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EBAY FEE INCREASE EDITORIAL |
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On 18 Feb 2005 ebaY will increase fees on some of their sites, including ebaY US, ebaY Canada, ebaY United Kingdom, ebaY Australia, ebaY Spain, ebaY Netherlands, ebaY Switzerland, ebaY Germany and ebaY Austria. We have provided some info on the increases for the ebaY US, CA, UK and AU sites. Please visit the appropriate announcement boards if you need information about the fee increases on ebaY Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The ebaY Canada fee increase appears to be the most severe of all the ebaY sites.
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ebaY US is once again raising its fees to sellers, with many increases in the 50 to 100% range. This fee increase is not surprising since ebaY wants their stockholders and potential stockholders to continue to buy ebaY stock, and fee increases look good to stockholders. ebaY wants the public to keep buying stock, so that the ebaY insiders can continue to cash out their stock holdings. In 2004 ebaY insiders cashed out $7,846,507,701.00 in stock (yes folks that is 7.85 Billion in the pockets of ebaY insiders). This is nothing unusual, as ebaY insiders have been cashing out their stock as fast as they can, since they were first allowed to do so.
For more insider info -
Major Stock Holders
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=EBAY
Insider Transactions
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=ebay
As usual, the ebaY boards and chat boards across the online auction and trading industry (OAI/OTI) are filled with outraged sellers screaming about the price increases. Once again we will repeat what we at TAG have been saying for the past 6 years. What sellers can't be made to realize, is that the power to change the industry rests with themselves, as ebaY will charge the sellers whatever the sellers ALLOW ebaY to charge them. All it takes is for sellers to move a sufficient number of listings to other OAI/OTI sites, and break the ebaY monopoly. The buyers will follow the sellers. If sites other than ebaY have what the buyers want, that is where the buyers will go. If enough sites develop viable markets, someone (Google?) will come along with an improved meta search engine (the technology has been around for over 4 years to do this but was never perfected) that searches all these sites, and updates in real time, so buyers can search the net for items they want, and sellers will be free to list wherever they want.
Petitions, one day "strikes", boycotts etc are all useless and foolish. They have no impact on ebaY and do nothing to expand the industry. So far they have all failed, and done nothing but reinforce ebaY's arrogance. ebaY will sit back and let the sellers moan and groan about the increase, maybe even make some small concessions, and then go about their business, confident that the sellers will NOT act to change the industry. ebaY will continue to raise fees as long as the sellers knuckle under and pay the fees. What will change the industry, is sellers selling on what we at TAG call VOTE sites (venues other than ebaY).
Here is what sellers can do to change the face of the OAI/OTI permanently, which will mean more competition, hence lower charges to sellers, and better customer service for those who use OAI/OTI sites.
As individuals ˆ Build your own website and use it as the hub to link to places you sell online. There are many very inexpensive web site hosts, and most ISPs provide free server space for web sites. Search Google for page templates, learn basic HTML (many sites are available online to teach the basics for free), use a site that has templates, or hire someone to build you a simple site. Get your site indexed on Froogle. This is free, and you can sign up here - http://snipurl.com/c27j Email every past customer, thanking them for their business and telling them where you are currently listing and offer them incentives to buy from you from your website or from the VOTE site(s) you are using
As organized groups - there are lots of OAI/OTI chat boards, on ebaY and off, and frequent communication between sellers of same or similar items. Start a chat group OFF ebaY, such as on Topica.com, Google Groups or Yahoo Groups, or on one of the OAI/OTI bulletin board systems, and email sellers in your category, inviting them to join your effort to move your entire category to a VOTE site. Agree on a site, and have everyone participating email all their past customers and tell those customers where the category is now located. Put up a group webpage, and provide links to the group member websites and VOTE site listings. As a group, you can even pool some resources and advertise in a trade paper or magazine for your category, or buy some banner ad space online. Work together as a community and you will all benefit together as a community.
You do not have to stop selling on ebaY. USE ebaY (as opposed to letting ebaY use you) as a way to build your customer base. There are ways to do this that are still ebaY legal, such as including offers and incentives for purchases made on the VOTE sites you are selling on, in every email you send out. Include your email address prominently in every listing on ebaY, so potential buyers can contact you directly, without having ebaY looking over your (and their) shoulder. Encourage potential buyers to contact you via email. Build opt in mailing lists of customers, via your emails, and include incentives in your list mailings. Send a coupon in every package you send out, offering incentives to customers who buy from you either from your website or from a VOTE site.
When you use ebaY, do not use the extras. List 7 day auctions, don't use gallery, don't use BIN, and close your ebaY store. If enough sellers do this, ebaY will have to back off these fee increases. TAG still holds that gallery is now and has always been a waste of money, and anecdotal evidence from sellers is that when they stop using gallery, their sell through does not change. ebaY has been very successful at brainwashing sellers into believing whatever ebaY tells them is true, including that the world of online auctions and trading only exists on ebaY. It is time the sellers took control of the industry back from ebaY.
For those of you who are just going to moan and complain and once again knuckle under anyway, who want to do something that makes you feel as if you did not take this increase lying down, even if it really means nothing, here are some links to petitions, and boycott/ strike sites.
Anti Fee increase petition -
http://www.petitiononline.com/ebayfee/
Boycott/Strike page -
http://www.nolistingday.com/
There are also posts about not listing 1-18 Feb 05.
Protest auctions -
http://snipurl.com/c2fz
http://snipurl.com/c2gc
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6505708303
Rate Meg Whitman's performance -
http://www.forbes.com/2003/05/01/cx_ceointernetpoll.html
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VENUES OTHER THAN EBAY (VOTE)
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Several of these are sites that have been around for a few years, have stable working sites, with tools that give the seller the ability to easily transfer feedback and/or auctions from ebaY to their site. These sites have been dedicated to giving online sellers alternatives, but have not had sufficient participation by sellers to give buyers enough merchandise to look for. If sellers move around 3 million listings to each of these sites, ebaY's shelves will be pretty bare and the sellers will go to these sites to find what they want.
There are hundreds of online auction and trading sites on the net. Search Google if what you want is not in this list. These are the ones with the most traffic (as far as we know) and the ones we have heard about most frequently.
Here are a few VOTE sites listed alphabetically-
GENERAL MERCHANDISE
Amazon Marketplace - Though Amazon also has auctions and Z-Shops, they are a mere adjunct to their Merchant Marketplace, and much marginalized by Amazon. The Amazon Marketplace is very dynamic and provides sellers an ever expanding way to sell fixed price merchandise. When a buyer searches Amazon for an item, the retail item comes up, but links also come up to Merchant Marketplace items new and used. Listing in the Marketplace is free. Final Value Fees are 99 cents plus 6-15% depending on the item. Amazon has chat boards and a toll free customer service number, though their CS can be a frustrating experience for sellers.
Selling on Amazon - http://snipurl.com/c45c
Marketplace Overview - http://snipurl.com/c44r
Marketplace - http://snipurl.com/c44o
Marketplace fees and explanation - http://snipurl.com/c44w
Pro Merchant accounts $39.99 per month, includes free Z Shop, Free Auction listings. 99 cent Marketplace fee waived and more - http://snipurl.com/c453
Bidville.Com - auction site has approx 3 million listings (though it is more like 2 million real listings, since over a million listings are sports cards and records listed by 2 or 3 sellers) There are no listing fees, final value fees are reasonable and can be found at http://www.bidville.com/help/newfsf.html
Bidville also has stores with a basic store fee at $5. a month and final value fees for sold items. Other store fees and options are at http://www.bidville.com/storefront/fees.html
Sellers can import their ebaY feedback number from their Bidville Trackpal page, but there is no auction import tool that we could find. Random spot check shows a sell through rate of approx 23% The search engine leaves much to be desired in that it is slow, only returns a max of 2,000 items, and often does not complete the search but gives a "timed out" message. Customer service is believed to be responsive, and has good community boards.
http://www.bidville.com
ePier.Com - auction site has approx 145,000 listings. Full feature stores (more like a mini website) have email and image hosting, for $12.95/mo or $99. per year plus a final value fee on sold items - http://www.epier.com/AdvancedStores/default.asp
There are no listing fees, final value fees are reasonable and can be found at http://www.epier.com/pricing.asp
The search engine works fairly well as to speed, but we could not get past auctions to show up, nor get the listings to sort. We were not able to determine a sell through rate. ePier has a bulk upload tool, but no import tool to move items from ebaY to ePier. In the past customer service has been variable, as have the community boards.
http://www.epier.com/
iOffer.Com - negotiation site with approx 377,000 listing and extensive wanted item section. Has good search engine, feedback and auction import tool called Mr Grabber. Does not have completed item information so no way to determine sell through rate.
Listing is free, stores are free, and the final value fees are reasonable -
http://www.ioffer.com/help/feesNCreditPolicy.jsp?showTopBottom=false
Customer service is believed to be responsive, and has good community boards.
http://www.ioffer.com
Overstock Auctions - The newest site on the scene, this is a general merchandise auction site, has approx 30,000 listings. With a wide customer base for their Overstock merchandise, this company is also doing the most advertising of their auctions. Overstock has listing and final value fees that may be viewed at -
http://snipurl.com/c3gl
There is no completed item search but anecdotally sellers report an approx 7% sell through rate. Customer service is good with a toll free number to call for help. Chat boards appear friendly, with Overstock personnel stopping by to help users. http://auctions.overstock.com/
SellYourItem.Com - auction site, has approx 58,000 listings. Sell through is at around 5%. Listing is currently free, and final value fees are reasonable -
http://www.sellyouritem.com/SellersFAQ.html#cost
SellYourItem does not have stores, but does have an auction import tool. Both customer service and the community boards are rated very highly. The boards also include a board where users can post items and get help from other users to identify what it is. The search engine works well. http://www.sellyouritem.com/index.html
Yahoo Auctions - auction site, has approx 200,000 listings. Sell through is at around 10%. Yahoo Auctions has chat boards that are ok. Their customer service is as bad as ebaY's, and that is saying much. Their site generally runs very well, and has good tools and features. http://auctions.yahoo.com/
NICHE SITES
ADULT/SEX/PORN/FETISH (Please don't look if you find this stuff offensive) 4BidN - Brand new, only a handful of listings, currently no listing or final value fees. http://4bidn.com.
Naughty bids - 10 cent listing and final value fees -
http://www.naughtybids.com/faqs.asp
http://www.naughtybids.com/
ANTIQUE MALLS
TIAS - one of the oldest and best established online trading sites (comes up 5th on Google search for antiques). Fixed price stores $34.95 minimum price or 10% commission on sales, whichever is greater. Can also upload items to auction for a 2% commission (on top of auction site fees). See through is unknown. Site claims over 570,000 listings. Programs are a bit complex, for more info go to -
http://www.tias.com/makeashop/index.cgi?groupKey=1&page=fees.html
Ruby Lane - well established online trading site (comes up 12th on Google search for antiques).. Fixed price stores Fee system is complex, more info at-
http://www.rubylane.com/info/aboutshops.html#costs
AUTOMOBILES
AutoTrader ˆ $15. online classified ad, $27- $54. for combination Ad in Auto Trader Magazine and on AutoTrader.com http://www.autotrader.com/
CarsDirect - $25. to list a car For more details -
http://www.carsdirect.com/sell_cars/faq
http://www.carsdirect.com/sell_cars/home
http://www.carsdirect.com
BOOKS
Abe Books ˆ Fixed Price listings, with monthly subscription fee - $25 minimum, 8% final value fee and 5.5% charge card fee if you don't have your own method of accepting charge cards. http://www.abebooks.com/
Seller info - http://www.abebooks.com/docs/Sell/
AB Bookman - http://www.abbookman.com/
Auctions ˆ Currently completely free http://www.abbookauction.com/auction/auction.asp
Books Wanted - http://snipurl.com/c4fi
Books fixed price listings- $10 minimum book value to list, 25 cent fee for 90 days, currently no final value fee -
http://www.collectorsbookmarket.com/Mart/Mart.asp
Alibris - Fixed Price listings 20% final value fee on books $499. and under. Seller info -
http://sellers.alibris.com/why.cfm
http://www.alibris.com/
GUNS AND AMMO
AuctionArms No listing fee, final value fees are at-
http://www.auctionarms.com/help/fees.cfm
Approx 34% sell through. Lots of bids. http://www.auctionarms.com/
PAGAN
ePagan - listing and final value fees are currently free
http://epaganauction.com/
eWitch - listing is free, 3.5% final value fee
http://www.e-witch.com/
AuctionWitch - listing is free, 2% final value fee
http://www.auctionwitch.com/
POSTCARDS AND EPHEMERA
Playle - 76,000 postcards, Ephemera, Stamps, Postal Covers. Listing and final value fees with unlimited free relists in postcards and other paper categories. Free listing in Antiques and Collectible, Stamps and Postal Cover cats. Dealer flat fee monthly packages. Sell through in the 30% range but over 50% in some sub categories.
Fees - http://www.playle.com/accounts.php3
http://www.playle.com/browse.html
POULTRY/EGGS
EggBid - listing is free, final value fees 10% to 1.5%, 40% sell through. Fees at -
http://www.eggbid.com/help/fee_schedule.cfm
http://www.eggbid.com/
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EBAY FEE INCREASES SUMMARIZED
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This is a summary of the ebaY fee changes effective 18 Feb 05 for ebaY US. From these increases, it is obvious that ebaY is forcing out the smaller low ticket item seller, the ebaY "middle class" and providing lowered fees for the big ticket sellers.
ebaY will increase the gallery fee from $0.25 to $0.35 per listing.
Buy It Now (BIN) (that used to be free and about which ebaY once said they had no plans to charge a fee for BIN at all) will now be based on the BIN Price -
$0.01-9.99 BIN costs 5 cents
$10-24.99 BIN costs 10 cents
$25-49.99 BIN costs 20 cents
$50+ BIN costs 25 cents
ebaY will raise the 10-day duration listing from 20 cents to 40 cents per listing.
ebaY will raise the monthly fee for the basic ebaY store from $9.95 to $15.95. The monthly fee for featured and anchor stores will not change.
ebaY will increase the final value fees for store inventory items as follows: $0.01 - $25 old fee was 5.25% of the closing price new fee is 8%.
$25.01 - $1,000 old fee was 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 2.75% of the remaining closing value balance. New fee is 8% of the initial $25, plus 5% of the remaining closing value balance ($25.01-$1000).
Over $1,000 old fee was 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 2.75% of the next $25.01 - $1000, plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value). New fee is 8% of the initial $25, plus 5% of the next $25.01 - $1000, plus 3% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value).
ebaY is changing the reserve, insertion and Final Value Fees for select high price item capital equipment categories in Business & Industrial The fee changes for these capital equipment categories are as follows:
Reserve fee: Lowered to $5, refundable if the item sells Insertion fee: changed to a $20 flat fee regardless of starting price Final Value Fee: Lowered to a 1% flat fee, with a $250 maximum charge.
ebaY is changing the fees for ebaY Motors vehicles listings. ebaY will charge a flat $5. reserve fee for all ebaY Motors vehicles categories except Pocket Bikes. 10 day listings will now cost an additional $8. for all ebaY Motors vehicles categories except Pocket Bikes.
ebaY will lower the pocket bikes category insertion fee and transaction services fee from $30 to $3 each. The following fees will remain the same: Reserve ($2 flat fee, refundable if item sells), Gallery (free), Listing Designer ($5) and Highlight ($5). The Motors Homepage Featured fee will be lowered to $24.95 and the Vehicle Picture Pack fee will be lowered to $1.50. All other fees will be lowered to become the same as those for ebaY Motors Parts & Accessories categories.
More info at - http://snipurl.com/c3ac
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ebaY CA has one of the most extensive fee changes, with most fees increasing.
http://www2.ebay.com:80/aw/marketing-ca.shtml#2005-01-11153230
Some of the changes follow:
ebaY is increasing store final value fees to the same percentages as in the US (see above).
ebaY is increasing gallery fees from C 25 cents to C 45 cents including ebaY Motors non vehicle listings.
Buy It Now (BIN) (that used to be free and about which ebaY once said they had no plans to charge a fee for BIN at all) will now be based on the BIN Price -
C$0.01-9.99 BIN costs C 5 cents
C$10-24.99 BIN costs C 15 cents
C$25-49.99 BIN costs C 25 cents
C$50+ BIN costs C 30 cents
Highlight increasing from C$2 to C$6.50
Featured Plus increasing from C$5. to C$25.95
Insertion fees for real estate for auction and fixed price format will go from C$70 to C$45. 30 day Real Estate Ad format from C$70 to C$195. and 90 day Real Estate Ad format from C$150. to C$390.
Monthly basic store fees are increasing from C$9.95 to C$15.95
ebaY is changing the reserve, insertion and Final Value Fees for select high item price capital equipment categories in Business & Industrial.
The fee changes for these capital equipment categories are as follows: Reserve fee: Lowered to C$6.50, refundable if the item sells Insertion fee: changed to a C$25 flat fee regardless of starting price Final Value Fee: Lowered to a 1% flat fee, with a C$325. maximum charge.
ebaY Motors pocket bike fee changes are those as posted for the US BIN for ebaY Motors vehicles is going from C 5 cents to C $1.30
Bold for ebaY Motors (non vehicle listings) is going from C$1. to C$1.30
Bold for ebaY Motors Pocket Bikes is going from C$1. to C$1.30
Bold for ebaY Motors vehicles is going from C$1. to C$5.
ebaY Motors reserve fee is increasing to C$6.50
ebaY Motors scheduled listings are going from free to C$1.30
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ebaY UK fee changes effective 18 Feb 05
ebaY will reduce the fee for scheduling a listing using the sell you item form or Turbo Lister from £0.12 to £0.06 per listing.
ebaY will reduce the fee for using a subtitle for the item title from £0.50 to £0.35.
ebaY will increase the fee for using the highlight option from £1.50 to £2.50.
ebaY will increase the Final Value Fee in vehicles categories (Cars, Classic Cars, Motorcycles, Other Vehicles) from 0.5% of final sale price to 0.75% of final sale price (minimum of £15 and a maximum of £30 applicable as before). Insertion fees for vehicles will remain at £6.
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ebaY AU fee changes effective 18 Feb 05
Insertion fee for items starting at AU$0.01- 0.99 will now be AU$0.30
Insertion fee for items starting at AU$1.00- 19.99 will increase to AU$0.50 from AU$0.35
The insertion fee will be decreased from AU$0.35 to AU$0.30 per listing for items starting between AU$0.01 and AU$0.99.
For items starting between AU$1.00 and AU$19.99 will be charged at AU$0.50 (currently AU$0.35 for the start price range of AU$0.01-19.99).
ebaY will now charge store inventory format listings
30 Days AU$0.10 increased from AU$0.05
90 Days AU$0.30 increased from AU$0.15
Good Till Cancelled AU$0.10 per 30 days duration increased from AU$0.05
ebaY will raise gallery fees from AU$0.50 to AU$0.59 per listing.
