"I don't like the new changes to E-Bay ..... BUT......." Topic

yes, there is a BUT.

Having read through the new listing fees on E-bay.co.uk, I noticed that the initial listing for ANY item has gone to 40p. OK, so that pretty much wipes out any possible point in listing any small item – (Obviously any but the rarest miniture figures will fall into this category.)

BUT – Anything that starts at £15.00 GBP or more is actually cheaper to list! – Couple this to the fact that the gallery picture is now free, which normally cost 12p, means that even items starting at £5.00 GBP only end up as being 3p more expensive to list.

The end result should be that items will be listed at a more realistic startign price, rather than always being at 99p, with the inevitable shill bidding to ensure it reaches the desired amount, and EVERY item will most likely have a picture on the front page, so you can tell at a glance if it's somethign you might be interested in.

Just over 1% final listing fee increase. Well OK, again on a small item it's going to kill off the low value items, but shouldn't have too much affect on the higher value pieces.

The result is likely to be that I will be a little more picky over what I list, but I will probably continue to use the service – (Until something comes along that can seriously rival them in terms of convenience and ease of use.)

Worth noting that the listing fees you're talking about are for Buy It Now items only. The insertion fees for auction listings remain the same, starting at 10p for up to a 99p starting price.

Incidentally, I almost always list my items with a starting price of 99p – even very rare or valuable miniatures – and let the market set the price. I deeply resent the implication that this means I am involved in "inevitable shill bidding".

This is what really incensed me though:

Overall, we are continuing our commitment to moving the cost of selling an item on eBay.co.uk away from the front-end insertion fee and increasing the final value fees, so that the majority of fees are paid only when you successfully sell an item.

Reality: they're not moving anything away from auction insertion fees at all, which remain the same – they're simply increasing the final value fees so you pay more overall.

Yep – not a fan at all – the gallery being free is nice, but also levels the playing field, as a picture will no longer really make an item stand out if pretty well every item has one anyway…. The fees overall have a definite upwards tendency, and I hate the new search with a passion…. Apart from that, great.

Dom, who still buys on Ebay, but can't recall when he last sold there, having previously been a few dozen items a month seller….

Sorry about that. You are absolutley right, I had mis-read it.

I also apologise if it came across that I was accusing all sellers who start a listing at 99p of using shill, that was not my intention. But you can see that in some cases it does happen.

Apology accepted. If I was unduly harsh in my response it's probably because I'm still annoyed about ebay's positive spin on their increased charges.

As for shill bidding – maybe I've just had a sheltered experience, but I don't think it happens nearly so much as many people seem to believe. In my 8 years of trading on ebay, I've only ever been involved in one clear case of shill bidding (and I hasten to add that I was the injured buyer!).

Ditto for shill bidding. I am 90% certain I was caught by a shill bidder. I had put in my maximum bid and was outbid at the last minute, only to be messaged the next morning that the buyer had pulled out and that I was being offered the item at my offered price! (Obvioulsy the top end of my bid.)

As I was the only other bidder, it made the difference of paying £40.00 GBP instead of £10.00 GBP Yes, I did buy the item, because it was exactly what i was looking for, and I had offerred the price I was willing to pay for it.

There were other indicators that this was slightly suspect, such as negative feedback from another person claiming to have been let down on the sale of the same item and so on.

There are a couple of other instances where I suspect I have been bid up to my max by a shill, although none have been quite so obvious.

I find that a more common occurence is for sellers to 'chicken out' when an item isn't doing well rather than shill bid.

You know, when it's nearing the end of the auction and the serious bidding hasn't kicked in yet, so the item is still sitting at a relatively low price, then all of a sudden the listing is cancelled because the item is 'no longer available for sale' – but then it somehow mysteriously reappears in a new auction from the same seller but with a higher starting price, reserve or Buy It Now price. I've seen that happen quite a number of times.

The increase of final value fees and lowering of insertion fees is to try and make eBay more of a swap meet than it currently is. Expect more vinyl cel phone covers, $10 USD Wrangler jeans and power cord adapters in the future (and all the bizarre search term stuff that goes along with selling junk on the internet).

So ebay becomes a bring-and-buy rather than an auction site. Does that mean there's now a gap in the market for a new auction site?

I'm not just having a go at ebay here, it's a serious question. Other auction sites have tried and failed to compete thus far, lacking the traffic that ebay has. But now ebay seems to want to go in the direction of lots of fixed-price items, effectively becoming an online marketplace instead of an auction house. Does that mean we might actually see another site rise up to fill the latter role, or will ebay continue to dominate all spheres?

My impression is that ebay is moving towards becoming "Amazon Light" with more incentive for fixed-price sales rather than small auctions.

Wyatt

"Does that mean there's now a gap in the market for a new auction site? "

Well, according to some of my brother-in-law's business school friends, yet. eBay has been vocal about wanting to do less of the collectible/hobby related stuff and create more e-stores that sell everyday junk. I think it's a bad move from a business standpoint. eBay has a certain cache among collectors, etc. If they devalue the brand and turn it into a second-hand second-rate goods website then it will have the same problem KMart has as a brand. And if there are other auction website that step in (and are currently trying to break into the field) then it might take away some of eBay's thunder. Anyone remember how worthless Yahoo Auctions was? Well, that's the direction they're going.

The writing was on the wall the day they removed Pez dispensers from the homepage….

Think about it, how often do people buy cel phone covers and how often do collectors buy collectibles? If they made eBay be one of those one stop places where collectors can buy and sell to other collectors (where eBay reaps the rewards of all sales) and they allowed that group to post news and blogs via their website (a la TMP) they would have an active and loyal audience that comes to the website every day. Otherwise, they are just going to continue to get the occasional sale and further alienate the core groups that made them so widely popular to begin with.

Those minimum shipping prices certainly screw over priority mail which is practically been tailored around ebay but then I like paying shipping $3- for cds and dvds.