eBay Boycott Begins Today

While I cannot support to pull all my listings, I pulled 10% and plenty more will be ending today. EBay is too greedy. Our shop makes custom items which takes hours, sometimes days of hard and strenuous LABOR and EFFORT, only to barely earn slightly above minimum wage. Why? Because for every $1,500 in profit, $700 goes to eBay's CEOs who have absolutely nothing to do with the difficult work we do to support our families. It's time, go to iOffer!

As longtime buyers and sellers on eBay, we are honoring the strike.

We understand the fee increases. We're not happy about it, but that is the cost of doing business.

What we cannot abide by is the total lack of regard for the seller by not allowing us to leave anything but positive feedback.

Yes, the current FB system is flawed, but this is not a fix. All sellers will now be open to feedback extortion, unfair negative FB, and more unpaid items...all because the buyer "can" and we have no recourse.

Unfair negatives will then lower our FB and DSR scores, then PayPal will put a 21-day hold on our funds. That means we will have to ship packages out of our own pockets.

There's so much more to this, but there's no sense in going into it.

As many other sellers are doing, we are taking this time to look for new venues to sell. What remains to be seen is how many sellers come back after the Strike, and in what force.

I have sold on ebay for 4 years now and my fear is that if you dont allow the seller to have the option to leave feedback , many buyers will hold all the cards ..They will be able to renegotiate sale price after they buy an item or items ...that will be time consuming and frustrating to sellers ...This is clearly unfair and it will defiantely happen..eventhough my experience that a big majority or buyers are very nice and honest , there is a percentage of scammers , trouble makers and miserable souls that have nothing to do but to bring down a hard working seller .NOTE : A 99.3% FEEDBACK is a decent feedback score anything below is considered questionable and less trustworthy...buyers will learn this and the abuse will be multiplied ...Ebay has never ever done anything that didnt suit their bottomline . All the sales were strategically places on days where they knew would be slow etc etc

I have not listed any auctions and will not be making any purchases this week. I will probably stop selling on Ebay entirely.

This past week I had a BUYER attempt to charge back an item. Her information was false, she did not communicate to me, she lied to Pay Pal and Ebay. I have the tracking number of her package (which she says I did not send).

People have been describing the boycott as being fueled by anger, but I joined the boycott out of fear.

Ebay has made a great many changes which all together will have an unknown aggregate effect. The many changes include but are not limited to buyer only negative and neutral, neutral being counted against a seller like a negative, feedback percentages calculated on past year performance rather than lifetime performance, limiting access to payments received based on these new feedback criteria.

Sellers who feel they are immune to these changes based on their solid business practices and who continue to sell during the transition period may well find themselves suddenly hamstrung because it is impossible to predict how each of the many changes will play out in concert with the others.

A boycott fueled by anger will fizzle. But, if the fuel is fear of actually losing a business during the next few months, the boycott will only be the beginning of an exodus.

We have been sellers/buyers on ebay for 4 years. We have sold or bought over 1400 items to/from 855 differnt folks. We have a perfect 100% approval from our buyerrs and sellers.

We are the kind of sellers that ebay is trying to get rid of. We are mad as He@@ and you should be too.

This is simply a case of corporate greed. Ebay's CEO made the basic mistake of forgetting who his customers are. We the sellers pay EVERY fee.

We are mad and we are many!!!!!!!

Feb 18-25 and beyond!!!!!!!!!
No buying, no selling, no listing!

PS: Will the last person leaving the ebay building please turn out the lights. IT has left the building!

Ebay is under the mistaken impression that sellers work for them, rather than the other way around. Sellers are the customers of Ebay, not buyers! Sellers are the ones who pay all the fees and keep the lights on.

With its new feedback proposals, Ebay is basically saying to its customers:

"Go to hell! We don't need your business! We don't care about your concerns! Your opinions don't matter to us! We're so big and powerful that you can't do without us! We can do whatever we want!"

Adding insult to injury, we've been told the changes will be good for us. (If the changes are so good for business then why did so many Ebay executives sell off their stock just a few weeks before announcing the changes? Apparently insider trading rules also don't apply to Ebay.)

Lower insertion fees and free gallery fees will increase profit by increasing volume. On the other hand, increased final value fees will reduce volume and therefore reduce longterm profit.

It seems that Ebay is going down the same road as many obslolete businesses have done in the past, trying to grab a bigger and bigger slice of a shrinking pie. (or one that's about to shrink) As sellers leave will they keep raising fees until they get 100% of nothing? Slowly but surely that's where they are going.

Instead of increasing profits by encouraging more sellers and more volume. Ebay thinks it can win by driving away business and taking a bigger percentage from what's left. It's a recipe for disaster!

eBay Auctions drop 1.7 million (1,758,127 -- 12.65%) by 1pm on 2/18/08 (first morning) of eBay Strike.

http://powersellersunite.com/auctionsitewatch.php

Boycott eBay 2/18/08 - 2/25/08

I whole-heartedly agree. Enough is enough already. We must show eBay there are other auction sites out there that we can use. I support a full and permanent migration to other auction sites.

I am one of the MANY silent boycotters. I haven't posted on the boards in fear of retaliation from eBay as has been done to others. But I have closed my store and have taken my listings to two other sites.

Thank you for doing an article on the strike.

10 years of selling and buying on Ebay, riding waves of fee increases and outright corporate stupidity, have finally taken their toll. - I'm OutRAGED!
I closed my auctions, I'm selling my Ebay stock (I was waiting for it to go back up to at least where I bought it- But the heck with it!) And I will bad mouth them at every chance I get.
Yes, It's a corporation, but THIS one really is built on the goodwill of PEOPLE.
And it's PEOPLE that they are screwing.

Please support people, and boycott Ebay!

If ever there was an opportunity to cash in on ebay's stupidity, now is the time. If Google had any brains they would have set up their own auction system when word of this first came out. Under ebay's OLD rules. There probably would have been mass defections, teaching ebay a lesson they would never forget. Are you listenting, Google?

No negative feedback to buyers? -NO WAY
12% Final value fee? -WHO'S GONNA PAY
Paypal hold 21 days? -THAT'S WHAT IDIOT SAYS
EBAY YOU HAVE BETRAYED YOUR OWN EBAY

and boycott Ebay today!!!

WE'RE HEADING TO BIVILLE DOT COM!! RUNNER UP TO EBAY AS PER CHARTS ON POWERSELLERSUNITE DOT COM AND CMNNMONEY DOT COM.
A TRUE EBAY STYLE ONLINE AUCTION NOT JUST A FIXED PRICE SELLING VENUE! IT'S MOTHER CO IS UBID A HUGE COMMERCIAL ONLINE AUCTION SITE! THE HAVE THE EXPERIENCE AND THE FINANCES TO TAKE IT ALL THE WAY. ALL IS FREE THERE WITH A LESS THAN $10 A MONTH STORE OR IF NO STORE IT IS ONLY A SMALL % OF THE SOLD PRICE.
THIS IS THE WAY IT USED TO BE ON EBAY BUT NOW YOU CAN BARELY MAKE A DIME, THEY AND PAYPAL TAKE 1/3 OR MORE AND EBAY WILL NOT HELP YOU WITH ANY KIND OF TRANSACTION PROBLEMS.
BAND TOGETHER EBAY REFGUGEES AND BUILD A NEW AUCTION SITE IT WILL BE FUN AND MORE PROFITABLE! THERE IS STRENGTH IN NUMBERS!

Actually, there seems to be the makings of a Revolution going on...check out what these folks have to say!

https://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/subat

I left ebay 1 year ago and its been the best move I have ever made, I do not understand why ebayers don't just leave not boycott, just close up shop and leave, open your own website like I have and use iOffer, ebid and others auction sites. you can never win by striking and then running back to ebay in a week or so, they hold all the cards worldwide auctions just leave and you will be better off and never go back. good luck to everyone with the boycott.

pull any money sitting in your paypal account so it's earning interest for you, not feebay ;)
I am using several other sites this week and while I realize no other single site draws the traffic ebay does, I am getting good exposure on the other site to shoppers that are looking in my sales categories.
When you look at all these new changes at a whole, it just doesn't make good sense for many of us to stay at ebay.

I have been selling on ebay for 11 years. I remember when it started, was hardly known, was in black and white and called AUCTION WEB or AW for short. I have seen sellers get angry with ebay changes, strike, boycott, talk on discussion boards, send emails, blog, etc. Call them Greed-bay, Fee-bay, whatever....and the changes take place anyway...we are never really heard, let alone listened to! I have seen new sites come and go who try to compete with ebay, but never seem to be able to counteract the place where ebay sits or compete on the same level. I have always wished for a site to be developed to give them a run for their money, but for some reason it has never come to pass. I see this as another take it and hold your nose while you swallow because this is very bitter medicine. I agree with many others that the new changes don't benefit the sellers ...but ebay would like to spin it so we all think that the buyers are the most important part of the picture and these changes will help the sellers make more money (think again!). Ebay is something where we all need each other...without the sellers there are no buyers and ebay makes nothing...It is really a symbiotic relationship. This current issue of new policies slaps the sellers in the face. It is appalling. I don't buy the goods that ebay is trying to force down our throats that the new changes will be great for those who make them a lot of $$....and I guess (in the fine print) screw the small sellers who are the ones who made ebay into what it is today...so this is the thanks we get. They are multimillionaires and we will now give them even more to line the pockets of the already rich greedy CEO's and upper crust. Small sellers are totally screwed...and the only way one will survive on ebay now is to sell really cheap, sell a lot and cow down to all the demands of the rip-off buyer. Take it and like it...it ain't gonna change! You will not be heard (as in the past). Learn that you are replaceable...Ebay doesn't really care about the sellers (they come and go) and there will always be someone to take your place....they say sellers are the ones who asked for these changes....yeah right! Go back and look at your polls realistically ebay! Don't give us your spin! Instead, spin on this!!!!!

IF THATS THE CASE WITH THEIR NEW FEEDBACK SYSTEM, THEN PEOPLE CAN GO ON EBAY JUST TO INTERFERE WITH THE SITE AND CREATE NUMEROUS ACCOUNTS FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE TO BID AWAY ON EVERYONE'S AUCTION THEN TURN AROUND AND LEAVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK AND NOT GET IN TROUBLE FOR IT. WAY TO GO EBAY! YOU PEOPLE ARE A WORTHLESS PIECE OF MONEY GREEDING CRAP. I HOPE ALL OF US SELLERS AND BUYERS PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS. INSTEAD OF DOING YOUR SO CALLED EBAY LIVE EVERY YEAR, MAYBE ALL OF US BUYERS AND SELLERS SHOULD RUN EBAY LIVE AND TEACH EBAY HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE.

EBay has turned into the very worst kind of monopoly. Greed, lies, and using their monopoly power to squeeze the little guy.

I sincerely hope that the coming Democratic administration directs substantial attention toward the EBay/PayPal tie in, for starters.

By the way, I just looked at the current numbers; EBay listings are down over 30% from the beginning of the boycott!

Yes, this is my id on eBay - after the last fee hike, I closed my store - I opened stores and posted to several other sites. I really like the feel of several of them and Wagglepop has a very familiar feel. They generally don't get as much traffic, but I've also learned to utilize tools such as squidoo to drive traffic to my other venues (personal web store, cafepress shop, zazzle shop, etc.)

upperbid.com is an auction site that doesn't charge any fees to list,(if you don't want frills) and very small fvf. It doesn't get the traffic yet, but ebay started small too. It takes a little time. I listed on upperbid and am looking for other FAIR sites as well.

USAuctionsLive.com is well established and is a great Ebay Alternative. I have been using them for some time now and I'm really impressed! There are no listing fees and their end of auction fee are less than half of Ebays! Plus they ALLOW all feedback!!

www.usauctionslive.com

Digi-Go actively maintains a list of auction, classifieds, sites like eBay. There are thousands of emerging sites in this space.

eBay Alternative Sites

The top Auction Site Count (listings) are current by the hour at the url below for those wanting to make an informed decision on what site they would like to list on.

http://www.powersellersunite.com/auctionsitewatch.php