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Imagine that someone leased space for a small sandwich shop.  Then the landlord plastered signs for Jimmy John’s, Subway, and Schlotzsky’s all around the area.  Not good, eh?  And some eBay sellers feel that they’ve been put in a similar position.

eBay Ads May Deflect Buyers

eBay’s ads are provided by Yahoo and Google, and as we all know, these two companies are pretty much the best in the business.  This is fine for eBay - according to Juan Carlos Perez, “[i]n 2007’s second quarter . . . eBay’s advertising revenue almost doubled compared with the same period in 2006.”

But would-be buyers may be getting drawn away as ads send them to other sites.

After all, people who shop on eBay aren’t usually determined to buy an item from any particular source - they’re just looking for the best price.  If Yahoo or Google can take them to a better deal, they’ll go, and eBay’s policy will have cost one of its users of a sale.

Jonathan Garriss, executive director of the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance and CEO of Gotham City Online, admitted that the groups he represents are worried.  “We think it hurts the sellers, while eBay benefits from the ad money,” he told Perez.  “This is one of our fastest-growing concerns.”

eBay has promised to think things over, but with buyers and sellers tugging in opposite directions, it could be a difficult matter to resolve; this argument has already been in existence for over a year.