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Newcastle, OntarioI decided to change the title, with the date of the next Ebay boycott - it will be much bigger and louder than the last one. More planning is going into it and it will be interesting to see how it goes. I'm leaving the rest of the thread as it is, for people to browse if they like.
I don't know how many people on Teddy Talk who use Ebay know that according to the many Ebay message boards, there will be a boycott of Ebay this week. People are angry - they would like as many Ebay members as possible to join in and boycott the different Ebay sites - either buying or selling items, from February 18th - February 25th. The message boards are full of furious ebayers, because of all the changes. They feel the only way to make Ebay listen is to stage this boycott, therefore affecting their revenue. I know it's difficult when it's your only source of income, but you have any strong feelings about what is happening to Ebay, maybe you could think about participating.
The few people that tried to post positive comments on the boards, were met my MANY cynical responses, the following were just a few. Some will definitely be recognized as Canadian responders LOL!
Yes let's be positive.......................
Acid rain is a good thing, if you want to remove rust from your old possesions.
Mulroney probably had the best interests of Canadians in mind all along.
The Liberals didn't steal your money, they borrowed it.
It hasn't snowed a lot this year, those were sunshine happiness flakes.
Bob Rae was a nice man.
The doctor shortage gives me time to get to know my fellow patients in the waiting room.
The dog didn't _ _ _ _ on the carpet, he's composting!!
Products from china don't have lead in them, let's call it Baby toxin, cause that sounds better.
Roger Clemens didn't take steroids, his body makes them naturally.
Look at me I'm a Canadian polar bear, there's lot's of ice left. Whooops, Splash!!
Pine beetles? So what, I like red trees.
Bug in your salad - Protein!!
McGinty raising your taxes, I like doing my civic duty!!
Let's all just stick our heads in the sand and pretend it's all OK.
Cause that's what Canada does best!!
Drunk drivers don't kill people, cars do. Let's forgive people.
There's no such thing as sexual harrassment, that's just misplaced affection.
The natives aren't occupying Caledonia, they are fixing the place up for tourists.
The RCMP doesn't turn over citizens to be tortured in foreign countries, it sends then on sunshine happiness pain inducing vacations.
Let's all get hemets and put them on backwards, so we can't see what's coming.
The Leafs Could win a Stanley cup - They could!!
Well couldn't they?
OJ did not likely do it. Even though he wrote a book about it, doesn't mean he did it.
A termite farm makes a nice hobby for kids that live in wood frame houses.
The weapons of mass destruction were found neatly stacked in warehouses, neatly tagged and catalogued and now the world is a better place.
Hey thinking positive is fun. What else could I do to ignore reality. Hmmm alcohol, yes alcohol mmmmmm now it all looks better. Much betterrr....
hugs,
Brenda
Bears-a-Bruin!Hi Brenda, I've been following this strike on the eBay messages boards. Since I don't sell/buy much on eBay these days it's not hard for me to take a week off, lol, but what has surprised me are the number of powersellers who are joining the boycott, even though they probably stand to lose the most. You're right about the stength of feeling there - but I'm guessing that most people using eBay still aren't aware of the changes that are coming into play and will continue to trade as normal.
While the general feeling on the US message boards is in support of the boycott, the feeling on the UK boards seems different - less in favour, more philosophical, less involved. I think it's because the US eBay site has felt the full brunt of the changes, while they are being phased in more slowly in the UK. Maybe the UK traders will get angrier as the time comes.
LOL, love the comments you collected.... 
Newcastle, OntarioHi Helena,
Thanks for the feedback. Yep, the powersellers are angry! I don't know what the membership on each site is, but maybe the U.S. has more powersellers? Anyway, it's hard to know if it will help or not, but if it does, maybe there will be more boycotts, untill Ebay learns to ask for input, before they make more radical changes.
hugs,
Brenda
Bears-a-Bruin!Well....I read that eBay DID canvas opinion - of about 100 powersellers! LOL. Maybe I'm too cynical but I don't imagine that eBay took a representative sample either.
I think (hope) the boycott will help, at least to get eBay's attention. The new CEO at eBay hasn't helped himself by saying the protest was just 'noise'! I bet you read about that....it's unbelievable he would be so tactless! But then I don't think he's worried about losing the small sellers, which is why it's so surprising that so many powersellers are affected by these changes too.
I'm going to try selling somewhere else I think, when I eventually finish another bear :P, at least until eBay has got it's act together.
Glad to know I'm not the only one feeling strongly about this! 
Well, I'm in support of the boycott! I think the changes they are making are horrible. It will effect everyone. I don't sell on ebay as much as I did but with these changes I don't think I want to any more.
Kristina
Ciderantiques and Old Soul BearsHi Brenda,
Yes, I support the Boycott and will let my listings run out this week (Tuesday). The discussion boards have many interesting threads about the ebay boycott Feb 18th - 25th. Try the Sellers-Central Discussion Board ~ open to all ebayers on ebay.com. I don't think you can read the Power Sellers discussion boards, unless you are a Power Seller.
The top three issues (my own summary based on the many Threads) are :
~ Sellers can no longer leave a negative feedback for a buyer (ever!). This has many worried that buyers will abuse their new power. Perhaps not such an issue with our teddy bear collector friends, but more of an issue when you have a lot of new customers. There is no need for a buyer to communicate, compromise or to be patient for the item to arrive.
~ The Final Value fee for 0.01 to $25 will increase from 5.25% to 8.75%. That is a 66% increase.
~ PayPal can withhold payment funds for 21 days ~ until either the buyer has left positive Feedback or 21 days have passed without a claim. This policy can be used on sellers with less than 100 positive feedback.
As of 3pm Monday Feb 18th, one of the threads claimed that there was a 12% reduction in listings, which is equivalent to 1.2 million listings. That could be because today is a stat holiday in the US and Canada. Time will tell. Karen
Ciderantiques and Old Soul BearsPower Sellers also lose their status if their overall feedback drops below 98%. If there are a lot of eager neg posters with the new feedback rules . . . this could happen quickly.
Also the feedback percentile will be based on the last 12 month period. Your feedback score beside your ebay name will display the total number of feedback you have, but only 12 months worth will be visible for all to read. This will make a negative hit more pronounced (your percentile of positive feedback will drop faster with only 1 year of stats being used).
The final value fee for store items has gone up to 12%
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)This isn't my usual week to post, but—as been said by many—why is eBay trying to placate Buyers? It's the Sellers that make them their money.
I deal on both sides of the fence so it's probably equaled out for me, but in a shrinking marketplace (to the number of other auction sites becoming available) eBay is definitely feeling the pinch.
This feels like a Panic Mode is continuing to set in; when revenue drops, charge more (from the wrong people) in hopes of staying even instead of accepting their losses for those other reasons, and do MORE for their customers - the Sellers - instead of less.
Little Bear GuyI have always found it interesting that ebay as has claimed that they increase their fee's to make them more competitive :crackup: :crackup: . Ebay's problem is they have gone stagnet, they are not increasing the number of buyers or sellers. Therefore they have to increase prices, I mean yet again this is a company who only made a couple of billion dollars last yr (net profit) but yet continue to harass their sellers with increased fee's. I hope this boycott works I really do, it's time ebay started listening to their sellers.
big hugs
Shane
Newcastle, OntarioI don't list a lot of items on Ebay, but I'm sure not listing one this week, even with a bear almost ready to go!
hugs,
Brenda
Time for all you TT to move to bid4bears on Nancy Tillbergs North Country Teddy Bear site and try it out. Listings there from Feb 14-21st are free I think this is correct ). Final % of sale still applies
Hugs
Gail
Auburn, IndianaTime for all you TT to move to bid4bears on Nancy Tillbergs North Country Teddy Bear site and try it out. Listings there from Feb 14-21st are free I think this is correct ). Final % of sale still applies
Hugs
Gail
Hi Gail,
I am new to bear collecting on the internet (I still don't like computers) and I read in one of the magazines at the store where I buy most of my bears, about the Bid 4 Bears auction. I went there to see what was for sale but didn't see too many of the artists that I see regularly on Ebay. Does it depend on certain times to go look for available bears by artists that I recognize? Thank you if you can let me know, Hazel Seuser in IN.
I am very new to Ebay and have been testing the waters both as a seller and buyer up to now things have worked out for me. So far I have not got to the bulletin board and this is the first time I am hearing about a boycott.
What frustrated me is that I was unable to set up via the USA site as I could not offer Paypal as a method of payment. Paypal will take money out of our accounts however not allow payments into our account. I have heard that this is due exchange controls yet receiving foreign money into a country is far better than letting it go out.
I did however set up an account by going via UK site. I have the impression that PayPal and Ebay are both in a plot together to take as much from you as they can.
It will be interesting to see the outcome of this and if the power of the people can have any influence on the company.
B4Bears is an ongoing auction site and Bear Artists on line has auctions twice a year.
Sometime back B4Bears had a drive to get artists to sell via the site and it did get "lively" however if it is going to grow it is going to need artists to continually support the site.
Lynette
Cincinnati, OhioWell, I am very confused on Ebay this morning. They changed the search for artist teddy bears so I don't know what to click on to get the usual search results. Now when I search for artist teddy bears, it only shows the bears that have the word "artist" in the title. They are always changing things over there and not necessarily for the better!!!
Pandy Potter BearsI'm a head in the sand kind of person. I'd rather be getting on with making bears, but....I do need to sell them. I think ebay are very greedy but in terms of a worldwide audience they get you noticed. I just don't know which way to go so I'm trundling along as usual. Maybe as others have said time to at least give something else a go as well. 
Newcastle, OntarioHi Connie,
I think Ebay is trying to change the search ways and have given some users a "trial run". There should be some way to opt out of it on the page, but I can't remember exactly what it is. I've copied te post below from another post a couple of weeks ago by Sharie Reetz. She posted it in the New Members section. If you can't figure out how to opt out, contact "live help" on ebay, buy clicking the yellow button at the top of the page (under COMMUNITY). Hope this helps.
"there is a big change coming in March.ebay is re-vamping the site and will be launching the new search engine called "Best Match",with new catagories.Artist Bears will no longer have it's own category.It will fall into a sub-category of "Toys and Hobbies(....cringe...)in which our customers will have to dig through to find us.To make this even worse,best match will show the time ending soonest,and the lowest price first by default.We will also be judged where our listings will be placed by our dsr rating(stars)and our amount for shipping,if deamed too high,we will be placed back even further,and may not be seen at all!You can try this "new search"out by going to the playground,or click under" it "where it says they are offering a new search experience."
hugs Brenda
Pandy Potter BearsThanks for that Brenda. Can ebay make it any worse? Bet they will give it a try!!! 
Ciderantiques and Old Soul BearsHello Everyone,
I found some related ebay boycott videos on You Tube. I hope these links work from this post.
1. This video has over 110,000 viewers so far (as of Feb 19th):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23TomS5- … re=related
2. This one is short. It
references CNN and has a UK perspective:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN8s-ia0QZI
3. This message is short (only a minute) with a cute ending:
Bears-a-Bruin!Here's something I just came across - an example of the auction format eBay is currently testing. This was an actual auction, and as you can see potential buyers are being warned about the shipping time (in red type) because this seller has a rating of 4/5 in that area.... but don't eBay tell buyer's that 4/5 is 'good'?! And because of this (?) there are other goods from other sellers being advertised above the seller's own auction!!!! Grr. It's hard to believe that eBay could go this far, but it looks like they are going to:
http://ngvi.ebay.com/vi?ngvi&backtoid=1 … QwpVHQs%3D
ciderantiques, thanks for the links. I've been watching some of those!
Ciderantiques and Old Soul BearsHi Helena,
You are right. When the buyer is leaving feedback and also filling out the star rankings, a little prompt or definition pops up above each star. When you hover above the 4th star it says "Very Good" as the selection. I think the 5th star says "Outstanding". Most people are reluctant to be that happy with their shipping costs, so they pick 4 or lower.
Yet as your link points out . . . . . on the seller's listing page, it is highlighted in red "this seller has low ratings for shipping time", even though the seller has 4/5 stars (at the time of this posting). The buyer doesn't even know that giving a score of 4/5 is so harmful. The terminology is all messed up.
I think there are a lot of wrinkles that need to be worked out, to say the least 
~ Karen
Good Grief, I was going to list a new bear this week.. but I think I will wait.. or maybe not at all. I can't imagine Ebay doing all this nonsense. I know they have problems with scammers.. but still,, this makes it all just a little too much.
Hugs!
Melanie
Newcastle, OntarioHi there,
Well, I've spent a good part of my afternoon, watching some of the Ebay strike videos on Utube and came across this petition for sellers to sign. The link is below. They are asking people to send it to as many other appropriate people as they can, so they can sign their names. I am going to send emails to my customers, explaining why I won't be listing this week. It would be wonderful if as many people as possible, who sell on Ebay, would join this boycott. Maybe if we can send Ebay a message via a serious drop in earnings, they will re-consider some of the changes they have made.
http://petitiononline.com/FVF/petition.html
Here are a few more Utube links about the strike - boy people really are livid and it's not only about the increases - it's about the attitude of the new CEO who stated "Ebay is nothing more than a Flea market and it was embarassing!" He also stated "sellers could do nothing to change things on Ebay - they could only make noise"! So, I guess this time sellers are seeing just how much noise we can make. This is my personal favourite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08YQrbhr18I
Apparently Google is toying with the idea of an online auction site and some of the videos are asking people to email Google with support for this idea. The info is www.google.com/contact/ then click on business proposals and then "share ideas". Thousands of sellers are emailing to ask Google to start a site.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b39Mgvop … re=related - info for google
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29v0RvXL … re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4MtVPuU … re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yFqnjMe … re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWTkvdC1 … re=related
hugs,
Brenda
I am now going to check out all the links thanks for the info :clap:
Ciderantiques and Old Soul BearsThis is neat :dance: . . . I didn't know this site existed. This site tracks ebays listing numbers: daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. It goes all the way back to 1999. The information is presented in graphs.
http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND\
The graph that is getting a lot of attention is for the week of Feb 17th (the boycott week). As you can see, around 12 million ebay listings is the number that ebay started with at the beginning of February. Then ebay had a promotional day mid-month, thus the big spike in listings. Once those listings end the graph naturally starts to go down. The real test of the listings boycott is if the numbers continue to go down (below 12 million) after the promotional listings end. It will be interesting to watch. Karen.
~ PayPal can withhold payment funds for 21 days ~ until either the buyer has left positive Feedback or 21 days have passed without a claim. This policy can be used on sellers with less than 100 positive feedback. Karen
Karen do you have the actual eBay link for this? For the life of me I can't find it and I'm usually good and finding that kind of stuff. Thanks if you happen to see this question :)
My way around this was to state in the body of my auctions that YES, I accept Paypal but not thru the eBay check out. Wait for my Paypal invoice to be sent directly to you after the auction... or something like that.... Paypal does NOT have the 21 day hold option on regular paypal payments....
