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Little Bear GuyI got this from another group that I belong to, I know it's long but it's regarding some changes that ebay is making with ebay.co.uk and I know a lot of our TT's are from the UK and use ebay and they would be interested in this and may not know about it. This is from their FAQ page regarding the change, I hightlighted and underlined the questions so they would be easier to read.
Just goes to show you what ebay can do and again how they are becoming more like a dictatorship, I figure it won't be to long now and they will be trying this same thing with Ebay Canada, looks like a great way to get more money into ebay. I know they are hurting big time :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: in the first quarter of this yr ebays profits increased 52% yet their revenue only increased 27%, ebay is estimating their gross revenue to be between 7.2 billion and 7.45 billion for 2007 their net income for the first quarter of 2007 was only 377 million. One can really see why they have to keep increasing their rates :crackup: :crackup: (that's a bit of sarcasim there I'm not on ebays side 
)
In order to buy from the UK you now have to go to eBay.co.uk
Why did you make this change?
At its simplest, we made this change because we think it will increase domestic trade on eBay.com by more than it reduces cross-border trade between eBay.co.uk and eBay.com.
eBay operates thirty or so country marketplaces around the world. We have a responsibility to try to increase the total amount of trade that takes place on all of those marketplaces put together. If that
means making a change - like this one - that will benefit one site by more than it harms another, then that's what we tend to do.
More specifically, the several million UK listings that used to appear by default on eBay.com had begun to do measurable harm to US domestic trade. That measurable harm exceeded the measurable benefit
of UK-to-US cross-border trade. So, counter-intuitively , removing the visibility of UK items in the US can increase the total amount of trade that takes place on eBay globally.
Did you have to remove US visibility from all UK listings?
We think that having `no UK items showing in the US' is better for the `total trade' mentioned above than having all UK items showing in the US'. But we also think that having `the right UK items showing in the US' is better still.
We turned off all UK items because we could do it quickly, and because we knew it would result in more `total trade'. Over the next few months, we're committed to identifying `the right UK items' to show in the US and restoring US visibility for those items.
Which items will end up having their US visibility restored?
We'll determine this through the testing that we'll be doing over the next few months. We'll be doing two types of tests:
1) Tests where we simulate showing UK listings on eBay.com, as long as they meet certain criteria (like specifying postage to the US, offering PayPal, having reasonable feedback etc.) - we test this by
giving this `experience' to a random selection of 1% of US buyers as they move around the site
2) Tests where we show UK listings in specific categories on eBay.com -as you'd expect, we know which categories used to have a significant proportion of US buyers, and which ones were pretty much all UK
buyers.
The tests will run in both directions, so as well as determining `the right UK items to show in the US', we're also be determining `the right US items to show in the UK'.
That's all very well, but a few months is a long time. What do I do in the mean time?
For the vast majority of UK sellers, whose businesses are helped by, but not reliant on, having US buyers seeing their items, we would advise you to continue listing on eBay.co.uk.
If more than 50% of your buyers used to be in the US, we'd advise you to list on eBay.com so that you can reach that audience. This applies to a tiny percentage (less than 1%) of UK sellers, however, and most
of them were already listing on eBay.com.
There are some sellers (again, a small percentage) in between these two camps, for whom between 20 and 50% of their buyers are from the US. We would advise these sellers to consider listing on both eBay.co.uk and eBay.com until we make our final determinations about visibility. As sellers would incur additional fees to do this, we would advise them only to do it if it proved more profitable for them than listing on eBay.co.uk alone.
Are you trying to get UK sellers to list on eBay.com, or on both eBay.co.uk and eBay.com?
No. We would only advise the tiny percentage of UK sellers for whom more than 50% of their buyers are in the US to do this.
We would only advise the small percentage of sellers in the third group mentioned above to consider `dual listing', and then only it was a more profitable option for them.
Will you be reducing UK listing fees to compensate for lost US visibility?
No. For most UK sellers, these changes will make little difference to their business. (This is not to say that the sellers reportingsignificant falls in business on the boards aren't correct; it simply means that they are a small minority of the hundreds of thousands of UK sellers, most of whom only sell domestically) .
If we had made a change that significantly affected the business results of a large majority of UK sellers, then a fee reduction might have been appropriate, but that isn't the case here.
Furthermore, the US was never the majority of eBay.co.uk's export business - other countries, whose visibility of UK items is unaffected by these changes, collectively account for more buying than the US did.
UK sellers still all have access - for pennies per listing - to the largest audience of UK buyers on the internet.
Will you be charging a fee to give UK sellers visibility on eBay.com?
This is still a possibility, but our preferred approach is to show `the right UK listings' either through filters or by category as described above.
There are some advantages to a fee approach - it allows sellers simply to choose whether they're willing to pay for US exposure, for example - but we would probably only take this option if the testing/filtering option proved unworkable for some reason.
Why do eBay Australia listings still show up on eBay.com?
This is largely because eBay Australia is much smaller - an order of magnitude smaller - than eBay.co.uk. There is little risk of Australian listings appearing on eBay.com in sufficient quantities to do harm to US domestic trade.
Don't US buyers oppose this change?
The majority of US buyers have never purchased from another eBay marketplace and have no real interest in doing or motivation to do so.
Those US buyers who have been motivated enough to complain about the changes on US boards will naturally tend to be those who have bought from eBay.co.uk and who don't mind looking through UK items. These
buyers are a small minority of the tens of millions of US members, most of whom don't have any reason to support UK item visibility on eBay.com.
Aren't you discriminating against eBay.co.uk to protect eBay.com?
No, we don't think so. This is a business decision, taken to increase the total trade on eBay as described in the first FAQ above. If in the future we need to make a change that harms another site to generate a greater benefit on eBay.co.uk, we would tend to do so.
Items listed on eBay.com don't show up by default on eBay.co.uk, and items listed on eBay.co.uk don't show up by default on eBay.com now either. This seems fair.
Is it true that a lot of UK buyers use eBay.com?
No. eBay.co.uk gets roughly 3-4 million unique visitors each day - the number of UK visitors to eBay.com is a very small percentage of this.
British people who do visit eBay.com receive a message on the homepage prompting them to go to eBay.co.uk (at least the first few times or until they turn it off!).
We also promote eBay.co.uk heavily on TV, in newspapers and online. We are the most visited e-commerce site in Britain, and our current `logo people' adverts were named the `most recalled' ad in the country in March by Adwatch.
What role do exchange rates play in all of this?
As many of you will know, the US dollar is currently at a 15-year low, with one pound now worth two dollars. This naturally makes it hard for UK sellers to price their items competitively for US buyers.
We usually see our export rates to individual countries closely following the exchange rate, and as the dollar has weakened over the last 18 months, we've seen the proportion of our trade that's done with the US reduce slightly as well.
Nonetheless, it's still most likely that the recent sharp falls in US trade that some sellers are reporting is attributable more to our visibility change than to exchange rates - but the exchange rates certainly aren't helping.
A couple of posters have suggested that this change was made to try to `prop up the dollar' - big as eBay is, it isn't that big!
Are you saying we're imagining things? I don't believe these figures that you quote.
We aren't saying that the sellers reporting significant falls in business on the boards aren't correct; it's just that they are a small minority of the hundreds of thousands of UK sellers, most of whom only sell domestically - and thus are not protesting on the boards.
We sympathise with any seller whose business has been negatively affected by this change, but we stand by the change nonetheless because it will result in more `total trade' as described in the first FAQ above.
We offer figures and percentages in our replies in the spirit of transparency, and to try to enable discussions to take place based on fact rather than opinion and emotion. We are a publicly quoted company, and any figures that we share publicly have to be accurate.
It's difficult to continue a discussion with someone whose response is "I don't believe you", because that makes it almost impossible for us to put eBay's side.
Shouldn't you have given us more warning of this change?
We would like to have given more notice of a change that would affect some sellers very seriously. On this occasion, our analysis showed compellingly that the appearance of UK listings on eBay.com was overall doing harm to eBay trade, and we felt that we had to take immediate action.
We're sorry that this change caught some sellers by surprise and left them with little time to adjust their selling strategy. Our aim is to provide a profitable sales channel with as little upheaval for sellers as possible, and that manifestly wasn't the case with this change for some sellers
Wow. This will be a huge problem for teddy bear makers since the UK has a huge group of really talented artists who sell internationally. The industry has enough trouble, at times, reaching a wide enough audience. It bothers me that eBay's policy change, described above, makes it harder for bears to be seen internationally.
I don't usually get involved in commenting on the eBay threads here but this particular announcement strikes me as pretty sucky for all involved, from bearmaker to collector. Except, that is, for eBay, of course! If UK bearmakers want their wares showing up on the US site, they'll need to double post, which lands eBay more profits.
Hmmmph! 
Little Bear GuyI agree Shelli, I don't usually get to involved with the ebay stuff but I thought this was prety important stuff
hugs
Shane
I find it interesting that they continually say things like " a very small percentage" and "small minority" but never actually state those percentages. I would imagine that it's not as insignificant as they say. If it really were 1 or 2 percent, surely stating those numbers would have greater impact??
I agree with you Shelli - it'll have significant impact on UK bear artists. If someone's bears are selling in the under $150 price range, with the combination of ebay fees and UK/US currency differences they'd be mad to list in both places. That accounts for a lot of artists, including those starting out and trying to grow there business. It's such a shame for them and the collectors.
I also disagree with them when they imply that US customers will go looking for stuff on ebay.co.uk if they feel they're missing out. So many people have commented in the past that they looked only in the artist one of a kind section and didn't realise that lots of UK/Aussie bears only showed up in the "other" section. Now that they're not appearing there, it's going to be a very dedicated collector who has spare time in their day to trawl through 2 ebay sites.
Hmmmm....makes me even more determined to make a go of the etsy and bid4bears route.
Some of you may remember the thread I started on this exact same subject about 6 weeks ago ..I had a long conversation with live help where after much side-stepping they finally admitted that they were doing this. I don't think it has anything at all to do with 'visibility' and cross border trade. It is simply a ruse to introduce charges for world-wide visibility...starting ..as per usual ..with the UK site.
Why the UK? Because they can charge us more for everything.
I went through all this when I had a rabbit for sale on .co.uk that was not visible on .com. I questioned them about the possibility of dual listings. Again I could not get an answer. I understood that I would have to pay for two listing fees but could not...no matter what way I phrased the question ...get an answer as to whether ..by listing on the two sites simultaneously..I would incur two final value fees. I still don't know..and don't feel like trying it to find out.
With apologies to all you artists in the US I can't get why they are discriminating in this way and being allowed to get away with it. Why, for instance, if I list on .com and choose a featured listing option I show up in the featured section of co.uk..but if I list on .co.uk and choose the same option my whole auction doesn't show up on .com. That absolutely disgraceful.
Yes I know I can easily list on .com and then show up everywhere but I get paid in dollars which is inconvenient and can be costly.
I was going to list a lovely bear this evening but I am not sure about it now. The jury is still out on that one.
Suffice it to say that I don't feel very kindly toward eBay at the moment..
Storytime BearsEbay is losing sight on why it became so big.
I will be so sad to not see the bears from the UK.
You guys are getting double dipped, and it's not fair.
Newcastle, OntarioJenny,
If you list on Ebay.com and have paypal, doesn't the money go into your bank account in GBP's when you transfer it to your bank? I get paid in US dollars, but when I transfer it to my bank, it automatically deposits in Canadian dollars. I'm curious as to why getting paid in U.S. dollars would be inconvenient it the same applies to Britain? Just curious.
hugs,
Brenda
Hi Brenda...no.. I have to convert it into pounds first..so Paypal charge 'their' exchange rate which then costs me..I can't just put it straight into my account...I wish I could. I do state on my auctions that I will send an invoice so I try to get people to pay in pounds...but it just looks dodgy to bidders I think..
When I checked my account after someone paid me in dollars it stated that I had x amount of dollars and no pounds...so I can't then just transfer it my bank account as I would ordinarily...
If it weren't for this casual discrimination I would use ebay more but I feel we are getting picked at the moment
DoodlebearsHugs Jane. 
Just a thought...why do they bother with the 'worldwide' shipping option on .co.uk then...why would you need to have it since UK items won't show up anywhere but the UK anyway...that seems pointless to me... 
Bears by EdieJenny,
PayPal works the same for us Canadians - if we are paid in US dollars then the amount goes into our PayPal account in US dollars and we then have to change it to Canadian dollars - using PayPal's exchange rate - before we can transfer the money to our bank account. I even have a US dollar account but because it is in a Canadian bank they will not let me transer the PayPal funds straight there in US dollars and not have the exchange fee. It certainly does mean losing a bit more money on top of the PayPal fees but to me it is still worth it for the convenience.
Also, re the worldwide shipping - people anywhere in the world can still go to the UK ebay site and buy from there so they would need to know if the seller will ship to their country.
I don't really understand why ebay felt it needed to make this change as anyone looking on the ebay.com site could click on show items just in US or just in North America if they didn't want to bid on something from the UK and didn't want to have to sort through all the listings from there!
Little Bear GuyEdie, we never transfer the money into our bank account. We use to do that and then we got the Paypal Mastercard which is wonderful. I can take money out of any ATM machine and it cost me $1.00. I can use it as a normal Mastercard anywhere in the world and there is no fee.
I just got so ticked when I saw that Paypal was charging me an extra .5 cents on every dollar to convert it into Canadian funds . When I checked our banks exchange rate we found out how much more paypal was charging for the conversion. When we called paypal , they said that's what they charge and if we didn't like it then stop using paypal. When you consider how much you have already paid in fee's to paypal and then they nickle and dime you even more on the exchange rate sheesh.
hugs
Shane
Bears by EdieBut, Shane, if you are taking money out of PayPal at an ATM, isn't it still being converted to Canadian dollars??? So how are you any further ahead???? Is the money in your PayPal account connected to the Mastercard when you buy things using Mastercard - i.e. does the money come from PayPal to pay the Mastercard bill???
Little Bear GuyThe Mastercard is tied directly to your paypal account, when you use the mastercard it takes the money right out of your paypal account. You can only use the mastercard up to the amount you have in your paypal account.
The fee's are different Edie, when you transfer toyour bank account there is an additional fee for doing the transfer as well as the conversion rate . Since I really only use my paypal account for shows and purchasing stuff online I never have to have it converted to Canadian as most sales are in US dollars. I haven't noticed if I use the mastercard to purchase something in Canadian dollars if the exchange rate is lower than having it transferred to my bank account. Plus it also takes so long to get the money transferred to the bank account.
big hugs
Shane
Newelley.BearsJust another way for eBay and Paypal to dig into their loyal sellers pockets even more....Disgusting. Shane, how did you manage to get a Paypal Mastercard? It says right on the site that it is only available to US residents....I have been waiting for them to let us apply for them...
Jer
Little Bear GuyHmmmmmm I'm not sure Jeremy, I just sent in the request and they sent me one , I guess there is no harm in trying. WE've had it for a couple of yrs now. Maybe ask someone in live chat on ebay if they know, now remember this Mastercard is not a normal Mastercard. This is like a prepayed credit card, the credit limit is only as much as you have in your paypal account. There is actually no credit given to you by paypal.
big hugs
Shane
Jeremy, I seem to recall there are two card options PayPal offers:
The PayPal DEBIT card, which is what Shane is describing and what I also have. It can be used as a credit card because it has the MC symbol but it's technically a debit account and you can only spend what's been deposited into it, just like a bank account
... and...
The PayPal CREDIT card, which is a revolving line of credit.
I'm totally talking outta my butt here (pretty visual, no? 
) but perhaps it's the case that the debit card is available everywhere and the credit card only available in the US. I don't have the credit card because, well, I have enough credit, and it really gets me into trouble. Women!
Anyway, just something to investigate a little further. I'd do it for you but am crunched for time this morning!
Flying Fur StudiosWow, I didn't realize paypal was charging me to convert to Canadian $'s. NOT FAIR........GRRRRR
also, the one think I really liked about ebay was that I could buy items from around the globe. I don't want to log onto Ebay Uk, than ebay.com then ebay.ca just to search for bears.
I agree, they are loosing site of what made them so big and now they are just greedy for more money. Like they don't make enough as it is.
I do hope that B4B takes off.......
Little Bear GuyPheww thanks for explaining that Shelli, you know I had it all in my head but couldn't get it out and on to the screen LOL. Yes the one I have is the debit card but can be used as a Mastercard as well. It's not a normal Mastercard with the revolving credit, sheesh it's so easy but so difficult sometimes to explain it .
big hugs
Shane
