Ebay Sellers Union?

[Indian Steve]

Ebay Seller's Union?

Howdy All, I know this will sound crazy to a lot of people, but why isn't there a Ebay Sellers Union? Without sellers Ebay would not exist. I've been selling since 2000, back when you could give buyers bad feedback. In thousands of sales, I have only had one bad feedback and that was from a buyer that did not pay Over the years, Ebay has become more and more for the buyers and less and less for sellers. Ebay always seems to make the sellers the bad guys. I have no problems with Ebay's fees but when they tell me that I have to give the buyer his money back weeks after the sale AND PAY RETURN SHIPPING, it really pisses me off. WE need some kind of representation to tell Ebay how we feel and make them realize that without us, they are in an unemployment line. If there was a Sellers Union, how many of you would join? If we had a million members and actually stuck together, we could reform the insanity of Ebay. What would Ebay do if one million sellers agreed not to list anything for one week? Even a couple of hundred thousand sellers would make a difference. If anybody knows about such a Union or can start one, let me know, I will sign up right now. If dues were $10 a week, with a hundred thousand members would mean $ 1 million dollars a week into the Union to press for reform and influence { BUY} Congressional support. Sorry for the {BUY} but we all know this country is run by money and if we want to be heard we have to make our contributions {BRIBES}. I am not smart enough or talented enough to start a Sellers Union, but I know there is someone out there that can. Let your voice be heard! Steve Sims / Deadoralivecycle

 

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[Rob in KS]

I had the same thought after I read about the new return policy. We've been selling since '02 and Ebay just keeps getting worse. We don't sell a lot but over the years it adds up. Back then Ebay wasn't full of scammers. Back then, we would ship before being paid by regular customers. The only problems we had were those "problem" buyers and there we only a couple of them.

It seems like Ebay is trying to become Amazon while using us as their suppliers and workers.

My wife has already moved her craft items over to Etsy.

 

[Tallone]

If dues were $10 a week, with a hundred thousand members would mean $ 1 million dollars a week into the Union to press for reform and influence { BUY} Congressional support.

I do a lot of selling on ebay and I am not entirely thrilled with all of their policies either but count me out on this idea. The solution is to take your business elsewhere, not insert a bunch of corrupt politicians and union bosses into the equation.

 

[2ndisbest]

I have come to the realization ebay DOESN'T want my business. I am a top rated seller and all that but I only give ebay and paypal maybe 1k-2k a year in fees. Times me by 30 and that is enough to break even on one full time employee. Honestly as a business decision, we are not worth it. They can get rid of 900 sellers like me and cut their workforce by 30 and break even. There want to get rid of the small sellers good or bad and focus on mega sellers. They can cut their workforce and stick with the cash cows. If a mega seller has a $20 beef do you think they even bother to call ebay? Do you think all those insert 10k listings for free deals are aimed at us? All these new rules mean nothing to a mega seller. They are aimed at driving us off the sight. And if we stay we will leave when we get scammed a few times and it is not worth it for us anymore.

That is how I see it, I might be wrong, but everything ebay has done in the last few years seems to punish sellers nonstop. I think they want us to get fed up and leave.

 

[NJcigarman]

I have come to the realization ebay DOESN'T want my business. I am a top rated seller and all that but I only give ebay and paypal maybe 1k-2k a year in fees. Times me by 30 and that is enough to break even on one full time employee. Honestly as a business decision, we are not worth it. They can get rid of 900 sellers like me and cut their workforce by 30 and break even. There want to get rid of the small sellers good or bad and focus on mega sellers. They can cut their workforce and stick with the cash cows. If a mega seller has a $20 beef do you think they even bother to call ebay? Do you think all those insert 10k listings for free deals are aimed at us? All these new rules mean nothing to a mega seller. They are aimed at driving us off the sight. And if we stay we will leave when we get scammed a few times and it is not worth it for us anymore.

That is how I see it, I might be wrong, but everything ebay has done in the last few years seems to punish sellers nonstop. I think they want us to get fed up and leave.

I posted on a thread a few months ago. I believe you are 100% correct. eBay with its new defects and rating system is to start getting rid of sellers. This is what Amazon does everyday. On Amazon they can get rid of you and close your account without any reason why. I personally know of one such incident the beginning of this year. The seller had been on Amazon for years. He had three full time employees and was generating about 200 thousand dollars a quarter in sales. He sold LICENSED movie, TV items. This could entail hundreds of items for one TV show. Mugs, shirts, posters, jewelry you get my drift.
Back in March with a 99% feedback his account was closed with NO explanation. They make it very clear they don't and will not tell you why. They even held 20 grand of cash for 90 days in case there were any refunds. This guy had to layoff his employees which took an emotion toll on him. He had one employee getting married and another who had just bought a new house. This also included the end if their medical benefits etc. He did everything by the book with Amazon as far as paying fees and following rules. Now 5 months later he eats himself up everyday because he does not know why.

Google Amazon seller account closed and you can get an idea.

 

[JustinNH]

I'd rather stop selling than join a union...
Wouldn't even think about it for a second.

 

[Tallone]

@2ndisbest - Frankly, this makes no sense at all to me. If eBay wanted to only deal with "mega sellers", there is a much simpler way to do it than creating a bunch of convoluted policies. All they would need to do is cancel the selling privileges of any member who doesn't do X dollars in sales each month. Mission accomplished in one simple stroke. Consider this too; I don't think the people who run eBay are so stupid and short-sighted that they fail to realize many of their "mega sellers" started as small sellers. Eventually, all the current "mega sellers" will go away for one reason or another (death, financial disaster, retirement, etc., etc.). If they don't get new sellers coming on board, sooner or later eBay's business dries up completely.

Don't get me wrong here... this doesn't mean I think every policy eBay creates is smart. In fact, I think some of them are downright stupid but i don't think stupid policies were put in place to drive small sellers off of eBay.

 

[2ndisbest]

@2ndisbest - Frankly, this makes no sense at all to me. If eBay wanted to only deal with "mega sellers", there is a much simpler way to do it than creating a bunch of convoluted policies. All they would need to do is cancel the selling privileges of any member who doesn't do X dollars in sales each month. Mission accomplished in one simple stroke. Consider this too; I don't think the people who run eBay are so stupid and short-sighted that they fail to realize many of their "mega sellers" started as small sellers. Eventually, all the current "mega sellers" will go away for one reason or another (death, financial disaster, retirement, etc., etc.). If they don't get new sellers coming on board, sooner or later eBay's business dries up completely.

Don't get me wrong here... this doesn't mean I think every policy eBay creates is smart. In fact, I think some of them are downright stupid but i don't think stupid policies were put in place to drive small sellers off of eBay.

They can't do that. If they did their stock price might take a big hit through panic. Headlines: EBAY loses 2346136 sellers! They are weeding out the bad sellers first and making it hard for the good sellers to stay. As long as they can lose sellers and increase their bottom line they will continue to do it. They will also lay people off to offset the lost sellers.

The only place they can get hurt is they will lose unique items, but these items are not high volume. The vintage people like me don't have factories to produce a constant flow of vintage items.

As for bad policies, it doesn't matter. As long as the CEO is getting results (profits) nobody will challenge them, as they are getting profits too. So this CEO can increase the bottom line and as long as he does so nobody will complain. If small sellers get thrown under the bus so be it.

If I was not so lazy I would start duel listing my items on Etsy. If ebay continues to push their onerous policies I think that is where the majority of the vintage sellers like me will go. And the buyers will have to follow. The only way I think I will stay on ebay is if ebay drives off all my competition and I can raise my profit margin via less competition. Of course I would still be in competition from sellers on etsy if the buyers follow the sellers. I should also get an amazon account to sell books and movies, they sell much better and for more on amazon.

I keep checking on 11main, but it doesn't look like I will be accepted any time soon.

Think of this logically, who else in the retail game offers 90 day returns? Most places only give you a 90 day warranty or if you do bring it back they give you store credit.

I have had family members buy stuff online from online retailers and they don't pay for the return shipping if not satisfied, the customer does.

And at the end of the day, if I do have someone return something expensive and it gets broken during shipping, do you think ebay is going to back me up or the seller?

If a seller commits fraud ebay doesn't care, because they are not the one out the item and or the money. Mega sellers can eat the fraud and not complain. We can't and we will complain, a lot. Any mega seller or retailer for that matter has theft and fraud costs built into the price.

We are ebay's loss leader. We do bring traffic to ebay for our vintage stuff and ebay hopes they will also buy other stuff. But I have dealt with many items that the buyer of solely deals in. They are on ebay for one reason and one reason only. They are not going to browse and look for a new iphone5 after buying some smoking pipes off me.

And from all the financial reports I have read, ebay is not very profitable. The bulk of the profits comes from paypal. For as much as we like to complain about ebay not having any competition, paypal has virtually none.

I am not defending ebay in the least, I am just explaining why they would do what they are doing.

 

[JohnnyFlake]

I have been selling on eBay since they started and I am at a point where I cannot stand the way they treat sellers! It seems that to them (eBay) the buyer is everything and the seller, well they're just a necessary evil!!!

Both sellers and buyers are equally important. No one can buy, if there are no sellers, however, no one could sell, if there were no buyers. That's like the old saying, which came first, the chicken or the egg? There should be equality, on all issues, between the buyers and sellers and that does not exist on eBay!!!

If a union of sorts, for sellers, is ever started, I would join in a heartbeat!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

A union is what the members make of it, it is made as good or as bad as they allow it to be.....

I am drawing an IBEW union pension right now of $220 month for being in union for 10.7 years and drawing it for the rest of my life, another 3 or 4 months and I will have got back every dime I paid in union dues.

EBAY will continue to favor the buyers over the sellers as long as they are allowed to do so......

 

[Indian Steve]

Wow! I'm loving all of the responses. I have never belonged to a union but would join an Ebay Sellers Union in a heartbeat. That said, I also know very little about how unions are organized or run. Would a larger union like AFL CIO sponsor or help start another union? I searched online "ebay sellers union" and there is a lot of talk out there about it and a lot of pissed off sellers. If ebay really cared about the sellers, there would be no need for a union, but any seller knows that we are at the bottom of the pile in ebay concerns. Yesterday, within an hour of starting this thread, I got a call from ebay to tell me all about the new seller updates and how much ebay cares about us sellers. I *****ed and complained for almost an hour to the poor young lady that called. Do you think that the call was coincidences or is ebay actually monitoring sites that discuss them?

 

[Oregon Viking]

better contact the teamsters...Ebay will fight it!

 

[JohnnyFlake]

If someone, or a group of someones, decides to work on the development of an eBay Sellers Union, it should be understood that such a union does not have to be as complex as other unions. The monthly dues could be very small, just enough to keep the working personal of the union going and cover expenses. There does not have to be a pension fund or medical coverage and so on. Use common sense! This union would only be concerned with the working conditions that sellers are forced to put up with by eBay and/or any other similar entity that comes along.

It's all about the power of numbers!!! If the Seller Union becomes disgruntled with an issue, it could ask for a week long boycott, by the union members, or a month long boycott. A very large number of sellers 100K, 200K, 300K, or whatever, could hurt eBay financially over specific periods of time.

 

[JohnnyFlake]

better contact the teamsters...Ebay will fight it!

Remember that this is a rare and unique situation! What can eBay fight, sellers are not employees of eBay!

 

[dumpsterdiver]

The real power of a union lies in the ability to strike. I think that would be the weakness of the union. Nobody would stop listing.

 

[Indian Steve]

JohnnyFlake, I like the way you think. If there were thousands of sellers that all agreed to not sell for even as short of a period as a week, would definitely catch ebays attention. A lot of sellers would loose the money from that week but the benefits could outweigh the loss in the near future. Keep Thinking.

 

[mkulltra]

I could actually do this if people wanted me to. I have tons of experience in marketing and growth hacking. I could build a website and start getting it out there. As a marketing manager for a top 1000 website in the US, I have the skillset to make it possible.

If there is a group conscience that this should be done, I would be willing to donate my time to the cause.

 

[JohnnyFlake]

I could actually do this if people wanted me to. I have tons of experience in marketing and growth hacking. I could build a website and start getting it out there. As a marketing manager for a top 1000 website in the US, I have the skillset to make it possible.

If there is a group conscience that this should be done, I would be willing to donate my time to the cause.

I would love to see it done!

I would say that in the beginning, you would be donating your time but once it's up and operational, with rules, regs and a mission statement and members start to sign up, you should be paid for your time. Even if dues for members were set to only $1.00 per month, that could amount to huge amounts of money in the treasury. Additional funds could be used for a variety of things such as legal fees if needed in the future and other needs as voted on by the members.

At some point, as more people become interested and involved, officers of the Union will have to be nominated and elected. Once a devoted website is set up, all the necessary things could begin.

 

[mkulltra]

JohnnyFlake, I like the way you think. If there were thousands of sellers that all agreed to not sell for even as short of a period as a week, would definitely catch ebays attention. A lot of sellers would loose the money from that week but the benefits could outweigh the loss in the near future. Keep Thinking.

You would really have to build your membership base before trying to disrupt ebay sales. You would have to figure only 10-25% of your membership will actually go through with it. You need thousands of members to makei it effective.

I think I have a great growth hack to build a membership base. Again, if people are serious about this, please respond in this thread.

 

[Indian Steve]

I am serious. Steve