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Indybay Feature

EBay Strike Extended to next week March 9

by Mara
The eBay boycott by sellers and buyers has suceeded in cutting down eBay's sales, so many are planning to keep up the good work - NO BUYING, SELLING, OR OTHER ACTIVITY this next week of March 3 - 9 as well
ebayboycott_1.jpg
The eBay boycott is working -
This was the original message - with the dates now extended, and a new link to the eBay message board here -

EBay buyers and sellers - Join the EBay strike - February 18 to March 9 - don't cross the virtual picket line!
SPREAD THE WORD!
EBay has raised fees to its sellers and changed the terms.
They are upset and are calling a strike - no buying, selling, or other activity from February 18 to 25!
Help sellers and buyers - join the strike!

ebayboycott_1.jpg

EBay is a huge business which helps people to buy and sell on the internet. It enables many individuals to earn a living or supplement their income with a small business they can run from home, whether homebound, a student, single parent, disabled, etc, etc, Medium sized businesses also use this venue.

It benefits buyers and the environment by effectively recycling used goods, frequently at lower prices than are found elsewhere.

It is a resource which should not be run for huge personal profits, yet it charges these small business people fees which are too large, as does its affiliate, PayPal, also a huge business.

Buyers are concerned that the strike message may not get out to enough people to make a difference - so do what you can to spread the word.
Help this local economy to thrive and support all its members and clients.

A SELLER'S MESSAGE:
I wanted to make you aware that I, and 1,000s of other eBay buyers and sellers are participating in a boycott of eBay from Feb. 18-25th. Many are leaving eBay for good.

We are upset because eBay is raising Final Value Fees again (from 5.25% to 8.75% for auctions, from 10% to 12% for stores) and because they are requiring sellers to leave ONLY positive feedback for all transactions, even if they were scammed by a buyer. Buyers will still be able to leave positive or negative feedback.

I hope you will be able to join the boycott. To find out more about it:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000636290&start=0

You can also Google eBay boycott for more info.

A BUYER'S MESSAGE:
Feb-14-08 9075 of 9081

I am a buyer - my seller directed me here and to u-tube for information:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4MtVPuU9-Q (and others there) about the strike.

I will absolutely support it, and tell anyone I know who uses eBay to tell their friends and maybe their sellers.

I will sign the Petitions on Line:
http://www.petitiononline.com/FVF/petition.html
also http://www.petitiononline.com/ebayfee/petition.html

EBay is an important public service and should not be used for profiteering. The sellers and buyers need to have a say in how it is run.
Good luck in getting the word out.
I will try to get my local community radio station to carry a news item about this and will send a news item to my local Indy Media (online news source, anyone may post). Why not post to your local Indy Media?
Go to http://www.IndyBay.org for a list of them.

A NEW MESSAGE with LINKS:
The boycott seems to be working Report Feb-22-08
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?messageID=2009434037&#2009434037
(see attached graph)

As a buyer, I have been well treated by most of my sellers, and support their ability to make a reasonable profit. I also support eBay's right to a reasonable profit, but it seems they are after mega profits, and are taking too much from sellers and obstructing their ability for self defense against, in particular, scamming buyers. (This is not you, I'm sure!)

I'm going to continue boycotting next week, as well.

§EBay auction counts 2/17-2/23
by Mara
w02172008.gif
This is one measure of the efficacy of the boycott
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by ebay selling guide

The graph that only shows several days is really skewing the facts here. The eBay boycott is not working as well as it appears. If you took a look at a graph that started at the beginning of February, not at the middle, then you would see that there were about 13 million listings at the beginning of February, and after a large spike caused by a 20 cent listing day, the listings went up to 15 million.

Of course, after 7 days all of the listings from the promotion came down, and this coincides with the strike. It looks like there is a big drop, but really it is just returning to normalcy.

Stop misleading your readers, and do some research and appropriate reporting of the facts.

eBay Selling Guide

Is there an easy way to check if a striking seller is listing or not ?

Yes, enter the ebay user ID into this page, and/or search to see if already entered ;-)

Is there an easy way to check if a striking seller is listing or not ?
by Lyn
There are many many sellers who have no other source of income but ebay sales. Many small sellers are single mothers who need supplemental income, home-bound and disabled persons (like myself), and simply small and large business people who can't just suddenly go from a steady income to zero income by leaving ebay overnight (although quite a surprising number of some of the ebay's largest revenue producers jumped ship this week). Give a little thought to it and have a little compassion when you think why people can't just slam the door. Most of the people who have participated in this week long boycott have learned something very valuable: There are alternatives to ebay. A number of other similar sites have had phenomenal membership and listings growth this week, in direct proportion to ebay's slump in listing numbers and even more interestingly, the rate of completed sales. I started diversifying back in November when I started seeing Amazon.com outstrip Ebay and knew that ebay would probably get lean and mean and become "ebazon" in order to compete. It has been slow, but now I have enough income from my other selling venues to leave ebay completely very soon. I do think I will keep a few listings there now and then, just because I can use ebay to draw good paying customers to my new location (just like a good hairdresser moving to a new salon). Making a big shift is now easy, it is dang hard work, but it will pay off for all of those sellers (and buyers) who have learned this week that there are sales and purchases to be had beyond the feifdom of ebay. Thank you.
I don't understand why all of us ebay sellers that want to leave ebay all flock to the same site.
1. It would leave ebay with a huge loss of sellers.
2. It would make the next auction site as probifiable as ebay if we get all our buyers to follow us to the same auction site.
3. We would not have to put up with ebays BS.
4. What is the best auction site to go to onlineauction?
If we all stick together and go to the same place instead of being scattered all over the Internet we could make that new auction site
huge in a matter of days and surely then ebay would go down.
by KD
I am a single Mom and I also take care of my elderly Mom who is not well. I've not listed anything new on Ebay since the boycott. My Ebay store is small and I really depend on the money. I am looking into new sites and would love to know where everyone is going. There are so many suggestions on the Ebay member boards. I plan on having my Ebay store closed within the next couple of months. Unfortunately until then I will need to at least keep listing a few items on Ebay while getting started on a new site. I just don't have the luxury of totally not selling right now. I do believe Ebay is telling us small stores that we are no longer wanted or needed. I believe in the boycott and I support it. I just don't know if I can hold out until March 9 without any income. If someone can suggest a place for me to start that might help out I am more than willing to take the plunge.
by justthebest4u
this post is in response to the young lady that is a seller on "feebay". i have found a WONDERFUL new auction site.....you can pay as little as 8 dollars a month...NO FINAL VALUE FEES! Thousands of "feebay" sellers have joined and are very happy to be a part of this up and coming auction site... http://www.onlineauction.com. Right now you can become a founding member for 96 dollars and that includes your ola store which lets you do unlimited FREE LISTINGS WITH NO FINAL VALUE FEES EVER!
by sharon
Several OOAK artists have moved to onlineauction and seem to be doing fairly well. It will take time to establish ourselves there. A suggestion is to contact all of your buyers from ebay to let them know that you are now selling on ola.com. Having a link from your website is also advisable. I think the only way to have alternative selling venues is to have a mass exodus to one site instead of splintering to several sites. Ola has a fixed fee of $8.00 per month with unlimited auctions. They also have google checkout so you don't have to use paypal which is owned by ebay.
Sharon
by KD
Sharon and Justthebest: Thank you so much. I am going to go over to the site and check it out. I'd love to join other X xxxebayers. Hopefully I will be able to start listing tomorrow. If you don't mind send me your information on your store/listings and I will check them out. Thanks so much again. Kari PS: Do you list all as auctions there or are there small stores also.
I have extended the boycott already by leaving the site permanently for ecrater.com http://theeclecticcollector.ecrater.com/

I was mainly a buyer and occasional seller on ebay (venturecrew145) with 100% positive feedback as both. But what sane person would continue to do business with a company that treats us the way ebay does?

I spent the week of the boycott looking for a new home and defining the reasons it is no longer viable for me to continue a business relationship with ebay.

1- Mr Donahoe, new ebay CEO, stated he wants to rid the site of the embarrassing sellers of "flea market" items- otherwise known to buyers as unique vintage items and what a great many of us searched ebay for- in favor of large powersellers who drop ship their items (JUNK) from China.

2- If I wished to continue to sell my items on ebay, I would be required to pay a 66% increase in fees.

3- If I did sell an item I would be required to use paypal, ebay's own bank, to receive the money from the sale and pay them a fee as well.

4- Paypal will also now be holding for 21 days with no interest, the money paid to the small seller, while ebay still requires that I ship the item as soon as paypal receives the funds, meaning that I have to ship an item using MY money to cover shipping! And if the buyer ends up deciding they want my item for free, and initiates a charge back with paypal, I can bet they get their money back, leaving me out the following- Money lost on listing fee paid to ebay, money lost to ebay on Final valuation fee when the item was "sold" errr "Stolen", Money I had to pay to ship the item, MY item which I will never get back, Fees to paypal for money I NEVER received AND........

5 To add insult to injury, I will only be allowed to leave this wonderful buyer POSITIVE feedback, while I receive Negative feedback for being robbed!

6- BUT.....it does not end there. Additionally, for the pleasure of paying 66% more in fees to list my item, ebay has created a new DEFAULT search matrix, called "Best Match" which will give the powersellers selling the same items as me TOP placement in the search results, meaning my item, because I am a small seller, will never be seen, therefore never purchased :)

WOW! What a deal ebay is! No wonder buyers and sellers alike are leaving in droves!

I have included information about where I relocated to and my past ebay ID not as advertising but as factual substantiation to prove that what I have said is true.
by Henrietta
Why do you have to pick one site? Sell multi channel like the big boys do!

I certainly would not move to a site that charges me $8 a month just to be there. I don't know how many buyers would want to pay $4 a month either. Each to his own.

I am listing on ePier; with no listing fees, 5% FVF
and eCrater which is free, yes FREE

No they don't have the traffic eBay has, - yet, that is kinda up to us the sellers just like it was in the early eBay years. We built eBay but that doesn't mean we have to carry it on our backs until we break. Since eBay doesn't think they need sellers lets do them a favor and leave.

eBay is crawling with trolls and wannabee feedback terrorists right now. You couldn't PAY me to risk my feedback there until the dust settles.
by Paula Thomas (poe364 [at] burlingtontelecom.net)
I was wondering where everybody went on the Ebay forum. I am sticking with the boycott. Supply & demand will end this Ebay nonsense. Honest sellers not listing will work...the buyers won't like it. If the buyers start flooding Ebay with why did --- close his store, why can't I find my favorite seller ---? Ebay will have wake up. It will be the straw that broke the camels back. Hang in! Don't think the boycott should have an end date.
by KD
This is a wonderful site where many have gathered. Check it out http://forums.delphiforums.com/boycottebay
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