The eBay balance sheet reflects the overall conglomerate, not eBay
itself. Many people think that much of their plus revenues are coming
from PayPal, which is only connected with eBay as a corporate piece of
the pie.
Note that a couple of years, eBay went from around $35 to $15. Our own
experience is mirrored by hundreds of other sellers. The executive
decisions, particularly since hiring a new CEO have been targeted in
all ways toward getting rid of sellers as fast as possible.
The stock has been declining for a long time, with no signs of
improvement, and it has nothing to do with the current downturn in the
overall economy. It`s really bad management, pure and simple. They`ve
already announced cuts of over 1,000 jobs, and we`re seeing
never-ending price increases for listings, final-value fees, services,
and so forth.
For us, the last straw will be when we`re forced to host pictures on
their site at their prices. We already have been forced to adjust our
postage rates and carriers to whatever they seem to think is right,
fair, or whatever. We`ve been forced to accept money only in whatever
form they see fit.
I`m not saying to not use eBay. I`m saying that don`t invest all your
money in only an eBay store. Traffic is declining sharply, and we`re
seeing less than half the visitors we`ve seen over the past year. And
that`s tracking regular averages not only for our product but for all
similar products in our category.
I won`t even get into the eBay tradeshows and annual gatherings.
CraigL2008-10-21 22:40:25