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Mary was looking to buy AN ASTRONAUT'S GUIDE TO LIFE ON EARTH by CHRIS HADFIELD , the Canadian astronaut, for our fourteen year old grandson.
Taking a look at eBay, she found over twelve new copies BUT all of them came from sellers in the USA, Australia, United Kingdom. NOT one was offered by a Canadian seller.
Why can't a Canadian book about a Canadian astronaut not be offered by a Canadian seller on eBay-Canada?
Competition, that is why!
Not easy to sell on eBay when you compete with the largest Canadian bookseller, selling in store and online, for Cdn$ 20.00 (free shipping for online purchase).
How can a Canadian seller compete after paying eBay and PayPal fees and absorbing the shipping cost (typically $12 within Canada)?
EBay has put the thumbscrews on smaller, independent sellers generally over the past year
Can you give me an example? I keep hearing this comment and have for years but for the life of me I can't figure out how people come to this conclusion.
OK, here goes my litany, more or less in order of introduction over the past 3 years, to the best of my immediate recall (I've probably forgotten half the things I've groaned and complained about over time).
Keep in mind that many of the changes noted below have been rather surreptitious, or background alterations that just quietly get introduced, presumably to avoid too much squawking from the peanut gallery. 
1) Smaller sellers like to build relationships with their buyers through direct contact; big sellers generally don't need or want to waste time on such things. EBay began in about 2012 by discouraging or making more circuitous the ability of buyers and sellers to communicate easily, simply, and directly, through:
- Removal of the prominent "Contact Seller" button that used to be up front and easily accessible, and which led only to an open message feature between a buyer and a seller. That contact button got placed way down the bottom of the screen, below most visible content, where nobody would notice it (many buyers had trouble finding it);
- Linking buyer/seller contact to DSRs ("Communications DSR"), putting sellers in the position of thinking twice before sending a buyer a friendly note, lest it not be received in the spirit it was sent. Effectively - and ironically - this became a reward system (5 stars!) for no direct contact with buyers. Fortunately the twerps who thought this bright idea up have recently been somewhat overruled, and Communications DSRs no longer generate defects;
- The 2012/2013 "FAQ" page, which often (to the consternation of both buyer and seller) became a direct line to a case opening - again, this was such an obviously idiotic idea that it's been somewhat revised.
2) Cancellations and Refunds: Once upon a time it was possible for a small seller to work out cancellations and refunds directly with a buyer without fear of reprisal or interference from eBay - another "good service" measure aided by direct, easy contact. Now eBay has not only automated the process by and large, taking most of the direct control out of the seller's hands, but made it easier for the seller to get defects by not following the accepted route -- we've all heard the stories. Why? Simpler, easier, faster for the biggest retailers on this site.
3) Removal of the "Me" page -- This was a big issue for me, the last bastion of the "old", small-is-friendly eBay. With that page I was able to put a personal face on the products I sell, to connect with my buyers as a smaller seller, and also include links to my website and photo gallery. The Omniture stats told me it was working. Not anymore. Now we have a one-size-fits all (XXLarge) "profile" page which essentially says nothing to my buyers.
4) Removal of Promotional Boxes: Oh, I miss this feature. For smaller sellers who don't have big advertising budgets, those customizable promotion boxes were a godsend. One day I noticed I could no longer set them up with anything but a plain vanilla HTML content. Then I learned they were on the way out -- soon to be replaced by the new, plain vanilla, one-size-fits-all storefront design. I have no doubt that design will at some point in the next year become mandatory. All personalized content is effectively erased.
5) Defect system: Now, I appreciate that defects apply to everybody, across the board. However, they don't represent a completely fair system to all, in that a really large seller with big volumes can "clean up his act" and wipe the slate clean every 3 months. The rest of us tote our shame and problems around for 12 months. This was no accident.
6) The new "After Sales Experience" and the "Money Back Guarantee" (and likely the "Hassle Free Returns" soon to come to eBay.ca as well). -- These are clearly geared toward streamlining the returns process on a site that wants to cater to buyers of commercial products from big commercial sellers. EBay really no longer cares to leave seller policy and terms of sale in sellers' hands. I probably don't need to go into details here, but suffice it to say that this is another step in facilitating automation of the sales flow, making less work (= cost) for the biggest commercial sellers. Smaller sellers like me would rather spend time communicating with a dissatisfied buyer and working things out personally. The likes of Toys-R-Us, Target, etc. etc. have no interest in such time-wasting, and don't care if they absorb a few defects every month. Smaller sellers just have to fall in line whether they like it or not, and whether it creates a disadvantage for them (read: defects) or not.
7) Encouragement of Free Shipping, both through advertising and through policy: This one really rankles me as a small seller. EBay has launched a 2-pronged attack on this front over the past year or two by heavily advertising free shipping on its "EBay deals" and from its bigger commercial sellers, while at the same time giving out gold stars to those who can afford to offer free shipping (5 star DSRs and 0 FVF). Buyers are now even less willing to pay reasonable shipping than they were a couple of years ago. I imagine big retailers have little trouble providing free shipping, but for the independent, lower-volume seller working from home, offering free shipping is a sacrifice, especially if you're Canadian.
😎 Search/placement/Cassini and Site Advertising -- Who knows what's really going on with search/placement? All I know is that big inventory = big visibility on eBay. And as for advertising, well, it isn't the stuff the average small seller is offering that eBay is highlighting -- just take a look at the landing page on any given day.
I've run out of immediate examples, but I'm sure if I dragged out the Seller Updates for the last 3 years I could quote many more. It isn't always a question of directly punishing smaller sellers; sometimes it's a matter of simply providing a greater advantage to the biggest retailers on this site that creates hardship and/or difficulty for the lone seller. A seller with 500 transactions a month isn't likely to care about a few defects, but will care much more about how the automated system is saving time and money. It's clearly not in the realm of conspiracy, but simply a fact that eBay has no interest in focusing on supporting its original core of smaller, independent sellers. Why should they, now that they've enticed the "big boys" to the site and are making more money from it?
Well, my theory is that ultimately a lot of those "big boys" will finish their experiment on eBay and move on. Most of eBay's traditional core sellers would stay for years if the site offered them advantages. Perhaps eBay is trading off short-term gain for long-term viability.
I'm a realist -- EBay can't, and doesn't want to please both, at least at the moment. I just wish they could find a compromise to help us "little guys" sell more easily -- a two-tier system perhaps? If all the restrictions and alterations to this site actually resulted in significantly better sales, I'd be all for them. Sadly, the outcome has been just the opposite for me and apparently a lot of other small, independent sellers.
Lastly, for a long time I too thought I might be just imagining things. Then one day at a Wed. board meeting, an eBay.ca staffer dropped a bomb that I don't think many took notice of, and I don't think he really meant to drop. He essentially confirmed, in response to a question about a new policy (I don't recall which specifically) that eBay's policies were meant to accommodate its biggest volume sellers. Ooops. Well, voilà, I wasn't hallucinating after all.
