Interesting Article about eBay

This one is worth reading:

eBay Exposed

It is long but worth it. The website is in the UK, so the pricing and features mentioned will be reflective of the policies of the eBay.uk site.

Here are a few excerpts:

One of the great ironies of eBay is that generally whomever it tries to help, someone else always loses out. The scammers and fraudsters that look for the loopholes are probably the only winners. Take, for example, the company's reaction to the wave of fraud concerning buyers who send payments, but never receive the goods.

[snip]

EBay says it's committed to fighting fraud, and has put systems in place. The problem is that as fast as the company implements - often unpopular - changes, the scammers find another way to make a quick buck. "People are out there blackmailing us saying they want their money back, but then they don't even return the item," said Hamer. "PayPal will refund the money without even checking if we've got the item back - the buyers end up with the item, the money and all we get left with is negative feedback. The buyers just have complete control. EBay is allowing crooks and conmen to operate as buyers, and us sellers are being robbed blind."

[snip]

"If there's a problem such as goods aren't as described, then we'd look into it and if we decide in favour of the buyer we'd remove the funds from the seller's account," said Skinner.

However, the company doesn't actually look at the item in question. Instead, said Skinner: "We'd look at what the buyer and the seller said and take a view." So, quite possibly, the party who shouts loudest and most convincingly is protected, while a potentially innocent party loses out.

The following comments fit me and my future plans for using eBay:

Indeed, according to ChannelAdvisor, some retailers now use the site merely as a way of liquidating stock they can't shift on their own sites. "It's gone from being the channel of first resort to the channel of last resort, and that's not where eBay wants to be," said Wingo.

I will probably be listing quite a few books on eBay in bulk in a couple of weeks. The books will be ones that are in too poor of condition for Bonanzle or ones for which I have too many duplicates, like the first Nancy Drew book in picture cover. This is why I'm not impressed with eBay's five free listings. I plan to list bulk lots cheap that I know will sell, and I could pay higher fees for any lots that get bidding wars. I had a cheap bulk lot sell for around $60 a few months ago. I would have paid a higher final value fee if that lot had been "free."

eBay's Dispute Process

Recently, eBay unveiled its new dispute process. According to the new policy, buyers can file a dispute with eBay/PayPal and state that a seller has sold a fake item. Once the buyer confirms that the item has been destroyed, PayPal refunds the buyer's money and puts a strike against the seller's account. Apparently, under the new policy, a buyer's word is golden and no buyers would ever try to cheat a seller.

Many people quickly pointed out that the policy has no safeguards against a buyer claiming that a real item was fake. On May 13, Ina Steiner wrote about this new policy in her blog at AuctionBytes. Steiner raised the following points of concern:

For instance, under what circumstances would eBay instruct a buyer to destroy an item? (and how would eBay know if the item was authentic or not?)

Are there cases where eBay would instruct a buyer to destroy an item without having it authenticated?

Does this provision apply to all sellers? Or will eBay have agreements with certain trusted sellers so it is understood those sellers would not be subjected to this particular provision?

Incredibly, eBay revised the policy the very next day after Steiner's article. The user agreement now states that eBay will require the buyer return the item to the seller instead of destroying the item. In a followup article, Steiner wrote:

This evening, after eBay announced the revisions on the Announcement Board, eBay spokesperson John Pluhowski told me, "Ina, you raised questions, and we looked at them very seriously, and realized, I think, after examining the policy very closely, that revisions were in order to ensure that the policy was, in effect, providing an equitable solution to protecting our sellers - to protecting sellers and buyers."

In the comments section of Steiner's blog, someone named Daisy wrote, "When Ina has the power to point out the obvious implications of their poorly thought out policy and they back down immediately admitting stupidity, there's something very wrong."

A person going by the name "unaware" wrote, "I have always been amazed at how slip-shod eBay appears to be run AND amazed at the inability of the investment community to see how slip-shod eBay is run."

This is a good time to bring up an interesting blog I read this week. Two investors had a private discussion about eBay, which one of them posted to the blog after the discussion ended. At least one of these two people invests in eBay but does not appear to use eBay. They have no firsthand experience of what the users have gone through in the last couple of years.

Questions for eBay

It is worth reading just to get an idea of what some people not connected to eBay are beginning to notice. Here are a few comments.

EBORO: “Recently, I started going over [eBay's] annual reports as well as well as using various models...to value the business...I spend even more time “scuttle-buttin” to discover what the users (buyers, sellers etc…) think about the company. Although I only started my examination a month ago, I’ve spent hours on the eBay forums reading over thoughts and comments, as well as asking questions. Out of interest, have you done this?”

WIDE MOAT: Yes, I’ve done this and have been impressed by the indiscriminate vitriol toward eBay.....My impression is that there is a significant group of former sellers that are very upset with recent changes. It’s almost as if they feel personally violated in some way. Rather than quietly take their business elsewhere, they want others to know that they have been (morally?) wronged, and eBay’s management are fools. Really, very odd…

EBORO: “I only ask because it was during this process that I realized something was not quite right at eBay: buyers and sellers were complaining, in huge numbers, about the business; literally thousands of sellers are leaving the site. It seems as though this could have a negative effect on one of the key elements of eBay’s moat: its network. In my opinion, eBay’s growth potential relies heavily on the following: buyers come to eBay because they know that there are an abundance of sellers; sellers come to eBay because they know there are an abundance of buyers. Buyers don’t find the selection they used to, they don’t find the low prices they used to, and eventually, they start leaving. What happens when there is a reduction in the number and type of sellers?

There is a lot more, but the above part is important. Some investors are beginning to notice that something is not quite right at eBay.

This company is apparently run by people who make decisions without carefully thinking them through. It is just amazing. EBay is not run well, and its future is uncertain. I want eBay to remain viable, since it is the very best place to find a wide selection of vintage series books. The selection has deteriorated, but eBay still has the best selection.

It is vitally important that anyone who sells does keep an eye on the alternative sites such as Bonanzle. I feel that I already need Bonanzle because I was jerked around too much in the fall by eBay's DSRs and lowered search standing. We need for eBay to have at least one competitor that is viable and that can give collectors a place to continue to sell their items, regardless of eBay's future course.

More eBay Problems

This is a continuation of what I have been thinking with the previous post and what I have learned in recent days. I do not have an eBay store, but I feel for what those people are going through. EBay is beginning to roll out the new item pages, which are not better, and people are complaining about what eBay has done.

The sellers have a custom list of categories that appears on the left side of their listings. This list is like the custom category list that appears on Bonanzle on the right side of listings. In eBay's new item page, only a few of the categories show, which greatly reduces the ability of a buyer to easily browse a seller's store.

Exactly how does this make eBay better for either buyers or sellers? Reducing the list of categories reduces the exposure of a seller's store, which reduces possible sales. Why do this? Are they idiots?

Second, I cannot edit my saved searches. I found a seller who listed a ton of Nancy Drew books, and this is one of the diamond power sellers. I want him out of my results, but eBay will not let me edit my searches. What did they do to break it? I tried on three different browsers, so I feel confident that my problem is not my computer. Heck, I should try it on a different computer later just to prove it. It can't hurt.

What angers me is that it will take eBay at least three to six months to fix the problem, and this is a feature that I need.

eBay's Fee Increase for Small Sellers

EDITED TO FIX MISTAKE

Note: The examples provided are only for the Books category.

EBay announced this week that beginning in June, sellers who use eBay's Sell Your Item form will receive five free listings each month. This means that sellers will not be charged for listing their first five items each month. At first, it sounds great. But...

In exchange for not getting charged for the insertion fees, sellers will pay a flat 8.75% in final value fees for those items, with a maximum final value fee of $20.00. Depending upon the closing amount, these five free listings could cause sellers to have higher fees. With the free listings, sellers pay 8.75% final value fees regardless of the selling price. For paid listings, sellers pay 8.75% for up to a final value of $25.00 and then just 3.5% for up to a final value of $1,000. This is how it breaks down:

1. I start a book at $9.99, and it closes with one bidder at $9.99. By paying the insertion fee, I am charged $0.25 for listing the book and $0.87 in final value fees. For the free listing, I am not charged $0.25 for listing the book but am still charged $0.87 in final value fees. I pay $0.25 less for the free listing.

2. I start a book at $9.99 and it closes at $50.00. By paying the insertion fee, I am charged $0.25 for listing the book and $3.07 in final value fees. For the free listing, I am not charged $0.25 for listing the book but am charged $4.38 in final value fees. I pay $0.81 more for the free listing.

3. I start a book at $74.99 and it closes at $74.99. By paying the insertion fee, I am charged $2.00 for listing the book and $3.94 in final value fees. For the free listing, I am not charged $2.00 for listing the book but am charged $6.56 in final value fees. I pay $0.62 more for the free listing.

4. I start a book at $74.99 and it closes at $150.00. By paying the insertion fee, I am charged $2.00 for listing the book and $6.57 in final value fees. For the free listing, I am not charged $2.00 for listing the book but am charged $13.13 in final value fees. I pay $4.56 more for the free listing.

For items with high values, like over $500.00, the free listings would be cheaper, but I never sell books that are that expensive. For what I list, the only way that I would save would be on books that sell for low prices, and the savings are minimal. I would prefer not to have free listings and to pay the usual final value fees.

Many people have stated that they plan to waste their five free listings on low value items that may or may not sell so that they can get the regular final value fee pricing for their normal items. I may try something like that when I next sell on eBay, assuming that I ever decide to list more than just bulk lots of low value books.

eBay's Homepage

EBay's homepage is providing me some entertainment. I mentioned recently how eBay was trying to sell me books to complete my Grace Harlowe set, except that the books had nothing to do with Grace Harlowe. This is what eBay showed me:


This continued until a couple of days ago. Finally, eBay quit that nonsense and changed that section to a list of categories.

The only problem is that a different part of eBay's homepage has gotten quite funny. On Friday I saw this:


I took a screen cap because I thought it was the funniest thing ever. Wow, twelve different Twisted Candles books to purchase. I would never have found them on my own in a search!

So, on Sunday, I saw this:

At this point, I was curious. The pictures seemed too similar, so exactly what were the criteria for this array of books? I clicked on a listing and checked the seller. I could not right-click and open a new window, so I had to left-click. I viewed the listing and returned, but sneaky eBay had switched up the books somewhat. I did find one of the original listings, so I viewed it. I figured out that most of the books were from the same seller. How nice for that seller! It seemed a little weird, though, to put a bunch of books with the same title from the same seller on the homepage. I kept clicking on listings and figured out that most of the sellers were Power Sellers. After around five to six clicks, the array morphed into this:

How funny! I now had my very own array of mostly flashlight edition Mysterious Letters to choose from! Lovely! Which one should I purchase? Hey, one of them looks like a library discard. What a selection!

Sarcasm aside, I have to mention that at least eBay did choose Nancy Drew books, which I do purchase, which is better than what was done with the books that had nothing to do with Grace Harlowe or anything I have ever purchased.

Billie Bradley and Her Classmates

This book has Billie and her friends back at Three Towers Hall for another year of school. I have found this story to be more interesting than the last one, Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island, which bored me tremendously.

Billie has already had quite a few assorted adventures in this book. Billie and her friends rescue three young children who fall through the ice into the lake, and as a result, meet the children's mother and learn that the family is extremely poor and in need of food. Billie receives permission from Miss Walters to put together a basket of food for the family.

Billie and her friends go sledding with Teddy and the other boys from Boxton Military Academy. Billie and Teddy sled down an unexplored trail which results in an accident when the sled goes over a cliff. The two young people seek refuge in a cave which is inhabited by a simpleton.

Billie and Teddy's relationship grates on my nerves. Here is an example from page 79 when Billie is frightened:

Teddy looked down at her with a grin.

"Why worry?" he asked. "Haven't you got your Uncle Ted?"

I do not know why it bothers me, but I cannot stand it when Teddy refers to himself as Billie's "Uncle Ted." I want to gag. Part of the problem is that the relationship is over-the-top for a series book, so the "Uncle Ted" business just makes it worse. Also, the romance between Billie and Teddy is not compelling to me, so I find nothing endearing about "Uncle Ted."

The teasing that occurs after Billie and Ted's accident is a bit suggestive for an early series book from 1921. From page 90:

"Perhaps they got lost on purpose," said a nasal voice, and Billie's chums turned indignantly to face the speaker.

From page 94:

"Did you and Teddy Jordon have a good time when you ran away to-day?"

From page 96:

"She and Teddy Jordan ran off together to-day and were gone for about three hours," she said triumphantly. "Billie just came in."

Billie's eyes, black in her white, set face, looked up at Miss Arbuckle steadily.

"I didn't do it, Miss Arbuckle," she said, her lip quivering. "I—I couldn't."

From page 98:

"Didn't Teddy keep you warm?" asked Rose Belser, wickedly, but just then the door opened and Amanda came into the room. Needless to say, Billie did not answer the question.

All of the teasing added to my gag factor. Maybe the real problem is that I do not like Teddy. I am not really sure what it is aside from the "Uncle Ted" business, so I am going to pay close attention in future scenes. Perhaps I can pinpoint it better. I usually like the girls' beaus in series books, so this is a different experience for me.

Crazy Cherry Ames Ski Nurse Auction

I know the last Cherry Ames book is a bit hard to find, but...

Cherry Ames Ski Nurse Mystery Helen Wells 1968 1st Ed Item #170310713073

What in the heck? Why would someone want to pay $903.66 for one? According to the seller's feedback left page, the buyer actually paid for the book! Since I discovered the buyer's full ID by checking the seller's feedback, I decided to see what else the buyer has bought—all Cherry Ames and other nurse stories, but mostly low-priced ones.

As I checked the buyer's items purchased list, I decided that he or she must have really wanted Ski Nurse badly. However, a couple days before winning the above auction, the buyer purchased a Ski Nurse at $150.00. The buyer made many bids on the above auction after purchasing the other Ski Nurse. This person must have more disposable income than I do. Two Ski Nurses, and nearly $1,000 for one of them? Really?

eBay and Amazon's First Quarter Reports

Last week, both eBay and Amazon released their first quarter reports. The results were not at all surprising.

EBay posted that its first quarter 2009 revenue decreased 18% year-over-year. From eBay's press release:

The ecommerce company posted first quarter revenue of $2.02 billion, a $171.6 million year-over-year decrease caused primarily by the impact of the stronger dollar and the decline of the core Marketplaces business in difficult macroeconomic conditions. PayPal, Classifieds and Skype performed well, delivering year-over-year revenue growth.

Notice that eBay blamed "difficult macroeconomic conditions" and "the impact of the stronger dollar." While I can see how the economy might possibly be a factor, the stronger dollar excuse makes little sense to me. Ina Steiner's blog mentioned that "approximately 54% of Marketplaces revenue came from markets outside of the U.S." I assume that this is the reason that eBay claimed that the stronger dollar reduced revenue. People from outside the U.S. buy less from inside the U.S. when the dollar is stronger. International markets decline when the dollar is stronger. I am quite skeptical of this since 54% out of the U.S. versus 46% inside the U.S. is not that big of a difference.

When Amazon released its results the day after eBay, it proved that eBay told fibs to hide its further decline. According to Ina Steiner, Amazon's net sales "increased 18% to $4.89 billion in the first quarter year-over-year, and net income increased 24% to $177 million. Worldwide unit growth was 30%. Active customer count exceeded 91 million, up 16%. Worldwide active seller accounts were more than 1.6 million, up 19%."

Consider that Amazon has international sites just like eBay and that Amazon also has international customers. How is it that the strong dollar is not causing Amazon's earnings to decline? How is it that eBay is plagued by "the impact of the stronger dollar" and "difficult macroeconomic conditions" while neither the dollar nor the economy are affecting Amazon at all? It seems to me that eBay's problems are unique to eBay. We all know that eBay is to blame for its own problems, and it is truly sad that what was the number one place to find unique collectible items is self-destructing.

What is even more pathetic is that after eBay announced its decline in revenue due to bogus reasons, eBay stock went up and several articles were posted by enlightened analysts that praised eBay. How can eBay's Board of Directors and these analysts be so clueless?

.......................................................

This is something that I decided to tack onto the end of this post. For whatever reason, I have eBay's home page as my home page on Google Chrome rather than eBay's search page, which is what I have always used as my home page on Firefox and Internet Explorer. EBay uses its home page to try to sell me stuff, and I am continually amazed at how off the mark the results are.

I bought some Grace Harlowe books a week ago. Even though I have bought other books since that time, eBay is fixated on trying to sell me Grace Harlowe books, or what eBay thinks are Grace Harlowe books. Actually, I don't know what eBay is trying to do. Here is what I have seen on eBay's home page on different days this week:

What?! These books have nothing to do with Grace Harlowe or anything I have ever bought in my entire life! Each day I see a different selection of "Grace Harlowe" stuff that is totally unrelated to Grace Harlowe and series books. Give it up! At least when eBay tries to sell me Nancy Drew books, they usually pick Nancy Drew books. Of course in the case of Nancy Drew, they still miss the mark by a mile.

What is also important about this is that eBay is only picking Buy It Now Items, which is probably why the results are so screwed up. Auctions are more expensive, yet eBay does nothing to promote them. This is why I am listing on Bonanzle, where I feel like I have a chance at selling books without having to pay huge prices for little exposure.