STORE OWNERS BOYCOTT EBAY IN PROTEST

[regic]

eBay UK announcement:

***Information for Buyers: Questions about Buying from eBay Shops Today***

15 August, 2006 | 08:00PM BST


We’ve received a number of emails from eBay.co.uk buyers with questions about media coverage relating to a ‘strike’ by eBay sellers. They have been seeking reassurance that they are still able to buy on eBay.co.uk.

We want to let you know that it is business as usual for almost all our sellers and we encourage you to go about your buying as normal.

We are aware of a very small number of sellers who claim they are not accepting purchases for today only to express their views about recently announced changes to the way Shops items are displayed and also changes to Shop listings fees.

The changes we have announced are intended to maintain a healthy balance between listing formats on the eBay marketplace.

Regards,
The eBay.co.uk Team

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200608151958522.html

[sliique]

Thx.  If you like, you can correct those UK publishers quoting ebay team with this:

I am one USA store owner that is NOT selling ANYTHING, in honor of the boycott/strike for a whole WEEK.  NOT one day.

[regic]

The eBay US response to the strike - a buyer promotion for core site listings:

**Win a $5,000 eBay Shopping Spree or $25 eBay Gift Certificate with the eBay Pop Hits! Sweepstakes***

August 15, 2006 | 04:00PM PST/PT

Lisa Oda
Hello music and trivia buffs! – I'm Lisa Oda and I'm back to kick off a new promotion called the eBay Pop Hits! Sweepstakes. The eBay Pop Hits! Sweepstakes starts on August 16 and will test your knowledge of music hits from the 60's through today. You can enter every day between August 16- 22 for chances to win a Grand Prize $5,000 USD eBay shopping spree or First Prize $25 USD eBay Gift Certificate. There'll be one Grand Prize winner and 100 First Prize winners every day!

To automatically enter the daily prize drawing, simply win an auction-style listing or use Buy It Now, and you’ll get one entry into that day’s prize drawing.

For up to five more entries into a daily prize drawing, you music buffs can take the Pop Hits trivia challenge. Each day we'll post five music trivia clues that'll help you guess which pop songs of the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, and today made eBay's list of hits. Simply choose song names from the drop-down menus provided on our trivia page. For each exact song name you choose, you'll get one entry into the daily prize drawing. Come back every day for new clues and chances to win!

The eBay Pop Hits! Sweepstakes starts August 16th, so get ready to shop, buy, and win!

Sincerely,

Lisa Oda
eBay Marketing

[sliique]

Boinking pathetic!  (I actually typed Boink, instead of F***ing).

Matters not to me, I ain't selling nothing for that week, come hell or high water.

[maryrussel]

I don't have a store and haven't had one since Feb of 2005, but in support of the strike I have not listed or bought anything on eBay since last Tues, Aug 8th.

I haven't yet decided when I will list again.

[stardust]

I haven't yet decided when I will list again.

Ditto.  Sell-thru rate for the art category right now goes from 10% to 23% for auctions.  Really stinks.

[xppman]

Sell-thru rate for many categories right now goes from 10% to 23% for auctions
and has been this way for quit some time no matter what medved charts claim. 
I think it really stinks all over ebay and the peeps who come
out on the forums to talk about it are just the tip on the iceberg.

Sell-thru rate in my category has been 10% to 25% or so
for auctions for quit some time. 

Each time I've checked a competitor (over the last 18 months maybe three times)
who is pumping out auctions like there is no tomorrow.
I find them upside down and selling maybe about 1/4 of what they are listing.

[mandy]

More press coverage of the sellers strike from Australia, the UK, and USA.

Online auction company eBay is facing an angry international mob of sellers who are protesting about new listing and fee structures to be introduced next week.

A boycott of the auction site was staged in Britain this week, petitions are being signed worldwide and a group of Australian sellers plan to make their stand next Monday in protest to the changes, which some claim represent a threat to their businesses...

New Australian auction site Oztion has gained 15,000 members since the fee hikes were announced.

OZtion, a recently established Australian auction site, said it had been one of the key beneficiaries of eBay's fee rise, adding 15,000 new members since the company made the announcement late last month.

"Of those 15,000 new members, 1900 have identified as professional sellers, and have already paid to go through OZtion's security checks for sellers," the company said...

full article: http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/ebay-...40976.html
the Oztion website: http://www.oztion.com.au/

You can open an online store for a few dollars. But keeping it open might come down to a few cents.

That's what some veteran eBay sellers in Delaware are saying after the online auction giant said it would increase the fees it collects from every sale made at eBay "stores" starting Tuesday.

Penny by penny, item by item, sellers say, those fees make it less profitable to do business as a store, where individual sellers offer many goods at fixed prices rather than put them up for auction...

"I think people may not have warm-fuzzy feelings about eBay as they used to," said Darren Hussey, a Newark-based seller of statuaries who has operated an eBay store for about five years...

full article: http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs....6/SPORTS03

[mandy]

Auctionbytes providing press coverage of the eBay Australia strike:

eBay Sellers Set to Strike in Australia

eBay sellers in the UK got major media attention when they went on strike on August 15, and Australian sellers have been readying for their planned strike on Monday, August 21. According to one seller, the count was at 152 Stores as of Thursday (http://forums.ebay.com.au/thread.jspa?th...=500024740). He reports that sellers will close their eBay Shops and relocate on competing auction sites, including oztion.com.au, www.aussiebids.com.au, and www.ebid.net ...

full article: http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m08/i18/s02

[FiberGuy]

Looks like spam, smells like spam, tastes like spam.... it's probably spam.