Ebay [doing the opposite of] lowering fees plus a lot of other stuff

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coolsteel

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Seller Update: Fees, Rewards & Standards
eBay buyers want value and selection from sellers they can trust--and good sellers deserve rewards for delivering great customer service. That's why we're making a number of important changes that may affect you:

1. Reduced Listing Fees
You asked, we listened. We're reducing Insertion Fees and adjusting Final Value Fees to lower your up-front cost to sell on eBay. You wanted free Gallery, now you've got it--plus more feature discounts.
* Lower insertion fees
* Free Gallery picture with every listing
* Lower fees for Gallery Plus, Picture Pack, and Feature Plus
2. Rewards for great sellers
There will be discounts and incentives for those who satisfy customers best. Who decides who gets rewarded? Customers do, by giving sellers high Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs).
* More search exposure through Best Match
* Fee discounts for PowerSellers
* Increased protection for PowerSellers
3. Feedback Changes
Significant changes coming soon will increase buyer confidence and showcase good sellers.
* Buyers will only be able to receive positive Feedback.
* Positive repeat customer Feedback will count and Feedback more than 12 months old won't.
* Negative and neutral Feedback left by the buyer will be removed for transactions in which a buyer doesn't respond to the Unpaid Item (UPI) or if the member is suspended.

For more details on how these changes may affect your business, attend a special Seller Webinar at 10:00 a.m. this Friday, February 1. You may also see announcements from eBay executives on the Announcement Board.


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Final Value Fees went up though. From 5.25% to 8.75% of the first $25 and from 3.25% to 3.50% of anything past that. So it cost about $.87 more in fees if your item sells for $25 (although you do get a 'free' gallery image). It's a pretty round-about way of Ebay raising their prices again.
 
I guess they finally decided an easier shopping experience for buyers (and gallery images do make browsing listings way easier) would translate into enough extra benefit to them to offset making that feature free. Should have been free long ago IMO.

Had to poke around but I finally found this page with details on the new insertion fees:
http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/basic/index.html#insertion

weak sauce

A $15 item will now have $1.24 taken in FVF as opposed to $0.79 with the current fee structure offset by a measley $0.05 reduction in insertion cost. Feh. And that spread obviously gets worse as you get closer to $25.

Look for S&H charges to rise a bit from most sellers...

They are also going to offer discounts to FVF for power sellers that have high ratings in those new 4 star rating categories. (15% off for 4.8 or greater in all 4 if I read the notice correctly.) I'm guessing that will lead to a lot of pleas from sellers to please give all 5 stars if you are happy. It could also lead to lower shipping charges I guess as it's pretty hard to get 4.8 in shipping cost from my experience.

Hell 4.8 is pretty tough in all categories. Personally I think I describe items worse than they actually are and I have 4.9 in 'Item as described' I ship everything the next business day and I have 4.8 in shipping time. I think some buyers default to 4s unless they are blown away. Now I'm not a power seller so I don't have to sweat this all that much. In fact I only checked those ratings just now to see if I would qualify or not. But you get one pissed off customer who leaves all 1s and it's going to take a lot of all 5s to offset that back to a 4.8...
 
Wow.... this just shows how eBay is not only a terrible company... but now they are trying to hide the fact they are raising fees. as soon as I read that first statement "We're reducing Insertion Fees and adjusting Final Value Fees " I knew something was up.... come on, adjusting final value fees?

the longer eBay goes on, the less profitable (and, less useful) it becomes for the sellers.

I hope Google finally comes out with some type of auction site at some point and kicks the crap out of eBay.
 
I love how they always advertise their lower listing fees... as if listing fees were every the issue. The god damn final value fees are what killed it and now they're eating up a lot more.

Buyers can only receive positive feedback? So basically, a buyer can claim whatever he/she wants and get away with it? WTF?! While this is nice way to prevent sellers from holding you feedback hostage, this'll no doubt lead to abuse as sellers will leave neutrals/negatives for the slightest mistakes I'm betting.

And what's this about feedback older than a year not counting anymore? For small time sellers like me, that means I'll basically have very little to back up my reputation.:whistle2:(

All of these changes are just helping eBay's beloved Power Sellers even more now as they bring eBay the most money. And they pay less fees too.
 
Whats great is the double dip ebay takes from you. Ridiculous final value fees and another 3% of all the money you get from paypal.
 
[quote name='Vinny']

And what's this about feedback older than a year not counting anymore? For small time sellers like me, that means I'll basically have very little to back up my reputation.:whistle2:([/QUOTE]

"Feedback more than 12-months old won't count towards your Feedback percentage."

So if I'm reading this right that means your score will reflect all feedback over the life of your account (i.e. if you're received 300 + FB over 5 years your score will still be 300) but your percentage will only be basedon the past 12 months (so if you have a 99.8% based on one lone neg from 2004, you'll suddenly jump back up to 100%)

Buyers only being able to receive + FB is probably to make it more like Amazon where only sellers are rated. IMO if they are going to make that sort of change they shouldn't half ass it and just say no feedback for buyers at all. But then that would probably cheese off some buyers who like to see their score grow. Overall this is probably a good thing as crappy sellers will get the feedback they deserve more often, but yeah it might mean more poor feedback for silly things from uptight buyers.

Power sellers that routinely retaliate with a neg and ask for a mutual withdraw won't like that part of the rule change anyway.
 
[quote name='Vinny']I love how they always advertise their lower listing fees... as if listing fees were every the issue. The god damn final value fees are what killed it and now they're eating up a lot more.

Buyers can only receive positive feedback? So basically, a buyer can claim whatever he/she wants and get away with it? WTF?! While this is nice way to prevent sellers from holding you feedback hostage, this'll no doubt lead to abuse as sellers will leave neutrals/negatives for the slightest mistakes I'm betting.

And what's this about feedback older than a year not counting anymore? For small time sellers like me, that means I'll basically have very little to back up my reputation.:whistle2:(

All of these changes are just helping eBay's beloved Power Sellers even more now as they bring eBay the most money. And they pay less fees too.[/QUOTE]
I dont like this. So me as a seller can not leave neutral or negative for the buyer if I feel that the buyer left me a negative or neutral cuz they're being an arse and for not contacting me to resolve situation? How are we to warn other sellers of the buyers actions?

I assume you meant buyers will leave neutrals/negatives?
 
The more things change the more they stay the same. I, like many people just do the occassional ebay to make a few bucks, but fees are going up and up. Yeah, gallery is nice and lower insertion fee is good, but it's the back end stuff. FVF and Paypal fee that really add up. *sigh*
 
I found the horrible news related to video games....read this:

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/rewardsfaq/index.html#1

The entire section about "Safer payment options" is what I want you to see....

New sellers under 100 feedback will not get their money right away and they must use paypal...that is enough to kill ebay there. And to continue, these rules will always apply to video games & computers sales. The money will sit on hold in their paypal account until one of these three things happens:

- the buyer leaves positive feedback,
- 3 days after confirmed item delivery* or
- 21 days without a dispute, claim, chargeback, or reversal filed on that transaction.

Simply amazing....I'm speechless....you must use paypal and no money until your feedback, 3 days after confirmed delivery, or 21 days after no claims....what dealer in their right mind would ship under those terms. If they applied these rules to all items sold there, ebay would be out of business!
 
[quote name='fairyland']I found the horrible news related to video games....read this:

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/rewardsfaq/index.html#1

The entire section about "Safer payment options" is what I want you to see....

New sellers under 100 feedback will not get their money right away and they must use paypal...that is enough to kill ebay there. And to continue, these rules will always apply to video games & computers sales. The money will sit on hold in their paypal account until one of these three things happens:

- the buyer leaves positive feedback,
- 3 days after confirmed item delivery* or
- 21 days without a dispute, claim, chargeback, or reversal filed on that transaction.

Simply amazing....I'm speechless....you must use paypal and no money until your feedback, 3 days after confirmed delivery, or 21 days after no claims....what dealer in their right mind would ship under those terms. If they applied these rules to all items sold there, ebay would be out of business![/QUOTE]
Its not bad as it seems. Yea, you need to have PayPal but all you have to do is add tracking number and you'll get payment. people should be sending with tracking. Waiting for buyers to leave feedback? Some dont leave it but having to wait 21 days is a drag. Best route is the confirmed item delivery and waiting 3 days.
 
I already stopped using Ebay due to the stupidly high FVF and Paypal fees. I got this email earlier and thought to myself "great, now I don't have to try building a name for myself on CAG and can continue to just use Ebay when I need to sell things" but nope, raising the fees for the loss.
 
I do sort of like the reduced rates for insertions -- it takes some of the risk out of making new auctions.

However going from 5.25% to 8.75% is a HUGE increase. 3.5% increase on FVF?

For a $25 item:
$1.31 FVF is now $2.19

After paypal's fees it's now $3.11

Ebay is ripe for a site to take over their low-end business. Essentially sub $25 business is no longer profitable there, someone could easily capture this from them with a more realistic pricing structure.
 
its not worth it anymore, the reduced fees are nice at first, but the FVF are way to high. I love how they deceptively put "lower fees" in the email headline but in the end it will cost you more than ever to sell
 
The feedback system is horrible. What happens when a buyer has buyer's remorse and demands a refund and says I'll give you a negative unless you let me return the item. Or if they get angry you didn't ship within 12 hours or something stupid. They can neg as much as they want knowing they can't get a neg back in return.

I got a neg a while back for not leaving a buyer feedback (my policy is to leave feedback one the buyer lets me know they are satisfied with the item or leaves me feedback first). Needless to say, they got a negative back in return. Plus it served as a warning to other sellers that they will do that (I didn't realize it but they did it to 5 or 6 sellers). Basically any buyer could get away with that now.

[quote name='fairyland']I found the horrible news related to video games....read this:

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/rewardsfaq/index.html#1

The entire section about "Safer payment options" is what I want you to see....

New sellers under 100 feedback will not get their money right away and they must use paypal...that is enough to kill ebay there. And to continue, these rules will always apply to video games & computers sales. The money will sit on hold in their paypal account until one of these three things happens:

- the buyer leaves positive feedback,
- 3 days after confirmed item delivery* or
- 21 days without a dispute, claim, chargeback, or reversal filed on that transaction.

Simply amazing....I'm speechless....you must use paypal and no money until your feedback, 3 days after confirmed delivery, or 21 days after no claims....what dealer in their right mind would ship under those terms. If they applied these rules to all items sold there, ebay would be out of business![/QUOTE]


That's horrible, if it takes a week for the item to be delivered, you could not the see the money for 2 weeks.
 
Holy fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I realize I am merel piling on here, but I need to vent. This is such complete and utter nonsense. All of this makes selling on a small scale completely unprofitable and undesirable. And this whole "buyers can only leave positive feedback" is complete trash. I understand that they are probably trying to combat feedback ransom, but come on. This punishes the large percent of sellers who are honest for the acts of a small segment of asshats.
 
[quote name='fairyland']I found the horrible news related to video games....read this:

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/rewardsfaq/index.html#1

The entire section about "Safer payment options" is what I want you to see....

New sellers under 100 feedback will not get their money right away and they must use paypal...that is enough to kill ebay there. And to continue, these rules will always apply to video games & computers sales. The money will sit on hold in their paypal account until one of these three things happens:

- the buyer leaves positive feedback,
- 3 days after confirmed item delivery* or
- 21 days without a dispute, claim, chargeback, or reversal filed on that transaction.

Simply amazing....I'm speechless....you must use paypal and no money until your feedback, 3 days after confirmed delivery, or 21 days after no claims....what dealer in their right mind would ship under those terms. If they applied these rules to all items sold there, ebay would be out of business![/QUOTE]


yeah, I agree, that is pretty bullshit... I have a 72 feedback so my stuff would get held (even though I've NEVER had a negative feedback as a seller)

one thing I do like, is they are going to wipe out feedback thats over 12 months old (I have 3 negatives from like 1998 and the users are no longer registered, 1 of which wasn't my fault, the company F'd up and I still got a negative)

goes to show you how much ebay basically says "FU Sellers, your gonna keep using us regardless of how much we screw you over"

you think they would show appreciation for sellers who keep them in business, without sellers ebay wouldn't exist.

Also, if a buyer bids, and doesn't pay I have NO RECOURSE in teh crappy feedback system ebay has. This is just going to let bad natured bidders run rampid on ebay
 
Yeah, getting buyers to actually leave feedback is another reason I don't like Ebay. I must have lost about 30 or so feedback due to buyers never leaving any, and I just about always left feedback as soon as they paid.

The only thing I really liked about Ebay was that I felt safe listing items and not have to worry about getting screwed by people trying to get money back after they received the item. Trying to sell things on CAG seems a ton riskier due to much less protection on stuff like that.
 
LOL, Repeat customer feedback counts! LET THE FEEDBACK FARMING BEGIN!

I didn't think they could make the feedback system any more broken than it already is, again H3LLBRING3R is proven wrong by the moronic decision making at eBay.

Stunned, I heard that d-bag of a CEO is planning on running for Governor of CAH-LE-FORNYA.
 
[quote name='wubb']"Feedback more than 12-months old won't count towards your Feedback percentage."

So if I'm reading this right that means your score will reflect all feedback over the life of your account (i.e. if you're received 300 + FB over 5 years your score will still be 300) but your percentage will only be basedon the past 12 months (so if you have a 99.8% based on one lone neg from 2004, you'll suddenly jump back up to 100%)[/quote]

I was initially very happy at the idea of having feedback percentage only reflect the past 12 months since those who want an immaculate record won't have to cry after receiving their first negative. The only problem is that this is only good for Power Sellers or those who sell consistently every month.

I have a 100% feedback of around 70 but I don't sell that often. I think the last time I sold something was 4 months ago. With the old feedback system, if a negative dropped me to 98%, people would still feel confident in bidding on my items since the rest of my transactions were flawless.

What happens if during the rest of the year I only sell 2 items and receive a negative for one of them? With the current system, I would have a feedback rating of 50% instead of a 98% which took me a good year and a half to build up. That means if I sell any more items in the future, it will make my record look horrible. Granted once they click for more details they will see a more accurate feedback history but most buyers would just move to the next seller before doing research if it is that low.
 
[quote name='Kendro']I was initially very happy at the idea of having feedback percentage only reflect the past 12 months since those who want an immaculate record won't have to cry after receiving their first negative. The only problem is that this is only good for Power Sellers or those who sell consistently every month.

I have a 100% feedback of around 70 but I don't sell that often. I think the last time I sold something was 4 months ago. With the old feedback system, if a negative dropped me to 98%, people would still feel confident in bidding on my items since the rest of my transactions were flawless.

What happens if during the rest of the year I only sell 2 items and receive a negative for one of them? With the current system, I would have a feedback rating of 50% instead of a 98% which took me a good year and a half to build up. That means if I sell any more items in the future, it will make my record look horrible. Granted once they click for more details they will see a more accurate feedback history but most buyers would just move to the next seller before doing research if it is that low.[/QUOTE]

Yeah this is a good point. While negs will roll off your % after 12 months they will drag the % down much more until they do roll off.

I'm close to 500 FB with no negs but with the new system a neg would drop me to something like 98% rather than 99.8% That'd suck.
 
wow I really thought ebay could only go up hill from now on looks like I was wrong they are going down hill. Ebay will be a great place for scammers now since they can only get positive feedback for scamming people.
 
[quote name='wubb']Yeah this is a good point. While negs will roll off your % after 12 months they will drag the % down much more until they do roll off.

I'm close to 500 FB with no negs but with the new system a neg would drop me to something like 98% rather than 99.8% That'd suck.[/QUOTE]

Add in the fact that since buyers can only get positive feedback, you now have a significantly higher chance of getting a negative/neutral... hell, have the star rating things can hurt you now so they could just leave a positive and mark you negative in something (like slow shipping time).

I'm really torn on this. While I predominately use eBay to buy and it seems like half the time I'm really unsatisfied with the seller so I just ignore feedback altogether. So now, I'll be more open to leaving neutrals/negs if needed.

But for the times when I do sell, I'm basically playing Russian Roulette (except I'm start with 5 bullets rather than one). So what about high priced items... the buyer could get away with anything.

"Oh, there was no disc in there."

"It doesn't work."

"It was the different game completely."

*sigh*
 
I did enjoy the fact that it only cost me $0.55 to list each item....with a preview pic, when it use to cost me a bit more. Now lets see what percent they take out of the final sale....
 
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