New fees in effect

Well, the new fees took over yesterday and the world hasn't ended. As I said in a previous entry, I would not officially be participating in a boycott and that any lack of listing would merely be an accident. Valentine's Day's 5 cent listing sale has certainly helped and I did get a lot of items listed. Some were fixed-price listings with only a BIN price and some were regular auctions.

In most cases (except for a sound card which I listed at $7.99 with a $9.99 BIN), I used a reserve on the auctions. Start them low, like for a penny or 99 cents and use a reserve and mostly I reveal the reserve. The only reasons to not use a reserve are it usually costs more to list with a reserve (The insertion fee is based on the reserve price, not the starting bid, in a reserve auction. Also there is a refundable listing fee which is usually $1 or $2 per category at the reserve prices I use.) and some buyers don't like bidding on items with a reserve price. But the fact I typically reveal the reserve within the auction, and I would reveal it by email to any bidder, if they ask, tends to reduce the aversion to bidding on a reserve, except for the buyers who would have wanted to bid a lower price than I would have been willing to accept anyway.

Also, since all listing fees were 5 cents for all listings, there was no additional insertion cost incurred by using a reserve; only a reserve fee which is refundable if the item sells. And they will sell if the reserve is met (or I issue a Second Chance Offer (SCO) which is accepted) and if it doesn't meet the reserve price, I probably wouldn't have wanted to sell it anyway. So reserves can actually increase the sale price. Additionally, when a reserve is used, the BIN price does not disappear until the reserve is met.

Also took the opportunity to list three items on February 17 in my store for 120 day listings, since eBay has said that items listed in stores before the new fees take effect will be charged the final Value fee (FVF) according to the old fee structure (except Good Til Cancelled (GTC) listings which are renewed every 30 days) and two out of the three items I listed have a high price, so the savings in FVFs will be worth it.

BTW, I did get a $10 credit from Overstock auctions for logging in yesterday and clicking the banner, so I will be giving them a try soon too.

eBay listing sale

Ever since eBay announce in January that its new fees would take place, there have been a number of disgruntled sellers, many leaving eBay for good, or at least shutting down their stores. Several new Yahoo Groups were formed, including Greedbay and overstockers (which had previously been something else). People have posted protest auctions including one with a resignation letter by CEO Meg Whitman and a pen, which was shut down at least twice, only to emerge a third time, though I don't know the final disposition.

I joined those two above mentioned groups and I also signed a petition that had ~12,000 signatures on at the time I signed it. For a time, the media's attention was drawn to the story and USA Today wrote an article quoting members of Greedbay and some of the members were passing around the reporter's email address trying to keep the story alive.

Many have planned a boycott of eBay from February 18 to February 25. Although I applaud their actions and have started to look to other venues, including Ioffer.com and Overstock which seems to be the most promising, I am more pragmatic about it and know that eBay is for now still king of the hill and I won't be closing my store or officially participating in the protest. If I don't list, it would only be because I was not listing anyway, rather than that I was officially participating in a protest.

Apparently the loss of sellers, bad press and falling stock prices have cause eBay to take notice as president Bill Cobb send out a letter to eBay members claiming to have spent a lot of time listening to members, especially about the fee increase (Duh, they were pretty brutal. Like eBay is surprised there would be this kind of reaction?). He defended the increases saying "While we stand behind our decision to increase final value fees on Store Inventory Format listings - because they make sense for items that list with insertion fees of two cents - I know this increase has been difficult for some of our sellers" and offering tow minor concessions to sellers: the month of May will be free to all sellers who operated a store in April and $0.25 insertion fees for items listed $0.99 or under. And tomorrow PST (it is already today in my time zone), 5 cent listings on most insertions.

The 25 cent concession is pretty feeble since many items on eBay only get one bid, thus selling at the opening bid and thus cannot be listed without a higher opening bid or a reserve, which would mean they would not be eligible for this reduction and one month alone hardly make up for a drastic monthly store increase (In fact, I think I was supposed to get a free month when I signed up in May, but they started charging me on June 1, I think, only a few days after I signed up. Not a month later.) The combination of monthly and final value fee increases was what was so brutal. One or the other alone might not have been so bad. And also, this is where I believe eBay is acting as a monopoly, as in a competitive environment, they would not have been able to raise fees so drastically. Clearly, they think they have a monopoly.

But at least Bill Cobb did say eBay will offer long overdue phone support to store owners. Apparently, members who had the phone numbers were not supposed to share it as eBay in its classic paranoia didn't want anyone to call them. Also, they have promised real email support, not just canned answers.

Also the 5 cent sale will help as I had planned to list some items last night (2/13), but decided to wait until today.

Introduction

Hello, I'm John from the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas and this is my first entry in my blog. I am a former software development engineer, having graduated with both a B.S. in Physics and a B.S. in Computer Science Engineering (CSE) at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA, "Get 'em Mavs").

For about the past year, I have been selling items on the internet. Initially to other members of FatWallet.com as a courtesy (I didn't do it for the money) and then I started on eBay. Initally, it was with motherboards and CPUs and a few camcorders, but I have done some software and many digital cameras, especially around Christmas. People like digital cameras and it is a good product to sell.

I have also begun to branch out, listing on Ioffer.com and my first auction today on Yahoo.ca. I also intend to stop by Overstock.com, aka the Big O or "Over there" on February 18 for the free $10 credit.

Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog, and to any interested in learning more about eBay, check out eBay's Seller Central forum or join us at the Yahoogroup Ebay Establishings.