My sales fell off a cliff when eBay changed search and flooded the site with Diamond-seller retail stuff. I didn't see a future in collectibles on eBay when most dealers were exiting or curtailing use of the site in step with the disappointed bidders/buyers that could no longer find those unique or special items (gone or burried). I pretty much gave up buying collectible there last summer, when most of the sellers I bought from "left the building" along with Elvis' gold bathtub.
General Reasons:
1) Too high fees for labor intensive policies, changes (from direction to directionless in some cases), and non-existent customer support. Businesses can't make a profit when they can't plan on a stable environment for sales. A bad economy doesn't help the problems created by the instability.
2) Unleveled playing field with too high risk created by buyer fraud and abuse, due to the no-neg policy and DSR system. The system "invites" abuse. Note, those methods are retail, not auction-collectible methods.
3) Unethical conduct in policy administration toward sellers, i.e. letting "HAL" the computer make decisions on policy without proper human oversite, notification, or appeal methods. The incident suspending eBook sellers before a written policy was issue or in effect as a prime example (which definitley got my immediate attention). Dictating the payment method, shipping rates, et. al., is not acting as an unbias 3rd party to bring together buyers and sellers. Sellers are (like it or not) more like contract employees in the new paradigm.
They believe auctions are dead and flee markets are bad. I think it's wrong-headed, spin-doctored speak to justify changes that have brought severe disfunctionaltiy to their site and to others dragged along for the ride (Auctiva included).
There is a growing sentiment among sellers, that eBay has gone from place of 1st choice to last resort. Disruptive Innovation has disrupted sellers to innovate to other venues including their own sites/eComm Stores. I just decided to sit-back (for now) and watch the parade (visions of lemmings marching off the cliff).
The next round (of jumpers) is coming with the New Design page and the cross-promotions on June 15th.As I've previously stated.....
I don't need a bad clone of Amazon; I need a new, old eBay.
Note, I'm not at all anti-eBay; I'm just realistic in my business thinking and decisions. Other than experimental or very small-scale sales, the site no longer stirs my passion for eBusiness.
Danno