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I love how everyone rants and raves here, yet every single person here is making good if not GREAT money off of eBay.

Its like a screaming kicking and crying baby who throws tantrums at his mother but at the end of the day comes is drinking milk from her breast...

Guess what...all of us are drinking milk from eBay's breasts, and that milk is greeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnn and filling my wallet :laugh:

On the bright side, how about the extra 5% we get up until June... :dance:

Of course, we have to expect eBay to do what is in their own best interests. Every successful busineess does that. To expect anything else would not be realistic. But I am not sure if that REALLY is in their best interests.

Most of eBay's recent growth has come from their international sites and PayPal. US sales have declined.

Back when it started, eBay was THE COOL PLACE to be on the internet. They had all sorts of stuff listed, most of it unusual and unique. There also were some commodity items that are so prevalent today, but they were always cheaper in price than anywhere else.

Now, all they are about seems to be commodity items. It is a shame, as I used to browse their site for hours on end, buying all sorts of stuff. Now, it looks like a low-rent version of K-Mart. All of the weird, unusual and unique stuff has either been banned, or they chased the sellers away. What is left? Cheap junk and counterfeits - and not always at the best prices, either.

I have to believe there COULD BE another marketplace that would work and be more like eBay WAS rather than what they have morphed into. But that would take a ton of $$$ and resources to start today.

No ranting and raving involved but realistic and logical assumptions based on the evolution of eBay's current business model and it's ever apparent morphing into something new.

Put your faith in e/b for your bucks in the future and you will come to regret it. You may be making good money now but in relative terms it's proportionately less than it would have been just a year ago and even less than two years ago.

WHY? Higher fees, less discounts, punitive suspensions, higher than realistic performance targets etc. etc.

All of these are self tightening noose. e/b don't need to kick us off their site they just keep upping the anti and we will all slowly fall to their unachievable standards.

Better have an exit strategy is my advice

I can agree that eBay increasing their fees will cause me to make less money...that is common sense. Fortunately, I was not an eBay seller before the current fees were put into place so it doesn't affect me.

After I got TRS, the 20% discount was like an awesome add-on bonus. I haven't been subject to their suspensions as of yet...but I am sure many people who have gotten suspended (a majority of this forum), it was in eBay's best interest...they don't want the liability of fraudulent or ⊗⊗⊗⊗ goods sold on their site. Completely understandable.

Their performance standards do not seem unrealistic to me. I have 5 stars across the board and no negatives with several hundred feedback growing by the day. You do not NEED to perform up to their TRS levels, but it will benefit you with TRS discount, the buyer with excellent service, and overall a positive experience for eBay.

I am not trying to suck eBay's d*ck or anything, but I haven't tasted the bad side of eBay yet and plan on doing everything in my power not to...and they are filling my pockets pretty damn well, just like they are most of you. Even though it may not be as much as it was in the previous years, it is 100% more than you would have in your pockets then if eBay didn't exist.

eBay/Paypal fees are CHEAP compared to brick and mortar business fees/expenses/royalties.

http://www.aspkin.com/forums/other-a...tive-like.html


Trot off to the above thread. Contribute to making that idea feasible.

Will that happen? I doubt it.

Professional ebay whingers in full cry :boink:

i dont care if ebay bans us all to make way for the big businesses.......

some other site will take its place:noidea:

everybody loves a bargain

Actual issue is what sellers will do.

Always the bottom line.

In life, when something is wrong, many still adhere to their comfort zone.:smash:

yeah true

but we evolve

there will always be similar sites to apply our trades

As you say you have no experience of how it used to be but many here have and are here as a result of the changes that e/b have imposed, we were not all sellers of ⊗⊗⊗⊗ goods.

Good luck with e/b I hope you continue as you are doing now but bear in mind what I have said.

I lost an 8 year old account with over 6k fb, TRS, the whole nine yards and did not sell ⊗⊗⊗⊗ goods, there are many others like me around.

I'm not bitter and twisted about it. I learned and moved on and play them at their own game but on my terms. They can shut me out of accounts or I can cut and run when I like and come back reincarnated when I feel like it.

It's not a case of if you fall foul of e/b and their fickle buyers but WHEN.

As I said it's a self tightening noose, slowly but surely it will choke you. So be prepared.

eggs-one basket etc

Good post NoneOther

NoneOther is posting some good stuff :thumb:

NoneOther is right.

Just around the time that Pierre Omidyar was about to turn eBay over to Meg Whitman, everything changed.

It used to be REALLY HARD to lose an eBay account. Even people committing fraud with dozens of negatives and a 20% positive feedback rating sometimes were able to keep accounts. Then, the pendulum swung in the other direction.

New rules came out almost daily. It was truly impossible to keep up with them. Whole categories of items were banned. eBay did not own PayPal back then. You could lose an account for putting the wrong size PayPal logo in your listing. Or using prohibited HTML code. Or listing your auction as "featured" if it no longer qualified. Or listing in what they considered the "wrong" category.

Often, what exactly was prohibied was NOT spelled out. The rules were written very broadly to give eBay leeway in applying the rules.

Back then, you would get an email from eBay stating they ended your item for violating eBay's policies. But they woulnd NOT tell you which policy you violated. If you questioned them, they would send a nastier email threatening to close your account if you kept violating their policies.

Nobody was safe. Sellers with THOUSANDS of positive feedbacks and 100% ratings had their accounts pulled. eBay would NOT accept any appeals and they would NOT tell you what you did wrong.

Counterfeits were not as much of an issue back then. Sure, there were SOME, but this was before the counterfeit wholesale sites existed. One person I know sold pianos. He had 100% positive feedback and had closed his local store because he preferred the freedom of selling on eBay. ONE email from eBay and he was done, despite paying them over $4k per month in fees.

Another woman, a single mom, started a service to clean basements and attics at a low fee, in exchnage for keeping some of the items. She sold them on eBay and got off of welfare. She was so proud and happy. She had extra money and was able to do more for her kids. eBay banned her, too.

So, nobody should assume that just because a seller was banned means they were selling counterfeits, stolen merchandise or were otherwise breaking the law. Very often, they just ran afoul of an eBay rule. Or maybe even an eBay CSR who was trying to help a competitor. Who knows?

Now, at least they will give you a GENERAL IDEA of why you were banned.

NoneOther your on fire tonight!! ;) *gets notepad out*

i would like to take this moment to apologize for my comment earlier about i`m not bothered

i am bothered if it affects my good friends on the forum

i am not a top rated seller so it wont affect me,although i will get affect one way or another

i am sure there will be something in place where you would be able to take your ebay reputation to another site which will be ebay's predecessor

ebay is not the be all and end all!

Such a site already exists

I hope you are not referring to iOf fer or hal f.com

No, Uk site eBid. Not that great but it's out there and been around for a while now. As I said before, you never know. one day.

i know that but what i mean is one like ebay

ebid is poor compared

but it could be its predecessor one day

Exactly my point, Some day e/b will not be for us but another site will.

Not one that just suddenly appears but one that is in all probability running now.

I use eBid and I know it's not e/b but I'm there and it does a turn now and again and it might, just might, be where we all end up in the future.

i agree all the way

one day ebid could be the next ebay

but ebay has to change drastically first