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EBay Falls as Consumer Spending Slows at Its Retail Web Site

bloomberg.com — EBay Inc., the world's largest Internet auctioneer, fell 7.7 percent in late U.S. trading after reporting slowing growth in spending at its retail sites. Gross merchandise volume, the value of all goods that users sold on EBay's sites, rose 8 percent, the smallest increase in at least five quarters, EBay said today in a statement.

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AssJuice, on 07/17/2008, -1/+83Bring back the days of auctions I hope Ebay falls and is replaced by something better.
- austang, on 07/17/2008, -2/+28death to ebay, they don't even have auctions anymore. All this "BUY IT NOW" crap kills it, especially with the $200 shipping on my $10 pair of fuzzy dice.
  - rolf, on 07/17/2008, -0/+20Buy it now! is a feature offered to sellers, they can choose to provide it or not. Personally, I prefer Buy it Now! as I can still buy stuff reasonable without wasting my time sitting there trying to be highest bidder.
    
    The super expensive shipping is something I don't see as much as I used to because the shipping is now listed (most of the time) alongside the bid/sales price in searches. High shipping was a result of ebay not charging percentage on shipping. Therefore the seller tried to make his profit/mark-up in shipping.
    
    Where ebay sucks is how they squeeze the seller's for every last penny through itself and paypal. The people, the sellers, who made ebay interesting with diverse offerings and do most of the work get the least profit. (Yes, some dishonest ones like everywhere, but most I encountered were good.)
    
    I've been seeing an exodus of sellers for a while lately.
  - ssjdoob, on 07/17/2008, -1/+13with about $1.00 minimum listing fees, it's no wonder there aren't many auctions anymore
  - qwertydvorak, on 07/17/2008, -0/+10@rolf: i agree totally that the fees are the worst part. it costs ebay next to nothing per listing to run the site. they get to squeeze you for a million and one charges and fees. i like the option of buy it now, but i like having it or auction. most listings now are just buy it now only.
  - RyeBrye, on 07/17/2008, -0/+8@qwertydvorak:
    
    The reason you see only one or the other is that a Buy It Now option will disappear on an auction that has no reserve once a bid has been placed. If a bid is placed but the item is below reserve, you can still "buy it now" until it reaches the reserve.
    
    They don't explain this well to the sellers, so a quick way to lose $0.25 o $1.00 or whatever that fee for putting the Buy It Now option on is to start a listing a $0.99 (low insertion fee) but put a Buy It Now on at $10 or something... the second someone bids on it - your Buy It Now option you paid for is gone.
    
    The other thing about eBays fees are that they get you on both ends. Not only do they charge you a ton to list it, and then a ton based on what it sells for, they also charge you a percentage fee on the transaction if you use PayPal (which, by the way, they almost force you to use) - so in the end a $20 item has about $2 or more in fees attached to it - depending upon what listing options you use.
- emkaysmith, on 07/17/2008, -0/+11I signed up on eBay within six months of their opening and did very nicely (in a modest way) selling books online for about six years. I had (and still have) a 100% feedback. Then the costs suddenly began going up very rapidly and the amount of crap being peddled on eBay (CDs on how to make a million bucks selling CDs on how to make a million bucks, etc) exploded, and I quit. They also ruined PayPal, and they screwed up Blackthorne. Time to start over.
- applebyte, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3seriously, why is there no direct competition to ebay for online auctions? yahoo tried it a few years back but eventually pulled it. wonder why google hasn't developed anything. they pretty much do everything else.
  - qwertydvorak, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2craigslist would be the best auction site in terms of eyeballs coming to the site looking to buy something. only problem is that ebay was smart and gave them a little cash in return for a non-compete agreement in auctions.
AmyVernon, on 07/17/2008, -1/+63eBay has tried to do too much. it should just simplify and get back to doing what it did well...
- hmd1987, on 07/17/2008, -1/+9agreed.
- aspec, on 07/17/2008, -0/+7I always thought that the problem wasn't the stuff they're trying to do, but their uncaring attitude towards what happens to their users. The whole ebay community sucks, and now that a lot of people have no trust towards ebay, it seems a lot of those people are jumping ship to Amazon. Which is a shame.
WriterSD, on 07/17/2008, -1/+85Hmm... Perhaps due to feedback changes and even greater increases in charges.
- jcorn1, on 07/17/2008, -1/+17You summed it up pefectly! Sellers are wary and the increased costs are passed on to buyers. It is a lose/lose situation.
- ScottG, on 07/17/2008, -1/+8Exactly why I stopped using it. I got netural feedback, which hurt my 100% rating, and I couldn't fight it or anything. And taking 8,9% or whatever of what I sell, plus insertion fee's, *****!!
- Konrad9, on 07/17/2008, -3/+8Bull ***** to the feedback loss.
  I was sick and tired of being given negative feedback as a BUYER.
  I pay on time and leave the feedback the seller deserves. You are illegally selling AAA coupons and charging me shipping costs for an email? Yeah, I'm going to leave you negative feedback.
  The product I bought reeks of smoking? Well everything else is right so I'm going to leave neutral... and then I get a negative feedback.
  I send you the right address and pay on time... yet you shipped a week and a half after you said you would AND to the wrong address. Why are you leaving me negative feedback?
  
  I do, however, agree that the increase in charges is having an impact.
AussieCynic, on 07/17/2008, -1/+32the beginning of the end...
- hmd1987, on 07/17/2008, -3/+4hey...that reminds me of the terminator 4 tagline! YEAH! haha
- mnky9800n, on 07/17/2008, -1/+0Perhaps it is the end of the beginning!
coheedcollapse, on 07/17/2008, -0/+92What do they expect? They do nothing to curb scammers and they charge commission on literally everything (and they raise fees like three times a year). Ebay has gone from one of the greatest things on the internet to a veritable minefield of money loss.
- vault, on 07/17/2008, -13/+8The economy affects it way more than the fee increase.
  - vinod1978, on 07/17/2008, -3/+4You are 100% correct - unfortunately not many people reading the article are taking the economy into consideration. I personally don't believe it is the fees itself that people are upset about, but the way they charge fees. It's like buying a car. You know your price - but when it comes time to buy the car and you tack on extended warranty fees, dealer preparation fees, transport & delivery fees, sales & promotion fees you feel like you have been kicked in the head - and eBay has the exact same problem. They have to figure a way to charge the amount of money they want % wise, and at the same time make sure customers are not feeling like they are being nickeled & dimed to death.
- jcorn1, on 07/17/2008, -0/+22I agree. I used to sell there and anything I listed flew out the door and the profit margin was good. Then it became so crazy with the fees that sellers had to charge ridiculous amounts to make any profit. When I first sold there, both buyers and sellers would be happy. My buyers were getting great deals and I was still making a profit. Why can't it be that way any more?
  - vinod1978, on 07/17/2008, -0/+5I think a big reason is because of their stupid decision to buy Skype for billions of dollars. Skype only makes 120Million a year. It would take them at least 10 years to break even on Skype with their current revenue strategy, so they have to make up money somewhere and eBay sellers are paying the price for their stupid decision.
cashman57, on 07/17/2008, -0/+51I stopped using ebay because of the ever increasing cost of doing business with them.
- hmd1987, on 07/17/2008, -0/+11me too, those middle men are a bit too expensive.
  - rolf, on 07/17/2008, -0/+8In the meantime, Ebay wants to charge almost as much as a real auction but without any of the work involved (catalogueing, photos, etcetera) which is left to the consignor!
motivatedmama, on 07/17/2008, -0/+39Serves them right after jacking their fees. The irony is that there was a "boycott" after the fee hike and hardly anyone noticed. Maybe now they'll change their tune.
- hmd1987, on 07/17/2008, -0/+9meh i don't know.....corporate greed never seems to chane it's
  tune until it implodes.
- aristan, on 07/17/2008, -0/+4Actually Ebay did notice. They held a nickel listing day the day the boycott started.
akpwnz, on 07/17/2008, -4/+19I thought the title said "Ebay Fails"
- louiebaur, on 07/17/2008, -0/+4yea that happens when you are doing midnight reading:-)
rhettmcnulty, on 07/17/2008, -14/+19PayPal is the new eBay
- springboks, on 07/17/2008, -1/+6what the hell does that mean?
- PabloMac, on 07/17/2008, -1/+3eBay owns PayPal, pal.
  - emkaysmith, on 07/17/2008, -0/+6Sure they do -- but PayPal doesn't sell anything. Sorry - doesn't make sense to me, either.
  - rhettmcnulty, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2It means that eBay is too bureaucratic and has too many layers to peel back.
    If you have been following Paypal you will notice that they have in the last 9 months launched widgets to facilitate the transaction of products, widgets for donations to non profits, browser plug-ins for purchasing items and a deal with Mastercard. They are becoming more than a money exchange platform and more like a facilitator between the buyer and seller. Thats what i mean. Oh, emkaysmith - eBay doesnt sell anything either their users sell things - eBay just facilitates.
finkx, on 07/17/2008, -2/+35ebays fees are appalling. beyond extortion
jcorn1, on 07/17/2008, -4/+20Did they change anything or do they still have that rule, put into place this year, about how sellers can NEVER leave negative feedback for buyers. While this protects buyers, what protects sellers? Maybe they changed that rule?
- domokunt, on 07/17/2008, -0/+4Nope, it recently came into effect in the UK. Don't know about other areas.
- orangefly, on 07/17/2008, -1/+6that's one of the reasons i quite selling on ebay....i sold quite a bit weekly too....
  - PabloMac, on 07/17/2008, -0/+4I quit quite a while ago.
  - Konrad9, on 07/17/2008, -3/+2The problem was with sellers who left feedback only after they received it.
    What does a seller leave feedback about? Quick payment. That's it. Nothing else.
    If you wait until a buyer says "great stuff, thanks!" then you are not leaving feedback correctly.
    The 'reply/follow-up' function was there for a reason.
  - bjornski, on 07/17/2008, -0/+5"Customer sent me bad check"
    "Credit card could not be billed, stolen"
    "buyer has tried to scam me about a dozen times now"
    
    There are plenty of reasons for feedback about a purchaser.
- mk3k, on 07/17/2008, -3/+7They had to, feedback system was so broken.
  Buyers couldn't say anything about sellers for fear of backlash. So the seller didn't improve if they were substandard.
  I've noticed shipping and response time of sellers getting slower and slower over the years. I joined in '99.
  - rolf, on 07/17/2008, -1/+3A backlash negative on the buyer is much less adverse than to a seller (business consequences) and there were always processes to invalidate the negative. Now buyers can claim to never get items (despite tracking #, etc) or other things and only the seller has anything to fear. This is not good.
    
    Also, I have not noticed the shipping/response time drop overall. Perhaps you chose the wrong sellers?
- azurechaos, on 07/17/2008, -0/+1Seriously, sellers had you by the nuts as a buyer. I always feared leaving negative feedback, even if i followed through on my end of the deal! It was getting ridiculous.
freshyill, on 07/17/2008, -2/+40I'm not cutting back on spending, I'm cutting back on getting scammed. Screw eBay.
rainfosys, on 07/17/2008, -1/+19Ebay has always sucked for me I hate doing business with them and then if you have problems with them you have problems with paypal
markbyrn, on 07/17/2008, -0/+17Typical posturing to blame the economy. Look in the mirror GreedBay - you only have yourselves to blame.
- TheMachine1, on 07/17/2008, -0/+7Reminds me of starbucks blaming milk prices when their sales first fell.
- bjornski, on 07/17/2008, -1/+1Both are affecting it.
ruddy, on 07/17/2008, -2/+18yes our economy isn't so hot, but we can't blame every failure on it. ebay turned to *****, period.
- expert01, on 07/17/2008, -1/+3Hmmm... description says that they didn't increase sales AS FAST as previously. So they're still going up.
CChandler2423, on 07/17/2008, -2/+8Good! I'm so sick of that company nickeling and diming people to death.
- bjornski, on 07/17/2008, -1/+1Can I introduce you to our cable company? Or my bank?
  
  I want them taken down next.
AlanFang, on 07/17/2008, -1/+16Ebay and Paypal both suck.
trackerbishop, on 07/17/2008, -8/+25die ebay die!

ive been waiting for this for 8 years...i got banned from ebay in 2000 and they banned my whole family, anyone with my last name would be automatically banned. they're a bunch of pricks who'd end my auctions for no reason.

other ebay crimes:

buying paypal
banning google checkout
being auctioneer nazis
letting powersellers get away with scamming because they bring in revenue for the company
banning users

bury me if you want but i actually love the new feedback change, i hated the retaliatory feedback that sellers would give to buyers who called them out on their scamming ways. now i have begun to think all diggers are ebay jackasses
- emkaysmith, on 07/17/2008, -0/+5You got banned as a buyer? Or as a seller? I'm aware of a number of both kinds of eBayers who were banned for excellent reasons. I have lots of problems myself with where eBay has gone, . . . but your post sounds like at least partly sour grapes to me.
- mandarin, on 07/17/2008, -0/+4What do you mean all diggers are ebay jackasses? Are you on some kind of medication right now ?
gametavern, on 07/17/2008, -3/+8good, those bastards and their "only protect the buyer" attitude. Why don't you raise the fees again to make up for it! ()*$#(**
brianmuse, on 07/17/2008, -1/+12Ebay doesn't realize that they are losing sellers in droves. Additionally, their PayPal business is losing popularity fast. Ebay doesn't back the seller ever and as a result of this and always-escalating prices, so many people are moving to craigslist. Craigslist is free and offers a more localized, personal experience.

They'd better shape up their policies and make their site much more user friendly, or their in for a world of hurt.
- rolf, on 07/17/2008, -0/+6Craigslist is okay, but the localization will always keep it away from upsurping ebay. It's great to sell furniture, because most of the time only locals will want it (shipping too expensive) but collectibles and other things need a national/international audience and it's hard to find that through their search.
  
  Craigslist is negating the reach of the internet in that way. It's too bad, because I wish someone would eat ebay's lunch.
  - Rickler, on 07/17/2008, -1/+4As fuel prices increase, it's looking more and more sane to ship locally.
stagmire, on 07/17/2008, -6/+6You can still do alright on Ebay if you know your niche market. Plenty of people still make good coin selling stuff that is not readily available through other forums. Too bad no one wants to buy your junked used computer hardware and *****. The days when any ***** could make a nickel selling their used 5 year old power supply or whatever are over, which is probably why most diggers are bummed.
hexydes, on 07/17/2008, -2/+13eBay is the perfect example of a small company with a great idea and a good userbase, who just couldn't adapt and scale their business. Long, long ago, they should have had something like "store.ebay.com" to differentiate between commercial sellers and your Dad selling hockey skates he found in the garage. Charge people that sell things commercially, but for the online garage sale user, let them do it for free. That's why Craigslist has cannibalized their business so badly, as of late. It's sort of similar to classmates.com vs. Facebook.
mrtman, on 07/17/2008, -10/+6Complain and bitch about eBay all you want, but they are the only game in town. I go to a lot of garage sales. Where in the hell am I supposed to sell Scrabble tiles or 74 Monopoly tokens? There fees go up and just I follow along, it sucks, but Craigslist is too local and it tough to get a good price for stuff. What is killing eBay is selling new stuff and fixed prices. I say ***** it start it a $.99 and let the market decide what it's worth.
Detritus, on 07/17/2008, -4/+6This is another gross over-reaction. Growth was still UP 8% ... not down, falling or any other adjective you care to add for sensationalism. It might not be as much growth as investors would like, but growth is still growth.
- bjornski, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3Apparently that excuse is good enough when using hte GDP to explain why we're not in a recession.
  
  "Sure people's spending power is going down as wages stay stagnant and prices on everything increase, but LOOK AT THAT GDP! It's GROWING! That's no recession!"!
jayscot, on 07/17/2008, -1/+9Ebay is far from what it once was. I don't see any advantage to using Ebay over normal retail online stores anyway. They need to learn their place in the market, or be overtaken by a replacement.
- rolf, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2I think they'll be overtaken by Google shopping anyhow one day.
- bjornski, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3And with the amount of online retail stores dumping huge swaths of inventory over eBay, charging about what they do on their storefront, not only are many of the smaller sellers being crowded out, but the prices being offered on the items are about the same (if not more in some cases) than a comparable online store.
  
  The ONLY thing eBay is good for anymore is used or vintage items. For everything else? ***** it. There's Pricewatch or Overstock.com.
DeFex, on 07/17/2008, -1/+6the value of all goods that users sold on EBay's sites, rose 8 percent, thats what, 16 x more than the economy? this is why the stock market people expectations are a bit high considering the economy and stuff.

I can see why people are buying cheaper stuff, buying expensive goods is a mugs game since there are so many scammers.
but its great for hard-to-find small parts
aristan, on 07/17/2008, -0/+13I sold stuff on ebay for years. Now I get fees from ebay for selling things, I get fees from PayPal for taking money for selling things, and if someone decides to scam me I can no longer leave negative feedback. Ebay has made the business of selling on their site a series of hurdles that no one wants to jump.

I've noticed lately that there have been a lot of nickel and quarter listing days. I can only assume this is because -no one- is starting auctions anymore. I have a big box of stuff that would normally go on ebay. Now, the nicer stuff will probably go on Craigslist (No shipping fees since the buyer is probably local) and the other stuff goes in the trash where it probably always belonged.
- pirategaspard, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2Put that stuff that goes in the trash on Freecycle.
Blitzwing84, on 07/17/2008, -0/+11Here's why I will not use ebay again. I hadn't used it for years, but recently I listed 2 computer accessories I no longer needed. The total price before shipping for both items was $45. eBay fees were $4.14. PayPal (eBay's co-conspirator) fees were $2.40. The eBay/PayPal cartel took 14.5% off the top and I didn't even use any of the additional "seller tool$". It's not worth it for a casual seller like me to get rid of junk and I can't imagine how someone could make a living off it. Somebody ambitious needs to develop a better model. The biggest challenge will be attaining the critical mass that eBay has amassed.
- vinod1978, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3I think a big reason is because of their stupid decision to buy Skype for billions of dollars. Skype only makes 120Million a year. It would take them at least 10 years to break even on Skype with their current revenue strategy, so they have to make up money somewhere and eBay sellers are paying the price for their stupid decision.
- bjornski, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3Many of them make their money by selling hundreds of items at a time, taking a smaller profit from each one.
  
  Haven't you noticed how many of the sellers are businesses now, and not individuals?
dentarthurdent1, on 07/17/2008, -0/+7the worst is thinking you're going to get a really good deal on something, only to have your bid raised by the auctioner him/herself using a fake account.
Ryan0617, on 07/17/2008, -0/+12We need to get google to start up an online auction site. It already has googlecheckout for payment options. Ebay is trying to be like online retailer rather an an auctioneer.
/prays google will one day do it!
- Jacobi, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3I think that might be the best option to make eBay competitive again. There are other auction sites, but none with the traffic of eBay. They need some real competition to make them sweat. I don't think eBay is terrible, but they're definitely complacent.
  
  The one thing they've totally lost is the ability to make money selling knick knacks and low ticket items. With the fee structure, it isn't really worth it to sell something that will only bring in $10 or so, like it used to be. I miss the "flea market" days of eBay.
Wujian01, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2Ebay can change their policy frequently.
Maybe uncomfortable for the seller mostly.
flamyngo, on 07/17/2008, -1/+7HA! Ebay totally deserves this! They made it so sellers can no longer leave feedback, they upped the fees AGAIN, and they added that stupid star rating thing!

As an avid ebayer this makes me so happy!
TheMachine1, on 07/17/2008, -0/+6Years ago an Ebay/paypal fraud put $800 charge on my credit card for a transaction I had nothing to do with. I was scared and had no idea how to deal with it and neither Ebay or their subsidiary Paypal ever replied to my emails. It would have been nice for them to offer some comforting reply or mention how I could contest the charge with my credit card company.
nutsackninja, on 07/17/2008, -1/+9If you try to sell anything below $20 on scamBay, basically it won't cover the fee's and shipping on it. I might as well just chucked it in the trash and saved myself an hour of my time.
Dohko_Xar, on 07/17/2008, -6/+1Their interface looks the same since 5 years ago, what did they expect?
- veriix, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3...so does google's...
ssjdoob, on 07/17/2008, -1/+9Yes, as a seller, the new feedback is horrible! I had a customer send back something totally different and said that they got the wrong items. I called Paypal 4 times and they still got their money back. I have a feedback of over 12000 and theirs was about 50. So basically, a buyer can send back a piece of sh*t and paypal will give them their money back as long as they have a tracking number. It pissed me off beyond belief and I couldn't even leave negative feedback.
bte101, on 07/17/2008, -1/+13Ebay has totally shut out the small time seller who wants to occasionally auction low priced items.
It is cost prohibitive to sell anything under $25.00, destroying the old feeling of an Internet yard sale or swap meet.
The whole site has been overrun by those guys who sell baseball cards and action figures at the mall kiosk.
moethelawn, on 07/17/2008, -5/+9F*CKING THING SUCKS!
Gazzali, on 07/17/2008, -5/+0i never tried Ebay purchase b4...well if the price is cheaper now..why not try..
- freshyill, on 07/17/2008, -0/+1huh?
dalittle, on 07/17/2008, -0/+12My ebay days are over. You can only be so hostile to buyers AND sellers before you no longer want to use their stupid website. They ran me off. I hope ebay fails and google or someone else puts out something.
- vinod1978, on 07/17/2008, -1/+2Even if Google wanted to buy eBay (which would probably include Skype & Paypal) they probably wouldn't get it passed the anti-trust laws. However, if they did I'm sure we would see better integration in all the divisions. In terms of fees I'm sure they would reduce fees for 2-3 years, however even if the fees aren't as hidden as they are on eBay they would probably add up to roughly the same %, simply because it takes a lot of overhead to run eBay.
  - dalittle, on 07/17/2008, -1/+2Your kidding right? A lot of overhead to run ebay ... a website? They don't even have a respectable customer service department so what are all these costs? That is the funniest thing I have read all day.
  - vinod1978, on 07/17/2008, -0/+1@dalittle - No, I'm not kidding. They have 15,000 employees. That's doesn't count as overhead? Lay off the pipe, sir. Lay off the pipe.
  - niceyuk, on 07/17/2008, -0/+315,000 employees??? NO WAY. What on earth do they all do? They must be a massively inefficient company.
  - vinod1978, on 07/18/2008, -0/+1Yes - very inefficient, and they have made quite a few stupid decisions like buying Skype, and making their fees annoying to sellers. On their own investor FAQ they list 13,200 employees as of 2006, however if you read other current sources (such as the link from Hoover) they show over 15,000
    
    http://investor.ebay.com/faq.cfm
    http://www.hoovers.com/ebay/--ID__56307--/free-co- ...
  - dalittle, on 07/18/2008, -0/+1Maybe you need lay off the pipe and pay more attention to the important facts. If you choose to support failing businesses with your cash cow that is your own decision, but the overhead is not due to the ebay operations. Ebay is a website and even if they did have a good customer service department they would not have a high overhead. They have an artificially inflated fee structure, even by your own admission, and a well run company would have a fee structure and overhead like Craigslist. Oh wait, Craigslist is a well run company, just wish they did auctions.
jeffinfremont, on 07/17/2008, -0/+11I was an eBay Power Seller way back in the late 90's. I think it was some point in '01 that I first saw an online infomercial for a "Get Rich Selling on eBay" program and I pretty much abandoned the site shortly thereafter.

Too many fees and red tape, not enough quality customers, not worth the hassle.
- bjornski, on 07/17/2008, -0/+1Flip that pile of junk! Just buy my book, and I'll show you how!
rontowns25, on 07/17/2008, -2/+3Ebay has absolutely tried to expand its services too much. In my opinion, I don't even really think of Ebay as a great auction site anymore. It used to be. Now its extremely cluttered. They have so many partnerships with online stores, etc, around the world that the focus has shifted away from offering the consumer a great user experience. There is an opportunity for an entrepreneur to build a site in this "replacement market." Here's how that might get started... www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?RTA=web2
- bjornski, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2The partnerships with online stores is what ruined it for me.
dning88, on 07/17/2008, -4/+2I think everyone is underestimating the value of PayPal. Unless other solutions gain market share, paypal will eventually be worth much more money.
isage, on 07/17/2008, -0/+8Hmm. Let's see some of the recent changes... You can give feedback to a buyer as long as its happy talk (no negative feedback). Even if the buyer doesn't pay for the item or threatens you. What this means in the future is that buyers no longer need to give any feedback at all since they can only receive positive feedback.

Oh ya, buyers can't mention your own website anywhere, even on your About Me page. So if you own your own store outside of eBay, don't even try to mention that to your buyers, even as a passing reference on your own About Me page.

Maybe its creating a new platinum class just so that Buy.com can come in and flood eBay with it's listing and not pay a cent. This just means that eBay will now just be a listing house for huge companies choking off any hope for the little guy to make a sale.

Go to hell eBay, what you sow is what you reap....
kmoed, on 07/17/2008, -0/+13I hope Ebay tanks for good. They have made it completely useless for selling anything. Rape you for fee's for selling then rape you again with paypal(which is just Ebay). Disallowing any other forms of online payments as deeming them "Unsafe".

Unless you have huge margins to play with, Ebay is useless, they take all of the profit you can make out in there outlandish double dipping fee's.
vinod1978, on 07/17/2008, -2/+5The loss of buyers on eBay is not related to most of the comments here. The loss of sellers on the other hand is a completely different issue - and most of you are right for complaining about those issues. However, the article is mostly about the buyers and the reason that they are not buying anymore is simply because they don't have the extra cash to spend. I still like eBay because I am a gadget freak, and I like being able to get a used (but fairly new) gadget for hundreds of dollars cheaper then I normally would, but even I am not spending as much time or money on eBay simply because my company is not making nearly what is was making just last year. The only industries that are actually booming right now are correctional facilities, defense contractors, and credit card companies (I'm not talking about the banks). That should tell you something about the state of not only the economy but how this Administration thinks.
springboks, on 07/17/2008, -0/+7Meg Whitman's timing is immaculate, she cashed out right when the company started to fall. She's the mastermind behind the PayPal/Ebay machine.
aldrichnichol, on 07/17/2008, -4/+0The markets are set to open higher this morning, extending their rally from yesterday’s session which was sparked by a marked decline in oil prices. For more discussions go at http://www.smallcappulse.com/index.php/commentary/ ... .
mandarin, on 07/17/2008, -0/+6For a big company with a ton of well paid people, their customer service sure sucks.
- youareretarded, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3I didn't know they had customer service. Seriously, how do you contact them?
  
  I had an auction where the winner didn't pay, I went through the dispute process, re listed my item and resold the item to someone that did pay. They erased the fees from the first failed auction but then I got an email from the first bidder saying how he couldn't pay because he was in the hospital and that he would pay the difference between what he won the auction for and what I ended up selling it for. I said fine and removed the dispute. Now ebay is charging me a fee as if I had sold the item again (on the whole amount of the item) and that happens to be more than what the difference was that the first bidder paid me! And I have no idea how to dispute that or who to contact to get it fixed:(
digitallysick, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3Has nothing to do with ebays high price fees only to get ripped off again by paypal. Ebay started off great, but they ruined it.
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EBay Falls as Consumer Spending Slows at Its Retail Web Site

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