eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

Subscribe to our 2 FREE Newsletters!

Web AuctionBytes

Home

Subscribe

Blog

Letters to Editor

Podcasts

Forums

AuctionBytes TV

ABU Back Issues

Sponsor

COOL TOOLS

Calendar

eBay Fee Calculator

Collectors' Links

eBay Promo History

Bookshelf

Fraud Resources

Auction Site Fees

Auction Management

Payment Services

Storefronts Chart

Sniping Chart

Consignment Services

Drop-Off Store Laws

Ecommerce Resources

Photo Tips

Marketing Inserts

Yellow Pages

Classifieds

AUCTIONBYTES

Our Writers

Write For Us

Partners

Press

Advertising

About Us

Link To Us

AuctionBytes Blog
News and insight focusing on
ecommerce and the online auction industry
by Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com

October 30, 2008

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

By: Ina Steiner

Thu Oct 30 2008 10:46:48

eBay is launching a new tool that publishes which items are in low-supply and high-demand on the eBay site (see Newsflash article). Sellers are already complaining about access issues (you must have a minimum 30-day DSR rating of 4.8). I think it's a real challenge for sellers to be confident in using the eBay In Demand tool without having more information about how eBay calculates demand for such products.

Comments (23) | Permalink

Readers Comments

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: Belle

Thu Oct 30 11:17:24 2008

I've been selling on Ebay since 2000. I, along with thousands of other sellers, have decided to boycott Ebay. It is an unethical company whos mission statement has only one word: GREED. Through greed they have made it impossible for the small seller to make a profit. It used to be a fun online community. For the seller, it is now like an abusive relationship ... the fear of no other place to go (auction site) keeps you taking the abuse. Not anymore - BOYCOTT EBAY!!

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: justifiably outraged

Thu Oct 30 11:57:24 2008

ATTENTION: PAYPAL IS NOT A BANK! IT IS NOT COVERED BY FDIC INSURANCE. YOUR MONEY IS NOT SAFE WITH IT. THEY DO NOT PAY INTEREST, AS THEY SHOULD, FOR YOUR MONEY HELD. sorry to shout it, but...
Before you read any further, you must completely understand that fact! I sympathize completely with all of you sellers who have been robbed by dishonest buyers who've taken your merchandise and then also taken back their payment for it...and all of you buyers who've had your personal financial information taken by dishonest sellers. All of these illegal acts have been enabled and facilitated by Paypal and eBay.
Paypal holds your money for days and weeks - yet it doesn't pay you interest. A bank must pay interest by law, as regulated by the Federal banking authorities. Paypal can take money out of your personal checking/banking account. Banks can only do this with a Court order. When 'threatened' in the UK, as well as in Australia, to be regulated under those countries' banking laws, Paypal turned tail and ran, registering their 'service' in Luxembourg.
You may post messages on these great and informative blogs, a public service in themselves. This is all well and good and serves to help one somewhat feel better over your losses at the hands of the Paypal and eBay thieves. But afterwards, and it only takes a few minutes, write your congressman, or write the banking authorities. Regardless of your partyaffiliation - we're all Americans and we need this to be done for all of our good, you can write Senator Charles Schumer from New York State (he's already received more than a few) or write Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts. Write and ask why is it that Paypal can operate as a bank without being regulated as a banking institution. You can always write the SEC and the federal banking authorities and ask them to look into it. Demand that Paypal be regulated by United States banking laws. All of this thievery perpetrated by this now-bogus service will then all be held accountable. It's simple and would immediately cause a beneficial change. Just write that note. It only takes a minute and will accomplish so much! Remember: PAYPAL IS NOT A BANK - UNDERSTAND THAT FACT - it can be corrected!

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: soprano!

Thu Oct 30 12:08:36 2008

This tool will drive the prices down.
If I was a seller who find something that sells, do I want Ebay bring in thousands on other sellers selling? No!

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: MERMAID

Thu Oct 30 13:18:51 2008

Regarding the fact that "you must have a minimum 30-day DSR rating of 4.8."

Here's something eBay is forgetting. SOMETIMES SELLERS GO ON HIATUS!!!! I'm one of them. I don't have a 30-day DSR rating (I'm a former platinum powerseller now gold because I'm on hiatus). Who says you have to work all the time?

eBay is not giving the respect sellers deserve. Seasonal sellers or those who are like me who are on hiatus, are treated like the worst offending sellers. We have provided a stellar customer service experience and have received high DSRs and yet we get shoved aside. The best thing that eBay marketing folks could do right now is to APOLOGIZE to sellers and start to make things right. Beg us to come back and we just may show you how to save the business.

Hey eBay...
R*E*S*P*E*C*T, find out what it means to me.

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: Patricia

Thu Oct 30 13:25:30 2008

@Mermaid - I well understand. I am also no selling on ebay since they downgraded my standings in the listing. Their excuse was I did not have enough feedbacks in the past 30 days. I have a 10 year 100 percent feedback reputation of over 3,000 -never had a neg. and DSR's of 5.0 across the board. If I can't get exposure in the listings then something is very very wrong with Ebay's thinking!

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: E-bay seller & buyer

Thu Oct 30 13:55:37 2008

I haven't sold anything on Ebay since may. Have been gone awhile and too have lost interest because of little NO PROFIT to be made anymore.Have a 100 percent feedback rating for 10 years,all my DSR's were high now they have all dropped alot.Why,haven't sold anything.I guess that's there way of punishing the seller.

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: marie

Thu Oct 30 17:59:48 2008

Great program Ebay is launching and here is what they do to sellers that do sell big - Posted on the Powersellers Board:...Tuesday I get a call and I am told that my PayPal account is being locked and the funds in it held. My listings are going to be restricted, but the active ones will remain, but any payments from the remaining items will be held.

Why? They did not like that my sales had increased and they were concerned. I asked why that is a bad thing as I was a good eBay follower and were listing items with free shipping, no disputes or problems, etc. Keep in mind my sales had increased, but I was still shipping and answering messages. I did not have a big run up in sales and then stop shipping and disappear. I could see getting vast amounts of money into my PayPal account and then no shipping as a reason to be concerned, but that was not the case. The person just kept saying they did not like the increase..

2 hours later all my active listings were canceled by T&S and the message said I was suspended and to talk to my rep. No mention of how long or any terms. When they canceled all my multi qty listings the history of purchases vanished and I have no record in eBay of any of the buyers. These buyers became concerned and quickly started INR disputes as they could not understand why the item they won disappeared and no refund or message. So now my PayPal account has a handful of INR disputes and my held funds are decreasing.

What did I do wrong? My part time business became a full time business with-in a couple of weeks and I was spending 12 hours a day answering messages, shipping, etc. During my growing pains, my shipping time fell to 3-4 days and with that my shipping time DSR. Once it took a hit, it never recovered, even with 5 stars from buyers. Everyday I was working on faster and better ways to make things easier and was proud I was making progress.

10 years on eBay with 100% poss when suspended and many repeat customers and recommendations. All ended in 1 phone call with no appeal. Now PayPal has frozen my funds and even canceled the withdrawal from the night before and there is no stated date for the funds to be available. I am suspended from listing for an unknown time and reason and do not even know my true status.

It is invoice time and I am sure that my $17k invoice will not see any discounts and I will not see any of the special discounts for all my Free Shipping items.

What a way to end 10 years on eBay....

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: MERMAID

Thu Oct 30 18:31:59 2008

@ soprano
@ patricia
@ marie

Perhaps we should start a "why I hate eBay club." It seems that's what's become of us sellers here on AuctionBytes. We love to tell our stories about how eBay wronged us.

I'm not even sure if I'm for or agains the In Demand Inventory Tool. I just know that I was upset because my loyalty to eBay has disappeared. Apparently we sellers are only as good as our last sale.

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: Keith

Thu Oct 30 20:49:27 2008

Big deal........

This is yet another retarded attempt by eBay to raise fees again in a roundabout way.

HEY EBAY WHY DON'T YOU JUST PUT THINGS BACK THE WAY THEY WERE A FEW YEARS AGO!

Your like the Coca Cola company... New Coke didn't really work now did it??? Shoulda left well enough alone.

CLASSIC EBAY>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

What a sad state of affairs!!!!!!

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: i'd rather remain anonymous

Thu Oct 30 23:45:48 2008

google 'ebay sucks'. you'll find an ever growing club.

here's my story. 8 years on ebay. 99.7% lifetime, over 6000 transactions.

august i got deregistered. ebay - a robot or a ??? decided that 2 of my 5000 items were phoney - ebay never specifies. they terminated all 5000 listings when one was relisted accidently. it took 6 weeks to send them their paper work and when i was reregistered i found that all my listings were gone. nothing. zip. they also had made changes that killed all my saved turbolister files.

i have had to start from scratch and suffice it to say i have made zip in 3 months. i am expecting my dsr garbage to go down shortly as my # of sales is down to nothing.

but here's the good news. while ebay forced me into retirement i did not sit in the sun - i found new sites. i now list on bonanzle [so far the best], ebid, ioffer - the ebay clones.

for books i list on abebooks, tomfolio, alibris, bibliopoly, used book central, antiqbook, americana exchange and 3 others.

ebay 3 years ago = 85%.
ebay today = 15%.

what i paid ebay in fees i get alot of coverage between free and reasonable selling sites.

i recommend every body wipe the tears away about the good old days on ebay. the company we all felt we had a stake in and realize the stake is in our backs.

check out the alternatives.

WE KNOW the buyers will go where the sellers are - that's how WE built ebay.

i say this all as a former shareholder too. when they amputated my business without so much as a phone call they lost everything with me.

rot in hell ebay.

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: unaware

Fri Oct 31 00:22:23 2008

Why don't they fix the site issues they have before introducing new features? There is not a week that goes by that I do not encounter a new glitch or a old glitch reappearing. For the last two days I have been failing to receive the e-mail notice from PayPal that a item has been paid for. This has happened before, got fixed and now has reappeared. I also found out today that buyers still see the Buy It Now wording and price in search results for a item that I put up for auction with a Buy It Now price but has received a bid for my lower auction starting price. The Buy It Now has been removed from the actual listing but the Buy It Now option and price still shows up in search results.... even though the auction bid price has already exceeded the Buy It Now price! I received five e-mails over a two day period asking me how they could do the Buy It Now.... I have had to reply to each that the item is no longer available as a Buy It Now because of the auction bid and that due to a eBay glitch they are still seeing the Buy It Now information in the search... I really do not have time for this sort of stuff. EBay.... FIX WHAT YOU HAVE BEFORE YOU TRY SOMETHING NEW!!!

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: unaware

Fri Oct 31 00:35:30 2008

Ina (or anyone else), if you want to see what I mean (in my comment above), do a eBay search for SANTA BELLE. It is a doll I have up right now.... in the search result you will see that it shows a auction bid amount and right below it shows a Buy It Now price that is less then the current auction bid amount! How confusing is that for a buyer? I could not figure out for several days why I kept getting e-mails about my Buy It Now offer when it was no longer in the listing.... now I know that this is happening in search.... is this a new glitch? I don't ever recall seeing this problem before. What a disappointment for the buyers when they find out they can't just Buy It Now as eBay implies. Just another wonderful eBay day!

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: mindelec

Fri Oct 31 00:37:20 2008

@marie - wow only ebay would punish success.

"But as any experienced seller knows, another potential downside of such a tool is that it could result in an oversupply of the items as sellers all rush to list those low-supply items."

BINGO! the tool will become a list of what not to list.

even if it was usefull, end of november is too late to try and get items in stock in time for christmas. hasn't anyone at ebay worked retail? retailers are ordering christmas stock no later than beginning of october.

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: Consignment Pal Resale Directory

Fri Oct 31 01:18:52 2008

@ soprano
@ patricia
@ marie

I feel your pain. Boy have things changed during the last year!

When you're a consignment seller, it's even worse trying to explain eBay's abrupt actions to your consignor clients. FYI, eBay's consignment sellers are called eBay Trading Assistants.

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: Consignment Pal Resale Directory

Fri Oct 31 01:28:53 2008

Sorry, posted too soon.

Mindelec is right about the In Demand List becoming the ''what not to list'' list.

When the tipping point occurs, the sellers, not eBay, will be left holding the bag with excess ''common'' inventory.

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: Bob

Fri Oct 31 04:40:49 2008

"high-demand"...."on the eBay site" usually is followed by a period of "flooded on the eBay site." Now this new tool should just speed up the process. Rare - fad - high demand - high prices & sales - flooded inventory - prices crash... Ah yes, reminds me of the time I bought an entire pickup truck load of Pyrex when it was hot. In the course of two weeks, of finding out how hot is was (several years ago) eBay was flooded (by others who also found out how hot it was) and prices crashed to nothing.

@ veteran complainers....
Let me ask you something, several years ago when you heard predictions about eBay's demise and how eBay management's decision would kill the site, did you argue and use your then current sales to boast that eBay was great and had no problems?

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: V

Fri Oct 31 09:16:16 2008

Who can access this tool? We have all the requirements but we can't access it.

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: baelrack

Fri Oct 31 12:08:10 2008

PETITION: REMOVE JOHN DONAHOE FROM EBAY

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?jdonohoe

PLEASE pass this on to anywhere and everywhere!!!

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: mindelec

Fri Oct 31 17:04:45 2008

@V
the tool won't be launched until "late next month" (november). making it useless for christmas purchasing.

eBay Launches In Demand Inventory Tool

by: Fruity

Fri Oct 31 18:31:51 2008

Ina, it's not letting in qualified sellers. I meet the qualifications and then some, it's not letting me in either. 3 other sellers who qualified also are not allowed in. Another example of tools ebay deploys but doesn't not validate its ready for release

Click to view more comments
1 2 [Next Page]

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives


Site Index Copyright 1999-2009. Steiner Associates LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.