Ok, how about "worst run successful company"?
Based on their initial model and how they got out of the gate almost 20 years ago, they should be way more successful then they are IMO.
They still make a profit, because they'd have to be complete morons to totally screw up the brilliant platform they initially engineered.
That said, I don't know of any company that shoots themselves in the foot (seemingly on purpose) as many times as Ebay.
Ebay trying to position themselves as another Amazon (without having to build the infrastructure) of Amazon has really killed them through the years.
Ebay stock should be through the roof. They are basically a huge software platform that collects untold amounts of revenue without having to keep any inventory. It's all gravy, but somehow they still figure out how to screw it up.
Sorry, this happened to you Rhett. Perhaps it's time to strike out on your own and design your own website with a full shopping cart.
It's gotta be cheaper then what you're paying Ebay now, and the whole Ebay gives the best exposure to items is a bit overblown. Google/Bing/Yahoo and the other search engines give the best exposure to items.....and if you're selling mostly One of a Kind, Vintage or Unique type items, you will crawl up in the search engines quickly.
I use Yahoo/Aabaco for my websites. Use my own domains. Costs $40 bucks a month + $30 bucks additional to use Paypal Pro as a merchant provider in the shopping cart (accepts all forms of credit cards) and can be used across multiple domains unlike other merchant accounts.
List as many items as you want at no additional charge. They never time out or need to be relisted, thus keeping your search engine placement. Final value fee when items do sell is like 1.5% + the Paypal/Merchant account cut of the sale.
There will be many other platforms out there that offer similar if that one is not the right one for you.
Truthfully, Ebay should be killing it right now with a much bigger share of the revenue out there. If they were not so difficult to deal with, a ton of people who are either operating their own websites or have moved to Amazon, Etsy or other places, would still be offering much of their inventory on Ebay.
I'm sorry, people are seeing the same old stuff over and over on Ebay. Ebay "cleaning it up" is NOT making it more palatable. It is driving more and more sellers with unique items away. There used to be much more to choose from on a regular basis.
15 years ago I felt like a kid in a candy shop browsing through all the stuff I was interested in on Ebay. Finding interesting auctions in the corners of Ebay that I thought nobody else was finding. I probably spent more money and won more auctions then I had any business spending or winning.
I barely bid on Ebay at all anymore now. I still sell as it is still a source of revenue I can't ignore.....but it's becoming less and less as the years go by.
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