eBay have confirmed two changes coming into effect with the fee and listing structure changes on the 24th September.
Relist Credits
In the past, if a listing ends without a sale it could be relisted and if sold the second time of listing the insertion fee would be refunded. From the 25th there will be no more relist credits on fixed price listings, although they’ll still be available for unsold auction items.
Under 99p BINs
The second change is much more important and announces the end of sub 99p items on fixed price listings. From the 25th 100s of 1000s of items will no longer be available at their current prices. Sellers will have three options – increase their prices, bundle items to justify the cost or simply cease offering them for sale on eBay.
In a survey on TameBay 25% of sellers said they’d direct buyers to their own website for low cost items with a further 12% stating they’d simply stop selling them. These are products which simply won’t be offered on eBay in the future.
Buyers of items ranging from postcards, stamps, crafts and even mundane items such as electrical fuses and cables will be affected. There is an argument that sellers could simply raise their prices for many products, but why would buyers buy on eBay when they can buy cheaper elsewhere? Also raising prices simply doesn’t work for many pick’n’mix type products where buyers wish to choose a unique selection of items.
eBay need to realise that the avid postcard collector who spends his 20p/card with free carriage on additional items is the same person who’ll be browsing eBay for Christmas presents later in the year. If that buyer starts buying his postcards on eBay rival eBid, guess where he’ll probably be doing his Christmas shopping this year?
One of the greatest reasons for shopping on eBay has always been you could literally buy anything on the site. In two weeks time that will no longer be the case and eBay will be much poorer for it.
62 Responses
Are ebay maybe trying to de-clutter the site by doing this?
I have this feeling they are trying to make way for the big boys to try and come on board, every week now there seems to be an article in Retail Week saying what a great place ebay is to sell on and you big retailers should come on down and sell with us, Littlewoods do and so do Schuh so why don’t you! ( well it doesnt quite sound like that lol )
There has to be more money and less work for them that way?
stu
My concern is that the user base is being diminished.
Sellers of small items are also buyers.
If they are alienated from the site, then are not buyers alienated?
There should be room for everyone on Ebay.
It is a long standing issue of mine.
Ebayers are not buyers or sellers.
They are users of the site.
So when we lose a seller, we lose a user.
If Ebid take up the slack and get their advertising act together, Ebay may well rue this day.
Ebay Users should be the term bandied about.
Then Ebay might not be so keen to force policy on “sellers” when they click that they are also “buyers”.
I buy a lot of items on Ebay, why?
Because I am a user of the site.
It is sad to see so many users shown the door, because they do not fit the “corporate” vision of the current management.
This used to be a community, now it is turning into a shopping mall.
Ebay shoud be a place for all to use as the site for ecommerce.
Become too commercial and you lose the magic of Ebay.
Do not get me wrong, we are doing very well on the new policies.
Our concern is for the new batch of dolphins Ebay have decided are no longer invited to the party.
Mark
It would be so easy to get around.
Set a minimum order value.
Or do not allow feedback to be left for items under £2.00.
But if the real reason is to clear low value items off of the site (Richard the pink expressed similar sentiments a few months back if I recall correctly), then it does not matter what is said here.
They will view this as housekeeping.
Sadly….
Mark
#1 I don’t think they’re trying to clear the site at all. I think they’ve tried to hit the feedback issue hard and totally missed the fact that people “buying feedback” will just as happily buy it at £1 as they would at a penny (most of the time they don’t actually pay anyway but just “buy” off friends so what’s the difference?).
Then they’ve not realised that some products just don’t lend themselves to 99p or higher price. Imagine walking into the pick’n’mix at your local cinema with a five year old and telling him “yes you can choose exactly which sweets you want but you have to have at least five of each”. Hell the whole point of pick’n’mix is that if I want I have have ONE sweet of each type and that’s exactly how some people want to shop on eBay. They don’t want to buy “Five for a pound” when they only really need one.
Well I think more people must be going over to ebid – I’ve sold 2 pairs of earrings there this week! OK that doesn’t sound much but I sold nothing there in August and I make more profit there than the same stuff sold ebay because there is no listing fee.
OK it won’t pay the bills but every little helps. I might start looking to buy beads there after these changes…
As for losing the re-list credits, well first of all my listing fees are increased with the shop increases, and now I won’t even get the relist credits for BINs. How hard can they make it for sellers of cheap stuff.
OK it’s not megabucks, just a couple of quid a month for me, but it’s all adding up to make business more unprofitable for small sellers.
They are definitely only interested in the big boys now, aren’t they?
99p UK, 1Euro Ireland, $1 USA.
? And for how long.
What more changes?
With all the recent and upcoming changes, this platform has been a bit of a nightmare for sellers of lower priced items with medium – high numbers of listings.
This action will prove to be something of a watershed.
Good luck to all those afflicted.
3 No feedback for transactions under £1 would stop “buying feedback” but would allow 99p BINs.
#2 Profit and loss..In theory feedback minipulation is worth a pound too one person may be worth 5 pound to the next. Depending on profit margin of the seller.
Many people are also trying too beat snp via purchases not just sales.
This is not about feedback manipulation. Its secondary.
SNP and the dolphins , its not about the offering the buyer a better deal or protecting buyers. That just an excuse. They are cleansing the system/ebay.
When all these changes came in, if they had announced all the changes all in one go and the effect off them on sellers. There would have been uproar in the media and by the sellers.
They are systematicly evicting sellers.
On 5/25/2008, 18.5% (18,514) of the Top 100,000 eBay Sellers were NARU or Inactive. Today, 21.3% (21,308) of the same group are NARU or Inactive.(7/16/2008) – info from sellerdome
Another interesting fact SAFEST(negs,neuts) and HIGHEST DSR Category?
CRAFTS
These changes are deliberate and they are fully aware off the after effects. I think Ebay relise alot more than they would like you too think. Do not underestimate them
I’m disgusted by the changes on eBay.
Earlier on, I posted on the Tamebay forum because I’d been so confused about the changes on eBay.
Now I think it’s a deliberate scheme to turn eBay into a huge online shopping arcade and f*** the millions of private sellers and small business sellers that have made eBay what it is.
Shame on them!
I think I’m going to close my shop before the changes take effect and look elsewhere. There’s no good alternative to eBay at the moment, but I hope there will be as millions of small sellers will feel cheated by eBay and hopefully turn their back on them. Come on Google!!!
I’m even more upset about this as this autumn I wanted to become a business seller and increase my sales on eBay.
eBay killed digital sales in the name of feedback manipulation.
Not all digital sales were 1p eBooks. There were download-able quilt, knitting and crochet patterns, digitized machine embroidery patterns ASP $25, seller listing templates, educational materials for home schoolers, banners and eBay Shop design to mention only a few.
Then eBay.com systematically removed feedback from low cost digital transactions. A friend who had previously sold patterns at auction was told that she was guilty of feedback manipulation and any purchases she made (to bump her ratings to a point she could sell again) costing less than $5 before adding S&H would also be considered FB manipulation. She was warned that she was being watched. She is now happily selling her patterns elsewhere.
I predict transactions for less than $5 will become feedback ineligible in the very near future.
I closed shop on ebay just after opening it. Was selling before & decided to have a shop. A few days later i had the e-mail about the changes & even though i had paid all the listing fees closed it.
I am now on EBID.NET on the UK site, where i can have 5 shops, No listing fees & a final VFV of 2%
Because it’s cheaper to to sell on there, the prices are cheaper.
Hopefully EBID will take off with this rip off ebay are coming out with, & people will still be able to buy & sell their small 99p items.
It FREE to join & easy to use.
the only real option available now is to switch to ebid as this site Is the only competitor worth using. You will see ebid expand very quickly in the comming months as the exodus gathers pace. I would suggest people join up while the life time half price offer is still available.
I’m definitely going to close my eBay shop. I’m working for eBay at the moment – what’s the point of high turnover when there is low or no profit? I’m moving all my listings to EBID and to my own website. Sales there are slower (at the moment….), but at least when you sell something, you actually make a profit! PLUS there is none of this “restricted visibility” nonsense on EBID.
As a buyer (as well as a seller), I’m finding more of what I need on eBid and it’s often cheaper than it is on eBay because sellers don’t have to compensate for the incredible fees that eBay charge.
I opened up on eBid 2 weeks ago and have sold 3 items already (I only sold 7 items on eBay in the same period – sales on eBay have been very slow this year compared to last year). Interestingly, on 3 identically listed auctions I’ve had more views on my auctions on eBid than my auctions on eBay. I closed my shop on eBay today.
Because of the no listing fee, I’ve been able to list auctions that I would never have listed on eBay, knowing that if they don’t sell first time round, I can relist them for FREE until they do sell.
As more sellers come to eBid, so will the buyers.
For the many sellers (like me) who are moving much or all of their stock away from eBay, it’s worth spending some time researching the best sites to try next. Obviously having your own web site should part of your strategy.
Ebid looks good for crafts and low-cost new items, Delcampe for postcards, Delcampe or SpecialistAuctions for stamps.
Perhaps others have more suggestions?
Max
well i stoped selling on ebay 6 months ago where i was a power seller with over 3000 possitive feedback and now i sell on ebid , as a craft store many items are under 50p especially papers and embellishments so i can list these on ebid and because there are no fee’s or very little i dont have to hike the price up to cover ebays fees , i also sell tiara bands at 2 for 99p which on ebay was my biggest selling line , my fees have dropped from £180.00 per month on ebay to £3.00 on ebid which means im so much happier and so are my customers and they know they can buy the quantity they need in one’s and two’s if they want, of course i dont mind if they would like 6 but the choise is up to them lol. ebay are takeing away peoples choise to be able to buy what they want in the quantity they want , i was just a small fish in the big pond but they have lost my fee’s for good im much happier on ebid and as it continues to grow i think more and more seller’s like me will arrive x mandy
I read somewhere that some “ebay expert” was asked if a site would ever beat ebay.
He said “there already is a site beating ebay, its called ebay and they are doing a pretty good job of it”
I fear he may be correct.
#14
What difference in turnover are you seeing by moving to eBid may I ask – in proportion to eBay if you don’t like to give numbers?
#7 The really scary thing if you dig into the SellerDome figures, is that almost 40% of the top 100,000 sellers have no items listed.
Ebid reminds me of early Ebay. The buyers will come if the sellers take a chance.
Ebid – i have been watching there progress since yahoo closed in the uk. i transfered my ratings from yahoo too ebid when it first started up.
They need branding and they need the big sellers. If the small sellers dump ebay and list on ebid, then the buyers will follow. That should encourage the larger seller.
Ebid need too partner someone that can offer them branding like google,virgin,MS a big player that can get there name out there and make it an everyday name.
Large sellers will stick too ebay untill the profit is not there. And it is still there.
Thing is i do not like these changes but i am however getting more sales.
This is a good and a bad thing. I like competition , my competitors are getting hit hard on SNP and MY BUYERS.
My lines will always be profitable on ebay. But i will jump ship if the time ever comes.
we 15000 or so worldwide and around 2.500 uk
though we have another couple of ids not in the 100.000 ,with lots listed and making much more than this id , so that list means nowt
ebid ?who the heck are ebid
they are in the twilight zone of online auctions,
I want to make money
not delude myself ,
the only thing that stops me using ebay more than I do,
is the need for sleep!
Ebay say changes are now on 25th NOT 24th
https://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200809.shtml#2008-09-09143651
#23 Norf, take a peek at eBid auctions, there’s some bargains to be had because of lack of bidders at the moment. It doesn’t really interest me yet enough to list on but worth keeping an eye on it.
Insipred by this thread, I just took a peak on eBid for 4 items in different categories I’d been looking for on eBay. 3 of them were more expensive on eBid & the other one wasn’t listed on there.
As a buyer, I’m therefore more inclined to buy from eBay or Amazon, where the items in question are cheaper & sold under a brand I am familiar with. As a seller, I’m tempted to list a few odds & ends on there to give it a try but I wouldn’t even consider not listing on other venues as well.
how many nails is it now in that coffin?
What is the reasoning behind only having relist credits for auctions?
oh hang on yes its ole GreEdbay….. give with one hand take with the other.
Does the removing of the relist credit affect individual listings that went unpaid?
#27 Relist credits for BINs will become less important anyway. The insertion fees will be less, listings can remain on the site for 30 days, and in the case of multiple BINs if the listing has had just one sale there’d be no relist fee anyway.
I guess if you only have one of something then there’s an argument that auction would fetch the best price, and if you have more than one of something they should all be on the same listing anyway.
#28 UIDs are still going to be available.
Even though I am doing alright on ebay I have started to list on ebid. I get more traffic on ebid, just not enough buyers yet. Won’t be long every thread I read sellers are saying they’re leaving ebay before the changes.
I have already started using ebid to search the items I personally need. There are bargains to be had.
A little more time – a few more changes – and ebid will expand with all the buyers they need for all the sellers that left ebay.
As for 99p feedback manipulation – what does feedback matter any more ebay removed the meaning of feedback when they stopped sellers leaving negative feedback. Whats the point – sellers are suspicious of all now if they don’t pay immediately. Half the buyers don’t leave feedback either no matter how good a service they get.
It’s a joke ebay just want to clear the way for the larger suppliers with endless amounts of items. No more ones or twos of items they won’t get the viewings. Unless you have large quantities of each item you sell as a seller you won’t have a chance against the larger sellers.
# 7
This does not make any sense. No Sub 99p BIN in the UK. No Sub 1 euro ( equals 82p ). No Sub $1 (equals .59p ) So can we now list on a european ebay site or ebay.com to overcome this in the UK.
#32 Plenty of items on eBay.com at less than a dollar.
One thing I will be interested to find out is if it’s possible to list something for 99p and then set an auto accept best offer for say 50p. If so then it won’t cost more to list the item and you can just state in the body of the listing that all best offers over 50p will be instantly accepted. It’s not an ideal solution though as items will still show at 99p in search.
#33 But items on .com at < $1 are not BIN’s, they are all auctions.
One thing I have noticed is this.
Just now UK based sellers who have a .com shop are getting exposure for their SHOP items in main search on .co.uk.
I am assuming that this is a glitch because eBay have not yet got a full handle on the beast that they are unleashing.
It is still only 3c to list an item for 30days in the $1 – $24.99 SIF range, albeit with FVF at 12%.
So if it is not a glitch ……
#32 Won’t work Chris!
Just been to .com.
There are plenty of $1 BIN’s that invite best offer. But eBay will not let you enter a best offer of less than $1 !
More work for eBay to tidy this up methinks.
The only way to keep the item the same price as now is to offer ”free” P&P.
Every seller is going to get the problem, so if an item is .99p BIN & includes P&P this might work, but in the description, just explain to the buyers whats happened. The only prob is that if someone wants more than 1 of the same item/listing then there’s no facility for reducing the P&P on 2nd & 3rd items ordered together, so would have to invoice seperately everytime.
Ebay just win more as they can charge FVF on P&P, just what they wanted all along.
Exactly Whirly
there are some Bargains on Ebid
you can sell anything if you set the price low enough
#39 well I was bored earlier so I bought the lifetime+ package £49 pound or sumin like that, stuck a few baths on,will stick a few more on in between adverts.
If eBid takes off then its a good price, if it don’t take off I will just not go out for one night so nothing lost really.
They clearly wan’t rid of the small time seller , the message was loud and clear for me a few months ago. I now Trade on ebid as well as my own site and ebid is getting stronger by the day so look out ebay you may have shoot yourself in the foot beacuse i was also a buyer !
If you have multiple items at a set price then you have nothing to lose by listing on ebid apart from your time.
Not the place for a one off auction though.
#29 “I guess if you only have one of something then there’s an argument that auction would fetch the best price”
Nope that doesn’t work for second hand CDs unless they are rare.
More and more people don’t want to wait so if there are a few on BIN and a few on auction you will get a better price and more likely to sell BIN.
Of course if you have the only one or there are only a couple listed and they are getting a good price, auction still works well, but I have to be lucky these days to get hold of something like that to sell.
I jumped off ebay in february last year, I sell craft items and rubber art stamps now on ebid, It was slow to start with but now averaging 2 sales a day, which was more than i was doing on ebay, have 700 listing over 4 stores and my fees for august were £2.81. For the same sales and listings on ebay it would have been around £70.00, so ebid is a site that is growing weekly and becoming more profitable.
#42 I’m glad that ebid is working for you.
I’m sure that i could sell 2 items out of 700 listings a day on ebid, but it wouldn’t be enough for me.
The fees on ebay aren’t a problem as long as the sales come in
What’s really needed is for all the small sites like Bootbay and Ebid et al, to get their heads together and form just ONE site. Then start as eBay started. I’ve seen MANY changes on eBay, over the past 9 years. I have bought & sold 10’s of thousands of items. I was a Power Seller for many a year (No more though). Most of the changes were/are harmful. I have seen 90% of my listings sell every week (about 5 years ago). I am now VERY lucky if I can sell 10%. Since the new feedback changes were implemented, my ‘Non Paying Bidders’ grew from 6 people in 8 years, to 23 in the first month. Postal losses grew from 0.06% to 21%. The ‘community’ boards are the funniest though. The eBay reps deny any changes ….. deny them till they are blue in the face. They threaten and cajole. Even suspending members. THEN, the changes are implemented. You just cannot believe ANYTHING that eBay say any more. It is such a shame 🙁
compitition is the problem with low cost items not ebay.
anyone can get 50 quid together and bung a few dozen cds ,beads, stamps, bobbins or thread, comics, etc etc etc on ebay.
Just a slightly off-topic question:
Can you list on, say, eBid UK if you live in Ireland or elsewhere? I want to give eBid a try and closed my eBay shop last night, but this is an important issue to me and I haven’t found the answer yet.
Anybody who knows, please reply:) thanks
Sorry, just found the answer! Apparently, there’s an option to show your auction(s) on other sites once you list.
#48 I just tick all the country boxes against each listing (in the postage section) and hope that it shows up in those countries, although I have only ever sold stuff to UK buyers.
I’m intending to close my shop on Ebay soon and move operations to my website and EBid. I would rather sell 2 items on eBid and make a profit than ten items on EBay and make a loss. Turnover is high on Ebay (For now anyway) but what’s the point of selling loads when you’re making less profit? That’s just fool’s gold and I’m really tired of Ebay taking me for a fool – these recent changes are just the thing I need to spur me on to try harder at the alternatives.
I left eBay as a seller after an auction wrecker left me and 8 other sellers a negative feedback – took them about 15 minutes to do that on the day the feedback change came in where sellers could only leave positive feedback for buyers.
I had joined ebid.net a couple of years ago when it was quieter but have now opened 5 free stores there.
Sales are slow for me but the money I made from sales on eBay didnt even pay my fees there.
Ebay was built by small scale sellers, selling their unwanted items and collectables etc. It seems that eBay has forgotten it’s roots in the rush to re-invent itself.
I used to do my Christmas shopping on eBay but not this year – eBid will get my money and I will have more to spend now I dont have a hefty eBay bill each month.
not a hope of me investing valuble time in that site.
may as well try and sell deep sea diving gear to sherpas on everest,
its pages and pages of dead stock and fantasy prices
I’m a seller, and funnily enough, a buyer too. I stopped selling on eBay in May when it became clear that if an item of mine doesn’t sell first go (I sell books), it’s likely to make a loss because of the relisting fees. Since I have nearly 3000 of them listed at any one time, thats a lot of money to be risking, especially as it can be months before any individual book sells.
I’ve also stopped buying on eBay since the shiller’s charter was brought in, apart from a bulk buy of padded bags from my favourite seller of padded bags. However that will be the last purchase I will ever have to make through eBay as they’ve started up their own ecommerce enabled site.
I’m on eBid now, and whilst it’s slow, it’s gaining momentum, I’ve sold more in the last three weeks than I did in the whole of the first six months I was there.
It’s OK Northumbrian, you stay where you are, no one is trying to get you to move, and change is always difficult, especially if you are sitting in a nice little comfort zone, still making some profits. Most of us on eBid know that sales are slow, but we are building for the future, looking after and stocking our shops to prepare for the inevitable eBay implosion, all the people being kicked off eBay have to go somewhere, and eBid is the place of choice. Those of use who have seen where eBay is heading want to be prepared to trade elsewhere rather than going down with a sinking ship.
dont care if the ship sinks
I can swim
though I would rather be in a state of the art lifeboat when the storm comes as on a raft
I have nothing against ebid other than the preaching of those that are trying to convince theirself they have done the right thing
ebid, ebay ,amazon ,who cares !as long as they are profitable I will use them its business, not religion
You’d never guess this post has been highlighted in eBid’s forum would you 😆 I’m sure Tamebay appreciate the page views but can the eBiddy types be a little less spammy and a bit more truthful and realistic please?
Fact: Search any regular product on eBay and then do the same on eBid. Despite the lower fees the matching products you see on eBid, if you find any, will be more expensive.
I think this is because of the type of seller that is getting attracted to eBid. They are mainly amateurs who don’t really understand what it takes to make a real living wage/profit and they assume because they are pissed at eBay and selling on eBid they don’t have to compete with eBay sellers now. 😆
These are the same people that read ‘how to advertise eBid’ in their forums and obediently come here to do the amateur advertising they hope will make a difference sometime in an elephant’s lifetime. Until eBid Ltd become a proper business with a proper sales & marketing plan they are a no hoper for sellers who need to earn a living. It’s just a housewives hobby site topped up with people booted from eBay or maybe people topping up their benefits on the quiet. How else can they survive?
I don’t like some of the changes at eBay but I’m sure going to stay with them because I NEED to make sales so, to achieve that, I NEED to work with professionals. If eBid ever get serious then I might NEED eBid but, until then, please keep it real ladies and gents.
Salus if eBid is full of sellers who’ve been kicked off eBay I certainly won’t be shopping there.
eBay has changed but I can not honestly see another site becoming what eBay was. The original eBay explosion was due to time & place, things have moved on.
Unfortunately bussiness is a bit like a treadmill.
@ # 55
That might be a good point about eBid but consider this… if I as a seller have the typical 70% buyer feedback participation rate, sell 15 items a month, and the number of “bad” buyers (bidders that are there to only leave 1 DSRs, unethical competing sellers, kids, people who confuse 1 with 5, etc) on eBay is 2%, I have at least a 1.6% chance of being suspended from selling on eBay during any 30 day period over my DSRs.
I honestly don’t know what the actual rate is of people like that on eBay but we all know those kind of bidders exist (hopefully it is lower). 1.6% doesn’t seem like a lot but how many sellers on eBay are low volume like this?
@ # 57
Sorry that should have said # 56.
at least you only get a 30 day suspension from selling on ebay
on other sites it can be permanant ,all you need to do is register ! 😆 😆 😆
Looks like ebay is no longer going to compete with ebid.net if they are ditching small sellers.
You can’t make a profit anyway on ebay if your item sells for 99p once you get your paypal/ ebay fees so people might as well list on ebid. At least they don’t have childish rules and compulsory paypal.
I can’t believe ebay have banned google checkout because it is “unsafe”. At least everyone has heard of google rather than paypal.
Bad sellers that get suspended on ebay won’t bother using ebid they will just open another account on ebay.
@ #60
I doubt eBay has ever thought about eBid as competition.
You can easily make a profit selling the right kind of things for 99p on eBay. Do the math. For items that don’t sell for a profit on eBay then why waste your time listing those things on eBid? They wont sell. Better to go find a product with a realistic margin attainable so you can pay realistic business overheads and make a profit.
I’d be curious to know what eBay rules you consider to be childish?
I don’t for a minute believe Google Checkout is unsafe. Do you go out of your way to use your own resources to actively promote your competitors products when they are cheaper than yours?
So eBay allow bad sellers to continually keep opening accounts do they? Wonder why some people are now paying hundreds of dollars to “buy” active eBay accounts in good standing? I wonder why numerous people are spending fortunes on Google Adwords adverts selling info about restoring eBay accounts that have been NARU’d? Silly people.
haff to say
the lifetime no fee one off payment is a stroke of genius
I wish I could sell a promise for £50 quid
Arfur Daley and Del Boy would be proud
not 10 Bob, ..not 15 Bob …but £2 pounds bleeding 10 init!