posted on May 28, 2001 03:31:32 PM
Is it just me, or is everyone else sick of being "Feed" to death?
You've got listing fees, FVFees, special advertising fees, PayPal/BillPoint payment fees, Storefront administration fees, shipping fees, etc. And now with eBay moving to a Half.com type payment mechanism they're going to be holding what's left of our money for 2 weeks to a month.
How does a person make a profit with all these hands taking their cut?
posted on May 28, 2001 03:39:09 PM
Yes we are not only being fee'd to death most of use are being fee'd out of what use to be one of the lowest start up cost bussinesses.
and if Ebay goes to a system of holding money for two weeks to a month before I get paid for my sales they will find them selfs hold there hand on there as!@# for and more listing fees from me.
its bad enough there is a four to five day wait for tanfers of credit card payments to your checking account now.
posted on May 28, 2001 03:51:54 PM
d-man what are you talking about you are scaring me. What do you mean hold our fees two weeks? Billpoint? How could we ship and feel comfortable? Billpoint would be dead
posted on May 28, 2001 04:02:43 PM
Half.com holds the monies you receive for items you sell on their site for 2 weeks to a month before paying you. Since eBay is probably moving to that same payment mechanism we can expect the same sort of payment delay. Other than the wait I haven't had any problems in dealing with Half. I can wait for payment since selling on eBay or Half isn't my livelihood, but others may not have that luxury.
eBay and Half obviously will receive interest on the monies they hold for you. This is an added benefit for eBay moving to this method. Think about the $$billions$$ eBay will be garnering interest on by a simple tweak of their payment mechanism. This is a very smart company but obviously they don't hold small seller's interests in high regard!
posted on May 28, 2001 04:09:42 PM
Actually it would be illegal for them to hold Your Money for sales to make interest on You paid to list your Item the money belongs to you they would have to pay you the money Includeing the interest.
No one who is signed up with Ebay has ever agreed to Allow ebay to make money other then fee off our sales they would be investing sellers money.
posted on May 28, 2001 04:45:28 PM
Yes, the eBay fees are excessive in my opinion, and the Reserve Fees completely nonsensical. When those were implemented, I decided to put those "only a dollars" into a website, which changed the way I did business on eBay certainly. Most of my better items went to my website and I realize higher prices than I ever could on eBay. I still used eBay which helped with some of the cash flow and also helped draw traffic to my site. We'll see what happens with the new prohibition against website links, but the increased fees are no longer justifiable in my view, especially when I can't count on solid clubdown prices any more.
In the past, I used to relist on some things -- now I will rarely relist. I have cut way back on the use of Photo Gallery, and will probably also cut way back on listing reserve items.
I have to say though, I am not so upset at the Paypal/Billpoint fees, since that has helped increase my business, and is much less costly than having to acquire a merchant account.
[ edited by Lisa_B on May 28, 2001 04:46 PM ]
posted on May 28, 2001 05:58:58 PM
From what eBay's Pursglove is quoted as saying, Half.com is not "merging" with eBay. eBay is going to "incorporate" Half.com's "technology" into the eBay platform. There will still be a Half.com site.
However, the "technology" at Half.com consists of all the elements we have been discussing- e.g., no contact between buyer and seller, payments made through eBay, picture hosting through eBay, etc..
posted on May 28, 2001 06:56:31 PM
>Are we being feed to death ?
Only if we agree to it.
Picture Hosting?
I pay a flat rate ($5.00) per month for more than enough web hosting. They try to force me to pay per picture or per FV for a service that should be cheap, and flat rate, I may quit ebay.
PayPal / Billpoint?
Not me, I want to keep that 2% (and if it cost me a bid here and there, so be it. I know the kind of stuff I sell, and I wouldn't be doing anyone a favor selling to them on their 18% VISA anyway )
Storefront?
I want to look this over, heck, it might be a good thing... Depends on how they handle it. Is it going to be MY store, or THEIR store. If I want to work in someone elses store, I wouldn't be in the buying and selling game, now would I????
>How does a person make a profit with all these hands taking their cut?
You don't accept every add on option someone throws out for you. Just enough to get 'er done. Everybody always wants as big a piece of the pie as they can, but it's up to you how you slice the pie.
>Since eBay is probably moving to that same payment mechanism we can expect the same sort of payment delay.
They do that this boy is gone. I ship too many 40 - 100 lb packages for me to "float" a 2 or 3 week shipping bill. Like I'm going to pay $20 and $30 and $40 shipping tabs every day while I wait WEEKS on my money? (does it really take WEEKS to be paid on stuff you already shipped on Half.com?)
>Reserve Fees completely nonsensical
I don't quite see it like that. My sell thru on reserve auctions if pretty good, and I get those $$$ back.
This forcing of payments thru third parties is spooky. It could be the straw that breaks the Camel's back. Ebay has done some stupid things but this could be what it takes to really drive sellers away.
posted on May 28, 2001 08:31:56 PM
Wasn't it Lincoln who said no outside force would destroy this country, rather it would come from inside?? Or something like that.
Apparently, the same applies to eBay; and, they are well on the way.
posted on May 29, 2001 10:10:34 AM
eBay will not incorporte all of Half.com's technology features into the auction website. Doing so would make them more than a "venue" and eBay would then open itself to many problems as a result.
posted on May 29, 2001 01:12:34 PM
I don't see Ebay accepting all payments for the auctions, can you imagine what a disaster this would be? How would they possibly process the millions of checks weekly let alone take resposibility for varying postage shipping and handling charges.
I have yet to see anywhere stated that Ebay will be taking over all payments.
This would be a giant liability to them for chargebacks alone would srive them into the ground.
I think when they talk about merging half.com with Ebay it is more on the lines of User IDs, Search tools and such.
This would mean if you search for digital cameras or computers you would get direct results from both sites.
Relax people there is too much paranoid reaction to something that has no factual basis.
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