posted on July 31, 2001 01:23:36 PM
I sell mainly one type of item... I've had a few requests lately to sell them in a larger group as a discount. Say, when you buy 50 you get them for X number of dollars each. If I put up a small site with my products on them and and put a link to it in my EOA e-mails saying "To buy in larger quantities at a discount, visit my online store" (or something like that), is that considered fee avoidance by eBay?
Is this allowed? I see auctions linking to their websites all the time with their products for sale.
posted on July 31, 2001 01:26:49 PM
Heck NO! When fee bay puts up a warehouse and keeps all our stuff in it, buys it for us, writes the listings, and then collects the funds and ships it for us.. then MAYBE it would be.
Go for it. Nothing says ebay owns you or your merchandise.
posted on July 31, 2001 01:30:54 PM
If it's in an EOA, it ain't none of eBay's concern. eBay sold your widget, collected their fees and introduced you to the customer. The customer is your's at that point.
posted on July 31, 2001 01:59:47 PM
I could see if you were posting links to your auctions all over ebay saying if you don't want to bid then come to my site and get it cheaper but if you sell normally and they ask if you have more what are to say?
"No I don't have any that I can sell outside of ebay?"
Or
"Yes how many more do you want and they will cost the same price as the ones you bought on ebay."
posted on July 31, 2001 05:20:53 PM
Yeah, but there has to be someone in San Jose thinking how they can make these types of things against the TOS of Ebay. Hey, if they can remove links, they can do that as well..Let's hope they don't.
posted on July 31, 2001 08:37:54 PM
The only way eBay can stop these types of deals is to operate the auction site like Half com. It seems that is the direction eBay will adopt.
I offer direct deals in my EOA with great results.
eBay the "venue" wants to own the buyers and run your business to their advantage in any way possible.
Remember, it is YOUR business, and YOUR customer. Use every means available to make your business as independent as possible from eBay's "venue".
We'll all be drop shipping slaves for eBay if we're not assertive in running our businesses ourselves.
posted on August 1, 2001 06:07:14 AM
If you do this completely off eBay in your EOA or the bidder contacts you, there's no problem. I've asked sellers for "more of the same" if I was pleased with their service and product.
I always try and let my bidders know my goal is to serve them. I don't openly solicit added business, but queries aren't turned away either.
