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PENNIES FOR POUNDS

(originally posted on the 31st of January 2008)

On the 20th February 2008, ebay will be lowering it's listing fees by a third!

"HURRAAAY!!! I take back all the bad things I said about ebay."

However, they are putting up Final Value Fees by a third as well.

"Bastards!!!"

Yep, they're giving pennies, and taking away pounds. You really didn't think that ebay had suddenly turned over a new leaf with it's change in it's leadership, did you? I'm sorry to say that we don't live in such a remote alternative dimension where such a thing would happen.

This may be alright for listings that get no bids at the end, but for those items that do get bids, you'll find that more of your profits will be snatched away from you before you even get your hands on your money, so expect your monthly ebay bill to increase - by about a third!

They will be offering discounts on FVFs, but only for high volume powersellers and business accounts. This you'll only get if your lowest DSR rating is 4.6, otherwise you are well and truly screwed. What with ebay soon removing a seller's ability to leave negative feedback, and being negged even more by bullish buyers, a 4.6 rating will become rarer, with fewer and fewer sellers qualifying for it.

If you're a low volume seller, like millions are worldwide, you don't qualify for the FVF discount. You have to become a powerseller, and as a powerseller, you have to now register as a business seller, even if you sell on ebay for fun. This means that you are forced to display your personal details on your listings, which alot of people prefer not to do. I mean, we've all heard the scare stories of internet stalkers, haven't we? It seems ebay doesn't care about your privacy and if you want to keep that privacy, then ebay's going to punish you by charging you more in final value fees.

It seems to me that ebay has forgotten that it was the small volume seller, selling from home, who actually made them in the early days. They now view low volume sellers as the "small people" an embarrassment they want to discourage in favour of the high volume seller. After all, 80% of their revenue does come from it's top 20% of sellers.

But, as anyone could tell them, it's a very bad idea to shit on the "small people" in this way. They may only give 20% revenue, but they are in larger numbers and the seedbed of future business sellers.