8mm Forum: Potentially interesting ebay news ...

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 12, 2008, 09:18 PM:

This may have been common knowledge to a lot of you, but it was news to me.

I recieved this information on a shipping notice from a seller ... quite interesting ... I quote ...

"eBay does NOT tell the bidders this but it considers a rating of 4 stars or less in any DSR/Star category a failing grade, and will ban any seller with an average of 4.3 stars or lower in any category. They also charge higher fees to sellers with less than a 4.8 rating in any category. Many people (myself included) believe this is part of eBay's plan to remove most of the smaller sellers from the site, leaving mega sellers like Buy.com and other big box stores Please consider leaving 5 stars in all the DSR categories if you were pleased overall with the transaction, or if you consider 5 stars are not warranted please let me know before you leave feedback."

If this is true, ebay may one day no longer be a global marketplace except for only a select few.

Posted by John W. Black (Member # 1082) on October 13, 2008, 12:17 AM:

It's sad that the very people that put ebay on the map get the shaft. But they've been heading that way for quite some time. Sooner or later a new online auction will turn up. Theres too much money in the small dealers to pass up.

Posted by Dan Lail (Member # 18) on October 13, 2008, 02:02 AM:

John W. Black wrote.........

"Sooner or later a new online auction will turn up."

I too am concerned about the future of film selling on Ebay. For this reason I have convinced Onlineauction.com to add film categories, but am afraid at this point Onlineauction is not a viable venue to sell film. First off, they do not charge a final value fee, therfore there is no profit motive for them to advertise their site or appear in a google searh or any other search. Recently I have contacted eBid and asked that they provide film categories: 16mm, 8mm, 35mm. I should get an answer next week. I will post here when I receive an answer.

I convinced several film sellers to try onlineauction earlier this year, but none of us sold many films. Maybe eBid will work out.

Another intersting note, eBay's stock stock has been around the $16 and $17 dollar range for the last few days. I don't think it is attributed to the big crash. If you look at a three year chart you can see it has been steadily downhill and more so since CEO Donahoe took the reignes last February.

Posted by Jonathan Sanders (Member # 478) on October 16, 2008, 04:30 AM:

eBay's latest and most outrageous announcement (for the UK at least) is to set maximum domestic postage & packing charges. For "Other Film Formats" the ceiling will be £4 (try sending a feature film for that!) But that's not as bad as DVDs: they (even box sets) must all be sent post free!

Of course, sellers will have to increase their prices or starting bids to include some or all of the postage cost, thereby allowing eBay to take even more in the "final value fee".

http://web.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/maximumP&P_FAQ.html#dvd

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on October 16, 2008, 04:46 AM:

Seems like we can also offer a price above the maximum for using a courier service - I guess that'll be the way to go for 16mm features.

Otherwise add £8 or so to the starting price.

We can moan and rant about Ebay all we like - they ain't going to change their minds.

We can use them or leave them alone. If we choose to leave them alone we severely restrict our market.

-Mike

Posted by Martin Jones (Member # 1163) on October 16, 2008, 05:18 AM:

toungue in cheek question...... has Rupert Murdoch got a stake in Ebay?.... his SKY is well known for shafting dealers (and consumers) from day 1.

Martin

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 16, 2008, 09:37 AM:

I wonder if this ebay UK move (which will probably be implemented
on our ebay, sooner or later), is because of, sadly, some sellers highly inflate thier shipping to inflate thier profits; I know that I have ran into that as well.

I wonder if that is what I ran into when I re-listed "StarChaser" (which happily, sold!) when i first listed it, it showed the proper 45.00 dollar charge (the shipping came to 39.98, slightly off, but not bad, considered I only weighed it), but when I re-listed it, the shipping only showed 15.00 dollars and something cents, even though I hadn't touched the shipping at all, just simply re-listed the auction. I was mystified by that.

Has anyone received any e-mails about "capping" shipping prices!

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on October 16, 2008, 09:53 AM:

Osi,

Ebay USA has already announced their intention to cap shipping prices and may, in fact, have already started to implement this.

-Mike

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on October 16, 2008, 10:21 AM:

Count me out.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 16, 2008, 10:26 AM:

Boy! That chesses me off! That means it makes it even more difficult for the indivisual seller to sell things or even start them, at a lower price.

I'm going to keep this in mind in my future auctions, now that I know that.

This seems to feed into the beginning of this series of posts, because a large company that moves a lot of stuff has the clout to get a set lower price for shipping thier merchandise, which the singular seller, cannot.

Sigh, it appears that "days of wine and roses" on ebay is quickly passing.

Still, if not for ebay, I would not have been able build the collection that I currently have.

Posted by Stewart McSporran (Member # 128) on October 19, 2008, 06:46 AM:

I've just examined the conditions and it's not as bad as it first looks. In fact, in the cold light of day, it's quite sensible.

quote:
In all categories, items which are extremely heavy or bulky and require a specific courier for delivery can be exempted. Sellers should select the option “Courier : Heavy and bulky items” instead of “Flat: same cost to all buyers” in the drop-down menu below the Domestic postage label. We’ll be monitoring this to ensure proper usage of the option.

There's nothing to say you HAVE to use a courier, they just tell you to state the courier options in your description. So you can simply state in the description something like 'Film weighs 5Kg, postal options are: Royal Mail £16.00, DHL £12.34 or Parcelforce £75.38' and you should be within the letter and spirit of their requirement.

I understand the argument that they don't make money off the postal charges, and some people have been exploiting this, but remember that if you have a dispute only the sale price is covered - not the P&P.

My only fear is that the £4 limit becomes the norm, with everyone specifying this.

Stewart

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on October 19, 2008, 01:07 PM:

"We'll be monitoring this to ensure proper usage of the option"

This is whats important there, Stewart. If you sell a lot of prints frequently and use the "heavier or bulky items" option - then, they will question it. As film prints are not heavy and bulky, you will get in trouble.

-Mike

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 19, 2008, 01:13 PM:

That really depends MIcheal.

That print of "StarChaser" was a good 35 pounds, but then, it was 35MM.

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on October 19, 2008, 01:47 PM:

Osi,

Yep - 35mm features would be particularly heavy. They can also attract their own problems with Ebay - I suspect that anybody who tries to sell them frequently would have more to worry about than shipping prices! [Wink]

I was mainly referring to 8mm and 16mm.

-Mike

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