Dave I feel you are right on the money here. eBay is changing its focus from the flea market/swapmeet feel of the auctions to the bigbox feel of the buy it now. With the fee structure and favoritism that is given to the large sellers, the small sellers are having to find other venues to sell on. Luckly there are some great venues like bonanzle, etsy, eCrater and others that welcome these sellers with open arms.
The disappointing thing is eBay has always meant auctions and this transformation is moving away for that format futher with every change.
I feel the time is right for a fresh new auction format to come along and give the sellers and buyers who enjoy them a new “home” . Bonanzle? Etsy? Anyone? how about it?

No doubt there will be a further seller exodus and eBay will look innocent and say ‘we didn’t cause this, the service provider imposed the fees’.

The way for low volume sellers to avoid surcharges is not to use fee services. Back to the stone age for you!

My question about the classifieds, where is the monetization? eBay seems to have lost interest in Kijiji you never hear about it.

I always used craigslist for my larger items that I didn’t want to ship but now maybe it is time that I really start looking into putting some of my other items there. It seems like eBay is trying to get away from its roots and most companies that move away from what made them do not do as well in the future. Hopefully buyers will really start searching the other sites as eBay becomes more of a big box retail and not a place for all types of items. You would think with the economy an online yardsale would be the best thing to be as peoples finances are tighter than ever and need to make their money go a lot farther.
JMHO

Small sellers have plenty of options other than eBay for doing 1-100 items a month. I think mid-level (bronze – gold) powersellers are the Wales in the Tuna net for eBay changes. Will eBay go free? I dunno, been hearing that rumor for over a year now, so I won’t even speculate. If they DO go free, I would be the FIRST ONE to shout HALLELUJAH though cause it would make eBay “fun” again IMHO

The more things change, the more the eBay managment team finds to change.
I used to think eBay would never go free because management clearly hated the “clutter” caused by the voluminous listings generated when they did. I bet they wish they had those listing back now?

Now, they might go “free” for certain categories but they clearly don’t want to subsidize 3rd party providers, certified or not, who were making money by giving us “free slide shows” etc and gathering in the referral fees from all those thru their epn links.

Frnakly, I’m waiting to see an annual membership fee (which NO I will not pay) and fees for services – similar to what Vendio and Auctiva are trying to implement. Good luck with that. I think it will be the final nail in the coffin.

I’m an auction person from LONG habit before ebay ever existed I went to the auction every week just for fun. Like a “famous” ebay radio personality says “If it ain’t fun, we ain’t doing it”. eBat should listen to their own friends. If it ain’t fun, we ain’t doing it. At least I’m not.
Beth
http://antiquedaze.blogspot.com

Wow – so much conjecture. Is eBay pushing out small sellers? I resisted this notion for a long time but it is really becoming apparent that eBay’s changes are making it harder and harder for the “hobby” or “casual” seller to compete. At the same time their newest (First Five Free) Promotion seems to be aimed at just such sellers. Will eBay go Free? I’m assuming the posters mean going to no listing fees? Yes, I’m betting they will and time only will tell how that affects us all.

Hang in there – change or die . . . . .

Kat