eBay Strikes Deal with Buy.com

[engine]

eBay Strikes Deal [nytimes.com] with Buy.com

eBay has struck a deal with the Web retailer Buy.com that allows the company to sell millions of books, DVDs, electronics and other items on eBay without paying the full complement of eBay fees.

The recent change is one of several under eBay’s new chief, John Donahoe, that is stirring rancor among the faithful who depend on the site for their livelihood. The deal with Buy.com has added over five million fixed-price listings to eBay.com since the beginning of the year. Since eBay’s search listings favor larger sellers who can add perks like free shipping, which improve their feedback ratings, Buy.com’s presence has hurt many smaller sellers that compete in those product categories.

[lorax]

Does this signal the end of the small sellers?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

It may signal the beginning of the end of eBay for me. I use eBay to look for private purchases and auction items. This was its orginal attraction. The proliferation of "Buy it now" and fixed price sales greatly reduced it's attraction to me and many others.

This latest move will put the final nail in the coffin as far as I am concerned and it will be good riddance to eBay.

This is great opportunity for someone to introduce a real auction site for the millions of people who would still prefer it to eBay as it is now.

[travelin cat]

This does seem like the beginning of the end.

It's going to become just another retail outlet that has some auctions. What a shame.

[sun818]

Auction format has been dead for almost 10 years now. the trend has been toward convenience in the buying experience, not constantly monitoring your auctions to see if you'll win or not.

It definitely seals the coffin for small merchants that sell in computers & electronics. They pay higher prices for inventory, but since Buy.com has financial perks on eBay -- that makes it even more difficult to compete. Buy.com has a terrible customer service policy - they are not a good partner for eBay.

[bcolflesh]

Niche auction opportunity knocking.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Auction format has been dead for almost 10 years now.

I don't think so. Actually it's not even ten years since eBay went public.

[farmboy]

Auction format has been dead for almost 10 years now.

The auction format is still alive and well. eBay is just making it more difficult for the people who want to buy and sell via online auctions.

...not constantly monitoring your auctions to see if you'll win or not.

There are eBay-provided tools and a number of third party tools that prevent the need to constantly monitor.

FarmBoy

[BillyS]

eBay is just extending their reach. They've got a great brand name and a robust user base. This is just another way to offer folks going to the site options.

[sun818]

> The auction format is still alive and well.

You can check the graphs here, but BIN has performed above auctions year after year:

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?SYER~ALLCAT

Last fee structure changed was specifically targeted at auction sellers. Those that had 100% sell-through rate were least welcome. At the same time, fixed price media (CD, DVD, video games) sellers got a sweet heart deal. I think you'll see with the upcoming fee change in 2008 Q3/Q4, fixed priced sellers are desired on eBay. eCommerce is still about value, but also about convenience which fixed priced is better suited for than auctions.

[edited by: lorax at 11:44 am (utc) on July 15, 2008]

[amznVibe]

I've been asking for years now, guess it's not going to happen: where is the Google ebay-killer? Checkout is barely denting PayPal. Time to take it up a notch.

[sun818]

Looks like eBay is having fixed price listing sale starting today for the next two weeks. Told you, auction format is dead.

[rise2it]

Didn't I just see an announcement that eBay had (something like) a 22% increase in profits for the quarter?

That is all they care about, which means nothing has changed, and it never will.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

That's correct and they will say that with the profit they are making they must be doing something right. There is nothing wrong with that and they must drive their business in the direction that makes them most money. We would all do the same.

What this situation does is open up an opportunity for a new auction site that does what it says on the tin. Or perhaps one of the many others that are operating in a smallers market place could grab this opportunity?

[ByronM]

When will these discount rates be available for anyone who wants to sell?