March 21, 2005

eBay May Be Forced to Stop Using Buy-it-Now Due to Lawsuit

Last year eBay did $30 Billion dollars in Buy-it-Now sales. It turns, out someone has the patent on it, which may force them to stop using it:

http://www.longmontfyi.com/tcBusiness/bizStories.asp?ID=1514

Posted by marketplacesna at 09:31 AM | Comments (609) | TrackBack

March 01, 2005

Trade-in On eBay

Here is a great tool - allows you to trade-in your old golf equipment for new equipment:

http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=dallasgolf

Posted by marketplacesna at 11:09 AM | Comments (920) | TrackBack

February 21, 2005

February 2005 eBay Top Sellers List

Each month eBay publishes the top sellers on their site. See a complete breakdown of what is in demand on eBay:

eBay Top Sellers February 2005

Posted by marketplacesna at 09:35 PM | TrackBack

January 20, 2005

eBay Top Sellers List - Selling Smart Based on Trends

Perhaps one of the best tools - not just for eBay Sellers but for anyone selling something online. Knowing what is in demand is half the battle.

eBay Publishes a report that ranks each category:

http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/hotitems.pdf

Posted by marketplacesna at 06:46 PM | TrackBack

January 19, 2005

Interview with eBay PR over Fee Increase

FeeBay: Do you know what this means?

so here is my second installment in PR madness. writing a story about eBay fee increase -- called Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay.

Irina: Hi Hani [saying that was wierd, since i'm not married to him]. Can you tell me about the fee increases on eBay?

Durzy: Let's not characterize this as a fee increase accross the board. Some fees were lowered and some were increased.

Irina: Oh, can we talk about which ones were lowered and which ones were raised?

Durzy: I can't go into every detail! That information is on our website. You really need to look over that. In fact, it's unprofessional of you to call me before you have familiarized yourself with the infor.....

Irina: Mr. Durzy. I HAVE read the information and I'm asking you anyway. That's how I usually conduct interviews.

Durzy. Well. So let's not call it an accross-the-board increase.

Irina: OK. Can we talk about the eBay members who are frustrated with the fees? The ones that were increased, not the ones that were decreased.

Durzy: I think most ebay users are evaluating the price changes to see how they will impact their businesses.

Irina: Um, OK. Um. [debating if I should follow up on that "answer"] How did eBay decide on the increase.

Durzy: We carefully valuate our pricing structure from time to time. We believe these price changes are the right thing to do for the vibrancy of the market place.

Irina: How do you define vibrancy?

Durzy: The market place is an organic ever-changing thing and it works best when sellers are selling and buyers are buying.

Irina: OK. How do you define "vibrancy" and how will the price changes affect the "vibrancy?"

Durzy: Fee changes create changes by affecting certain behaviors in the market place to create the effect of more items selling more often. We believe these price changes are what is needed to continue that vibrancy.

Irina: How do fee changes create the effect of more items selling more often?

Durzy: Listen, I'm not going into details here. In general, we believe that the changes we have made will help the continued success of the market place -- for the community.

http://heresmybyline.typepad.com/irina/2005/01/feebay_do_you_k.html

Posted by marketplacesna at 10:18 AM | TrackBack

January 18, 2005

eBay Sellers React to Fee Increases

eBay Sellers React Strongly Against Fee Increase
By Ina Steiner

www.auctionbytes.com
January 18, 2005

eBay announced last week a change in its seller fee structure, including increased fees on eBay Stores and certain features and categories to take effect February 18 (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m01/i12/s00). In the days following the announcement, sellers have reacted strongly against the increase and have circulated an online petition and launched protest auctions. Of most concern to sellers seemed to be the rate of the increase.

Some sellers say they have closed their eBay Stores, although no exact numbers are available. eBay reported it had 224,000 Stores worldwide at the end of the third quarter 2004 (September 30, 2004); and of those, 143,000 were hosted on the U.S. site. eBay also reported it had acquired 20.3 million new Stores listings during the third quarter, versus 4.1 million new Stores listings in the third quarter of 2003.

The announcement of increased fees has angered sellers of all sizes. The Professional eBay Seller's Alliance (PESA) issued a statement on Monday to express their dismay. The group says it is composed of 600 of eBay's largest sellers accounting for over $1 billion in annual eBay sales. The statement read in part:

Overall, our members are reporting that they will pay up to 22% more to eBay than before the increase. That's unprecedented, and will have broad marketplace implications.

The history and spirit of the eBay marketplace is one of partnership between buyers, sellers and eBay. Historically, eBay has benefited only when buyers and sellers have benefited.

Sadly, this price increase flies in the face of that partnership, siphoning more and more value away from sellers and away from buyers (when prices or shipping charges increase to cover the fees), and towards eBay itself. This is at time when large sellers that comprise PESA's membership have only seen a degradation of the quality of the marketplace, rather than any substantive investments in its improvement. Sadly, this will inhibit, rather than nourish the growth of the eBay marketplace. While this may increase eBay revenue for a quarter or two, it certainly does not bode well for eBay's growth.

Anecdotally, we already see eBay's top sellers beginning to focus their attention on other channels based on this and other problems. We hope to have data on this soon.

PESA's Spring Summit to be held in March will include sessions on multi-channel selling, and PESA founder Joe Cortese said there has been an increase in registrations over the past week.

As sellers try to discuss ways to cope with the impact of fees on their business, including exploring alternative marketplaces, some report they have been sent warnings or suspended from eBay's discussion boards. Accusations of forum censorship by eBay are not new.

One group of users formed a Yahoo Group, in one member's words, "so that us disgruntled sellers may voice our opinion without being censored or banned from ebay discussion boards. A lot of us have been warned, had our posts deleted and have been suspended." The group named itself GreedBay, and had fewer than 300 members as of Monday. Discussions included posts on ways to cope, including having members send postcards to eBay CEO Meg Whitman, and opinions about other auction sites. In this group and on other online auction discussion boards, it seems there is no consensus on which marketplace is a viable alternative to eBay.

There's also no doubt from reading letters and online posts that sellers are taking the fee hike personally.

Carol Green of Houston, Missouri wrote, "This situation is a financial death knell for many cottage industry folks and when America is at war, we didn't need Ebay potentially destabilizing the economy - especially when the "little guy", many of whom the husbands are out fighting in Iraq for us, are hit the worst."

Another seller who wished to remain anonymous wrote, "The fact that eBay took a price increase is surely not an issue. What is an issue is the RATE of increase which, to a business person who has spent several years developing an auction based business predicated on specific cost parameters, is unconscionable. It is the height of arrogance to believe they can pull off such a stunt with no competitive repercussion...which indeed will probably be the case. I for one am ready for some serious competition...I'll be the first one to post."

Some sellers speculate eBay's next bombshell move may be to institute surcharge for 7-day listings. It already charges sellers an extra fee to list a 10-day auction.

An online petition protesting the fees has been circulating since last week (http://www.petitiononline.com/ebayfee/petition.html). One line of the petition letter reads, "We protest that ebay should reconsider the fee increase entirely, but if not possible, please do think about not increasing the fees as much (some fees have double...or even tripled!)."

As of Monday evening, the petition showed 16,284 online "signatures."

eBay will release last quarter's earnings on Wednesday. Bloomberg reported Monday that eBay's fourth quarter net income could be the company's biggest increase in six quarters. If true, it could further fan the flames already burning in some eBay sellers.

Posted by marketplacesna at 10:55 PM | TrackBack

January 14, 2005

eBay Acquires Ecommerce Company

http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m01/i14/s01

eBay will acquire the technology assets of Kurant, it announced Thursday.

Kurant distributes its StoreSense ecommerce service through a network of resellers. A "Master Reseller" called NeoVerve lists fees for StoreSense starting at $19.95/month for a starter edition all the way up to $319.95 for an Elite version of StoreSense Pro Plus (http://www.neoverve.com/ecommerce/storesense_pricing.html). In April, Kurant's StoreSense offering won PC Magazine's Editor's Choice Award (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1555276,00.asp).

News of the technology acquisition came a day after eBay announced a fee hike of its own Stores offering (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m01/i12/s00). eBay, the 800-pound gorilla in the online-auction space, offers sellers auction and fixed-price formats and also offers eBay Stores, where sellers can load inventory at fixed prices indefinitely. eBay announced Wednesday it was increasing the monthly fee and commission on Store items effective February 18.

Posted by marketplacesna at 04:15 PM | Comments (812) | TrackBack

January 03, 2005

AuctionBytes Daily News Feed

Posted by marketplacesna at 04:08 PM | Comments (335) | TrackBack