It will take a lot more than that. Ebay should never be compared to a retail or classified site. It was a “first” of it’s kind, and then it decided to get too big for it’s britches.

The “buy it now” strategy was not a good idea as an alternative to the auctions, because what it brought in, were the people who were desperate to sell quickly, and buyers who wanted instant gratification. In auctions, there needs to be some mystique!

Offering better pricing for the sellers by pushing the “buy it now”, “stores”, and “free shipping” was intentional, and used as a method to entice sellers to sell in that format. This is why they had more of those kinds of listings! The sellers BOUGHT into it too!!

It was what the flavor of what ebay has become. They punished the folks with higher FVF’s who sold in an auction format. That’s why so many left! Who hasn’t been a 10+ year seller in the auction format who has not repeatedly tried to warn the public that this was happening? This has been ongoing! It continues to worsen, because ebay is not to be trusted when they still have greedy corporate executives who know nothing of ebay’s long successful history.

It’s a psychology that ebay quite accidentally discovered, and then it took for granted. With the adidition of “buy it now” they might have seen a huge increase in buyers and sellers temporarily, but for the most part, those who auction things that are harder to come by, or limited, specialty items from the past, can always be auctioned at a higher price than retail. That was where ebay took advantage of the good sellers who left!

The “fixed price” was the McDonalds version of a gourmet chicken Caesar salad. Fun to shake in a container, then the novelty wears off.

The trouble is, the corporate types that run the place, are also into instant gratification, and were not willing to develop the site professionally where they happened to already have the entire corner of the market. They decided to go after the fast cash and lost their credibility as a trustworthy site. The economics were not focused on improving the technology gradually, as it should have been, it was focused on pleasing investors and stockholders, then it was run “as if” the sellers were their underling employees who they could subjugate and micromanage.

The site was initially established with 2-way feedback based on trust and honesty. That changed, and then, with ebay interfering with the business practices of the sellers, then adding ridiculous policy changes and SITE changes without any kind of open communication or warning, they expected the sellers to be so dependent on them, that they could do whatever they wanted.

Ebay lost site of who their customers really are. if they want to succeed, I’m sorry to say, they still do not know or understand their customers, the multitudes of sellers, because they NEVER communicate with them.

I love to see these so called “reputable” sellers crying like toddlers because they can’t hold feedback over the buyers any longer! I personally feel that this was one of the best moves eBay could have ever initiated. It was fine when sellers could fleece decent buyers and threaten to leave negative feedback if they didn’t get a glowing recommendation first.
Also, I personally had to use the PayPal dispute console, and it was an expensive item that the seller repackaged and sold fraudulently. I ended up contacting the manufacturer, who provided proof that the seller was dishonest. I had to deal with threats and slander from this seller, but the bottom line is if PayPal hadn’t frozen his money I would have been out of luck.
I don’t buy a lot on eBay, but I do look for items on there pretty much on a daily basis.
Look through the postings, most if not all of them are from crybaby sellers who can’t get away with their criminal thieving ways any longer
eBay will evolve and maintain it’s spot in the marketplace, and I for one applaud some of their recent improvements.

I left Ebay as a buyer and seller when I made a very large purchase and the item was not as represented by the seller. I disputed it through EBAY and was told I had to dispute it through PAYPAL. Finally I ended up using my credit cards dispute proceedure. The add posted was completely a lie. I even had copies from the seller on specific questions before I bid and those answers were lies. I left ebay and the only reason I still have a paypal because its the easiest way to get money to my sister who lives out of state. Believe me if I could get money to her easier I would drop paypal in a heart beat. They have changed things to. A person could use a bank account for back up funding now you have to use their credit.

This simple.
To sell on ebay as cheaply as possible to compete with overseas sellers, & with all the fees, I can’t make any money to live.
Ebay are to slow to fix disputes from the buyers view.
Buyers have very limited protection.
EBay always takes sides with the seller paying the fees.
Without buyers, you don’t need sellers.

I have been an EBay Store seller for 8 years. Over the last 3 weeks I haven’t bothered renewing listings. By the end of this month there won’t be any live listings left and I’m closing up the store. I had enough. Fees keep going up, sales keep going down. My listings don’t show in search half of the time. What’s up with that?!?
But the last straw was having listings pulled for selling an item that violated a rule they just came up with, hadn’t even announced, let alone published. But I was supposed to know about it. Guess EBay expects sellers to have a crystal ball that ought to tell us what they are going to come up with next. To add insult to injury, only USA sellers are prohibited from selling these items, so now our dollars go to Chinese and European sellers. GOOD JOB EBAY.

eBay has consistantly shown a double standard, one for themselves and one on how they treat their sellers. Their policy of punish first and ask questions later has turned off a lot of sellers. New sellers are constantly are hassled by eBay and PayPal – withholding of funds until you can prove that you shipped the product, accounts put on hold and then an email explanation comes about 2 days later, and it’s totally bogus. Their lack of trust in their sellers has been a strong turn-off in the last year.

Your account can be put on hold for any trumped up reason they come up with and they will not return an email through their support system in a timely manner (sometimes up to 14 days to get a response), even though they hold the sellers to a much tighter standard.

Their new fixed pricing does not work, because the fees are too high. Sellers need to make a profit too.

eBay needs to get their act together.

Why I left eBay 1. eBay is not webtv user friendly as it was 10 years ago…. 2. My eBay identity was stolen several years ago and I can’t use it again…. 3. I like checks and money orders and don’t/won’t have a Paypal account…. 4. Would be nice if they had a telephone number so you could talk to a real person about whatever problem you are having….

eBay screwed up its user experience and its search engine sucks. They became like AOL; fixing things that were not broken and the users suffered for it. The entire “new” interface is horrible.

I’ve been with ebay/paypal since 2002. I recently got scammed by some idiots overseas and ebay/paypal threw all the red flags on me when they reversed the transaction and left me at negative two thousand five hundred dollars. They gave the money back to “frauded customers” and i was left in the mud face down. Thanks a lot ebay/paypal. It’s sad when a company like ebay/paypal can choose a dollar bill over their customer, whether seller or buyer, you’re stull a customer of ebay/paypal. Way to put the cart before the horse ebay (not that we are). We will all see where you end up in the future… Next to my brown turds. Watch.