eBay Hikes Fees Again

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 4, 10:49AM EST

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by Jon C.Ogg

This was actually circulating yesterday evening about some eBay (EBAY-NASDAQ) fee changes, but I just got the email from Bill Cobb with his smiley face on it notifying listers of price hikes. This must be prioritized based on ebay usage, at least so I surmize since I have "been dark" (not using) the service too much and haven’t sold anything in a long time there. This doesn’t look like much on the surface, but it sure does irk the eBay user and power seller sphere. If you don’t believe it then go look up old online comments about the other times eBay has decided to hike prices. It isn’t exactly like eBay can say they are passing on higher energy, shipping, and raw materials prices.

A competing service UBid.com (UBHI-NASDAQ/OTC) has just started picking up more on advertising on TV lately, so they probably aren’t too upset that eBay is giving them a gift. Traders and investors should know that UBHI is a thin volume OTC stock with an apparent market cap of just under $50 million, so it isn’t a normal trading stock for active traders. It looks like the volume skips trading days with no volume more often than it trades shares and is deemed a highly illiquid stock, so don’t say you weren’t warned if you start digging around and can’t find much on it.

The new fee structure is at the very end of this article.

The letter ends with "More to come in 2007":

More to come in 2007
Lookingahead at the new year, it’s never been more important that eBay delivervalue through our marketing investments, product initiatives, and Trust& Safety strategies. Times have changed from 11 years ago when wewere a small innovative idea on the Internet. Quite frankly, some ofthe problems demanding our attention are more complex. But whatinspires me every morning–and what I hope inspires you, too–is thatthe opportunities for eBay and its Community to succeed by celebrating what makes us unique have never been greater.

Laterthis month, I’ll be addressing a group of eBay sellers who will be herein person in the San Jose area, and I’ll be sharing some of our plansand priorities for the coming year. My keynote speech will be availablevia a recorded Webcast for our whole Community (more details will beavailable soon) and we’ll be following the event with moreannouncements on specific initiatives. I think you’ll find we’re takinga surprisingly fresh look at some of the old challenges, and I’mexcited about the road ahead.

On behalf of everyone at eBay, I wish you all a very Happy New Year.

Sincerely,

Bill Cobb
President, eBay North America

Dear $$$$$$,

Animportant part of any business strategy is the regular evaluation ofpricing structure. From time to time, we make pricing changes tocorrect unhealthy dynamics in the eBay marketplace, as was the caselast July. Typically, however, we make changes on an annual basis atthe beginning of the year.

Today, I’m here to tell you about fee adjustments for eBay.com and eBay Motors which go into effect on January 30, 2007.

Let me say that, while we believe these changes are modest, we consider anychanges that may impact our sellers with great care. These adjustmentsare the result of careful analysis and we believe they’re the rightthing to do to keep the marketplace strong for our eBay.com and eBayMotors sellers.

Core Listing Fees: Auction-Style & Fixed Price*

Fee Type	Item Price	New Fee	Current Fee
Insertion Fee	Starting Price: $1.00 – $9.99	$0.40	$0.35
Final Value Fee	Selling Price: $25.01 – $1000.00	3.25%	3%

*Does not impact Store Inventory Listings.

eBay Motors Vehicles Fees

The fees listed above will also apply to Parts & Accessories.

Fee Type	New Fee	Current Fee
Motorcycles & Powersports Transaction Services Fee	$40	$30
Cars & Trucks, Other Vehicles & Trailers Transaction Services Fee	$50	$40
Motors Reserve Fee	0.1% of reserve price ($5 minimum, $10 maximum)	$5

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.