posted on May 20, 2001 02:26:24 PM
The new Link policy won't effect my selling, since I am basically an Ebay-only seller.
I guess I won't be doing much buying anymore on Ebay, though.
I just received the last reply to a poll I took.
I have 17 sellers bookmarked. They have a combined feedback over 4500.
They are people who have Web stores and use Ebay as an advertising tool. They sell discontinued or surplus items from their Web store. They make an average of $4.17 per item.
They spend an average of 32 minutes per item for web page listing creation and order processing.
However, they make more money on their Web pages by the increased traffic. It is a win-win-win situation for the sellers, the buyers, and Ebay.
The sellers win by increased traffic to their web sites.
The buyers win by getting cheap items explained well. The sellers usually have very nice listings to make a good impression about their store and they want repeat customers.
Ebay wins by having all these cool items selling as loss leaders via all the hours of volunteer work by these sellers. This provides a huge increase in browsing. I bought this computer on Ebay. I didn't log onto Ebay thay day to buy a computer. I was looking at this cool stuff and decided to check out the computer section, since I was already on Ebay.
15 of the 17 said they will no longer sell on Ebay, but use the discontinued items as loss leaders on their own stores.
2 of the 17 said they will have a link to the "about me" page and a link to their web store from there.
I see no reason to log onto Ebay and browse with all these loss leaders no longer available.
I guess it is a bummer for me as a seller, too. There will probably be others like me who will browse a lot less due to fewer such bargains. That will effect my sales.
It is sad. I understand Ebay should get paid for all transactions. In fact, although I know it amy make me unpopular with the Ebay selling community, I support their E-mail restrictions. Arranging sales on the side, instead of auctioning items, denies Ebay legitimate revenue. However, to voluntarily quit trading all this hard work by these vendors to make Ebay a much better place in exchange for free advertising, is a big hurt to buyers and themselves.
"Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered."
Ebay's new policy seems to be (unintentionally):
We want items for bid that are expensive.
We want cheap items of low quality, low price, and can be listed quickly (poorly).
We no longer want inexpensive items, explained well, with lots of effort, even though only a small return is made.
So, don't bother to come browse for good deals.
The same thing happened in California.
Drive-ins have Swap-meets where people sell items on the weekends in a flea-market atmosphere. Ebay reminds me a lot of them.
In the beginning, they were basically people selling stuff from their garages or their household stuff when they moved. It was all inexpensive, used items. It was a lot of fun and they were very well attended.
But, the Drive-ins wanted more. They encouraged people to come sell new stuff and these people gradually crowded out the "amateurs." Now, swap meets have only new stuff, or stuff from professional flea-marketers. Attendence and Drive-in profits from week-end swap meets are way down. The charm of the community has been lost and traded for a used-car salesmen atmosphere.
It is sad to see Ebay going down the same road.
"Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered."
Fear and/or greed says the pie is only so big and I need to grab as much from others as I can. But, in the real world, "A rising tide raises all ships."
Ebay is so cool. I love the hustle & bustle, the wheeling and dealing. They are in an invulnerable position. However, their fear/greed can destroy them from the inside.
