Sunday, February 10, 2008

ebay seller fees

Because I really only have time to use ebay in the summer (and starting even earlier this year because my pmbr and barbri books have nearly gathered enough dust in my room), I haven't had time to digest the change of fees/feedback process that CNN has been reporting about. See Outraged ebay sellers plot strike week. Well, the idea of a strike against eBay has about as much success as these silly and nonsensical and fake attempts at striking against the oil companies by not buying gas for a day. See also Exxon Posts Record Profits on Oil Prices (providing an example of who is actually profiting from the cost of gasoline).

Anyway, because I haven't had to actually use ebay since these fee adjustments have been put into place, I am inclined to think it's a bad idea - mainly because I have come across buyers who are terrible and other sellers should be warned about it through the feedback rating system. Of course, I have written before about how some so-called "power sellers" use their advantage and overpriced shipping costs to domineer the market, leaving buyers little recourse through the feedback system for fear of getting negative feedback. Is the new system worth the trade off? The reporting on this topic suggests that it is not.

On the plus side, for me anyway, there supposedly is no more "gallery" fees, so now you get one picture for free instead of having to pay an extra 35 cents or whatever it was. That's good, although I'm not sure why ebay felt compelled to do that. Again, it's their business judgment, so whatever. The overview of ebay feedback and listing fee changes can be found here.

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