Monday, February 23rd, 2009
eBay Main Street Gets a Facelift
eBay’s Main Street has a new look and new features. The eBay Government Relations hub features all kinds of new functionalities including new media interactions with Facebook, flickr, del.icio.us and more; increased opportunities for Main Street member involvement; and a sophisticated new content management & search system.
Making a Difference with a Mouse
From the comfort of their computers, thousands of eBay Community members made a difference in 2008 by writing letters to legislators on high priority issues, such as:
• Auctioneering License Requirements: members promoted legislation to exempt eBay sellers from regulations required of traditional auctioneers.
• Open Event Tickets Market: members helped remove price caps on the resale of tickets, increasing availability and allowing buyers and sellers to trade tickets in a free and open marketplace.
• State Sales Tax: members fought efforts to require eBay sellers to collect and pay taxes to the states–and thousands of local jurisdictions–where their customers are located.
Members of eBay’s Main Street receive about four to six emails per year alerting them to new public policy challenges. Solicitation to contact elected officials is based solely on the importance of the issue and the ability to make change. The choice to participate is voluntary and the ability to “opt out” is available at any time.
Main Street Highlights:
• Main Street is a grassroots action network that allows eBay users to stay informed and act upon proposed legislation that could affect their ability to buy and sell on the site.
• Since January, more than 6,000 members of the eBay Community have become new Main Street members.
• In 2008, Main Street members sent more than 22,000 letters to lawmakers in support of “pro-eBay” public policy
Cheers,
RBH
Tagged: ebay, eBay Main Street, ecommerce, government relations, gr, Main Street, News
AuctionWallyOn February 24, 2009 at 2:51 pm Said:
Hello Richard.
I just listened to your interview w/ John Lawson aka Colder Ice. John is a friend and will be on an upcoming show of mine.
You may or may not know, that Usher Lieberman came on my show (The AuctionWally Show) last month for a 1/2 hour interview.
While Mr. Lieberman did a great job, my audience feedback was not favorable of eBays’ position on their concerns, as he related them.
Indeed Mr. Lieberman insisted, that he AND eBay agreed with many of the concerns, but in the next breath, said that none of the controversial policies were likely to change.
So my questions is: Other than having someone who is a nice guy blogging for them, (which you genuinely seem to be) what has changed to make things better on eBay for sellers of unique, antique and collectible items?
Is dual feedback coming back?
Is there going to be search equality ever again?
Will those horrible ads go away. You know, it’s blood boiling to pay for a listing on eBay, and see an ad for a credit card application come up under your listing!
Who’s going to come back to your listing after leaving to fill out a credit card application?
eBay has started a virtual war between it’s buyers and sellers and as we and the stockholders know, thousands are leaving. I am one. My main frustration, is that it’s just too difficult to sell there any longer.
After 10 years of selling on the site, eBay ID (auctionwally) I end with a 100% feedback rating and more frustration and aggravation than I feel I should ever have to endure selling anywhere.
So I’m pretty much done there for now. I will list a couple of things now and then to keep my feedback shiny, and to have something to report in my National Examiner column.
After a couple of years of very unpopular, drastic changes eBay is finally taking baby steps to appease users. Not good enough, you have an avalanche of anger that is spinning out of control.
There is a cottage industry of writers and bloggers who are making a name for themselves by writing anti-eBay posts.
Richard, no spin, no bull, please… are there any big changes coming that people have been screaming for?
Respectfully,
Walt Kolenda aka AuctionWally
We close the comments for posts after 30 days. If you would still like to comment on this post, please use our contact form.
One Comment on this post. Click to add yours.