Murder - EBAY is DEAD!!!  

I think there is something wrong with this site.
Beacuse I can´t log in there,with my old log in details.
And I can´t log in with my new details

I've never had any problems buying on ebay, but then, most of my activity has been selling.

As a seller I have had some horrific experiences with buyers. In particular on the sale of popular electronics items... my advice, never, ever try to sell items like playstation, wii, xbox or ipod on ebay... they are the most likely items to be targetted by scammers.

I think the most horrible experience I had was with a woman who purchased a ipod nano from me. When the item arrived she 'claimed' that it was a refurb (which it wasn't). She came up with some sob story about another seller selling her an ipod that didn't work at all and said she was jaded with ebay and demanded a refund. Anyway, I contacted my supplier and they agreed to get the courier company to go pick it up from the customer. When they arrived she refused to hand it over until after I had refunded what she paid for it. Since I didn't want to muck the courier company around I told her to send the ipod to me instead (I thought I would give it to my son for Christmas). Anyway, I refunded her money... and guess what, she never sent the item back! What a fool I was! She got to keep the item for nothing, I left her positive feedback and she... well, she had the nerve to leave me negative feedback. So there I was, $125 out of pocket and with the only negative feedback I ever received on ebay. Talk about p*ssed off!!

You can read about some of my experiences with scammers on a guide I wrote at http://reviews.ebay.com.a...

The fees wouldn't bother me if they were lower. But if you purchased something for $5 and sold it for $10 you would be charged a minimum fee of $1.02 (including listing and final value fees) The listing fee wouldn't include a gallery photo in search results or a subtitle... to get those you would have to pay an extra $0.99. Note that these are the fees payable on ebay australia. On top of that if you are a regular seller who offers paypal (which is now compulsory) then you will also be charged an extra $0.60 cents in paypal fees (and remember, paypal is owned by ebay so those fees are theirs also). So if you happen to pay for gallery and subtitle on your listing you will lose at least $2.60 in fees (more than 25% of the item value). That would be fine if you happen to be a powerseller who sells hundreds of those items per day... but for the average 'mom and pop' seller a $2.40 profit just isn't worth it!

This is the reason that I now sell on a site that doesn't have listing fees. Sure, I don't make as many sales because it's not as popular as ebay but at least I can get a reasonable profit.

I must confess to being the same as you in trying to deter people from selling on ebay.

I recognise that because they are the 'fat cat' of onlne auctions who get the majority of traffic then they are the most viable option. But if we encourage people to start buying and selling on alternative sites as well as ebay then we will hopefully send them a message that they are doing things the wrong way.

In my opinion, both buyers and sellers are being shafted by ebay... all they really care about is their own profits

Oh, I should say that only by buying and selling elsewhere can we make those other sites a viable option to ebay... the exodus will take time but it has already started. The site I use (oztion.com.au) has experienced a 25% jump in membership in the last three months. From 200,000 members to 250,000 members.

I will continue to push other sites. I will continue to discourage people from buying or selling there. I used to be "ebay queen" at work.. whenever anyone had a question about it, they came to me. Now I tell them.. try loudfrog, or ecrater, or search out other alternatives. The more we can deter away.. the better.

I liked your scammers guide btw. I think I have seen it before. If I remember correctly, people in the answer center refer others there a lot that have been scammed or think they are about to get scammed

Wow, my little old guide gets recommended from the forums?... that's good for the ego! I just went to look and discovered it has been viewed 466 times... though only 7 people have voted on it.

Dizz, you sound like me! I'm called "Ebay Queen," too. People are always noticing new things I have, and they say, "let me guess - Ebay?" They also ask me, "how do I do this," and "how do I do that on Ebay?" *rolling my eyes* I'd like to tell them to go take an Ebay class and leave me the h*ll alone. lol

I have tried to sell things on Ebay before; I never sold them though. I even got stuck paying the second relisting fees, etc. There's also an increasing number of shipping gougers, as well as outright thieves - one took my money and never delivered *my* Ipod. I got most of my money back, though - thanks to PayPal. (PayPal has always been good about that sort of thing, even though they charge fees fo transactions.) *sigh* Ebay sucks. :o(

I think I'll try those other sites you mentioned. Thanks for posting! :o)

...And please allow me to add: When I was selling, I paid for all the bells and whistles (ie: bold titles, subtitles, photo gallery, etc.) Obviously, those things don't mean diddly squat because I never sold ANY of my items!

They are stuffing up a lot these days. And every time they try to correct it they make matters worse.

Yes, I think the death will be a slow thing... but the exodus has started and is gathering momentum. As I said in my previous response, the site I now use has had it's membership jump from 200,000 to 250,000 in the last three months. Unfortunately, that seems to be mostly sellers as my sales have slowed right down. We really need to get the buyers too... unfortunately, the changes ebay are making are affecting sellers much more than buyers (if anything, buyers are benefitting from the changes) and it's only as sellers go elsewhere that the variety of products on ebay will drop forcing sellers away from there to some of the other options.

The change to feedback only occurs on May 1, 2008.

Apparently they did it to encourage buyers. Apparently, we sellers are making buyers afraid to give us a negative rating for fear of retaliatory negative feedback.

Humph... like we're any more likely than a buyer to do something like that. We're the ones expected to have the communication skills (and rightly so I might add, to do business you need good communication skills). We're the ones who suffer the majority of scam transactions... but our power is being stripped from us. So effectively, all ebay users who only ever buy products will have a 100% feedback rating regardless of how many times they've screwed sellers. While we have to put up with negative ratings that are frequently unjustified.

Unfortunately, ebay offers the highest expectation of sale for products because of the amount of traffic they get... they are the 'fat cats' of online auctions.

And you're right, the changes affect sellers much more than buyers.

The only way we can send them the message that we are dissatisfied is by also listing on other sites besides them. Eventually, the reduction in choice on ebay will affect buyers too and they'll be forced to look for alternative marketplaces. Then, and only then, will those other sites offer a viable alternative.

As I showed in a previous response, if you bought a product for $5 and sold it for $10 on ebay including gallery and subtitle and a customer paid via paypal you would only make $2.40 profit on the product. That's less than a 25% profit which is absolutely pathetic. 50% goes to the supplier and more than 25% goes to ebay (paypal being owned by them).

Yes, it's not like they're not getting enough profit. Even if they only had 1 million sales per day with $3 average fees (I suspect they have a LOT more sales than that per day worldwide) they would be earning $3,000,000 per day. Advertising and wages would probably account for about $2,000,000 of that.

And that's without even taking into account that they own paypal and receive all paypal fees. I'd say an average of 50% of ebay sales are paid for by paypal (at least, that has been my experience) and if they get an average of another $2 in paypal fees there is another $1,000,000 a day.

There is absolutely no need for that kind of profit... it's just obscene. I'm sure they can afford to cut fees. Maybe they should just dump basic listing fees. A lot of sites out there have no listing fees and have final value fees that are approximately the same as ebay.

We have a weekly newspaper here in Australia called the 'trading post'. When listing in it you are given two options... either pay up front for your item to be advertised in the paper for two weeks running (this option is cheaper but you've wasted your money if the item doesn't sell). Or, pay a percentage only when the item sells. If the item sells for less than the price listed you still pay the percentage on the listed price. But the point is, they only charge fees once... not both ends. I don't see why ebay can't do the same. Then again, if they did get rid of the listing fees they'd probably just increase the final value fee to cover the loss.

I ama also having very similar problems!! I listed an item to sell of which I owned and they just went and gave me a 3 day ban for trying to sell Illegal goods!!! they didnt even check the item they didnt have the sense to email me and ask me for proof!.

What other places like ebay exist? I would be interested to know :)

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Oh, and moosuk... if you want to find some alternatives to ebay you can check out my blog at http://www.I-hate-ebay.blogspot.com

I think the trick is not to put all your eggs in one basket as they say... list items on other sites too. I know with ebay you get a good expectation of sale because of their increased exposure and traffic. But they are very much alienating their sellers with the new policies.

As sellers withdraw, the variety will decrease for buyers and ebay will slowly lose the reputation for being a place where you can get cheap or hard to find items. Eventually buyers will be forced to look elsewhere too and when that happens some of those other sites will become a viable alternative to ebay.

It won't happen overnight but it is happening. Every step ebay takes to try and correct the slide is just making matters worse. I only used the title of 'ebay is dead' to get attention... it's not dead yet, but it is dying!

I should have mentioned the paypal thing in the original post. Because that means further fees for all regular sellers since you're only permitted a small number of transactions per year on a personal paypal account. Once you reach that limit you have to open a business or premier account which charges $0.30 base fee plus a minimum of 2.1% of the overal payment. We have to remember too that ebay has a vested interest in getting buyers to pay via paypal since they are the ones who own paypal... so once again, that increases their bottom line.

Oh yes mooch. Ebay and all these other sites are a great place to get bargains... of course, to get even better bargains you can find their suppliers.

It surprises me the difference between wholesale and retail prices on some items. Not so much electronics items. One thing that has a huge markup from wholesale to retail is guitars... I have a wholesale site that sells accoustic guitars for $29 but the retail price of them is $149. Electric guitars that sell for $499 are only $129 there. Talk about a huge markup... it's at least four times the wholesale price.

Oh, as a buyer you can still leave negative feedback... that particular right has only been stripped from sellers. Which means anybody that never sells on ebay will always have a 100% feedback rating regardless of how many sellers they've screwed. The only option sellers have is not to leave feedback at all... it's either positive feedback or none at all.

Despite the fact that it's mainly sellers who get scammed it would appear that we don't deserve any protection... nor can we warn other sellers away from bad customers.

I think the best thing that ebay could do to renew trust is to reduce their fees (or scrap either listing fees or final value fees). Remove the requirement of paypal on all listings and allow sellers to give negative feedback. Those changes would go a long way to renewing trust... especially the reduction of fees.