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Recently eBay users as well as those that follow ecommerce and business trends were offered an inside glimpse, (though obviously staged) at a video prepared for eBay employess in which John Donahoe CEO of eBay sat down with founder and COB Pierre Omidyar for a discussion on the direction eBay has taken in recent months. In the 3 video clips provided by eBayInk blog editor Richard Brewer-Hay, Pierre “explains” what he meant by the core values and concepts around which eBay was created.

In the video clips, John Donahoe asks Pierre questions clearly crafted to show solidarity for the changes eBay has recently announced and implemented (as well as some unannounced changes that have caught eBay members by surprise). Also in the video, Pierre speaks to the changing world of the internet and how the early values of eBay may not apply today.

While I agree that change is inevitable, and constant, values and philosophical beliefs should remain intact. That is why when I read my email this morning, nostalgic waves of the days gone by once again came to mind. In the most recent edition of SuccessMagazine the cover story is titled Greatest Internet Entrepreneurs of All Time. In the article, Pierre is 3rd in the list, with this bio:

Pierre Omidyar b.1967
As founder of online auction site eBay, Pierre Omidyar made the Internet personal again. By connecting buyers with sellers of collectable items, he created a global marketplace for the little guy. “What would happen within a marketplace if everyone had equal access to information and tools?” Omidyar wondered. “Would a level playing field enable individuals to compete alongside big businesses?” Judging by eBay’s success, Omidyar’s answer is yes.

Unfortunately SuccessMagazine may be a victim of timing. I am sure this story was prepared and in print well before the videos appeared on eBayInk. If you watch the video and read the quote in SuccessMagazine you too will see the not so funny contradiction felt by many eBay users.

Randy Smythe spilled the “Blog Juice” yesterday in his MyBlogUtopia. eBay and Buy.com have partnered up to bring Buy.com’s in-season merchandise to Buy.com’s eBay Store. This results in Buy.com having over 180,000 items listed in Fixed Price format. All items in the Buy.com store require immediate payment and as far as I can see, these are all 3 day listings.

The following quote from eBay spokesman Usher Lieberman can be found in Randy’s blog article:

“eBay is aggressively using price as a lever to improve the value and selection on eBay.com. Consistent with our goals, we have entered into a partnership with Buy.com to bring their new-in-season merchandise onto eBay.com. We expect to learn a great deal from this partnership and we will build upon the results.”

Last month at the ECMTA Spring Summit, Lorrie Norrington stated in her keynote address that the eBay we know today will not be the eBay we see a year from now, and to emphasize this Lorrie said “You ain’t seen nothing yet”. It appears that she was preparing sellers for just this type of change.

Visions of an eBay we won’t recognize may come to those sellers (like me) that have been selling on the site for more than 6 or 7 years, as a very difficult pill to swallow. In fact, the equal opportunity that Pierre Omidyar speaks of in the recent video released by eBay on the eBayInk blog seems to disappear in light of this partnership.

What this all boils down to is the COMPLETE and TOTAL change in the eBay marketplace to one of commercial domination where there will no longer be a place for auctions, individual or small to medium sized businesses. Mark my words and your calendar. Within the next 12 months there will be either a spin off site for auctions, or eBay will simply do away with the auction format just like they are planning to do with the LiveAuctions.

Scott Pooler of TradingAssistantJournal.com, as well as I (and I would assume many others) have tried to post comments on the article posted by Richard Brewer-Hay. Unfortunately as is noted in Scott’s post, it appears that eBay is suffering another “glitch” or is again moderating the posts to the blog. Whatever the reason, rest assured there will be significant “noise” about this!

“May old acquaintance be forgot”  to those of us individuals and small businesses that built eBay to what it is today. It truly has become time to move on,,,, eBay has, why shouldn’t we?

After listening to the keynote address at the ECMTA Spring 2008 Summit in New Orleans, I was excited when Lorrie Norrington eBay’s President of Marketplace Operations said that eBay had heard us (sellers) and eBay would be paying more attention to eBay’s true customers. That would be us, the sellers. We pay the fees to eBay, not the buyers,,, but I digress. I was actually excited when Lorrie spoke. Maybe, just maybe eBay would be working with the sellers to make a better marketplace.

After the news I found on AuctionBytes.com regarding PayPal and eBay changing the payments acceptance policy I knew I had been lulled into a false hope! I went to the thread I found on AuctionBytes and lookie what I found. In this thread I learned that PayPal/eBay have taken it upon themselves to again tell sellers how they can run their business. Now, it appears that we the sellers can no longer choose how we are going to be paid. (Surprsise Surprise! Especially after the eBay Austrailia annoucement) That’s right folks, now if you accept PayPal (and trust me soon this will be a REQUIREMENT site wide) you as a seller MUST accept e-checks. Even though it takes up to 7 days to clear a check through PayPal, sellers will no longer be able to opt out of accepting this form of payment.

How eBay can rationalize forcing sellers to take checks is beyond me. eBay is taking our business decisions right out of our hands. I would remind eBay that tens of thousands of businesses will not take checks for a variety of reasons. Now according to the thread, eBay has decided we the sellers do not know what our business needs are. We sellers can not be trusted to make our own business decisions, so they are opting to allow the BUYER to make that decision for us.

I don’t care if it is just one e-check a year, I do not want the hassel and extra work associated with this type of payment!

So much for the “seller experience”!

Just my Final Value!

Lorrie Norrington,  eBay’s President of Marketplace Operations opened the first full day of the PESA/ECMTA Spring 2008 Summit in New Orleans on Wednesday, April 23rd. Prior to beginning her keynote address, Lorrie presented a check for $50,000.00 on behalf of eBay users to Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans. This donation by eBay, in combination with a $30,000.00 donation made by Frontier Marketing the previous evening at the Summit Cocktail Party and the GencoMarketplace silent auction makes a total donation of over $81,000.00 to the Habitat for Humanity  New Orleans Rebuilding effort just from this event!

These donations coupled with the nearly 100 conference attendees that worked on Friday for a day with Habitat For Humanity will give notice to those in New Orleans that we have not forgotten the horrific tragedy of this natural disaster.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to all that contributed to this worthwhile endeavor! Way to give back to the community!