posted on March 10, 2001 05:45:07 PM
Don't know if anyones noticed...obviously Ebay hasn't but there sellers ...including me...oxymoron4 (660)+ are leaving them in droves.....Just in my little community here in TN I personally know at least 15 that are moving to Yahoo and other sites....too bad because Ebay is the biggest and best....but no body there seems to be listening....Don't know if they listen to their bidders, but they sure as hell don't listen to their sellers here in the trenches, and no body can ever communicate with any "live" person in that organization....They just keep adding those nickles and dimes to the shoulders of the sellers, without any regard to what that in fact does to the seller...particularly we smaller ones..., if you write then they send their pat letters out explaining with Rhetoric of the Kings, how not helping you...the seller....helps the over all situation. After two years I have moved on to Yahoo....not perfect likely, but it seems a whole lot nicer for the moment....With Ebay, I always had this vision of MBAs standing around the water cooler embarassed by their high salaries, decided that in order to justify them they better get busy fixing what doesn't need fixing.....at everyones expense of course but their own....Is it just me folks, or have any of you noticed this tendency...Art
posted on March 10, 2001 05:49:16 PM
I won't say you're wrong to leave ebay, though I won't myself because I disagree with your premise. But if you're jumping ship to Yahoo I hope you have a good life preserver. And if you go to Amazon, well, good luck...
posted on March 10, 2001 06:57:47 PM I personally know at least 15 that are moving to Yahoo...
I know there are a wide range of thoughts on Yahoo, but right now moving to Yahoo seems to me like booking passage on the Titanic AFTER it hit the iceberg.
posted on March 10, 2001 08:41:44 PM
I know very little about Amazon, but you can't be serious about moving to Yahoo.
Since the fees I think I've made maybe a dozen or so sales out of about 100 auctions. If you want to pay to have stuff gather dust. Be my guest and move to Yahoo. Yahoo doesn't listen to anyone. Head on over to the yahoo board on AW and check out what all of the happy sellers have to say about the site.
Now if you are talking about a site that actually listens to the user you might try Bidville but you will probably be disapointed with the results.
posted on March 11, 2001 03:46:11 PM
Good Luck, The only problem is that the buyers are not leaving, Yahoo-Amazon-Maytag Repairman !!!!! lots of time on your hands
posted on March 11, 2001 04:31:37 PM
Maybe this should be a different thread, since I'm not going to a different auction site, but my days at Ebay are numbered. After three years of hobby selling (5K a year profit), the nickels and dimes are finally catching up and I have better things to do with my time.
I'm going back to the occasional flea, and direct sales via special interest web groups. Just not worth the headaches of running to the post office, worrying about PayPal chargebacks, finding storage in my house.
I used to work at a small family owned company that got purchased by a large corporation. The rules and regulations set in and I left there, too. Just not cut out to be a corporate drone, and I'm feeling that way regarding Ebay now. Basically, I'm too lazy to follow all the new rules...lol.
posted on March 11, 2001 05:12:49 PM
Moving to yahoo! because ebaY doesn't listen? - must be joking.
It is natural that sellers continue to leave ebaY because while the fees go up the results realized have long been tending downward. In most cases however the departees are not going to another online auction venue. In most categories there is still no such thing.
posted on March 11, 2001 06:24:21 PM
I have no doubt that plenty of sellers are leaving eBay on a daily basis. But from looking at the auction counts and typical feedback scores, it seems like they have barely tapped the surface of new sellers just getting started.
[ edited by kathyg on Mar 11, 2001 06:33 PM ]
posted on March 11, 2001 07:22:07 PM
Ohandrea; I left eBay long ago and discovered I do not need them. But if my sales tanked, I would definitely go back to eBay before I returned to shows and fleamarkets. All those rude, obnoxious people harassing me to "give them a deal" at or below my cost. Not to mention shoplifters, endless hours on my feet, getting up at 5:00 AM and returning home at 7:00 PM. Everytime someone mentions fleamarkets or shows, it reminds me how easy I have it now.
posted on March 11, 2001 07:24:54 PM
It's the listing fee and it's recent increase that gets me going. I wont leave eBay - yet, as I'm still making the occasional dollar there, But it has meant that it in not really economical to list anything where your final bid expectation is going to be less that $5.00 - more or less. It's ok if you are selling stuff from your garage or closet, but if you have to buy items to sell well, the risk factor increases if you list a small value item. I guess eBay get's it's share and then hopefully some dollars remain for the seller. Now there's Auction Watch who have decided to join a long line of family members and organizations who regularly go diving into my pants pocket, one day they're all going to find a death adder coiled up in there and not the usual wad of uncle sammies green they've been used to grabbing hold of. I have this possibly irrational feeling, that eBay has become a rule creating money grabbing power seeking corporate in the worst possible way - and in the words of the Righteous Brothers, "You've lost that loving feeling....and it's gone, gone, gone, and I can't go on...."
You've got to ask yourself this question though before striking out into the vast wilderness of on-line auctions: how come eBay have most of the on-line auction business which probably totals well in excess of all the others combined. I think it's because buyers and sellers like to cozy up to success and a are reluctant to leave as eBay is where all of the bidders seem to be - for the moment, but nothing stays unchanged for ever.
posted on March 11, 2001 09:31:16 PM
If you want my personal experience with the way Yahoo listens, I'll give you one sample. They sent me this form letter to me that bothered me a bit. I emailed them, and they responded with the same form letter. Then I responded again, got the same form letter. Then I emailed a fourth time, well you know what happended next.
posted on March 12, 2001 01:47:25 AM
I am glad to see you go as I am glad to see the other 15 of your neighbor sellers go.
Since the fees got higher I have noticed several sellers leaving and I am now reaping the rewards. As long as the buyers don't leave, I wouldn't care if every other seller leaves. More bidders for me and believe me, my sales have gone way up. Less competition = more sales.
When the fees kicked in I told myself I would cut back on listing, but with all of the sales, I find myself listing more just to keep up with the higher sales.
Sure the fees are high and USPS is high and Paypal fees are high, but if you are a true seller, you can work around all of those things.
A true seller adapts and keeps going forward rather than give up (by switching to ya-who, you are giving up).
So to all the Seller's who have left ebay, Thank You. Keep up the boycott and I hope more sellers follow your lead. Don't look back, YOU DON"T NEED EBAY - THEY SUCK. Stick with YAHOO - I hear they are GREAT !
You don't need ebay, EBAY NEEDS YOU ! You can do just as good ANYWHERE ! If I were you, I would never go back to ebay again !
posted on March 12, 2001 08:21:59 AM
Hey cix....thanks for your nice post...so friendly and un-meanspirited....as far as you getting my customers.....? ? ? not unless you are selling 10 dollar bills three for a penny......you sir/madam are an idiot....perhaps I am too for leaving Ebay, I neither defend Yahoo, or any Cyber site, I am simply trying something different, Some other venue....(although, unfortunatly for you I will still post a few things on Ebay so wipe that silly grin of your face I realized along time ago that we, those of us in what I like to call "the trenches" do not have much power, but we do have the power to leave...now, I agree with you all that my leaving one way or the other won't have a great affect on Ebay...but it is my way of saying...."listen, I won't eat the fly in my soup!" I agree that Ebay is hands down the best Cyber Auction on the Net...but, 1. They Don't listen!, 2. They are for the most part indifferent, 3. They keep adding to their bottom line by nickle and diming the sellers to death, 4.In every occassion where sellers made some minor infraction, their letters were cold, indiferent and acusator before they ever knew any of the facts, and always fell on the side of the "bidder" wich is fine, but not at the cost of trying to make all sellers feel like they were commiting some criminal act. These are just some of the truths....I think some of you took it personal that I was abondoning Ebay....Hey, What ever tricks your trigger cix....why don't you give us, your Ebay Name so we can see YOUR feedback rating and what quality Items YOU are selling, I'd be interested...How Say you?
posted on March 12, 2001 11:54:10 AM
oxy; You will soon discover that you are making the best move of your online life.
Leave eBay for the eBay sellers.
The vast majority of them are working for minimum wage or are occasional sellers looking to liquidate unwanted items and do not think of selling in terms of profit or loss.
I've been there and left, and see the pages of completed items at liquidation prices or no bids at all.
Most comments defending eBay are motivated by the desire to indentify with whomever is #1, while most eBay sellers have marginal profits because it's their money that pays for eBay's success.
Leaving eBay, you will find that you can make 2 to 3 times the money for your time spent listing on newsgroups, free auction sites, and your own web site.
posted on March 12, 2001 01:02:37 PM
sasoony: "Leave eBay for the eBay sellers.
The vast majority of them are working for minimum wage...Most comments defending eBay are motivated by the desire to indentify with whomever is #1, while most eBay sellers have marginal profits because it's their money that pays for eBay's success...Leaving eBay, you will find that you can make 2 to 3 times the money for your time spent listing on newsgroups, free auction sites, and your own web site."
posted on March 12, 2001 01:14:03 PM
The thing that bothers me is sellers have been brainwashed into thinking eBay is the only way to sell goods on the net. For me selling on ebay is free since I sell enough on the free sites, and websites to pay my fees. It takes some work, but you can reap the rewards. I have a much bigger gripe about the postal hike but thats another story. A friend of mine does very well selling on bidville, and epier. Look I may not sell as much on the free sites, but the money I make is all mine. People complain about no bids, but eBay isnt much better when you look at some catagories. Also there is hundereds of sellers leaving eBay daily, but some people trying to make a million join so basically the listings remain stagnant.
posted on March 12, 2001 02:01:00 PM
Every type of item listed by me sells on eBay. Only a subset of those item sell on Yahoo, and rarely anything on Amazon. Your success on other sites will probably depend on what you sell.
posted on March 12, 2001 02:34:54 PM
"The thing that bothers me is sellers have been brainwashed into thinking eBay is the only way to sell goods on the net."
Ebay is the most obvious way. But I started listing some items on the newsgroups again, primarily becasue so many sellers left for eBay. I discovered it is more profitable than when I left. I think partially because I accept PayPal now but also because AOL joined the rest of the internet and converts web page addresses to links. So more AOLers make it to my website and my free listings on Bidville.
posted on March 12, 2001 04:01:35 PM
It used to cost me $30/day for a space at the Sunday flea market. I'd have to be in line by 3 am Sunday morning to get a decent spot, there were no refunds if it rained, and every other customer was a self-professed expert who felt compelled to tell me my stuff wasn't worth half what I was asking. Some Sundays I made a few hundred dollars; most Sundays less.
As fees go, $30 for sales that amount to $300 or less is a lot harder to swallow than eBay fees, even with the increase.
posted on March 12, 2001 04:37:35 PM
My plan is drop my reliance on ebay to 50%, and start my own webpage. If you can imagine all the grief sellers are going through with ebay, imagine what many of the buyers are going through. I'm predicting that many buyers will tire of buying from various sellers all the time, and go to web pages that meet their wants with more consistancy.
posted on March 12, 2001 05:59:35 PM
Spazmodeous - whenever I get bummed out over fee increases, I think about the Sunday I would go the the flea mkt, and just as I would get all my tables set up, the sky would open up!! EBay is definately a value vs the flea mkt. We still go set up on occasion . Once or twice a month vs every weekend in the old days.
posted on March 12, 2001 06:05:12 PM
I don't understand the complaints about eBay fees. Exactly how much are you paying in fees to eBay? When I sold in an antique mall booth rent and commissions averaged 25% for me. Are you paying 25% of your sales in fees? Or do you know of venues in the real world where you can sell stuff for under 10% (which I understand is the average for eBay sellers)?
posted on March 12, 2001 06:34:12 PM
I don't sell in the "real" world because retail space cost $3 and up a square foot.
I sell online because it cost less than 5 cents to host a listing with a pic on a website. I don't need to pay eBay $1 to $3 per listing to sell online.
posted on March 12, 2001 07:11:26 PM
Some of you people are regulars on here. You should know better.
For the money you pay eBay you can run thousands and thousands of advertising banners on hundreds of websites.
You can run 10,000 banner ads for $10 or less (ten banner impressions for a penny) on websites, chatrooms, message boards, etc. targeted at potential buyers who are interested in the types of items you sell.
For every $1 in fees you pay to eBay you can run 1,000 banners advertising your items. If this doesn't produce atleast 5 sales for every 1 sale you make on eBay put your banners somewhere else. You're getting ripped off.
posted on March 12, 2001 07:31:07 PM
Just my opinion...if you feel you are in a "trench", I'd say you dug it yourself. It's nothing personal, but I see lots of people trying to sell what doesn't sell anymore, mostly because it is all they know...Ebay evolves and therefore..so should you...personally I'm still having as much success with Ebay as I did in the beginning..over 5 years ago. I've been in that trench too, but I changed my habits(selling in only one category). Now I sell in whatever category I need to...in order to make money...Case in point..Recently, I picked up hundreds of computer manuals for outdated laptops...I bought them for pennies on the dollar, and are selling on Ebay for $5-10-15-20-25-30...the deals are still out there...look around and open your eyes..and you will see the light at the end of the trench...umm...tunnel
Billy Johnson - iList4U
[ edited by ilist4u on Mar 12, 2001 07:46 PM ]
[ edited by ilist4u on Mar 12, 2001 07:50 PM ]
posted on March 12, 2001 07:33:27 PM
I really won't do the fleas. What was I thinking?
I don't do too bad on Ebay. I make a 10.00 profit per widget, they are easy to pack and sell. But you know what? After three years, I'm just burned out. The thrill is gone, so to speak.
Three years is pretty good, though, don't ya think? I bet it's about average for any hobbiest or even in today's workplace, staying at one job for three years is considered pretty loyal!
Good luck to the new sellers, and to those of you with the temperments to continue doing the same thing year after year, I really do admire you!
I'm still hooked on the AW message boards, though!
