Pierre listed a broken laser pointer on his page, and was amazed that the damaged item sold for $14.83.

Pierre hired executives to manage and groom the company for growth. In 1998, eBay went public. The company expanded quickly and successfully assisted volumes of sellers and buyers with sales and purchases for a variety of products.

Although eBay provided a successful platform for both sellers and buyers, it also created a haven for fraudulent sellers and buyers to disrupt the company’s purpose and positive achievements. One of the obstructions encumbered was a Seller’s Protection Plan. Through the years, extra efforts facilitated a buyer’s protection program versus a seller’s protection agenda. Subsequently, fraudsters were able to take advantage of buyer and seller technical details including loopholes within eBay’s auctions and marketplace.

Although it is very true, buyers’ required protection, additionally, sellers’ required as much protection from buyers, and many times more transaction safeguarding.

eBay is over-weight with buyer protection policies, and soon they began to counteract any shield for seller protection and fortification.

It was not long before disappointed and frustrated buyers found ways to over compensate and abuse the seller. eBay left any safeguarding for sellers void.

It became a “catch 22”. eBay, the buyer and the seller became damned if they did and damned if they did not! The more rules and regulations, stipulations, traceability, systems, policies, contracts, settlements and resolutions implemented, the more the burden weighing on the seller and their performance destroyed businesses. Evil buyers, fraudsters, and unprincipled buyers were able to cheat the seller from their money and product. Additionally, buyers were able to grade sellers with ratings, thereby ruining a seller’s reputation. eBay instituted policies that prevented the seller from receiving a fair and honest relationship with the buyer.

eBay established aggressive policies that undermined many seller transactions to control 100% of some purchases between a buyer and seller. Additionally, the seller could experience their transacted funds on hold, as eBay restricted payments via PayPal, which is their own company.

There are recent comments that hint eBay has realized their associated seller protection policies are detrimental to the overall purchases by the buyer and seller.

Let us hope eBay recognizes their lack of protection policies for the seller, and implements new safeguards that protect both seller and buyer.

I hope eBays’s attempts to finally institute protection for their sellers prove to be worthwhile and useful. After all, would the company be successful, if it were not for the sellers on eBay’s platform?

eBay’s rating system, aka DSR, discourages many sellers as it enables the buyer to degrade a seller with negative feedback, ratings, based merely upon a buyer’s opinion versus facts incurred in a purchase transaction.

More sellers state that eBay should have never launched such a backward system to the public. The DSR system affords buyers’ incentives to defraud and too many opportunities to take advantage of sellers. eBay’s current DSR structure can easily destroy a seller’s reputation. In fact, eBay’s current rating system exploits sellers if a buyer makes use of the issues eBay implemented.

In the past, eBay allowed a buyer to maintain more responsibility in making decisions about their purchases. The current rating system removes much of a buyers’ responsibility by allowing a buyer to manipulate the purchase activity and events.

eBay’s current DSR methodology and Buyer Protection Program allows a buyer, if they choose to manipulate the issues, to force a seller into events that further their purchasing of items at zero cost, all the while opinionating negative feedback.

Many sellers want eBay to remove the current DSR rating system to implement a procedure that services both seller and buyer suitably. The buyer should be as accountable for their purchases and feedback as a seller should be responsible in successfully completing a purchase experience for the buyer.

eBay should realize and pay particular attention to designing a Seller and Buyer Protection Program that offers positive opportunities for both parties in a purchase transaction. The Seller/Buyer Protection Plan should include a rating system that enables factual feedback for both parties to the purchase.

If eBay executives are not qualified to provide such a Seller and Buyer Protection and Rating Program, I suggest they ask for recommendations from their fundamental and essential benefactors (supporters), their buyers and sellers. The fact is that without their backers, sellers and buyers, there is no eBay! It should be clear to eBay, their sellers and buyers know best how to support the positive issues of purchases and feedback requirements.

If you have been considering selling on eBay or you are an existing seller on this auction site, you should be aware of some important statistics in comparison to Amazon.com sales.

Amazon actually startled the industry by providing less expensive products for the season’s most popular consumer items in December 2008.

Why are these numbers important for you to realize? If you want to sell on eBay, there are other avenues as well, and you should be aware of them and become familiar as well.

If you are a buyer on eBay, you certainly should care about the discount prices on Amazon and their discounted savings versus the higher price on eBay.

Amazon undercut eBay sellers for the most popular items (Jiffyprice.com)

You can view research for these statistics at the above URL address.

Jiffyprice.com’s concluding research notes that the buy-it-now averages for consumer electronics varied from 22% through 60%.

Most people shopping either online or at the retail location cannot find the time to compare shop.

For this reason, Jiffyprice.com is a great site for you to compare pricing of eBay versus Amazon.

Jiffysite.com saves you time and efforts by their simplified price comparison searches on the above sites noted.

You should visit their site and see for yourself

Until next time

B. Robert

Many sellers continue to comment at AuctionBytes.com of their hardships due to eBay changing over their style of feedback to a rating type.

The feedback is now set up in eBay’s terminology as a [DSR] Detailed Sellers Rating..

If a seller cannot receive a 5 star ratings and begins to receive less than the 5 stars a great deal of the time, eBay will penalize the seller in a few different ways. 

For one, eBay will reduce the seller’s exposure in the searches for the product types offered from the seller.

Additionally, they should be a Powerseller, they are apt to lose their status.

The concerned issue is that eBay has decided to use the neutral rating as a negative.

Somehow that does not seem fair; especially as international countries may understand the neutral term to mean anything but a negative.

In all the surveys I have taken; and all the questionnaires I have filled in when the form provides a neutral check off, it means neutral; without opinion; having no positive or negative rating.

Yet, eBay, once again, redefines the context of the issue; and decides to place a negative for a neutral.

To Be continued.

Although there are many Internet Auctions available, this site Discusses eBay and selected areas of education, general interest and sections of information that Buyers and Sellers should find interesting and beneficial.

Additionally, Tips and Techniques are available for awareness to the many seller and buyer point of views.

Learning about eBay will assist you in knowing more about the rules, terms of service, communities, selling formats, feedback, scams, education, announcements, press releases, policies and just about any and everything that goes on at eBay.

eBay has more visitors, buyers, sellers and traffic to its site than any other auction online service. This allows for a good deal of traffic when selling certain types of items.

 However, many are lead to believe that they are unable to have the same or better success utilizing an Internet Website. Sellers are unaware that the statistics, although large in number, on eBay are that much greater on the Internet!

If you have been contemplating selling on eBay, or if you currently sell your items on eBay, you should know that the Internet can help you to achieve greater success.

The fact is that the search engines receive far more traffic than eBay does. Additionally, there are many who are reluctant to purchase items on the auction site, yet feel no concern when purchasing products on the Internet.

eBay has factually been rumored to provide avenues and safe havens for scam artists and fraudsters. Although, eBay attempts to put into place security and safety measures that put a stop to those deceptive, counterfeit and ingenuous products sold on their auction site, it is a daunting challenge and continuous seemingly never-ending watch.

There are many sellers offering get rich quick schemes that tell all about how you can become rich in weeks. There are probably a couple of instances where an eBay seller obtained a great amount of wealth from specific items that sell very fast when bidders drive the prices up. However, you should do your research prior to jumping in all the way. I cannot quote exact statistics, but I would bet it is only the 99.9% that ‘got rich quick’ on eBay in the last few years. That percent may be an overestimation, at that!

I believe you can make a good income on eBay, if you learn the important considerations to succeeding on eBay.

For example, it is important for you to know that eBay and all the other online auctions do not verify any item a seller offers. You will have to research the product and the seller to make sure you are purchasing an item from a person that has a history. If there is no feedback on the seller, you can contact them to request the detailed information that would verify the described item as being legitimate.

There are fraudsters that prey upon buyers who do not verify and protect their purchase with a credit card or even PayPal. If you think the bargain is too good to be true, 99 times out of 100 times, it will not be a good buy.

You should also be extra curious in detail when you are purchasing or bidding on an item outside your own country. Many times across channels makes it harder to collect any refund, even if you have been defrauded.

Always make sure you have the details that provide delivery, insurance and any warranties that may apply. Remember, if you pay with a credit card, you can dispute the charges if the item is not as described and misrepresented. If you never receive your item, using a credit card would protect you.

If you intend to purchase a very expensive item, you can use an ‘escrow service’. This is very advantageous if the product is not what you expected or you do not receive it.

You should check with escrow services to realize their fees and if they will act as a mediator if a dispute should arise.

To Be Continued……