Ebay policy changes

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:53 pm

Badmike

Remember that Europe is now the place where regions are trademarks.

You cannot sell burgundy that does not come from Burgundy.

You cannot sell cheddar that does not come from Cheddar.

No surprise an American company automatically loses a court case in France...much less one involving perfumes and handbags.

Europe is not really about free trade at the moment.

Posts: 4449 · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:29 am

lucyjoyce wrote:

I saw this today and wonder the same thing, Hermit. Can folks overseas see my auctions? It's odd, but more than half of my sales the past couple of months have been overseas - Singapore, Denmark, Finland, Italy, France and Japan in addition to the much beloved UK and Canada. But that stopped about three weeks ago, and now it's mainly US, with a couple of notable exceptions. With the weakness of the dollar one would think the opposite would be the case. Anyone else seeing a similar trend?

It would be insane for Ebay to do this, but then again....I do know I'm getting about as much international buys as ever, haven't noticed a slowdown yet.

I know for certain that I wouldn't chose to list in individual markets overseas. Maybe it's another part of Ebay's attempt to drive out smaller sellers, as larger sells might not have a problem with multiple listing fees.

Mike B.

Posts: 4449 · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:35 am

FormCritic wrote:

Badmike

Remember that Europe is now the place where regions are trademarks.

You cannot sell burgundy that does not come from Burgundy.

You cannot sell cheddar that does not come from Cheddar.

No surprise an American company automatically loses a court case in France...much less one involving perfumes and handbags.

Europe is not really about free trade at the moment.

Well Europe yes, but France in particular. They have limits on how many foreign items are allowed to be sold, as well as lists on foreign movies, music, books, etc that area allowed in (there is a quota system in place). Interestingly, they put NO limit on tourists to their country because of course we spend our filthy american money when we get there for overpriced crap at sidewalk cafes served with glacial slowness.... Rolling Eyes

Mike B.

Posts: 975 · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 1:40 am

Badmike wrote:

It's a non-competetive clause that frankly I'm on Ebay's side about....screw the damn french anyway, if they want their culture to be "pure" then why let them on Ebay? Ebay should just shut down Ebay France and block all email registrations originating from France. That case is a crock.

Mike, while I agree with you I can't help but laugh at the irony.

Quote:

"Today’s ruling is about an attempt by LVMH to protect uncompetitive commercial practices at the expense of consumer choice and the livelihood of law-abiding sellers that eBay empowers everyday.

Here is eBay complaining about uncompetitive practices when they are trying to do the same in Oz with Paypal. I can only hope the ACCC hits them hard on this. Otherwise I am sure they will try this in the US/UK.

Posts: 1276 · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:40 am

eBay has a nice new thing they like to do to you, if you haven't noticed yet, then be lucky...

If you sign in and allow cookies to carry between sessions (pretty common amongst individual users so you don't have to always log in to every site you visit - I personally only do this to test things) you might end up losing some options, notably search options. When I tested this earlier, I found that my usual method of searching (items ending in an hour, BINs, started within the hour) simply were not available like they used to be - I had to go to advanced search and drill down into it to find it, and then, I only got 5 results. Yeah, 5. On all of eBay, including "worldwide." I loaded a different browser that did not have the cookie saved and lo! All options available and I got many more results with the search. Obviously there is no way to opt-out of cookies, or you'll never be able to log in, bid, sell, or do anything your account allows you to do, so you're pretty much prison-loved if this happens... I'm very glad AuctionSieve exists. I'm going to have to rely on it for my searches now.

Posts: 975 · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:52 am

improvstone wrote:

Here is eBay complaining about uncompetitive practices when they are trying to do the same in Oz with Paypal. I can only hope the ACCC hits them hard on this. Otherwise I am sure they will try this in the US/UK.

Looks like they changed their mind on Paypal ... Sort of ... Shocked

http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/ebay-backs-down-on-paypal-changes/20 08/07/03/1214950928313.html

Now we are forced to give Paypal as an option

Posts: 406 · Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:09 pm

Well I guess I've been 'upgraded' to the new search. Does anyone else just love the way it replaces your search term should it feel the need - or has it always done this and I've never noticed? The term 'tractics' is converted to 'traction', for example. Marvelous, I may THINK I know what I want to search for but eBay knows even better! This mind-reading feature can be outwitted by enclosing the term in double quotes.

And has the USA really stopped selling Traveller items? There are barely any on offer, about a third of the UK listing total. What the hell is up with that? All my automated searches have been affected too.

Posts: 109 · Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 11:11 pm

megnelwil wrote:

Well I guess I've been 'upgraded' to the new search. Does anyone else just love the way it replaces your search term should it feel the need - or has it always done this and I've never noticed? The term 'tractics' is converted to 'traction', for example. Marvelous, I may THINK I know what I want to search for but eBay knows even better! This mind-reading feature can be outwitted by enclosing the term in double quotes.

And has the USA really stopped selling Traveller items? There are barely any on offer, about a third of the UK listing total. What the hell is up with that? All my automated searches have been affected too.

Your search using marklands returned 0 results. This keyword has been replaced with maryland. Undo

I'm beginning to think ebay is an evil that must be stopped. Unfortunately, I'm stuck there.

NO! I did mean Maryland!
Buggers.

Evil or Very Mad

Posts: 70 · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 12:09 am

With regard to the below item of interest, does anyone know for sure?

???????

-For eligibility choose Int'l Site Visibility listing upgrade
-Reach millions more UK shoppers looking for deals
-No more double listing. Available in most categories

I thought when you listed anyone could find your items simply by making a worldwide search. Does this mean they are planning to limit worldwide searches and make Sellers pay for people overseas to be able to find their items?

Posts: 1002 · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 12:24 am

http://blogs.smh.com.au/mashup/archives/019366.html

Brette:)

Posts: 70 · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 12:41 am

I've tried and tried to become confident in http://rpgmarketplace.com as I see it as a great alternative to Ebay. However, for some (several) reason(s) the site just isn't catching on.

To the operator of http://rpgmarketplace.com I beg you, make it work! There needs to be more stuff listed, more stuff purchased, and an easier registration process. Yeah, I'm the guy who has an msn.com account and it was declined initially because it's not a "for fee" e-mail account. Thank you for allowing me to register anyway (much appreciated) but I couldn't help thinking of how many buyers are not able to buy from your site.

I understand your reasoning, it's hard to track someone if they have a free and somwhat anon e-mail address and you're looking to protect your sellers and reputation. I personally use msn.com because I can get to it from ANYWHERE and I travel a lot (and I mean a WHOLE LOT). Also, my home moves about every 3 or 4 years and since I don't like AOL or E-link, I go with local providers and that means changing e-mails unless I use something like msn.com. Enough about me though...

I would love to have 100% of my buying and selling done through your site but you've got to attract more sellers and LOTS more buyers.

Please know that I'm not complaining, I'm encouraging; maybe even begging. Go for it! Take on Ebay and make a BILLION dollars!

Posts: 4449 · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 1:40 am

Wags wrote:

I've tried and tried to become confident in http://rpgmarketplace.com as I see it as a great alternative to Ebay. However, for some (several) reason(s) the site just isn't catching on.

To the operator of http://rpgmarketplace.com I beg you, make it work! There needs to be more stuff listed, more stuff purchased, and an easier registration process. Yeah, I'm the guy who has an msn.com account and it was declined initially because it's not a "for fee" e-mail account. Thank you for allowing me to register anyway (much appreciated) but I couldn't help thinking of how many buyers are not able to buy from your site.

I understand your reasoning, it's hard to track someone if they have a free and somwhat anon e-mail address and you're looking to protect your sellers and reputation. I personally use msn.com because I can get to it from ANYWHERE and I travel a lot (and I mean a WHOLE LOT). Also, my home moves about every 3 or 4 years and since I don't like AOL or E-link, I go with local providers and that means changing e-mails unless I use something like msn.com. Enough about me though...

I would love to have 100% of my buying and selling done through your site but you've got to attract more sellers and LOTS more buyers.

Please know that I'm not complaining, I'm encouraging; maybe even begging. Go for it! Take on Ebay and make a BILLION dollars!

Hey Wags;

Not exactly speaking for Doug, but RPGmarketplace has always been what you make of it. It's just a venue minus all the cherry on tops of Ebay and such, a place just to list stuff without charging. But the catch is you (and me, and anyone listing there) has to do ALL the marketing. Doug has a really good regular job; he doesn't have a lot of incentive to spend hours doing more and more for the site, unfortunately. During the first few months of RPGmarketplace I posted here and on Dragonsfoot weekly updates; I have not been able to keep up that schedule, even though there are many, many really rare and interesting RPG items there (also, the marketplace got it's 100th member last week!!!!).

I have been very busy this year getting ready for Gencon, and thus have not been able to list or contribute as much as I could. This will change a lot after Gencon as I hope to list quite a bit afterwards. At it's heart the Marketplace is not a competitor to Ebay but instead an alternate venue to avoid paying Ebay fees for listing or selling. I would encourage anyone trading or buyng and selling amoung Acaeum members that are registered to do so through the marketplace to give it more traffic and more visitors; also to mention it if you are at another site if someone asks for an alternative to Ebay. Hopefully the more time it's up, the more it will be noticed and used as a trading spot.

Mike B.

Posts: 109 · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 3:07 am

Mike,

What types of items are needed there? I noticed it's a hodge-podge right now but I could probably list 100-200 mid range items if I knew they would sell.
PM me if you want. I'm interested in any alternatives I can find.

Arg

Posts: 342 · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 9:29 am

Badmike wrote:

Hey Wags;

Not exactly speaking for Doug, but RPGmarketplace has always been what you make of it. It's just a venue minus all the cherry on tops of Ebay and such, a place just to list stuff without charging. But the catch is you (and me, and anyone listing there) has to do ALL the marketing. Doug has a really good regular job; he doesn't have a lot of incentive to spend hours doing more and more for the site, unfortunately. During the first few months of RPGmarketplace I posted here and on Dragonsfoot weekly updates; I have not been able to keep up that schedule, even though there are many, many really rare and interesting RPG items there (also, the marketplace got it's 100th member last week!!!!).

I have been very busy this year getting ready for Gencon, and thus have not been able to list or contribute as much as I could. This will change a lot after Gencon as I hope to list quite a bit afterwards. At it's heart the Marketplace is not a competitor to Ebay but instead an alternate venue to avoid paying Ebay fees for listing or selling. I would encourage anyone trading or buyng and selling amoung Acaeum members that are registered to do so through the marketplace to give it more traffic and more visitors; also to mention it if you are at another site if someone asks for an alternative to Ebay. Hopefully the more time it's up, the more it will be noticed and used as a trading spot.

Mike B.

I'd love to see a viable alternative to ebay. I will have to check the place out again. For some reason I looked into it but something didn't click for me.

Posts: 972 · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 6:59 pm

beasterbrook wrote:

http://blogs.smh.com.au/mashup/archives/019366.html

Brette:)

That link does not work, but I assume you were posting about this story:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/ebay-backs-down-on-paypal-changes/2008/ 07/03/1214950928313.html

I think, this is good news for Ebay Sellers worldwide and shows that Sellers, which make the company all its money, do have some say in their policy proscriptions.

Posts: 975 · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 2:14 am

HermitFromPluto wrote:

That link does not work, but I assume you were posting about this story:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/ebay-backs-down-on-paypal-changes/2008/ 07/03/1214950928313.html

I think, this is good news for Ebay Sellers worldwide and shows that Sellers, which make the company all its money, do have some say in their policy proscriptions.

I have to disagree. Paypal seem to have still got their way (for the moment). Every Aussie auction now has to have Paypal as an option and as a seller you are not allowed to even suggest you prefer another option.

Now the use of paypal is at the discretion of the buyer and not the seller.

This issue still hasn't played itself out ....

Posts: 70 · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 2:26 am

Thanks for the comments about Dave and the RPG Marketplace. I didn't know he was doing the Market as a "for love of" sort of thing. Good on him and I'm very greatful. I recognized his name from Never Winter and just kinda thought he had moved on to being totally self employed with RPG Market...

Anyway, I like the site and hope to see it grow. Being that there are no listing fees there is no reason not to list there except for time and the fact that it would be unwise if not illegal to list one item there and somewhere else. With LOTS to sell (eventually) I'm looking for inexpensive but effective as I really only want to list things once and be done with it.

Anyway, thanks Dave!

Posts: 972 · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:05 am

improvstone wrote:

I have to disagree. Paypal seem to have still got their way (for the moment). Every Aussie auction now has to have Paypal as an option and as a seller you are not allowed to even suggest you prefer another option.

Now the use of paypal is at the discretion of the buyer and not the seller.

This issue still hasn't played itself out ....

Good point. Are there any serious alternatives to Ebay yet that have an international network?

Posts: 4449 · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:34 pm

Now that sellers have to list shipping costs with all items in the actual listing itself, I have been updated my few listings that only have the costs in the item description. After entering the cost for a flat rate priority box with relisting one item, this "helpful" advice from ebay popped up!

Quote:

Attention Seller!
We noticed your shipping cost looks high compared to other listings in your category with similar shipping services.

We've found that buyers are sensitive to shipping costs. Items with high shipping costs may be less likely to sell and may get less visibility in search results. Listings that violate the eBay Excessive Shipping Charges policy may be removed from the site.

Please review your shipping costs and make changes if necessary. For help, click the Research rates link in the shipping section.

Unbelieveable....as if THEY know better than me how much it costs to mail something...sheesh. Rolling Eyes

Mike B.

Posts: 1276 · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:48 pm

Quote:

Items with high shipping costs may be less likely to sell and may get less visibility in search results.

Mark that bold part if you're a seller - they are cutting you out of the equation. They said they want free shipping -- they meant it.