Frankly, I don't see what all the commotion is about.
By the way, there are some really great auctions on ebay...ahem! 
Go ahead, click the picture!
As they say, Happy Bidding!
Posted on 11/12/2001 6:37:13 AM PST by Shift_Master
ALL HAS NOT been well in the land of eBay since “Checkout” was unveiled on Oct. 22. Bulletin boards maintained by eBay are filled with angry posts lambasting the online auction service for the new payment policy. The words “monopolistic,” “anti-American,” and “class action lawsuit” are being bandied about by some of the more frustrated sellers. Others are simply threatening to stop selling on the service.
For its part, eBay maintains to the angry throngs that it’s just being responsive to the other crucial half of the equation that makes the service a success: The buyers, who have said in the past that they’re confused about how to close a sale. “Checkout,” they maintain, makes it easier.
For those who have never used eBay before, some background: When you are the successful bidder for an item on eBay, you’re sent an e-mail that tells you so, and instructs you to correspond with the seller about the various ways you can pay for your purchase.
The payment methods include a good old-fashioned snail mailed check, credit card (if the seller accepts it,) a popular form of digital cash called PayPal, and more recently, a competitor to PayPal called Billpoint, which happens to have been created by eBay.
In essence, says eBay, the introduction of the new “Checkout” policy, which promotes the use of Billpoint, is similar to a store announcing it will accept a new type of credit card. The difference, say the sellers, is that eBay owns that credit card, and is all but forcing buyers and sellers to use it as the de facto standard. Not only does eBay make a cut on every transaction conducted on the site (sellers pay a percentage of the sale), but now, sellers complain, eBay will also get get a fee when Billpoint is used.
Sellers say that while eBay maintains that the use of Checkout/Billpoint is optional, it is being promoted in a way that makes it hard, if not impossible, for customers to avoid. eBay is intermediating in a place where they hadn’t been before, cry the sellers, by interjecting itself in the closing phase of a deal between buyer and seller.
One eBay seller who deals in stamps and stamp-related items, Bob Patkin of Georgetown, Mass., posted this message to an eBay complaint board.
“We try to list over 1,000 item per week but have literally stopped listing since Checkout has come about. We have many customers that buy up to 20 items at a time and Checkout requires me to send 20 invoices to one person. I have my own system that allows me to send multiple item invoices in seconds. We have avoided checkout but it has caused great confusion in some of our best customers. eBay please get rid of this option or make it our choice. If this does not happen we will be forced to stop using eBay.”
INTRIGUE AND CONSPIRACY
The brouhaha illustrates that eBay isn’t a giant homegrown yard sale anymore. Started by a man whose girlfriend wanted to find a way online to aid and abet her Pez collection hobby, eBay is now a place where thousands of people literally run virtual small businesses. Their livelihood is dependent on the policies eBay imposes, not to mention the tremendous traffic it enjoys.
Among the other complaints being levied against eBay is that the service is favoring high-volume sellers like Disney by not putting the same Checkout feature on its auctions. Many of these people feel the ultimate goal of eBay is to rid itself of the “mom and pop” sellers who built the service into the multi-billion dollar business it is today.
Not so, maintains Kevin Pursglove, the eBay spokesman, who says the “mom and pop” sellers to this day make up the ‘lion’s share’ of listings on the service.
“The great majority of transactions are still done by fairly small to medium sized businesses, accounting for 80 percent of the listings on eBay,” he said.
As for the outpouring of dissent on eBay’s boards, Pursglove said part of the problem is that users often respond badly to change. “People go on the board with grand conspiracy theories,” he said. “It’s very clear for any user to see that the various services are optional.”
That sort of argument, many of the sellers maintain, is not unlike another assertion made in a celebrated antitrust case.
“I think this is very similar to what Microsoft did to Netscape,” writes “ShopCindys,” a seller based in the Pacific Northwest.
PAYPAL VS. BILLPOINT
A spokesman for Billpoint rival Paypal said the company has heard from many buyers and sellers that the new eBay policy is “confusing.”
“We’ve certainly heard from many sellers that this is clearly designed to increase the use of Billpoint,” said Vince Sollitto of Paypal (which in September filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission stating its intention to take the company public.) “They’re questioning the definition of the word optional.” More than one in four eBay auctions use Paypal as their settlement means, said Sollitto, while under 5 percent use eBay’s Billpoint. “It certainly appears that they’re attempting to devise ways to tilt the playing field. You do have to wonder why?”
The answer is that online auctions are big business. With gross sales of $2.35 billion in the third quarter, eBay is not only the leader in online auctions, but an undisputed success story in a sea of drowned dot-coms. The passion of its community has been evidenced in the past, said Pursglove, when other features and services were introduced and met with ire.
“The creation or introduction of any new service is designed to do what? Designed to help people buy and sell,” said Pursglove. “We have to be consistent in our willingness to work with buyers and sellers to improve the service.”
With BillPoint, my first purchase (also over $250.00) went right through, and they never required registration by snail mail. In my experience, BillPoint was able to provide me, as a buyer, a service that PayPal could not. I never went back to PayPal again (except to ask them to mail me a check for the $10.00 they put in my initial account as a promotion). If E-Bay sellers don't like the fees, I suppose they can get together and set up their own alternative to E-Bay. As a buyer, I will go to E-Bay first whenever I want to purchase an auctioned item. I can't wish you luck with your boycott, but I hope you find satisfaction otherwise.
MM
A very misleading statement. Yes $2.35 billion in sales occured over the ebay system, but from a company standpoint, I.E. as a shareholder, the "sales" for the company is really whatever small fraction of that amount that ebay gets as a fee.
Why anyone would want to fight to pay the highest price
for an item, when they could work directly with a shop
owner and negotiate for the lowest price, is beyond me.
But all that aside, "Ebay" has the right to operate their business
in any manner they choose, including forcing people to use
their own credit card system. And people have the right to
refuse, and go elsewhere. Using Ebay "under protest", is
pretty damned funny, isn't it? Either use it or stop using it.
There are plenty of other ways to sell, without having to use Ebay.
Frankly, I don't see what all the commotion is about.
By the way, there are some really great auctions on ebay...ahem!
Go ahead, click the picture!
As they say, Happy Bidding!
your are right. ubid does not have much.
Bump to that!
I have no problem with EBay and their payment methods. Works fine for me and I'll continue to shop there.
The people who don't like it are free to set up their own site. It's called CAPITALISM ...
I also have the viewpoint of a seller--I have been cleaning out closets and putting things up on eBay and I have made a good chunk of change doing it. Having a yard sale out here where I live would be like having a snow-cone stand in Alaska in January--it wouldn't fly.
I realize that you don't like eBay, but it does have its good points (and its bad), but so do a lot of things in life.
A substantial percentage of the items being auctioned in eBay simply aren't available in shops anymore. I use eBay as a venue to find vintage electronics. There is just no equal should I be looking for, say, an RCA 1802 microprocessor, a SOL-20 computer, or documentation for an Imsai 8080.
I wish that I could negotiate with local dealers for items of that kind, but with rare exceptions it just isn't possible.
I 'shop' ebay for homeschool books. Books that NEVER would show up in our area. Those books are real treasures, and a LOT of 'em are old.
As far as the comment about the 'prices', about having to wait, etc.... I know of no other place where one can buy an $895. Aussie saddle for $91. If you 'know' your prices, and bid accordingly, keeping in mind the s+h charges, the bargains CAN be had.
LOL...hubby's getting 'into' it now. Says it's looking like he will need to build a BIG garage, for all the tools that he sees at bargain prices. COOOL...maybe he will keep up with the mechanical stuff on our van now!
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