sphiatt

This was originally posted at other deals forums, but this effects many of us here as well:

Ebay News

January 17, 2002

A Wall Street Journal Online News Roundup

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- EBay Inc. told users Thursday that it plans to raise fees for its online auction services and will begin charging for certain buying options.

Shares of eBay gained $1.76 to $61.70 in midday trading Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

The moves come two days after eBay (EBAY) said fourth-quarter revenue soared 64%. The company also raised its sales forecast for the first half of this year and reaffirmed its first-half profit projection. The company said its U.S. and international businesses were strong.

EBay said it plans to raise how much it charges on the final value of auction purchases by 0.25 percentage point, and will raise fees for reserve listings above $200. It also plans to begin charging a fee for its "Buy It Now" feature. "Buy It Now" is an option on eBay auctions that appears at the seller's discretion. About 45% of all eBay sellers make Buy It Now available on their auctions, the company said.

Overall, fixed-price shopping -- available at Half.com site, eBay Stores and as Buy It Now -- grew to 19% of eBay's fourth-quarter gross merchandise sales -- the total value of all goods sold through eBay.

JBabbitt

If they want to raise rates, I think they should atleast offer more protection to the sellers and buyers rather than just turning a blind eye.

lordzeppelin

I agree. Although, I realy don't know what more could be done. Turthfully, this move may be to weed out some of the morons on there currently, who in the last year have plagued ebay with problems. Some people just don't understand that it's a serious place, as fun as it is. People just bid on things then go "Oh, I was just playing around with it" and retract bids.

However, I feel that charging for the "Buy It Now" feature is an absolute mistake. It was one of the great features they added, and a very useful tool for selling things. They still make money on the auction, so is there any need to charge for that option? Yahoo doesn't. This part of it is absolutely ridiculous...

grunter

That's SOOOOOO typical of Ebay. And the next time I post auctions, the whole setup of the auction template will be entirely new - yet again. To the point where I'll have to re-learn the whole process like I did at the end of November

Ebay is totally not the same company it was even 2 years ago. There are no bargains to be had on the site anymore. The quality of the merchendise to be found has gone from quirky one-of-a-kind collectible items to the same mass-produced garbage you can find at any K-mart or Walmart down the street.

And the little guys - the backyard lawnsale type sellers, like me -- have been pushed out of the market in favor of big businesses who might as well not even be "auctioning" their merchandise.

How can you say you're "auctioning" off goods when the initial bid price equals MSRP?

Soon I think they'll price themselves completely out of the auction marketplace.

*sigh* Remember the days of 10 cent insertion fees?

JBabbitt

I still wish they handled shipping like they do at half.com!

I am sick of finding a great price on an item and then realizing that the seller is charging $5 for media mail. It is ridiculous. Let sellers have a shipping allowance, and that is it.

Fielding Mellish

I’ve been using eBay less and less since I’m close to maxing out my "unregistered" PayPal account. News like this will probably just speed up the process.

bboisvert

Agreed. Especially since that particular "option" disappears the instant the first bid is placed.

What about people like me who enjoy listing with "Buy it Now", but also like to have realistic initial bids (you know, to actually make it an auction where several people bid).

I use Buy it Now on most of my auctions, but I'd say that 90-95% of the time, someone will place a $9.99 bid instead and the option goes away. They now want me to pay for an option that will be useless most of the time? Pointless...

lumpy19

I've been using ebay since it first came around, 98 I think, anyway there are definitely no deals on there like there used to be, BUT as a seller its better for me because I can sell stuff for more than I paid for it.

Other sites like ubid and half are now getting more of my business, but all selling goes through ebay.

ziadhn

i haven't been able to find what they're going to charge for the "buy it now" option.

Mike_AA

Any alternatives to using eBay? Hows Half.com compare?

I may use that Amazon thing now...

mhmurray

What will happen is sellers will charge more for shipping or raise their Buy it Now price. In the long run, the buyers will get screwed. Of course, this depends on the item. If there is a 600% profit involved, the extra fee really won't affect the seller.

What irks me is that in this economy when so many companies are going under. eBay isn't satisfied with a 64% increase in revenues. They have to charge more too.

I wish I could get with 10 other people and start a new competative auction site. But I guess if Yahoo or Amazon couldn't do it. Who can. Microsoft? eBay is Greedy but very smart in making money.

TheBang

$0.05

http://pages.ebay.com/community/news...creaseFAQ.html

***Fee Changes***

Today, we are announcing a number of changes to the current eBay price structure. Effective January 31, 2002, we are increasing Final Value Fees, adding a new Reserve Fee price point, charging a fee to use Buy It Now, increasing eBay Motors vehicle Insertion and Final Value Fees, and in late February, changing how we charge Final Value Fees for Dutch listings. Other Feature and Insertion Fees, and fees for eBay Premier and Real Estate, will remain unchanged.

eBay.com Changes:

*Final Value Fee
We are adding 0.25% to each Final Value Fee price point.


Final Value:
$0.01 - $25.00 Current: 5% New: 5.25%
$25.01 - $1000.00 Current: 2.5% New: 2.75%
$1000.01 and up Current: 1.25% New: 1.50%


*Reserve Fee
We are adding a new price point for reserve listings above $200.


Reserve Price
$0.01 - $24.99 Current: $0.50 New: $0.50
$25.00 - $199.99 Current: $1.00 New: $1.00
$200.00 and up Current: $1.00 New: $2.00


*Buy It Now Fee
A $0.05 Feature Fee will be charged for all auction-style items listed with the Buy It Now feature. The new fee will not apply to eBay Stores Buy It Now items.

*Dutch Fee
The standard Final Value Fee schedule will apply to each item sold, not to the total dollar amount of all the items sold. Thus, the Final Value Fee for each item sold will be identical to the standard eBay Final Value Fees outlined above.

*eBay Motors Changes
eBay Motors is increasing Insertion and Final Value Fees for Passenger Vehicles and Other Vehicles from $25.00 to $40.00. In addition, a $0.50 Feature Fee will be charged for all Motorcycle auction items listed with the Buy It Now feature, and a $1.00 Feature Fee will be charged for all Passenger Vehicles and Other Vehicles listed with the Buy It Now feature. eBay Motors Parts & Accessories fees remain identical to eBay.com fees.

*eBay Stores Final Value Fee Change
Beginning in late February, all fixed price eBay Stores items that are sold in multiple quantities to the same buyer will have Final Value Fees calculated on a per item basis. Final Value Fees for single item sales are already calculated on a per item basis.

International Fees:

New Zealand and Singapore will adopt all of the applicable fees described above. Australia, Canada, Ireland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom are increasing Final Value Fees and Reserve Fees on February 1, 2002 local site time. All other international sites are not affected by these changes. More information on the international price increases is available by clicking on the following links:

*Canada
*Australia
*United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden

We recognize that price increases directly impact our users, so we do not raise fees lightly or without considering the impact to our community. These increases will help us continue to build a vibrant marketplace by allowing us to invest heavily in technology, marketing and customer support, making it possible for millions of people to discover and use eBay.

accident prone

$0.05!!!! What a rip off.....i'm never selling on ebay again!


btw....as for there being no more deals on ebay anymore.....you just have to look hard...that's all. I picked up a Palm m505 last week new for $240 shipped....seemed like a good deal to me.

bboisvert

The point is that all of those little nickel and dime charges start to add up. $.30 minimum to list. $.05 for BIN. Increasing % for final value fee.

If I list 20 items a week (not really a lot, in my opinion) and use Buy It Now, I'll be spending over $50 a year just for that one feature. A feature that only affects a small number of my auctions, since it disappears after the first bid is placed.

If I'm only listing one auction, I could probably splurge and would be willing to risk the 5 cents. If I list auctions often, there's no way that would be worth it to me. Over the course of a year, you'd be spending a lot of $$$$ for something that isn't making you anything...

madcougar

These two decisions affect the seller, not the buyer. How is this going to disuade these goobers from making bogus bids?

I got burned out of eBay after going at it hot and heavy for about two years. With regard to the things that I liked to bid on, it seems that the influx of new people bidding have made it close to impossible to find decent bargains or any real deals. Again this is with regard to the things that I bid on.

sphiatt

So lets see, $0.25 to put up a little picture icon by my listing, $0.10 fee if I want the auction to go for 10 days (good for rare items) and now $0.05 just for the ability to go "buy it now".

Lame!

Personally, if the item typically goes for between $50 and $75 or so I'll be sure to put the minimum bid at $49.99 (the highest it can be and still be just $1.10 to list it) At $50 and up it goes to $2.20.

I list stuff all the time at $49.99 with a Buy It Now price of $59.99 or even $69.99 and it goes "BUY IT NOW" rather than getting that first $49.99 bid.

The tough part comes in that with Buy It Now you only need ONE sucker to be willing to pay to much for your item, rather than 2 bidding against each other. With regular auctions sometimes your stuff goes for more or less than it should, but I'd be happy with a reasonable selling price via BUY IT NOW. I'm just glad they were smart enough to leave it at only $0.05, rather than anything more. I may still use it on unique items or things I want to sell fast.

It is nice when you have 10 of something to have BUY IT NOW, you don't have to put up a bunch of individual auctions all at once to sell it in a week. You leave one or two auctions up and when they go "BUY IT NOW" you relist them immediately. This way the buyers don't see a bunch of different items up and feel they have plenty of chances to get the thing. Just my 2 cents, or 7 cents now since I'm passing the nickle on to you

Don Catchpole

All we can hope for if they raise their rates is that their business will fall off so sharply they'll have to reduce them again. Overall I'd say I'm happy with 9 out of 10 transactions I make on there.

Want to hear two of my latest ebay transactions? First guy uses buy it now on my luigi's mansion. He instantly sends me billpoint so two days later I mail it out and today I get a notice that he has insufficient funds and I get no money. I thought they were like paypal, never again will I take billpoint. The second thing is just funny. I got a blender for Christmas that wouldn't crush ice so I put it up on ebay right along with a link to amazon that had the same blender. There was a bidding war between two people and I got 2 dollars more for the blender than what amazon wanted.

grunter

My turn to "me too" one of your posts bboisvert.

On a single auction the new fees that Ebay is proposing don't add up to much. But over the course of many, many auctions during a month, those charges build to the point where the little guy -- like I said, the "lawnsale, out-of-the-garage" type of seller - gets squeezed out of the marketplace. Large conglomerates and businesses can absorb these seemingly tiny rate hikes much better than -- say me.

But then, Ebay has a history of hostility towards its sellers. They haven't been a person-to-person business for years. And all these folksy claims that they make it easy for "reg'lar people" to sell all that crap they've stored up in their attics ring falser every day.

You can betcha I'll be adding these fees to my "shipping & handling" costs in the future.

JohnPhoenix

In addition,

***Tradenable***

eBay has been notified that Tradenable (formerly i-Escrow) is no longer accepting new registrations or processing escrow transactions. Any Tradenable escrow transaction that is already in progress and paid for will be processed; however, Tradenable will not be accepting any new escrow transactions from eBay users.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/marketing.shtml

wfbmaddogg

All those nickels and dimes get you after a while. Especially if you get a PayPal or Billpoint payment. The Buy it Now fee is the biggest ripoff of them all because that feature actually benefits eBay. The sooner the item is bought the sooner they get their money. That's why they had it free. It sppeds up their cash flow. Now that people are used to it they want o make it sound like it's a special feature for your benefit.

Jack Straw

I view BIN option as a feature or convenience mostly for the buyer. By using it, they

a) Can be assured that they will get the item for a fixed specified amount (as opposed bidding and taking a gamble on what the price will end up being; and

b) Don't have to wait for the auction to run its course before paying and having the item ship.

Therefore, I as a seller WILL NEVER pay extra for BIN!

Additionally, it is stupid on ebay's part because BIN allows for auctions to close much quicker and therefore they can collect their FVF that much sooner.

Wendell

I totally agree! Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! "buy it now" does nothing but benefit all involved, eBay most of all. They get the full listing fee, even if the auction only runs a few minutes, they usually (but not always) get a higher final value fee, and the listing is on their server a much shorter time. It's good for the seller, because he gets what he really wants for the product, and can relist another immediately. It's good for the buyer because he can be assured of getting an item he really wants without the fear of being outbid at the last minute.

Putting a fee on it is about the stupidest thing I've ever seen. EBay will lose much more in server time and final value fees on auctions that sellers opt not to use BIN, than they can possibly gain on the $.05 from those that do. But then, intelligence is not one of the maladies that eBay suffers from.

For me, I think that it is finally time that I took a good hard look at moving a lot of my business to Amazon.

wingfan

I also use E-bay a lot and this will make me rethink my auctions.
But, don't forget, this is America, if you are unhappy with a store find another auction house, like "bidville.com" or like Mike_AA said, Amazon. E-Bay will raise the rates until they notice a
leveling in action then they will cut back. Just like the DVD market, MGM and Paramount were not selling like Warner, so they lowered their MSRP, and that's why you see the $12.99 and $11.99 levels with these studios now at "Schlep Bye".
Bottom Line: Try someone else.

sracer

• a non-trivial percentage of eBay auctions are by companies/individuals who are trying to move a quantity of merchandise.
  
• eBay owns Half.com.
  
• Buy-it-Now is an anomaly in an auction setting.
  

These recent moves by eBay are obviously (to me anyways) the first step in moving those sellers over to Half.com (where they belong).

Buy-It-Now in essence is the sale price. Some people claim that there are ridiculous BIN prices, but I've seen the opposite.... I've seen far too many auctions where BIN is equal to minimum bid...(or within a buck) that makes it a direct sale.

For at LEAST the last 2 years eBay has been more of a flea market than an auction site. Companies posting "items for auction" that were simply hooks to their online stores. Certainly not the spirit of the early eBay days.

JBabbitt

I agree with the last post. In the last 2 years, ebay has turned into a place of etailers. What it has meant to me, is that shipping prices have gone up, and that getting your item takes longer. Every time I buy an item, I get the same thing. "We ship over 500 items a week, please be patient." That is why they started half.com, but business still like ebay, because they are usually guaranteed a sale of an item within a week. That means more business, and quick turnaround of products. The problem is, there is no real great alternative out there. Yahoo auctions are terrible, and half.com is decent. Amazon used is a great place to sell (atleast in my case), and a bad place to buy on most things. Ebay prices on DVDs have gone up considerably. But the reason behind that, is that there are a lot more players out there, which means more people that collect movies. You used to be able find quite a few bargains on there, but now a lot of the movies go for the same price that they do in the stores. Give it time, and hopefully those businesses will make the switch.