eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

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

November 25, 2008

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

By: Ina Steiner

Tue Nov 25 2008 10:00:59

eBay is bringing on high-volume sellers through its new Diamond PowerSeller program, which we first wrote about in September. And as predicted, these sellers are coming on to the site during the all-important holiday shopping season, giving existing sellers little time to prepare for the added competition. You can read about eBay's new API called "eBay Large Merchant Services" and Mercent's launch of a "catalog merchandising and order integration software" for high-volume eBay sellers in today's AuctionBytes Newsflash newsletter.

Mercent said it is helping bring SmartBargains.com onto eBay. SmartBargains sells in the "Department Store" category - bedding, jewelry, apparel, home, fragrances, shoes, etc. We've already written about Toolup.com and Shoplet.com coming onto eBay through the Operation Catalog program, and other companies rumored to be considering or committed to participating include Converse, Dell, J&R Electronics, Lego, Nike, PepBoys (pep_boys), PlexSupply, and TigerDirect.com.

eBay's confirmed that Diamond sellers can negotiate for special pricing, adding to the competitive pressure on lower-volume sellers. We've also heard rumors of special treatment for Diamonds with regard to DSRs ( buyer ratings), though that remains unconfirmed.

Comments (46) | Permalink

Readers Comments

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: dimes

Tue Nov 25 10:33:47 2008

I'm not sure your average eBay seller has anything to fear from smartbargains unless the company is planning on significantly cutting prices on the goods it sells on eBay.

I didn't see much in the way of bargain prices on its website.

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: Gary

Tue Nov 25 10:34:06 2008

Fake DSR's? I thought buy got high ratings because of all it's cancelled and OUT OF STOCK orders.

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: NumYummy

Tue Nov 25 10:50:17 2008

I have long thought that Buy.com had fake DSR's. There is no way a large volume seller with not so perfect feedback could have such great ratings.
It's totally disgusting!

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: RatherRuss

Tue Nov 25 11:03:21 2008

The last few days have begun to tell the real tale of Donohue/Whitman's machinations coming to fruition. With the auction business becoming more fractured as it matures, they are runnning willy nilly away from their bread and butter, a site dedicated to bargains to one shilling the same old Chinese junk that can be found at Amazon (who are also maturing and slowing in growth), Wal-Mart and the usual suspects in the same old same old culture that keeps cranking out the same things as each other.
One of a kind, handmade, antique, rare items are a large market in and of themselves, but with Ebay and Amazon having abandoned what to them is small potatoes, these sellers have begun a real exodus away from the old sites towards small new ones, and all the attendant loss of sales, service and confusion that goes with them.
Eventually new sites that cherish the differences will find a few winners and the supermarket/shopping center folks will either buy from ebay or go out to malls which will find themselves in the same condition as non-unique items proliferate at cheaper and cheaper prices. It is the American way.....any one for a McMansion 45 minutes from a major city. I got dozens for you at half price....Happy Holidays you new sites, keep working to grow and serve your audience....Rather Russ
And thanks to Ina for a forum, and good wishes for your new year, too.

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: Mad Mike

Tue Nov 25 11:08:35 2008

That's OK. Even with their fake DSR's, I'm still better than they are and my customers know that.
Sometimes it's a little tougher to get them ''in the door'' because of their cut throat pricing, but once my customers realize the quality of service they get with us, they tend to come back, again and again.
Personally, I do not believe I would want to be in their exclusive ''Diamond'' club.
eBay counts for only about 50% of our sales these days and by this time next year eBay will only see about 10% of our merchandise. That'll be in open box items and clearance auctions only.

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: So be it

Tue Nov 25 11:22:41 2008

Ebay, be careful what you wish for, you may get it.

Ebay (Whitman/Donahoe/Omar) thought the pickings looked good to go to the big sellers. Quick, high profits... only short term thinking.

The small sellers are gone or are still leaving and NOTHING will ever attract them back.

Ebay, you've made your bed, now have a nice nap (dirt nap that is).

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: ss

Tue Nov 25 11:55:02 2008

Most brick and mortar stores black friday will be the day after Thanksgiving,.

Ebays black friday will be the friday after christmas when all the good sellers will abandon ebay for happier places.

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: LA

Tue Nov 25 12:10:37 2008

Loosing site of what business they're in seems to be eBay's growing demise! Demise may be too strong a word but the success of eBay was the fact that people were dealing with people - not big "boxes"! Now, eBay is just trying to be "same old, same old" - losing it's unique position in the marketplace while hurting a lot of people who have been loyal ebay sellers and have "created" the audience for eBay. I call it the "MBA syndrome" - people making decisions who do not understand the "flavor" of the business, focusing on numbers and forgetting about the people side which is always the most critical component of any business, especially one which was created by "people for people". It's highly unfortunate that this "MBA syndrome" has now hit eBay.

Thank you Auctionbytes for all the work you do - it's a great way to keep connected.

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: Tom Turkey

Tue Nov 25 12:34:16 2008

"other companies rumored to be considering"
...
"We've also heard rumors of"
...

Perhaps premature to be writing this story then, no? What's the point here, that there may be a story developing, and that there isn't yet one? You're risking your news sounding like yet another hit job ...

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: joe

Tue Nov 25 13:16:22 2008

GREAT, FAKE DSR's... WHATEVER HAPPENNED TO CLEANING UP THE FRAUD AND MISREPRESENTATIONS ON EBAY.

Brings new meaning to
"N O T A S D E S C R I B E D"

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: Patricia

Tue Nov 25 13:35:27 2008

That's okay - they can all go down with the ship - not many of us sellers really care anymore - neither do a lot of buyers too.

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: Ming the Merciless

Tue Nov 25 13:48:36 2008

@ Tom Turkey

LOL! You certainly selected an appropriate nom-de-blog!

Instead of posting turkey poo on blogs, why not churn out some more of your infamous misleading press releases or spend some of ebay's venture capital?

I have a feeling come January that ebay's Tom Turkeys will be eating a lot of crow.

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: West Coast

Tue Nov 25 13:48:49 2008

@Tom Turkey

OK, tell us what YOU know.

It was sellers and bloggers who found out about the covert Buy.com deal on ebay. Same with most serious glitches and policy double standards. Bloggers and industry observers have to help each other out because we know we can't rely on ebay to be straight with us.

Ebay only ever reveals anything when they absolutely have to. So far, auctionbytes has helped me to stay in business by helping me find out about these things that effect the livelyhood of my 5 employees, their families, and my children.

I sell in a catagory that was severly impacted by the Buy deal. I pay full fees to ebay but Buy does not. So, thank you to bloggers and industry watchers for helping me to determine that ebay themselves were the ones I was now competing with.....

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: Ming the Merciless

Tue Nov 25 13:55:41 2008

If ebay is intentionally manipulating anyone's DSRs, they are committing one count of consumer fraud with each manipulation.

If in fact ebay is manipulating the DSRs of Diamond Powersellers or any seller for that matter UP or DOWN, then the sheer scope of the manipulation transcends mere consumer fraud and enters into the criminal fraud arena.

If ebay is giving special deals of ANY kind that aren't made available to pre Diamond Powerseller customers with similar dales volume, they are in violation of fair trade practices.

The list goes on and on and on. The list of suspected or alleged frauds being committed by ebay warrants a massive FBI/DoJ investigation under the RICO laws.

Death to ebay corp.

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: mindelec

Tue Nov 25 14:17:48 2008

sounds like ebay management is trying to be the grinch that stole christmas...

"I'm not sure your average eBay seller has anything to fear from smartbargains"

in service and pricing, no the small seller has nothing to fear. however what these sellers will do is clutter up the site making those sellers harder to find and if you only sell from a store your items might not even appear in the main search pages.

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: Ming the Merciless

Tue Nov 25 14:38:18 2008

Call your powerseller rep. They're now denying ebay is giving or has given any special deals to Diamond Powersellers.

ROTFLMAO!

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: rob

Tue Nov 25 14:41:30 2008

every facet of ebay is being manipulated! It is so flippin obvious that if you are not offering FREE SHIPPING on everything, you are more than likely be get little to no listing exposure in best match regardless how good your ''buyer satisfaction'' ratings are.

I just looked at a couple of categories I USED to list in concentrating on core listings scheduled to close within the next 3 hours. In ending soonest there were 78 auctions scheduled to close by 3PM from a bunch of diffferent sellers that were charging a modest shipping/handling charge. Of those 78 auctions, ONLY 21 of those listings showed up in best match. Only 21 auctions charging a shipping fee) out of 78 got best match exposure! That is sad! I reviewed the feedback ratings and DSRs of all the sellers excluded from best match, and they all had great buyer satisfaction ratings.

When I checked out best match there were well over 50 fixed price and/or FREE shipping listings not scheduled to close until later tonight, tomorrow or sometime in the next 30 days before I found a single auction that had some type of shipping charge (this auction was closing in one minute, yet 50 free shipping listings were ahead of it that werent closing for many hours).

I think it is truly sickening that ebay has basically forced everyone doing business on their site to offer free shipping in order to get any type of real listing visibility in most listing categories.. It's not that the sellers getting best match search standings have better customer satisfaction ratings or better sell thru rates on their items. It's all about ebay's greed to make the highest commissions possible exposing higher commssion fixed prices and free shipping listings where they can eek out more revenues.

Ebay suits truly sicken me! Nothing ebay has done this year in all their assinign policy changes have been ethical to say the least. Their corporate greed will be the death of their company yet!

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: formercanadianpowerseller

Tue Nov 25 17:17:00 2008

How can eBay OFFER a Diamond Status to a seller and the seller NOT be forced to earn it?

Can I call eBay and say that I will list over 500,000 worth of items to receive free listing fees...?

I don't get it.
Years ago to had to steadily EARN your ranking.

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: Daisy

Tue Nov 25 17:30:51 2008

It's so ironic. Ebay made this big fuss over DSRs and it's so important that we keep them high so buyers come back and stay. And they're also tied into the Best Match fiasco.

Yet, these diamond sellers are going to come in and they will not provide good customer service, but will not be punished, and buyers will get burned, and won't come back.

Who is going to win in this scenario? Won't Ebay be back to square one???

eBay's March of the Diamond PowerSellers

by: bryan

Tue Nov 25 20:20:31 2008

Love reading these posts. So many sellers looking for other places. Not a huge fan of posting links here, but we'd love to see your goods and great service on our site! Check us out at stootsi.com or visit http://sell.stootsi.com/about_sell.aspx and let us know how we can help you!

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