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eBay Battles Power Sellers

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the something-to-think-about dept.

DigitalDame2 writes "eBay power sellers, angered by the recent eBay policy changes, have been hitting back the auction site with listing boycotts and now with accusations of fake listings and forum censorship. EBay admitted that a "bug" in its system had accidentally placed listings from eBay-owned shopping.com onto eBay.com late Friday night. A California-based seller's new eBay listings did not allow users to actually bid on his items. "This guy has over 35,000 items. And there is no button for a 'buy it now' and no button for making a bid." As a result, sellers are threatening to take their complaints to the Federal Trade Commission, but eBay is not backing down." Normally I wouldn't really care, but I think this is interesting because eBay is so dominant in their field, that there is no real alternative. Watching how things like this play out is interesting to me because I want to believe that the internet will require everyone to be more responsible or lose. But the real question for me is at what point does total marketplace dominance trump that.

2 of 370 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Ebay isn't the only player in that area by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Maybe they are in business you fucking bigoted prick. Get a fucking life and stop trying to look down on others. It just makes you look more pathetic.

  2. Re:Alternatives... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Those who complain about sniping are looking for "deals" and don't understand how eBay works.

    I can complain about sniping without playing the game. I think snipers are stupid and I'm sick of listening to them talk about eBay. They only time sniping works is when you are bidding against another sniper who messes up. Most snipers I know mess up more often than not, so I guess it does work, but it's all totally stupid. It's just another greater fool system. It's stupid and only works if someone else is dumber than you and someone is always going to be the dumbest player. Yeah, I bid the most I'm willing to pay for an item and I get it or I don't. I never change my proxy bid after setting it. If someone snipes, I pay more, but no more than if they'd bid earlier or I don't win, and still wouldn't have won if they'd bid earlier. Just bid what you think it's worth and stop playing stupid games.