Several times in the past, eBay sellers protested changes in site policies with boycotts. Though sellers received more attention this time, they had the same result in effecting a change: zero.

The impact of the eBay seller boycott comes down to a they said/they said kind of argument. Sellers claim a multi-million listing downturn during the boycott week, while the company claims it had no effect.

At one point, sellers boycotting eBay due to an increase in Final Value fees claimed a drop to 12 million listings would represent a victory. One third party count at DealsCart found a low of some 13.5 million listings on one day last week.

eBay shrugged off the boycott without comment, other than to claim the action had no effect. We don't see that as being completely true, since thanks to the Internet this boycott received significant attention leading into its run.

Ultimately it played out in the way we believed it would. EBay isn't going to shift out of a volume-driven model it wants to engage, by rewarding bigger sellers with generous fee discounts......

Labels: auction sites, boycotting eBay, ebay fees, ebay policies, ebay practices, feebay

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