New York Times runs an article in the Business section on future of eBay. Over the course of 5 years, NYT says, eBay increased seller listing prices and sales commissions five times, so the latest hike should not have come as a surprise. However, with the recent search advertising boom and with eBay rates becoming prohibitively expensive, some big names (those with million dollar volumes) are turning away from eBay.
Mr. Moore, who started doing business on eBay in 1999, was selling $2 million to $3 million in jewelry a year. But increased competition, he said, cut into profits, and last June he left eBay altogether. He now sells his jewelry at a smaller eBay rival, Bid4Assets.
NYT also speculates that other e-commerce players (Yahoo! and Amazon, mostly) will decide to step up their auction efforts that so far have been miniscule compared to eBay.
