I seriously think eBay is deliberately trying to kill the auction

[frozenntimesports]

It seems like everything is being done to move people away from auctions to fixed listings. It has worked fine for 10 years, WTF is eBay's problem?

[37Jetson]

They are *ell bent on self destruction. After building a successful multi-billion dollar business based on auctions run by individuals they have fallen victim to "corporate think" and have been making every possible change to increase revenue in their minds. In the meantime they have offended countless sellers who are also buyers. Guess what? The whole site is going down the tubes and I predict will be in Chapter 11 within 2 years if Ebay management does not wake up or correspondingly cut operating costs (no greedy corporate board in America is capable of this!)

One simple Ebay question... Are buyers going to be happy to sign up and use Pay Pal for Ebay Fixed Price purchases from unknown sellers when they can go to Amazon.com and get good pricing, good service and use their credit card how they want to?

[guru]

eBay probably just figures they will get a bail out from the US Government if they fail.

[frozenntimesports]

eBay probably just figures they will get a bail out from the US Government if they fail.

The American people are sick of bailouts. Its obvious they aren't working.

[tarzanlovesjane]

How can bailouts possibly work, they only reward gross mismanagement and poor business sense. Every time the government hands out tax payers dollars to these multi billion dollar firms they will go spend it like water and be back within a quarter for more crying poor mouth again. These companies have to be allowed to fail, it's the basis of a free market system. If they are not able to, upon their own merit, survive this economic crisis then they have to be left to their own devices and eventually be replaced by companies that will structure themselves to meet current market demand within budget restraints. The past two decades people have spent like madmen without thinking about the repercussions, now judgment day is here and no one wants to pay the ferryman.

Ebay is no different, in that they are cutting their throat in an effort to save face. They allowed fraud to run rampant for so long on their site that they have had to implement ridiculous policies that destroy seller confidence and protection, and at the same time drive down prices on their site. It doesn't make sense, and to top it all off they've now made it "policy" that everyone is required to take paypal? Conflict of interest a little? I won't pay them another dime, and I hope they do fail. It's just the course of industry, when one business structure is outgrown or does not accommodate changes in the times they are run under and replaced by another business that are suited to the current market climate. It's been happening for thousands of years and will continue to happen as long as there is human life on this planet.

[Cornerstore]

it has nothing to do with ebay, it has to do with the people putting things on auction. I mean people are sick of putting something up when they expect 5-10 dollars from a item and it still going for 99 cents. Its our economy and how people are reacting to make due from it. If we hit another surplus (which wont happen soon, by the way we are linked in this global economy, and with other countries also having problems, some worse then us) we will continue to see this until the economy starts to turn around.

[mwheeler27]

it has nothing to do with ebay, it has to do with the people putting things on auction. I mean people are sick of putting something up when they expect 5-10 dollars from a item and it still going for 99 cents. Its our economy and how people are reacting to make due from it. If we hit another surplus (which wont happen soon, by the way we are linked in this global economy, and with other countries also having problems, some worse then us) we will continue to see this until the economy starts to turn around.

TLJ is right. It has everything to do with Ebay and their idiotic attempt at increasing their bottom line. Without sellers, there is no Ebay. Put something up for sale, and there will ALWAYS be a buyer. I don't care how many buyers there are out there, if no one's selling, there won't be any buying going on. Ebay needs to wake up and begin to take care of their sellers again or they will lose more and more market share, (it's already starting), at such a rate that before long they will no longer be number one.

I'm a buyer by the way, and even I can see the damage Ebay is doing to sellers. It won't be long before that damage is irrepairable.

[papajim]

They are working very hard to get rid of the small sellers (those that made Ebay what it is, in the start). Just want BIG business selling for the fvf $$$$$. That is why the big push for free shipping and fixed price!
Walmart should be selling on Ebay soon:mad:.

Time has come for some smart energenic people to come up with a "NEW Ebay" for non-corporate (mom & pop) sellers again.
Anyone have a few extra million $$$ collecting dust;)

[Aaron]

eBay no longer wants non-business acounts. Just look into the sweetheart deal that they gave Buy.com to list 1000s of items a day. Every policy enacted has seemed to serve no purpose other than to drive the stake deep into the personal seller's heart while further filling the eBay coffers.

Most recently, the decision to force electronic payments. Why? Surely it couldn't be because eBay owned PayPal and had yet another way to make money off of every sale. No way.

When they talked about how fees were going up, but that "most" seller would see a reduction of fees based upon having good seller ratings. Did it happen? Nope. They simply added even more hoops to jump through in order to be deemed a "power seller." My DSRs are fine, but now (because I don't sell 3000 items a year) I'm still not up for any discount on my fees.

Other sites have attempted to woo me to sell there. But other than Amazon auctions (and maybe Overstock) - few get the level of traffic that eBay does. So essentially eBay has sellers by the ... huevos ... and there are few, if any real alternatives.

Even if someone started up a rival - do you really think it would take off right away with a massive (and costly) advertising push? Small time sellers aren't going to be able to lose money for long before packing it up - and then no one wins.