Ebay is increasing the sold item fee to 12.5% in September 24th. That will increase the fleabay tax from about 10% to 12.5% when you add in paypal fees. I can't imagine how anybody makes money on ebay anymore. It is a total buyers market while sellers fight for pennies and fend off scammers. The stock really hasn't moved in years, and the P/E is very high. I think the stock will continue tanking. thoughts?
there should be a major exodus of sellers in october.That is when they will not allow you to accept money orders or checks for payment...You will be forced to accept paypal.Yes,that means ALL sellers must accept paypalfor any and all auctions.I know many sellers will not accept pp for high priced items due to phony chargebacks etc... Ebay wants to become a store not a used item auction place. They are on a path of self destruction. Ebay will get creamed by overstock and amazon.Amazon is creating their own paypal system so ebay can expect to start losing profit from paypal.Thats the only part of ebay that is growing. Ebay will be a low teen stock within 2 years.At which time they may be bought out by goog or msft.
I am large "shooting star" professional seller. In fact if you count all ebay + Paypal fees from relisted items for me it is about 14% of my brutto sales. If it will be lifted - ough. I am the last big professional seller on ebay in my sector. All my competitors already "died" /or are morre clever than me to discover that ebay trend never changes?/. I plan end ebay selling as quick as possible.I am in Europe and different small auction sites are much more advantageous in terms of price and fees. Problem is that it is harder find buyer for some items but I am slowly switching there and I hope I will be able to say to ebay after 9 years of work: bye bye
what you need to do is start your own web site, promote it through google / froogle (free!), email anyone who's bought from you to let them know about your website, and keep your toe in the water in small amounts on ALL websites. yes, ebay's been shooting themselves in the foot for years. they've almost completely stripped the brand loyalty, a process that they started 5 or 6 years ago. pretty amazing that they could ruin a (virtual) monopoly without their competitors launching legal battles, but somehow, they did. also, expect ebay to get some more lawsuits. their "you can only take paypal / propay / credit cards" is in direct conflict with their "we're only a venue!" cover. they've skirted that venue-cover issue for a while now, but this will be the first direct assault on it. i only wish the people who brought this on - the higher-ups - were still at the company. this is part of a much longer-term strategy which was devised years ago (when they pushed the first online payment service they owned - whose name i forget - that was the one which "eventually" was going to be required on ebay). as a sidebar- remember when you'd get kicked off ebay for posting ebay's phone numbers, their stated claim was that they didn't have enough support in place to handle phone calls? well, maybe not. anyhow, i've been buying products at amazon and many other places for years, if the price is comparable, because amazon's customer service is amazing. ebay's not the first couple places i go when looking for something.
I almost always shop at Amazon and I have never bought anything on Ebay. To me Ebay has always seemed like a thrift store where people are getting rid of their junk and hand-me-downs. Craigslist is almost totally free for sellers, (they charge in a couple of cities right now). I bet even they are cutting into Ebay, even though craigslist is crawling with scammers.
ebay bought a piece of craigslist - from one of the people who was an early shareholder. ebay's share of craigslist is 26%. they've wanted to buy more of the company, but been rebuffed. there's a lawsuit going on now - ebay claims craig and the ceo tried to dilute their shares, craigslist has responded by saying that ebay is a "wolf in sheep's clothing" that tried to get their corporate secrets / plans to make kiiji succeed / knock craigslist out. given ebay's past history, i have almost no doubt that craig's allegations are true.
ebay will become a portal for large retailers...Kind of like a mall where you go to shop at different large retailers. Already buy.com uses ebay to sell their stuff even though they have their own website. As for buying used stuff on ebay its great if you want hard to find stuff,collectibles,old books or just good deals on sports equipment etc... That was ebays bread and butter and they were making a hell of a lot more money than amazon then than they are now.Trying to re invent the wheel is gonna hurt them in the long run i think. Who knows?But after a while people will become familiar with the large web retailers on ebay and end up going to their websites anyway-cutting out the middleman.I mean why would i buy from best buy on ebay.I would rather just buy directly from best buy. Also i dont have to sign up for an account if i buy from best buys website... Personally i see real pitfalls for buying new stuff through amazon...Stuff like warranties and grey market/import items on expensive items.I do use amazon but i would never buy camera or computer stuff when i can buy it from the retailer directly with proper plain manufacturer waranty coverage