Ebay is typical of corporate policy, get more money
one way or another, Even if your making a fair
profit, Get more any way you can,
And Ebay will not help you if you get ripped off.
They will pay pennies on the dollar sometimes,
But it's basically buyer and seller beware on ebay.

Because eBay continues to increase their fees, I have moved most of my selling to free on-line classified ad websites. Most of the buyers and sellers I deal with on the free classfied ad websites view ebay only as a last resort.

I think a lot of casual sellers on Ebay check their anticipated listing prices first against the going rate for the same item on Ebay finalizing their listing. I find alot of the sellers who lowball on the listing price make it up in inflated shipping costs, which Ebay does not take a cut of. The trick is to know the value of the item you want, regardless of the shipping, before you bid. Some items listed for 99 cents with $20 shipping are worth $21 by themselves anyhow, so a lot of times it all works out. My point is, why should Ebay get stupidly rich when its the seller who wants to make a buck selling their stuff, and the buyer wants a good deal? You gotta do your homework, buyer OR seller, especially in the economy we have today.

My mom would like this because she loves ebay.

None of this is - or should be - a surprise.

eBAY has turned into the 900lb gorilla all right. I use eBAY to transact personal business - buy and sell things that are personal items, not as a business. The fees, while high (and let's face it - BUYERS pay ALL fees - ALWAYS - no matter what business you're in) just eat into what is already a loss.

But if you're a business, its another matter. And it leads to some sneaky issues - and acts by sellers that are against eBAY rules, but NEVER dealt with.

What sorts? Shipping and handling charges designed to recapture the fees, for example. Look at the Cell Phone category sometime. $35, $40, even $50 to ship a cell phone? An item that weighs 1-2 lbs? The shipping cost on that item is $8-10 WITH insurance! So what's the rest? An attempt to get the 15-20% fee that eBAY is taking on in fees.

Such "packing" is against eBAY's rules, but when you complain, they look the other way. And why not? Without sellers they have no marketplace. Enforcement of their policies? Not on your life.

Then there are "bidders" who aren't. If you are a seller and have this happen (the "buyer" simply disappears and never pays) eBAY has your fee - including a final value fee for a transaction that never takes place. To get it back you have to file a non-paying bidder alert, and EVEN IF THE BUYER TOLD YOU HE WON'T PAY they make you wait two full weeks to file for the refund - but not more than 30 days. Miss the window, you lose. Oh, and the listing fee is gone regardless. What's worse is that you can't sell the item to an underbidder during that two week period, lest the original buyer show up and change his mind! By the time the 2 weeks is over, so is the underbidder's interest.....

You lose again - but eBAY wins from such events.

Don't even get me started on PayPal..... There are reasonably safe ways to use that service in connection with eBAY, but it is critically important that you NEVER leave a balance in that account, or pay for an eBAY item with a PayPal balance. Never. ALWAYS use a credit card transfer - which you can't do if there's a balance in your PayPal account. Why? Because they don't want you to have the fraud protections that you have with a credit card payment - so they find creative ways to insure you don't.

You can work around most of these problems, but you must be eternally dilligent - or eventually, you WILL get taken.

Well, based on what I have seen, I am not surprised that there are problems and complaints with eBay.

What I would really like to know is why nobody complains about the regular sellers who constantly bid on there own listed products?

It’s like each site has a core group of bidders whose sole function is to bid the price up… and they have no intention of making a purchase. Who do you think wins?

Another thing that I have noticed is how my E-mail address is targeted by eBay spammers. It is not a case of random e-mails being sent out; this is a case of lack of security on the part of eBay. Think about it, my four year old eBay account, which has never been used, and I am getting fraudulent notices? I think eBay needs to get some security and stop leaking this confidential information out. After all, I do have six E-mail accounts and the only one being targeted is the one listed with eBay.

If your readers visit www.ripoff.com, they will also find out that eBay has been releasing phone numbers of bidders… at least that is the claim of one person against a Ford Dealership in Arizona.

eBay is increasingly greedy, to the point where I no longer find it a way to earn extra money but rather only a way to recoup a few dollars on items I no longer need or wear. I used enjoy finding and selling treasures for myself and for friends; I will no longer sell for friends because they simply don't understand that the fees make it necessary to take a larger percentage of their sale price. I no longer find many treasures, because everyone having a garage sale has "looked up the value on eBay" and every thrift store has become an antiques shop. The only people making money are those with relationships to major retail names - such as Coach or Ralph Lauren - who buy liquidated merchandise. I've been told that even those sellers are often employed BY the retailer. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted, but the party is decidedly over. It's still a fine place for a buyer to find a discount if they don't have a local outlet mall; other than that, it's become all smoke and mirrors.

I think we all need to start using the other auction sites more so there will be some serious competition for the "800-pound gorilla," which is eBay. There are others out there.

You have only touched the tip of the iceberg on Ebay and not even scratched their partner paypal. For some real good stories on the epal dynasty, go to www.paypalsucks.com. Good fishing.

eBay and it's top executive are, in my opinion a bucnch of money hungry individuals. They see, as stated in this article earlier, that they are the only game in town, so they are going to gouge all of us trying to make a few bucks. I wish we could all come together and give another service a legitimate try, such as Biddville.com or ioffer or traderville, you choose. I am committing myself to doing just that as of today. I will open a site on one of these other less expensive sites and give that a try for a while. Unfortunately, like in almost everything in this country, it is difficult to get everyone on the same page. eBay sellers however are a different breed and are go-getters. So lets get together and go get eBay. If we all jump off eBays band wagon they will have to drop their prices because it will bring more competition into the game and that is truly the American way. DOWN WITH MONOPOLIES!!!

Although I agree that eBay nickels and dimes the sellers who use its service, I'm really having a hard time getting up in arms about this change. I certainly cannot work up the same lather that you and the folks quoted in this piece have. A seller should listing the starting price they feel is fair for their product. If the market shows they started too high, and the seller wants to amend it downward, I'm not sure why you expect eBay to give back part of the insertion fee. Why should eBay give a refund for the poor judgement of a seller?

This is so typical of eBay. You know, we sellers made eBay and we can break it also if we form a union just for eBay sellers.

What do you expect? This is America. eBay is practically a auction monopoly. They own Paypal for sakes. Without the gov't stepping in, they can practically do anything they want.

I LOVE CORPORATE AMERICA. (not)

Thank you for telling us about that. I did not notice that fee change at all. eBay did announce some fee changes but did not announce this one. So I never checked to see if there is any change that has not been announced. If they never announce any fee change and ask us to check out for fee changes ourself, I would have checked out the fee changes myself. By announcing some fee changes but not other fee changes, eBay is misleading us into thinking that there is no fee changes that are not announced and do not check out the fee changes ourself.

By the way, what do you think about waisting money on listing fees on listings that are ended by phony eBay members' phony purchases? I think that eBay can stop it. But they won't because they get to collect more listing fees with all these phony purchases by phony eBay members. I think we should file a class action law suit for this. What do you think?

Lets face it: like everything else that was once great on the internet the party is over.. E-bay used to be a great place for the average Joe to buy and sell stuff. Now it is saturated with wholesalers and importers. Everyone seems to think that E-bay is a great place to setup shop and make a quick easy buck. Doesn't exactly work that way.

Prices have gone up because e-bay is now a business auction site and no longer a personal auction site. I see no real difference between e-bay and amazon.com.

Hmm...someone that sells jewelry on EBAY as his only source of income and wants to remain anonymous? Perhaps the FBI and IRS may want to meet Eli.

Again, this is people wanting something for nothing. EBAY is the ultimate "lazy man's store." A buyer merely browses online, pays, and receives the item is a week or two. A seller advertises to millions for a very small fee (try asking how much department stores are charged to advertise in newspapers or magazines). A seller does not have to worry about paying employee wages, finding a room or land to display merchandise, and the only delivery/transportation charge is the FedEx or UPS fee...which is often paid by the buyer!!! People really have to stop complaining about petty things. If you really want to sell something without paying any fees, then start your own garage sale.
And yes, I think EBAY needs to protect their customers better. Fee increases should be made more concise.

I stop using ebay after a seller accused me of not shipping an item. Ebay would not remove the negative information after I provided proof it was shipped. Plus PAYPAL is a huge scam. The person that said don't leave money in your account is correct.

Ebay was a great services just all grown up now. The free online-classified is the place to be now. They don't get quite the eyeballs but it will.

Last who buys jewelry on ebay from a guy overseas?????

If you don't like ebay, don't use it. It really is that simple.

I have been using ebay since 1998. I have a over 550 positive feedbacks. A 99.6% positive feedback rating. This article just points out one small issue that is overblown. Intelligent sellers will price their item correctly from the start, and therefore, this new fee rule will never hurt them. Yes, the fees do add up, but give EBAY credit where credit is due, where else are you going to sell a used puzzle for top dollar and have access to 50 million people...not by having a garage sale..

This change, while hurting the honest sellers, actually was targeted against the dishonest ones. It is strange that NO news story points this major fact out. People would spam eBay with tons of high $ value listings. When they didn't sell, the seller would quickly go in just before the end and edit the title and description to some garbage and then lower the price to 1 cent. Therefore, rather than paying up to $5 for listing fees, they only paid 30 cents when the item didn't sell. This was robbing eBay blind. They got 6 1/2 days of listings for 30 cents, vs everyone else who paid full price of $5 for a multi-hundred dollar item. They took up the same bandwidth of ebay and storage space but paid about 1% that everyone else did if the item didn't sell. This change now prevents scammers from abusing the ebay system like that.

I've been an avid Ebayer for about 5 years now, as both a buyer and seller. Ebay is a great concept, and I must admit has been good to me. If you're a buyer and learn to navigate the site and put in a little research time, the deals you find there usually can't be beat. And if you're a seller, it opens up a whole new world (literally) of potential buyers, even for the hardest items to sell. I'm not some huge powerseller with 10,000 feedback or anything, but I do buy and sell all sorts of items regularly and have yet to have a bad experience doing so.

I received and read the new fee announcement, but didn't realize this new policy had gone into effect. Needless to say, it is very disheartening to hear. Ebay has become hugely successful through the years with the fee refund policy in place, and didn't need the extra income that this change will generate. I think it's nothing more than pure and simple corporate greed. And the $10 that the jeweler lost in a week due to the change may not seem like much, but could add up very quickly when you consider how many other sellers are surrendering their $10 to Ebay each week. I have the luxury of more or less just dabbling in Ebay. But the people I really feel sorry for are those who rely on their Ebay businesses for their primary incomes. However, just like anything else, you knew changes like this were inevitable given the huge success Ebay has seen. It's yet another example of a large company (borderline beaurocracy) sucking you in, getting you hooked, then slowly taking away some of the nice things that appealed to you in the beginning. I can't say I'll stop using Ebay because of this, but it certainly could influence my decisions on buying and selling items in the future.

Maybe ISPs could increase their profits by charging eBay by the bits for the users they give access to eBay

The thing I have never understood about ebay is that in real life auctions, the BUYER pays the auctioneer's premium (usually on the the order of 5-10%). The fact that ebay charges sellers so much keeps small time traders from doing business on ebay. I used to sell vintage clothing on it, but often I would sell an item for only $8 or $10. With the listing fees, the final value fee, and Paypal fees, I would only make about $3. Not worth the time it takes to list and item it at all.
I think that ebay should just do what ALL other auction companies do and charge a buyer's premium. It would simplify the fees considerably and be more fair, as sellers wouldn't have to unfairly jack up their shipping costs to recoup lost money. It would also bring back all of the many small-time sellers who have been priced out of selling on ebay by their fee structure.
As an ebay buyer, I would not have a problem with the buyer's fee--I am used to it in other auction settings.

We use e-Bay for personal use to recoup a TINY bit of $$ for usable items. Otherwise, they get donated to thrift shops with NO $$ return. Unfortunately, e-Bay has now made it IMPOSSIBLE for us "small folks" to get an even break! We have our LAST few items up on e-Bay right now. Better to DONATE and lose a bit of money than to TRY to recoup and lose even more!!

Ebay has become just another immoral corporate mogul. I stopped doing business with the several years ago and have no plans to revisit the situation.

I will continue to buy and sell on eBay. Some of the insertion fees have actually dropped recently, and a smart user can use any number of free photo hosting sites and get better photos than eBay offers for their high fees. I can list stuff for $.25 - $.50 and sell stuff for little more than the final sale fee and recoup most of that with only slightly inflated fixed shipping charges specified up front. Ebay is a business. If you don't like the way they do business, take your business elsewhere. I still find them to be an extremely simple way to market personal items to a large audience that is not found on any of the smaller sites. After over 200 transactions, I've never lost money on a buy or had a buyer shirk his responsibility of paying for an item.

I have offered the same product on ebay for 4 years with success but have noticed in the past 2 that my fees outweigh my profits. Plus, have you ever tried to find an answer to a question on their site? It's nearly impossible! They truly are good at imbedding what they don't want you to know. In my own little fight against the monopoly, I have designed my own website and will be launching it shortly.

eBay used to be a fantastic way to make extra money. Now it's good for eBay and the buyers. Sellers, unless you're a pro, don't stand a chance! Why give them more money? Go to a garage sale.

There would be no ebay without the buyers either. I, for one, am tired of the sellers always being the ones who are right. The buyers basically have no rights at all and when they do complain they are told that the sellers have the right to do whatever they wish.

Karl from Niceville, FL mentioned inflated shipping charges. I recently bought some new headlamps for my car on eBay, I bought the item for $40 with a $45 shipping charge--and they were shipped FedEx Ground! Another category to look at for this example is poker chips.

One word: craigslist
That is all.

eBay sucks! Go Craigslist!

I was used to selling on Ebay and did for 6 years BUT not now..I am changing to one of the others that was listed here.
I dealt with the fee changes last year but now it is almost impossible to sell on there. All my auctions used to be green and now they are red. With all the companies selling, I cant compete.
I was just trying to earn some extra money from things around the house.

My ebay & Paypal fees equal about 20% of my gross sales. The fees are less than the expense of being in a local antique co-op. I don't have to worry about theft. I work from home. I talk with some terrific people I've met worldwide through ebay. ebay sales pay my mortgage and my bills.
I've tried other auction sites. No sales. Amazon...yeah if you want to sell for a penny!
I have an ebay store. It's an overall better deal than Amazon when considering sales. If you want to sell new books, why pay the Amazon Powerseller price when you can list as many books as you want on half.com for free?
I buy on ebay and I always pay less than I would to purchase somewhere else, because I am cautious regarding shipping charges and I use Stealthbid so I don't bid more than I want to bid.
I make money and ebay makes money, without ebay I don't make money. I'm not going to bite the hand that feeds.

eBay yanked an item I was selling without satisfactory explanation. When I asked eBay for a clearer explanation its reply to me was for me to get an attorney and sue them, and ask for the explanation during 'documentation discovery.'

When a big business tells its customer to get an attorney in order to be treated fairly it says several things about the business: eBay basically admitted what they did to me was wrong but challenged me to do something about it, eBay does not care about its customers, eBay is greedy.

I will never buy or sell on eBay again because I refuse to support its greed.

The real 900lb gorilla that eBay is ignoring is the incredible level of animosity that a huge number of eBay sellers and buyers feel towards them for past shoddy treatment. When another option becomes available, and it will, millions of their "loyal" customers will be gone overnight!

E-Bay has become a web of crooks, from fake buyers to fake sellers. I don't mind the cost of doing business so much as the dead beat listings and buyers. E-Bay could stop it you're right, but why, when it's all pure profit for them. I agree with the "we made'em, we can break'em" mentality. Although they are the biggest they aren't the ONLY game in town.

ebay wants to get the most for their product that they can. just like every seller on ebay. why fault anyone for that? if the price is too high, we must take our business elsewhere. this is the only thing that will eventually bring the prices down. one cant complain who is still participating.

I had an Ebay store...It didnt do any business. My fees went from around $25/month to over $50 last month. I didnt sell one item! I closed my store now Ebay owes me money! Good luck getting it back...Oh...U have a credit! yeah, but I'll never use Ebay again so I might as well let em keep it!
They SUK!

I foresee that within 2 years eBay will start taking a cut of shipping/handling fees as well. I also expect that they will no longer "give" a refund for the insertion fees for items that don't sell during a first listing.

The dynamic will shift as soon as a seller cannot turn a modest profit on the average eBay sale (whatever that may be - a value I'd love to know).

A situation that effected a friend of mine, he listed a high-end (3000 dollar) Integra receiver, sold it, and then a month later the buyer fraudulently said they never received the item. My friend had UPS sig confirm proof of delivery but paypal did not care. They put a -1800 dollar balance on his account. Before he noticed 3 sales transacted for a total of 580 dollars. Needless to say my friend was out 580 dollars. Luckily he did not loose the full 1800 as he had moved that out weeks before, but his paypal account was suspended and he is constantly hounded about this to this day. Paypal probably has not taken legal action (and won’t) as he has UPS signature proof of delivery, but needless to say he no longer uses eBay or paypal.

I’ve heard this kind of thing before, and many sellers just open up a new paypal account, but the fact that this stuff happens… I tell myself, a company with those kind of profit margins, barely any customer support, well they don’t deserve the clout they receive.

No surprise that Ebay has raised fees without telling anyone. They do worse than that all the time. What I and some others are fighting is the fraud on their website. There is a huge news article here - and as Jane pointed out a possible class action lawsuite as well.

Lots of sellers list and sell thousands upon thousands of items daily that are blatant frauds. New items sold as antique or vintage, Chinese fakes (and most of these do come out of China these days) of Roseville, McCoy, Hull, ancient Chinese items, Nippon, Noritake, etc. abound.

Some of these sellers have been identified and repeatedly pointed out to Ebay - to no avail and no meaningful response. Ebay is too busy making money off of them, I guess.

I've been protesting this - but the only significant response that I've seen from Ebay to date was this morning - when Ebay "pink slapped" me twice for protesting fraudulant auctions on their Trust and Safety board.....

Lee Berkovits
www.fraudonebay.net

Terrible... What's worse is our government sought to persecute Microsoft with full ardor for providing *free* products to consumers (IE, WM, etc.) while turning a blind eye to a true monopoly known as eBay with truly dirty practices. How corrupt and stupid can a government be?

Everybody complains about ebay, yet they are the #1 auction site, one of the largest, fastest growing, most stable companies in America, a household name, etc. They must be doing something right. How many people do they employ, and how many more people make their living buying and selling on ebay? If you don't like it, go back to selling things in the classified section, buying expensive storefronts, etc.

Check out www.treasuresales.com for a free alternative to eBay. Listing - Buying - Selling all completely free. It's a new site and just getting of the ground but it promises to be a refreshing alternative to the ever greedy giant.

I'm new to selling on e-Bay, and probably won't last long. I've tried the suggestions from them and from other e-Bayers about starting with a low price, listing or not listing a reserve, trying buy it now, and relisting an item that doesn't sell. All it's gotten me is a bill for almost $100 for listing 10 items. So far, I've been very disappointed with the results, and I've listed what I believe are quality items or things just "odd" enough to draw interest. E-Bay is certainly not providing the results that apparently were common in the beginning of their dynasty. Nor is there any fun in the endeavor. It's a lot of work and a lot of expense. I have done much better at flea markets and rummage sales, without the cost.

eBay kills the thrill of the kill shopping for thrift store and garage sale bargain hunters, and can be singlehandedly inflationary for the value of collectables. I see more and more pawn shops, antique dealers and second hand stores placing signs on their front door that read "we value our walk-in customers by not placing our collectables on internet auctions", but the inflated prices are reflective of what eBay would sell them for anyway.

eBay is a strange creature. It is like a great secret fishing spot that too many people found out about. Much of the initial interest/value I've found in eBay is gone, Often you can search the Internet (including eBay/Amazon) and get an idea for price, then find it from other places. eBay, even if it has done nothing, changes because of the number of people involved. Gone are most real bargins. Unless the price savings is dramatic, or the item hard to find, eBay is just too much a pain to use...with risk. Their fee structure has changed paypal from an easy/fast way to pay for items to an unusable mess. My last experience was so bad I have not been back since. When I want to eBay, I Amazon instead.
kcuhC

Anyone who has been an Ebay seller for any amount of time understands that the SELLERS are the only Ebay members who pay any money to Ebay. Buyers DO NOT pay a cent. What's more, sellers have to go thru a verification process which includes supplying a bank account and/or credit card to Ebay, thereby giving Ebay a leverage to recoup any loses caused to them by the seller(such as overdue fees, etc). Buyers are not subject to this. Matter of fact, buyers on Ebay are not verified in any form. You can easily sign up to become an Ebay buyer, giving completely false information(name, address, etc), and as many times as you like. Ebay is full of "lonely or deranged" people that do this regularly. Then they prowl Ebay, bidding on items for kicks, or other immoral reasons, with NO intention of ever paying for the items. Some do it just to leave Negative Feedback, and some just like causing trouble and costing seller's real money(which a seller pays when a buyer purchases an item)! There is NO penalty to a buyer for doing this, as he never supplied any personal or real information to Ebay to begin with. The only result is that a seller is racking up fees that he pays to Ebay, while the seller never gets paid. Ebay is a silent partner in this scam, because they offer NO, and I mean NO help whatsoever to a seller. they got their money from the seller and to heck with it after that. Ebay also offers no help to a seller when these scam artists leave their bad feeback for a sale they never completed! The entire feedback system is flawed, unfair and one-sided against the seller, Ebay's only bread and butter!
Ebay offers basically NO customer support, just automated crap sent in form letter format.
I suggest sellers band and demand that Ebay start verifying ALL buyers on the site, which should include bank account information and verification. Then, when these buyers bid or buy and do not pay, they will find the total selling price AND shipping were withdrawn from their accounts. If no money exists in the account, then a lien is put on the buyer's account, and the debt submitted to collections and added on the buyer's credit report. this is what a seller agrees to, so let's even up the playing field. This may add a bit of additional work on Ebay's part, but then, they should start doing something with their profits besides accumulating them at their seller's expense!
Ebay never gives the seller the benefit of the doubt, but always sides with the crooked buyer. Always.
It's time for a change. Ebay is fast becoming the online version of a "prison yard atmosphere". More and more underage buyers, deviants, cons and plain old fashioned thieves are joining the Ebay ranks everyday, costing thousands of honest sellers real money. Ebay likes it this way. Call it what it is, legalized racketeering.
Don't even go to the PayPal thing. That is nothing but allowed free criminalization.

Ebay's days are numbered they realize this, this is the reason for the purchase of skype and the new site wwww.prosper.com, They have had several of their largest sellers leave the site all together, the reason is the fees and the amount of security they get by opening their own sites and competing directly with Ebay. Ebay has become a advertising site for many large sellers to inexpensivley lure customers onto their own website often offering better deals and cheaper shipping since you are not paying between 12-15% per transaction on Ebay. Many customers need to take notice of this as well since Ebay is not the best place for deals any longer. With most retailers getting 1-2% profit per item after expenses it only make sense to find new avenues of selling. As noted on several powerseller chatboards most top sellers do not even use the site for shopping and have not for years. This should tell you something.

What a bunch of cry babys. Face it, you're jealous of all the money e-bay is making. Isn't capitalism great!!!!!!!!!!!! I use e-bay a little bit, I've sold a few things and bought several things over the years. While I agree it's a bit of a shock at first at how they nickle and dime the seller it's not a big deal. I still find a lot of stuff on e-bay to buy, although there aren't as many good deals because there are so many other buyers. It's good for the sellers though. I do wish there were more true auctions though, there are too many sellers using e-bay as a retail store front and too many sellers using high starting bids instead of using a reserve price. It's hard to even find the average Joe listings anymore. If I want to pay retail for something I'll go to a store and not even look on e-bay. All in all though I think e-bay is a wonderful thing, you just have to go into it with your eyes wide open and understand it all. Gooo goooo e-bay!!!

So...why isn't their any competition to this monopoly? Someone could came along and merely simplify things & be super successful.

This kind of hidden fee increase or changes in user agreemnts also applies to PayPal. PayPal now has some form of automated payment system whereby they automaticly debit your PayPal or credit card without any input from the buyer. There is no way to opt out of this system.

I have been an eBay seller for 8 yrs. I have noticed over this time the ever increasing fee hikes and have tried to adjust my listings accordingly. I notice that many eBay sellers use expensive software to beef up there listing page. I am not one to be nickel and dimed to death without a fight. I list most of my items for less than the "going" rate on eBay, put gallery pictures on the pieces that to me are a bit unusual and for those items I believe to be "worth" more I put a reserve on ... thus I can list for as low as 30 cents (I schedule my items which is an extra 10 cents) and have paid as much as 4.50 for the higher end pieces. I don't use PayPal and I try to be diligent in eBay's ever changing fee process and then act according to my benefit. To put some of my items in a "real" auction I would have to pay the auctioneer a fee which in most cases equals or exceeds what I would pay on eBay. So I guess it's a double edged sword ... if you have things to sell figure out just how you can do so in an economic fashion so you as a seller can feel satisfaction with the final bid. Sometimes I am not so satisfied with one item BUT another will far exceed my expectations and thus it all seems to equal out inspite of me.
I sell antiques and collectibles and my shipping/mailing fees are actual costs. I am not making a killing nor am I trying to use eBay as a way to make a living .... for me it is an exercise of the brain and a way to pass on the left over inventory of my former antique shop.

Hell, I suggest the Government of the USA and European nations SUE eBay for millions or even billions! Come on folks, if people can claim Microsoft is monopolistic (when you have plenty of choice - unlike your electric,cable,gas companies!), then eBay definitely qualifies as a monopolistic company - look, they know they are the shark in the sea, they buy competitors (paypal, etc), and no one can stop them!
It seems eBay execs want to get unfairly fat on there success by taking advantage of sellers with such complex (and often hidden) fees.
Come on, anytime an auction has a high profile, eBay gets the media involved for interesting stuff, and when it doesn't fit there media needs, they claim they are open and cannot be responsible for postings in any capacity. eBay provides horrible tech support, they provide little or no help when dealing with known bad sellers or buyers, and they never change a policy unless it helps their bottom-line or further reduces human resources.
I can hear William Cobb and Pierre Omidyar in there lair now, giggling and declaring us all "Sucka's!!!"

Good for eBay! There's no crime against charging more if suckers are out there who will pay. If you don't like these fees, go sell your stuff over on yahoo auctions or uBid for 25% of what you'd get on eBay.

I don't mind paying extra to eBay to sell my stuff for higher prices using their advertising, and I also don't mind buying stuff cheap on uBid from people who don't like eBay. It isn't like they hid the price increases -- on the contrary, I got 15 emails about it!

In my opinion, Ebay is nothing more than a rip-off, period. Meg Whitman should be taken out and given 50 lashes with a whip for such asinine antics! The rest of the bunch should get 49 for just being employee's of a rip-off organization. And to think, eBay was started because "someone" was collecting Pez dispenser's. I wonder what they are collecting now - OH! I know the answer to this one! Higher fee's! Let eBay get rid of some of those "fat-cat" attorneys that they have on the payroll and lower the fee's for all - one reason why I don't sell anything anymore.

Amazon.com may sell the same thing for the same price with cheaper shipping

I think it's time for our useless government to step in and perhaps take control of them like they did the telecommunications ind. when it became a monopoly!!

This kind of hidden fee increase or changes in user agreemnts also applies to PayPal. PayPal now has some form of automated payment system whereby they automaticly debit your PayPal or credit card without any input from the buyer. There is no way to opt out of this system.

Amazon.com also tries to raise prices for sellers, but is at least up front about it. I am selling my old textbooks on Amazon.com, and when I make a sale, Amazon takes a chunk out of what I sell and then gives me some back to cover shipping. Usually Amazon's share is 15 to 20 %, but it had been lower. Amazon.com is far superior to eBAY however, in that it is absolutely free to list an item. The buyer pays for the item and Amazon takes its share right off the top. If you don't sell an item within 60 days, you get an email and have to relist the item.

When the postage rates went up, Amazon sent out a notice saying it was not going to give sellers more to cover shipping and handling. This sort of stunk, but depending on the book, the shipping and handling allowance usually does cover the cost.

My question is if you start with a low price and change it to a higher prices do they hit you with an addtional fee, or is this not allowed?

We used to love shopping a Flee Markets - there were armies of people selling things they had hanging around or found in their basement. Today, they're mostly clothing and tool retailers and some antique dealers. Seem somewhat familiar.

Every time I visit Ebay, I find fewer and fewer individuals selling items. And, to make matters worse, a quick price check of many new items shows better prices at the websites of national retailers such as Walmart, Kmart, etc.

Then there's the "New" items which, in reality are returned goods. Items that are listed under the wrong (and misleading category) - a 2 megapixel cameral listed under 4 megapixel cameras. When I've contacted these sellers, many of them get Ebay simply looks the other way as the money roles in.

I spent a good amount of time last night explaining these problems to a group of Boy Scouts I'm working with for their merit badges. They all blindly thought Ebay had the best prices and that they were safe making purchases on the site. When I told them that 30 percent of my purchases had problems, they were shocked. I think they are a representation of the general public. And, until John and Jane Q public wake up and see the problems with Ebay, there will be no serious competition to Ebay.

I explained to them how Paypal had temporarily shut down my account after a seller sent us a used item instead of new one - it also happened to be the wrong model. I was able to get my credit card company to pull the money back. When the Paypal rep called I noted that the package was shipped through the US Post Office, was misrepresented, and that Paypal was an arm of Ebay making his firm "A party to the fraud." It didn't stop them from suspending my account, but it was only suspended for a week or so.

The biggest question is: why haven't the Attorney Generals of various states looked into these types frauds?

The bottom line is that Ebay should make its motto "Buyer Beware".

Sorry, but I don't see the problem. While I'd love to see eBay lower their fees (we're PowerSellers, and trust me, we're not some corporate wholesaler), this is capitialism at work. eBay selling as a business is no different than selling via a conventional retail store. You have to know your products, what the demand is, what a proper (and profitable) price is so your goods sell, and deal with deadbeat customers and shoplifters (no pay bidders). Our numbers show that our costs to list, sell and collect payment on Paypal average 10% of the item's cost. We work hard to find items that will consistently sell with a 30-40% margin, allowing us a steady profit that allows us to expand our business.

Is it easy? Of course not, but it's what any business requires.

As for Paypal, nearly 90% of our sales are paid via Paypal. We get paid almost instantly, can ship same day, and the fee is the same or less than if we had to use a credit card merchant account. Beats waiting a week or two for a money order through the mail.

Are either eBay or Paypal perfect? Of course not. But what business endeavor is? Complain all you want, but consider that eBay is always UP and working, which is more than I can say about many other web sites. Considering the sheer volume of traffic, that's worth something in itself.

Ebay is an expression of the capitalistic model working at its best. Bottom Line - Earnings are continually breaking new records. This translates to a great marginal return on investment for shareholders. Their business model is to be admired - not denegrated. The only folks who would likely find something to criticize are those who probably do not belong in a business environment in the first place. I like this company almost as much as I like working the derivatives market and carry trades.

Of course EBAY is raising prices. As the 800 pound gorilla they can do whatever they want to do. They will nickel and dime their users until they rise up and rebel (or leave to cheaper pastures). It does make you wonder why EBAY's stock has underperformed many of its internet peers over the last couple of years even though their prices continue to rise.

I agree with the recent post about Ebay And Amazon. I have been on Ebay for a while as both a Buyer and a Seller. I think it's still a great place to do business. I don't rely on E-bay to pay my bills. Obviously the ones yelling the loudest do. Maybe another career is in order. I have bought about 60 items on E-bay for half the price of a new item. It is what it is.

I just don't get all of the complaints. Arent there other companies for everyone to complain about? Companies that havent created such an enormous opportunity & convenience for people? I remember reading another reporters article on Netflix about a guy who was complaining that he wasnt getting "unlimited rentals" because after 22 rentals mailed to him per month for $17.99, they began to slow him down a bit. Yes, I understand the points in both companies, but are these really the companies that are being most unfair to their customers??? They aren't keeping competition out of the marketplace and they arent forcing anyone to sell using eBay. If its so bad, have a yard sale or take out a classified ad in the paper. Companies have the right to set their prices any way, and you have the choice not use them or not use them. That is the essence of fairness. What if eBay said "we think its unfair to customers that you are charging so much for your item on ebay. we insist you lower the price." Would the sellers appreciate their side of the argument?

I haven't had a problem with ebay or paypal.... yet. However, I think it's a shame they have such a corner on the online auction market and can raise their fees by such a stiff percentage. It does make it harder for the casual seller (such as myself)though. I recently sold a pair of new shoes on ebay that went for $2.50. The insertion fee was $0.90, the paypal fee for accepting payment was around $0.70 and ebay's cut was around $0.40. That's $2.00, leaving me with $0.50. I used to hate it when sellers would inflate their shipping prices but now I understand (to some extent). I find that I have to tack on $2.00 to the actual shipping just to cover myself and recoup some fees to make it worth my while. One positive thing I can say about paypal though, is that once I purchased an item I never recieved and they gave me my money back very quickly. I was impressed with that.

I also do business through eBay, my company is a Power Seller, and recently ran into a problem with them. We had accepted Paypal (owned by eBay) for payments along with our own credit card processing. The problem is the fees charged to us to use Paypal are 3X higher than the fees we pay through Visa and MC. In light of that if you wanted to use the convenience of Paypal you (the buyer) needed to pay the fees charged by Paypal or use our credit card service which we offered for free. They recently removed our listings because they said it violated their policy on "fee avoidance" (those are their words).
Like many things eBay started out as a good idea but now is nothing more than the world's biggest flea market where the bidding of an auction has been replaced by haggling.

More of the same. I am not a big seller on eBay, but when I do I might start a listing a little high and then come back and lower it, just like an auction house does to create the interest.

EBAy fees are only a drop in the bucket for the problems. The biggest problem I see is all the "fakes" being sold on eBay. Things that are represented as an antique collectible when they are not. EBay will do absolutely nothing about it. I report easy to identify fakes to eBay often and have never seen one fake withdrawn. For one particular antique porcelain group, today, I bet 80% of the items listed are easily identifiable fakes, 10% are cleverly worded misleading auctions, and 10% may be authentic, but probably are not authentic. Several regular users are attempting to figure out how to get eBay to respond to all the fake pottery and glass being sold on eBay. It is true eBay does not have the experts in their employ, but experts have volunteered to help rid the market of the fakes. The experts volunteering are renowned authors and museum curators and others.

It is no accident that this "change in refunds" move was eliminated from the press release. Catherine England's response may sound reasonable for perhaps, a non-user, but it is insulting to the users, buyers and sellers, who pay her salary. I don't believe eBay cares one way or the other about the health of the marketplace. They have to realize that it won't be long before they do have some serious competition, and plan to ride the gravy train until then.

Two words.....Craigs List

More of the same. I am not a big seller on eBay, but when I do I might start a listing a little high and then come back and lower it, just like an auction house does to create the interest.

EBAy fees are only a drop in the bucket for the problems. The biggest problem I see is all the "fakes" being sold on eBay. Things that are represented as an antique collectible when they are not. EBay will do absolutely nothing about it. I report easy to identify fakes to eBay often and have never seen one fake withdrawn. For one particular antique porcelain group, today, I bet 80% of the items listed are easily identifiable fakes, 10% are cleverly worded misleading auctions, and 10% may be authentic, but probably are not authentic. Several regular users are attempting to figure out how to get eBay to respond to all the fake pottery and glass being sold on eBay. It is true eBay does not have the experts in their employ, but experts have volunteered to help rid the market of the fakes. The experts volunteering are renowned authors and museum curators and others.

Paypal, Ebay's other company deserves the spotlight for their shady practices TOO! Paypal seized funds back from us telling us the buyers funds were "suspect fraud". We contacted them for details and they refuse to provide ANY (I do mean ANY) details. They simply say the can't tell you because of "user confidentiality", period, end of subject. We called our local law enforcement since the buyer is in the same state as us and were told that our beef is with Paypal because they seized the funds; Paypal's beef is with the buyer. So does the little guy hire an attorney to go after Paypal's 3 dozen corporate attorney's for a $100-$150 loss? Of course not. We're forced to suck it up and EAT it. Needless to say after this happened to us a couple of times, we are no longer going to be accepting Paypal as we move to our own shopping cart check-out system directly with our own merchant account!

Why doesn't someone create a site where sellers pay a flat "insertion fee" and a flat bidding fee? That might work.

How about giving the local merchants in your city a little business. When is the last time you opened the yellow pages instead of doing a websearch? Ebay has dealt an enormous blow to many small businesses. They are our friends, neighbors and relatives. It's their job and how they feed their families. Small businesses are really what gives a town a heartbeat. Every town loves "that really cool, funky little shop" but to survive they'll need your support.

The time may soon come when eBay does as other venues do, and charge a BUYERS PREMIUM. Many auction houses charge a premium, sometimes up to 25%, to buyers. Can you imagine the extra revenue a charge that like would generate? As unhappy as sellers are with eBay's continual fee increases, it is still significantly less expense than selling that same item with a local auctioneer, who also may charge the buyers!

Amazon is far better sellers- you pay an insertion fee only if the item sells, they take a percentage of the selling price too. At the end of each month eBay sends a "bill" for all the fees, with Amazon they take it off the top and that's it. I've sold on both sites, and much prefer Amazon.

The time may soon come when eBay does as other venues do, and charge a BUYERS PREMIUM. Many auction houses charge a premium, sometimes up to 25%, to buyers. Can you imagine the extra revenue a charge that like would generate? As unhappy as sellers are with eBay's continual fee increases, it is still significantly less expense than selling that same item with a local auctioneer, who also may charge the buyers!

Thee points for a better ebay
1. Crack down on excessive Shipping and handling charges
2. Auctions are for sellers to sell products now, not to relist items from your store week after week.
3. Seperate system for personal sales (ie not stores)...like ebay used to be.

Too bad no one at ebay is listening.

What about Yahoo Auctions http://www.auctions.yahoo.com they are free for both Buyers and Sellers paid by the Advertisers. Soon they may be a contender in the Auctions sites.

eBay has become a sick monopoly with too much power and too much greed. They took a good idea, made some money, then saw more and more sneaky ways to get money from their users, a little at a time. This is not unlike the oil situation. Lucky for us, eBay is not a need, and we can boycott them without suffering.

What are all of you complaining about? For heaven's sakes, Ebay is a business whose goal is to make a profit for their investors. Their business helps you sell your junk (er.. stuff). You both win. If you don't like it, sell somewhere else or start your own Ebay competitor. Or buy some Ebay stock and enjoy the ride. Ebay doesn't exist as some freebie, seller welfare service. Pay & play or just go home, but stop the whining!

Ebay was a lot more fun before nearly every seller bacame a POWER SELLER. I enjoyed searching for little treasures & I was pretty good at weeding out true stories by small users (found it in Mom's attic) from the people trying to move mass merchandise (disguised as small sellers). But now so many listings are distributor-type sellers with only a "buy it now" price. Ebay has gotten too big to be fun for me and I miss the old days. I need to find some of the smaller sites earlier writers have referred to. Thanks for the article.

As an eBay member for over 7 years I find this article and the attached comments very interesting. EBay is NO LONGER the wonderful "let's get together and buy and sell" market that it once was. The interchanges between buyer and seller were what made eBay great; now it is just eBay pulling in every dollar they can and in any way they can with no concern for the buyer or seller. Money hungry! No ethics! That is eBay today!

It would be nice if the ethical buyers and sellers from eBay could get together and form a better auction site. And how would we do that? I will be waiting to jump on that when it happens. If one guy could start eBay or Craigslist, why can't we do a better auction that is truly FAIR? Let's do it!

this is why WANT ADS were invented...if you want to sell something, tell a friend or list it in a newspaper.....

I never sold on Ebay. But I use to be a regular buyer. I just love a good bargain and the conveniece that the service offered. But I have not bought anything in over a year. The shipping and handling charges are outrages. Also, there are way too many wholesalers on the site. If I want the thrill of a bargain I now go to the Salvation Army. I am going to look at other auction sites to see what the offer but I have given up on Ebay.

As a small Ebay Seller, I can honestly say that they are forcing the general auction population to look for other markets. A typical auction costs approximately 10% of the final price. You get hit with a listing fee, option fees (bold, etc.), final value fee, and then Paypal kicks you while you are down and hits you with a collection fee to actually collect your money. An auction that costs $100 nets less than $90...Amazon has lower fees and I for one am ready to make the change!!

I recently sold my baseball card collection on Ebay. Listing fees and Paypal's rake of the profits certainly hurt my overall profits. I'd also like to call out the "Bid Bumpers" out there that drive prices up. Ebay needs to police their "Power Sellers" more... I got about 40% less for my items than these "Power Sellers" that charge $3-5 more for shipping. It's blatently obvious that Power Sellers have multiple accounts that they use to drive up their products' prices.

Overall, It's great to buy things here and there on Ebay if you can't find it locally. BUT, DO NOT go on Ebay to make money... You'll only leave disappointed.

There are up and coming alternatives - consider www.peopleswarehouse.com - they only charge 10% WHEN you sell, process the credit card payment for you and offer free web e-stores

eBay is a publically traded company. They are in business to make money (just like all the sellers out there by the way). eBay has to answer to its shareholders and creditors (just like everyone else has to pay bills each month). eBay's business model is to make it easy for everyone to buy and sell things - and in doing so collect money on those transactions. The more profitable it is the better for the company. They have no resonsibility to be charitable to anyone or to lower fees or not raise them each year. If they raise fees 5% and anticipate losing 2% of business based on the fee increase - they net 3%. If they raised fees 10% and lost 20% of their business, the shareholders would vote out the BOD and the people who made the business call to raise fees that high would be fired. Everyone who is upset at the fees should vote with their feet - go someplace else.

I remember using eBay when it first appeared on the scene. What a unique way to buy and sell hard to find items, collectables, and the like. It was fantastic. It is now like one of those horrible flea-markets that are over-run with shampoo and hairbrush dealers. I barely use eBay now....with all the fees, especially with sites like craigslist now on the scene.

This is great! Let's all leave FEEDBACK FOR EBAY! I've been selling on ebay for 8 yrs. and it's really gone down the drain. Selling small items anymore is just too much of a pain. The page-after-page-after-page of forms to fill out just to sell one item turns it into a all night job just to list a few items. PayPal is just trying to muscle in on the action; They've just built a large impressive complex here in Omaha, NE with a private lake and basketball court. Too bad they didn't realize it gets so cold here no one will be able to use them.

Its a sure thing, that us ebay sellers will have to find another auction site to make a living on. Other auction sites a rapidly growing, and ebay fees are turning into a silly little joke. Ebay needs to take its sellers seriously and not INSULT them by raising fees.

Oh puh-leeze! Stop your incessant whining!

I've never been an E-Bay seller, but quit using them for anything at all when they wanted waaay too much personal information, including two credit card numbers, when I was just trying to change my e-mail address. This was at the same time there were numerous news stories about their lack of security and that sort of information was readily available on their site to anyone who wanted to take a look. The e-mail address they have gets bombarded with spam telling me that my E-Bay and PayPal accounts (which I never had!) are going to be suspended if I don't 'update' my information. Considering I haven't used that account for several years, it's unlikely it needs updating with credit card numbers now!

Add to that, being threatened by a seller who'd sent me damaged, misrepresented merchandise and charged me a huge shipping, then sent it via US Mail. When I complained to E-Bay, first they ignored me and when I persisted, basically told me, "Too bad."

E-Bay left a really bad taste in my mouth and I haven't been on that site for a long time.

I've already ditched my PowerSeller account with its 1500+ positives/no negatives on eBay and ceased selling on this site altogether. The reason?
I don't give positive reinforcement for negative behavior. eBay has virtually NO SERVICE, and abuses its sellers. In addition to their intentionally-confusing fee games, they find it normal to regularly make up all kinds of moral assumptions about people's actions and items for sale, remove items and auctions as they see fit without prior warning, police and punish sellers (never buyers, even if they commit major fraud). They consistently intervene in transactions and take the buyer's side by default - completely ignoring the fact that their SELLERS are their real paying clients, not their buyers.

With fees changing every day, (upward of course) there's no wonder sellers become sleazy and avoid them by packing shipping and handling costs, adding no return policies and making inexpensive items expensive once again. This behavior is bad for everybody. Bad business for sellers, high prices and lack of service for buyers, and bad name for eBay, not to mention sellers like myself that used to turn $12,000/mo in sales on the site opt out. Of course, to make up for the loss of sellers like myself they hike up the fees and reduce services even more, rather then finding out what keeps sellers on the site and attracts buyers. Idiots. This is borderline racketeering and an unfair business practice.

300 years ago we screamed "No taxation without represantation!" why are we allowing corporate America to abuse us? Opt out! There are better places to sell. I use buy.com auctions, amazon auctions, ubid auctions, bidz.com, yahoo auctions and sell.com. eBay is not the only game in town!!!

If Ebay charged just a flat 2% of an item's listing price, and PayPal took just a flat 2% of a payment, they would STILL be making money hand over fist, through sheer volume alone. Their greed has taken all of the fun out of Ebay, and destroyed the original spirit of the entire venture.

You don't like Ebay? DON'T USE THEM!!!! NO ONE IS TWISTING YOUR ARM TO USE THEM!!!People in here crying about too much fees and the government should regulate them, blah blah... Use some common sense and go elsewhere or stop complaining.

And they have an interest in craigslist.com and amazon.com.

Its all about Overstock.com Auctions baby! Fair fees and they remove ratings when unfair. There customer service rocks as well.

I read a comment where someone said they were having trouble getting worked up in a lather and up in arms about these increases. It's not the actual increase but the principal of the matter. Do you really think these EBay execs NEED this money? Now that everyone uses EBay and they are a household name they are raising fees? And who does Catherine England think she's fooling? Is this particular marketplace a level playing field? I'm not buying that nonsense. Come on now, if you get greedy someone is going to take advantage of that and pull a good percentage of your previous buyers and sellers to their auction site - which will be just as good and cheaper for everyone involved.

CRAIGSLIST.COM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As an EBAY power seller of small cost items (postcards) I find the EBAY site invaluable. My fees have gone down, because they lowered the fee for my listing type (most of which start at 99 cents). There is no where else in the world where I can operate a used postcard store, which is open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, to a worldwide audience. I love EBAY, its been good to me, I have never ever had a problem with either EBAY or PAYPAL in the five years that I have been selling on EBAY.

If you don't like Ebay, Boycott them!! They scammed me out of $40 for listings and I never went back. They refused to refund my money on their mistake. So, now I don't buy or sell off Ebay anymore. They're not missing out on me and I'm surely not missing out on them. Craigslist has been working wonderfully for me. HELLO CRAIGSLIST!!

Although I am not a seller, I can see eBay pulling something like this. I used to spend $200-$300 a month buying on eBay. I have now cut it down to about $25 a month on necessities that I am able to get much cheaper. I cut thme back when I reported being over charged on shipping by a seller. Ebay turned it back on me, stating that I should have questioned the shipping before the auction ended, even though the shipping amount was listed in the seller's auction listing. I have also been ripped of a few times since, by other sellers. There is no reason to report it, because eBay could care less. It seems that eBay is attracting more unethical sellers, due to their lack of interest in preventing it. Feedback means nothing anymore. The deadbeat seller will not leave feedback until you have left feedback for them, so they can slam the buyer for being honest. I make it a habbit these days to not leave feedback for any seller until they have posted it for me. The sellers with nothing to hide always do.

Wah, Wah, Wah, Ebay is only out to make money! DUH! I love Ebay and have made a wonderful living with it. I am a seller and a buyer and I don't care about the fees. If you have the right product and the right price margin anyone can make money. There is no better outlet than Ebay, and PayPal is part of the deal. Sure there are nightmare stories out there but hey they're everywhere. Until someone else comes in as competition we are stuck with what we have. Make the best of it. All in all Ebay is a blast, you just have to be creative and definitely have a mindset for business. This world is not for the timid.

eBay has proven themselves as shady as govermental agencies. I do not agree with many of their policies or the lack of enforcements of their so called policies, unless they benefit themselves. But, that being said have I stopped using eBay? No. I don't always agree, but truth be told, they have the monopoly on such online transactions. If more media coverages were provided to other auction platforms, such as Yahoo auctions, they would no longer be the strongarmed conglomorate they are and would be forced to revise policies. Until then, we quietly accept what we have no control over as users.

I use E-bay for items I find that I know are collectible. I enjoy the whole experience of Ebay. I see ebay as taking my found objects and showing them off to millions of potential buyers. Have you priced an ad in your local newspaper? It is not cheap. I am not a power seller but one who uses ebay cautiously. I try to list my items at a reasonable starting price by looking at completed auctions and pricing them accordingly. I don't use paypal because I don't like added fees.

I agree with allot of the comments here- e-bay seems to be little more than an overly money hungry company eager to contually strip more and more money out of the very people who built their company by using it, and it does seem to be populated by little more than wholesale dealers who have hundreds of items with "buy it now" prices the same as the price at Wal-mart or Target or wholesalers who advertise a "no reserve" auction and then set the first bid at the normal retail price. e-bay seems to refuse to help anyone except themselves. If you have a dispute, or get cheated by a seller or buyer- you're not only on your own, their system seems set up to make it difficult to do anything about it at all.
we are looking for alternatives to e-bay. Online want ads, lists, etc.

I think most of the anger directed at E-Bay is justifiable. They have virtual 'control' over other people's businesses through their ridiculous increases. Its like being a franchisee with an 'out of control' franchiser who is continually changing the intitial contract agreement. Time for everyone to launch their own ecomm sites - its not as expensive as you might think...

This really isnt that bad,just think on the money your paying to reach millions of potential buyers,its a great deal.

I think we all had a problem with Ebay at one time or another. Ebay still owes me over quarter of a thousand dollars from half.com (sister site). I sold a few books on Half.com but they claimed that their computers crashed and account numbers got deleted. So, they could not make any deposits of the money that was owed to some sellers. I did contact them a few times and even gave them a new account number but the money is definitely not coming in....it's actually been over 3 months!!! I need this money ASAP as I'm a college student that had to take out loans from friends in order to purchase current semesters' books. GO TO HELL EBAY.

EVERYBODY GO TO www.paypalsucks.com
It's a forum based communitty where many share their complaints.

Monopoly? Ha! Here's a list of eBay competitors: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=online+auctions+-ebay+-www.ebay.com

68 million+ results found? Doesn't look like a monopoly to me.

IF YOU DON'T LIKE COPORATE AMERICA, MOVE TO MEXICO.

when it is time that ebay/paypal PAYS their FEES!!
for all the extra law enforcement ! they quickly
send canned email with all the details-- call
this agency, email this one BUT do not talk to
ebay/paypal(where are their phone numbers??) and waste their time! just lay off all the problems on someone else and just make all the money ebay can take in with nothing to worry about??what
other company but ebay can get away
without paying ?? their fair share for
local law enforcement?

ebay sucks

just look at the mess paypal is
www.paypalsucks.com
.. just like the others have stated previously.. sell an item , ship it
then up to 29 days later the buyer can file non delivery
or fraud("someone else" hit my paypal pay button)
and the seller "instantly" loses ALL the sales
proceeds and most likely forever!

While it might have been sneaky for Ebay to not clearly disclose this fee change, I don't see why everyone is getting their knickers in a twist. If you have to adjust your starting price because of the market change, that's YOUR problem, not Ebay's. Is it because the CEOs are trying to line their pockets even more? Probably, and you'd have a hard time convincing most people otherwise. Regardless of the reason, it's a done deal and nothing is going to change that. Either live with it or take your business elsewhere, simple as that.

Hello My name is capt Bob. As you might guess I sell and buy alot of marine hardware and earned a power seller rating with Ebay. Then things changed. We did all the work... and Ebay made all the money! This 900 lb gorrila ate our margins and left us with no bannas. So we got tired of working for Eaby. Our solution was to build our own Ebay style site for marine items called http://www.TheMarineAuction.com . You might want to try something like this for your enterprise. Take a look. We made ebay what it is today and we all can change it as well. Just take your bannas somewhere else. We did.

According to England, "[I]t's about ensuring that the marketplace is a level playing field."

Pardon me, but eBay has NEVER cared about fairness, and never less so than now. Its deliberate protection of vendors of fakes, frauds, copies, and unnoted repros has driven the market for many collectibles into the ground - 6' deep, in such cases as jadeite glass. Despite consistent agitation among its more expert sellers for a thorough, sweeping campaign against the fraudsters, eBay ignores the situation, preferring instead to count the money these charlatans -- many of them based in China -- bring in daily in fees.

As for the author's impression that eBay is the best site online for prices -- that's flat wrong. eBay has advertised too constantly that "you can get IT for less at eBay," to the point where buyers demand lower opening bids from the harrassed sellers.

I'm so sorry to hear that so many of you have had such negative experiences on eBay and harbor such bad feelings toward them. While I very definitely have a HUGE problem with corporate greed in general, I have found ways to work around at least some of the fee increases at eBay...as one gentleman mentioned, a free photo-host has saved me a bundle on pictures for my listings. Perhaps I am fortunate to offer items that I can start low (never need to drop the price after a listing starts) and then simply allow auction forces to do their thing...so the hidden fee increase revealed here really won't impact me at all. It seems a fact of life that prices go up over time...the Post Office recently increased their rates, too - yet I chose not to pass on that increase to my customers... I charge only a very small amount above the actual shipping (45-cents to cover packaging materials)and absolutely HATE it when sellers inflate shipping - I refuse to buy from them!!! eBay does have a policy against this (it is called Fee Avoidance) and I find that they will take action if you bring it to their attention. Listen, there are certain costs associated with doing business...that is called overhead. I don't expect to recoup my overhead directly through overcharging on shipping or whatever...that is not equitable. Rather, I sell items that I can make a nice profit on through the sales price...I stopped listing items that just do not bring enough of a return for the effort. As for the casual seller, cleaning out their closets or whatever, I am of two minds: Perhaps eBay should establish a tier for them, with a lower fee structure...limiting them to 'x' number of listings a month, and maybe have them on a separate part of the site or something...OR - Maybe we just accept that times and situations change, and maybe those folks go back to having their garage sales or go to the free sites as some of you have mentioned. I have had a tremendous experience with eBay all around - I've corresponded with wonderful people all over the globe and have finally been able to start a retirement nest-egg ($50K in 3 years - just try and beat that with a stick!)...I have 100% positive feedback (Over 1200)...and have many terrific repeat customers. (On that note, in response to the person complaining about a 'core group of bidders' driving up the prices...I happen to offer vintage collectibles that have a particular niche audience - I often have such a core group, but each and every one intends to buy - and often have. There is nothing untoward going on with them - all are legitimate bidders.)So, at least for now, I am sticking with eBay - I prefer to focus on the positives I find there...and not worry so much about the drawbacks. Hope some of you can decide to do the same!!!

I no longer use e bay to purchase.I purchased a lot in the past.Someone was always trying to compromise my acct.and I followed ebay instructons and sent numerous hacker info to their spoof site.With all the money they make there is no phone number for customer service for buyers or sellers to my knowledge.Not everyone has a pc at home.I always asked what is being done to catch the criminals sending fake mail that appeared to be from ebay.Never once got a response.I look forward to the day they have competition that displays upfront policy and good customer service.No one will remember them 20yrs from now.

The great folks at http://www.powersellersunite.com have talking about this since ebay's big fee hike last year. There are alternatives out there just goto the site and you can read what people are saying on the other sites. There is even an auction listing count to compare other auction sites.

Ebay, geez so funny. I had been shopping on ebay since the beginning and now have stopped. I have always been a good consumer and watched prices. I can ALWAYS find cheaper items locally at discount places or discounted at retailers-end of story. Ebay is no longer the place it used to be, it is time to put these two bit peddlers that use the illusion of low cost prices and auction euphoria to hawk overpriced goods. End ebay move on-it's time has come and gone. The one trick dog must be put to sleep. cheers

Oh yeah, use craigslist, often......

Yeah well, eBay's a publicly-traded corporation. Lots of sellers don't think of that or understand the implications. It's not about trying to help the little guy. It's about maximizing the profits of shareholders, same as GM or IBM or Costco or any corporation.

Cover your bases - sell on eBay AND buy stock!

Cost of doing business...thats what commissions and fees are, shipping, processing costs, etc etc--its the sellers responsibility to set the price so that he or she takes these things into account. Also look at it this way--Ebay gets you millions of buyers all over the globe who are eager and willing to pay for what they want. What we pay in fees is pennies compared to what we would have to pay for a brick and mortar store where we wouldnt have anywhere close to the customer base.

Get real.

The correct spelling is eBay. Not Ebay, eBAY or E-Bay. And ALL buyers and sellers are NOT males as some of you imply.

Why is the example "John Doe"?
Are you implying that all readers are or should be male?

eBay has evolved. It still is the world's largest "Garage Sale" for thousands of 'minor' sellers. They are however, being pushed out by major National chains such as Circuit City, CompUSA, Sears, Sharper Image, etc, etc. More and more major retail chains have established a presence on eBay and use it as a so-called discount outlet for their closeouts, open-box and damaged merchandise. The junk, the real damaged and usually crippled items are sold to all the other small suckers who truly support eBay and their exhorbitant fees through repetitve listings which eat into the meager profit generated. The large (10M+) feedback sellers get current stats on percentage sales, and if smaller sellers were aware, they would know that less than 42% of ALL listed items sell on eBay the first time. That means that for every 100 units you list, approx 42 will sell and 68 have to take another crack at re-listing. Guess who just made money! The other problem that eBay barely makes an attempt to correct is the non-paying bidder. Ebay collects a "sold" fee, the seller chases after the buyer, seller spends time filing recovery documents, a whole lot of time is wasted and then in many cases loses the fees and/or reputation anyway. Why? Because a nasty or vengeful NON-PAYER is allowed to leave negative feedback even though they haven't paid, tried to scam, or simply were toying with the system. This problem is most prevalent with so-called "newbies" or new eBayers that eBay will not hold responsible for the privelege of bidding on their site. The 3rd major problem are the bottom feeders of society that use eBay and Paypal as lures is just overwhelming. The intense barrage of scams, spoofs, and "phishing" is constantly evolving to a higher level of sophistication every month. From our past experience with security, I am convinced that most of the member info is coming from unscrupulous employees selling email addresses to the outside world of scum. A word of warning to every seller and buyer. If ANY correspondence comes from eBay or Paypal, check the URL (https://) before entering your sensitive info. AND install eBays "Account Guard". It doesn't catch everything, but enough to alert you to the most subtle and dangerous scammers. And oh yes, buyers! One way or another you are paying for all of eBays fees.

With all the rising fees on eBay we moved most of our items over to a local online auction site http://www.trademe.co.nz/ here. Trade Me started up after eBay enter the NZ market, but eBay didn't have a local presence. Now Trade Me gets 60% of all NZ online traffic (compared to less than 1% for eBay) mainly since it's free to list on Trade Me. It isn't impossible to replace eBay sales by going via Google Base and Froogle, Yahoo and Craigslist plus your own website sales. We occasionally list on eBay on their cheap listing days but otherwise stay on other venues.

I say everyone come on over to OnlineAuction.com. We charge a flat rate membership fee of $8 a month and no individual listing fees, re-listing fees, or final value fees - NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT A CREDIT!!
We have moved up to 4th Place in the Nation on PowerSellersUnite.com's Online Auction Site Count.

Call for more info:
Patricia Cruz
800-900-2828 x3102
PROMO CODE 204
www.onlineauction.com

I say everyone come on over to OnlineAuction.com. We charge a flat rate membership fee of $8 a month and no individual listing fees, re-listing fees, or final value fees - NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT A CREDIT!!
We have moved up to 4th Place in the Nation on PowerSellersUnite.com's Online Auction Site Count.

Call for more info:
Patricia Cruz
800-900-2828 x3102
PROMO CODE 204
www.onlineauction.com

eBay is the best thing to come along in decades. I'm glad they instituted this new policy. Maybe sellers won't be starting an auction higher than it should be. That's not to say eBay is absolutely perfect, but any negatives are greatly outweighed by all of its benefits. I do hope the Shipping Charges get under control. They could do this handily by adding a large fee on them!

Boy oh boy does this sound like a great story for John Stossel of 60 minutes or is it Primetime Live to expose these criminal elements and Ebays monopoly. Just a matter of time you watch. Maybe even Oreily on Fox news for what goes around will come around eventually.

Please, many sellers were abusing this option by first revising their listing to .99 cents (the lowest list fee), getting the refund and then ending the item listing altogether in order to avoid paying fees on listing that they ran for 6.5 days. Often to advertise their own websites. Ebay finally acted to end this abuse at the expense of honest sellers who were using the refund process correctly. Also ending a refund/credit process is not the same as a fee increase. Your article is biased and very one-sided.