Ebay sellers continue to be very upset by increased insertion rates and final value fees for ebay stores. This comes after intense store promotion for months on the part of eBay and is the second increase this year.
Incensed after eBay claimed that the new fees would only raise prices by 6%, most of eBay soon worked out that the increases were 23% or more for the huge majority of sellers.
Calls for a boycott this week have been particularly successful in Great Britain. Ebay sellers ask that no one list regular auction style listings or BUY from auction style listings.
The BBC and several major media outlets in England covered the boycott, which has been largely ignored by US media. There's no denying that auction listings are WAY down, and fee hike protest auctions are going up as quickly as they can be pulled from the site. There are also several protest videos spilling over onto other Internet sites, such as myspace and YouTube.
Ebay countered the boycott with a listing sale enticement today - 10 cent listings when sellers move auctions from store to auction format, however, many sellers aren't biting. The timing of the sale was a bit too manipulative for many. For instance, if a seller stopped a store item today to move it to auction, it would be ending ON August 22 - the day that the new hike goes into effect. Furthermore, the fine print on the sale announced that the sellers were to pay full fees up front, only to be given a credit after the next quarter profits for the company came in.
All this comes after eBay announced its intention to buy back 20 million shares of stock. Could eBay be intentionally driving its own stock down? Many sellers think so! Ebay stock is near its current 52 week low.
