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Ebay tries to wash away mistakes with new service

Posted Oct 10 2007, 10:13 AM by Kim Peterson
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Another day, another doomed social networking service launches. Today brings us the "Neighborhoods" community at eBay, which is struggling as the number of auctions on the site decline.

The service is truly cringeworthy. In the Coffee Lovers forum, eBay employees have obviously tried to seed some discussions by posting things like, "Isn't morning a great time for coffee?" Yeah, that's going to stimulate some fascinating comments.

The idea is to stem the losses at eBay by keeping people on the site. Ebay's listings dropped 6% in the second quarter from the first and 2% from the year-ago period. Listings by active "power sellers" were also down an astonishing 25% from the year-ago period.

Meanwhile, eBay is still reeling from its hugely bungled Skype acquisition and from bad press like this article, where a Led Zeppelin promoter says, "I wish eBay would drop dead and die." 

If eBay wants to keep people on its site, it should consider dropping all the fees that sellers get hit with. There are cheaper ways to sell (Craigslist, anyone?). Asking "What has Star Wars meant to you?" is not going to cut it.

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Comments

 

I've only been selling on E-bay for a couple of months now, but the listing prices are outragous!  I have sold about 300. dollars worth of items and have apid about 30.00 to list. Not to mention PayPal's fees.  I may start selling on Craig's list.  It can be local or national.

I think E-bay did the buyers and seller a bad move with the buyout of Skype.

Linda M. (Posted 10.10.07 2:45 PM) Report Abuse

I have used Ebay for years and my serious complaint is when you have a complaint - such as a non payer or somone who did not sent you the merchandise you paid for - Ebay does nothing to help it's buyers or sellers - you are on  your own - they need to fix that if they want to stay in business.  I myself am looking elsewhere to sell my items.

bk (Posted 10.10.07 2:46 PM) Report Abuse

IT IS THE COST OF POSTAGE THAT IS STEARING ME AWAY FROM E-BAY... WISE UP SELLERS AND ASK MORE FOR YOUR ITEM AND LESS FOR SHIPPING IF YOU WANT TO BENEFIT FROM YOUR SELLING

KATHY G (Posted 10.10.07 2:47 PM) Report Abuse

You're right! It was once enjoyable selling on e-bay but I just can't afford the fees any longer. I'm better off selling at a garage sale or flea markey.

Dale Thalhofer (Posted 10.10.07 2:48 PM) Report Abuse

ebay is a junk swap.. thats all it is

Jackie Be (Posted 10.10.07 2:49 PM) Report Abuse

good I'm glad ebay is on the downward spiral. Bought once-got ripped off and ebay did nothing to help even when New York State Attorney General's office

contacted them.

cindy (Posted 10.10.07 2:50 PM) Report Abuse

Try complaining to their customer service department and see how far you get - Typically a computer generated response explaining how they are working hard to correct problems

Mike H (Posted 10.10.07 2:50 PM) Report Abuse

ebay used to be a great auction site. Now it is just an OK auction site. I used to be a power seller. Now I only sell certain months of the year. People almost don't buy anything in the summer months and when they do the bids are so low it is not worth listing. In the best months to list, the bids have dropped considerably. Now couple that with ebay fees, Paypal fees, listing software fees and shipping/handling costs...I am almost tempted to go back to the brick and morter mall, however, for now, I will just list only those things I feel will give me the best return which will drop my listings by 60 or 70%.  I hate to add this but a big factor that hurts  eBay is GREED.

Harvey Parker (Posted 10.10.07 2:50 PM) Report Abuse

Ebay has turned out to be a looser! the pricing is poor and the shipping rates are the biggest joke, Sellers are trying to gain more money threw high shipping costs and eBay lets them. You would have to be stupid to buy anything off there now days! and if you need to return something or get assistance eBay does not stand behind you as a buyer(so the bottom line is why use them?)Spend the extra and go shopping and help our economy that way not there pockets

Wayne

wthout@hotmail.com (Posted 10.10.07 2:51 PM) Report Abuse

I agree that Ebay needs to take a close look at its fee charged to merchants.  By the time you take away the listing fee, the final value fee, plus paypal fee, it's difficult to sustain a profitable businesss.  I used to be a powerseller, but I got smart and stopped paying Ebay and went with my own e-commerce site.

Peter (Posted 10.10.07 2:51 PM) Report Abuse

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