Ebay Price Increase

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Ebay Price Increase

Postby Ric Gandy » Tue Feb 01, 2005 7:18 am

Now here is something worth talking about. I got the following email from a guy who routinely sells high end cigar items and trade stimulators on eBay. I am assuming he knows what he is talking about. It was news to me. My guess is that it is news to most of you. If this is true, I think the boycott is a good idea. It is interesting to note that I/we did not get this news from eBay. Why does that not surprise me? It would sure be nice if someone would come along and give eBay some competition. Maybe then they would police their auctions, enforce their rules, etc.. Ric Gandy

Hello Fellow Ebay Buyers and Sellers,
As I guess you know Ebay is raising the final value fees they charge effective 2/18/05. This is not a minor increase. In some cases it is 100%. If I were buying items for $5 and selling them for $75 it would not be too bad. However, I try to buy quality items that are usually expensive and there is not room for a high percentage of profit.
With the planned increase The final value fee for a $2000 item will increase from $43.12 to $80.75 or a 87% increase. Since I don't make a lot on a $2000 item, $80.75 plus listing fees is a tremendous hit. Unfortunately I think will Ebay will continue to increase fees and may add buyer fees if they receive no resistance to their increases.
I suggest we boycott Ebay for the week after Feb 18 by not listing anything or bidding on any item. If you agree with this plan please forward this email(or your own) to everyone you deal with on Ebay. I feel Ebay should make a reasonable profit but in this case they are taking advantage of their monopolistic power.
Regards,
Charles
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Postby Dave » Tue Feb 01, 2005 9:07 am

Ric:

I had heard about the E-Bay price increase a couple of weeks ago when I was talking to another collector.

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a lot people can do about it :cry:.

E-Bay is a business and they want to make as much money as possible. There is no such thing as having too much money.

They basically have a monolopy and they know it. I don't know of any other on-line auction service that even comes close. Yahoo really blew it several years ago, but no need to go into that.

If they are doubling their fees they would have to lose 50% of the sellers to show a decrease in revenue. I don't think there is any way 50% of the sellers are going to boycott E-Bay. In addition, if they do lose people it just means less support calls, less server space, less bandwidth that they have to pay for. Therefore their expenses will go down.

I don't think E-Bay really cares at all about the buyers or sellers. They have made that clear by ignoring complaints about misrepresented machines. It reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live skit about A T & T. The skit ended with "We are the phone company, we don't care, we don't have to".

What this might cause is more speciality related forums (like this one) to spring up where items (within that specialty) are bought & sold.

I know that when I do decide to sell some machines I am going to list them here before I go to E-Bay.

Anyway, that is my $.02 on the topic.

Dave
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Postby kmorris8 » Tue Feb 01, 2005 9:29 am

Yes, it's sad but true that eBay is in the driver's seat. No online forum or auction can deliver the market that eBay has and they're going to push the limits of what they can charge for fees.

There was some competiton a while back with www.buy-arcade.com. They tried to make a go of it with arcade stuff -- new and collectibles. But no one really listed anything except brand new items. It really just remained a storefront -- not an auction site. It finally shut down.

Then there's ePier with its Collectibles/Coin op category -- but just some junk and magazines.

I'm afraid that sellers wanting top dollar will continue to list on eBay.

Keith
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Postby SLOT DYNASTY » Tue Feb 01, 2005 12:30 pm

Dave wrote:
I had heard about the E-Bay price increase a couple of weeks ago when I was talking to another collector.

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a lot people can do about it :cry:.

E-Bay is a business and they want to make as much money as possible. There is no such thing as having too much money.

They basically have a monolopy and they know it. I don't know of any other on-line auction service that even comes close. Yahoo really blew it several years ago, but no need to go into that.

If they are doubling their fees they would have to lose 50% of the sellers to show a decrease in revenue. I don't think there is any way 50% of the sellers are going to boycott E-Bay. In addition, if they do lose people it just means less support calls, less server space, less bandwidth that they have to pay for. Therefore their expenses will go down.

I don't think E-Bay really cares at all about the buyers or sellers. They have made that clear by ignoring complaints about misrepresented machines. It reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live skit about A T & T. The skit ended with "We are the phone company, we don't care, we don't have to".

What this might cause is more speciality related forums (like this one) to spring up where items (within that specialty) are bought & sold.

I know that when I do decide to sell some machines I am going to list them here before I go to E-Bay.

Anyway, that is my $.02 on the topic.

Dave


Hi Dave:

I received this eBay Boycott letter from two main sources in the hobby over a month ago, and passed it around to many collectors that both buy & sell on eBay. Maybe some of them will hold back for the month, but as you can see from the new Feb. listings in all coin-op categories, this will not effect eBay one iota. To deliver a point to eBay with a Boycott such as this, over half of the categories in the entire eBay system would have to be Boycotted, (and for more than just one month), for it to put a dent in their oversized wallet, and wake them up!

Besides, if for some fluke, eBay has seen this Boycott letter, they will just be "laughing all the way to the bank"! Sorry to say!
Bill
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Ebay Price Change

Postby Carl » Thu Feb 03, 2005 4:33 pm

Here is an email I just got from Ebay. Sounds like someone did not read the announcement carefully.
**************************************************
Dear eBay Seller,


Recently, we announced fee changes taking effect on February 18th and affecting certain optional listing upgrades on eBay.com, the subscription fee for a Basic eBay Store, and Final Value Fees on Store Inventory Format listings. Based on Community input, we understand our original communication was a bit unclear.

To clarify, no changes are being made to the Final Value Fees on Auction-style, Auction with Buy It Now option, and Fixed Priced listings (with the exception of certain Business & Industrial capital equipment categories). Final Value Fee changes apply only to Store Inventory Format listings, a listing format only available to Store sellers and with durations of 30, 60, 90, and 120 days and Good 'Til Cancelled.

The Final Value Fees for Auction-style listings, Auction with Buy It Now option, and Fixed Price listings have remained unchanged since 2002.

You can view the full details of the pricing announcement here.

Regards,

eBay
Carl
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Re: Ebay Price Change

Postby SLOT DYNASTY » Thu Feb 03, 2005 5:54 pm

Carl wrote:Here is an email I just got from Ebay. Sounds like someone did not read the announcement carefully.
**************************************************
Dear eBay Seller,


Recently, we announced fee changes taking effect on February 18th and affecting certain optional listing upgrades on eBay.com, the subscription fee for a Basic eBay Store, and Final Value Fees on Store Inventory Format listings. Based on Community input, we understand our original communication was a bit unclear.

To clarify, no changes are being made to the Final Value Fees on Auction-style, Auction with Buy It Now option, and Fixed Priced listings (with the exception of certain Business & Industrial capital equipment categories). Final Value Fee changes apply only to Store Inventory Format listings, a listing format only available to Store sellers and with durations of 30, 60, 90, and 120 days and Good 'Til Cancelled.

The Final Value Fees for Auction-style listings, Auction with Buy It Now option, and Fixed Price listings have remained unchanged since 2002.

You can view the full details of the pricing announcement here.

Regards,

eBay


Hi Carl:
You are absolutely correct. When I first heard about this, it was from a person that has an "eBay Store" acct. Therefore, those were the only ones that I had originally contacted. It was afterwards, that I had heard from someone saying that it was going to effect everyone, so I talked to a few other collectors, and most had never heard a thing about the increase.

Have no idea where this 'mis-information' originated. But, the persons involved should have their facts straight before the 'Blah, Blah, Blah session' gets started. Now I'm sorry that I got involved before getting the true facts. Oh well, sh-- happens! :roll:

Now that we have all been enlightened, (in the forum at least), this should be "end of discussion"! :)
Cheers, Bill
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