I believe that PeSA is on the right path. What eBay fails to recognize is that their customers are the SELLERS not the buyers. Unlike Amazon eBay has nothing to sell to the buyer. What they have to sell is a space for sellers to sell. Many of eBay's so called improvements hurt not only the sellers but the buyers. Best Match is a joke - even eBay cannot explain how it works. Free Shipping - hurts the Buyer when making multiple purchases because they no longer get shipping discounts - how can they if the shipping costs are added in to the products cost. If eBay wanted to curb the inflated shipping charges sellers were adding to avoid eBay fees there was a simple answer - include S&H charges in the final value fee. Many of eBays so called improvements make the sellers job more difficult and increases needless clicks on the site. Ebay needs to treat all sellers equally - no more favoritism for the large sellers such as no negative feedback or negative feedback removal for large sellers; no more inflated DSRs or Feedback scores for large sellers; no more Best Match.
I'll get back to eBay in a moment but I want to digress and talk about Amazon for a minute. Many eBay sellers seem to think that Amazon is a better alternative to eBay. I challenge this assumption. Amazon fees are higher overall than eBay; the cost to have an Amazon store is much higher than eBay's even for a premium store; Amazon is a paperless payment system and a seller must use Amazon's payment system; Amazon controls shipping prices; Amazon will boot you if you fail to follow their shipping policies. It is much more difficult to add unique items on Amazon than eBay. You must use Amazon's product descriptions not your own. Even if you write a product description for a unique item - it must be made available for any other seller to use for a like item. Is Amazon a better alternative to eBay - not in my opinion.
My suggestion to eBay is recognize that your customers are the sellers. Make it easy to sell on eBay with lower listing fees offset by higher final value fees - as long as they are not prohibitive - this may also discourage low priced junk on eBay. One good example is sellers that sell used media for $1 or less. Deal with abusers of the system individually rather than penalizing all sellers. I could turn this into a book (maybe I should) but the single biggest thing eBay must acknowledge is that their customers are the sellers - do more to attract quality sellers and eBay's revenue, profits, and marketshare will increase. Continue to believe that the buyers are your customers and pretty soon eBay will have a lot fewer sellers and will be wondering where their business went. Here is a hint eBay - they followed the sellers!