eBay's New Changes Hurt Small Sellers: Feb. 20, 2008

Bad Move

I have bought and sold on eBay, off and on, for about five years or so now. It's really a great way of making money from home. Whether you're a power seller or just trying to get rid of some items and make a little extra money, eBay is (or was) a great way to go.

I received an e-mail about their current fee changes going into effect on Feb. 20, 2008. At first I was pretty happy to see that the listing fees are going to be lower and was thrilled to see that the gallery picture will be free.

Changes to the feedback process are both good and bad, right now you can give or get feedback on each and every item you buy or sell, but although each of the feedback does show up, it is actually only counted once.

The new changes will allow feedback per member to counted once per week, but you'll no longer be able to leave bad feedback for a buyer or even neutral feedback to someone who just decides not to pay for a item or make false claims about the item!

To add insult to injury, as the old saying goes, once a year, all the positive feedback that you've worked so hard to get will just vanish! The new system will roll back your feedback rating to 0 every twelve months!

After checking out the fee overview page on the eBay.com web site, I was very disappointed. It's going to cost a whole nickel less to list the pair of jeans in my closet I no longer wear, but if someone does buy them, it's going to cost me 3.5 percent more on the final value fees. I'd rather just pay the extra nickel to list the item in the first place!

For us small sellers that usually end up with ending bids of less than $25 we'll be saving a whole nickel on the listing fees. While the bigger sellers will be saving as much as eighty cents on their listing fees!

Ebay doesn't seem to discriminate when it comes to their final cut though, the raises in final value fees will affect everyone. The final value fees start with a base amount and then add another percentage if the item sells over a certain price.