My wife is a power seller on eBay but lately not so much, in fact she’s even been getting phone calls from eBay asking why. She continues to express amazement that they don’t seem to get the message.
eBay’s (EBAY) core business continues to fall apart. Some of the decline is likely the result of the declining economy. The rest of it is likely the result of the trends that have been clobbering eBay for the past two years: competition, overpricing, and the deterioration of eBay’s value proposition. eBay’s efforts to turn around this business do not appear to be working.
Memo to eBay: you screwed up when you raised seller fees, started “nickle and diming”, and nobody, I mean nobody, is happy with PayPal. Traffic has dropped in each month of 2008, except for March, and coincides with the timing of the fee structure changes.
If there is one business that should do well in a recession, I would think eBay should be it.