eBay=feeBay

[Bree]

Hello all! My first post on here! I've been a lurker for awhile. Anyway, I read through this thread and I wanted to say there was a comment some time back which included some sarcasm about being afraid of money orders. Well, we have had a family tack shop that has sold on Ebay and our own website for over 10 years. We have received 2 counterfeit money orders in our years. Both were for new saddles and were $2500-3000 checks. These were so good, in fact, that the bank didn't even know for weeks. FBI (I think) was involved both times and knew who the offenders were but there is no way to get paid. So, even though there are fees for Paypal it is also a quick way to get your money safely and is comparable to the fees for our merchant account. I do agree though that the fees have gotten a little high for Ebay. But, then again, where else can you get the attention of thousands of people looking for your specific item every day!

Jennifer

J. Stephenson Leathercraft

Tipton, IN

Welcome Jennifer! You joined on my birthday!! That's special!

It is ohhh... so tempting for small businesspeople to save time by delegating business functions to others willing to do them. The problem is that you no longer control your business. If you delegate control, then you must be 100% certain that what you need to have done will get done and that there is some method to remedy deviations from the service agreement.

For my part, I try to shift the risk to the buyer whenever possible. I want all the money up front. If someone convinces me to split payments, I want rock solid guarantees or I won't commence work.

[Shorts]

I've had an account on Ebay for years and buy random small things here and there. But as far as doing any selling, I stopped after the first round of items.

First, my items are worth much more than what the highest 'lowest bidder' prefers to pay for it. Frankly, "Ebayers" are cheap. I don't want to sell to Ebayers. I want to sell to customers particularly seeking my items. While this runs along the line of free market and the item is worth what someone is willing to pay. I'd like to set that minumum limit without being charged a higher closing fee. Maybe its an effort for Ebay to keep itself what it is. A cheap method of convenient buying and selling. I value my time and my items higher than Ebays standards.

Second, the fees. Not only do you get hit with Ebay fees, but you get PayPal fees too. Nickled and dimed out of a profit well, bites the dirt. I won't allow my profit, my items or my time to be nickeled and dimed to fit into the quick and convenient niche Ebay wants to work in.

Third, but not least, politics. Both Ebay and PayPal have positioned themselves on the direct ooposite side in regards to certain political matters I find important. Matters that are exactly the market I am in. I refuse to carry a company on my back who actively seeks to shut down the freedoms I have, both professionally and personally.

Short and simple, I dislike their business practices. They will not get mine.

[Frank]

I had a recent run-in with eBay as well. I finally had enough and contacted my Congressperson, my State Attorney's Office, Anti-Trust Division and also the Federal Trade Commission. I wrote and called each one of them when eBay made it mandatory to use PayPal or another form of electronic payment. They are TYING 2 different services when you only want to use one, which is eBay. These actions are indeed illegal. They violate Anti-Trust Laws. Also since eBay purchased PayPal in 2002 it made them a complete monopoly because no other online auction site could compete with eBay. I did some digging and found that eBay owns A LOT of stock in every major online auction site. What a shocker!

The State's Attorney's Office was very interested in the information and had several complaints regarding these matters. They were getting in touch with other states to try and start a lawsuit against eBay, depending on how many people complained in each state. I ended up writing a 10 page research paper on this.

If you have the time, I urge anyone who uses eBay to contact the in individuals noted above in your respective state. Now eBay is charging sellers 12% plus insertion fees along with 3.9% in PayPal fees. Something definitely needs to be done. This paves the way for crooked buyers to take advantage of the sellers because there is no recourse to protect the sellers, only the buyers. I sell once in a while and now I have stopped doing that. I just can't afford to lose that much money on some of my items.

[Go2Tex]

And apparently, if the buyer turns out to be a crook, Paypal will charge you back for the money you were paid. You will be out the money and the item you sold and shipped.

[JohnBarton]

I think a good way to look at Ebay is to think of it as cheap marketing and to set your prices so that the fee is built in.

I know a lot of folks who sell cues on Ebay and they have low cost loss leader type stuff to get the attention of people and what they do is use the low priced auctions to sell people on their "trustworthiness" as a cue dealer. THEN when people see that they have lots of sales and "trust" they sell a few higher end cues "off Ebay" each month at higher profit and without Ebay/PayPal fees.

Having an Ebay Store is pretty cheap. So use it to establish yourself and to tell people about your stuff and your philosophy and quality.

Here is the thing, Ebay visitors come from EVERYWHERE.

They come from google searches, they come from Ebay searches, they come from the unlikliest places. People can get lost in Ebay looking for a wooden rocking chair and somehow end up coming across your "advertisment" (auction) for your leather journals and IF your pitch is compelling then they end up buying from you even though they had no intention of buying a leather journal.

And for the people who do go looking for leather journals, well perhaps they are cheap, perhaps they really want the lowest price. Your JOB is to convince them that your price IS the lowest price because it provides the HIGHEST VALUE. You can write as much as you want you can show off as many pictures as you want - you can tell any story that you want to. When a person clicks on your auction listing they are YOURS for a few seconds and if you do your job right then they stay with you for a few minutes and if you REALLY do your job right they buy something from you. It's unfair to paint them all with the same brush.

If you really want to be available to millions of people each day then there aren't a lot of better places with both casual and focused shoppers like Ebay.

Their practice might be considered monopolistic and heavy handed. I don't disagree with that. However it's not unlike the Antique Malls around the country that rent you a stall and dictate that all purchases go through the main register so that they can get their cut.

So for me, if I wanted to do Ebay as a small time leather worker doing high quality goods - I'd treat it as advertisment instead of a vehicle for sales and just tend to look at the occassional sale that comes from an Ebay auction as a bonus.

[RawhideLeather]

I agree with most who think Ebay has gotten greedy.

Just a quick thought. JohnBarton just said what I was thinking which was:

"I think a good way to look at Ebay is to think of it as cheap marketing and to set your prices so that the fee is built in."

Another similar approach for those who many be using Feebay primarily for marketing is to mark you goods up higher than you anticipate most anyone would be willing to pay and use the good till cancelled option. Hopefully some interested lookers would then check out your website (assuming you have one) to see why your work deserves such a high price and see that your prices there are actually within reason. If someone actually did buy something on Feebay at the inflated price then... well you probably wouldn't mind that too much! Just a thought...

Richard

Edited April 5, 2009 by RawhideLeather