided. But eBay holds more leverage over sellers than buyers, and so it should not be a surprise when they do choose to side with the latter.