eBay fees and listing conditions, constantly changing, sellers treated with utter contempt!!

[yeoldecoinco]

eBay, your current fee structure is an absolute disgrace.

When I started on eBay 15 years ago, the fees were less than HALF what they are today.

Also, back then, there was no Paypal gouging another close to 3% on top.

If you want people to offer anything else but rubbish on eBay, why don't you HEAVILY reduce your fees, ESPECIALLY for items of say, $200 or more?

The higher priced the item, the lower the margin, in most cases.

Why can't you JUST LEAVE SELLERS ALONE TO SELL THINGS??

All you do is add more and more requirements and fees onto sellers, minimum sized pictures is just the latest example of eBay craziness. Try taking photos of small items, like coins, above 500 pixels let alone the 1600 pixels you want.

Another gem is no stock photos for used items, are you mad? Do you think I have the time to take individual photos of $5 items?

I have sold THOUSANDS of used items(coins) off  standard photos with almost ZERO complaints.

How about the eBay Premium Service madness? Making you provide free postage so eBay can gouge more commission out of you, or your items do not appear in many search results. Just another form of blackmail.

eBay used to be great, now it is **bleep**, ruined by too many people trying to justify their existence, most of which HAVE NEVER SOLD A THING IN THEIR LIFE!!

Go on, put you fees up some more, I DARE YOU!!

Please, please, no posts from people saying "If you don't like it go elsewhere"

Most of these people appear to me to be paid eBay plants.

I am going, this is my last year on eBAY, website and self promotion is the way to go, NOT propping up eBay, a company who bought out the people I used to list with (Sold.com) and closed them down.

Back then, I had no choice but to go to eBay. Now, there are choices..

I have the right to vent, because PEOPLE LIKE ME MADE eBAY, now we are just gouged at every turn, made to jump through continual rule change hoops affecting our listings and are treated with utter contempt!

If I wanted to work for someone else I would, with eBay these days, you are just working for someone else WHO CONTINUALLY CHANGES THE RULES WITH UTTER DISREGARD FOR THE PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT THEM!!

The fact that one has to redo 100s or 1000s of photos and listings MEANS NOT A JOT TO eBAY SUITS!

Just so over it.

[davewil1964]

Ye olde has sold more than 4000 items in the last year, with not a single neg. I doubt your rant actually applies to him. He just wants to be able to use pics of items other than the actual ones he's selling.

[yeoldecoinco]

You are wrong yet again.

I have posted on this discussion board before, warning eBay members re fake coins and the like.

I have helped many eBay members understand how to buy and sell on eBay.

At least I present the view from the other side.

1911 pennies constitute a small % of my sales, I was using them to illustrate a point that went right over your head..

I gave my all to eBay, now they just give me grief in return.

Does not matter WHEN they posted their latest do this or else announcement, it is the sheer number of hoops they make sellers jump through these days that WAS THE POINT OF THE ORIGINAL POST.

[yeoldecoinco]

We will see how much you like them when their fees reach 20% or more.

Which, they will, soon, I have no doubt.

[yeoldecoinco]

Let us not forget one important point here.

GST. eBay Australia pay no GST, unlike my business.

All their disgusting fees and not one cent can I claim as an Input Credit against my GST liability.

How do they get away with it?

They are called eBay Australia, have Australian offices and staff, yet DO NOT pay one cent in GST

Cleverly Registered in Switzerland that's how.

I wonder if I can do the same thing and avoid my GST responsibilities that way?

One rule for them, another rule for the rest. Over to you, Australian Taxation Office.

I won't hold my breath..

[davewil1964]

I would have thought 6 month's notice would have been adequate for most sellers. You have posted on the boards 8 times as far as I can tell, at least 6 of which, possibly 8, are in this thread.

You stated you have sold 25,000 1911 pennies. You have 26,605 feedback. I don't think it unreasonable to assume the numbers were congruent

Do what you like, as I'm sure you will. Just don't try to blame other members who don't agree with you for your decision. And if eBay give you notice and you choose to ignore them until you are actually forced to comply, then it DOES matter when they notified the hoops. I suspect you wouldn't even know where site announcements are located.

[digital*ghost]

---

@yeoldecoinco wrote:

We will see how much you like them when their fees reach 20% or more.

Which, they will, soon, I have no doubt.

---

I neither like nor dislike eBay, as such. I think I've made it pretty clear that I actually dislike a number of their changes, and that I disagree with quite a few of their decisions - decisions which encompass a broad range of things (policies plus where and how they're applied, which is not universal, recommendations [a word I'm using to describe selling practices that are actively encouraged and - possibly - rewarded, fees and so on), some of these changes don't immediately affect me as a buyer or seller, but I understand their impact on other members - impact which I empathise with and often regret to see on both a professional and personal level.

That doesn't stop me from being pragmatic in my approach to my own business, though - nor does it stop me from sharing that approach in the hope it can help someone else, because it helps me.

[yeoldecoinco]

What I want to do is keep my customers happy, whilst at the same time not spending every minute photographing and listing similar items. Nor using all my disc space on ridiculously large photos.

And I have achieved the goal of keeping customers happy, not many feedback profiles like mine out there.

Why? Because we bend over backwards to look after our buyers!!

eBay has just destroyed business in the last year by constant changes and tinkering with the search results.

Postage. I had to redo all my 1200 listings last year to meet their new postage requirements.

And they STILL cannot get it right, despite being told by many sellers.

They do not even have a listing for Registered Post letter, one of the most common forms of sending small items like coins and stamps.

Not to mention the loss of so many categories, making it impossible for buyers.

Take Australian pre-decimal coins as an example.

There should be at least SEVEN to TEN  categories within this field, instead there is now ONE, with everything listed in it.

Australian banknotes, even worse. ONE category when there should be AT LEAST 20 categories.

As for disparaging me, I have posted often on these boards, LONG BEFORE YOU WERE EVEN a eBay MEMBER!!

[davewil1964]

You now have 10 posts on the boards as far as I can see. 8 in this thread.

I'm sorry that I wasn't around in 1999. But I note that it is now 2014. there were a lot of businesses going gangbusters in 1999 that don't even exist these days

[davewil1964]

I notice you haven't posted this with your PS peers.

[yeoldecoinco]

You need to find something better and more productive  to do.

I am, so goodbye.