[Milsurplus] OT: New Ebay Rules for FB

[Radioman390 at cs.com]

J Forster <jfor at quik.com> wrote:

>Subject:             New Ebay Rules (was Re: [hp_agilent_equipment] Re:
>HP 8447D)
>    Date:             Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:17:00 -0600
>   From:             Dave-NR1DX/0 <nr1dx at arrl.net>
>
>
>Among other things in the new rules sellers will no longer be able to
>leave negative feedback for buyers ..... interesting concept ...
>
>
The new rules are just a step in the process of changing EBAY into a pure advertising company, where you pay for the listing and for successful transactions only in the form of transaction and PayPal fees.

I have mixed feelings about dropping older feedbacks (after 12 months) and relying on current transactions for the FB ratings. I joined EBay two weeks before 9-11-01, and my first 10 transactions went sour because I was living in a hotel in NYC working 7 days a week. Although I completed over half of those transactions and paid the sellers later, the damage was done. Subsequent deals have been 100% good, but those 10 negatives dropped me down to 98.6%.

Since I frequently sell or trade, not being able to give negative ratings to winning bidders who default, seems to me to be favoring EBay's image building plan. It will no doubt increase the number of unsold items, which costs the sellers the listing fees for repeated attempts to sell and does nothing to penalize spurious buyers.

I suppose that Meg Whitman is leaving because the "new EBay" she created is not fun anymore despite the cute graphics (I feel like I'm at a church bake sale). They seem to have learned from Craig's List (they own 25%) policy of totally free listings. EBay costs around 10% for a completed deal, based on listing fees (unless you start at 99 cents), buy-it-now or reserve fees, completed deal fees, and the 3% for Paypal. What we have to decide is whether it's worth it.

To summarize, only Sellers can get negative listings, right?