eBay gets an earful from sellers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--eBay sellers sounded off about rising fees and Chinese counterfeits at the auction site's annual user conference on Friday while rival Overstock.com sent an ad-slathered car to the event to lure disgruntled eBay sellers.

eBay, the site that pioneered the online auction revolution 10 years ago, is facing increasing competition from auction and other stores at Overstock, Yahoo and Amazon.com. Also putting pressure on eBay is Google, which is working on an online payment service and whose paid search listing and advertising services are a big draw for Web merchants.

"I would not be in this business without eBay, (but) you are just taking more and more out of my pocket."

--eBay power seller

Amid the flag-waving and boosterism by eBay fans were grumblings from so-called power sellers, high-volume and high-sales merchants who are particularly feeling the pinch from what they say are fewer buyers and higher prices.

"What are you going to do to bring more buyers to the site so we can succeed?" asked a demonstrably riled eBay seller attending an executive panel session for power sellers. "You have a total monopoly. I would not be in this business without eBay, (but) you are just taking more and more out of my pocket."

Another power seller asked if eBay had any radio and television advertising plans to attract new buyers.

"We are really focused on bringing demand to the site," Michael Dearing, senior vice president and general merchandise manager, said in response to the criticism. A new TV ad campaign is scheduled to run later this year, he said.

"Is there anything you can do about the huge quantity of fake porcelain and pottery coming out of China?" another power seller in attendance asked.

Earlier this year, the company started stepping up efforts to combat the problem of counterfeit items sold on the site. Those efforts have included installing a team of workers in China, said Rob Chesnut, senior vice president of eBay's trust and safety unit.

Another power seller asked why eBay didn't allow auctions to be extended until bidders stopped bidding: "The other guys are doing it," he said in reference to Overstock.com.

Extending auctions would put eBay at risk of being defined, and thus regulated, as an auctioneer, and eBay would not be able to comply with all the auctioneer laws, Chesnut said.

Outside the session, other attendees griped

[roberts2424]

Ebay has a black eye

It is so sad to see a great company eaten up by Wall Street. Ebay
has forsaken its core and continues to pretend to listen to the
sellers. There was a time when I admired this darling but no longer.
Ebay brings a terrible image to my mind. It's tarnished, greedy, and
out of touch.

[wazzledoozle]

Ebay is a hassle

I looked into setting up a sellers account, and it was so complicated that I gave up quickly. They are cutting out the small people so these "power sellers" can get their product out 20 times in a row on a search results page.

[saleen351]

I agree

I use to buy one thing a month on ebay, but lately I never buy anything. I find their site to be slow and the searches show the same product 20 times from the same seller.. I know you can filter results but thats a pain and not sure if you can filter out the same seller's 20 same auctions for the exact same thing..

Also Adam Smith should have taught these clowns that if there are too many sellers, prices will fall, they need to adjust to the market conditions just like brick and mortar stores do. I suggest they all read the Invisable Hand...

[Sam Papelbon]

cut off the power sellers

tell them to get a real job and go back to the days when real people were selling real things. by allowing power sellers to prosper, ebay has become 90% spam. i'm surprised people still go there, they are basically asking to be spammed. plus there are people who jack up the shipping price to unrealistic amounts as if they expect the buyer to want their order hand-delivered by a man with a suitcase handcuffed to his arm driving a maybach. unfortunately, any auction site that overtakes ebay is going to end up with the same problem as the power-selling maggots switch over so they can continue to spam under a veil of legitimacy.

easier way

This is why I like the NON auction classified sites such
as sell.com. www.gorage.com has a cool concept of of
paying a flat rate for selling space (not per item), but
they are brand new and need more sellers so buyers
have something of interest.

[Earl Benser]

Who cares???

Ebay, and the snipers, screw the small bidder. I don't use Ebay, so
in most ways, I don't care what happens to them. I won't cheer if
Ebay crashes and burns, but I can't help but think that that would
be a fitting end.

Now, if we could just get Ebay to take Amazon with them. But that's
another story.

[PCCRomeo]

Overstock sucks too...

You can search for "Xbox" on there and EVERYTHING pertaining to a BOX is in the search results. If eBay would stop screwing with their site they wouldn't have to raise prices.

Ebay is Arrogant & Poor Auction Site

All the problems that plague Ebay today plauge all monopolies totally void of competition, with no incentive to improve service, address consumer concerns, or be price sensitive.