8mm Forum: Ebay have moved the goal posts.

This is topic Ebay have moved the goal posts. in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=004897

Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on July 01, 2018, 07:15 AM:

It appears Ebay UK have moved the goal posts, which may appease a few people on here after reading comments over the last few months. For others, it may be a nail in Ebay's coffin.

First. To obtain 100 per day free listing, one now must also allow it to re-list several times AND allow offers.

Re-list? Yes,ok,whatever. Allow offers? Excuse me, but I want to be in control of my pricing NOT Ebay. If I want to allow offers it is because I have decided to do it NOT them. I anticipate the backlash from forum members will be in relation to overpriced films on Ebay being forced to be sold at a lower price,which I suppose isn't a bad thing in our case, but Ebay is for everything,not just film. There is another condition they are virtually forcing on us,although not yet part of the 100 listings conditions, and that is that they lower the price themselves each time the article is re-listed,before it reaches a certain low point. One has to consciously opt out otherwise it will happen. Pricing control of ones items is very slowly being taken away from the seller.

Secondly. "Buy It Now." The item has now got to be listed as "good 'til cancelled," as opposed to the various numbers of days previously available.

This can make life very difficult when it comes to taking a holiday/vacation. Do I have to go through ALL my Buy It Now's and cancel them, then re-list when I get back? Or do I let them roll as normal, with the danger of an item selling on day 1 of my holiday and the buyer having to wait,say, 14 days before I can get the thing posted,thus receiving negative feedback?

I wish these people would seriously consider the consequences of their actions and the extra work they are creating for those of us who don't sell in small quantities.

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on July 01, 2018, 07:37 AM:

I think ebay, like a lot of the big corporations from the states, like Google, Facebook, Apple, (the one i hate the most) and Amazon to name a few is that they just get pulled in by pure greed and are only interested in making as much money as possible and avoid paying taxes as much as possible.
Unfortunately, ebay is a good source of selling,however, as Maurice said, these sorts of changes will just lose them customers. I cant wait until another decent, cheaper auction site starts up which will pull over loads of ebay customers, but when it happens ebay will probably buy them out. Like all the named companies, (and others), they have got too big too fast. [Wink]

Posted by David Baker (Member # 3259) on July 01, 2018, 08:12 AM:

Tom , haven't you heard of E-BID ? It's an alternative auction site that is more for sellers .
Check it out : www.ebid.net/us/

I have considered seller on there too .

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on July 01, 2018, 09:14 AM:

Thanks David, i havnt heard of this one but will take a look. [Wink]

Posted by Robert Crewdson (Member # 3790) on July 01, 2018, 09:59 AM:

The trouble is that at present there isn't any site that compete with Ebay. Fortunately, my days of buying and selling on Ebay are drawing to a close.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on July 01, 2018, 11:06 AM:

Melvin
At one time, an eBay item for sale would say saying like :- The seller is away until ...... and will attend to this sale on his return."
Is this still in operation, or has eBay terminated its use?

Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on July 01, 2018, 12:22 PM:

Tom - As I mentioned in my original post, there has been a lot of discussion on this forum regarding the rights and wrongs of Ebay... particularly with the 100 free listings per day and the fact that, in our case, sellers can put a film up for sale at megaprice and it just relists and relists and relists with no sale.
I guess what has happened is that Ebay is finding this is happening right across the board and people are putting junk on there that hasn't a hope in hell of being sold.... but it doesn't matter coz it's not costing them anything! They daren't suddenly reduce the 100 per day to,say 100 per month as there would be uproar from the many people who have 200+ items listed,having exploited the offer,to find that many of their items would expire the 60 days they can be held in the "unsold" file before being deleted completely, thus making the whole thing a complete waste of valuable time spent researching and writing up the article to be sold in the first place.Many people would just call time on the whole thing.
I can just imagine the "think tank" that must have been gathered in the Ebay Board Room. "Come on, people, we need a solution to this... too many static items that need shifting and the figures don't look good....any ideas???"

David - That looks interesting. I will check that one out although with that address it looks as if it is exclusively American...I could be wrong.

Robert - How true. Today the thought of bringing it to an end also entered my head for the first time. I'll stick with it for the time being.

Maurice - Yes, I have also seen that.... but not recently. Can someone confirm if that facility is still available and how do I do it without having to write it out 200 times, please?

Thank you, everyone, for your replies so far.

.

Posted by Robert Crewdson (Member # 3790) on July 01, 2018, 12:29 PM:

I went onto Ebay, but there was nothing in the message folder to tell me about any changes.

Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on July 01, 2018, 01:31 PM:

Robert - On the left of the screen, click on "all selling" then scroll down to the bottom. The offers are all there and just click onto the terms and conditions.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on July 02, 2018, 10:56 AM:

David ...

is the "ebid" search engine broken? I typed in variations on super 8 (super 8 sound films, super 8mm sound films ect), and it said it had none. Thats'a possible, but kind of unlikely.

... but that thing about ebay NOW having the right to lower you're prices, that is really over-stepping the line, I'll be watching that closely. [Frown]

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on July 02, 2018, 11:17 AM:

I agree with Osi, I looked at the UKs eBid site and there's nothing there in films or projectors.
Anything to do with photography seemed to be a load of old junk.

Posted by Robert Crewdson (Member # 3790) on July 02, 2018, 02:58 PM:

Hi Melvin, I don't know if I'm doing anything wrong; after clicking 'All Selling', I went to the bottom of the page , which was 'Promotional Offers', and all that was listed there were 20 free listings per month.

Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on July 02, 2018, 03:32 PM:

Robert - In my promotional offers I have the usual 20 free listings per month that you mentioned and Schedule 20 Listings Per Month For free. In addition to that, I have (and assumed it was also available as standard to everybody) two further offers as follows...

Quote..

Pay Only When You Sell This Month.
No insertion fees on 100 Auction listings that auto relist and allow offers per day

Unquote

And.....

Quote

Pay Only When You Sell This Month.
No insertion fees on 100 good 'til cancelled Buy it now listings that allow offers per day

Unquote

On each of these there is a "learn more" thread that gives more details if required.
I assume for some reason you are not being offered these last two? Is this an example of Ebay being a bit elitist? One offer for one and one for another? I don't know whether they judge it on the amount of business that one does over a set period or maybe the number of feedbacks one has received. Although not a powerseller, I do do quite a bit of selling and most of it not necessarily film related.
But to answer your original question of are you doing anything wrong? No, I don't think you are.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on July 03, 2018, 11:12 AM:

If there was ever a time to "boycott" an internet business, it's right now. Unless you make all you're living from ebay, I would highly suggest that anyone with an ebay selling account, boycott selling anything for a least a week or two, if possible.

The only thing these companies believe in are profits. hey they are business, you can't blame them for that, but when they actually do something like this, it totally proves that they could care less for the individual sellers. They are hostile in they're behavior towards sellers in general, but this really does go over the line.

They could care less if you're item sells for 10.00 or 10,000, as long as they make they're cut, which is why you'll see ebay suggesting that you sell you're Derann features, for instance, for very low starting bids ...

1. Because they don't really know the worth of the items, basing they're "suggestion" on the up and down selling and making an esitmate on super 8 in general.

2. Whether it sells for a dollar or 1,000, they still get they're cut, period.

... so, if you don't have to live off of ebay, boycott! If they see that they are losing sellers left and right, they'll back off of a stragedy like this and no business, not a single business can really afford to lose customers. Oh, a few here and there. obviously, but a "mass exit"? No.

... and, to add, make sure that you give the reason as to why you are leaving, based on this new policy, otherwise, they could actually be clueless as to why you, the seller are going to they're competitor!

[Smile]

Posted by Robert Crewdson (Member # 3790) on July 03, 2018, 01:09 PM:

Hi Melvin; just had another look, and I'm not getting any other information. I have advertised very little lately, and there are usually longs gaps between listing, so that may account for the differences.

Posted by Jim Schrader (Member # 9) on July 03, 2018, 01:31 PM:

Osi, I found film stock on ebid but only had 5 listings

UBB.classic^TM 6.3.1.2