I can think of 7 places in my little town where Bad checks complete with buyer’s name(s) are displayed with a big red “Do Not Accept Checks From:” written on them.

The fact that 40% of the feedback left by Non-Paying Bidders remains is disturbing. I seriously doubt that 4/10 NPBs can cite seller dissatisfaction. Sure, there’s the occasional seller who tries to get extra money for shipping, refuses to honor their sale etc, but for the most part, if the buyer does not pay, he/she should not be able to leave reputation-damaging feedback.

I got a kick out of you referencing my post, Richard. LOL Thanks :)

I think the neutral issue is the least of the problems here. Sure, they needed to do away with that rule to appease the massive numbers of powersellers scheduled to lose their status. I’m delighted that my 99.7% feedback will go back up to 100% with the new changes. 1 lousy neutral from a buyer who failed to read the description dropped it that far!

One real issue is the HUGE increase in Unpaid Items as a result of the lack of public buyer accountability. Most people are reporting up to a 300% increase in NPBs. And the sellers don’t get those listing fees back if the item doesn’t sell on the relist!

Another real issue involves the DSRs. The two shipping stars are the major problem areas for most sellers. The shipping time star is so poorly written than buyers rate on something sellers have no control over: the delivery speed of the carrier. The shipping and handling star is even more subjective, as buyers are poorly informed about what it truly costs to ship and package adequately.

As for allowing buyers to change feedback, I’m with Brews. Until we’re sure it’s for negative or neutral feedback ONLY, and that buyers won’t be able to retroactively change a positive to a negative, I’m not getting excited. If buyers are allowed to change positive feedback, we’ll see an ever greater increase in extortion and unhappy sellers.

As is evident in my situation the gross traffic has decreased, and that decrease is the traffic from eBay. So the ratio of eBay and other engine traffic is shifting in appearance from both 1) decrease in traffic from eBay will naturally result in an increase in traffic from the other engines as a ratio in a picture, 2) the increase in traffic from the other engines on top of the decrease in traffic from eBay on a graph depicts an even greater difference in traffic sources.

For example- if there was only a decrease in traffic from eBay the ratio might be 85 to 15%, but because of the simultaneous change in the traffic source quantity the ratio of change is 60 and 40%. In essence the distribution is both a result of the decrease in eBay traffic and an increase in outside eBay traffic.

This brings me to a question I have had for a while. Considering Google gains nothing (that I can see) from our items being listed on Google base why have they developed the Google store connector? It puzzles me that eBay who would greatly benefit from our products being simultaneously listed on eBay and Google base has done nothing to develop a system to make it easier for us to upload our products to Google Base.

Aside from Google it would also benefit us to list our products on shopping comparison sites, yahoo, MSN… yet eBay does not provide a feed for us to do this in the format that is required by these sites. They provide the xml feed, but it seems to have errors. Even the feed that is supposed to work for Google doesn’t work for base. If I am simply not understanding how to use these then eBay of course fails to provide necessary instruction- i know this because they provide no instruction. So if anyone knows how to use these I would appreciate the instruction.

Another similar topic

In the New York Times article – where eBay continued to bad mouth the real eBay sellers – Stephanie I believe stated that they brought in Buy to offer more fixed price products to our customers. It struck me that if eBay had wanted to increase fixed price products in eBay search they easily could have accomplished this (with greater variety even) simply by not hiding store listings. Now I don’t want my items thrown into search but I know a lot of people do, and that would have fixed the problem. The only reason I can see that they didn’t do this is because they need to suck money out of us so they can subsidize the freeloading buy account off of our backs.

They certainly puzzle me with their ideas!!! I read an article yesterday

UPDATE 1-RBC Capital cuts eBay price target to $35 from $40

I found this statement to be of course accurate and easily evident of what eBay is doing

“Over the next few quarters, these deals may have the effect of replacing high-rent with low-rent tenants and average take-rates may begin to compress,” Ju said in a note to clients.”

This is exactly what they are doing- they are already losing the “high rent” tenants and have replaced them with one welfare tenant. This will clearly decrease gross revenue. Especially compounded by the reality that buy is seducing eBay customers to shop from Buy.com directly. This new “strategy” of eBay’s will further degrade the value of eBay and very easily could have been avoided by simply letting store inventory into the general search. That was the only – the only- change they should have made to achieve what they are wanting to achieve and they would have retained THEIR customers.

Oh well, live and learn right? It is just to bad that the learning won’t occur until after the current eBay “leaders” kill eBay

They have the traffic but aimed at WHO? Not me that’s for sure and my standing has always been elevated too. Some buyers who follow my work left ebay with me. They get special treatment on my website and I’m always available to make up whatever they want. I was surprised at how many were just as disgusted with ebay as the sellers. Then, too, a lot of my buyers are other artists and when they leave they tend to buy from me elsewhere. The sales I’m getting on Etsy are sales from “used to be” ebay artists. Go figure. Anyway, we’re finding our way and the big loser in the end is NOT going to be the sellers. Not the resourceful ones. I think there will always be places where unique items will be sold and sold profitably. People want them so its just a matter of directing them to where they can shop.

so far this month referring domains ebay accounts for 53% the rest google, yahoo and a few other. Search engines 61%- the rest google and a few smaller engines.

I looked at my traffic reports through last you and through out the entire year eBay was 90%+ of all my traffic- this was the case through January 2008- and it has been all down hill from then. I bet eBay drops below 50% on search engine by the end of this month- then you really have to wonder what good this place is when I can do just as well on ecrater for freaking free.

So far this month I have ran 50 auctions- and an unbelievable 2 sold. Is that freaking crazy or what? I haven’t even listed any more the last few days it just isn’t worth it. It use to bring traffic to my store but that isn’t working anymore. I have only had 58 sales this month so far and 33 of them came from outside of eBay. Interesting I have only received store referral credit for 6, which is clear theft.

Oh, and I have “raised” visibility and always have- ha ha ha

I remember listening to an interview that Ina had with JD- she asked how he was sure that the sellers wouldn’t leave over the changes and he arrogantly said “because we have the traffic”. hmmm seems the traffic is following the sellers that have left!!

1. the outrageous changes eBay intends to do with my store that I pay for every month. Apparently eBay is going to dump the listing frame, which is an essential component in driving multiple sales and bringing people into the store. Rearranging the page decreasing the space for descriptions and pictures (imagine that after instituting these absurd DSR penalties one based descriptions) they reduce the space to provide a good description with descent sized photos.

Interesting information- from a representative of the “stores team”

“Now, onto how this affects Store sellers and the Store listing frame. Let us be very clear that a Stores specific designed item page will be live on the site in the coming months. The Stores team worked extremely closely with the view item team in order to develop a page that we believe will deliver the following for our Store sellers:

(1) Drive repeat buying activity
(2) Showcase breadth of inventory
(3) Drive an individual Store seller’s brand
(4) Highlight promotions effectively

The initial version of the Stores item page, or what some users are seeing today is a newly designed Store header that includes the Store logo, Stores red door icon, Store colors, links to Store, and links for buyers to add to favorite sellers and Store newsletter, as well as the Store search box. Other features which will only be available to Store sellers will come in later months as a final design and will include links to Store custom categories, cross merchandising of your own items, and the ability to add marketing messages on your item pages.

The listing frame that we are all familiar will not go away, but will evolve into what the Stores team believes will accomplish the four goals highlighted above. Because this functionality will only be enabled for Stores, we see the newly designed item page as further support and validation of owning a Store on eBay.”

This deserves significant emphasis

“Other features which will only be available to Store sellers will come in later months as a final design and will include links to Store custom categories, cross merchandising of your own items, and the ability to add marketing messages on your item pages”

I would like to know why what I have now I will be having to way for in the future with this new nightmare you have conjured?

2. Apparently they are testing the pages, yet we may not realize that our store listings are screwed up, because not everyone sees the jacked up appearance. So I could have potential customers being met with a jacked up listing which of course will likely turn them away, which clearly will cause me a to lose sales.

Let me be CLEAR

All of these little changes you want to make undermine the features (you) eBay used to promote the benefit of having a store- unique centralized location, listing frame, custom header and so on. Now you think it is alright to on a whim without explaining your intentions just take those features away. You are violating the contract that you(eBay)and I agreed to when I signed up for my store subscription. You (eBay) are interfering with my production and the solvency of my business which I have 10s of thousand of dollars invested along with the time I have spent setting up my store and optimizing its functionality over the past 18 months.

You (eBay) have grossly over stepped boundaries by treating your customers who have paid for a product like we are rats in your disgusting game. To be so bold as to distort my ads (listings are ads) and my personal store against my will to who knows how many viewers is OMG so freaking far out of line, and is flat out criminal.

I’ll be having the many people I know browsing my stor everyday at varying intervals- I have sent them fire shot screen shot app and instructed them on how to use it so they can gain evidence if they should find any of my listings distorted. If ever this is discovered I will take you to court- don’t imagine this as an empty threat- I am dead serious I have had it with your outrageous abuse and you have gone to far with your little games.

You need to take pause and reflect on your conduct from both a legal and conscionable perspective. Your behaviors demonstrate a clear disregard of your responsibilities concerning your customers and leave no room for doubt that you are taking advantage of clear anti-competitive behavior due to your controlling a disproportionate market share founded upon your efforts to prevent entry into the market.

I’ll be sending you this notice certified and notarized. If you act in any way either through eBay or paypal to compromise my business I will file suit against you for “retaliation”.

This is not about sellers. Ebay has enough sellers who are commercial such as BUY.COM (and you should read that article too!! It’s quite revealing!) and others will most likely be joining in.

The new Beta Programming is preventing small seller’s items showing up in higher ratings with the BEST MATCH searches when competing with the higher volume Power Sellers’ items.

The new BETA search is now being engineered by the development team and is being forced upon members in the community supposedly in a progressive fashion, in other words, the members are being “directed” into it with a choice to opt out if they can indeed make the opt out button work, and if they can even find the opt out button.
The BETA MY EBAY page test subjects have not been as lucky. Many (no NOT a FEW!) have been forced to have it without an option to opt out. This would, again, be another method of preventing the lower selling income sellers to not be able to list and compete with the power sellers who bring in the most income for ebay.You can see by the comments on the MY EBAY board how this has affected many sellers who list!
It DOES appear, however, that there are power sellers who have the MY EBAY BETA version who CAN opt out. That way, they are able to use their EBAY purchased management software packages that are not yet compatible with the BETA format.
What I’m gettting at here, is that the neutrals removal issue was not a response to the cries of the small seller. It was a response to the power sellers who have way more neutrals, percentage wise, than the small seller because they have so many more customers to manage than the small sellers do. It was to give THEM back the advantage that they need to keep their listings from getting lowered on the new searches.

I am highly skeptical of any move that the execs make when it comes to the sellers. Only because they do not walk in a small seller’s shoes.

If every employee of ebay listed and sold 10 items a month that were used items from their home, in addition to their regular hourly paying job, they would be able to walk in the small seller’s shoes.

Skip McGrath suggested that ebay involve the members more in their decision making. I think if they became members themselves (starting with a “beginner’s ID” like everyone else) they could make better decisions.

But even now, I don’t think it would make much difference, the map is already designed to go a certain direction and it does not include keeping small sellers around much longer.

By the way, this blog is slower than molasses. It must be from the same product line as the BETA stuff that’s being pushed now.