Amazon boxes are branded. While eBay does have a shipping supplies allowance for eBay Store subscribers, not all eBayers use it.
One of the biggest changes is the switch to paying dividends on eBay's considerable profits.
Until March of this year, eBay shareholders could only make money by selling the stock when it was high.
In my opinion this led to some manipulations, like giving Free Listings in huge numbers to sellers just before the Quarterly Reports, which made the site appear to have increased activity and stock prices to rise. This form of manipulation may be good for shareholders, but not for the business proper. And it is common for upper executives to receive part of their renumeration in shares, so it was profitable for them personally to play around like this.
