An Analysis on Fees - May not be so bad after all

[lynxamania]

Note: I too didn't feel to great about the fee changes, but after an analysis which we should be doing, it may not be so bad after all.

Lets take a look at an analysis of the Fees, I personally feel that when the thought of a fee increase is in the air, as gullible as we can get, by just reading or hearing about an increase naturally we tend to get very angry and begin the complaining process. However we forget the facts revolving around the fees. The Sellers and the Trading Assistants may feel that it has affected there business but so are the eBay Certified Service Providers (such as Marketworks, Andale etc). Its best to judge it for yourself.

We do know by now that the Stores have increased in Final Value Fee and Subscription. A store is always optional. Keep in mind that the amount of time it takes to make your own website to the amount of costs incurred such as purchasing a template or a service to design and develop the website, the cost in purchasing a domain, maintaining and hosting on a time to time basis is fairly high depending on the hosting company you deal with and the costs/time it takes to post your website on search engines can be a real pain. eBay stores gives us an opportunity to make simple listings with a real site.

For eBay Real Estate Sellers you are getting a much better deal in general for listing whether in US or Canadian Dollars. Motors Pocket Bikes listings your getting a much better deal on insertion and transaction fees, you only pay 10% of the previous fees. For Business & Industrial overall is lower in fees.

For Gallery, Motor Vehicle listings get the feature for free, which makes sense businesswise. However for any other listing, the gallery feature has increased by 0.10 US or C 0.20. Even we have seen this increase, eBay is increasing the size of the Gallery image on search and listings pages by 56%! This is something which is beneficial to all of us when it comes down to the bottom line and is probably worth the price you would be paying for soon.

For Buy-It-Now, it seems this is somewhat expected, eventually eBay was going to increase the Buy-It-Now feature depending on the Buy-It-Now price range, however any item from 50US+/C70+ the price stays the same, so even with C$1000 BIN fee its the same as going for a C$100 BIN fee. For Motor Vehicles, the BIN feature has substantially increased.

The Bold Feature, only listing in Canadian Dollars you see an increase, from C 1.00 to C 1.30. While the US stays at 1.00 US. Its not a major difference otherwise, even comparing it for a US listing. Motor Vehicles have a substantial fee increase.

The 10-Day Duration Upgrade Feature has gone from 0.20 US to 0.40 US and from C 0.30 to C 0.50. If you agree that a 10-Day listing does increase profit substantially then its probably not much of a big deal in this fee increase, if you fee its not beneficial in your listings then no need for it as its just an optional listing. Mother Vehicle listings have it worse.

The Border Feature, interestingly the fee has decreased from C 4.50 to C 3.90, for US listings 3.00 US remains the same. For Motor Vehicle listings it has increased.

The Highlight Feature has increased from C 2.00 to C 6.50, reasons behind it is probably due to the thought of matching it somewhat to US dollar listings. US dollar listings remain the same as before. Highlight is an optional feature and not every seller uses it. Its may not even be the best feature they have so it may not be a big deal for this increase.

About the Featured Plus! Feature, for Canadian Dollar listings its gone from C 5.00 to C 25.95 and for US its gone from 14.95 US to 19.95 US. This is probably due to the large number of Featured Plus! listings that are appearing everywhere, regardless you need to look at it both ways, it may have benefited your business, but put it this way if you got something that you know will sell for a major profit well go for it, if you beleive its an item that will gain little profit, its not probably required. Besides, even though this is a major increase for Canadian Dollar listings which is the negative side to it, the positive aspect is that with lesser Featured Plus! listings it may seem more beneficial for those who really NEED it to those who were posting it because it was much cheaper then a US listing. Its always optional.

Gallery Featured Feature has increased from C 5.00 to C 25.95. US listing remains the same as before. I say that its too bad for those who have used it that it has increased, but I suppose its not a big deal as its not the most used feature on eBay. You decide.

Scheduled Fees and Picture Pack Features are remaining the same except for Motor Vehicles and/or Pocket Bikes.

Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro Subscriptions for Canadians have decreased, which is probably good news for those who use them and those who wish to try it out (they most likely have a trial offer along with it). Selling Manager has gone from C 7.50 to C 5.99 while Selling Manager Pro has gone from C $23.99 to C 19.99.

Motor Vehicle Reserve Fees have also changed for both US and Canadian Dollar Listings.

Overall, these are the Fee Changes that are happening on eBay.ca. Regardless it seems to me that eBay did infact think about what they were doing. Look at it this way, Insertion and Final Value Fees for Auctions are remaining the SAME, that is good news since most of us auction our products off then just selling them. I'll tell you one thing, Boycotting/petitioning is not going to be the way to resolve this issue, you may end up winning the case but what if eBay decides to lower some of the fees they increased and increase the insertion and FVF for Auctions for example? Instead of whining or what not, like in any business, we need to focus on adjusting the way we run our businesses during this fee change, focus on getting better deals from suppliers/finding more and use whatever motivational tools we need to better ourselves and our businesses.

The only thing I ask eBay.ca is to keep on expanding and growing, but give the Power Sellers for example, stronger benefits and support. I would like to one day see a really small "discount" for Power Sellers (maybe for Gold and up for example) or at least a Stock-Option program if that is even possible. In conclusion instead of worrying about it lets use it to our advantage. Thank you and God Bless.

[sunward-hobbies]

I'm sorry, but I disagree with your post.

( using US rates ) As for real estate, machine, pocket bikes, etc, I don't list so they don't affect me.

The gallery fee increase doesn't make sense. First ebay says you need it to increase sales, then the fee is raised. More money. The size was fine the way it was.

As for BIN, it doesn't matter if the final price is 100 or 1000. It has gone up for the sole reason to grab more money. ebay always get the FVF so why discourage BIN? On a 25.00USD item, it is now .20 instead of .05. 300% increase. The fee stays the same for BIN under 10.00 Big deal. Nothing but a money grab.

The 10 days was .10 a little while ago. Now .40?

As for stores, ebay is trying to level the playing field. But now the fees are higher for about 50.00. Monthly subscription fees have gone up. The reasoning?

A few have posted ebay wants .99 auctions with no reserves. ebay wants lots of bidders. Unfortunately, there are fewer sellers, so not a very good strategy.

Service is bad. Bidders are less. Fees up all the time. The company doesn't listen. I have already cut fees and looking elsewhere at specialized sites.

BTW, have you forgotten about paypal fee increases?

And pinks. When was the last time you saw one?

Angelo

[shoplineca]

I also dont agree with your post.

First you must examine what you are getting for your money as well as what additional costs eBay has or will incur as a result of offering those services.

I dont think that you will find many people on this board or the US board suggesting or ackowledging that eBay service has increased and in fact has decreased over the last 3 years.

Their cost in having these features available also has been a no cost item to them so it is not the result of supplier increases that they must put through a 2nd increase for these services.

In fact what eBay has told us in their notice is that the increases are to assist them in their international growth.

The relationship between a supplier and its customers is a bond that is formed and maintained based upon a number of factors. What is clearly missing in the relationship between eBay and its customers (the Sellers) is trust, one of the most important bonds.

I was hot hard last year by the increase in fees to my reserve auctions, to the point that I seldom list anything that I intend to sell for over $400 USD.

The BIN offered me some alternatives in that I could simply list my items as a BIN with no auction, no reserve and not pay through the nose should the items not sell however this latest increase, once again hits me where my pocket book is.

If I had a sell through rate of 85% it would not be of much concern, but I dont and as a result, I often find myself listing some items 3 or 4 times for 10 days (another increase) at a time before it sells.

It is the nature of what I sell and the unpredictability of what items sell in which month. One month there may not be any bids for brass instruments and the next month I sell 10.

If there was some ration behind this increase, some improvement to service, to marketing our products or something similar, the majority of sellers could probably accept this increase however over the last year we have seen a revamping of systmens that have caused the majority of us, lost time and money due to eBay system failures, glitches and a new My eBay that for many is much more difficult to work with than the previous model.

To simply fire off an increase for the good of the shareholders at this time after considering the above, is nothing more than corporate greed and the "in your face" attitude of being the best available online auction site.

Thanks to IBM about 15 or so years ago, we moved into a world of contract employees and disappearing loyalties.

This one-sided corporate management style promises short-term achievements and long-term failure. So for the shareholders of eBay, enjoy your profits but have your broker standing by with a sell order in hand because when the walls come tumbling down, they will come down fast and hard and this will be just another e-commerce site that was around for a decade before its eventual collapse due to the same corporate greed and lack of long term management practise that separates the Wall-Marts from the Enrons of this world.

Malcolm

[lynxamania]

I tolerate and appreciate your opinions.

I am still not convinced its a "huge blow" to my face kind of fee change. The issue isn't how much I'm gonna lose now, the issue would most likely be 5-10 years from now if eBay decides to change its fee structure drastically and is this a long-term business venture, it looks like those who started earlier or now are the ones who will at least have something established.

The possibility is that eBay may shift itself into a different direction and going back to being that yard sale of a site by charging a large commission etc, which leaves the small businesses out in the cold. Major corporations today are squeezing small businesses into dirt and eBay currently is a great opportunity to start something.

I do agree that eBay needs to rethink its strategy for the future, sure I'm optimistic about the fee change but eBay needs to realize eventually that the sellers are the foundation of its organization, and if the majority are unhappy, they need to restructure there plans.

I also don't see how eBay may end up like google, sold off publically and owned by different organizations, which can lead to worse or better things.

Other then that would like to hear others views.

[shoplineca]

lynxamania
eBay is a publicly traded company, the same as Google except years earlier, maybe therein lies the problem.

The profits from these increases go to satisfy the same institutional and private investors as those that invested in google on the stock market that you fear.

eBay stock is currenty trading around $10 USD, up about $2 since Thursday.

I prefer to have a commission-based fee structure where I pay a % based on my selling an item rather than pay a % of what I hope to sell it for whether I sell it or not and then another % for selling it. Either that or use a flat fee for listing, after all eBay's costs are the same.

As the cost to eBay for me to list a $1 item or a $10,000 item is the same, why should I pay so much more to list a $10,000 item???? No other reason except to pad eBay's pockets and that of its shareholders without bearing any risk of whether the item sells or not.

It is primarily due to last year's increase in fees for reserve auctions that I no longer act as a Trading Assistant. I also no longer list items over $500 USD.

I loose out on selling these on eBay at the same time they have lost out on the commissions that they would have earned and even the lesser, original listing fees they would have gottn from me had they not been so greedy last year with the increase.

Dont expect a mass exodus from eBay. It is much more subtle than that. Sellers change their habits, their previous ways of listing and selling on eBay and with each change, comes a decrease in income derived from that Seller.

eBay's continued sucess through each of these price increases is NOT because of the Sellers who have been here with them for several years, it is the new Sellers as there is likely one new Seller out of every 3-5 new eBay Buyers and so long as that ratio continues, eBay will remain on the course they are on.

You can probably also count on, out of every new eBayer who sells on eBay, 1/6 will become a Power Seller and replace those of us who move on elsewhere or losse our status due changes we make in cutting our costs and reducing our listings on eBay.

Additionally, there are those who sell on eBay and cant get out of it as they have no where else to go, no other way of continuing to do what they are doing and so even when their income decreases, despite even an increase in sales, they are here until they loose it all and fold up shop.

... and there have been a couple of the biggest sellers on eBay who have already bit the bullet in the last year.
(100 hour weeks, thousands of weekly sales, employing staff just to pack and ship items and not making enough to pay the rent and buy groceries).

A smart business person doesnt sit and accept price increases and say, just wait until the next time or maybe the time after that, then I will be concerned and then maybe I will do something, providing everyone else does.

If the increases have no direct effect on you, great you have nothing to worry about. If your profitability is so high that they have minimal effect on your business, then that is great as well.

Just so long as you are confident in your calculations about the affect on your business and whether, at the end of the day, you are working to put more money in the pockets of eBay, PayPal, your supplier and the carrier than in your own hands.

Remember, you are supposed to be working for yourself and if there is an opportunity to make profit at what you are doing, then as a business person, it should be you that makes that profit and not a 3rd party supplier.

Malcolm

[sunward-hobbies]

lynxamania;

You have the wrong idea as to which direction ebay may be going.

Ebay is not going back to the small yard sale site but a site more for the large seller. These large sellers already get away with many things we can't. Watch for more increases and then a yearly or monthly fee to sell. Wait for there to be a fee for 7 day, or other, listings. Wait for increases in paypal. Wait for ebay to start offering services, that you have to buy, that are either now free or avialable through other companies - just look at the company they just bought last week.

As for google, I don't understand the comment. Both are publically traded and owner by many. Please clarify.

Angelo

[shoplineca]

I meant the stock is trading at $105 USD NOT $10 USD. Another typo.
Malcolm

[lynxamania]

About the last comment I made in the previous post, which was rushed just omit it (kinda hard to explain what I meant and not important).

About eBay stocks its currently at 105 on the NYSE. Last year was a very strong year for eBay, its lowest point was at around 65, and its highest point was in december at 118. According to a stock report it had seen a recent drop due to the fact about the sudden growth of angry sellers (based on an article). It seems that this is getting to the press and Sellers are doing a good job in terms of fighting the fee change by far.

What I meant to being a yard sale is eBay may just end up being a place where you just sell something you have for extra cash and not in anyway good for small businesses, just a hobby, kinda like how TA's function, but for a high commission (15-25% etc etc). And of course the mega titanium sellers, large organizations may be around, but if everyone else agrees that eBay has gone too far and that they are increasing fees etc etc, I think the titanium or big shot sellers may also be affected by it and we may see them move away from eBay. eBay will also probably end up just good to sell to get rid of some inventory and not a place to be making a decent profit thats how I see it happening eventually. It may also shift more focus towards charity programs etc.

I suppose another large issue is this, the Buyers. We may see a trend that eBay just might not be the place for Buyers to find cheap goods like they currently are at least getting, depends how you look at it.

On the other hand, about the services, it may be a possibility, when I first heard about eBay long ago, I used to think that eBay Sellers had to pay some form of monthly subscription to auction off products etc etc, I do agree that this could be a move in the future. I was really surprised when I heard for the first time that Sellers didn't have to pay a monthly fee (other then stores etc etc) to sell etc etc besides the fees in general.

Maybe its time to get newly elected officers on eBay, from what I am hearing the CEO is losing popularity drastically, Maybe we as sellers should get into the game, maybe we should start buying some stocks and establish a Sellers Shareholders Group 🙂

Note: I also wonder how eBay Live 2005 will be with this fee change, the 10th year anniversary convention might not be as exciting as it could be...we may even see protestors...or maybe sellers will cancel there hotel arrangements now and forget about attending the event as a move to protest...

Again these are all opinions and I respect everyones opinions regarding these issues.

[auctiondropnship]

lynxamania
While your thoughts and commented are business minded. I have been selling on Ebay since 1998. I am going to be bold and stated that I feel your wrong . The growth of Ebay has slowed and will continue to slow.

Ebay has chosen the wrong road

When you have been on Ebay as long as I have , you see the up and downs

While i will still sell on Ebay . I will be careful as to what I list
Todd

[lynxamania]

Well if eBay is in fact slowing down (not sure what you mean by that I do notice the large expansion and growth, if you meant slow for any eBay business then it makes sense..), it would probably mean that these are the reasons for the fee increase and of course being agreed upon that it was the wrong decision, it might have been the only decision they probably had to make, they probably messed up a few years back. I wouldn't know but appreciate your input.

[shoplineca]

lynxamania
In a nut shell. those loyal Power Sellers that began many years ago on eBay have noticed a decrease in their business in particular, in their profitability and they have taken steps to reduce the amount of listings or alter the way they list that reflects a negative change to what they were doing previously.

The fact that eBay is setting up sites in India or China or wherever else, does not reflect positive growth of the business. It reflects expension of where they offer their services.

In the short-term, it will mean an increase of revenues derived from those countries which will more than make up for any loss in the domestic markets however, a good long-term business plan will ensure that the business complements what it has and not expense or sacrifice what it has for something different.

As the trust of North American Power Sellers for eBay diminishes (even for 2-year vertrans such as myself), we no longer invest in our eBay business but search alternative venues.

You joined eBay just before eBay's 2004 increase so it didnt affect the way that you had been doing business. You didnt have to make any adjustments to maximize your profitability. In fact you had expectations of paying a monthly service charge for the privilage of selling on eBay so anything less than that was a bonus.

I sold for 10 months before the 2004 increase and 12 months later had been dealt my 2nd increase. We have also seen an increase in PayPal fees (another eBay company) with a further increase expected shortly. 75% of my customers pay using PayPal so it is a big part of my expenses in selling on eBay.

What I got in return is a decrease in my profitability and a decrease in eBay's service.

I know of no business course that would suggest that this is a formula for long-term success.

Malcolm

[shoplineca]

By the way, eBay's expansion will be pulling in thousands and thousands of new Sellers from 3rd world countries in direct competition with you where they will be listing on eBay items you are selling (or knock-offs) for 1/4 of what you pay for yours.

I sell musical instruments and there are people listing instruments from India selling, as an example, trumpets for $39.95 USD. It is physically impossible to have these MADE even in China for that price let alone sell them at that price.

There are no quality controls in India for these particular instruments and they dont meet the International standards set for them but tell that to Buyers who wonder why I list mine for $175 USD when they can purchase one for $135 USD LESS than mine.

I can imagine the amount of traffic (new listings) we will see on eBay for knock-off items and substandard goods and service as their expansion opens up all these new markets.

... and we are paying for it in the new price increases.

Malcolm

[barriemetals]

So your saying... We are paying to introduce nbew competition and albeit not even legitimate competition. Funny how the world works. But honestly haven't we been paying third world countries money so they can compete with us on the world economic scale. It has its downsides and upsides. The upside being that these people get a chance to compete and the downside is that they get to compete. Funny how the world works.

Barrie Metals

[lynxamania]

Oh I do agree, naturally with fee increases sellers would have to adjust over the years and most likely would begin to lose, if it was inflation involved thats fine and makes sense, but like you said I joined eBay as a seller before 2004 (didn't start till the summer of 2004) so I wouldn't really know the track record over the last few years etc. I was a usual spectator since 1996 and I had my 2400 Baud Modem to go along with it, boy was that great...imagine selling with that...

Well about the international markets, thats not just eBay thats practically all the North American corporations nowadays that are expanding in areas like China and India for a whole load of reasons, from cheap labour to lower costs in expenditures etc etc the list just goes on and on and thats something we can't do much about. Like Wal-Mart for example, majority of their products are from suppliers in China, leaving many of the suppliers in North America out cold and there are reasons for it. Why else is the job-market in North America in terrible shape, and besides don't the corporations practically run our government? Its them to who fund the campaigns and put a politician in power...a politician who would usually favour them in most cases etc... put it this way everything in the world is business even tragedy is business it always has been and corporations just love it...

Anyhow whatever happens within the next few months will affect us all including eBay, as much as I don't see it as a blow for my business for now, Paypal increasing its fees is something that would hurt just about anyone regardless and with this new rumoured fee that is going around its not going to look pretty.

Eventually, the best thing to do is not continue an eBay business in the near future and focus on other ways of business...expanding and finding investors to fund your business for further expansion and development (would require an excellent business plan of course).

Good luck.

[shoplineca]

Well eBay is apparently now making the Canadian press, radio and tv and getting slam dunked for gouging its sellers.

Cant say they dont deserve this one.

barriemetals, you are correct in that we, the rich western world countries and members of the G8 through the World Bank and other agencies fund the very 3rd world countries with billions and billions in never-have to be repaid loans, and through Cdn groups like CIDA and EDC and then we are faced with competetng against them.

You know how simple life would be if governments did only what they were supposed to do and allow people and business to do everything else, we would all be better off however that will never happen.

The only positive side (if you can call it that) is that 85% of the money that is given to these countries never reaches the people it is intended for. The high ranking government leaders and company moguls take the majority of it and that is the one factor preventing those economies from advancing faster than they are.

lynxamania
Overall the job market in North America isnt in a terrible shape. The US job market is twice as healthy as ours. Not only that, many US employed people operate their own businesses in the evening and spare time, providing opportunities for additional employment with the continuing growth of their home-based businesses.

Canada is the country running around a published 8% unemployed and that only takes into consideration those that are still enrolled with the Unemployment Insurance program and totally misses the millions who have fallen off that list or who were never on it. We are probably closer to an unemployment rate of 12-15%.

There is going to be a major change in the world economy where the US will no longer be the dominent force, the big super power. Within the next decade ... well all I can say is I hope you like Chinese food and learn to speak a little Mandrin.

The only thing preventing a true onslaught of Chinese goods here right now is that their own demand for products exceeds their ability to meet that demand. This is due to the Chinese starting to develop a middle class that wants all the toys of the Western world, having an ability to buy them and the country as a whole quickly emerging out of the 19th century right into the 21st century.

Malcolm

[lynxamania]

About the Job Market, it depends how you look at it, our Canadian economy had survived the US recession so I can't really say the US is twice as healthy, reports even suggested that the Ontario alone economy was in much better shape then the US before, you also have to look at the fact that the US population is in the 200+ million compared to our population of approx. 32 mil.

Another thing about the Job Market is that during the 80's and early 90's which was the traditional way of finding a job was having the right education. Eventually experience became the most important thing to corporations, of course the question was how can you get experience if no one is giving you a chance etc.. today its not just about the general education or experience you have its the "specific" experience you have that counts.

However, its important to note that companies are now shifting towards opening new jobs to the "internal" workforce. Businesswise its the smarter investment. This the way its working now compared to the traditional ways of opening new positions in the "external sense". For example a major corporation that I had been a licensed employee for barely ever hires anyone from the "external" world, while then they had many new jobs open only to there employees. Not also are there internal jobs there are what I call "internal-external" ways to find the right candidate. What I mean is companies will ask there employees if they know someone who is looking for a job, why advertise or find an employment agency when you can easily get someone that one of your employees can trust and know. This is the way things are working now.

The real jobs are going overseas thats how I see it, its happening already. You also have to look at the facts, for example once our interest rates are hiked and other factors taken in place, the middle class will surely begin its collapse, mortgages and debt will be difficult to pay off (we see the trend, the banks and corps just love it) and many would require a second or third mortgage (this is something which is very common in the US compared to Canada). Real estate is most likely gonna crash by 2006 from the way its going and so on. The objective of these corporations/politicians who ever you wish to blame is to squeeze the Middle Class into submission so there would be only the Upper and Lower classes around, this is whats happening today. Due to the job market not being in good shape there have been reports of this new shift of self-employment that its rate has been drastically increaseing. In terms of new ventures, of course it creates jobs, but there is a difference between running an organization then running your own job (the real idea of self-employment).

Like as it was mentioned, the super powers to be will easily be China. In fact for the past few years you can almost say that China is a super power already in terms of military development, they have the largest army in the world, they have the technology to make the missile defense just a waste of time and money, they are developing EMP weapons (Elecro-magnetic pulse) which would lead to easy invasion if they wanted to, all the way to improving and creating new air force fighter jets (along with Pakistan) etc etc.. the list goes on. China will most likely win the Globalization game and those who are with them will benefit from it.

It also looks like the European Union seems to be a strong contender and has alot of potential to become another "super power", for example there Euro dollar is literally killing both the US and Canadian Dollars (our Canadian dollar has only improved due to our higher bank rates and the US dollar sinking). Alot eBayers would love to bid in Euro and those within the Union (the UK is part of the union too they haven't unionized the GBP with Euro yet) would be better off then we are on eBay.

Anyhow with all this it all depends what we do with the time that we have and the time given to us to better ourselves and improve the way we do business.

eBay wait a go with what you had, eventually you too are in risk of becoming another Yahoo.com (in which the underdog Google.com eventually became the worlds top search engine) I wonder if there will be an underdog thats not eBay...I may not be a google fan especially there big brother style e-mail system and so on..they might even end up starting an online auction company of there own... interesting..

[shoplineca]

lynxamania
It is clear that you have some good information that you have obtained from reading the news and watching the television but the reasons behind some of what you are saying is not for the reasons you stated.

In Canada we are driven to pay off our mortgages because of the amount of interest that adds to the final cost of the home. Our country is a heavily taxed nation primarily because of our socialistic style of government and vast land with a very limited population that grows only through immigration.

In the US (with a population exceeding 320 million), you are encouraged to obtain the largest mortgage you can and if possible add on a 2nd mortgage and a home equity loan as the interest that you pay is 100% tax deductible (in addition to your property taxes). In this way, the US encourages people to (a) own homes they normally couldnt afford thereby building euity and (b) giving them alot of expendable cash to keep the economy growing.

In North America, the switch has not gone from an educated workforce to an experienced work force with benefits, rather it has gone from a salaried workforce to a contract workforce without benefits. That trend has continued such that many of the contracted jobs are overseas where whole departments have moved out of their North American offices.

I commented on the employment situation in the US being better than ours, not the economy. GWB has done more damage to the US economy in the last year than 10 Presidents in a row could have done. He has threatened the very foundation of his country, its resources and its military might.

Who would have thought that bringing down Saddam in Iraq would have caused the US such finacial hardship (his father did and that is why he didnt go any further than he had to in 1991).

Malcolm

[lynxamania]

Oh I absolutely agree that it has gone from a Salaried Workforce with benefits to a Contract Workforce with benefits, there is no question about that. I wasn't saying that all the factors mentioned in my post were the only reasons behind it there are more of course. I also agree behind the reasons of why our country is highly taxed especially with the programs we so much cherish such as Health Care etc.. and our government is being smart about it by investing the time and energy for better environment programs (the northern reserve forestry "lock-up" to the Kyoto agreement etc), cause if the quality of our environment was poor (the US is almost considered to be a third world rated country in terms of the environment according to the UN) so would our quality of health. I say we probably have an excellent government, its minority, its working for the better of the people and its doing a good job by far (which is how minority governments work anyway). Canada is also doing a good job for small businesses (while corps don't like it), it was estimated that approx $120 Billion worth of loans (even grants) was available in 2003 to fund small businesses for the purpose of job growth and economic stablity which we could see in the near future, more people are turning towards self-employment and they need to start considering building an organization, we have the options to do so.

I'm not much of a TV lover nor am I gullible when it comes to the media, I'm open to any suggestions regarding issues and I do check out the reports even from the Free Media world etc.. The Media in the US has become such a tool for the countries agenda that propaganda is almost enforced right into its citizens heads, while they may not know of it its there. Its like anyone who even suggests that Osama and Saddam were US funded and ally's before, most of the citizens would think your crazy while its a fact. The "brainwashing" is done very well and I comend them on that.

GWB and his administration including the corporations had there own agenda in Iraq, it was all strictly business for there own gain. Any war or tragedy is business it always has been. Sure the economy is a disaster, sure the freedoms of Americans are being taken away (Patriot Act 1&2), sure the military is having a hard time in stablizing Iraq and the more it continues the more a draft could be nearer (Syria and Iran are being considered targets) and besides there are already setting up "boards" in the county/districts across the country for "statisical" purposes to gain information regarding the "military manpower availability" in the area etc.. sure we are seeing our neighbors in a state that it has never been but its obviously still influencing our own country, sadly. We have the C-7 and C-36 bills which gives our government more powers and works almost like the Patriot Act (but not as much, its like a softer version). But this is a whole different topic (I wonder if there is a political section in the forums..)

Anyhow regarding eBay, what are the chances of them not making the fee change on the 18th of Feb?...

[sunward-hobbies]

None.

Maybe give back a little or so, but it will stick

Angelo

[sunward-hobbies]

lynx:
quoting
"Oh I do agree, naturally with fee increases sellers would have to adjust over the years and most likely would begin to lose, if it was inflation involved thats fine and makes sense"

There is no need to raise fees. most of ebay fees are based on price or percentage. As the value of goods on ebay goes up, then so will what ebay collects in fees.

This is a money grab.

As a side note, I finally opened an account on another site. One that started selling only books. Way easier to list. And you pay fees only if your item sells. Will give it a go to see what happens. ( collector and older books may still go to ebay )

Angelo