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Posted at December 31, 1969, 6:00 pm: Ebay is acting as if they live in a bubble. It sounds as if they expect a large portion of that 83% sitting in stores to suddenly spring into auctions. But that isn't what's going to happen. That 83% of inventory is going to drastically decrease. Many of these items will get pulled from Ebay completely. As a buyer, this means less choice. In some case, it means I won't find what I'm looking for AT ALL. In still others it means less competition resulting in higher prices. As a BUYER, Ebay is now a less desirable place and I would be eager to look at alternatives. And speaking of junk... The junk I see on Ebay every day - the "asian market" DVD counterfeits (which make up more than 1/2 of all the DVD's for sale in some areas), the .01 cent auctions with $50 shipping fees - I see all of this JUNK still on the rise. Quick sale crap at auction with as much fee avoidance as possible. Instead of making ebay less of an online slum, it makes it more-so - most of the junk is already IN auctions. If you honestly think this is good for ebay and your ebay business you are completely delusional. Sorry, but this will just alienate more sellers. Ebay's "power" as a traffic magnet is because of their critical mass of sellers and buyers - less items and less sellers will also erode their buyer base. As buyers discover alternatives, they take their traffic elsewhere. Do you realize that in the last 2 years that Ebay has LOST nearly HALF of it's traffic from it's peak in early 2004 of over 55,000 users per million? Last week's reach was only 30.,000 per million. Ebay is the 13th most popular site on the internet - but they had been as high as #5. There are some items I have been buying on Ebay since 1999, and when I did my regular search for these items this morning, I found about 200 items - most were over-priced and cheap junk. I had been used to finding about 500-800 back only a year or so ago - much much more variety. Sure, the remaining sellers have less competition - but it's not what I'm looking for, and I have started shopping elsewhere - mostly on direct websites. Ebay has lost it's focus entirely. They cannot manipulate the market - that is a losing proposition. You observe the market's ebbs and flows and you adapt to it - but you cannot ever change it. Even ebay isn't big enough for that. Our world has become a lot less comfortable lately - and this will have an immediate and drastic effect on all consumer behavior. Ebay should be looking at ways to take advantage of these changes in behavior - NOT seek to penalize the behavior in a futile effort to make sellers respond the way they'd like them too. The reason sellers are moving towards store inventory instead of auction format is because ebay's sell thru rate is only a fraction of what it once was for many categories. In the old days, I used to have 500+ auctions running constantly - auctions ending every day of the week, at all hours. My sellthru was nearly 75%. When that dropped to 25%, I had to adapt. During this same time my website sales increased nearly ten-fold and now accounts for most of my business - the rest coming from my ebay store and occasional auction of specialty items. Right now I list around 500 items in my store and this fee increase will raise my monthly fees from $10 to $25 - but I sell cheap stuff. I can live with that. For other sellers - particularly of more expensive and highly exotic items - this increase will be hundreds more per month. Less variety for buyers - particularly HIGH end. More cheap crap - not less. This was a really dumb move that will hurt all of us. Original of the message was taken from http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/ Previous Post: With 22 weeks left in the year, you would need to sell the staggering ... Next Post: perhaps I do need to clarify. |