It is still hard for me to accept that eBay the online auction giant does not want to do what made them what they are. It just confuses me. I can however see that PayPal is where they are making the money. I mean I rarely sell on eBay anymore at all BUT I do use PayPal to accept payments, send payments, even pay some bills, and use their debit card. So eBay still makes money off of me. Like many I find it difficult to completely cut the cord due to PayPal being the widest form of online payment used. What are we to do.

I do most of my selling these days & buying on a site called Bonanzle. They may not have auctions, but hey neither will eBay soon. I find the atmosphere on Bonanzle much more pleasant and the staff very helpful. It was such a nice change when emailing tech support to get a personal response in just hours. I was not used to that kind of treatment having been an eBay seller for so long.

I just have come to the point where I cannot let eBay cause me stress any longer. I soon will not sell there at all anymore. I already do not buy there at all anymore. I make 99% of my purchases on Bonanzle and some on Amazon for books.

Why stick with eBay when their only goal is to take away what makes them eBay anyways? I see no point in dealing with all the hassles of eBay for something that I can go to another site with friendlier community, where I can accept multiple payment options and be in control of my business again.

I only hope all of the eBay followers see this as clearly and make a run for it.

Thanks again for a wonderful article. I agree I don’t believe the man is evil, but in his trying to accomplish making more and more money he has stomped on my family and friends and small business owners. So by those actions why should I stick around?

“We’ve concluded that the best way to grow our active user base is by not losing any of them,” he
Mr Donahoe said.

Mr Donahoe a failure by his own criteria…

http://www.youtube.com/my_videos

Fixed price will live on, the corporation needs that to fuel its finance business and Paypal beast but auctions are just too much troublle.”

Auctions are still vibrant and viable on Ebay, even if Ebay is frustrating the heck out of every user (buyers I talk to are as frustrated by having to relearn how to use the site every few weeks, as sellers are). Which, as an auction only seller, makes it difficult to walk away from the site, as I will never get some of the prices that I achieve on Ebay, in any other venue.

I agree that Ebay will live on in one guise or another, but (a) Ebay is not a retail marketplace, as much as they want to be, and (b) I am not convinced that “Fixed price will live on” if Ebay insists on screwing down the sellers profit margins, undermining their ability to ship viably, and continues to feed a distrust of sellers into the marketplace as a whole (so that buyers will protect themselves with PayPal), while setting themselves up to receive a constantly increasing percentage of the average transaction.

Ebay sets up that increase in percentages more subtly than just having price “adjustments”. By limiting shipping charges they take a percentage of the shipping that has to be included elsewhere in the transaction, by removing paper payments they take PayPal fees from a higher percentage of transactions – thus Ebay achieves a higher percentage of overall sales while at the same time allegedly “incenting” sellers to sell their goods cheaper, and offer free shipping (which results in a little more percentage for Ebay). As a monolith with a large market share, this may be sustainable for Ebay, but it is not a sustainable business model for those who try to retail fixed price on Ebay. I have sufficient mark-up in the uniquish items that I sell, to eat the fee creep that Ebay has dealt me this year (my fees have increased by over a third as a percentage of sales since February – but being in Australia I don’t get the discount which would reduce that somewhat).

By setting up an unsustainable business model for fixed price sellers (unless they are buying liquidated stock for pennies in the dollar), though, I can not see how this can fuel Ebay’s expansion in other areas.

I am pretty much seeing the same game plan that you are, but I see a different longer term outcome.

Sadly, as Ebay ignores ecommerce issues that arise from conflicting policies introduced while trying to gouge further fees in the process, it is clear that they are not learning from the financial implosions elsewhere worldwide at the current time. Avarice prevails – the customer does not.

Kind Regards, Kevin

I just find it hard to understand why they would completely eliminate a format that still makes money, that keeps buyers on the site, and that keeps sellers who will also buy on the site around.

It seems like a big gamble to count on the fixed price side only!

Now there is a new management team intent on creating the “New eBay.” Unfortunately, they seem to be so focused on Amazon, they are missing some major opportunities. Opportunities they would be able to take advantage of if they had a better understanding the marketplace as a whole. Instead of fulfilling a niche, or carving out a bigger, better niche, they are doing their best to become another “me too” enterprise.

I have to disagree with those who say they are abandoning eBay Express. While they may be dropping “Express” the New eBay is actually a giant revamping of the original intent eBay Express. So the question now is will the New eBay be the New Coke of online shopping?

From above: “eBay does not feel the auction format will survive…”

Since before Jesus, humans loved bargaining in the markets all over the middle east. It’s still in our DNA.

Donahoe can take away eBay auctions, but he can’t take away the thrill of the win.

When a seller isn’t sure of the “correct” fixed price, using the auction format solves the problem. This is especially true for eBay consignment sellers called eBay Trading Assistants who may not be an expert at every single thing they sell.

Perhaps the thrill of the hunt will shift to finding and buying fixed price items that are priced too low on eBay. But that involve no 1:1 haggling and may not give the same adrenalin rush.

It is not important what I believe, what is important is what John Donahoe believes…

The head of eBay does not believe in the auction format. The head of eBay will not expend any resources or invest in any new development for the auction format. The head of eBay wishes he could clean the slate clean and start over… This is what he said, not I.

eBay does not feel the auction format will survive, who am I to argue with them?