Well, I’m not surprised – I am, however, surprised at the lengths Ebay let this go to before starting to backpeddle. Its almost too late and it definitely IS too late to get some of them back. The changes they made so far are not going to cut it and will not bring back a significant amount of the good, honest small sellers they need. They need to sit down with a group of small sellers and find out what these people NEED in order to make sales on their site. Without that – they are lost because so far Ebay has simply been arrogant, overbearing and oh sooooo stupid! The small sites have felt like its been Christmas all year. They finally got their foot in the door and some of them will definitely grow to be competitive with Ebay in collectibles, vintage and rare items formerly offered on Ebay by small sellers. Etsy and Bonanzle should top that list. Even if small sellers go back they will NEVER again totally depend on Ebay and they will list on many other sites. Ebay killed the goose that laid the golden eggs and John Donahoe did it by his own hand! Ebay Board of Directors….WAKE UP in the present economy and the hard hard year ahead of us, Ebay needs the small sellers with their flea market finds in order to bring in the buyers who need bargains – without them….Ebay and its bunch of “diamond sellers” will simply be spinning their wheels as they descend down that drain!

I’ve sold on eBay for almost ten years until recently. In all that time I NEVER used Paypal. I only had two non-paying bidders and one bad check which the buyer made good on. My customers were quite happy to pay via money orders and personal checks. Now I am not allowed to sell since I will not use Paypal (and allow Paypal access to my accounts, ID, and to hold any funds for unlimited amounts of time). If eBay truly wants its sellers back they need to do two simple things:

1) Allow sellers to sell without requiring their eBay-owned company Paypal. Let the sellers accept money orders and checks they way they used to. (Isn’t this a violation of antitrust laws anyway?)

2) Allow sellers the ability to post negative feedback for dishonest or non-paying bidders. That is the only way to warn the eBay community about these types of buyers. If eBay is truly just a venue tobring buyers and sellers together as they claim then they need to take themselves out of the feedback equation.

And while we are at it, it would be a good idea to stop hiding the identity of bidders, so that honest buyers can be protected from shill bidding, which is rampant on eBay at this time thanks now to this insane change!

I opened a booth on Bonanzle.com 3 days ago, and sales started within 2 days.
AND I can take payments with checks, money orders, or even milk, chickens, or eggs, If I so choose!

I’m sick to death of eBay!

EBay is adding these two unknown payment methods because of their fear of violating antitrust laws with Paypal. They know what they are doing is illegal, so they try to pretend that eBay users have multiple payment options. Let’s face it, eBay has done eveything in their power to convince buyers that Paypal is the safest way to pay. It isn’t, but the truth never stopped eBay before. Unless you have a Paypal account, it is almost impossible to buy or sell on eBay now. That is a perfect example of a tying arrangement and steering business Paypal’s way.

Banning checks and money orders under the guise of buyer “safety” is yet another lie from eBay. I have received hundreds of checks and money orders while selling on eBay and NEVER received a bad check or a counterfeit money order. I have also bought hundreds of items on ebay with checks and money orders and ALWAYS received my item. EBay likes to embellish how unsafe their website is just to push their lousy Paypal service. I will never use Paypal and I will never buy or sell on eBay again.

The eBay brand name is becoming more and more shunned [even a joke] by many people that I talk to. Some practically spit the word when speaking it. And it will take more than throwing a couple of practically meaningless ‘bones’ to sellers to improve that.

A lot of quality sellers [who are also for the most part buyers] shun eBay because of the ridiculous hoops that they have to jump through regarding these 2008 changes. I would venture to say that a majority of us quality sellers had smooth transactions with satisfied buyers for years, or we would not have remained on eBay. And ebay also got their cut. It does not take a rocket scientist to see that the 2008 changes campaign by current eBay management was greed driven, and done with intended deceit and favoritism. That alone has alienated many great sellers with unique and eclectic inventory.

Buyers are shunning it because these changes, including the ‘deproved’ Best Match, are making things more confusing and less rewarding. The unique items are becoming more scarce on eBay as the sellers of them move to other business friendlier venues. Plus, the anonymous bidder BS has taken some of the sport out of the ‘chase’ for these items. With idiotic comments from eBay management like ‘Search is always a journey’ [ from eBay NA President Ms Norrington], it seems clear that there is no real ‘brainpower’ at the reins of eBay these days. The search for the holy grail is a ‘journey’ .. the search for an item should be a ‘destination’!

eBay has offered practically nothing for many of us yet to reconsider using them again to buy or sell. And time is slipping away while they ‘disruptively innovate’ the site downwards. As people put more time and energy into their businesses on alternative sites and their own websites, eBay gets further and further away in their rearview mirrors. eBay truly needs an enema, especially one that will rid them of the Donahoe regime, to make them look appealing again to many of us.

Stanford business professors Thomas Heller and David Victor ARE in fact finishing up a case study about ebay’s changes and present predicament, due out Q1 2009. It ought to be a doozy.

The Ebay we used to know has entered a “black hole” of incredibly stupid decisions that has passed the “point of no return”…they might pop out the other side as a dollar store if they are lucky.

How many times have you heard people say their “favorite seller has moved to another venue”,most who sell unique/collectibles/antiques like me are long gone.

They have permanently damaged their core business,the small seller of unique items.

Oh yea, I almost forgot…everything “FIGS” said(the first reply),YEA that too !

Check out Atomic Mall for an easy to use selling/buying venue.

If eBay REALLY wanted the sellers back, they would return the power to the seller! eBay has long crossed the “just a venue” status that they SHOULD be. They are and have been shoving their idiotic policies, frequent and terrible site changes, and hiking their fees to boot!

There are millions of sellers, both present and past, that still remember the good days…. when eBay was our best friend. The provided a stable, safe, and affordable means of supplementing incomes and boosting our collections.

Not soon after eBay started tweaking the site for the worst. New bells. New whistles. None that I ever heard anyone ask for. But ones we all paid for nonetheless. All these did was slow down the site and make listing and selling much more of a chore than a hobby.

Then, when we didn’t think it could get worse… it did. They jacked the prices up AGAIN. They stripped us sellers of the right to let other sellers know about problems we had with buyers. They stripped of us collectors of the right to become a community and let a friend get the high bid on an item instead of outbidding them. (Hiding IDs are a lot less friendly). They stopped letting us see the items we missed during the last 90 days, and stopped letting us view what our friends bid on. They stopped letting us research prices of the items we are selling. They stripped us of the right to limit our losses due to international fraud. (MONEY ORDERS ARE SAFE, A lot safer the PayUpPal… ) They stripped us of our rights to advertise our hobbies and favorite sites via the “ME” Ebay page. I could go on and on and on….

What do they “GIVE US BACK” to say their sorry?? N-O-T-H-I-N-G of V-A-L-U-E!

Ebay is committing a slow suicide and and I think the only ones who care are the shareholders. I’ve sold on Ebay for years as a source for unique colectibles and have done well there until the past year. Now that their search engine is skewed in favor of the dime-a-dozen plastic China crap drop shipping power sellers, I recognize that I don’t stand a chance and am in the process of moving everything to Bonanzle. Ebay’s loss, not mine. Sellers who actually care about their customers are leaving in droves, and guess what? Those sellers were also buyers. No wonder sales are down. You reap what you sow, and Ebay is getting what it deserves. Once my move to Bonanzle is done, Ebay willl never see me again as a seller OR as a buyer.