A while back KMM asked its bloggers to respond to "...eBay sellers are going on strike in protest to recent fee and feedback changes."eBay boycotts are nearly as old as eBay itself, and none of those has been effective at getting the company to change its policies. But things may be different now, as sellers appear to be weighing whether to even bother selling merchandise online at all, turning instead to flea markets and enthusiast fairs instead of wading through what many now see as a bureaucratic and expensive nightmare."
I've been to eBay maybe 4-5 times in my life. Total time on site is probably less than 15-20 minutes. I realized in my first visit that I wasn't their audience and each subsequent visit reinforced that realization.
However, I'm a researcher. This means that when I can't answer something I'll seek out those who can. In this case, CameraGuy, one of my correspondents, a professional photographer and self-proclaimed gadgetman. CameraGuy spends some time every day on eBay so I asked his thoughts and they came in two parts...
18 Feb 08: I don’t really sell enough to be concerned, and I’m guessing that the development of e-Bay alternatives are likely to have a greater impact on the erosion of e-Bay’s position in the market for many products. I pretty much follow two narrow markets in eBay: Canon photography equipment and Apple computers – specifically the 24” iMac I’m lusting for. There are power sellers in both of these, but there are more & more on-line outlets that offer the same stuff at reasonable prices. I’ve bought more stuff – dollar wise – on the FredMiranda.com photography site’s buy/sell forum and the classified ads on SportsShooter.com. I’m guessing that there will always be e-Bay sellers, but I would not be surprised to see e-Bay realize the folly of their commissions and fees and offer some discount to the Power Sellers, or for Power Sellers to begin adding a listing fee to their eBay sales prices.
22 Feb 08: I received a notice yesterday from eBay that it has already responded with a revised pricing scheme that offers discounts to Power Sellers based on sales volume, ratings, etc. just as I had predicted. Free markets are great aren't they? And e-bay, to me, is one of the purest market forms we have evolved...
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» Know More Media Review: Link Love Melange from Know More Media
In the essence of spreading the highlights beyond the hot news topics and being more inclusive, I present to you today, a Know More Media Review melange of link love. Here's a random list of articles I enjoyed recently. eBay... [Read More]
Tracked on: February 22, 2008 5:53 PM | Permalink to Trackback