What's wrong with ebay?

[clawhammer]

I just got an email that ebay will be increasing their fees. Here are some of the big increases:

Old Price
$0.01 - $25 - 5.25% of the closing value
$25.01 - $1,000 - 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 2.75% of the remaining closing value balance.
Over $1,000 - 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 2.75% of the next $25.01-$1000, plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value).

New Price
$0.01 - $25 - 8% of the closing price
$25.01 - $1,000 - 8% of the initial $25, plus 5% of the remaining closing value balance ($25.01 - $1000)
Over $1,000 - 8% of the initial $25, plus 5% of the next $25.01 - $1000, plus 3% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value).

What's wrong with them? Raising up prices even 81%? Inflation is at like 4%, not 81%. I mean the problem here is that ebay has no real competition, and they have a monopoly. The supreme court needs to step in, and break ebay up. They raised their fees, but that doesn't mean that the sellers will make more profit, instead less. Just because they raise their fees, it doesn't mean that you item will sell better. It just makes me angry, I occasionally sell stuff to make some extra money, but I think that they've gone too far.

[fredjacksonsan]

I've only browsed through the vehicles, never bought anything but that's a pretty big increase.

[clawhammer]

I'm considering maybe selling on a site called auctionfire.com Anybody ever heard of them? Their prices are very cheap, I just don't know how well you could sell an item.

[clawhammer]

I was just reading up on this. Other good online auction sites include overstock.com, and onlineuactions.com

[taranaki]

as with any major operation,they'll get greedy and smug and a competitor will emerge.Ebay will then be forced to drop their prices to retain market share, until they succeed in squeezing the opposition out of the market again.......

[ec437]

someone with some internet influence needs to spread the word about other auction sites. A site like google would do. They occasionally have links on their homepage.

[87lToronadol]

i agree, just another company gettin greedy

[YogsVR4]

They hardly have a monopoly. http://www.danex-exm.dk/auctions.htm Ebay is probably the most well known, but they are no monopoly.

[crayzayjay]

Ebay isnt a monopoly? You must be kidding

[YogsVR4]

Originally Posted by crayzayjay

Ebay isnt a monopoly? You must be kidding

Did you not follow my link? They are no more a monopoly then GM is.

[crayzayjay]

Sure i did. But what you really want to be looking at is the volume through those sites compared to the amount of business Ebay does.

Case in point: QXL (which was the only other auction site i could think of off the top of my head before clicking on the link) has 278 DVD's for sale. Ebay UK has that many under "Gay interest" alone and in total over 100,000. Amazon.com has just over 7,000 DVD titles being auctioned. Ebay not a monopoly? Yeah right

[YogsVR4]

Apperently you have a misconception of what a monopoly is.

[crayzayjay]

I don't believe i do.

Monopoly - A situation in which a single company owns all or nearly all of the market for a given type of product or service. This would happen in the case that there is a barrier to entry into the industry that allows the single company to operate without competition (for example, vast economies of scale, barriers to entry, or governmental regulation).

Ebay owns the vast majority of the online auction market. There are no barriers to entry in terms of regulation but the cost of taking on Ebay, which has massive consumer recognition (it's gotten as far as TV advertising) is massively prohibitive. Ebay has a monopoly. The online auction market is certainly not perfect competition nor is it an oligopoly.

[2strokebloke]

Yahoo auctions.
In fact, there used to be an ebay japan, but over there apparently Yahoo Auctions is more popular, so Ebay Japan went down the toilet...
Here in the U.S. hardly anybody uses Yahoo auctions.