good stuff here, overall, and succinct in their expression. i’m a mid-range (well, top 20% of eBay sellers for whatever that is fricking worth) and frankly due to their new feedback system…its more and more plain that the conspiracy theorists who believe that eBay is trying to kick out the small to mid-range guys may actually be right!

while I continue to make good money selling on ebay, i pretty much did everything that steve suggested in his ebook sellingon the river–though I was already doing it BEFORE I bought his ebook! so his ebook is worth it for those new to it.

i’m next looking to add on my own website as I wean myself away from ebay as I have by upping business on amazon to the detriment of ebay. my sales channels will be ebay, amazon as they are currently, and i’ll build up my own website as well. it is what ebay ‘wants’ me to do…and i’ve seen the html on the wall, baby…

It’s sad to think of all the opportunity eBay wasted. But it’s interesting to see all the lean and fast small businesses that are growing up to take advantage! This is the first I’d heard of Bonanzle syndication. I’d seen Netspray (was that in one of your articles?) as well as the simple little shopping cart sites like Weebly and Yola that have suddenly appeared.

It was scary when eBay changed, but now I’m selling better on my independent websites than I did on my eBay store. So who needs dinosaurs anyway?

The fact is Amazon has seen substantial growth since eBay announced its new abusive policies in Jan 08. This very rapid growth is clearly a result of the huge influx of 3rd party sellers. Beginning in Q2 08 and every quarterly following Amazon has reported that a substantial portion of its gains are directly associated with the increase in third party sellers. In other words, third party sellers are adding to the breadth of products available on Amazon.com. Buyers follow the products and ex or soon to be ex-sellers from eBay have taken the products to Amazon.

What amuses me is Amazon has used the large retailers for quite sometimes, but it is happily welcoming smaller 3rd party sellers and as a result has benefited greatly. John Donahoe is so lacking in commonsense that he doesn’t recognize that he could have buried Amazon if he had brought on these large retailers while preserving the relationship with the customers eBay was lucky to have. Instead he foolishly – and continues to – alienate eBay’s customers driving them from the site into Amazon’s welcoming arms. Amazon clearly headed by a man actually possessing intelligence recognizes the value these sellers bring to its business.

Oh yes, and Amazon has retained those large retailers recognizing their value even with many of them also offering their products on eBay. So eBay doesn’t even have the full benefit of these retailers, because it’s sharing them with Amazon (and the retailers own site). Donahoe threw away the pie in favor of light whipped cream! hahaha what a funny little man!

The best twist is another Seattle based company is chipping away eBay’s other pillar by welcoming those sellers that offer products Amazon doesn’t have a place for. That’s right Bonanzle and Amazon are bringing down the 800 pound gorilla eBay.

With Bonanzle’s new seller syndication selling tool the eBay collapse is going to swiftly hasten. John Donahoe has not only alienated sellers this past 18 months he has also alienated affiliates many of which are eager to strike back. Their opportunity has surfaced with Bonanzle.

eBay Inc. headed by the dumbest CEO ever, has gravely damaged not only its marketplace segment, but also PayPal. Two reasons: 1) John Donahoe has made PayPal an enemy to sellers by forcing its use on marketplace sellers and using it as a weapon and 2) all of these sellers being driven from the marketplace are adding other payment services either in addition to PayPal or without using PayPal at all. PayPal is not offered on Amazon.com and sellers on other sites such as Bonanzle have other options to add to their business or use to the exclusion of PayPal. So, look forward to a weakening PayPal e-commerce presence over the next year too, because Google Checkout and Amazon Payments/Amazon Simple pay (available to merchants on and off Amazon) are going to tear PayPal up.

Way to go Donahoe! Thanks for the laugh – ROTFLMAO!