With the new rates I believe that eBay is going to hereafter put consistent pressure on its Power Sellers to relentlessly explore alternative venues. The wayside is littered with one-time corporate giants that have fallen because, one way or another, they lost touch with the street, or grass roots, level of their organization. Some of them have toppled into oblivion. To use automotive allusions Ford, at one time, had exclusive market share. Remember how lame Japanese cars, like Toyota, looked when they first came out? GM was once the largest corporation in the world. Now they're not even making money selling cars and their rating is one point above that of a junk bond.
Moreover with all the economic disadvantages Canadian sellers are currently enduring how much worse will it be if the economy takes a downturn? I believe that a US downturn within the next couple of years is virtually certain and, while the Canadian economy is somewhat insulated our fate often follows that of the US. With the new Patriot Act an act of terrorism could even shut down the border for a period. How many power sellers will eBay have remaining then? Power Sellers mean growth.
I've briefly looked at some alternative auction sites. One of the first ones that I went to was the second largest. Y? - because that seems to give them some kind of advantage over the newer upstarts. They seemed to have no customer service to speak of - no email. One that the Americans seem to be gravitating towards (O my!) seems to not service the Canadian market. I expect that most other auction sites will seem quite weenie, for a while, compared to the buyer base that eBay currently enjoys. Collectively choosing one, over the others, might have some advantages but so far I'm not encouraged by our demonstrated capacity for collective action.
More than 3K stores shut down in the days immediately following the rate increase announcement. In excess of another 3K stores have closed since then. The question is how many others will close in the next weeks, months, years as sellers realize how little they're making? Paypal may, in time, become eBay's sole asset of any consequence.
I'd definitely like to put together a list of alternative venues, complete with their pros and cons, of both on-line and bricks-and-mortar opportunities. It may be discreet, however, to begin thinking of taking this type of discussion elsewhere such as to those boards mentioned in this recent article: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/02/18/BUGVOBCC3O67.DTL&type=business
Like the 15 year old kid who recently blurted out some truth in the Governor General's mansion it may have been honest but it was inappropriate to do it in her house.
