How did it come to this?

How did it come to this?

eBay was such a fun place to buy and sell the most outrageous stuff when it started. It actually was a giant flea market, trade show, and garage sale. Thousands of people bought and sold everything from baseball cards to clothes. These early sellers and buyers built a site we all came to love, eBay, the worldwide online auction site.

Today, much to the collective heartbreak of all of those of us who were part of that beginning, hundreds of thousands of small sellers who depend on income from their sales at eBay can no longer afford to stay.

Powersellers are angry and leaving. Buyers are beginning to shop elsewhere in search of their once plentiful & unique bargains. eBay is becoming a marketplace for cheap imports and large department stores. It isn't what we built anymore.

Beginning in 2005 and continuing periodically, several increasingly successful boycotts have taken place. Define successful? With each successive boycott, more buyers and sellers become aware of the blatant greed, non-existent customer service, Paypal issues, feedback and search problems and more.

Not only that, but eBay continues to insult the very customer base that made them what they are by making it impossible to FIND what you want to buy or keep any profit from SELLING anything.

I know not everyone will agree with me. That's the way it should be. I know too that there are many MORE reasons we came to this point--a boycott. Will it work? I don't know. Am I participating? Haven't listed on eBay for more than a year. Haven't bought there in many months. Don't plan on it, either. And I'm only one. 'nuff said...

For anyone out there who hasn't heard of the eBay Boycott, or doesn't understand it, I've collected some news links to better explain what has been happening to what WAS the greatest shopping experience around.

If you buy on eBay, I encourage you to become better informed about how this company treats those it does business with (its sellers AND through them, it's buyers). I encourage buyers to get a feel for how eBay really feels about you, they want to tell you what to buy and from who.

I urge eBay stockholders to learn more about how the impact the most recent 2008 changes that management is making will have on the YOUR bottom line, down the road...if the real buyers and sellers leave...