ebaY US is once again raising its fees to sellers, with many
increases in the 50 to 100% range. This fee increase is not
surprising since ebaY wants their stockholders and
potential stockholders to continue to buy ebaY stock, and fee
increases look good to stockholders. ebaY wants the public to
keep buying stock, so that the ebaY insiders can continue to
cash out their stock holdings.
In 2004 ebaY insiders
cashed out $7,846,507,701.00 in stock (yes folks that is
7.85 Billion in the pockets of ebaY insiders). This is nothing
unusual, as ebaY insiders have been cashing out their stock
as fast as they can, since they were first allowed to do so.
For more insider info –
Major Stock Holders
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=EBAYInsider Transactions
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=ebayAs usual, the ebaY boards and chat boards across the online auction
and trading industry (OAI/OTI) are filled with outraged sellers
screaming about the price increases. Once again we will repeat
what we at TAG have been saying for the past 6 years.
What
sellers can't be made to realize, is that the power to change the
industry rests with themselves, as ebaY will charge the sellers
whatever the sellers ALLOW ebaY to charge them. All it takes is for
sellers to move a sufficient number of listings to other OAI/OTI
sites, and break the ebaY monopoly. The buyers will follow the
sellers. If sites other than ebaY have what the buyers want, that
is where the buyers will go. If enough sites develop viable markets,
someone (Google?) will come along with an improved meta search engine
(the technology has been around for over 4 years to do this but was
never perfected) that searches all these sites, and updates in real
time, so buyers can search the net for items they want,
and sellers will be free to list wherever they want.
Petitions, one day "strikes", boycotts etc are all useless
and foolish. They have no impact on ebaY and do nothing to
expand the industry. So far they have all failed, and done
nothing but reinforce ebaY's arrogance. ebaY will sit back and
let the sellers moan and groan about the increase, maybe even
make some small concessions, and then go about
their business, confident that the sellers will NOT act to change the
industry. ebaY will continue to raise fees as long as the sellers
knuckle under and pay the fees. What will change the industry,
is sellers selling on what we at TAG call VOTE sites (venues other
than ebaY).
Here is what sellers can do to change the face of the OAI/OTI
permanently, which will mean more competition, hence lower
charges to sellers, and better customer service for
those who use OAI/OTI sites.
As individuals – Build your own website and use it as the hub to
link to places you sell online. There are many very inexpensive
web site hosts, and most ISPs provide free server
space for web sites. Search Google for page templates, learn basic
HTML (many sites are available online to teach the basics for free),
use a site that has templates, or hire someone to build you a
simple site. Get your site indexed on Froogle. This is free, and
you can sign up here -
http://snipurl.com/c27j Email every past
customer, thanking them for their business and telling them
where you are currently listing and offer them incentives to buy
from you from your website or from the VOTE site(s) you are using.
As organized groups – there are lots of OAI/OTI chat boards, on
ebaY and off, and frequent communication between sellers of
same or similar items. Start a chat group OFF ebaY, such as on
Topica.com, Google Groups or Yahoo Groups, or on one of the
OAI/OTI bulletin board systems, and email sellers in your category,
inviting them to join your effort to move your entire category to a
VOTE site. Agree on a site, and have everyone participating email
all their past customers and tell those customers where the category
is now located. Put up a group webpage, and provide links to the
group member websites and VOTE site listings. As a group, you
can even pool some resources and advertise in a trade paper or
magazine for your category, or buy some banner ad space online.
Work together as a community and you will all benefit together as a
community.
You do not have to stop selling on ebaY. USE ebaY (as opposed to
letting ebaY use you) as a way to build your customer base. There
are ways to do this that are still ebaY legal, such as including
offers and incentives for purchases made on the VOTE sites you
are selling on, in every email you send out. Include your email
address prominently in every listing on ebaY, so potential buyers
can contact you directly, without having ebaY looking over
your (and their) shoulder. Encourage potential buyers to contact you
via email. Build opt in mailing lists of customers, via your emails,
and include incentives in your list mailings. Send a coupon in every
package you send out, offering incentives to customers who buy
from you either from your website or from a VOTE site.
When you use ebaY,
do not use the extras. List 7 day auctions,
don't use gallery, don't use BIN, and close your ebaY store.
If enough sellers do this, ebaY will have to back off these
fee increases. TAG still holds that
gallery is now and has always
been a waste of money, and anecdotal evidence from sellers is
that when they stop using gallery, their sell through does not
change.
ebaY has been very successful at brainwashing sellers into
believing whatever ebaY tells them is true, including that the world
of online auctions and trading only exists on ebaY. It is time the
sellers took control of the industry back from ebaY.
For those of you who are just going to moan and complain and once
again knuckle under anyway, who want to do something that makes
you feel as if you did not take this increase lying down, even if it
really means nothing, here are some links to petitions, and boycott/
strike sites.
Anti Fee increase petition -
http://www.petitiononline.com/ebayfee/Boycott/Strike page –
http://www.nolistingday.com/There are also posts about not listing 1–18 Feb 05.
Protest auctions -
http://snipurl.com/c2fzhttp://snipurl.com/c2gchttp://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6505708303Rate Meg Whitman's performance -
http://www.forbes.com/2003/05/01/cx_ceointernetpoll.html
Auctiva Community 
