Hi Mum -
Thank you for the great response! I would say to you that the eBay forums - whether in the states or in Australia or on the moon - are going to give you NO pertinent information due to, as you pointed out, posts being removed, etc. To get REAL, TRUE, HONEST information, you have to go off-eBay to places like this site.
I've been in on the boycott (can't you tell?) from the time the announcements were made. I am leaving eBay for good, I cannot tolerate such sneaky, lying, underhanded people. But I continue with the boycott (and trust me, it isn't even close to over yet) because I feel very strongly about the giant crushing the little guy. And that is exactly what's happening here.
Through the various forums, etc., that I am part of, a consensus of a sort has been reached: The REASON behind all of this is because eBay no longer wants the "flea market" sellers, even though that is the very reason many people go to eBay to shop. So they have structured a new policy that eventually will prevent every "undesirable" from selling there. Of course, they would be sued left and right if they came right out and stated that they were going to rid themselves of the riff-raff (it would be discrimination), so they have made it so that eventually - and in a very short amount of time for most of us - we will no longer "qualify" under their policies to sell on eBay. And THAT stinks.
If you haven't heard, they're taking on big, new clients (GM, Sears), and catering to the top 200 Power Sellers. I believe, though, the the Power Sellers will also eventually become unwanted and will be treated just like we are today.
They forget who built their company into the mega giant it is today. We likely won't take them down, that is not the goal. The goal is to BUILD the other sites, make them a competitor to eBay. And that WILL happen.
I don't know how things are over there, but here in the states we are ORGANIZED. Keep your eyes open in the coming months, we are not anywhere close to stopping our NOISE.
I would also invite (and urge) you to check out the link I posted earlier (http://forums.delphiforums.com/boycottebay/start) and also one at www.myspace.com/boycottebay. You will really have an eye-opening experience in either of those places.
Good luck to you, and again, thank you for the warm response.
Debbie