Power Sellers Unite

Mamapeapod · Joined: 08 Aug 2006 Posts: 66

Has anyone noticed on the 'Auction site count' that ebay listings have been going up for the last two days? It updates every hour. Before that they were losing listings? I wonder why? :roll:

Pipphoe

Yesterday down by a million, today up by a million. I think the most interesting time will be when the fees actually go into effect.

kevinatgrannys · Joined: 03 Jan 2006 Posts: 1799

Personally, I think that there are several reasons for the count to go up.

1) Several sellers are taking advantage of the last minute listings before the cost goes up. "Get as much out there as you can and hope to recoup the $$ in sales before cutting back/closing your store."

2) From some of the private emails I have received, quite a few people didn't know that opening your own website was a lot of work. They are use to having all of the advertising and search engine stuff done automatically.

3) Several people have "tried" other auction sites and didn't get instant sales and went back to e. (Tried = putting as few items out for a week and deciding that it wasn't going to work.)

4) Grab your tin foil hats...maybe the numbers are being manipulated??? (Don't say I didn't warn you to grab your hat.)

5) New sellers trying to make a go of it and make all that money they read about in that book.

All of these things combined could cause the numbers to climb

nopaypal · Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 2008

ebay seems awfully ded to me--i have gotten absolutely no hits on one of my items in the last 2 days!
:shock:

2BOYSandTOYS · Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 10095 Location: Kansas

I agree with all that Kevin says above me - and for those watching, the true affect of the fee hike will be observed after the date and forward...

:D :D

rrichmillions · Joined: 08 Aug 2006 Posts: 6

Some additional thoughts as to why the numbers are going up.

6) Some store owners who plan on closing taking a shot by blowing out inventory before they invest more time in relisting it on another site.

7) Some store owners who find their store inventory nearly invisible are not making enough sales and are forced to move stuff to auction to pay their bills

8) Possibility of individual store or country site incentives to increase the count.

10) Some experimenting to see if they can generate a profit by increased utilization of auctions.

If these are accurate, we may see an increase in auctions through and past the last of the store items listed at the two cent fee expire (Aug 22 + 30)

As per the famous quote, remember the there are three types of lies in order of magnitude:

Lies ----
Dam*ed Lies ----
Statistics

rrichmillions · Joined: 08 Aug 2006 Posts: 6

Sorry had to kill #9 as it could have been construed as slander.

kcskorner · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 16

The part about listing in your store before the fee increase is what gets me. Don't you understand that you are still supplying eBay with your monthly subscription fee???? And for what? No sales? IMO, stores are more invisible than ever now. Aren't stores pro-rated? Why give to eBay when you can force them to give back to you (store subscription price-wise)?

Right now, I have one thing on eBay. I plan on being part of the boycott. And, until buying picks up, I'm not listing anything. As it stands, I paid eBay more money this month than I made. . .

2BOYSandTOYS · Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 10095 Location: Kansas

rrichmillions:

Welcome to PSU! You've found a great group with tons of great information and lots of thoughts on 'alternatives to there'!!!

I didn't get to see 9 before you removed it - but your other points make sense to me. I think listing counts over there now are telling, but the count after the announcement and thru the end of the year will be the ones to watch!

Again, welcome to PSU!! :psulove: :mrgreen:

angelsolutions

I too agree with Kevin and rrich's points about the auction counts. Very good points. And Erin's right. It will be the counts through the end of the year and most especially AFTER the holiday season that will be the most telling.

Increasing the store fees in August puts an added catch22 on store owners. Leave before the heavy selling season?

I've mentioned a couple of times here kcskorner, that I'm having a harder time deciding on whether to close my store now or not. After much painful thinking and MUCH red ink, this is what I'm leaning on...

Stay through the end of the year (my accountant will kill me, know this). Load up the store as much as possible as intelligently as possible before the item fee hike.

Promote my store outside of eBay with the Store Affiliate link which credits me FVF's if someone buys using that link. One can hope. LOL

Send my eBay store RSS feed (which will have a link to my own web store) to the internet universe everywhere I can.

Promote my web store on my aboutme page (read the policy closely and follow the policy carefully...it IS allowed); on my own personal emails to customers, and all the other methods I plan on using.

Long story short....exactly what you said....USE EBAY AGAINST ITSELF, until I can truly afford to leave.

If any one else has the same idea and would like to start a Best Practices thread along these lines, lemme know. I think we should help each other if we plan/need to stay the season.

sylvia

Val77 · Joined: 03 Nov 2005 Posts: 723 Location: The Sunshine State

Yes, I agree also with much that has been said. And I personally believe it is perhaps a combination of those staying and those going, putting in a last "hoorah" at the current price.

I also believe that Erin and AngelS are also hitting the nail on the head with the after the Holidays and into the New Year counts...as even people who otherwise don't list or have decided not to list anymore, usually do list something on ebay. I know many who only list when they have a 1cent sale or a 10cent sale or whatever.... and some that only list there during the Holidays...so I imagine the numbers will probably increase in the upcoming months, but those numbers as you all mentioned will not be indicitive of the direction ebay is moving, and frankly if I were an investor/stock holder, I would probably look to sell on Jan.1st.

I wonder how many of those listings are the maximum time alotment?

myauction · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 277

Agree with the above statement(s).

My take

Think it could be more obvious over these
next few months but in stages.

Already saw some impact but eBay countered
with 2 lower cost listing days and calling
many sellers/buyers to open stores etc. thus
faking out stock holders and making it appear
the "community" is still with them.

And the next phase is the 22nd. Would
expect another low cost listing day. Btw,
as a side note, an interesting thread on eBay see:
BREAKING NEWS says AUGUST 22CD IS THE END OF THE WORLD!
and there has been a bit of talk about that
day on tv and found this article.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51445
Kind of coincidental that this date is the same
as when the fee hike goes into place.

Then the holidays many will probably hang in
there and hope for the best. But since the
announcement more and more are seeking
out alternative sites like other auction/store,
classified, or their own website. And this
will take time to phase stuff over and some
will leave some items on eBay but focus
more attention elsewhere.

Then after the holidays and maybe even
through January and February, it should
be very noticable unless they have done
other things to remedy this situation or
are bought out and flush out all the execs
and all the employees and start with a
fresh auction/store system.

If the rumors about Microsoft was to ever
come true about them buying eBay, to me
the only way people would trust again is
if they fired the entire workforce and
started with a clean fresh site but convert
the data into the new one.

Personally I would love to see Google buy
up eBay and do the above flush and put in
a new clean (non-manipulative/non-hiding)
system.

rrichmillions · Joined: 08 Aug 2006 Posts: 6

Angelsolutions,

I am not quite as far along in the human crisis response SARAH cycle as you, I despite my better judgment, am still stuck in the Anger/Rejection mode below. I think a need a couple of more days of healing before I will be ready to move into the next phase. Though there is hope as I almost listed a store item today.

For those not familiar with the SARAH here it is with my thoughts on the my current situation

Shock
I am shocked that a company would raise fees after enticing/begging me to open a store w/a free month’s rent and 2 cent a month listing fees
Stunned by the statement that it is only a 6% increase on average for the sellers.
Incredulous that a CEO would state that she hasn’t had but 15 emails from unhappy sellers after a major price increase, almost daring sellers to negatively respond en masse
Flabbergasted that they would have the hypocrisy to publish an article (from Entrepreneur Magazine’s Business Brief) stating “Nothing costs
you customers faster than (a) disconnect between the promises made in marketing and the reality of customer experience…”

Anger
Angry that a large cap company would use a bait and switch tactic - raise my rent 250% to 500% per item 3 months after I opened my store.
Enraged that said company would have the audacity to increase the FVF as well
Infuriated that they would then make those items all but invisible in the searches
Appalled that they have clammed up and are offering zilch in the way of communication to store owners desperate for answers
Downright disgusted with myself for trusting them, opening a store & investing time and money in inventory

Rejection
That they are subsidizing the US cash cow to fund international expansion and non-core unprofitable acquisitions
Thinking that this is all a dream and that they will repeal the fee hikes
Believing that they will listen to all the disgruntled store sellers and change their tune
Finding myself scanning the news for a fee hike retractment
Frozen in indecision, unable to list a new item or find a new venue

Acceptance
Realize that I cannot trust them to publish and freeze a reasonable fee and search structure and live by it
Understand that they have a bleak long term future at least from a small store owners’ perspective
Acknowledge that it may take a considerable time for them to realign themselves with their customers and/or make changes to the BOD
Accept the fact that many, many, many items now in my inventory to be listed will no longer be viable to list with this pricing structure
Come to grips with the fact that I will have to utilize them in a limited fashion until I have found another venue
Begin networking with other store owners to explore new possibilities
Retool a new business plan
Initiate the search for other venue/s
Start dedicating resources to relisting again in multiple venues

Hope
Begin to see items sell on other venues
That there is profit at the end of the tunnel
Be in a position to pull all my items from them and move to other profitable venues
That a viable, ethical, customer-oriented company strongly overtakes them in the Auction/Store space

sewbest · Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Posts: 62

This is a little OT
but a response to something posted by Myauctions.

"..and there has been a bit of talk about that
day on tv and found this article.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51445
Kind of coincidental that this date is the same
as when the fee hike goes into place..." (re Aug 22)

I read that article you gave a link to and it got me thinking
about the News re terrorists caught in England.
They said: "police and authorities were initially going to wait an other
week,before arresting these guys".

Very interesting,because that would have brought the arrests VERY close
to the 22nd of August! Hmmmmmm

KikiandFriends · Joined: 11 Aug 2006 Posts: 101

:D First I would like to STAND & APPLAUD RRichMillions for the well written post!!
We RARELY list auction style on Ebay as i am so sick of paying for items that don't sell the first or second time our or selling items for next to nothing. I sell almost all of my items just through my store. I have been taking my listings off as they are ending each day and plan to have them all off by midnight on the 21st of August for at least one month maybe two. Until another site starts to sell, I have to stay with Ebay just because I need the money. Other people may not be in the same position I am in at this point, but this is important to me. My sales have been REALLY DOWN.
KikiandFriends