@vinyl*fiend wrote:
That's a terrible argument - and what relevance does it have to me, the user of the platform? It's EXACTLY the same service. Ebay wouldn't make any money from running Australian ebay? what, with the double dipping on paypal, final value fees AND final value fees on shipping. How did they make money before? poor, poor ebay. May I ask how Gumtree make money then, after all it is an ebay site, perhaps it advertising and we all know that ebay doesn't have advertising....cough...... Fact remains Aussie sellers are being gouged. At least you tried....it's more than ebay support staff could offer.
stawka was/is talking about economies of scale - your response is taking far too a simplistic view of the matter.
It's the reason why, when I purchase a box of 50 envelopes, they are 50c each, but when I purchase a box of 1000 envelopes, they are 10c each. They're exactly the same envelopes, but if I am in a position to hand over a $100 in one go instead of $25 in 4 separate transactions, the seller's costs are reduced and they get more capital, thus we both benefit. The US is in a position to hand over about 15x more than what Australia is, and the sheer volume of people / sellers / items on eBay.com mean eBay's costs can be spread over many more listings.
You also can't do a 1:1 comparison with the cost in USD, because the economic market is vastly different - wages and the cost of living is lower in the US, and our $ is not at parity. Things tend to cost as much as the market will bear, so in a country where minimum wage can be as low as 33% of what ours is (sometimes as little as $2.30 if they work in customer service and are reliant on tips), the market will demand lower prices to make things affordable.
eBay in the US also has more viable competition for sellers - Amazon being the biggest one (who - funnily enough - charge USD 99c, about AUD$1.40) to list something if you don't pay a monthly fee (equivalent of a store subscription on eBay). The easiest way to compete with another business is to have lower prices, at least in the short term.
In other words, conditions in the US favour lower prices. Conditions in Australia do not. It's never a good idea to just look at the cost of something and think if you're paying more, you're being ripped off - if people want US prices, they have to start with working for US wages.
Gumtree charge for upgrades, but I really don't think the site is there to increase profits - I suspect eBay like being able to divert sellers who are dissatisfied with eBay in general, or sellers of pick up items etc.
