EBay Ordered to Pay $61 Million in Sale of Counterfeit Goods

The giant is having their share of headaches. Truly entertaining. Not wishing or hoping good or bad on the Giant.

I see this stage of a Great Comedy.

This is hilarious ….. With all the changes and complaints from sellers…The news of eBay’s woes is received with great satisfaction. Of course they are appealing it. But it does not take away from the fun.

Let’s see, busy year for eBay
*Changes to Feedback
*Changes to feedback calculations
*New CEO
* Filed lawsuit against Craigslist.org
And much more

For details on this article go to New York Time or follow this link http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/technology/01ebay.html?ei=5087&em=&en=38b916617c9b006f&ex=1215057600&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1214906782-cCYRJg/aadlFBj7CED1sfQ

Let me know your thoughts J

More Changes on eBay coming July.........

The word is out. eBay plans on making additional changes on an already out of whack system they are running. For years marketing experts have encourage sellers to create their customer database using eBay as a selling platform. All sales and inquiries become your leads for future revenue.

Well, this might not be the case in the coming months. According to www.BusinessWeek.com eBay will no longer provide email address of the buyers. (Check eBay board.....this information has been confirmed on eBay)

"Protecting the Buyer" this is hilarious. It should be called "Hostile Takeover". Its all about numbers. eBay knows Expert Sellers are encouraging Newbies to create a Database for marketing directly to buyers. You will not have the "Freedom" to contact the buyer to offer them items to complement their purchase or invite them to your website.

Hmmm..... this means Greedy driven eBay will force you to make all sales using their platform.

Further, Sellers and Buyers main complaint has been the lack of communication. In the past whenever eBay made changes; emails sent from their platform and got lost in cyber-world. Of course this can lead to negative feedback and loss of sales. Would eBay ever accept responsibility? NO ....... Why would they? Amazon does provide you with buyers email information. Of course eBay has a long way to go to compare to Amazon.... Nice try

I could not emphasize how important is for you to get started NOW ...today on eBay.

You can learn a lot of the e-commerce business using ebay and drive buyers to your website.

NO to Anchor Stores on eBay.... $299 Use the Money for Gas

The title says it all. The anchor store claims to offer you a better position on eBay. However, if you read and take a good look; you will find eBay promotes those with large number of auctions and store items.

Visit http://pulse.ebay.com/ You will see here Popular Searches and eBays Largest Stores. This helps you understand how eBay ranks you. You can also break it down by category.

Checking this out is Very Important for you. As it will show you what the Buyers are Searching for. Now, all this information is there for you and its FREE. Waste and spend no more Money. Research it. I am anxious to know your findings. Sure enough this will help you understand how the marketplace is doing.

The stores worth promoting are of sellers using their ProStores. In order for you to use ProStores you MUST accept Paypal. ..... Good Luck...

Resheard your Category...KNOW your competition. In order for you to stand a chance inside eBay and on the web you MUST dominate each category. For example: selling Office File Cabinets check the competition and list more than what they have. So..you do not have enough in stock?? Run a promotion or
a) offer Free Shipping or
b) work on your TITLE (keywords)

If you lack the stock and cannot compete in numbers then do it with KEYWORDS

ex: 4 drawer office file cabinet metal for sale (Competitor)
you: Hon Home Office Lateral 4 drawer File Cabinet Key

Your Title should Highlight-
Brand, Color, Use and Compare to Major Name brand ........... you will stand a better chance of obtaining that sale.

Work on your About Me page on eBay. Keep in mind all content on the About Me page is searchable outside eBay (the Web). Insert keywords, talk about the product, manuals, warranties etc...

I do not recommend for you to spend $299 on ProStores
I do recommend:
1) Your own Website
2) Merchant Account
3) Promote yourself at no cost
4) Promote your website on major search engines (yes, this requires an investment)

If you have your website, invest the $299 into Goodle Ads. The return will be well worth it.

I will talk more about Google Ads, ProStores and Google Adsense. The Internet is a wealth of information and opportunity to make money.

Stay tuned. :)

eBay no longer offers Square Trade

Love and Hate................ When a dispute arose with a buyer and negative feedback was threatened you had the option to get Square Trade Mediator involved.

Well, if you wanted this service you would need to be a Member at Square Trade (and make them rich). Charging as much as $20 to file a dispute and ask for Feedback to be withdrawn. If you are a Power Seller this can add up.

The removal of feedback was contingent on the Buyer agreeing to have the feedback withdrawn. In my experience this was an important tool; On occasions, when you simply could not reason with the buyer. Ultimately you want the to make your buyer a Happy Camper and avoid that Negative comment.

With the recent changes on eBay you cannot have feedback withdrawn. Unless you obtain a court order..

Now, here is an example of what kind of Seller should not be selling.....

Take a look............ :)

Here is an interesting video

Market is slow and eBay is not driving buyers to your listings.......

Time for your OWN website.

Highly recommended: If you have already made a few extra dollars reinvest them on purchasing your Domain and Hosting package. This is considering you already have Paypal as a Payment option (work on getting your own Merchant Account).

1. Use your User ID or eBay store name as your Domain Name (we will discuss Pro Stores later)
2. Get your website live and filled with product (at least match what you have already listed on eBay or any other auction site)
3. About Me page - Use your about me page on eBay to drive traffic to your website. This is allowed in their Terms of Use. Use eBay's website presence to your advantage.
4. Create a Clearance Category on your website.
5. Advertise your website for Free on:

a. http://www.craigslist.org/

b. http://www.backpage.com/

c. http://www.recycler.com/

d. http://www.oodle.com/

For more sites, check http://www.whateverebay.com/

6. Start blogging and join Social Networking site and forums.
7. Send out email invitations and discount coupons to previous buyers. Selling on eBay allows you the opportunity to create a database. Those Non Paying Bidders email them too. Soon you will have presence on the web and sales (no eBay as overhead).

Keep in mind; you can Offer the Buyers an additional Discount to your already low prices. You can pass along the savings from listings and final value fees.

Now is the time to let your buyers know How Important they are to your business.

Make eBay and other auction sites work for you.

Changes on eBay ...means Headaches for Sellers

With all the changes eBay has made; I want to review some of the problems they have caused.

For one; this is the worst time to make such changes. With the economy dragging; the small business owner is not the only one feeling the impact. Power Sellers on eBay generating over 100k in sales a month and falling behind fast.

Listing Errors - The listings are not in the order submitted or ending first. Listings are scattered and not appearing from time to time. Their search bar does not always display what is available from all sellers. Some sellers have reported Ghost Sales. They only know of a sale taking place once the buyer submitted payment. Therefore, check your invoice carefully. eBay will invoice you for sale that you did not know took place or had a chance to contact buyer for payment, yet alone. submit for a Final Value fee credit. This leaves you vulnerable to erroneous billing. Try to fight with eBay billing department.....Sure.... then soon enough..you will find they Shut Your Account. NARU~!

21 day Payment Hold - eBay has also set limitations on new sellers and some existing sellers (how this is determined is still news to me) eBay will not release your funds for 21 days! They call it the 21 day Rule. Of course its clever. You CANNOT sell on ebay if you do not accept PayPal. No Exceptions. You MUST accept Paypal. Any sale paid using Paypal they will Freeze the funds for 21 days. You can obtain the funds earlier if 1) Buyer leaves you positive feedback or 2) Provide evidence of delivery (about 3 days after).

Shipping - There is a catch on the Proof of Delivery. Recently, a seller informed us Paypal refused to release the money; even though they have a signed delivery slip from the buyer. Paypal refused due to the Seller NOT shipping with FedEx or UPS. Now, this is ridiculous... Nowhere in the Terms of Payment did Paypal disclose Sellers can only use UPS or FedEx.

eBay and Paypal win again. They hold your money, earn interest and you take a huge risk by shipping without payment. Paypal does not offer you any protection.

Google Checkout - By now, most of you have heard of Google Checkout... Some sellers have tried to use Google Checkout as an alternative payment method, however, eBay took down their listings for Payment Violations. I emailed Google myself and asked if sellers could use Google Checkout to obtain payment from items sold on eBay; Google responded Yes.

Merchant Account - Having your own merchant account is critical for ecommerce. You as a Seller have a lot more protection. A Buyer cannot simply ignore your Terms & Conditions. Now, eBay will not allow you to use your Merchant Account with out their approval. Be ready to provide them with your Merchant information and allow about a week for a response. This can go either way..

eBay Sellers Cannot Leave Feedback

Everyone knows eBay changed their feedback policy. This is not good new for sellers, not at all good. As a former seller on ebay I know first hand the kind of slanderous feedback Non-Paying bidders and Difficult buyers can leave. Always two sides to a story. Not anymore on ebay.

Sellers will not be able to leave any negative or neutral remarks for the buyer.

This is extremely frustrating. You cannot alert other sellers of these NON Paying Bidders. Checking the buyers feedback used to be beneficial for the seller to check the buyers feedback. Hey, if other sellers complained about Non Payment or difficulties; then you had an option to terminate their bid or block them from purchasing.

This is a HUGE disservice. Of course eBay makes money. They invoice you immediately upon the close of auction. Per their terms of agreement you must allow the buyer 7 days to pay and another 8 days for them to respond to the claim. In the meantime you owe the money and must pay ebay or they can freeze your account. Fair?...NOT! You are out the listing fee, final value fee and potential buyers. Its a tough market and people are not much into being out bid. Of course it varies on what you sell.

What can we do? A lot!!! A new site "WhateverEbay.com" is a place for information and for sellers to post alerts on buyers. Just for sellers; Buyers are not allowed to post. This site is free and full of information.

There are many other sites allowing Buyer to Rant and Rave but not many for Sellers. Time for Sellers to stand up and let Buyers know that Sellers will unite.