eBay sellers strike extended yet again

By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 26 February 2008 05:46

Home IT

eBay sellers, horrified by rising fees and changes to the feedback system, have decided to extend their eBay boycott until March 9, with the boycott already having already caused a 13% drop in eBay sales.

eBay’s sellers, an essential part of the eBay equation, are not happy with recent changes made by eBay management, and have vowed to continue striking to drive home their message.

The strike calls for all eBay users to cease activity – no buying, no selling and no listing. Sales activity at eBay has seen a 13% slowdown, according to USA Today but clearly there’s still plenty of activity happening at eBay sites worldwide.

An eBay announcement, from the 29th of January, 2008, notes that eBay was lowering its fees to list items (insertion fees) by 25 to 50%, depending on the country, from the 20th of February, 2008.

To balance this, eBay said it was “increasing the fees it charges when an item is sold”, which eBay says “lowers the risk [for sellers] if an item doesn’t sell”, with eBay’s President and CEO-elect John Donahoe saying that "put simply, we will make more of our money when sellers are successful."

Quite why there has to be a balancing, a ‘giving with one hand and taking with the other’, is explained to some degree by Donahoe’s statement, but it has enraged successful sellers who feel that eBay is really just raising prices anyway.

eBay said they were “also eliminating fees in the U.S. for its Gallery option, which should spur sellers to include more photos of the item for sale, something buyers normally want when they shop”.

There are also changes to the way eBay works with sellers, as well as a list of issues that eBay sellers are concerned about. Please read onto page 2.