The Other Shoe Finally Drops

[digital*ghost]

Most sellers will probably wake up to the email, but since I'm up I thought I'd mention part 2 of the reduced fees and other changes introduced recently...

Featured store $49.95 per month (no more basic store, so that's the minimum your store will cost) - from September 15.

I'm figuring that's going to get the most attention, but there's a few other bits and pieces worthy of attention - new standards for TRS, variant format introduced to more categories... An Item Condition clarification field...formerly know as the description (I wonder if the option to create an HTML description page will eventually be gone?)

Interesting stuff, to say the least.

[phorum_junkie*]

Hard to tell how it is going to impact on my profit margins as I closed my store when it was still $19.99 and won't be re-opening until after it goes up to fifty bucks.

I can't be bothered to crunch the numbers with any accuracy but I think with the reduction from 40c to 20c for listing fees and the .9% drop in FVF it may not impact very much on my overal profit.

I will just have to ramp it up a bit and get more listings done. I may make more use of other ids without stores for increasing my free to list auctions for second hand goods.

At the end of the day you can complain all you want but you either adapt and survive or you don't and go under.

After well over a decade and many major changes which the doom and gloom brigade say will be the end of ebay I am still here and still maling more money each year. My business model is vastly different to what it used to be.

[beauty-savvy]

I totally agree!

It is extremely frustrating and difficult to compete with overseas sellers who offer free postage, Australia Post prices are just ridiculous particularly when you send everything Registered Post (for PayPal protection).

How about a different fee structure for overseas sellers?

I am tired of Ebay Australia being dominated by overseas sellers who can sell an item for less than what I buy the same item (wholesale) and then they can post it to Australia for next to nothing!

[adili2011]

A point to add, in Hong Kong and China, they have several logistic company offering unbelivable cheap shipping rate comparing to Australia. We totalling lose in this comparative disadvantage.

[22kaz22]

I have seen 3 ads on Foxtel for the other site within a week - I don't watch alot of TV - so they are getting into gear.  I have also made my first sales within 5 days - better than I've been getting here lately since I've dropped off the search results or whatever happened...so far so good!

[go-tazz]

One aspect of the changes coming next year is the no text and watermark restrictions

This might finally address the issue on how some scammers list.

They use text as an image so it can be downloaded quickly and removed from all scam listings with a single click,(by just getting rid of that image).

The image will contain their Email address so buyers can be conned,X-(

This is one of the reasons T &S can't find anything wrong when they check a completed listing,(as the text image is no longer there).

[the3coopers]

One aspect of the changes coming next year is the no text and watermark restrictions

This might finally address the issue on how some scammers list.

The restriction primarily relates to the GALLERY IMAGES that are hosted on eBay.

I don't think there is any restriction relating to inline images that are in the description itself.