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.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ebayfraud

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.

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.

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.

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

I am closing my ebay store and opening on Amazon after the first of the year.

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!!!

Odd that Power Sellers are complaining… “What goes around comes around” applies here.

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.

“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/TheRiseAndFallOfTheEbayReich

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