The husbands of very beautiful women usually belong to the criminal classes - Oscar Wilde
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Ebay bins listings fee
ONLINE AUCTION POWERHOUSE Ebay is doing away with its listing fees for part-time auctioneers in a bid to get users to sell yet more unwanted stuff to buyers making daft impulse purchases in moments of drunken madness.
The company has announced that it will be ditching the setup charge and will only take a slice of the selling price instead.
The company introduced a similar service in some European countries in 2008 and has faffed around with its payment and feedback structure over the past few years, causing some upset amongst sellers and buyers alike.
Its revised charging scheme launches on 30 March for auctions every 30 days without paying now't. Ebay will however take a nine per cent cut of the final selling price or $50, whichever is less.
"Our customers have consistently told us, 'We love free and we love simple,' and that's what we think these changes are about," Lorrie Norrington, president of Ebay marketplaces, said.
Correct us if we're wrong, but moving the payment goalpost to 'just' a percentage slice of the cake does not constitute free in our book, but at least it won't cost you anything if your dusty junk somehow doesn't sell.
That said, it's no surprise that Ebay is clutching at straws with its pricing structure. It's still howling like a kicked puppy over its loss-making sale of Skype at the tail end of 2009. Lest we forget, back in September 2005, a spokesperson for Ebay claimed that the Skype acquisition would create "an unparalleled e-commerce and communications engine."
Full details about the updated fees can be found here. µ
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Who's "they"? It's spelt out pretty clearly in the linked article.
$0.01–$0.99 FREE!
$1.00–$9.99 $0.25
$10.00–$24.99 $0.50
etc
what they fail to tell you is the free listing fee is for .99 and down listings. Who in there right mind will start an auction on a $500 at .99???? don't get me started....
While this blog is a better source of information on the Ebay fee changes than the big corporate media outlets, there are some bloggers who have gone into detail about how the Ebay "fee decrease" is actually a massive fee increase for most sellers. One such blog can be found here:
http://ebaylies.blogspot.com/
Retailers are finding that customers are happy to place orders on the internet and reserve an item in store for later collection. This includes people like Halfords, Argos, PC World etc.
How could this benefit apply to Ebay?
Ebay could have an auction and collection/drop off site.
This could draw in car-booters, market wanderers etc. Have a pre-listing website for anyone who wants to browse, allow for buyouts etc
It might end up being a pile of rubbish, but to rent a site for 12 months in a busy city is going to be cheaper than buying Skype.
How did Skype ever match up with Ebay?
It was a gamble.
THAT Auction is so bad THAT....
Bean Curd Fartilizer Sample IS Under PERFUME..... Purchase Your Own Extermination,...COD.
ALWAYS Buy Direct From Manufactuer,
Have Nice Sample Of Nice Gaseous Bean Curd Poop Up On Block Right NOW. TEN Trillions, To PAY National Debt For JUNE'010 Hummmm.Snif, thats So Aromatic & Cheap Too.?Take Auctioned Luckie Shot & ENjoy, Only Fool Would Purchase Again.
Signed:Dr.Mallard
The one thing that distinguished eBay from Craigslist is now gone.
Oh well, some new site will come along to replace them when people are fed up with being scammed.
Please keep some sort of listing fee ebay.