cross posted from the stock market daily thread

[grasswire]

Apparently Meg Whitman is getting out of her eBay stock as quickly as possible. Earnings are way, way down.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/08/ebay-cuts-fixed-price-fees-by-70.html

[Vinca]

1. I'm not surprised. Many sellers went elsewhere after the last

round of "improvements." They've made feedback for buyers a joke. You could be dealing with the biggest crook on the planet and he'd have positive feedback. People are definitely slower in paying these days - no threat of negative feedback. Now ebay is going to make paying by credit card mandatory. They said that's a boost for sellers. Right. It couldn't have a thing to do with making more money off PayPal. They also mentioned something about mandatory caps on shipping charges. Excuse me? It is what it is - the post office screws people and that's not my problem.

[grasswire]

2. there's another change, too...

...eBay is lowering its fee for fixed-price items.

[Vinca]

4. They indicated in their mailing they want to go to a more fixed price format.

If that's the case, I might give Ruby Lane a try.

[april]

9. Has anyone tried other auction sites?

I did have a look at EBid any info ? thanks

[zabet]

3. I have seen a few of ebay's former

antique sellers show up at Ruby Lane. Looks like ebay is on the way out for an individual seller, they want more buy it now and will not take checks or money orders as acceptable forms of payment anymore.

[Vinca]

5. I just mentioned Ruby Lane in another response on this thread.

If ebay goes to fixed price, I might go to Ruby Lane. It's really too bad the way ebay has killed such a good thing. The site is so far away from what Pierre what's-his-name started, you can't recognize it anymore.

[democraticinsurgent]

6. Killing the little guy

That's what they seem to be doing, going all out for larger sellers at the expense of smaller ones. I was talking to a fellow ebay seller last night and she said, "they seem to have forgotten that their sellers are their customers too", which I totally agree with it.

They are setting sellers up for failure with minimum Detailed Sales Ratings. What's to stop your competitor from buying something from you and then giving you lousy ratings in order to get you suspended?

Buyers have plenty of protection but sellers are exposed like never before.

I am definitely looking for an alternative, though, realistically, eBay is still the big dog and I don't have a lot of hope that we can find something that works as well anytime soon.

Grr.

[zabet]

7. I have been very seriously considering going to RL also...

have been researching it, and they do sell a lot of items, and even though it is at 'a fixed price' you do have the option of stating a price and giving potential customers a chance to make 'an offer' on. I have purchased a few items through RL and the one I made an offer on, the seller agreed to my lower price than the listing stated. Still mulling it over, may try 15-25 items or maybe a 90 day trial run.

[sandnsea]

10. I use cyberattic.com

It's got a flat fee of $15.00 a month, less if you pay for 6 months or a year in advance. Ruby Lane and Tias were more expensive and had weird advertising requiremetns in addition to the insertion fees.

[2Design]

8. meg is a repuke big time and I stopped selling with them

because of their fees and fraud and they don't back you up if someone scams you - not worth it for the individual buyer or seller