Is Ebay The Worst Run Company of all time?

[ibuysportsephemera]

I have had the middle size store on eBay for a long time and fortunately have never had a problem. I don't understand how they can charge you for a full size store and restrict the number of items that you have. Shouldn't you be asking them to move you to a middle level store until they remove the restrictions?

Jeff

[Brian Van Horn]

Rhett,

I have read your post and I feel for you, but I can still name one worse run company than eBay.

[rhettyeakley]

At the end of the day it isn't that big of a deal for me as, again, this isn't my livelihood at stake as I buy-sell cards for fun but I can only imagine the mom & pop eBay store having the same restrictions and forcing them out of business.

The most frustrating thing is that I do pay to have 10,000 listings and there is no actual criteria to determine how to get it increased. I just want to know what they are wanting and then allowing me to do that. I ask and they say some gobbledygook answer about requesting more listings and then some board then determines the increase but again based on what?

I'll adapt my model of doing business to make it work but it just seems so arbitrary.

My eBay name is kryvintage. I don't feel like I am crazy expensive but I do price my items for what I feel they are worth. I sell quite a bit so I have never really heard anyone describe me as one of the eBay museums so I can't imagine there were complaints about my stuff. My DSR's are all 4.9 except "item as described" is 5.0

[bxb]

Not even close.

The fact that they make a profit puts them ahead of the thousands of companies that have gone broke.

But I share your dissatisfaction.

[SMPEP]

I don't get this.

I don't have a store, and my selling limit is higher than that!

You're paying to get less than someone who pays nothing.

That makes no sense.

[Cozumeleno]

I wonder how they would react if you threatened to close your store. They do anything to try to push sellers to open one. I thought about it a few years ago but don't sell nearly enough there to justify paying a fee.

Would they let you walk or would they work with you? I have to do my annual dance with Sirius every year by calling to cancel my subscription until they give me their lowest rate.

[D. Bergin]

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.

[savedfrommyspokes]

Originally Posted by rhettyeakley

At the end of the day it isn't that big of a deal for me as, again, this isn't my livelihood at stake as I buy-sell cards for fun but I can only imagine the mom & pop eBay store having the same restrictions and forcing them out of business.

The most frustrating thing is that I do pay to have 10,000 listings and there is no actual criteria to determine how to get it increased. I just want to know what they are wanting and then allowing me to do that. I ask and they say some gobbledygook answer about requesting more listings and then some board then determines the increase but again based on what?

I'll adapt my model of doing business to make it work but it just seems so arbitrary.

My eBay name is kryvintage. I don't feel like I am crazy expensive but I do price my items for what I feel they are worth. I sell quite a bit so I have never really heard anyone describe me as one of the eBay museums so I can't imagine there were complaints about my stuff. My DSR's are all 4.9 except "item as described" is 5.0

It is very frustrating to hear stories like this, especially since you have paid to have the largest ebay store available. It seems that most companies would just be happy continuing to take your money....for some unknown reason that is not the case here.

The only reason I can see that they lowered your limits is the fact that you are selling an average of 140-145 units a month. With their new "limit" they appear to be allowing you to stock in your store 1 years worth of items to sell....in other words, they are allowing you to list at one time as many items as you would sell in a one year time period.

Unfortunately , there are still many sellers on ebay who have 2-3 times the number of items listed than what they will typically sell during a one year period.

The only suggestions I can offer are first to use a single listing to offer all singles you have from a specific set(IE 1961 Fleer Baseball), or second to sell cards in small lots. With some modern cards there are sellers who are using one listing to offer a number of cards from a given set as singles. Here is an example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2016-TOPPS-H...a7MUnFU_pThTRA


Some of these listings have 30 or more unique cards and it is just a single listing. You can add up to 12 images per listing through ebay photo services or even more if you self host your own images. The listings with the dropdown boxes are certainly a workaround to what they are restricting you to now.

[Chris-Counts]

My latest gripe with eBay involves combining shipping for multiple items from the same seller. For months, this seemingly simple task has become very complicated, in part because every seller now has to check some stupid box somewhere saying he or she is willing to offer combined shipping. And because many people don't know the box exists (I've never seen it), they have trouble now combining shipping on orders. When I try to contact a seller about combined shipping, I often get a message from eBay saying my email was rejected because I used the used the words "combined shipping" in it. I called and complained, pointing out that such a policy is total madness. It seems like eBay should be making communication between parties easier, not more difficult.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Chris Counts

My latest gripe with eBay involves combining shipping for multiple items from the same seller. For months, this seemingly simple task has become very complicated, in part because every seller now has to check some stupid box somewhere saying he or she is willing to offer combined shipping. And because many people don't know the box exists (I've never seen it), they have trouble now combining shipping on orders. When I try to contact a seller about combined shipping, I often get a message from eBay saying my email was rejected because I used the used the words "combined shipping" in it. I called and complained, pointing out that such a policy is total madness. It seems like eBay should be making communication between parties easier, not more difficult.

Jeez. Ebay will also reject a message for using the word "invoice". As in "Thanks, I just sent you a combined invoice"....or "Please send me a Paypal invoice for the item I have just won".

It's some sort of trigger word for doing deals off-Ebay, or some such nonsense.