Protest to the Ebay Fee Structure Increase

[robinto]

Protest to the E_bayFee Structure Increase
The announcement spurred dealers into action, including more than 8,000 who by Friday afternoon had signed an online petition protesting the new rates.
As of Jan. 20 - 19130 Total Signatures


No Listing Day

[HammerJoe]

boo whooo poor guys...

[milhaus]

Well, they can always use something else . . . like, uh . . . see what happens in a monopoly. . .

[guest10586]

You know why right? <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=79 target=_blank>Ebay's</a> 4th quater wasn't so good. Stock was doing awful in the markets today.

wtf? I type <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>ebay</a> and it autolinks. Thanks for selling out RFD! :P

[squall458]

we should all protest, i signed the petition. instead of raising rates they should try and get more ppl to be hooked on <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>ebay</a>. not drive them away! i hate <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>ebay</a> fees and i always prefer local deals and now it makes it even more lucrative to stick to local deals with paypal and <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>ebay</a> fees on top. booooooo

[plucky duck]

heh, that's what I thought too. Within the cardboard room "4th quarter no good? No problem. Time to exercise our monopoly power."

[cmge]

signed it just now... i agree about it not being fair... specially to those who occasionally sell items on ebay... >_<

[oceans_end]

<a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>ebay</a> has no competition.... yahoo auctions? bah....

their traffic/sales wouldnt decrease that much with the increase in fees.

[MilkyWind]

Yahoo auctions lol!

[champ91]

yahoo has auctions?

[champ91]

signed.

i thnk they should reduce the fees. Many people have left <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>ebay</a>, sellers and buyers, because of how poor the scaming protection is on <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>ebay</a>. The feedback system on <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>ebay</a> is a complete joke. Now they wanna drive away more people by increasing fees? ....way to go ebay...

[akito925]

signed.

i thnk they should reduce the fees. Many people have left <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>ebay</a>, sellers and buyers, because of how poor the scaming protection is on <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>ebay</a>. The feedback system on <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>ebay</a> is a complete joke. Now they wanna drive away more people by increasing fees? ....way to go ebay...

totally right!

but I don;'t like <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>ebay</a> anways hear to manny horror stories about it. scames etc.

[DennyD]

They're just a bunch of Money Whores... I stopped sellin' and I second the vote to make a mass exodus to Yahoo Auctions.

[ccubed]

Signed!

But in reading the email I received from <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>eBay</a>, it appears that the main fee increases are for <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>eBay</a> Stores, not day-to-day sellers like me.. Did I miss something?!?

[ItzMe]

Angst about 'FeeBay'

Sellers are angry about new costs, but the company has a profit margin to think about.

January 21, 2005: 10:28 AM EST

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Wow, a lot of people are grumpy at <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>eBay</a> these days ...

Matthew Mutch: "This is disgusting, but what does <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>eBay</a> care?"

Steve Connell: "Give the little guy a chance!"

Raelyn Stockwell: "I'm leaving eBay."

These are just a few of the comments from a huge anti-eBay petition on the Net, created to protest the online auction site's move to increase seller fees. Take a cruise through it, and you'll see some pretty angry comments.

Jennifer Suissa: "Shame on you feeBay!"

Well, it's good to let off a little steam, because the petition probably won't amount to much else. Just look at the numbers. Sure, it looks impressive with an estimated 20,000 signatures. But online petitions can be stuffed pretty easily. More importantly, that angry mass doesn't even add up to a tenth of a percentage point of <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=79 target=_blank>eBay's</a> 56.1 million active users.

"Well, I wanted to do something at least. Everybody else was just complaining," said petition creator Elaine Ma, a college student in Toronto who makes a few bucks selling handmade clothes and jewelry through an <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>eBay</a> store. "Maybe this will be some sort of wake-up call for the company."

Sure, the company probably heard an alarm ringing. The jangle was its earnings report released Wednesday, which missed Wall Street forecasts by a penny a share and showed a narrowing profit margin.

But Thursday <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>eBay</a> felt the fire as its stock tumbled (Research) 19 percent in heavy trading on Nasdaq.

Whatd'ya do when your margin gets squeezed? Hey, if you can, you raise prices. And <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>eBay</a>, as the big kahuna marketplace on the Net, can raise prices.

"Sure, you think you have alternatives to <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>eBay</a>, like Bidville or Overstock," said Ma. "But the fact is buyers go to <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>eBay</a>. That's what they know. And sellers have to go where buyers go."

Tough break for the little guys where auction fees can really eat into their margins. Ma says she pays $5 in fees for a $30 product. Indeed on a percentage basis, some of the increases look pretty steep. For example a store subscription -- basically an offering that lets someone set up their own little virtual shop -- is going from $9.95 to $15.95 a month. If I reported that your rent or mortgage payment was going up over 60 percent, you'd have a tizzy fit.

But hey, it's just a $6 hike. I'd be more angry if I was a high volume seller having to shell out a few more cents per cheapee item.

Nevertheless, many folks have opted for the tizzy fit, at least until Feb. 18, when the new fees go into effect. <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>EBay</a>, which didn't get back to me right away for this piece, hasn't shown any sign of relenting. And online selling is still a young business. You could argue that the previous fee structure was simply an "introductory" price structure designed to build the business.

But you never know. A competitor, one with some wherewithal, could decide this is the time to do some heavy marketing and use some aggressive pricing of its own to take away some of <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=79 target=_blank>eBay's</a> market share.

Is Yahoo's signature on that petition?

_________________________________________________

Allen Wastler is Managing Editor of CNN/Money and appears on "In the Money" on CNN. He can be emailed at Wastlerswanderings@cnn.com.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/20/comm...tler/index.htm