Comments on: eBay Q409 revenues up 16%

By: Gary

Gary — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 09:33:02 +0000

Same scenario here. 8 years of selling on eBay. No more than 5 negatives with no customer ever having lost money and now a “Standard” seller. Was TRS for a month then lost it for a month then regained it for a month and now lost it again.

The way eBay do the calculations has resulted in the yoyoing.

Calculation basis used has shifted from from 12 months to 3 months to 12 months to 3 montths depending on the level of sales. Expect to get TRS back next month and then loose it again the following month! The fact is if I don’t sell anything for a month and revert to 12 months I become TRS!

Only in the world of eBay can a negative (not selling) result in a positive (TRS status)!

How this helps eBay’s bottom line is anybodies guess.

By: northumbrian

northumbrian — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 08:42:50 +0000

nearly 12 years full time selling on ebay ,about 12 negatives in that time so average of 1 neg a year
not one single buyer has ever lost money with us, they either get their goods
or they get their money back and ebay have the cheek to call us Standard,
and some of those outlet bodgers top rated ,it really is a joke

By: northumbrian

northumbrian — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 08:34:58 +0000

luckily TRS is more pride and ego to us, than a need, as we are auction only.
we can bung a few pence on the postage
and make up any FVF discount loss

we really feel for those that run a shop and rely on best match and position in search, they must have to dance like monkeys on a stick,
held to ransome by the whims of ebay and the awkward

By: Cambridge_Blue

Cambridge_Blue — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:15:27 +0000

We understand your pain norf!
For lower volume and especially higher value sellers TRS is a living nightmare where a couple of idiots can materially damage your business on eBay.
Everybody knows it is grossly unfair but are eBay listening?
I doubt it
Only solution is to flog anything you can find that is cheap and cheerful for a marginal profit and do whatever it takes to get 400 plus sales per quarter and get into the calmer waters of TRS rolling yearly review.

By: northumbrian

northumbrian — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:57:36 +0000

my feet are cut to ribbons balancing on that sword need to get myself some clogs
demoted to pleb seller this month cos we did not sell enough in the 3 monthes and some plonker left 11X 1ns months ago

By: Henrietta

Henrietta — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:43:44 +0000

@jsmith
Results were poor. Not catastrophic but certainly not good. PayPal and StubHub were responsible for the majority of gains.
There are grounds for optimism for higher volume Top-rated Sellers, if you look. Small TRS balance on the blade of a sharp sword with every sale, which will drive you barking mad if you let it.

By: Cambridge_Blue

Cambridge_Blue — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:05:36 +0000

I’m sure the Hoe and his bainite friends have plenty of ‘vision’ and ‘plans’ for most of us sellers.
I sincerely doubt however that you will like most of what you will hear in the next 2 quarters from the eBay bunker.
As to the results – complete tosh – they could have done nothing and revenues would still have risen on the back of improved trading conditions.
The issue is how they are doing relative to other ‘similar’ busnesses and the answer is not very well.
Put simply eBay have underperformed and continue to do so and without Paypal they would be in serious trouble.
The management team are not earning their money – simple as at.

By: jsmith

jsmith — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:47:43 +0000

I wonder what the reaction of people would have been if the results were poor? We would have had a lot more comments and plenty of people suggesting what ebay should do and that JD doesn’t know what he’s doing. Maybe eBay do have a plan after all?

By: Hereford United Fan

Hereford United Fan — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:15:33 +0000

Power seller lines are currently ‘closed for a short period of time’.

My account manager was also due to ring me this morning but didn’t.

Is something big going down???

By: solelymarine

solelymarine — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:34:44 +0000

I’m against low insertion fees it just encourages chancers cluttering up the cats

By: ebuyerfb

ebuyerfb — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:32:13 +0000

I’m going to speculate that the revolutionary thing coming to the clothing and shoes categories is mandatory accepted returns under all circumstances.

Market leaders like Zappos ( http://digg.com/business_finance/Zappos_wants_you_to_return_those_shoes?t=14369667 and http://www.zappos.com/shipping-and-returns ) are built around the concept of charging more but letting you return for any reason for 100% free. The logic being that buyers will pay more when there is 0 risk to them. And since you can find an example of it on the internet it must be a common trend in ecommerce that eBay needs to duplicate. (yes, I’m aware of the DSR in the UK but I’m talking about the United States)

What worries me is that I heard they will be “improving pricing and search technology” (another website said pricing, not just search). Especially combining that with a survey I saw back in November.

By: Gary Overton

Gary Overton — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:52:03 +0000

I am all for lower If’s and higher FVF’s.
Since I sell clothing I am also very interested in changes coming to those categories. My new clothing is doing well but my used clothing sales have been dismal