Hamsher said about 20 percent of his shop’s business was done on eBay.
"We will take a significant financial hit initially," said Hamsher, whose regular store is the Purple Moon in downtown Charleston. "But business is about measuring the benefits versus the risk. In this case, the risk of having our money tied up and our reputation isn't worth it."
In late January, eBay announced that it would lower its listing fees by 25 to 50 percent, effective Feb. 20. To balance, eBay increased its commission fees.
Along with fee changes, the company changed its hallmark feedback and rating system, where buyers and sellers rate each other.
It decreased search exposure for sellers with high dissatisfaction rates. In other words, sellers with higher ratings will receive more exposure.
Sellers with low satisfaction ratings or who sell in categories with a high number of buyer complaints are also now required to offer payment by PayPal or a major credit card.
Finally, buyers will only be able to receive positive feedback and must wait three days before leaving negative or neutral feedback for sellers. Also, buyers will be held more accountable when sellers report an unpaid item or other policy violations.
On Feb. 1, Hamsher wrote an open letter to eBay on his blog, http://justa modernguy.com/, telling of his history with the company, starting as a buyer.
"I was constantly amazed with the ease and simplicity of the system which allowed me to acquire items from people throughout the world to add to my collection," he wrote.
Then, he began selling his treasures, he wrote.
"It was fun," he wrote. "I dove in with both feet. ... I had a vision of building a business around my passion for 20th century design with eBay being a core component of my overall business plan," he wrote.
EBay's success and values, he wrote, were that "people are basically good ... that an honest, open environment can bring out the best in people ... and you treat others the way you want to be treated."
The people who came up with the new fees and policies for sellers have forgotten that, he wrote.
His post received nearly 100 comments and Hamsher heard from hundreds of sellers via e-mail, he said.
When other sellers around the world called for a strike, Hamsher decided it was time to join to combat a "flawed system of customer service," he said.
He said the sellers that are hurt the most by the changes are the small sellers listing specialty items.
The new rules are for sellers who list thousands of the very same items, like cell phones, he said. At any one time, Hamsher had only about 100 items in his online store, most of which were one of a kind.
"If eBay is abandoning that market a lot of people are going to hurt by that," he said.
Chuck Hamsher began his relationship with eBay in 1999, buying mid-20th-century design and art. In 2001, he opened an eBay store.
But Hamsher closed his online store on Feb. 18, joining other worldwide sellers and buyers in a boycott against the Internet auction giant.
"We will take a significant financial hit initially," said Hamsher, whose regular store is the Purple Moon in downtown Charleston. "But business is about measuring the benefits versus the risk. In this case, the risk of having our money tied up and our reputation isn't worth it."
In late January, eBay announced that it would lower its listing fees by 25 to 50 percent, effective Feb. 20. To balance, eBay increased its commission fees.
Along with fee changes, the company changed its hallmark feedback and rating system, where buyers and sellers rate each other.
It decreased search exposure for sellers with high dissatisfaction rates. In other words, sellers with higher ratings will receive more exposure.
Sellers with low satisfaction ratings or who sell in categories with a high number of buyer complaints are also now required to offer payment by PayPal or a major credit card.
Finally, buyers will only be able to receive positive feedback and must wait three days before leaving negative or neutral feedback for sellers. Also, buyers will be held more accountable when sellers report an unpaid item or other policy violations.
On Feb. 1, Hamsher wrote an open letter to eBay on his blog, http://justa modernguy.com/, telling of his history with the company, starting as a buyer.
"I was constantly amazed with the ease and simplicity of the system which allowed me to acquire items from people throughout the world to add to my collection," he wrote.
Then, he began selling his treasures, he wrote.
"It was fun," he wrote. "I dove in with both feet. ... I had a vision of building a business around my passion for 20th century design with eBay being a core component of my overall business plan," he wrote.
EBay's success and values, he wrote, were that "people are basically good ... that an honest, open environment can bring out the best in people ... and you treat others the way you want to be treated."
The people who came up with the new fees and policies for sellers have forgotten that, he wrote.
His post received nearly 100 comments and Hamsher heard from hundreds of sellers via e-mail, he said.
When other sellers around the world called for a strike, Hamsher decided it was time to join to combat a "flawed system of customer service," he said.
He said the sellers that are hurt the most by the changes are the small sellers listing specialty items.
The new rules are for sellers who list thousands of the very same items, like cell phones, he said. At any one time, Hamsher had only about 100 items in his online store, most of which were one of a kind.
"If eBay is abandoning that market a lot of people are going to hurt by that," he said.
While it will be cheaper to list his items initially, eBay takes a bigger cut in the end - 8.75 percent of the selling price, as opposed to 5.25 percent previously, he said.
That means he will lose more in the end, he said.
Others agreed.
Ina Steiner, editor of auctionbytes.com, wrote on the Web site's blog on Jan. 29 that, under the old system, if a seller lists 100 items with a starting price of $9 and sells half of them at $35, the seller will pay $121.75 in fees. In the new pricing system, a seller will pay $162 - a 33 percent increase.
Also, according to Steiner, if 100 items are listed and sold for $9, fees total $63.63 under the old system and $74.38 under the new system, a 17 percent increase.
Along with the fee structure, Hamsher is particularly troubled by the changes in the feedback system, particularly that sellers can no longer contribute negative feedback to buyers.
Hamsher has left only 17 negative feedbacks, one for a seller who never sent an item and 16 for buyers who never paid.
"The feedback system has worked because it was mutual," he wrote on his blog in his open letter to eBay. "The system is worthless without being mutual."
Also, having ratings tied to search rankings is troubling because just a few bad ratings can greatly affect the numbers, he said.
In the 5,000 transactions that Hamsher has completed on eBay, he has had only a handful of problems, mostly because of shipping costs, he said.
Also, if a seller receives one or two negative comments in the same month, PayPal can withhold money for 21 days, he said.
Hamsher said he has communicated with his repeat buyers and plans to revamp his Web site to help serve as a marketing tool as eBay did.
He may list individual items on eBay but his store his gone, he said.
"I always liked selling on eBay," he said. "We built our business on it. Hopefully, I will be back. But right now, I'm done."
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