You said it yourself, j2s: "since...about 3 weeks ago" is when eBay rolled out these fabulous new changes. The fact that you started using Auctiva then is mere coincidence. I know when I joined it only increased my sales. God, I miss those days. The other part of the equation is the economy in general. The irony is that it is yielding lots of newbie sellers trying to make an extra buck and they couldn't have picked a worse time to come aboard.