CNN - EBay boycott winds down, anger remains

(FORTUNE Small Business) -- A weeklong eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) boycott initiated by sellers upset with fee and policy changes that began rolling out last week ended Monday with uncertain results.

During the first three days of the boycott, Medved.net, a third-party Web site that tracks eBay's listings totals, reported a decline of about 17% in the number of listed items available for sale on eBay. The number of live items jumped a few times during the remaining days of the strike but currently sits at around 13 million, 10% lower than when the boycott began Feb. 18.

However, separating out boycott effects from standard, everyday fluctuation in eBay's listings totals is a tricky task (eBay doesn't publicly release listings numbers, forcing observers to rely on third-party statistics).

source: CNN Money

CNN - EBay seller boycott set to start Monday

Ebay sellers plan a weeklong strike to protest changes to the site's fee, search and feedback policies.

By Stacy Cowley

(FORTUNE Small Business) -- Activists opposed to eBay's (EBAY, Fortune 500) upcoming fee and policy changes are readying for a weeklong site boycott starting on Monday, with buyers and sellers waiting to see if this strike will succeed where past protests have failed.

The boycott, planned to run Feb. 19 - 25, is scheduled to overlap eBay's Feb. 20 rollout of significant changes announced last month.

Sellers say eBay's new policies are likely to cost them more money, but what's really inspired an outpouring of wrath is an adjustment to eBay's feedback system: sellers will no longer be able to leave negative commentary about their buyers. Critics say that will leave sellers vulnerable to negligent bidders and scammers.

source article

You Tube Video Calling for World Ebay Strike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23TomS5--nQ

Ebay U.S. Listing Fee Sale Feb. 13

Ebay is holding a one day listing fee sale on 2/13/08. For this one day period, the listing fee for auction and fixed price style listings is 20 cents.

Promotion does not apply to the following listing types: All eBay Motors listings including Parts & Accessories, Passenger Vehicles, Motorcycles, Power Sports, Other Vehicles, Motors Local Market, International, Live Auction, Professional Services, Real Estate, Ad Format and Store Inventory listings. The following business and industrial categories are excluded from the Insertion Fee Sale: tractors & farm machinery (91952), heavy equipment (25249), concession trailers, carts (67145), imaging and aesthetics equipment (92035), forklifts and other lifts (97185), manufacturing equipment (92080), metalworking equipment (92082) and commercial printing presses (26247).

http://pages.ebay.com/promo/feb20cent2008/

Ebay to Cut Media Listing Fees in Response to Pressure

Responding to pressure from a number of high volume sellers, Ebay is making further cuts in the insertion fees for books, music, movies and video games. According to Lorrie Norrington, President of eBay Global Marketplace Operations, the cuts will be effective February 20th and will be comprised of the following:

$0.01 – 0.99 (auction-style only)
Original Categories Insertion Fee: $ .20
New Media fee: $ .10

$1.00 - 9.99 (auction-style and fixed price)
Original Categories Insertion Fee: $ .40
New Media fee: $ .25

$10.00 – 24.99 (auction-style and fixed price)
Original Categories Insertion Fee: $ .60
New Media fee: $ .35

Selling on eBay? Keep an Eye on Gains

By Charles Delafuente

EBAY and other Web sites have transformed the neighborhood garage sale into a never-ending global auction, vastly expanding the number of potential buyers. The market for a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card is no longer limited to the kids on the block — nor is the price determined by what those kids are able to pay.

Higher prices and greater profits, in turn, mean increased income tax liability for sellers, at least in theory. In practice, though, the I.R.S. is interested in enforcing the rules for high-volume sellers, not for people who occasionally sell personal items of limited value.

Read entire story in New York Times

EBay's PayPal funds freeze plan draws fire

By Kathleen Ryan O'Connor

(FORTUNE Small Business) -- In the uproar that erupted over the planned fee hikes and other policy changes eBay announced last week, one drew particular ire and incredulity: eBay's plan hold payments sent through its PayPal payment service for up to 21 days in certain circumstances.

The freeze will apply to transactions eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) considers high-risk, and is intended to protect buyers from the hazards of a bad transaction. By hanging on to funds, eBay can easily refund them if a seller doesn't ship a purchased item or sends damaged goods.

Complete article at MoneyCNN

Ebay to Ban Seller Feedback

Ebay has developed plans to change its benchmark feedback system by banning sellers from leaving negative feedback effective May of this year. It is Ebay's contention the the change is to "improve the overall customer experience". (huh?)

Ebay, from the early days to what is has now become has operated as a community, will both buyers and sellers given opportunity to rate their experiences. While certainly not a perfect system, it is one which has served the both the company and the site users well. To remove one half of the feedback system (buyers may still leave feedback) completely alters the system of checks and balances and skews the entire process in favor of the buyer.

Ebays New Fee Increase - Decrease

Ebay has unleashed their new fee changes to be effective 2/20/08. Though they are making a lot of noise about "lowering fees", it can be a tough call whether this is a good or bad thing. The better your sell rate, the now higher FVF can make this feel a lot more like a fee increase than decrease. The lower your sell through rate, the more it will seem like a fee decrease (but then if your sell rate sucks its hard to get excited about paying less to make less).

Powersellers get a shot at offsetting FVF increases that is not available to the common folk. As a part of the new fee structure, higher DSR (detailed seller ratings) can qualify powersellers for a 5 - 15% discount on final value fees.

If it seems the deck is stacked in favor of powersellers, it is likely because it is. I've nothing whatsoever against the high volume sellers.... just sorry to see Ebay continually alienating and disowning the hundreds of thousands of smaller sellers (collectibles, used goods, clothing, books, etc.) who have made them what they are. By all appearances, they seem to feel the future is in filling their marketplace with the hundreds of thousands of common goods available in any department or big box store. So why hassle with Ebay if one can get this stuff anywhere?

A link to Ebays fee changes is here