Seller discrimination and Ebay "price fixing"

[saarzi]

"Seller discrimination and "price fixing" -

Ebay limits how much you sell each month (this is stated by Ebay in the Answer Centre) - not just number of items you can list, but how much you actually sell. That is a dollar amount.  How do they limit? accusations of "throttling", "averaging" or simply not allowing groups of buyers to see or search for your listings, and sometimes not listing at all (but you still pay for it, if its not a free listing). This means regardless of how many item you list, you will make the same amount each month, or there abouts.

Theres a bunch of other accusations of horrible stuff they do to sellers here and here, mostly from ex-employees and platinum sellers. But its easy to track your sales in a spreadsheet for yourself (I do, and my SALES/ sold items definitely appear capped).

They have been accused of doing this to smaller sellers to funnel buyers to larger sellers in an effort to uphold their sell rate agreements with larger companies and reduce loss in their buyer protection program.

I have asked Ebay for my seller "sold Items" limits - since its not available in many accounts, including mine (even though the Help Centre says its available to most, and an Ebay rep worded it to allow media to think it was available to all).  No reply so far. However, theres apparently also "hidden" seller limits - restrictions that sellers are not told about at all (as per ex employees).

On Ebay -

"How overall account limits work

You have a limit on sold items, gross merchandise volume and active items for sale. If an item sells, it counts toward the limit, but if a listing ends without any sold items, it no longer counts toward the limit."

How to find your limits Account limits

Most sellers can see account limits in My eBay. The Monthly selling limits section (under All Selling or the Selling Manager Summary) shows your current selling activity relative to your monthly account limits."

If some of the accusations were investigated and found to be true, it could mean jail time for Ebay execs - many are illegal and very serious.

Lodging complaints with legal bodies in your country is the only way it will change.  In Australia, the ACCC is a good start (or Financial Services Ombudsman) - You can lodge online. "

... so now Im wondering why Im on Ebay at all?  lol

[Anonymous]

yep my sales seem pretty much the same each month and some months i will have better things and more expensive things than other months, funny that.

[missbonnielovesglitter]

I dont understand - why would ebay want to limit the amount a seller sells?

surely ebay want as many sales as possible

more sales = more fee income for ebay

[honest.johns.phones]

well if for example they had 10,000 buyers that shopped with eBay each week they can up the dollar value spent per customer by shooing smaller sellers who generally are cheaper priced. This would mean more revenue received per sale.

[blue_arroz]

funnelling sales to the "big boys" (more evident lately, but it has been happening for years) - if it can be proven, it has class action law suit all over it.

[snatchitwholesales]

So does this mean that the volume of trading items

---

@gtx305 wrote:

"Seller discrimination and "price fixing" -

Ebay limits how much you sell each month (this is stated by Ebay in the Answer Centre) - not just number of items you can list, but how much you actually sell. That is a dollar amount.  How do they limit? accusations of "throttling", "averaging" or simply not allowing groups of buyers to see or search for your listings, and sometimes not listing at all (but you still pay for it, if its not a free listing). This means regardless of how many item you list, you will make the same amount each month, or there abouts.

Theres a bunch of other accusations of horrible stuff they do to sellers here and here, mostly from ex-employees and platinum sellers. But its easy to track your sales in a spreadsheet for yourself (I do, and my SALES/ sold items definitely appear capped).

They have been accused of doing this to smaller sellers to funnel buyers to larger sellers in an effort to uphold their sell rate agreements with larger companies and reduce loss in their buyer protection program.

I have asked Ebay for my seller "sold Items" limits - since its not available in many accounts, including mine (even though the Help Centre says its available to most, and an Ebay rep worded it to allow media to think it was available to all).  No reply so far. However, theres apparently also "hidden" seller limits - restrictions that sellers are not told about at all (as per ex employees).

On Ebay -

"How overall account limits work

You have a limit on sold items, gross merchandise volume and active items for sale. If an item sells, it counts toward the limit, but if a listing ends without any sold items, it no longer counts toward the limit."

How to find your limits Account limits

Most sellers can see account limits in My eBay. The Monthly selling limits section (under All Selling or the Selling Manager Summary) shows your current selling activity relative to your monthly account limits."

If some of the accusations were investigated and found to be true, it could mean jail time for Ebay execs - many are illegal and very serious.

Lodging complaints with legal bodies in your country is the only way it will change.  In Australia, the ACCC is a good start (or Financial Services Ombudsman) - You can lodge online. "

... so now Im wondering why Im on Ebay at all?  lol

---

resets each new monthly cycle?

[machinery_bay]

I wonder why sometimes I just don't get inquiries, though I have many items for sale. Then at other times, they come in droves. Taking into consideration seasonal aspects and holidays as well as weekend peak times, I still found there was a huge deficiency much of the time in my listing interest. Something just isn't right, as about a decade ago, I had no problems with people inquiring regularly on fairly priced valuable items.

Hmmmmm

[daydreams_12]

THIS THREAD HAS NOT SEEN THE LIGHT OF DAY FOR 4 YEARS.

DEAD THREAD

[chameleon54]

---

@machinery_bay wrote:

I wonder why sometimes I just don't get inquiries, though I have many items for sale. Then at other times, they come in droves. Taking into consideration seasonal aspects and holidays as well as weekend peak times, I still found there was a huge deficiency much of the time in my listing interest. Something just isn't right, as about a decade ago, I had no problems with people inquiring regularly on fairly priced valuable items.

Hmmmmm

---

Over the last decade there has been huge changes in your specific field. Ten years ago, ebay was at its peak and was the dominant online auction house. People came to the site looking for your type of equipment as ebay was really the only game in town.

Now gumtree & facebook has largely taken over for cash & carry type items that are too heavy to freight. Probably the biggest change is that the big auction houses such as Grays ( where you may possibly be buying a lot of your stock ) which specialise in machinery disposal have all gone online with their auctions. This means buyers no longer have to wait for auction day and sit around waiting for the item to come up as they did ten years ago. Now they can view the gear at their leasure, or buy from the photos and descriptions on the website catalogue and place a last minute bid on their mobile phone. There is no longer any need to pay a middle man to sit at the auction, buyers can go direct to the stock source themselves.

This service was not available a decade ago, but has transformed the heavy equipment market. Sometimes we just have to accept that what we where doing a decade ago is no longer working and find a new product line to sell.

[chameleon54]

Cheap Chinese knock - offs have also had a huge impact on the heavy machinery market over the past decade. A lot of the cheap Chinese stuff is still not too bad quality wise ( Chonda stationary motors etc. ) and while the big companies and proffessional tradesmen may sometimes steer away from it, it has taken the lower end of the buyers market right out, reducing the potential pool of buyers.

Those that want the quality brand name gear will tend to buy new anyway and those looking for cheaper, used gear can buy new Chinese for less than used brand name gear.