JUST FOR FUN ROSTER WHY YOU LEFT EBAY OR CLOSED EBAY STORE

[alltreasures]

I had been debating about getting a store on ebay, until I realized the fees would make it impossible for me. Here on ecrater I finally realized my dream of a store. I still place a few auctions on ebay, but my heart is here.

[LazyB]

Still sell a few items on the other site and then try to direct customers to ecrater. I lost a potential customer from the Other site last week as they complained that p+h was too high. Replyed by telling them to bring it up with egreeds listing and final value fee department. I wonder what excuse they will use in the next 6 months to raise fees

[zickit]

History shows a store fee increase coming soon.

[theivorymagnolia]

I closed my store in aug 2006, fees were just outrageous!

[EtchingsandCollectibles]

We believe in a business plan that includes profit not donations.
Over 50% of our sales profit went to fees...that did not include the cost of the merchandise...That was with a full time store of over 2000 items.
Now closed as of July 27th, 2006. We don't miss the stress of sales vs fees and we now can offer better prices.

[BerningsBargains]

I closed my Ebay store in August 2006 - the weekend before they raised the fees AGAIN! Initially it was the fees that drove me away. However, after seeing the other side of online selling... I often wonder why I stayed at Ebay as long as I did.

The customer service is horrible.... taking forever to find the answer to a question, even more difficult finding the link to send a question through email to the Ebay staff. The community boards always made me feel like a complete idiot and the bickering that went on there was a complete turn-off. The listing process took way longer than it should have ... and all because they wanted to try soaking you for every penny they could throughout the process.

Since leaving ebay, my husband has been scammed three times by the same person selling the same misleading stuff... and does ebay care? NO! I watched on the news once about how some college kid paid for his college education by scamming on ebay all four years... ebay's comment was very flip... which told me that they didn't care how they got their money as long as they got it.... buyers and sellers be (darned).

I have listed a couple of things on Ebay but I never feel comfortable doing so. I do not trust ebay as a seller or a buyer. The listings I have done on there have been just 7 day listings... no auctions as I have found that auctions usually only bring a bid of 99c for any item no matter what it is... which is very distressing since the fees to list the "auction" item were at least $1.95.

Anyway... I'm VERY GLAD to be away from Ebay... I have met many great friends by selling away from Ebay. And my profit line is much improved too!

Tamera @ Berning's Bargains
http://www.berningsbargains.ecrater.com
http://www.wagglepop.com/stores/berningsbargains

[eleganzajewels]

Pages, I am a, well, a page from your book, I guess, super loyal to a place often to my own regret. Like you, left Ebay in Jan. '05, never returned. Think I've posted my story before, so won't blather on here. The fees were one big reason, though - my last Ebay bill was a little over $2,000 that's nuts!

As a buyer, I normally don't shop any one venue. I do a google search and click over to froogle or browse the search results. Once in a blue moon I buy something on Ebay, but only if it's something I really can't find anywhere (which is getting less and less as more sellers branch out away from Ebay). Most of my favorite Ebay sellers have their own websites now, and I'll always go and pay a little higher there in order to get what I want but not enrich Ebay...their prices usually aren't alot higher on the internet, they are so used to the cutthroat Ebay atmosphere, poor search, etc. Sometimes I'll ask them point blank - do you have a non-Ebay web store, if not, why, and when you gonna get one? lol

Cut that string and don't look back, Pages, ain't no going back, and you can only chalk it up to one of those "life experiences"

[LazyB]

Ebay doesn't care if your item sells or not! They would rather see you pay the listing fee several times before you get a sale. Last week I listed an item and paid the extra for Gallery Where the item is supposed to go into search. Did a search every day through ebay and froogle using keywords. Nothing came up This tells me that Ebays not putting the item in Gallery or Search results I suppose they are too busy trying to figure out a new fee increase.

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

I closed my store mid Dec. 2006 after 3 successful years. I should say 3 years less 3 months. The last 3 months I went from power seller to less than a hundred dollars before expenses.

Believe it not it was not the fees that drove me off. It looked like I would be able to survive them but when my items just weren't showing up in search and it got worse by the month, I decided to pack it in.

I was having bogus sales of high ticket items that were never removed from my totals. I always was refunded the fees but try to explain to the tax man that that $1000 sale wasn't real. Every month I also had bogus listing fees, picture fees, bold fees, featuring etc added to my invoice. I was spending more time checking my invoice for bogus charges than I was listing. Every month ebay made it more difficult to get reimbursed for the bogus charges.

I loved eBay for the longest time. Now I don't even miss it. I do not sell anything there any more in any guise. My ecrater store has been really stagnating since Xmas as I was moving and now am involved in my annual charity work. As soon as I get a new camera I will be starting to work on it again. It is still open, by the way.

In case anyone thinks ebay still functions, last week I did look for a telephone on ebay. My first search brought up 5 auctions and less than a page of store listings. I kept repeating the search but using the same words. Eventually I got up to 3 pages of core and 3 pages of store listings but all of them were super cheap phones selling for .99 with $28.00 s/h.

All I can say for people who still thinks there is money to be made on eBay is: There is a fool born every minute and eBay is there waiting for them.