Comments on: EBay bans auction listings of digital downloads

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:19:23 +0000

We are really disappointed in Ebay too, the obvious way to stop people manipulating feedback is to either make digital items have a minimum price, or to remove feedback for digital items as suggested above.

These changes combined with their “best match” search feature have made it a LOT harder for smaller sellers to sell on ebay. The best match rules do not bring up listings automatically by ending time, but by ebays new algorithm which gives preference to larger companies on ebay, and makes it increasingly harder for newcomers to ebay to sell one off items or small scale retailers – unless they really do their keyword research, and are basically experts in ebays erratic listing policies, and search algorithms.

Many smaller sellers sales have dropped by as much as 90% in the last month due to these changes, and to give 1000s of “digital” sellers (some of which have been trading on ebay as their full time income for several years) 1 week’s notice before they had to cease trading imo was a disgusting unfair act. I can’t wait until some of the smaller auction sites grow and give some competition to ebay!

By: Luke

Luke — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:04:49 +0000

This policy stinks! Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water! I see a legit digital product. I am not out to gain feedback, in fact I could care less. I was/am an honest seller who’s customers have been nothing but happy. Wouldn’t a better policy have been to just disable feedback for digital products. This would have allowed honest sellers to keep selling and at the same time take away the motivation for the less than honest. I suggested this to ebay and they said thanks, but we don’t take suggestions. Never had a problem taking my money over the years, but I guess my suggestions they can do without.

By: john haskins

john haskins — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:43:10 +0000

Lots of us digital downloads ebay shop owners have built very large businesses on ebay and suddenly we will be evicted as it were. Some of us ebay shop owners have got together and starting an auction mainly for digital goods and we intend to run it FREE. Please come and join us.

http://bristol-auctions.com

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:38:10 +0000

Hello, I just saw this on eBay. Maybe there is a solution. But I rather save my $16, so maybe I won’t sell on ebay anymore.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=260228929350&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=016

Good luck

By: Richard Rost

Richard Rost — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:37:34 +0000

I would like to go on record as saying that this new policy ABSOLUTELY STINKS. I have built my business upon providing quality digital products in the form of computer video tutorials and ebooks. I have many thousands of satisfied customers. I have only been selling on eBay now for a few months, but I have over a hundred very happy customers with almost all positive feedback. This new policy is only going to hurt the many legitimate vendors who sell digital goods.

Richard Rost
599CD Computer Training
http://www.599cd.com

By: Matt Jansen

Matt Jansen — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:45:26 +0000

This is a very disappointing move. I’ve bought digital goods frequently on eBay and have consistently enjoyed a good experience. A couple of months ago I purchased a 2 year license to Kaspersky Anti Virus at a fraction of the cost I would have spent renewing from the source.

I’ve also purchased numerous eBooks through the site and find it a good way to compensate authors for their work.

I’ll be actively looking for good alternatives to eBay for these sorts of transactions. eBay is choosing to ignore an active segment of customers to its own detriment.