More ways to lose money

[callmemadam]

I've just had mail from eBay telling me about changes to shops inventories and fees. Now, a few months ago we were given the exciting news that items in shops' inventories would have increased visibility. This new message tells me that they have decided to decrease visibility. As if the things weren't hard enough to find already. Then fees will change. The heat may have fuddled my brain but I think they are saying that insertion fees will stay the same but the selling fees will go up quite a lot, especially for higher value items. Then they thank us for choosing eBay (rather than Amazon, I suppose).

This makes me quite cross. They are already making a lot of money, especially out of Paypal. Won't these changes make sellers put up prices? I'm sure the high selling fees are the reason for the generally higher prices on Amazon Marketplace. Most of the stuff in my shop is books I am gradually clearing out, not business items.

I'd be really interested in other people's comments on this, especially as I may have got it all wrong.

Comments

Re: EBay

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Yes, and it's annoying when you see someone pay more for an item at auction than you are charging in your shop. This makes the 'less visibility' changes even more annoying. When they come in I shall try searching for my items and if they're impossible to find I shall give up. OTOH after a while you establish a customer base which it's a shame to lose. According to the UK message boards, the Australian eBay sellers are particularly incensed by the changes and well organised in their response.