eBay Watch: Protesters Unite

eBay Store Owners Continue to Protest Fee Hikes
As mentioned in last weeks eBay Watch, eBay has again angered sellers by hiking seller fees, although this time it impacts those sellers who use eBay Stores. Over the course of this week the eBay Stores Discussion forum has been full of questions from sellers. While most have gone unanswered, the big question from sellers is: What is the best way to pass these increases on, without losing customers?

Sellers fed up with fee hikes have gone public creating blogs and filling the eBay discussion forums to protest the fee increase. Some are looking to make a switch and post more items to Craigslist and

One such auction by junkyardjims offers the The Fee Hike song. It doesn’t appear as if he’ll make a fortune selling it, but I’m sure many eBay sellers will truly appreciate the lyrics. Other eBay listings, which could be found under the search query for ‘fee hike,’ were removed by eBay. Other industry watchers reported that there were more than 100 fee-hike protest auctions initially listed on eBay, and that they were closed due to keyword spamming. The auction giant even deleted some eBay-hosted blogs that were rife with protest.

Ebay Earnings & On-the-way-out COO Profits $90 Million
While eBay store sellers cope with higher operating costs, outgoing Chief Operating Officer, Maynard Webb, celebrates with more than $90 million of profits in his own pocket. He accumulated this windfall buying and selling eBay option shares since 1999. When Webb steps down in August, eBay has said they will not be replacing him.

eBay Changes
eBay next week plans to release a new Gallery Plus listing feature. Gallery Plus is somewhat similar to the current Gallery listing upgrade, however it allows larger images to be shown on the eBay search results page, says Steve Grove of eBay product management. Prospective bidders can mouse click or hover over the gallery picture to see a larger image (up to 400 x 400 pixels). Gallery Plus costs $0.75 (which includes the regular Gallery fee) and is also included as part of Gallery Featured for free. For eBay Motors vehicle listings, Gallery Plus is $2.

eBay also plans to offer pre-filled item information as an optional listing method in several new categories including the following: Consumer Electronics (CB Radios, Calculators, Phones), Computers and Networking (Routers), Cameras and Photo (Telescopes), Home and Garden (Vacuums), Coffee and Espresso Makers (Kitchen Cooktops), and Baby (Strollers, Car Seats).

eBay Infomercials
Auction Mercial, a service which lets eBay sellers add Internet infomercials to auction listings, is celebrating the creation of its one millionth AuctionMercial. According to Auction Mercial, its tests show that adding an infomercial to eBay auctions can increase sell-through rates by 20 percent.

Research Says...
A new study out of Australia by the Communications Law Centre indicates that fraud on online auction sites such as eBay is still an issue (story). The survey says 48 percent of online shoppers experienced problems and about 22 percent indicated that they did not receive an item that they purchased.

New research released by eBay India suggests that 12,800 Indian entrepreneurs, including many businesses, make a primary or secondary source of income selling on eBay India. The study also reported that 38 percent of eBay India sellers actually quit their job to sell on eBay.

Sophos, a provider of integrated threat-management solutions, reports that over 75 percent of all phishing e-mails target users of PayPal and eBay. SophosLabs claims to have scanned all phishing e-mail messages received in the companys global network of spam traps during 2006. The final tally shows that 54.3 percent were attempting to steal information from users of PayPal, and that 20.9 percent of the phishes were targeting eBay users.

Only on eBay...
Some of the most absurd, and entertaining, aspects of life can often be found within the pages of eBay.com. Take, for example, this guy who is auctioning off a plastic bag from Wal-Mart. Millions of people have these things lying around their home, but chances are only a Woohoo_Mystery_Man auction can fetch over $3,100 for one.

Bidding on a Bag: Who are these people?

Have an interesting tip, auction or news item to submit for eBay Watch? Tell us about it!

Vangie Beal is a regular contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also the managing editor of Webopedia.


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