sarahkwinn@wvgazette.com
Chuck Hamsher began his relationship with eBay in 1999, buyingmid-20th-century design and art. In 2001, he opened an eBay store.
But Hamsher closed his online store on Feb. 18, joining otherworldwide sellers and buyers in a boycott against the Internetauction giant.
"We will take a significant financial hit initially," saidHamsher, whose regular store is the Purple Moon in downtownCharleston. "But business is about measuring the benefits versus therisk. In this case, the risk of having our money tied up and ourreputation isn't worth it."
In late January, eBay announced that it would lower its listingfees by 25 to 50 percent, effective Feb. 20. To balance, eBayincreased its commission fees.
Along with fee changes, the company changed its hallmark feedbackand rating system, where buyers and sellers rate each other.
It decreased search exposure for sellers with highdissatisfaction rates. In other words, sellers with higher ratingswill receive more exposure.
Sellers with low satisfaction ratings or who sell in categorieswith a high number of buyer complaints are also now required tooffer payment by PayPal or a major credit card.
Finally, buyers will only be able to receive positive feedbackand must wait three days before leaving negative or neutral feedbackfor sellers. Also, buyers will be held more accountable when sellersreport an unpaid item or other policy violations.
On Feb. 1, Hamsher wrote an open letter to eBay on his blog,http://justa modernguy.com/, telling of his history with thecompany, starting as a buyer.
"I was constantly amazed with the ease and simplicity of thesystem which allowed me to acquire items from people throughout theworld to add to my collection," he wrote.
Then, he began selling his treasures, he wrote.
"It was fun," he wrote. "I dove in with both feet. ... I had avision of building a business around my passion for 20th centurydesign with eBay being a core component of my overall businessplan," he wrote.
EBay's success and values, he wrote, were that "people arebasically good ... that an honest, open environment can bring outthe best in people ... and you treat others the way you want to betreated."
The people who came up with the new fees and policies for sellershave forgotten that, he wrote.
His post received nearly 100 comments and Hamsher heard fromhundreds of sellers via e-mail, he said.
When other sellers around the world called for a strike, Hamsherdecided it was time to join to combat a "flawed system of customerservice," he said.
He said the sellers that are hurt the most by the changes are thesmall sellers listing specialty items.
The new rules are for sellers who list thousands of the very sameitems, like cell phones, he said. At any one time, Hamsher had onlyabout 100 items in his online store, most of which were one of akind.
"If eBay is abandoning that market a lot of people are going tohurt by that," he said.
While it will be cheaper to list his items initially, eBay takesa bigger cut in the end - 8.75 percent of the selling price, asopposed to 5.25 percent previously, he said.
That means he will lose more in the end, he said.
Others agreed.
Ina Steiner, editor of auctionbytes.com, wrote on the Web site'sblog on Jan. 29 that, under the old system, if a seller lists 100items with a starting price of $9 and sells half of them at $35, theseller will pay $121.75 in fees. In the new pricing system, a sellerwill pay $162 - a 33 percent increase.
Also, according to Steiner, if 100 items are listed and sold for$9, fees total $63.63 under the old system and $74.38 under the newsystem, a 17 percent increase.
Along with the fee structure, Hamsher is particularly troubled bythe changes in the feedback system, particularly that sellers can nolonger contribute negative feedback to buyers.
Hamsher has left only 17 negative feedbacks, one for a seller whonever sent an item and 16 for buyers who never paid.
"The feedback system has worked because it was mutual," he wroteon his blog in his open letter to eBay. "The system is worthlesswithout being mutual."
Also, having ratings tied to search rankings is troubling becausejust a few bad ratings can greatly affect the numbers, he said.
In the 5,000 transactions that Hamsher has completed on eBay, hehas had only a handful of problems, mostly because of shippingcosts, he said.
Also, if a seller receives one or two negative comments in thesame month, PayPal can withhold money for 21 days, he said.
Hamsher said he has communicated with his repeat buyers and plansto revamp his Web site to help serve as a marketing tool as eBaydid.
He may list individual items on eBay but his store his gone, hesaid.
"I always liked selling on eBay," he said. "We built our businesson it. Hopefully, I will be back. But right now, I'm done."
To learn more about eBay's changes, visit http://pages.ebay .com/sell/update08/overview/ index.html. To learn more about the PurpleMoon, visit www.the purplemoon.com or call (304) 345-0123.
To contact staff writer Sarah K. Winn, use e-mail or call 348-5156.
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