eBay changes

[TistaT202]

see link below...various changes taking effect in April...never good for sellers IMO...

Mike

http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/...es/2017spring/

[botn]

One more step backwards for eBay but that is the only direction they go. Each year they make it harder to do business there and harder for a small business to be profitable. Cutting the Top Rated Plus discount from 20% to 10% while increasing the final value fee is significant. That eBay characterizes this as a measure to help seller's grow their business, is truly laughable.

I think this will be very beneficial to the smaller auction houses, like Sterling, who run monthly auctions because the above changes pretty much nullify any edge that eBay had from a seller's point of view.

[KMayUSA6060]

Is eBay hurting?

[PhillipAbbott79]

It definitely has not made much progress in the last 13 years.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=ebay+stock&*

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=amazon+stock&*

[D. Bergin]

why is ebay making these changes?

Ebay top rated sellers have told us they want more tools and options to grow their business. The changes we’re making reflect our ongoing investment in helping them do just that and to ensure the best marketplace health and competition.

lolololololololololololololololol!!!!!!!!!!!!

[D. Bergin]

The squeeze continues.

Wonder if this helps to offset the sweetheart deals the big consignment houses are getting.

[SMPEP]

The biggest change I see is that I no longer get free listing promotions.

Last year, every 3 weeks or so I'd get a special offer to listing 500 items for free. I used that offer every time they gave it to me and sold more items than my prior 8 years combined.

So what did they do in November? Stopped giving me free listing promotions.

Why? Who knows. (They claimed they did this for everyone when I asked - but I doubt that.)

So what did I do? Stopped listing more than the free 50 items per month.

Gee, Ebay ... you let me sell stuff and I do, and you get the commission. You make me pay to list items and you get nothing. Seems like a pretty simple concept to me. Apparently not to the geniuses that think they only want Battlefield, Probstein and PWCC as their sellers.

Oh well.

Cheers,
Patrick

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by SMPEP

The biggest change I see is that I no longer get free listing promotions.

Last year, every 3 weeks or so I'd get a special offer to listing 500 items for free. I used that offer every time they gave it to me and sold more items than my prior 8 years combined.

So what did they do in November? Stopped giving me free listing promotions.

Why? Who knows. (They claimed they did this for everyone when I asked - but I doubt that.)

So what did I do? Stopped listing more than the free 50 items per month.

Gee, Ebay ... you let me sell stuff and I do, and you get the commission. You make me pay to list items and you get nothing. Seems like a pretty simple concept to me. Apparently not to the geniuses that think they only want Battlefield, Probstein and PWCC as their sellers.

Oh well.

Cheers,
Patrick

I rarely sell on eBay but they never stopped sending me the 500 free listing offers. I have been getting them about every 3 weeks also, just had one a week ago.

[SMPEP]

Figured it was a BS response by them.

Thanks for letting me know.

Cheers,
Patrick

[slidekellyslide]

I have an anchor store subscription and it appears my fees will go up only .15%. They are giving me $150 per quarter in free packing supplies which is double what it was. Not sure I will be affected much at all...I take that back, I just now saw the change from 20% to 10% for Top Rated sellers. That's a load of crap.

[prestigecollectibles]

Not sure how many will be affected by this, but final value fees for sellers who do not meet eBay’s minimum performance standards will increase by 4 percentage points on items sold on or after May 1, 2017. To make sure you’re meeting eBay’s minimum selling requirements, follow our selling best practices and check your seller dashboard regularly.

[savedfrommyspokes]

These rate increases + discount reduction for TRS will cause me to give an added 1% of my total sales back to ebay in the from of FVF. In 2016, I cut my total ebay fees by 12% on slightly more sales than 2015 due to additional free listings offered for an anchor store subscription. These 2017 changes will cause me to give back half of those savings to ebay.

As with the ebay bucks changes, with all of the 8-10% promos (which fall during the week when many auctions end), I have earned more bucks at this point in the quarter than I have most other quarters when there were less frequent promos.

Hopefully these increases/discount reductions will be offset by more frequent free listings and this change will turn into a positive as has the changes in the ebay bucks program has for me this quarter.

[Jeffrompa]

I don't know if eBay is hurting but going from a 20 % discount to a 10% discount is going to hurt me

[ngnichols]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought these changes were absolutely ridiculous. Gives no incentive to be Top-Rated Plus vs. Top-Rated.

[SMPEP]

Ebay also eliminated any incentive to offer free shipping.

If you have to have 90% tracking to be Top Rated, who can offer free shipping anymore?

So basically, they just changed the minimum shipping charge to $2.67 per item.

Which basically eliminates someone buying a single (inexpensive) card.

So once again, Ebay screws the little seller (because they won't have the volume to have enough inventory to sell enough cards to make it worthwhile to a buying of inexpensive stuff).

So Ebay pushes more museum pieces and more big scale sellers. Guess they think that's good for their costs structure.

Cheers,
Patrick

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by SMPEP

Ebay also eliminated any incentive to offer free shipping.

If you have to have 90% tracking to be Top Rated, who can offer free shipping anymore?

So basically, they just changed the minimum shipping charge to $2.67 per item.

Which basically eliminates someone buying a single (inexpensive) card.

So once again, Ebay screws the little seller (because they won't have the volume to have enough inventory to sell enough cards to make it worthwhile to a buying of inexpensive stuff).

So Ebay pushes more museum pieces and more big scale sellers. Guess they think that's good for their costs structure.

Cheers,
Patrick

I don't think that's actually a change.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

I don't think that's actually a change.

Well, the change is that it's now 95% and not 90%.

[cardsnstuff]

What other venues do you sell? Amazon? does it get much traffic? How are the fees? any others?

[RichardSimon]

Just a continuing trend of ebay sticking their hands deeper into sellers pockets. They just keep raising fees and giving you tiny crap (supplies, listings) to supposedly offset the fee increases.
Ebay I don't want your tiny crap. I want reasonable fees.

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by cardsnstuff

What other venues do you sell?
Amazon? does it get much traffic? Not for our type of items.
How are the fees? HIGH

Ebay knows they have the market cornered. They can just keep squeezing.

[keithsky]

Everyone complains about the fees raising on Ebay but people keep coming back. It's just like the authenticating companies, they all raise there fees and people complain but still go back. It's hard not to sometimes I get that because they are the big players out there but if people would stop or limit using them maybe they would treat there customers better and realize the customers are valuable to them. Richard is right they raise fees and throw in crap to offset the higher fees and act like they are giving you something in return. They think the customers are stupid. As sports collectors like us when you tell them about fake autographs and you get no reply back from them because they don't give a damn you know it's about how much money they can make.

[KMayUSA6060]

Originally Posted by RichardSimon

Ebay knows they have the market cornered. They can just keep squeezing.

Do they though? With PayPal being a separate entity, but still offering purchase protection when Goods & Services is chosen, I don't know if eBay will ever have the market cornered.

I don't have any social media accounts anymore, but when I did I was using Twitter, Facebook pages, etc., to sell cards and other crap. The outreach of those social media platforms is massive, and PayPal only charges the 2.9% + $.3 fee, which is significantly lower than eBay. Facebook, as much as I hate them and Zuckerberg, has created a pretty solid marketplace interface that is user-friendly and simple.

If you look at the growth of eBay's stock, or lack thereof, it shows that they have yet to corner the market. Amazon has cornered their market more than eBay has cornered their's, which is evident by Amazon's stock.

I actually think these fees are eBay grasping for straws that lead to more profit for them. I think eBay is ultimately struggling, hence the extensive reaching into seller's pockets.

[Hot Springs Bathers]

The fact is there is no where else to list an item that can be seen by thousands right away. I don't like the fee system either but it still gives you the most exposure.

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by RichardSimon

Ebay knows they have the market cornered. They can just keep squeezing.

I agree, I have not sold a lot on eBay....but this has to be frustrating.

[ngnichols]

Originally Posted by SMPEP

Ebay also eliminated any incentive to offer free shipping.

If you have to have 90% tracking to be Top Rated, who can offer free shipping anymore?

So basically, they just changed the minimum shipping charge to $2.67 per item.

Which basically eliminates someone buying a single (inexpensive) card.

So once again, Ebay screws the little seller (because they won't have the volume to have enough inventory to sell enough cards to make it worthwhile to a buying of inexpensive stuff).

So Ebay pushes more museum pieces and more big scale sellers. Guess they think that's good for their costs structure.

Cheers,
Patrick

I just build the shipping into my price and offer free shipping.

That way nobody can complain about it and honestly it may make somebody who's super-cheap pick mine over someone else's who's around the same price, but charging for shipping.

It does kill the people who are selling cheap singles on there, but honestly that should be something that's sold on COMC or elsewhere that's specifically geared for that.

Again, the lowering of the discount for Top-Rated Plus down to the same thing as Top-Rated is dumb. It removes the incentive to attain that higher level by offering 30-Day returns which is stupid to begin with.

[megalimey]

Originally Posted by TistaT202

see link below...various changes taking effect in April...never good for sellers IMO...

Mike

http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/...es/2017spring/

lets face it when trying to sell certain items quickly , easily with the most visibility
and best possible return (AUCTIONS ESPECIALLY ) and items valued at under $1000
I begrudgingly except Ebay has no real competition , the big auction houses squeeze the Seller and the Buyer for exceedingly High fees
but selling "true High Value items" with them makes more sense than Ebay
Amazon only offers buy it now , the other online selling sites are not monitored no where near as well and visibility is pathetic so no way would you risk a no reserve auction or low opening bid with those sites ,Ebay Sellers have been crying for years ME included , but until there is a viable competitor offering
an avenue to list an item in a matter of seconds, possible sell it and get paid with in minutes with virtually instant access to the funds ,
as they say "better the Devil you know "
ebay knows they can keep squeezing and squeezing sellers , and as one seller drops out 10 more come aboard ,
to quote another old fable DON'T CUT YOUR NOSE OFF TO SPITE YOUR FACE

[egbeachley]

Originally Posted by ngnichols

I just build the shipping into my price and offer free shipping.

That way nobody can complain about it and honestly it may make somebody who's super-cheap pick mine over someone else's who's around the same price, but charging for shipping..

I think you have it backwards. Super-cheap people and regular people who look for the best price usually do just that - pick the best price. They hardly bother to look at shipping.

Good examples are the sellers who sell individual cards at $0.99 each with over $2.00 shipping. They sell a ton, even singles, and make profit from the shipping more than the cards.

[SMPEP]

And if you mark up the card for the price of shipping, then your card is less likely to sell and you have eliminated more "good deals" on Ebay.

For example there used to be some people that sold low grade 1952 Bowman cards for $1-2 each with free shipping.

Now just to cover the tracking/shipping requirement, they need to charge $2.67 (that very popular shipping fee on Ebay).

So the sellers of those cards are now less likely to get sales (unless they have a bunch and can bundle a package together to reduce shipping). And the buyers are screwed because they have to buy more or not buy the card at the cheap price.

Granted, this makes little difference for high end items.

Maybe Ebay gains though from not having to process all these small transaction (but I doubt it - because I bet they make money on every deal).

Cheers,
Patrick

[rjackson44]

feebay...

[tschock]

Originally Posted by egbeachley

I think you have it backwards. Super-cheap people and regular people who look for the best price usually do just that - pick the best price. They hardly bother to look at shipping.

Good examples are the sellers who sell individual cards at $0.99 each with over $2.00 shipping. They sell a ton, even singles, and make profit from the shipping more than the cards.

I think he had it right, though not complete. The super-cheap people (hi mirror) consider the TOTAL outlay, regardless of free shipping (or not). The super-cheap people will though consider other factors as well. Now the super-super-cheap people will consider ONLY total outlay.

I always loved the selling tactic on items where the salesperson said something to the effect of "it's only $xx more for yy". My response would be that if it IS only $xx more (and not a big deal), than "your company" would have no problem picking up the tab on that.

[ngnichols]

Originally Posted by egbeachley

I think you have it backwards. Super-cheap people and regular people who look for the best price usually do just that - pick the best price. They hardly bother to look at shipping.

Good examples are the sellers who sell individual cards at $0.99 each with over $2.00 shipping. They sell a ton, even singles, and make profit from the shipping more than the cards.

Selling $0.99 cards on eBay as to me that is an insane waste of time. That's what COMC is designed for.