PeSA Makes Official Statement on eBay Marketplace

Patricia1On October 1, 2008 at 3:25 pm Said:

I’ve been saying for months now “Where’s the beef”! There are less buyers because there are less sellers! Wake up Ebay - you’re milking sellers - especially small sellers where there is no more milk to be had. You’re beating the stuffing out of them with crazy policies and ditzy DSR’s - they are throwing up their hands and getting the heck off the site! Those sellers are moving on - they have no choice - you’ve left them NO CHOICE! For most sellers this will be a dismal holiday season. One wonders just how much farther this site has to fall before the dawn comes.

TheBrewsNewsOn October 1, 2008 at 4:55 pm Said:

Today, we signed up with Terapeak for their free trial period and we used their service to analyze Elizabeth’s total number of listings, sell-through rate, and total number of items sold. What we found was:

Summary:
1. Actual number of items listed are way up from all earlier levels.
2. Sell-through rates since FP30 was instituted have declined noticeably from 30, 60, and 90 day levels.
3. Total number of sold listings since FP30 do not show any noticeable increases over earlier levels on average.

I, too, want to hear about success stories and to give full consideration to both sides of the issue. However, I am having a hard time understanding how the changes have helped Elizabeth’s eBay business as the numbers do not reflect an increase in total items sold, only an overall increase in the number of items listed and a decrease in the sell-through rate. As I said, I am new to Terapeak so perhaps there is something I am not seeing or perhaps there is something about Elizabeth’s business that I do not understand.

According to Terapeak, here is some stats about Elizabeth’s eBay listings / sales:

Listings:
Sept 27th - 500 items listed
Sept 16th - 87 items listed
Sept 6th - 302 items listed
Sept 3rd - 53 items listed
Sept 1st - 142 items listed
August 29th - 284 items listed

Sell-through rate:
Sept 27th - 4.8%
Sept 16th - 3.45%
last 7 days - 8.96%
last 30 days - 11.07%
last 60 days - 9.84%
last 90 days - 11.32%

Scott PoolerOn October 1, 2008 at 5:57 pm Said:

Richard,

I am shocked I am one of the first to comment here…

As I have mentioned on Twitter today, I see nothing wrong with posting an alternate view. Some may see the view posted here as something other than an honest opinion delivered by a person with an alternate viewpoint from their own…

But knowing what I do about you, I can only see it as an alternate viewpoint which deserved publication, just as other bloggers such as myself publicized the PESA “white paper” on the Trading Assistant Journal.

There should be every reason for people who are still successful using eBay to scream from the mountain tops about their good fortune, because frankly is seems as though they may be in a minority these days.

I am certainly hopeful that we will hear more positive messages about eBay than what we have heard in the last several months.

In fact, I asked my readers for just such a message some weeks back… Unfortunately I received very few positive replies.

We all know about the frustration, we all know about eBays seemingly incapability to communicate the positive aspects of any of the changes they implement, what we do not know, and apparently the market does not know… Is any of this actually working?

There is not enough information included in the letter above to get a real sense about what tactics or strategies Ms Bennett is being successful with when selling on eBay.

This causes suspicion, sellers want to know how to be successful, and they wonder why eBay seems to not want to share this information. Obviously it is in everyones best interest if every seller were to become successful on eBay, right now, that just is not the case.

Not one of the formerly successful sellers can understand why the rules changed so drastically and so often or why eBay seems to relish in the fact that almost no one can get a handle on how eBay wants to make sellers successful with these new programs and odd rules.

I know you try to disseminate the news the best you can with the resources you have. I also think you understand that I have spent more than an average amount of time trying to do the same from outside of San Jose.

The trouble is… and it makes me sad to say this, is I am about at the end of my ability to want to worry about any of these events or changes any longer.

Many sellers feel the same, I believe.

That is a sad thing for eBay and for the entire eBay story.

Patricia1On October 1, 2008 at 7:42 pm Said:

“The trouble is… and it makes me sad to say this, is I am about at the end of my ability to want to worry about any of these events or changes any longer.”

This is the part Ebay is either outright ignoring or just plain does not understand. You can only poke someone with a sharp stick so many times before they up and leave. Many sellers have been poked so many times that they simply threw up their hands and left and therefore, no longer care what Ebay does! After 10 years, I reined in my listings to next to nothing and put those items on 4 other sites besides my own website. If I’m not making sales on Ebay anymore than there’s no great loss. Its not easy to just up and leave Ebay after all that time - life used to be good there…but with each day, I seem to care about Ebay and what they do less and less.

AmberOn October 1, 2008 at 8:27 pm Said:

new eBay pricing is wonderful for my business

Well, yea for Elizabeth. I, however, have watched my sales plummet. The Fixed Price pricing/format effectively hides store inventory from everyone. It has pumped so many items into core that store items aren’t being shown at all. The few who could , just maybe, find my items aren’t being shown them in search due to the well known book catalog search glitch. (You know, the one where it tells a buyer there are ZERO results when there are actually ZERO in CORE and 20 in stores).

But, I do have to point out that PeSA is a LARGE group of ebayers. That they have taken the time to issue a statement about issues we’ve been screaming about for months should tell someone something.

The main point:

It’s not a small minority of sellers who are not happy with the state of eBay–either in buyer traffic, sell through, Average Sales Price, or any other the other tools we use to measure success.

The minority is the few eBayers left who are willing and able to adjust (yet again) their product lines, sales practices etc etc etc to remain on the site.

Donna DonnellOn October 1, 2008 at 9:13 pm Said:

I applaud PESA for formally putting in writing what dedicated sellers are going through. Sellers are speaking individually and are being ignored so I for one welcome PESA’s paper on behalf of all their members. Powersellers are not the weekend sellers, although there is definitely a place for part time sellers on eBay. I am happy for Ms Bennett’s success but it seems success is a moving target only obtained by what seems to be a handful. I have long suspected selective exposure, geographically and by categories. The sellers are the guinea pigs in the best guess format. I attribute all this to the great MASTER PLAN - DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION how long does anybody think sellers will continue to pay for services they aren’t getting. BEST MATCH is a fiasco with the changes back to back to back my sales are less than 50% of last year. Heck I can’t even find my items they are so buried. To control sellers placement and geographical exposure is not acceptable. The function is to provide a venue for me to sell my items, I sell, we both make money. This situation is intolerable please don’t presume you know what I need before I do. Thousands of people have left eBay because of the unreliability and total departure from what was originally created by Pierre. It’s sickening that someone can’t own up to we made a mistake, maybe you can stabilize the destruction already caused by seemly mindless RULES. In a years time we went from a community of buyers and sellers to major hostility, unreliabilty and very risky to sell on eBay not only the hatch has been released with the scammers but the UNFAIR treatment of sellers by eBay and Paypal. What was a fabulous opportunity for thousands of people/business owners and record profits for eBay - changes making NO SENSE are made to destroy the community feeling and the initiative of what made eBAY great.
The problems that were encountered could have been more readily fixed by limiting user ID creation, for having an arbitration unit not this childness DSR we’re going to penalize you because you don’t have enough feedback percentage. BUYERS DON’T WANT TO be bothered with feedback, does my completed transaction enter into the percentage No no feedback means bad seller, Well I big to differ, it is just a weapon for eBay to wield against a seller and a buyer to use to extort from a seller. The way I see it, a good seller is taking all the risk. Why would a non paying buyer be able to leave a vindictive negative for a seller and ruin their reputation, who thinks that’s good idea or good business? Why didn’t you ask your community what would make it better, no the changes are CRIPPLING what was a vibrate thriving community. We don’t need another Amazon we need ebay to be what made it a success, the variety, the mixture of auctions and fixed, stores for anything and everything under the sun. Not a cookie cutter dvd, book outlet I can go to the corner store for that. WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE - A TOTAL SHUT DOWN before someone reacts? I’m disgusted with everything and especially when there is no defense and accusations are hurled for a perceived infraction a suspension from selling and yet the blatant scammers and bad sellers continue on. Limitations on what quantity of an item that can be sold but yet never letting the seller know so they don’t cross the line. More sellers then not want the success of eBay we also want fairness and we want the spark and excitement back that we’ve lost in the last year. All sellers are presumed guilty that’s no way to thrive. Believe me I know there are many BAD SELLERS I’ve had my share of encounters with them but assuming all sellers are fraudsters and don’t deserve respect is not acceptable. It is very risky for a seller on eBay now. Ebay shuts you down and Paypal takes your money after they ok’d to ship. Sellers are buyers too we just haven’t the pizzazz to keep going.
Something tells me my comments won’t be approved, but that’s ok I got it off my chest.

Joe CorteseOn October 1, 2008 at 10:46 pm Said:

Hello Richard,

Thank you for posting the PESA position paper. By now, the level of overwhelming support it has received from numerous sectors within the eBay community, should be quite clear to everyone concerned. The paper has received wide distribution and considerable attention from anyone who has an interest in the marketplace. Suffice to say, eBay touches the lives of many, in one way or another, to some degree. All of these folks want the best for eBay; however, as Scott Pooler so correctly surmises, they want the same consideration in return.

To the community of sellers who have vested here over the last 10 years, the eBay marketplace has always been about so much more than some faceless corporation making decisions in a vaccuum. Every seller in this community believes in a single idea. They believe this idea is special. They believe that eBay is about a unique human bond.

Yet, the enormous passion, energy, knowledge, drive and determination in this community of buyers and sellers is critically under-utilized at a time when eBay needs it most, to differentiate it from the competition. An enormously valuable asset, virtually wasted. Why?

I know Elizabeth well, it would not make me happy to see her subjected to any public ordeal here. She is highly regarded within the organization and eBay circles. We support every member’s right to voice their opinions and concerns. The depth and breath of that diversity is our strength. If everyone agreed with each other all the time, there would surely be no progress.

However, I do hope this is about more than what one blogger at the Red Ink Diary points out when they write:
—-
“Naturally when anyone important drops pebbles on eBay’s glass roof there is a galvanic response.
Fortunately, Richard Brewer-Hay the eBay blogger who is both literate and likable was the spokesman this time. He manages to convey the official line without resorting to Bayspeak or denigration. Such a refreshing change.

If eBay chooses to parade a dissenting opinion as ‘evidence’ that this statement is incorrect rather than listening (as opposed to hearing) then, unfortunately eBay will reap the consequences in the fullness of time.”
——

Is there an official line, an official rebuttal? A lot of folks have a lot of questions.

If so what would the forum look like where that line would engage a viable dialogue on the issues from the folks who are responsible for their architecture? We have a series of white papers that will follow this overview in greater detail over the coming weeks on some of the relevant specific issues. It will be from the seller’s perspective, but no one wants it to be in a vaccuum.

Regards,

Joe Cortese

Kevin_TOn October 1, 2008 at 11:30 pm Said:

Quote from Ms Bennett: “my ebay business is up more than 30%, and my ebay fees are lower.”

My own experience is that sales and individual prices are still strong in spite of everything that Ebay has done to the site and it’s users, and in spite of receiving 2 phone calls in the last 24 hours from buyers (who use the Australian site) asking how they can restore their defaults so that they can find items again.

But I am amazed that Ms Bennett is experiencing lower fees. Until February I could maintain combined Ebay/PayPal fees under 10% of gross sales, usually around 9%, since February my fees are usually about 12.5%, and on two months have broken 15% of gross sales turnover. This is a sharp increase in costs, for a marketplace that is constantly being changed and thrown into turmoil, instead of just being allowed to get in with the business of commerce. What I am noticing at this end of the world as well, is that buyers are now just as frustrated by Ebay as sellers are, which can not enhance the marketplace at all.

Of course living in my birth country, means that I am not entitled to Ebay’s fee discounts, although I would “qualify” for them in all other aspects. Even with the discounts I am not convinced that seller fees have actually fallen for residents of the USA or UK.

Regards, Kevin

mindelecOn October 2, 2008 at 12:55 am Said:

“Today eBay merchants have an increased level of business uncertainty due to eBay’s poor execution of changes in many areas including seller performance measurement, fees, site search, buyer activity, and seller communication. ”

the about sums it up. instead of thinking about selling, sellers are wonder what mess ebay will create next. sure they have announced changes months ahead of time, but the actual tools to implement those changes don’t appear until a few weeks before and then once that one is done there is another and another and another.

my sales have dropped in half on ebay since may, though elsewhere they are going strong.

if ebay has a supply problem all they needed to so was put stores in core search. but no they need to try and wring more money out of the sellers instead with FP30.

ur_bringing_me_downOn October 2, 2008 at 5:16 am Said:

Hi all,
Just wanted to give my opinion on all this. I am a gold powerseller.

I know I am making a big savings on my ebay fees every month- definitely yes a big plus

My sales have declined yes, but I am hoping that ebay will bring more traffic soon.

What I do love about this change is that I save 45 minutes every single day not having to list anymore. Do you realize that is 273 hours of my time per year that I now have back in my life?

OMG, if ebay could just work out the few kinks here and there like remove all dsrs and just have 1 which asks the buyer if they would do business with you again. That is key- if the buyer would give you repeat business or not. Period.

They could enhance their customer service

Do more ad words/advertising/google etc..

And there you have it- a perfect ebay (imo)

nancybusinraleighOn October 2, 2008 at 6:00 am Said:

Sadly, while a few sellers may be trudging along without much of a problem at the moment, the sad and overwhelming truth is the majority of sellers, mostly the small to mid range volume sellers have been ruined by the changes in total.

Now, to highlight the rare claim of success is to ignore the greater issues.

It is the elephant in the room and it cannot be wholly ignored, try as one might.

Being honest about the total result and impact would be much more refreshing than touting a few who disagree with ebays claims of how green the grass is.

JayOn October 2, 2008 at 6:55 am Said:

@ur_bringing_me_down - Here! Here! (applauds)

Jeff SOn October 2, 2008 at 7:07 am Said:

10.02.08:

[eBay downgraded at Morgan Stanley from Overweight to Equal-weight. Seller checks indicate that trends deteriorated more than expected during the third quarter. Estimates also cut through 2009.]

Richard- maybe you can email your post to Morgan Stanley to change their minds. Everyone is watching Wall Street these days, and therefore your position here was anecdotal at best. Tell it to the bankers instead.

DaveyOn October 2, 2008 at 7:50 am Said:

As a buyer, I am finding less and less of what I used to come to ebay for–unique and used items, especially in the business electronics and aviation areas. You used to be able to find anything here, and a good deal to boot! Most of those items have vaporized, and when I located some of my regular sellers through old Paypal transaction records (yes, I keep them), they all gave up selling on eBay for the same reasons–declining profits in the face of increasing fees, scams, loss of community, and most commonly, FEAR. Yes, we’ve moved from a functioning community to fear. Many moved to other venues like Craigslist. Some, where their business was a glorified hobby, simply quit.

As a buyer, if I want BUY merchandise (which I will usually avoid as BUY has about the worst customer service around besides eBay itself), I’d go to their web site to start with. I know where the are and what they have. I have to admit, for Chinese carp like low-priced USB hubs, I can still find them for 99 cents plus the usual $20 shipping at eBay. That’s about all I buy here anymore.

As a small seller, my views are the same as those mentioned by PESA in their letter above. Only two negtrals (neutrals still are negatives for seller performance criteria) or negatives occuring as a statistical aberration within 30 days causes eBay to kick me to the curb for 30 days while my inventory sits and gathers dust. Why would I NOT fear? No matter that my 12 year record is perfect–that doesn’t count. I live in fear, although with an exemplary past. eBay’s bots don’t care. EBay’s CSRs aren’t allowed to care, only to apologize and request I clear my cookies. Why would I want to stay excited about eBay?? For me at this point, it is getting rid of inventory, developing other channels, and then I’m outta here and my unique items will vanish just as others before them.

The DSR scaling system still leaves me scratching my head. Being that I’m a small seller and while 80 percent of my buyers used to leave feedback, now about 10 percent do, so I can pretty much tell when a buyer leaves me less than a 5. When I’ve asked what was not satisfactory, the buyers have said, “Nothing! Our deal went great!” They all thought that a 4 was a pretty good rating too! Obviously, there is some common sense missing inside a certain green building in San Jose…

Meanwhile, eBay’s site reliability has been unusually awful, and of course, no site notifications or apologies. What a p*ss-poor way to run a business!

My competitors have all but left the space, leaving me alone. Our category is so small, Best Mash has not hidden my items. Still, my sales are down about 40 percent y/y, and my fees up 60 percent for this lower value. I get about half the watchers I used to. My customers are thrilled to find my stuff at the price I sell, which is the lowest of any source anywhere, but frequently ask me where all the stuff that used to be here went.

AmberOn October 2, 2008 at 8:41 am Said:

Speaking of ‘value’ can someone explain to me why the ebay bots are blocking the listing of media items that happen to have words that are ‘luxury’ or ‘brand names’ in the title?

Is the system incapable of telling the difference between a DVD/book and a diamond necklace now?

First it was a Breakfast at Tiffany’s DVD being blocked. Now it is books with Coach or Zenith in the title.

No one at Live Help or on the phones seems capable of helping. Emails to Trust and Safety are a joke and are always ignored.

Ebay needs to fix this issue now. It’s ridiculous that the few media sellers left are being banned from selling simply because their CORRECT book titles match a known ‘brand’

Just another example of eBay’s wonderful haphazard policies.

They HAVE to recruit big box retailers because the established ebayers have quite simply had it.

DawnOn October 2, 2008 at 9:02 am Said:

I applaud PeSA for speaking up for the many, many sellers who are losing their livelihoods because of eBay’s changes this year. My eBay sales and page views are down over 50%, but they have remained constant on Amazon and our website. Thousands of other sellers are reporting similar decreases.

The question is, as someone else pointed out, will eBay listen? Mr. Donahoe has stated that he expected to lose some sellers as a result of his “disruptive innovation”, and that he was fine with that. Does he not see a problem with losing thousands? The PeSA paper said, “…merchants are focusing on other channels at higher rates than we have ever measured in the past.” Is that okay with Mr. Donahoe?

MsFish213On October 2, 2008 at 9:20 am Said:

@Scott Pooler “The trouble is… and it makes me sad to say this, is I am about at the end of my ability to want to worry about any of these events or changes any longer.”

That about sums it up…Its been almost a year since this “innovative disruption” started. And the winds of change have only brought about negative results. Low STR’s, higher fees, low visibility, horrendous customer service, more and more negative press, increased listings of of carp just to get the listing numbers up. Ebay has turned into an overpriced online dollar store. It is just NOT WORTH it.

LisaOn October 2, 2008 at 10:01 am Said:

It’s just not worth being angry over anymore. Ebay has lost it’s integrity. They’re very confident about the path they’re taking. Good, wish you all the best. Like Scott, I’ve decided it’s not worth the worry and anger. It’s the The End for me. I’ll seek success elsewhere where I’m wanted.

GailOn October 2, 2008 at 10:45 am Said:

Richard ~

What is John Donahoe’s ultimate vision of eBay? Do you know?

I see only two possibilities:

1) An online “Scratch ‘n Dent” for manufacturers and superstores

2) An advertising portal

Doctor DealsOn October 2, 2008 at 12:59 pm Said:

I was part of PESA at the very beginning, it had good intentions and does good work for its members overall. There are still issues I have with the way the organization is run and thus I am not active in what they do.

With that said, PESA is getting for the most part, exactly what they asked for in their June 2007 Position Paper. (http://tinyurl.com/353lrn) And how do I know because I was right there for years before PESA existed and throughout the past several years harping on eBay for the same exact things. Take action on poor performing sellers that create bad buying experiences or brake the rules, promote sellers that perform well, give pricing incentives to higher performing sellers, etc…

Well eBay has done a lot of that, and yes the DSR system has flaws, especially for low volume sellers that can be devastated by just one or two buyers. And our biggest problem, International buyers that rate us poorly on ”Delivery” time instead of the time it took us to ship the item and on rising international shipping costs we have no control over.

However, overall we see improvements that are paying off for us because we carefully watched and adapted to what eBay was doing. Yes, I for one bitched and moaned to eBay trying to get them to improve some flawed implementations, but at the same time I adapted to what they were doing.

Because our small company did what eBay said we needed to do we have received 15% discounts on FVF’s for the past several months due to our 4.8 & 4.9 30-Day DSR’s and the rest of the year we should see 30-40% FVF discounts as we are only a couple hundredths of a point away from 4.9 DSR’s across the board.

http://tinyurl.com/3py2us

Our listing fees have dropped to almost nothing compared to what they once were and by the end of this month we should only pay about $300 a month to list our items where at the beginning of the year we were paying thousands of dollars a month to list those same items.

Since the Sept 16th change to BM Search our sales have more than doubled from the week before the change. Again, because we followed eBay’s guidance on the changes we were able to succeed by adapting our listings strategies to them.

We may be the exception, but we have seen far greater sales volume and much lower selling costs as a result of these recent changes. I see them as a move in the right direction, but as with any eBay change they may still need adjustment along the way. Maybe these changes do not work for every business model, but if you provide eBay buyers with ”Great Buying Experiences” and list products people want at a price point they feel is fair you should see vastly lower selling costs and higher selling volumes as we have.

Unfortunately, there are still far too many sellers out there that feel just because they sell A LOT that the rules should be different for them. And from personal experience of running a $500,000.00 a month eBay enterprise years ago, I know eBay has fostered that in the past. Well DSR’s as flawed as they still are, are the SAME for everyone. If a business Big or Small cannot afford to provide good service or charge a ”reasonable” S/H fee then they get the DSR’s they deserve for the most part. By whatever measure you set for us as to the size of our eBay business, we have been able to please the eBay customer so they return to the eBay marketplace again and again. If your business is not able to do that, then maybe it is your business that needs some change too, and not just eBay.

DD

Doctor DealsOn October 2, 2008 at 1:07 pm Said:

@ TheBrewsNews,

FYI, terapeak.com sales data is way off since the 30-day FP listing format went into place.

We have done research and reported it to them ans well as eBay.

The problem is, much of the terapeak data is based on CLOSED listings. So if a 30-day listings has not ended yet, NONE of that sales data shows up in terapeak.

We have run the numbers on several of our items and terapeak is showing our sales since Sept 16th FAR below our real sales numbers. We also send screen shots of our REAL sales vs. the terapeak REPORTED sales to them as well as eBay in hopes someone will address and fix this new problem.

You want an example, search for “100GB USB Drive” and look at the top sellers. Change the dates around before and after Sept 24th and see how the data changes substantially. We go from 4 sales in a week to 85 sales. In reality, those 81 extra sales terapeak shows happened in one day really occurred over the 10 previous days.

Thanks,

DD

MsFish213On October 2, 2008 at 1:44 pm Said:

Earlier this year, when all the changes started, someone told me to go to msn shopping com” and that was/is Ebays ulimate goal…just one main page of advertisers.

tulaOn October 2, 2008 at 9:31 pm Said:

I agree with most of the Pesa letter. I’m still getting sales, though not as many and for lower final prices than I used to get. I never really cared about the removal of feedback for buyers, since as a buyer, I wouldn’t want to be “rated” by people to whom I’m giving my business. As a small seller, my biggest fear is DSR related. For those of us with low-volume, it only takes one seller to make us invisible to search. How are we to fight against a NPB who leaves negative feedback just because they want to be a jerk? NPBs should simply not be allowed to leave any kind of feedback, IMHO.

It might be nice to have a few discount “bones” throw our way, too. Even a tiny % FVF savings for stellar DSRs would go a long way. My costs have risen quite a bit, even with lower front-end costs, because I have no access to discounts. I’d like to increase my volume and become a powerseller, but it needs to be more cost-effective for me to do so. I’d really like to not hold my breath every time I get feedback to see if my customers have “rewarded” me with ‘4′ ratings. eBay really needs to fix the disconnect so that buyers know that 4 = fail. Or rethink the DSRs accordingly.

I want eBay to succeed, since it’s relatively easy to list and conduct sales there. If eBay can bring me buyers, it will continue to be part of my sales strategy. I’m still spreading out to other channels, though, because of that fear that one bad customer or one misunderstanding will wreck my standing and prevent me from selling. Fear and intimidation are not the best means to an end.

Dustin JonesOn October 3, 2008 at 6:05 am Said:

The reason your data is off is because terapeak and hammertap are BROKE!

You can’t get an accurate report on ANY seller search till the add in FP30 and somehow, incorporate current sales on FP30 that haven’t ended and completed auctions.

Why you might ask?

Because hammertap and terapeak ONLY take data from completed auctions, not live auctions. This COMPLETELY throws the data off.

Lets take a few of our listings since FP30. Well, most have been switched (at least out top 15 lines items) to FP30. Most of these have about 10 days left. 1 of these auctions has over 700 sales for a 39.99 phone. Thats $27,000 in one auction worth of dales. The other 2 that have 10 days remaining have about $10K-$15K worth of sales in the totaling about 38-40,000 in active listings.

Because terapeak and hammertap ONLY represent sales data from compleated auctions, the data is going to be SOOOOO far off its not even funny.

Before it had it down to about a 10% margin, but now it’s close to 40-50% off on total sales and pieces sold search period.

Before the most you could run an auction for was 10 days so you knew the data was at most 10 days old and kind of told you how a seller was doing. Now if someone has ALL their auctions up as FP30 and no regular style or BIN items, the seller research will reflect 0 sales till those FP30 finish and are t hen dug by ebays back end.

Now the stats might be close, but if you’re using one of these tools to find your facts, they’re WAY WAY off.

Dustin

Dustin JonesOn October 3, 2008 at 6:18 am Said:

oh yea, also we’ve experienced growth of 100% since the changes going from 200 packages/day to 400/day. This has to do with alot of external factors with our business and stock as well. The changes change purchasing decisions, listing strategies, customer service methods and thinking outside of the box to tackle all issues and handle them the best as possible.

If you’re interested in hearing me out on our success for any future articles or quotes, stop by http://tiphut.wordpress.com and shoot me a line.

Doctor DealsOn October 3, 2008 at 9:25 am Said:

Here is terapeak’s response to our email reporting this problem with their data missing all 30-day FP listing sales on eBay:

——————–

Hi xxxxxx,

Thank you for the email.

At this time, eBay does not release the data on the 30FP listings until the end of the listings. Therefore, you will see large batches of items when the listings comes to an end on our reports. We are working with them to update the system, but it will not happen immediately.

All of our data is based on closed listings, but please keep an eye out for updates compatible with the FP30 listings.

Best Regards,
Tina
Terapeak Support

————————–

They know it is broken and they sort of blame eBay for not releasing the data. So if terapeak is eBay’s new “Partner” taking over for the closed eBay Marketplace Research. Why wont eBay release the 30-day FP sales data to terapeak BEFORE the listings end so that the terapeak data will be accurate?

Right now eBay is actively promoting terapeak to eBay sellers, probably all those that used to subscribe to Marketplace Research as we did. Why would eBay promote a pay for service company like terapeak and then not give them the data that provides the actual value sellers are paying for?

This looks like one more poorly implemented change by eBay. I hope they can correct it right away, though terapeak does not sound very confident that will happen any time soon.

DD

TheBrewsNewsOn October 3, 2008 at 9:33 am Said:

Thanks for the information about Terapeak. I have a few comments:

1. For Elizabeth’s eBay listings, the information from Terapeak would be accurate because she sells one-of-a-kind things so every time someone purchases a fixed price item of hers, the listing ends. She doesn’t have multiple quantities for any listings that I saw (granted I did not review all 500 of her listings but I looked a good portion of them). So, the Terapeak data is not “way off” unless a seller is offering mass produced items with large quantities in each listing. Elizabeth offers unique items so Terapeak data would be accurate in her case.

2. As another seller (Mechelle) pointed out, if the broken Terapeak service (for which Terapeak charges its users a fee) is supposed to be the replacement for eBay Marketplace Research (for which I received for free with my store subscription) then eBay is asking sellers to accept an inferior product and to pay more money now to receive that degraded service.

Dustin JonesOn October 3, 2008 at 12:19 pm Said:

Doctor Deals and everyone else,

The thing is, even if it’s ebay’s fault, …their current platform will still be broke.

Say they are able to dig 30 day data RIGHT NOW. When I go to do a 30 day duration look up on a competitor in Terapeak, the data could be up to 60 days old because it’s taking a listing that JUST ended 29 days ago and it ran for 60 days.

How are you going to be able to get 3/7/30 day data from terapeak or hammertap if they dont dig the CURRENT active auctions with sales? You can’t. Which to me …makes them useless other than keyword structures (which hammertap does better)…and because in our category trends only last for a few weeks and data that is 30/60 days old is only a representation that the item sells on ebay but not for a specific price.

I’m not to upset, a visual search is usually the best thing anyways for an experienced lister, and I assume both companies will fix this to have a competitive advantage.

Good weekend and sales to all! Record sales for M-F increasing every day. Hoping for a 60K+ weekend :)

GailOn October 3, 2008 at 6:58 pm Said:

Richard ~

I have a suggestion for John Donahoe. Perhaps he missed Reichheld’s sequel to ‘The Loyalty Effect’. If not, then I suggest he read ‘Loyalty Rules’ again. He seems to have forgotten the principles.

RayOn October 4, 2008 at 4:33 am Said:

Thank for for speaking out PESA. It seems like its not just the small sellers that are being affected. The only sellers who have it good are those who have 4.8-5.0 dsr’s or that sell a lot (gold, titanium, diamond powersellers). But even for most of them, a lot less customers are coming on ebay. Why might this be? The high costs associated with listing and selling are much higher than most other auction sites and even amazon. It cant even compare to you having your own website. I agree 100% that they have increased the back-end fees substantially but have not given back enough to us sellers for this fee increase. Also We are eBay’s Customers. The buyers are not the customers as they dont pay eBay their fees. The sellers are the customers as we pay 100s and even 1000s a month in fees. We keep eBay going and “WE BRING THE CUSTOMERS” meaning we bring ebay its “PROFIT”.

eBay needs to rework their system and make it easy for sellers to sell on there. Right now it has been full of headaches with tons of extreme changes which have only made it more expensive to sell as well as more risky. In fact now it is scary to sell on eBay as 1 small issue with a buyer can lead to account closure.
They also need to think about lowering back-end fees unless they improve the website and improve customer support. I dont want to be charged higher FVF unless my items show at the top of the page when they are ending soon like they used too. Now at the top is an item ending in 10 days. This has a huge effect on most sellers as they dont get nearly the same visibility as they did before. Plus when an item does sell we pay higher FVF’s. Thats not fair to me or anyone. I’ll pay higher FVF’s if eBay makes selling more fair by keeping the items ending soonest at the top. Also they need to stop changing their search algorithms and rules as its such a pain for sellers. Many sellers do work hard planning out their businesses!!!!!!!

Also if eBay want to stay in business, they need an eBay Trust and Safety Phone Department. The email service is horrible and most issues are never solved or take weeks. Do you know what that means for sellers? It means huge profit losses and flawed selling systems that can truly effect the business whether it is big or small. It is too scary and too much work to run a business if you can’t deal with a situation right away. No one is going to want to wait weeks for a solution or for a reply. This just makes people want to do business elsewhere. eBay needs professional support for its sellers right now!

Paypal is another story. With 1 or 2 bad transactions they can ban your paypal or refund the customer even if the customer is trying to scam you. Its always the customer first and not the merchants. The Merchants should be #1 because they make the most money for paypal and eBay. Also if you have problems on paypal that automatically now means you have problems on eBay as well.
Also Paypal seems to limit every seller even if they had only 1 or 2 disputes. Disputes are very normal when selling as a customer may have never received a package, they may get scared and want their money back, they may be trying to get a free item, or it could be a scammer. Its very rare that the seller is a scammer and its usually easy to spot out.
If a seller has more than 3 disputes at once that aren’t resolved for over 1 week or 2 then yes limit their account but if they have 1 dispute open, its not fair to just limit a sellers account as they need the account to be working in order to continue to conduct business. Also sometimes Sellers are scammed by their suppliers or Dropshippers and Paypal needs to have a support team to work with Merchants in case they are the ones being scammed. Paypal needs to have a support team in general that helps merchants rapidly with any issues.

Also eBay is trying to be like amazon and is trying to have a control on its sellers. Higher Final fees, no money orders or other payment processors other than paypal allowed except for 1 but its expensive, and repeat changes to the ebay site and how it works. There are countless issues with the site and with all of the rules and they need to be fixed. eBay needs to find a better way to deal with scammers and need to respect the 99% of sellers that have made eBay work for the last decade.
I hope that eBay reads my message as I think these are all subjects that most sellers agree on.

Ray

John (ColderICE)On October 4, 2008 at 5:38 am Said:

You guys are messing up my nice “buzz” with all this back and forth.

So I put it on video BABY! http://tinyurl.com/4buyrg

John
ColderICE.com

ann1On October 5, 2008 at 6:49 pm Said:

I have no idea if this will post or not. I have no idea why most of my posts do not get published.

John, your video was interesting. I totally agree with you on two solid points:

1) Ebay needs to trust GOOD sellers - not just powersellers. I have been angry and upset since the statement was made that powersellers are trusted….I immediately thought “what am I…chopped liver?” A 10 year small sellers with 100 percent feedback and 5.0 DSR’s DEMANDS to be trusted…what is there not to trust? I’ve always paid my fees on time and always provided good service - my record shows it. Yet Ebay has the audacity to say I’m not trustworthy? Funny all the credit houses trust me completely since I have a long record of outstanding credit! Ebay’s thinking is flawed in this respect. I really believe they do NOT know how to handle people of value.

2) YES…we PAY Ebay to bring us buyers? Goes back to my “where’s the beef” statement. Over and over again and with each crazy new policy I keep thinking when - WHEN are they going to get serious about bringing new buyers on the site. So far, they’ve catered to large sellers and brought out one policy after another to beat sellers with….where are the BUYERS their BRAND is supposed to be bringing in?

So, on those two strong points, I totally agree with you John. Nice seeing you in person by the way ;-)

Hope this is allowed to be posted.

carolyn majewskiOn October 6, 2008 at 9:00 am Said:

hi, i am a silver powerseller on ebay.co.uk.
although i am very unhappy with the changes to search i must admit my fees are definately lower. i don’t know if the fees work the same in all countries, i pay £49.99 a month for a featured shop and list everything except auction items at 5p per listing. the final value fee has gone up a lot but being a silver power seller i get 25% of this back each month (provided i keep by dsr’s at 4.6 or above). for the amount of items i was listing, having approx 300-400 items on at a time this is a lot cheaper for me as i pay less upfront and not much more when they sell. i used to have to put a lot in my ebay shop to keep my listing fees down, however sales were very slow as nobody was finding my shop items. interestingly out of the last 50 items i’ve sold approx half of these were items that had been sitting in my shop for ages, with the new changes these were found.
it is too soon to tell if i am selling more or less, the first few days after changes i sold hardly anything, now i am selling back to pretty much normal but with less fees. only time will tell if this continues.

however i feel ebay is going away from their auction items, still charging original fees rather than the reduced fees. i feel a bit disgruntled that i’m paying £49.99 to get cheaper fees but these fees are not included. the last lot of items i put on auction only about 3 of 10 sold, this is very unusual for my items, normaly they would all sell even if just at starting price, i could always guarantee selling an item at the end of 10 days when put on auction.
i notice in the new search that with the ‘best match’ that a lot of ebay buyers who do not realise they can change it to the normal ‘ending soonest’ or even realise it is different, will end up missing the auction items. i saw an item with less than a minute left half way down the page with items with 22 days etc above it. how would anyone find it to bid on it unless they put in ‘ending soonest’? the item seemed to have no reason to appear below the others in the search results.

my own items have appeared beneath others. you are only supposed to get lower placement in listings with less than a certain % feedback and under a certain dsr score. neather of mine are below the requirements. then they talk about getting placed higher up if you sell lots of the same item, considering some sellers (like myself) sell mainly second hand antique/collectable items that are all different why am i penalised for this? i do not have 50 of the same item to put me higher up the list.
as far as i can see the ‘best match’ is so random nobody knows what to do. i had some fisher price items on, i typed in ‘fisher price christmas’, my 3 seperate listings with the same time left on each were randomly down the first page beneath someone with 80+ days left! this person had put in the word ‘xmas’ and their item was not actually a christmas item, mine were actual christmas toys. there seemed no reason why they and others came ahead of mine, my category was ‘fisher price’ as was theirs.

then their is the talk of postage prices and buy it now prices affecting where your item is. so if i had a heavy fisher price toy and had to put on £10 p&p someone with those same keywords as mine but who was selling 1 figure with £2 p&p would be above mine. that has nothing to do with fair p&p charges and is ridiculous for them to use it. the same with buy it now price, so what if my item is £50 and someone elses is £5, if i am selling something different and more valuable that should not mean it comes further down the page. a record i was selling i typed in the artist name and ‘record’ mine was on the second page with only 2 days left, on the first page was someone who wasn’t even selling that artist (they had keyword spammed it into title), they had a higher price and higher p&p than me. when i phoned ebay to ask about this the person could not give me a satisfactory answer to this. what i want to know is how you would ever be able to move yours to the first page if no one can tell you why yours is behind others, i don’t want to know ‘there are lots of factors affecting placement’ i want to know what they are so i can change my listings to appear nearer the top.

the other scam ebay has is the p&p charges, i read in their ‘advise’ on good dsr’s that you should give free p&p when you can to keep buyers happy! so ebay gets more money because sellers swap the price of p&p over to combine with buy it now price meaning ebay get a bigger final value fee %. also insisting that the only method of payment for some items is paypal is really unfair. i prefer my buyers to send postal order or cheque in the uk as i don’t pay ridiculous fees on it. why should ebay choose because of some bad ebayers conning people that i can’t choose this method. even if you only had this option after selling for a certain length of time so that you could prove you are honest, this would be better than nothing.
i feel that soon everything will have to be paid for by paypal and i will not be allowed to give other options. also with paypal being completely on the buyers side then this is even worse, i can’t afford to get all my items signed for, if i up the postage to cover it i will lose sales. therefore i have to risk getting charge-backs or fake ‘item not received’ disputes opened.

the negative and neutral feedback being removed from sellers is ridiculous. when i went on holiday i emailed all my buyers from the last 2 months to tell them i would be away and would deal with any problems on return. i went away for 1 week and had 2 negatives saying i didn’t bother answering their emails when i returned. they both sent 1 email. they didn’t need to be patient as they may have before because they knew i couldn’t return the feedback. currently i am expecting negative feedback from 2 other people. 1 person bought on 2nd september and asked to pay on the 22nd. i agreed, then they said it would be 3rd october, i was not happy. they said they couldn’t afford it but had paid other people who they had bought from after me. they promised they would pay me next. next email told me i would get paid by the 29th oct! again they had paid more people ahead of me who they had bought from just a few days ago. i have had to give them unpaid item strike but i expect they will get it removed, even though it’s been over a month already. they can still leave me negative feedback if they want and i don’t think i could get it removed. ebay suggested at one point they would set up a member system where you could appeal your negative feedback and a jury of members would decide. however that’s not happening in uk ebay now.
the other person i expect a negative from is someone who bought a few items and said they had posted payment yesterday. they said they were sending cash, i advised against but said if they were going to they should get it signed for. it is impossible in uk for them to have sent me money in the post yesterday as the post offices are shut on sundays over the whole country, no exceptions. therefore i knew he was lying. when asking fro tracking number we went round in circles where first his girlfriend posted it, then he split up with her (the same day), he had his mums funeral the next day, he lost his phone (phone number was a fake), asked for a different number as he said his girlfriend had just called, but said that was at work and was on the train. then told me the girlfriend had sent the money in a post box so had no tracking number and i would get my money. as soon as they can leave negative feedback i will be getting 5 saying the usual that i have stolen thier money etc. if i do manage to get the comments removed due to false contact details it will not be straight away so i will have the negatives sitting their. i can’t leave feedback warning sellers away from him so he has won and messed up my listings!
ebay say they will be stricter on people who do not pay but i have recently given 3 unpaid item strikes that have all been reversed, the buyers each time have messed me around, i am too scared because of feedback to be firm so give people time to pay and they still never do. with one email they get it removed. i have my settings to block people with a certain number of unpaid item strikes as i can no longer read bad comments that say they don’t pay. if they can get it removed so easily then they will not be blocked and i won’t know they have done this to lots of people before me. maybe ebay should let sellers leave negative feedback specificaly for buyers who don’t pay as this is the main reason for a seller to need to give a negative feedback.

all in all i am fed up with ebays rules etc, favouring buyers in most respects and coming down hard on the sellers who actually give ebay their money. buyers are only paying ebay through us sellers, how about helping us out a bit more.
i am however at the moment pleased with my ebay sales, especialy with the credit crunch still selling is definately good. i expect this will be the reason for any fall in profits this year more than the change in fees. i guess as far as the new search features i think they are likely to help in some areas and not in others so hopefully it will be balanced out.

thanks

davarciforumOn October 7, 2008 at 3:59 am Said:

Hi all,
Just wanted to give my opinion on all this. I am a gold powerseller.

I know I am making a big savings on my ebay fees every month- definitely yes a big plus

My sales have declined yes, but I am hoping that ebay will bring more traffic soon.

What I do love about this change is that I save 45 minutes every single day not having to list anymore. Do you realize that is 273 hours of my time per year that I now have back in my life?

OMG, if ebay could just work out the few kinks here and there like remove all dsrs and just have 1 which asks the buyer if they would do business with you again. That is key- if the buyer would give you repeat business or not. Period.

They could enhance their customer service

Do more ad words/advertising/google etc..

And there you have it- a perfect ebay (imo)

JohnOn October 7, 2008 at 5:34 pm Said:

Hey ANN1,

Thanks for watching the video (http://tinyurl.com/4buyrg) and the encouraging comments of agreement. I always tell people that even my own MOM does not agree with everything I say and do and she loves me, LOL.

The deal is that we all have different needs wants and desires. What made/makes eBay great is that it was 1) Trusted and 2) Neutral enough to allow many different sellers and seller models work. Now it has begun to try and funnel all experiences into A, B, or C and NOTHING else.

That is where eBay needs to begin to step back and find the magic of their old saying…”The Power of Us All” and not any longer just the “power of the powersellers”

Some folk that are great on eBay are not trying to be a powerseller, they just like to sell and are ALSO worthy of some recognition and reward!

Power to the “Power of US All” once again

YEAH BABY!!!!
John (ColderICE)

William FaganOn October 9, 2008 at 3:13 pm Said:

Our business has plummeted exactly in correlation with the implementation of “best match”. I called my Ebay rep on Tuesday frantic over this issue. Of course, I got the standard line- it has nothing to do with best match, it is all about the economy. Today I went online and found sellers on this and other forums saying exactly what I am. What horrible treatment we have gotten from Ebay. I sent my rep the following note this evening and I would recommend that others email their Ebay reps. For background information we WERE selling about $75,000 a month on the site before “best match” and we have dsr’s all well above 4.8. We are seller “fujiarts” and we are a PESA member. I have attended several PESA summits. My email-

Susan,

After our long discussion about the new search on Ebay I went online to see what my fellow sellers are saying about “best match” if anything. I wanted to give the whole concept a second thought and consider the possibility, however far fetched, that our precipitous drop in business that exactly correlates with this “best match” implementation wasn’t a direct result of the new “best match” thing. What I found was astounding. Many, many sellers are being decimated by this “best match” thing. There are forums all over the net. I can’t come to any conclusion except that the “best match” is responsible for killing our sales. How could all of these people saying the same thing be just wrong? The evidence is there.
Have you seen this thread-

“thread pointed to this blog- ebay inc”

While I realize that you are required to give your sellers the “Ebay line” as we spoke on Tuesday and to contend that the “best match” is not the cause, I can only be sure that you are receiving calls daily from other sellers basically giving you the same information that I have- you didn’t say that. I am disgusted honestly with the way we are being treated by Ebay. We have worked for years and seen Ebay as a partner- together building business. Look at my account, you can see how hard we have worked to be an excellent company within the Ebay system. The way Ebay has treated sellers this year is reprehensible. Now Ebay is effecting my business so severely that there may be layoffs or even more serious repercussions- what a shame.

That is my heartfelt reaction to what Ebay has done this year starting with the feedback/dsr thing, continuing through the new no checks policy and culminating in this “best match” search thing. After years of experience I realize that this type of seller complaint always falls on deaf ears at Ebay and I assume it will this time too. However, I would appreciate you passing my thoughts on to those who are making these decisions.

Regards,

Bill

William Fagan
Fuji Arts Inc.

Ann1On October 9, 2008 at 5:44 pm Said:

Hey John - you’re welcome - it was a good honest talk and I enjoyed it - nobody seems to talk for the little guy these days.

William Fagan - most of us feel as you do. I was a small seller on Ebay - 10 years, never a negative, over 3,000 total feedbacks and DSR’s of 5.0. So, when my standing in Best Match went from raised to standard I questioned Ebay about it. Well, what they told me was that I only had 2 feedbacks within 30 days (never mind the other 300 I got this year) so they lowered my standing to standard. According to them you now need 10 feedbacks for 30 days. What about the guy who sells an expensive item for a couple of thousand dollars? Does he also get penalized because he doesn’t have 10 feedbacks for the 30 days? Maybe he can sell some 99 cent items and get a whole bunch of feedbacks and that will make ebay feel so much better about him ;-)

MsFish213On October 10, 2008 at 4:33 am Said:

According to a announcement made by Dinesh Lathi on June 20, 2008 (this is a direct quote) “… now only 3 DSR ratings needed in 30 days for promotion in Best Match search results
We’re elevating listings in Best Match for sellers with a 4.7 or higher across all four DSRs. To qualify for this boost in exposure, sellers have needed at least 10 DSRs left by buyers in the previous 30 days. (Without this minimum number, a seller’s listings would receive normal exposure.)

We’ve heard from some of our sellers � especially lower-volume sellers - that this bar was set too high, and we agree. Now, sellers with DSRs of 4.7 or more will only need 3 DSRs left in the past 30 days to have their listings promoted”
I have been going back and forth about this with Ebay customer support for weeks now. I finally got my DSR standing back to raised, but this is just one more “glitch” Ebay has not taken care of. All the correspondence from CS keeps telling me 10 FB until I send them a link to the announcement. To which they have no response. Richard, maybe you can get an official response…is it 10 or is it 3?
Thanks (and congrats on the new baby!)

SandraOn October 12, 2008 at 6:15 am Said:

Well, Well, Well…. who knew that this site was here,, is it advertised anywhere? I am a uk ebay seller and it would seem that I am not the only person who is fed up to the back teeth with the ignorance and contempt that ebay appears to have for it’s customers / tenants. ebay is akin to a landlord from the 1950’s, cram as many people as possible onto your land and treat them with contempt but hey! still charge them a fortune for the privelage of being insulted and held to ransom everyday. Whenever their is problem and we contact ebay the content of the complaint is ignored and the reply is a stock answer.
Where did ebay come from amd who has kept it going all these years? the sellers who pay the salaries of all ebay staff including the CEO..yes John I mean YOU. If I thought it would get me anywhere I would put my Grannie up for sale just to have a chat with YOU…Now there is a thought!
ebay undoubtedly have a hidden agenda here and that is to drive the sometime seller, small shop holder away…An increase in basic shop fees by £8 /$16 a month is an outrage, as if there is not enough for us to be going on with in the current financial situation.
John, why do you assume that everyone is a fraud, a crook etc; what on earth happened to the original ebay mission statement “we beleive that everyone is basically good” don’t tell me; the big money came in the window and the ordinary person was kicked out the door. John, have you ever read ANY of the UK discussion boards, if I was an an executive of ebay and read the comments I would hang my head in shame.
Goodness knows if this will be allowed on here, ebay will of course censor all that it does not agree with as per the note: ebay may; in our sole discretion reject comments that we deem inappropriate. That says it all really, if you don’t like something you just ignore it. Well here is another expression for you; only a fool bites the hand that feeds them.

NancyOn October 18, 2008 at 1:28 pm Said:

I appreciate PESA for taking a stand and hopefully Ebay may take some time to note that their power sellers are losing sales and power seller ranking due to these recent changes.

Fixed rate shipping has made shipping costs higher than my actual costs on media items.

Fixed price listings have slowed sales almost to a hault with little or no attention to listings.

My sales have fallen below Bronze Seller–I was Silver about a year ago. Sales have been declining for about 3 years and have now plunged to the point that I’m trying to wind down business without going bankrupt. They have slaughtered the Golden Goose. By running smaller sellers out of business, they will eventually feel the impact as their own revenues drop.

I have paid very high Ebay fees for years, but at least use to have sales to warrant the high cost. Now I just have high fees. I’m moving everything to inventory as the longer fixed sales have no more impact on sales then store inventory. Ebay has only made a bad economy worse by their recent changes.

Bulgariadirect (Titanium Powerseller)On October 21, 2008 at 3:18 pm Said:

Our Ebay standard listings for property have went from just under £60 to £99!

Our previous Ebay bills until the month before last were between £1300 and £1400, right now my Ebay bill is sitting at £1600 and im only 3/4 the way through the month.

Our buyers let us know in no uncertain terms that we should give them everything and more, knowing FROM THE HUGE POPUP that sellers can no longer leave negative feedback (NOT EVEN NEUTRAL, NOT EVEN LEAVE A NEGATIVE COMMENT) for them. We are in the corner, our business is on edge at all time, not only do we have to be perfect, but if the buyer decides they dont want to go ahead or if they dont like the tone of our voice then we lose £99 and get negative feedback, no questions asked and nothing we can do in return.

Although our Ebay account manager has been very good with us, and Ebay has been good on a whole, we are truly suffering with the weapon of one way feedback and EBay fees.

We are a member of PESA, the Federation of Ebay sellers, an Ebay Education Specialist, Ebay trading assistant and full member of the chartered institute of Journalists (So think i am qualified to comment on this issue).