For a lot of people, I think this sort of promotion would be very appealing.

One gets to throw a vehicle up for sale for next to nothing - $1 - out of pocket. The other side of the deal is a higher transaction services fee - which only comes into play if it sells.

It wouldn't surprise me if the percentage of successful auctions were significantly lower during such a promotion. There's less incentive to set the price aggressively low when it only costs a buck to "go fishing". That was a perceived problem when they were giving eBay Stores items prominent exposure in the regular search - lots of stuff priced unappealingly high.

Do you think they would get the same sort of response if they were to run a promotion with a $70 insertion fee, but no transaction services fee?

How about a $100 insertion fee, with a $40 refund if it sells?

Well, they're hardly obligated to provide you with unfettered member-to-member communication, and they have some stake in preventing such communication.

If anything, I think that eBay is only likely to become more restrictive with respect to communication, at least in the foreseeable future. There's talk about them not making e-mail addresses available when communication takes place between sellers and prospective buyers - only making them available after a transaction has taken place.

Even now, it's not straightforward, through the eBay message system, to reply more than once (e.g., providing additional information, or asking an additional question) to a question from a prospective buyer!

Do I like this? No, not a bit! I think their message system stinks, too.

Well scanned the add for about 10 seconds and I saw the $109 fee. Read the small print, Ebay did nothing wrong, you didn't read.

__________________
2006 CL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2026 Genesis GV70
2007 Tiara 3200

So, you enter into an agreement without reading it and then go bad-mouthing the other party when you find that the terms are not to your liking. Real classy move.

AGAIN, I have admitted several times that I know I should have read it over myself before hand, I assumed that the "deal" would not jack up the transaction fee and you would actually get a better price than you regularly would


This isn't about me not reading it, it's about the fact that ebay gets you in with a low insertion fee knowing full well that most people aren't going to expect the jacked up transaction fee and that they will get to stick it to some people

A respectable company would not do this. That is the point I am trying to make if you have a problem with that, shut up.

Since their beginning, ebay has only been interested in ebay; never interested in their customers. It's the primary thing I hate about ebay.

__________________
- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

Well I dislike being called stupid, but I read everything I get into.

Ebay sucks, and deserves a lot of the flack they get, but this isn't their fault.

__________________
2006 CL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2026 Genesis GV70
2007 Tiara 3200

I understand that is what you are trying to do. You just aren't doing it successfully. Is that your back up argument? When it's pointed out that eBay did nothing remotely wrong, you switch to the old "shut up" retort? Who do you think you are, Bill O'Reilly?

I don't get it. Are you saying that eBay customers are too stupid to know that eBay is ripping them off?

You seem like you would be honest if I posed you this question. Say you saw that ad I recieved and saw that it mentioned that you have to pay the transaction fee, which you normally have to do, and you knew normally that it was $50, would you honestly expect that the normal fee went up to the point where during this special you would end up paying more than if you skipped the special? Honestly now.

No, I'm saying that if you have a problem with ebay, they don't give a crap. Try to contact them; try to get a rep on the phone; hell, try to find a phone number or an email address. You can't. What you do get are lots and lots of forums and "communities" that allow you to find the answer for yourself - without help from ebay.

__________________
- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

If I were writing the ad for the promotion, I would point it out more prominently:

Instead of,

"And only pay a transaction fee when there's a winning bid. See details.",

I'd put something along the lines of,

"NOTE: Special, higher transaction fees apply to successful auctions during this promotion. See details."


With eBay, it's especially tough to distinguish malice from incompetence; they have a ready supply of the latter.

That's a shame. I don't know much about the online auction business. Does eBay have any viable competition?

You've got that right!

Want to ask a question? Pick from a list of question topics. Can't find one that fits your question? Too bad!

When you do get an answer, you'll be hard pressed to tell whether it came from a 'bot, of from human who functions as a 'bot does.

I wrote them once because the contact information for a seller was invalid; they told me, again and again through several messages, to contact him!

It's sort of funny at first, but one tires of it quickly if one has a real problem.

For some sorts of items, I have heard that there are some other sites that are viable.

For a lot of things, I think eBay is still essentially the only game in town.