10 Reasons Why eBay Died

by Jason Wilk on November 25, 2008

ebay dinosaur

It’s November 25th, 2008 and eBay is going down in flames. Traffic has dropped off 20% this year alone with no hope in sight. What went wrong with the company besides those awful commercials? Here’s 10 Reasons why. Feel free to add to the list.

1. Overpopulated. Ebay got out of control 4 years ago with the whole ‘eBay Millionaires’ hype that spawned into ‘Sell Your Stuff On eBay’ brick and mortar stores and ultimately led to a massive influx of ubiquitous products.

2. Poorly Regulated. Counterfeit items and fake products flooded eBay all the way through 2006. Luxury brands have actually had to hire employees specifically to find people selling illegitimate items claiming to be ‘Real’. I prefer the term ‘Not Guaranteed Authentic’, but either way, it was detrimental to eBay.

3. Scams. Next we saw the Nigerian scandals popping up. For the last 2 years, it has been such a task to resell any technology item like a mobile phone or a laptop. Countless times I tried selling my Blackberry or Apple Macbook only to find the winning bidder is located in Nigeria and is trying to pull off some scam with a foreign bank account.

4. User Experience. Once eBay had it’s millionaires, along came the businesses that made their living off of it. New software was built for on-demand mass listings on eBay where eRetailers were clearing out their warehouses for decent margins. Now, when I search for a golf club or a pair of sneakers on eBay, I may as well be on Shopzilla, sifting through professional listed products. The whole ‘Auction’ experience on the users end has become entirely depleted. The original eBay users went there because it was an ‘event’ and if you were able to get the item, you actually felt like you won something. Now I feel the same budget guilt buying something on eBay as I would buying a Cinnabun. Sometime worse because I waited 7 days for an auction to end and found a better deal on another web site.

5. Speedy Purchases. Once Amazon rolled out ‘one-click’ purchases versus ‘3, 7 or 10 day auctions’ on eBay, I could never figure out a reason why I would ever go back to eBay to find items. When eBay was one of the first movers in the online shopping place, it felt alright to wait for an auction to end so long as I was getting a good deal on something I wanted. Now sifting through good deals versus bad deals, combined with the hassles of eBay makes me always want to go to a reliable online Amazon type site, where I can count of my item being slightly higher priced (which now is rarely the case), but I know I purchased it, I get a legitimate receipt and I can can count on it arriving to my doorstep 99.9% of the time. ‘Buy-It-Now’ just didn’t make the cut man.

6. Business Model. As eBay progressed, they constantly were trying to figure out how to scale the business beyond just it’s core, which is auctions. They made a mistake by taking the old Geo-Cities mentality of, if you aren’t on our site, then no one will find you. eBay wanted to become the premier destination for small-mid size businesses to be found and make sales online. This created a mass confusion for consumers who once went to eBay for a unique experience. It became the ’strip-mall’ of the Interent.

7. Paypal Hassles. When eBay was hot, PayPal grew hot with it and became a household name for buying things easily online. Every eBay merchant was signed up to use it, and in turn, every consumer had a PayPal account. Still one of the most profitable arms for eBay to this day, PayPal too has had its share of problems with both business and consumer headaches involving payment fraud, disputes and more. But even PayPal is beginning to slip. Let me ask you one question. Can you even remember your PayPal username and password? Didn’t think so Mr.1999

8. Skype Confusion. When eBay bought Skype, everyone expected a revolutionary integration into shopping, where sellers and buyers could talk instantly over the internet to recreate a somewhat realistic experience. Everyone thought it would come fast, but it dragged on and on, and when it finally debuted, no one cared anymore. Skype is finally making some money on its own, but the dream was sadly never realized for eBay.

9. High Seller Fees. eBay became so focused on businesses, that Listing Fees for the individuals who actually wanted to sell an item or two went through the roof. Suddenly eBay didn’t care about those who helped create the foundation for an early age user generated success story. Note to eBay: Business generated is not the same thing.

10. Competition. Even Craigslist does a better job of filtering out garbage than eBay does. These are two web 1.0 companies that have taken on lives of their own. Craig is surviving due to low costs, not selling out to the corporate slick and letting users continue to sell event tickets. It also still looks like crap, which still makes users believe they may find a deal. Craig never tried to grow up out of what he knew his business was. Other than Craigslist, we have seen the rise of many similar online storefront providers such as Amazon who take care of shipping fulfillment as well. Not to mention, many brands have been able to survive on their own outside of aggregators by working hard on their search engine optimization and other online marketing strategies.

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Tagged as: about, aggregate, aggregation, aggregator, Amazon, appl, Apple, ask, blackberry, Companies, Company, Craigslist, Ebay, employee, Employees, engine, Event, eventful, Events, fraud, hiring, Internet, jobs, laptop, Laptops, Lets, lively, location, macbook, Mobile, Money, online, payments, paypal, phone, profit, Profitable, purchase, Reliability, Scam, Search, share, sharing, Shopping, Skype, Technology, tickets, time, warehouse, Web

  • jason
    Buy It Now Really killed it for me.
  • Catfish
    Excellent I agree
  • ricroe
    Everyone is quick to point to the current economy when discussing the dramatic decline at eBay.

    eBay however, has no excuse to hide behind the economy declining curtain, except for the fact the CEO is unwilling to admit he has led the marketplace down the wrong path.

    Draconian policies and failing infrastructure combined with search that returns irrelevant results, and the worlds worst customer service has been slowly bringing eBay down for years. Enter Mr Donahoe and his "new coke - green ketchup - disruptive innovation' plan for eBay, and the skids of failure received a thick, fresh layer of grease.

    Ebay has historically out performed the brick and mortar retail segment as well as the stock market during past recessions. When times got tough, buyers used to flock to eBay in search of incredible deals on unique items as well as scoop up second hand goods to help stretch their dollar.

    Then came John Donahoe, the killer of small sellers, the eBay suicide king, leader of the gang that could not shoot straight. Under Mr Donahoe's leadership, eBay is being converted into a high priced shopping mall at the very time that consumers are looking for low priced goods.

    Mr Donahoe's choice to eviscerate the core of eBay by purging small sellers could not have come at a worse time. eBay's quarterly reports are dismal and it's stock price which has seen its value drop by 2/3 since Donahoe assumed control, sinks to a new low almost every week.

    This decline at eBay started to set in long before the economy displayed signs of recession.

    Ebay has always offered the worlds worst customer service, recent staffing cuts have served to exacerbate this problem.

    Ebay has alienated buyers with forced search methods that do not return what buyers want to see.
    The failed Best Match does not allow buyers to search, but instead shows buyers what eBay has determined they want buyers to see.

    eBay has alienated buyers with the forced PayPal only payment plan that prevents sellers from stating they accept personal checks and money orders for payment.

    Sellers that pay to place listings see those paid listings deliberately disadvantaged in placement in favor of a class of Diamond sellers that pay nothing to list items.

    eBay has further alienated sellers with a draconian DSR policy which is not the tool promised to help sellers improve. Instead, it turns out that DSR's are really a weapon pointed at sellers heads that delivers automated account suspensions.

    Sellers are frustrated by eBay's failure to address the increasing frequency of non paying bidders. NPB activity has increased since implementation of the one way feedback policy. The issue continues to
    be ignored as eBay profits from re listing of unpaid merchandise.

    While we are at it, let's not forget that eBay arbitrarily terminated most all of their affiliates with no notice.
    Executives want to blame drastic traffic reductions on the economy, but they need to examine their own significant role in cutting traffic and re examine their choice to eliminate affiliates.

    EBay further alienates both buyers and sellers with a crumbling IT infrastructure that is subject to rolling 'glitches' on an almost daily basis. Glitches that effect payments, shipping, searching, access to funds, correct payment information, delayed revenue transfers and others cause buyers and sellers alike to give up on the company that since laying off 1500 employees, suddenly can't get anything right anymore.

    As eBay continues to deteriorate, they have become less of a venue. They now want to dictate every facet of a sellers business from retail pricing and fixed shipping costs to what kind of feedback sellers are permitted to leave buyers. EBay cannot get anything right, yet they dictate what sellers must do. So much for the claim of being a venue.

    Mr Donahoe and his team need to be accountable for their actions and stop hiding behind false, deceptive and misleading public relations statements. For example, stop telling people its a fee decrease when sellers end up paying higher fees.

    Mr Donahoe and the rest of his executive leadership team keep their heads buried firmly in the sand. They only pull them out for the occasional press release to parrot Donahoe's claims that "all is well" and "everything is proceeding according to plan", while ignoring the roof that is obviously falling in around them.

    Add the fact that as the marketplace crumbles, eBay continues to steadily increase fees and it is no wonder why so many sellers have opted to migrate to other marketplaces and open their own web sites.

    This company is failing on every level. Emperor Donahoe continues to fiddle as eBay burns.

    Will shareholders step in and call for the removal of eBay's current failing leadership or is John Donahoe the next poster child for failed CEO's?
  • jason
    This decline at eBay started to set in long before the economy displayed signs of recession = John Donahoe, Get The Hell Out.

    Great comment RicRoe.
  • Kim
    No customer service let anarchy - scams and stolen merchandise - spread uncontrolled
  • Tino
    "McFly" Why would you send your money to Nigeria for an imac.
  • bkm
    I don't think eBay is considered a phenomenon any more. This is their 1st problem.

    I think they over complicated their systems. They did not listen to what the people wanted.

    Meaning, no one suggested fancy css dropdowns, flash advertisements, and MySpace type layouts to be a sales pitch.

    I've often people say "I just want to see the damn product, a description, and a few pictures. Fuck."

    They made the site childishly. Meg didn't know what the users wanted. She never really asked.

    The eBay hype is gone - but i'm sure they have the resources to build something better with the help of Craigslist.
  • Which of the ten points could be easiest and fastest to fix?
  • What a great article! I've been thinking the same for a long time. eBay should have stuck to their primary purpose and not become another online-highstreet-retailer. You used to be able to stay up till 2 in the morning to grab that great bargain, but now, all the auctions are closed by nine and the bargains have completely disappeared.
    There are other alternatives around thank god!
  • glu
    @Allan - that's the thing Allan. I don't think any of the problems fixable at this point. The place is a so sinking ship. Agree?
  • eBay was one of my best friends back in the day, back when it was personal....the current, impersonal nature of the site is what killed it. The second they implemented features like buy it now, seller stores, and automated listing, they strayed away from their core business model, which is the core that continues to drive success over at Craigslist: normal people selling to normal people.

    I say, let it fall right along side of GM.
  • I TOTALLY agree with ricroe on most of his post. I disagree with some points of this article. Specifically...auctions are STILL preferred by Ebay buyers over fixed price listings and thats a fact - deal with it! Action there can be speeded up by allowing BIN to be a free option the same as fixed price has no added fee. That said, the fault for Ebay's current problems lies with John Donahoe and his "disruptive innovation". He took something that needed tweaking and tore it apart. Instead of trying to put the excitement and fun back into the site he overpowered it with draconian policies that make little sense - he burdened sellers - especially small sellers with overpowering fees and rules and regulations. Now he's saddling them with paypal payments when any seller knows there are a lot of people who will NOT put their credit information online and prefer to pay with checks and moneyorders - ALSO suggesting that offering free shipping will get a seller higher standing in the listings is another downer! Does this Donahoe think sellers pick up stock for FREE...does he not feel a seller is entitled to any profit at all??? Perhaps he feels being allowed to sell on Ebay is reward enough??? Also, giving buyers too much power over sellers has caused really bad feelings in the Ebay community - its now an "us against them" atmosphere and with good reason. I actually ran across a thread on the Feedback discussion board yesterday (its still there) where the buyer was considering giving the seller a negative for using a U.S. prority tyvek bag inside out to send the item. There was nothing else wrong with the transaction - item arrived safely, was as described and arrived quickly!!!! That's about as power-crazed as one can get...and other buyers were agreeing with her! ADD to that Ebay's outright lie of telling buyers a 4.0 star rating is good - yet suspending sellers if they reach that point! Its shear madness!!! Sellers are frustrated - they're leaving in droves and being replaced by big box stores who list for free have miserable sell-thru rates and horrible customer satisfaction. This is good??? This is what Donahoe wants? This is NO Amazon! Its becoming a cheap and cheesey clone!

    As for bad sellers, in my book if you bother to scrutinize sellers before allowing them to open seller accounts you will cut down a LOT on fraud and scams and goods being sold that shouldn't be on Ebay. When I first opened a seller account I bothered to become "Ebay Verified" - which cost me $5.00!! That should be a normal and free part of opening an Ebay account! If I were to open a VISA account my credit rating would be scrutinized but just about any tom, dick or harry can open an Ebay seller's account.

    Ebay's way of dealing with the bad sellers is to assume EVERY seller is bad and if he makes one tiny move in the wrong direction then he's toast! With small sellers it only takes one tiny move - whether he's earned it or he's run into an unreasonable buyer. So many good sellers have been suspended due to bad buyers, or misunderstandings, etc. without recourse. That alone has actually lost Ebay most of its base of small but honest sellers. (Who, I might add, are also buyers). I can go on and on. The article above is kind of off on what it feels is wrong with Ebay. I think most longtime small sellers might agree with what I've outlined here as the main cause of Ebay's oncoming death! As a 10 year seller I might add I hope enough of Ebay is left after this Donahoe debacle - so that it just might survive with a major overhaul...back to what it once was!
  • Alastair
    "he burdened sellers - especially small sellers with overpowering fees and rules and regulations"

    He also appealed to buyers greed. There was a time when as long as a buyer ordered an item on Monday and it arrived that week they were happy with it. What that did is it allowed small sellers to fit in their selling activities, to buy as you sell. Now if a buyer buys on Monday afternoon and it isn't there first thing next day, then they're badgering you/bombarding you with messages in a rather unpleasant tone. You DSRs take a dive and you lose out on the discounts and so your already extortionate fees go even higher. Listing/FVF/Paypal can easily amount to 20% when you allow for items that don't sell (UK).

    The next thing you know, you've been dropped don't the listings and you're paying for a service you're not getting. There's also the ruse of ebay telling buyers that sellers are robbing them on postage cost, so now it's free postage and fee payment on the postage element bundled in to the selling cost (plus paypal on postage). No negative feedback, so the con artists roam the site filing INRs, even our recorded service doesn't get a signature half the time becuase our postal service is being dismantled/cost savings and that means temporary staff that don't care about getting dismissed. So you end up self financing insurance.

    Now that's all fine, if the customer wants next day delivery, free postage, pay by paypal, claim the odd free item, seller paying ebay 20% and negs/low DSRs just because the buyer has had a shit day and he/she thinks someone else should have a bit. But what it does mean, is those cheap items have gone, those overheads have to be paid for and some of those favourite sellers they use to buy from are now longer listing.

    Donahoe has managed to completely wreck a good company, not just from a sellers point of view, but buyers as well with worst match. Unfortunately he is managing to hide under the smoke screen that is the credit crunch/world recession. But I'm suprised that the analysts & shareholders don't seem to see it. Look at any forum/blog/website or Usenet and you'll see people repeating the same story. I wonder how low the chares have to go before someone does something, but to be honest, I think JD has broken it and no amount of glue in the world is going to fix it. I imagine someone will buy it for paypal and then manage the decline of ebay until it can quietly be closed.

    ebay R.I.P.
  • Tim
    Ebay is much like coke, coke introduced the "new coke" and no one liked it and it failed, a very large difference is that coke did not alienate its customers and pull old coke from them. The "new e bay" is a failure and its management system leaves buyers and sellers in wonder of why this company has done what it has done to its customers. There are many single mothers and small business been pushed away by a company who needs its customers more than ever it would seem. Many have been watching and seeing what is going to happen and fell that a change back to the "old e bay" when it was friendly to its customers and its customers enjoyed using ebay. That day has far past and it seems like a nightmare to many who made there living, or just enjoyed some extra income or an occasional purchase on ebay. Management is completely callous to its customers, anyone who knows what is gong on at e bay should be appalled that the CEO says "We're absolutely confident of the direction we're going" when the company's customers are being pushed away by the company and others are simply not willing to list or use the site.
  • gundillo
    @patricia
    "Specifically…auctions are STILL preferred by Ebay buyers over fixed price listings and thats a fact - deal with it!"

    I believe you are right. Anyhow all individuals are gamblers
    and love the game of satisfying game desires...the tickle of having won. This was, what Ebay made strong long ago.Havent been familiar with US-EBAY, but the German department has mixed all together (auctions, BIN & Shops), for one can see 17000 (!) items in one single category popping up. This causes, most common users find their required auction stuff 1 or 2 days before ending (otherwise the seller has placed 20 targeted search words). Anyway, the new article search is a mess. Just for a laugh.
    But this is only one of several reasons people have begun to avoid eBay. By my opinion the latest feedback rules have started the decline, actually. Say, when Im wrong: How long one can stand ass kicks eternally, for having paid proud
    fees to the kicker before? The lamb's crying!!!!
    Hannibal Donahoe is the poisonous toad, who's making the well inedible. Do you believe, Donahoe would use a regular flight instead his jet, begging for money in the Congress?
    eBAY currently is a story of bad manners. The fish begins to stink from head, we say here across the ocean.
    Have a nice weekend!
  • NT
    Thank you ricroe.

    Your points are well made, and well defined.

    I have bought and sold on ebay since 1998. The decline although dramatic is not unexpected.

    This last year we sold approx $200,000 on ebay, all at auction and all collectible stamps and postcards. The way we have been treated by ebay is truly distasteful. We paid nearly $25,000 in fees to ebay and ebays paypal this year alone.

    We are foreign sellers shipping into the US Canada and the UK, our items take at least 8 days to arrive to buyer. We ship within 24 hours and pack much more securely than even necessary. We email customer on arrival of payment, and upon shipping the item. Both emails explain that we ship within 24 hours but international posts may be slow. We enclose a notice with the item to please check the cancel date before leaving DSR ratings.

    We became tired of constantly not meeting the "ebay average" for shipping time even with the added time and effort to communicate the potential problem of slow posts.
    For one month we listed nothing, and then at the beginning of November 08 began listing again. EVERYTHING ON OUR END WAS DONE AS PERFECTLY AS POSSIBLE.

    The DSR ratings rose a fraction, but the shipping time still does not meet the ebay standard, so ultimately we pay higher fees and frequently on have our items come up in the standard listing level. Sellers with real trash clog the top end of the "best match" selling .01 cent items with FREE shipping. We sell on average 99.7% of items listed for an average of 86.00 per item, we pay raised fees for lowered listings.

    So potential ebay sellers... before listing on Ebay, do you really want to give ebay (or anybody!) $25,000 a year to have lowered listings! We have proven to ourselves that the entire ebay system is honeycombed with greed, fraud and arrogance. We certainly don't feel we are being treated with any respect whatsoever as a customer who has paid $25,000! And yet I give utmost respect and care to buyers of even a 10.00 item!

    Where is the ebay DSR rating? Ours is 25,000 they will not get next year. We have a customer base of several thousand buyers...certainly more than a few will not frequent ebay as often when we cease to list items.

    Final note, 10 years of selling on ebay, I may have contacted them 4 or 5 times regarding mostly minor issues, until 2 months ago when I began to send various comments/criticisms to various departments. Constructive criticism. If ebay answers it is always arrogant, naive and useless, not to mention arrogant...because you know I AM just a stupid customer who only spent 25,000. It is is depressing.

    I hope through continued constructive positive suggestions from all sellers ebay may eventually sell off the auction division to a hopefully caring buyer who can nurture it back to health.

    Good luck to all and lets buyers & sellers) try to revive ebay before it falls by the wayside and we ALL are losers.

    NT
  • How Is It our Own Government is Asleep During this Ebay Ban on Money Orders & Checks ? It's a Direct Violation of the American Free Trade Policy. You'd think Uncle Sam would Really Be Interested in maintaining the employment & income levels of The People.
    Ebay's Downfall translates into TENS OF THOUSANDS of innocent, hard working & Dedicated people no longer being able to afford Health Insurance, Pay off the House in Time, and procure the Basic necessities of Life.
    Ebay changed the rules so many times, No One will go back to it now.
    There was Absolutely No Reason for this to have happened.
    None.
  • NT
    Ebay is now a classic representation of corporate America, where all that matters is what shareholders feel about the end of quarter bottom line. It should be evident at this point in the US that corporations (such as Ebay is currently doing) suck as much money out for the large salaries (people who have dictated the current ebay policies all receive a Million plus a year)and large shareholders.

    They destroy whatever community they come in contact with,forget the original successful business model that led to success, and then turn to the US taxpayer to bail them out! To the tune of billions of dollars. No one will bail out ebay because the people they bring down, as NYM arts mentions above, are the small "Mom and Pops" who have invested immense amounts of time and money to establish their ebay business. They have leveraged nothing so they are no threat in the eyes of the federal government of damaging the economy further such as huge insurance companies and giant banks. Ebay sellers who have fallen to the wayside are not viewed as important links in our corporate commerce....

    Do you think there may be something fundamentally wrong with the american business system that is designed to make us all mindless consumers and workers, but not independent self supporting business owners.

    As a final note, the US government has never looked with much favor on ebay... ever... because there has been no way to seriously implement income taxation on the sellers. Any clue as to why ebay forces sellers to use a a highly visible easily audited paypal as the only payment method? Yep, maybe it is because uncle sam can get his share easily. Checks cash and money orders make the local community go around....but they are not easily trackable for a government who is billions and billions in debt and needs the tax to bail out Citi, AIG etc.

    So dont expect the federal government to think its un American or unfair. That may have been the thinking 30 years ago...but now its ALL about tax collection. If you look deeper I suspect that you may find the hand of the "Feds" in these new policies which benefit both ebay (paypal) and the Federal Government.

    NT
  • jason
    @NT - And such is why Amazon and their distribution channel beyond just their storefronts is a better model. Its not that they have the best shopping experience, but it sure beats the daily stress of selling on eBay for sure, sitting on the edge of your seat to see if some jerk gives a bad rating without realizing the consequences.
  • @NT "Ebay is now a classic representation of corporate America, where all that matters is what shareholders feel about the end of quarter bottom line. It should be evident at this point in the US that corporations (such as Ebay is currently doing) suck as much money out for the large salaries (people who have dictated the current ebay policies all receive a Million plus a year)and large shareholders."

    Well, this part of your post doesn't hold water. Stockholders are losing their shirts on Ebay stock. Its only a shadow of what it was on Jan. 1st of this year....plus, I believe Ebay has not been giving dividends on their stock. As an investment, so far their stock stinks with a capital "S". Blame has to go directly to Whitman and Donahoe for cooking up this Amazon wannabe business model. I include Whitman because she is still on the payroll until the end of this year. Instead of actually knowing what they're doing - with sales experience to back them up - Ebay management simply wants to emulate Amazon by beating their sellers into acting like Amazon. At the same time they're ushering in the diamond sellers - giving them free listing fees and seem to be oblivious to the miserable sell thru rates these sellers have...and the customer disatisfaction rating. The whole situation is immature and sad and doomed as well. To take a business as big as Ebay and tear it all up as though it were a starter business shows extreme inexperience and a foolhardy way of thinking. This is one of those business models that looked great....on paper only! Ebay is dying and right now...that's all it deserves!
  • c.p.f.
    I've always said they new ebay should be where everyone host their own auctions, best offer websites through universal templates supplied by Google or Yahoo. You would be searchable under a Google / Yahoo "for sale" tab. You could subscribe to a third party feedback rating that is fair and a third party verification subscription is deter fraud and use google or paypal for checkout. A simple search engine in a browser would be the new ebay. Everyone would own the reputation they built.
  • jason
    @ CPM. I think that auctions will become more and more niche. I doubt however that we are going to be hosting our own pages to be indexed by a search engine.

    @Patrcia013

    You are spot on with your 'trying to be like Amazon'. It's embarrassing how terrible they executed on this and compromised their entire future. They rolled the dice and they lost.
  • Teresa
    We are still a seller of Ebay. Everything was on track and we showed a slight increase in sales in Sept. It was when they rolled out this FREE SHIPPING that drove our sales down by 38% in the first week alone. We have 100% positive feedback. A 4.9 to 5.0 DSR. Our sales Oct 07 were 41,000 Oct 08 30,000.. So we lost 11,000 in the first month with this Free Shipping crap and in November we have lost another 13,000 We do have a account rep. Not that they can do anything to help you. We paid over 72,000 to ebay last year. It does not matter! They do not care. We have everything they said it took to pop up in the new search engine but we are not there. Our buyers can not see us and if they can not see us they can not buy from us. They have got to ditch this free shipping. It is taking us all down.
  • Joyce
    I have been selling on ebay for over a year. I am small time and feel unwelcome even though I have maintained 100% feedback. The killer for me is free shipping. I cannot offer this on items that I start at 9.99 or less. The fees and supplies to ship eat everything up. But now buyers believe you should offer this on everything. I am not listing much this year. Further, I have not been buying from ebay either. Why? Because they are attracting businesses, I am not getting the deals I use too. It is easier to go to the mall where items are deeply discounted and I know they will take returns without me placing the item in the mail. As a seller I also feel abused by not being allowed to leave negative feedback. I have never left negative feedback at all, but the option is still important to me. Thanks ebay for making your site a hostile environment to a small seller who often was told "I wish more sellers were like you..." I was a credit to your site.
  • Screw feebay. They treat us like dirt so they don't deserve anyone's businesses.
    Ex feebay sellers or future ex rendez-vous here: http://www.powersellersunite.com/

    I place where sellers and site owners discuss selling and non selling related topics. Help each other to find a new home to sell.

    Now I'm on ecrater.com (http://chinesesilk.ecrater.com/) and no fees in any kind, it accepts Google Checkout and feeds to Google. No more playpal hassle :)

    Screw feebay like it screws us.

    Jerome.
  • ebay wins the 2008 award:

    "HOW TO DESTROY YOUR OWN INTERNET COMPANY 101"

    The main reason ebay's stocks are going to waste is the collective abuse of ebay user's by ebay. There is a great study by Bilderberg freely available at the internet archive, which everyone should read:

    http://www.archive.org/details/TheRiseAndFallOf...

    ebay has abused millions (of sellers) and, even if they wanted to, they could do nothing to make amends or get them back. ioffer.com is growing fast, and is the raison d'etre for many former ebay sellers. The key to their success is that they treat people like human beings, and stay out of the dealings between buyers and sellers.

    Paypal is a waste of skin. They, too treat users like disposable diapers.
    Paypal will go down, just as fast as ebay. The global launch of google checkout for sellers (currently available to UK & USA only) will fully replace Paypal.

    Google checkout has not gone global yet, because google is studying Paypal, and all its shortcomings.

    The day ebay and Paypal go belly-up, I will donate a thousand dollars to the red cross charity. When they attempt to thank me, I will say: "Don't thank me. Thank ebay and paypal, and I am thankful they are gone!"

    Bob
  • Ex Ebayer
    Not sure why everybody is fingering John Donahoe. The serious decline started 6 years ago under Meg Whitman, a caretaker CEO who never understood what she inherited in the least (she'll fit right in with her government career). Systematically raising fees and eliminating small sellers, failing to provide the traditional auction services such as payment and fulfillment guarantees, allowing fraud and scams to run rampant with no credible support to the folks who got ripped off and "lip service" protection services. Once the mom and pop sellers (like me) were run off there was nothing of interest outside mass produced, mass marketed corporate crap. eBay chose the fixed price 10,000 item lot of shrink wrapped branded figurines over the fascinating variety of interesting items from 10,000 different garages. And they coupled it with a purchase of PayPAL... a payment processing company with such lax standards, policies and ethics that it would be out of business within months if it were an arm of a money center bank with real regulators.

    All that was really needed to complete the demise of eBay's business model was competition. Amazon finally woke up and started to offer searches that led seamlessly into auctions and used items. Everybody in America was ripped off by eBay once or twice and PayPAL once or twice and began to discover the wonders of Craigslist and working with real people. Special interest web sites for virtually everything have begun to host sales forums where the folks know one another and build trust.

    I won't ever sell on eBay again, although I do have a few searches out there for some obscure items. eBay will be going down a lot further from here, but PayPAL has a chance of survival if they clean up their act ethically.

    It's sad... I was among the earliest and I really liked eBay too.
  • Ex Ebayer
    p.s. I noticed that the folks most PO'd in the thread are the power sellers. That's weird. The Moms & Pops and hobbyists built eBay, who in turn then catered to the power sellers to drive up revenues. This drove out the mom & pops with the interesting stuff that first attracted the actual customers. When. So the customers left and you have one more generic strip mall.

    Odd that Power Sellers are complaining... "What goes around comes around" applies here.
  • gerrydaniels
    The ebay "DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION" scheme implemented by ex-ebay CEO, Whitman AND current CEO, Donahoe, is the #1 cause of ebay's FAILURE!

    To learn more, search the internet for "eBay's Disruptive Innovation, How's that workin' for ya? — GenuineSeller"

    To read the results of it, search the internet for "Ebay Stockholders and Sellers Calling For Immediate Termination of John Donohoe CEO Petition"

    To see what ebay's employees are saying about the extremely poor upper management of ebay, go to glassdoordotcom.

    FIRE DONAHOE!!!
  • Hi Joyce and all: I am an ebay seller as well and like Joyce have not listed this year much. I do still buy a few things I cannot get elsewhere there from sellers I have purchased from in the past. My biggest market was international - I'm in the States selling European luxury beauty and spa items. But the free shipping, new listing ratings, nickel and diming really hurt me.

    I am closing my ebay store and opening on Amazon after the first of the year.
  • Ed
    I have been a Power Seller fo4 8 plus years. I have 100% positive feedback, never a negative. I have a full time job and eBay was a way to make some extra money.

    I agree, they have made it hostile and geared the whole thing towards cheap crap and big volume selling. The small people who make up the largest percent of the population have been pushed out. The new feedback policy is stupid, the new fees are too high, the whole "ship for free" thing and constant "your shipping looks high" comments are bothersome (I also cant ship for free, have you tried it, shipping cost more today than ever before and many of the ground shipping options are gone)

    Add to this that months after your transaction and the customer being completely satisfied, PayPal can suck your money out of your account because a buyer can say "I didnt order that" and you WILL loose your money AND merchandise. There is NO protection for the seller, just more fees.

    I stopped selling in March (ussual volume of $3-5K/mo) and although I dont have any money, I doubt I will be using ebay as a way to make any.

    PS I gave customers fantastic deals, always used auctions and let the comsumer decide what the price should be. Started all auction under a buck, even on things worth several hundreds of dollars. sometimes I lost money, but for the most part I made a small profit and customers loved it....now with volume of shoppers so low I would have to start the prices much higher (= pay higher fees) get fewer sales (= pay fees for items that dont sell too) and deal with a hostile company who doesnt support people like me who generate money for them???

    I say F O ebay... I will wait for someone else to make something better
  • Jared
    I'm really sorry to hear that Ed. It's all Meg Whitman's fault that stupid bitch.
  • Addicted23
    I sell sports tickets and I used to rely almost 100% on Ebay. I just listed auctions at 99 cents and let the bidders take care of the final price. I was always happy with the overall results. Over the past few years, auction prices started coming down so I listed more buy it nows and opened an Ebay store. I suppose the store and the fixed auctions were sucessfull at first, but they became more hit and miss and it seems like my Store listings received less visibility over time. Sales were disappointing and listing became a hassle so I shifted almost entirely to Stubhub (bought by Ebay later). But in the past year, Stubhub has been less successful for me as they take 25% fees (15 from seller and 10 from buyer).

    Now I probably sell about 80% of my tickets via craigslist.

    I love it. I can meet the buyers and build an e-mail contact list for future sales. It's simple. No fees. I can give the buyers the best deal with less frustration. Craigslist has problems with spam (at least with ticket listings), but, overall, it is my #1 listing destination.

    I'll still sell and buy the occasional item from my personal life (I'm selling a cell phone now).

    I agree with all the points in the article and the additional one's brought up in the comments. Ebay has messed up what used to be a glorious and happy shopping experience.
  • nothx_amzn
    I take major issue with the phrase "reliable online Amazon type site". Amazon has become a huge haven for disreputable sellers and "list bots" much like eBay, except their feedback/reputation system is even worse than eBay's.

    And don't trust Amazon for prices. I've seen many examples of Amazon's lowest price being HIGHER than the average price in a brick and mortar shop, because the sellers are all scalpers/scammers. You might expect this on eBay, but NOT on Amazon and you can get taken for a ride if you don't know any better.

    8 out of 10 buying experiences were bad for me on Amazon due to bad sellers, whereas less than 1 in 10 have been bad for me on eBay. I will never buy from an independent seller on Amazon.com again, and avoid using their site for pretty much everything now.
  • Ebay and Yahoo characterize the atmosphere of greed that Google has successfully avoided. Ebay and Yahoo attempt to squeeze the last drop of blood out of every transaction.

    Unlike, Google, these companies do not realise the effectiveness of building a huge reservoir of non-monetised features which serve as magnets to monetised areas. There is a principle of conservation of customers' money. Advertisers have only so much to spend. By spreading advertisement across every page dilutes the focus of the advertisement.

    The short-sightedness of Ebay does not allow them to build reservoirs to attract and retain sellers and buyers. They have decided to over-strain the golden goose by compelling it to lay more than one golden egg a day, not realising that the goose is getting thinner each day.

    Google works on providing features first and aesthetics later or they expose APIs to let users provide the aesthetics. Ebay and Yahoo work on aesthetics without significantly enriching their fundamentals - they soon run out of features to decorate.

    Google nurtures a community that is enthusiastically enhancing Google products. Ebay and Yahoo does not have any idea or creativity in getting users involved in the exposure of their web sites.
  • Sales were good when the search engine listed the items you wanted to sell/bid on in the order they were going out. When they went to best match your listing stayed on page 5 or 25 through the entire listing duration unless you were diamond seller. That killed it your listing was buried and so were your sales. But ebay still charged the credit card you had on file and your money clock ran backwards.
  • powersellers unite
    Do you suspect ebay of DSR Manipulation/Fraud? Sign the petition.

    http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ebayfraud
  • ewmyss
    I certainly agree that Whitman with her dull MBA attitude destroyed the product of Pierre's imagination. I bought over $1million from Sotheby-Amazon auctions before they handed it to Meg when Sotheby's Taubman went to prison. The Amazon program was flawless; Meg's EBAY programs denied 200 years of real auction experience, a total perversion of what auctions should be. Sniping became the rule, bids came at the final 10 seconds. Reserves were essentially impossible due to her paranoia of fee avoidance. Selling was encumbered with silly complex systems. Paypal was conceived outside EBAY and purchased by Meg who proceeded to impose her flawed ideas. It is tragic to see a phenomenal creative innovation destroyed by unimaginative MBA thinking.
  • jamesterdude
    Thats rediculous crap I sold 1200 worth of stuff in the last 30 days and now after paying an invoice amount of over $265 i cant list more items because of least 4.1 on each DSR to sell I got 25 positive feedbacks this month and no negatives I guess I am going to use http://www.multi-sale.com they are twitter enhanced and state each item I list uses the twitter api thing and is posted to my twitter page how cool.
  • billydeacon
    Comparing websites to sell on (NO... eBay is NOT #1 !)

    Computerworld surveyed over 20,000 sellers in the last year (2008-2009), about their experiences on online selling. Here are the results!



    ebay

    The website you DON'T WANT TO SELL ON IS EBAY. They care a rat's fart about sellers, have no customer support, and you will be suspended for simply selling a pencil. Of course, they keep your positive seller account balance, and will never reinstate you again, after following their bogus eBay fax document reinstatement process. eBay shares have risen, based on speculating Amazon will buy out eBay. RATING: F

    ioffer

    Until Warner Bros. recently took over ioffer, it was not a bad site to get a bargain. Now Warner Brothers and other so-called "eat-my-own-puke" C.O.P.S. will suspend you, even if you list 100% legitimate factory-sealed original & authentic merchandise. Positive account fees of suspended ioffer sellers are refunded, though. A sheer waste of time website. Rating: D-


    ebid

    Wannabe ebay site. No traffic, no sales, just some so-called customer support reps, who will put your account on hold or suspend you for no reason, whatsoever. Don't buy a seller+ lifetime ebid membership. Why should you? Too expensive, to pay $59 flat just to be suspended and then file a Paypal claim against them, to get your money back. Lacking customer support. Ebid behaves as if its the next ebay, but doesn't live up to it. Time and money waster. Avoid! RATING: E


    Onlineauction

    No customer service, almost as bad as ebay, horrific website design.
    Don't bother. No hits, no traffic, no sales. A shameful waste of time. Avoid it. Rating: F


    bonanzle

    Fun and easy to use website. Very low final value fees for sellers. Keep out of disputes between buyers and sellers. Will only suspend you, if you directly steal money from buyers, and don't deliver goods. Great customer support. Let's you import feedback from other websites, treat people with respect and courtesy. Plain and simple fun. Rating B.


    ecrater

    Where else can you sell anything 100% free? No listing fees, no FVF, a haven for sellers of anything. Fantastic customer support, will remove unjustified or retaliatory negative buyer feedback (since sellers cannot leave feedback for buyers). Easy to use, import items and set up shop. Again, THERE ARE NO SELLER FEES. Top rated website, the number one alternative to any other website for sellers on the internet to date. Rating A.
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