In a website contact form reply today, I received a message essentially warning me personally that eBay discussion board “Feedies” will “Go After” me and my eBay listings because of my previous article about this very behavior:
The article was written about a video detailing the vicious and retaliatory actions of some members of the eBay Community Discussion forums.
I certainly hope that this is not the case.
Additionally I would think any of the eBay employees who happen to be in charge of eBay forum moderation who also have read this blog or any of my other blogs would certainly understand that allowing such retaliation against any writers eBay listings would not be in the best interest of eBay from a purely PR perspective.
If feedback is used as a weapon against a writer who simply offered an opinion about the situation currently occurring on the eBay discussion forums, then how will a normal eBay member without this kind of pulpit expect fair treatment.
eBay has a responsibility to not allow this kind of intimidation and gaming of the forum and feedback systems and rules.
I will not remove my article and I fully intend on maintaining my 100% feedback record with my eBay selling account. eBay forum moderators should be quite viligant about the behaviours being exhibited by a small but apparently powerful group of very odd people who are known as Feedies.
Most everyone is aware eBay provides its users with a discussion forum found under the “community” tab on every eBay page.
As in most discussion forums, the goal is to provide user generated content in the form of help, advise and guidance for new and seasoned users alike. Community discussion, tips & tricks and overall general best practices discussions are available on these forums.
The social aspect has always been strong on the eBay forums and this is why eBay is generally accepted as being the very first social network every introduced on the Internet.
Comradeship built among the eBay members within the forums increased the user loyalty for eBay, a loyalty many brands would dearly love to re-create.
From October to December, sellers who offer free shipping will get free subtitle on their listings, and double PowerSeller discount if they’re eligible for this.
As an incentive for free shipping, this is a little weak…
eBay subtitles have never had much impact on sales as they are not indexed in search. The money spent on subtitles is usually just funds tossed to the wind except in very specific cases, so how does eBay expect a free subtitle incentive offer to inspire knowledgeable sellers to give away free shipping?
Double Powerseller discounts might be a good thing, if one qualifies and if the seller dashboard reports the DSR’s correctly.
In my case the seller dashboard says I qualify for a discount, but no discount was applied. I wonder how many other sellers have encountered this mysterious issue? i.e. These are not factors which can be depended upon for business planning when the seller dashboard can change on a daily basis and the Powerseller discount is grabbed at a date and time that suits eBay for calculation purposes.
Free shipping is a myth
Nothing in life is free and shipping is no exception. The cost of “free” shipping is always added to the final selling price.
In the case of eBay, offering “free” shipping only increases eBays take on every transaction. Now with the increase in final value fees, offering free shipping increases a sellers costs in two ways. eBay final value fees and PayPal payment fees are both calculated on the final selling price of an item.
Offering a 50 cent incentive for a feature most sellers do not use, in exchange for higher costs on the back end is a crafty way to increase eBays take…
Until the end of the year, IFs for listings in Media categories which utilise pre-filled information are just 5c. This should help off-set the pain of a 15% FVF for the under-$50 sale price tranche.
Likely to cause more anger amongst Media sellers, however, is the introduction of maximum shipping prices. Perhaps some US Media sellers would like to comment on this, but the prices set seem very low to me: $4 for an antiquarian book looks like an impossibility. Sellers will be required to offer at least one shipping option within the maximum permitted range: they will also be allowed to offer other more expensive options for expedited or international shipping.
Media sellers may have to subsidize the shipping costs for rare or heavy items in their category, this will only lead to increased pricing and a reduction in competetive advantage (if any existed) with Amazon.com in the media categories.
eBay seems to have a plan and I am all for changing things up… but some of these recent changes may take a while to completely understand.
Free Shipping is Never Free, if sellers are supposed to offer Free shipping, why does eBay not offer free listing?
It costs much more to deliver an item than it does to display that same item on a web page.
Today a landmark change in listing fees for fixed price format “Buy it Now” items on the original auction Internet site eBay was announced.
Starting September 17th eBay will charge 35 cents to list any number of the same types of fixed-price items each fixed price item listing will now run for 30 days just as store listings and continue to be included in core search.
UPDATE: eBay special web page explaining changes here: eBay
Is this move an indicator of the death of auctions on eBay?
Lorrie Norrington, eBay’s president of global marketplaces says no, but …. Continue Reading »
To tell the truth, writing about the IMA has not been on the top of my “to do” list of late… What with personal directives (back to school for the kids, family birthday(s) and a little Hurricane/Tropical Storm preparation) the Internet Merchants Association just has not been on the top of my mind.
Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, people who become interested in the articles we write as blogger journalists do not always keep within our personal schedules when it comes to “adding to the conversation”.
Over the course of the IMA story I have received many notes, comments, phone calls and letters from members and non-members alike. No other issue has sparked as much long term attention here at the TA Journal. Personally I think the story has run its course, yet since no one else seems to be covering the IMA, I have continued to do so.
The story has been told, as much as an outside entity can tell anyway… Any further information must come from the actual financial records and from deep inside the organization. I have offered to publish the views from inside the IMA but as yet have received no response from anyone in authority.
The members of IMA who were uncomfortable with how the organization has been run, have left or were shown the door. The members who remain, apparently are fine with the state of affairs and are happy with whatever benefits they perceive are forthcoming from being a member of the IMA.
Why Write another article about the Internet Merchants Association now?
To be honest… I was going to leave this story alone, until I got the call… Continue Reading »
Thanks for listening eBay, Neutrals should be just that… Not negative, Not positive… Just, well… Neutral!
Glad to see you actually see things the way the rest of the world does in reference to the word “neutral”. I mean, where would Switzerland have been during WWII if Neutrals were counted as negatives?
Speaking German for awhile I would wager….
Anyway, I digress… So very glad to see eBay is reversing this ill conceived plan,
Thanks Lorrie Et Al…
August 13, 2008 | 08:56AM PST/PT
Brian Burke
Hi everyone… this is Brian Burke, Director Global Feedback Policy. Last month, Lorrie Norrington announced that we would be recalculating Feedback percentages without neutrals. Neutrals, whether left in the past, or those you might receive in the future, will no longer be counted as part of the Positive Feedback percentage.
The recalculation is scheduled to take effect next week on August 19th, before the next PowerSeller eligibility deadline. So, neutrals will not impact PowerSeller eligibility for August.
I’ll update you next week when this change is complete.
Sincerely,
Brian Burke
Director, Global Feedback Policy
New pricing for eBay Motors - No Insertion fee for first 4 vehicles!
HooRay, for the small guy, and for at home sellers!
No Insertion Fee on Your First 4 Vehicles…
eBay Motors is eliminating Insertion Fees on the first four vehicles you list in a 12 month period.
Starting with the fifth vehicle, the fee is $20 (50% less than it was under the old plan).
And after 12 months, you go back to “first four” pricing.
Only pay if you are successful…
If you are successful, a $125 Successful Listing Fee is charged.
Auto Dealers, not so much…
Because now instead of only paying $40 to list a car, they will now pay $20 + $125 per car sold. This could be a good deal for dealers who don’t actually sell the cars they list, but for those with the intent to sell cars, the pricing just pretty much doubled.
I am stoked for the residential eBay user who only sells a car a year or at most 4 cars. For them, the final value fee deal is a good trade off. But for small dealers (Not in the GM or Chrysler networks with discounted eBay Motors listing fees from the start) I don’t think this deal is a good thing.
If you are an Auto dealer using eBay motors on a consistent basis, please chime in with a comment to let us know what you think of the new eBay motors fee structure! (Comment form is below the image…)
Now L’Oreal has taken their lumps in Belgium… The case is not over however as eBay must fight this charge in three more countries…
Glad I am doing my part to pay the legal bills!
BRUSSELS Aug 12 (Reuters) - A Belgian court on Tuesday dismissed all of the claims of cosmetics maker L’Oreal brought against eBay over the sale of fake fragrances and cosmetic products on online auction sites, eBay said in a statement.
L’Oreal started legal action in France, Belgium, Germany, Britain and Spain in September 2007, alleging the online auctioneer did not do enough to combat the sale of counterfeits. None of the other courts have ruled on the case yet.
The Belgian court ruled that eBay was not obliged to take action to fight counterfeiting, but eBay spokeswoman Sravanthi Agrawal stressed that the company cooperated with rights owners to tackle the sale of fake goods. She added that the company clamped down on all cases of counterfeiting notified to it by the firms concerned, even though it did not have a legal obligation to do so. (Reporting by Antonia van de Velde, Editing by Jan Strupczewski/Will Waterman)
Related News:
From Yahoo News:
Tiffany appeals eBay Internet ruling Reuters via Yahoo! NewsMon, 11 Aug 2008 11:22 AM PDT
U.S. jeweler Tiffany & Co on Monday said it appealed a recent court ruling that found eBay Inc was not responsible for policing fake Tiffany jewelry sold on its website.
Last March I wrote an article about twitter in one of my other blogs (All Business Auctions - Blog). This morning it occurred to me that I have not mentioned Twitter much to the readers here at the Trading Assistant Journal. I apologize for being remiss.
Today I am thinking about Twitter because I awoke to find an email announcing a new Twitter user following my Twitter Tweets.
Coca Cola Ink is now following you on Twitter, the email said….
To be honest, I have no idea if this is the real company, just an employee or if it is just some marketing managers way to spread the word on the next “New Coke” campaign. But the fact remains that without being active on Twitter I would not have an opportunity to make an impression upon whomever Coca Cola Ink may be, marketing person or CEO of the company.
It is nice to think that a company such as Coca Cola may have chosen to follow me on Twitter because they think I may have an influence, or my blog articles have inspired them, or for some other fantastic reason… But it could be my name was on some other Twitter users list.
Just last week I received similar email from Twitter… Continue Reading »
The eBay Partner Network - Formerly managed by Commission Junction seems to be faltering…
The eBay Partner Network is the internal division of eBay now placed in charge of managing affiliates for eBay. This recent change from the Commission Junction program initially was presented as a good thing for eBay and therefore a good thing for eBay sellers.
After recent announcements of an alteration in the payment structure for eBay affiliates and reports of discrepancies in reporting by the Partner Network to its affiliates, it now appears the switch away from Commission Junction may not be the best move for eBay or its sellers.
Many of our readers concentrate on selling physical products on eBay.
Why should eBay sellers be concerned about affiliates?
eBay is attractive to many sellers because it is a proven source of what sellers desire most… buyers.
Many merchants have compared the flow of buyer traffic to that of the flow of water from a fire hose and many say this flow of buyer traffic becomes addictive. So much so, that some merchants find it difficult to set up other selling channels once they establish themselves on eBay.
Since eBay enjoys the reputation of being one of the best places on the Internet to find the buyer traffic merchants need to sell goods. eBay’s traffic is one of the main reasons many merchants have never explored establishing an Internet presence of their own. Consideration should be given to the sources of that traffic and anything which may disturb the flow.
Online Auction.com CEO Chris Fain, during a live Internet Radio show presented by ECMRN (e-commerce Marketing Radio Network) , detailed a plan to charge buyers $8.00 a month subscription for access to buy from the auction venue in the future. (He did clearly state this plan would not be implemented anytime soon, but from the excitement in his voice when describing the subscription based buyer access, it sounds like more than a passing idea).
Chris compared the plan to purchasing a membership in Sam’s Club or Costco, where buyers will join the venue to gain access to goods and services. Additionally, Chris Fain envisions a day when OnlineAuction.com becomes a venue which surpasses eBay in volume of listed items and even exceeds eBay’s revenue model.
Interesting vision of the future, I will say that before buyers would pay for access to listings on any online marketplace, I think some sort of extraordinary value proposition will have to be developed. What can OLA offer buyers, beyond a place to hunt for bargains, which will inspire them to pay a monthly subscription fee? Possibly bulk access to other services? Discounts on web hosting? A Buying service much like a professional gift buying service, available to those buyers who do not want to search listings for the best price/value? No indication from Chris Fain, but the possibilities are certainly interesting to ponder.
What would inspire you to pay a subscription fee for access to OnlineAuction.com?
In other news from OLA
Sellers will soon be given access to Reliabid protection. (Follow the link to learn more about the Reliabid service.
Also The World Lingo Translation Service is now offered to sellers for a small fee. The service automatically translates listings into multiple languages.
In less than 10 days time, OnlineAuction.com will offer sellers a fixed price listing option. This should help sellers get more search engine traffic to the items listed on OLA. Additional plans include OLA Ad buys from Google and other Search Engine marketing efforts.
It seems like OLA has a plan for the future based upon providing sellers value for the low fees OLA charges for access to the venue. Valuing the sellers as a resource to build upon the initial success at OLA is a nice approach.
Our friend and co- blogger Richard Brewer Hay, over at eBay Ink reported today about the move by the US Congress to require PayPal and other online payment processors to report annual gross receipts of individual online merchants in excess of $20,000.00 to the IRS.
Richard’s report was partially sourced from the Wall Street Journal and also from the official PayPal blog. (See the block quote below).
In my humble opinion,
The following statement “a small percentage of PayPal customers are effected” by this impending IRS & Online sales tax issue, says little for PayPal or eBay as a route to business success. I mean… if the use of PayPal as a business solution to process payments from online sales, is a healthy concern, wouldnt more than a “small percentage” of PayPal users be effected by this IRS fact finding mission?
How can any online or ecommerce business stay in business if they do not process more than $20,000.00 per year in PayPal payments? What is the incentive? Continue Reading »
…with over 10% of the IMA membership responding, we can predict that the IMA has lost almost 50% of its membership to PeSA. With over 89% of the membership (who responded to our poll) leaving altogether…
And then there were 2…
Only 2 of the respondents stated they will stay with the IMA while 17% of the respondents said they would never join an association or group again.
The questions and results are as follows: (This poll is still open, if you are an IMA member and would like to respond, please follow the link above and give us your reply).
Already Joined the ECMTA/PeSa Organization 14 votes = 48%
Done with associations and groups altogether 5 Votes = 17%
No - I have my Refund or Applied 5 Votes = 17%
Looking Elsewhere 2 Votes = 7%
Yes - I will Stay with the IMA 2 Votes = 7%
Other - “Will Make a Decision when my subscription expires” 1 Vote = 3%
These responses to our unscientific poll indicates 89% of our sampling have left the IMA and with a response from 10% of the prior healthy membership, I would say the IMA is in for some serious membership retention issues.
We have heard from our readers the Internet Merchants Association is offering a special rate to renew an active membership of only $49.99.
This may sound like a good idea under the current circumstances but our advisor’s tell us that if as a 501C(6) Non-Profit trade organization any member is offered a reduced rate for membership, all members (current and future) from that point forward must be given the membership deal, otherwise the IMA will lose the coveted as a 501C(6) Non-Profit trade organization status they fought so diligently for. The same Non- Profit designation which restricts the organization from making so many smart business decisions for its membership.
If, even at a $49.99 renewal rate, over 89% of the membership has decided to move on to other endeavors, what would the point be to continue offering a reduced membership price?
Our Poll is not over so if any currently loyal members of the IMA would like to respond to give the world a better understanding of where this trade group is heading, please take a moment to give us a simple poll response.
These Poll results are a simple statistical representation of our reader opinion. Actual results may vary, no representation of actual membership numbers has been made here.
The brainchild of a very creative marketer by the name of Tom Dickson, best known for demonstrating his Blendtec Total Blenders by turning unlikely things like iPhones into iDust.
While Mr. Dickson has very successfully proven the theory of viral marketing is it possible to follow in his footsteps or even surpass the massive success of the series of you tube videos called Will it Blend? I think so…
Producing video today is much easier and faster than ever before. The only thing slowing most marketers down is creativity. I am not saying everyone should sell blenders and create videos of them pulverizing inanimate objects into dust. Yet I am suggesting it is this type of creative and somewhat irreverent thinking which makes good marketers. Video is just the tool, creativity is the gift.
Think about what it is your selling online… Is it convenience, is it quality, do you have a unique product not found elsewhere?
No one would have thought selling blenders would make someone into an international superstar but this is exactly what has happened to Tom Dickson. Seemingly mundane and ordinary products can be turned into exciting sales figures with just a little bit of creativity.
eBCalc the venerable online fee calculator for eBay and PayPal has been used by knowledgeable eBay sellers for years.
Many of us long standing eBay sellers are very familiar with the interface and usefulness of this nifty free program found at the following URL: http://v1.ebcalc.com/
You may not be aware that eBCalc has changed,
…at least I was surprised to see that the simple eBay & PayPal fee calculator has undergone a growth spurt. eBCalc is now much more than a tool for eBay & PayPal and it seems we have a certain Mr. Doug Boudreau to thank.
eBCalc is now a multi-channel fee calculator with more functionality than ever before. Not only will eBCalc return results for eBay’s many marketplaces and fee structures at the following URL: eBay Fee Calculator but it will now also help with fee calculation for many other marketplaces such as Amazon.com, Overstock.com and Etsy (among others). Continue Reading »
As an incentive for free shipping, this is a little weak…
Free Shipping is Never Free, if sellers are supposed to offer Free shipping, why does eBay not offer free listing?
Today a landmark change in listing fees for fixed price format “Buy it Now” items on the original auction Internet site eBay was announced. 
To tell the truth, writing about the IMA has not been on the top of my “to do” list of late… What with personal directives (back to school for the kids, family birthday(s) and a little Hurricane/Tropical Storm preparation) the Internet Merchants Association just has not been on the top of my mind.
Our friend and co- blogger Richard Brewer Hay, over at eBay Ink 
Warning from Feedies Re: eBay Discussion Boards - A Dangerous Place To Dwell
August 21, 2008 by Scott Pooler
I have been warned…
In a website contact form reply today, I received a message essentially warning me personally that eBay discussion board “Feedies” will “Go After” me and my eBay listings because of my previous article about this very behavior:
eBay Discussion Forums - A Dangerous Place to Dwell
The article was written about a video detailing the vicious and retaliatory actions of some members of the eBay Community Discussion forums.
I certainly hope that this is not the case.
Additionally I would think any of the eBay employees who happen to be in charge of eBay forum moderation who also have read this blog or any of my other blogs would certainly understand that allowing such retaliation against any writers eBay listings would not be in the best interest of eBay from a purely PR perspective.
If feedback is used as a weapon against a writer who simply offered an opinion about the situation currently occurring on the eBay discussion forums, then how will a normal eBay member without this kind of pulpit expect fair treatment.
eBay has a responsibility to not allow this kind of intimidation and gaming of the forum and feedback systems and rules.
I will not remove my article and I fully intend on maintaining my 100% feedback record with my eBay selling account. eBay forum moderators should be quite viligant about the behaviours being exhibited by a small but apparently powerful group of very odd people who are known as Feedies.
Posted in commentary, eBay | Tagged ebay feedback, eBay feedies, eBay forums, ebay member, ebay Moderator | No Comments »