posted on January 17, 2001 04:42:43 AM
I'm a $1.00 seller who sells for fun. Maybe I need to raise my prices to $1.25 or something. That way I can keep going with the ten day auctions and not feel the hit. Or go to 7 day and keep the extra 20c. I don't have paypal so no other costs to worry about. I live in the UK so no postage hike here, we already had ours last spring.
Initially I was worried about the fee hike, then I fell to thinking about stuff I could combine in the one auction to save fees and maybe have a $2.00 auction with twice the stuff and half the effort but still the 30c fee.
It also occurred to me that the fee increases will wipe out many of the $1.00 people who list in competition to me (I sell stamps and cult paperbacks) so leading to more bids for my auctions. If Ross Perot had not run for President the other two candidates would have gotten a lot more votes. I refuse to get depressed about this, I just see it as a way to force me to think smarter.
A nickel wouldn't be anything if it were used for such, but some of us who have been around eBay since before it was eBay, know that basically the increases don't go to pay for anything which the user can see improve the site - and definitely not more competent personnel.
A year or so ago, it was "only a dollar," now it is "only $.10" or whatever, but as long as sellers accept the increases eBay will implement them.
Ebay institutes an increase, everyone screams and hollers, threatens to leave, but when the dust settles, nothing is accomplished, and eBay knows that they are then free to go ahead the next time they want to do something detrimental to the seller.
posted on January 17, 2001 10:33:12 AM
First sign already instituted. Ebay feedback down. Sure, what's a nickel to pay more and get less. Which direction is that furnace anyways?
posted on January 17, 2001 10:59:37 AM
It's not a huge cost increase, and they said they hadn't increased their costs since 1996. That's business, it takes money to make money. I like Ebay.
posted on January 17, 2001 10:59:41 AM
amy, you're caught in the consumer trap caused my intelligent merchendising by clever companies. You're spending more because you choose too.
VCRS, digital cameras, tvs, microwave ovens and many more consumer items are obviously costing way less than years ago. If you choose to have the latest upgrades, of course you'll pay more.
Cars have gone down in price when you consider if you spent $15,000 on a car 10 years ago that has the same features as a $15,000 car today. It's your fault if you want the newest features.
Most houses have simply gone up based on inflation, but so has your wages, so you're not actually paying more. Houses should be going down, not up in prices, that is a sign of a bad economy caused by the government. When you're paying capital gains taxes on inflation based investments (land, gold), the government is stealing from you.
Ebay may try to keep up with inflated energy costs by raising fees because they aren't able to operate productively. That's a bad sign!
posted on January 17, 2001 11:18:51 AM
Switching to sell items that have higher margins is a logical answer for survival. But I've started that switch over, making 400-500% returns, and when I start absorbing all these increases in fees on my $5 items, plus the current fees, margins don't seem to matter much anymore. It's seems more logical to sell higher priced items (+$100) at lower margin.
posted on January 17, 2001 11:26:00 AM
If you got an email on this-great! I did not! I sent a money order for charges, my ebay acknowledged it, a week later got an email telling me they tried to charge my card for the amount--and get this--now NO information is available on my ebay for account! Just found out also, I cannot list anything new! The "Functionality is not working, try again later" whenever I try to email about this (since not listed on automatic answeres). Yeah, I'm real happy! Going to have to go somewhere else for peace and profit and like they haven't made enough on my items just in listing fees and I haven't lost enough trying to list as cheaply as possible! So far, have lost my shirt in the deal with ebay--don't even appreciate the ads I see on TV! And you have to have a gallery to get art prices through their "FOR THEIR OWN BENEFIT" new sita! The rich get richer and the poor get poorer! Just hate to see it happen this way since it was the poor that made them rich to begin with and now they have joined in every which way (including their other site for book) to not let it happen for us poor ********!
Ok I accept the new rates. BUT I want a change on the feedback thing. How can we pay these prices if we are constantly attacked with retaletory ngegative feedback.
posted on January 17, 2001 01:21:05 PM
Abacaxi...my point was that prices do not normally go down. Wages have definately gone up also...although normally wages go up in response to prices going up.
You said "Why does everyone think they can have 1950 prices and 1990s wages"...I think we are thinking along the same line here! I could reword your question and ask all those who are bitching about the ebay fee increase this question..."Why does everyone think ebay can continue to collect 1996 fee prices when they have to pay 2001 operating costs in order to run the company at the SAME level they have been operating?"
Quickdraw....My electricity is no fancier than it was 33 years ago, or 20 years ago or 10 years ago....And I still use the same type of items that consume power. My refrigerator is the same size now than it was 20 years ago (except now it is MORE energy efficient) We still only have 1 TV, have the same number of rooms in our house and have the same number of lights on at one time...but my electricity bill is 3 times what it was 20 years ago.
The car I bought for $2000 years ago was a basic stripped down, no frills compact car (no radio, no air conditioning, no power anything). To buy the same basic stripped down compact car today will cost close to $20,000.
Food is a basic item. I bought basic, non preprepared items when we were first married and I still buy that way today...I buy no differently but I sure pay a heck of a lot more!
The baby clothes I bought 25 years ago were bought at K-Mart, Pennys, Sears...they were not designer items, nor were they the store's "top of the line" items...they were basic, simple low end items. My daughter buys clothes for her baby the same way I did..she doesn't buy high end or at expensive stores...but baby and children clothes are more expensive today than they were when she was born in 1971 or when her brothers were born in 1974.
I will agree new technology is expensive when it first comes out and drops as newer technology arrives on the scene. But that is only a small proportion of the marketplace. things like refrigerators, washing machines, clothing, shoes, utilities, food are pretty basic and they don't really have many bells and whistles to "improve" each year.
Eggs cost about 25 cents a dozen when I was first married, now they cost $1.50 a dozen...somehow I don't think I am paying more for them because I was dazzled by the advertisements for the "new and improved" eggs. I just can't figure out how the eggs today are any different than 20 years ago
posted on January 17, 2001 05:51:34 PM
Amy, what is your point again? You said some companies are forced to raise their prices, which essentially defends my point that when a company can't thrive effiecently, they raise their prices.
posted on January 17, 2001 11:26:55 PM
Agree that this one was related in no small part to Yahoo, and would not happen with more vigorous competition.
It also continues a trend away from fees tied to seller success and toward getting more costs upfront (optionally or otherwise) that don't depend on whether the item sells.
Apparently the Wall Street types aren't comfortable with the idea of eBay's success depending on seller success (as eBay was saying not long ago). They'd rather bet on maintaining the dominant market share and squeezing it out of sellers who have no real alternative. Typical. Expect much slower growth going forward as a result.
posted on January 17, 2001 11:54:33 PM
Quickdraw..you said prices are supposed to go down not up. I was disagreeing with that statement.
You also said I was spending more because I chose to...and I was disagreeing with that also.
you are complaining that ebay should not be raising its prices...i was saying that as inflation causes costs to go up a company must bring in more money just to stay even. The company can be very efficient and still need to raise prices.
Most of us sellers are raising our shipping fees not because we are no longer efficient (ie..we are not being wasteful) but because a force beyond our control has increased our costs of doing business.
To be efficient means to produce the desired result without waste...it is flawed logic to assume that only wasteful companies raise prices...many tightly run, efficient companies still need to raise prices when their costs go up.
posted on January 18, 2001 12:32:02 AM
When you stop to think that $.20 is actually a 20% increase, it is significant. I can't believe so many people have fallen into that "it's only a dollar" mindset. This insignificant change will cost me $50 bucks a month. Add in the postal fees, that's another $50. Look for more fee increases coming soon. I've dropped Paypal, so no extra cost there, but any way you look at it, selling on eBay will cost me at least an extra $100 dollars a month. I plan to recover those costs by increasing my shipping/handling fee.
"One thing that has kept eBay the darling of its investors so far is the ability to continue squeezing money out of its gross merchandise sales, which totaled $1.4 billion in the third quarter -- an average of about $15 million in transactions every day.
From that, eBay takes a cut of about 7 percent through fees, commissions and other means, according to Weinstein.
The company has continued to define new ways to take a bigger cut whether it be through its payment service BillPoint, which it acquired in May 1999, or new big-ticket auction sites.
Tuesday, eBay announced another initiative that will likely increase its cut. The company raised its insertion fees -- adding between 5 cents to $1.30 for each item listed on the site depending on its listing price -- as well as a 10 cent fee for items listed on the site for 10 days. "
posted on January 18, 2001 09:34:31 AM
Amy, so a company that cuts costs 20%, and sees a 2% jump in inflation still needs to raise prices? A company that doubled production needs to raise prices also? I simply don't follow your line of reasoning that a company has to raise prices. Companies compete for market share. An unhealthy company loses market share when it raises its prices.
Personally, I haven't raised my prices due to higher shipping and higher fees. I've found ways to be more effiecent, plus my production has gone up. So that blows your theory once again.
Another tactic a company can do to increase profit is to offer more value, and then increase the prices. That is what car makers do, and that is why you have this illusion that you're spending more for the same kind of car.
posted on January 18, 2001 09:59:46 AM
If you don't think a nickle is much, then you problable won't mind your' phone bills to go up next either. AOL/Time Warner merge just made that easy to happen.
posted on January 18, 2001 10:10:12 AM
Almost everyone is bashing ebay for raising their prices. 5 cents won't break me but only a few have said something about the USPS raising their price:Up to 1 lb. $3.50
2 lbs. Flat Rate $3.95
Over 2 lbs., up to 3 lbs. $5.15
Over 3 lbs., up to 4 lbs. $6.35
Over 4 lbs., up to 5 lbs. $7.55
The $3.50 went up 15%
the 2 pound one when up quite a bit. It's the same with the insurance $.85 to $1.10 and the next is $2.00. Now there hasn't been to much discussion about this, but then again it's the buyer that gets stuck with the postage but it is the seller that gets stuck with the 5 cents. Come on we need to get real and realize that when you have a business it is for the money and when the money isn't enough they either raise their rates or go out of business and I as a seller don't want ebay to go out of business.
