eBay Digital Products Ban 3-21-2008

[biggfredd]

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000671814&tstart=0&mod=1206388657892

***New Policy Update: Digital Downloadable Goods in Classified Ads Format Only***
March 24, 2008 | 01:00PM PST/PT

Brian Burke
Hello…This is Brian Burke, Director Global Feedback Policy. Digital goods are often reproduced at little to no cost to the seller. On eBay, this creates the potential for Feedback Manipulation (both real and perceived). To preserve the integrity of the Feedback system, effective March 31 all goods that can be digitally downloaded or transferred electronically must be listed using the Classified Ads format.

Using the Classified Ads format, sellers receive a 30-day ad at a fixed price. This solution enables sellers to continue to market their digital goods on eBay; however, because Classified Ad listings are a lead generation tool and do not result in transactions that go through eBay, Feedback cannot be exchanged between buyer and seller.

Sellers who wish to continue to offer digital goods can do so by selecting the Everything Else>Information Products category in the Sell Your Item form and choosing the Classified Ads format (not auction-style or fixed price). For more information about the Classified Ads format, please read Advertising with Classified Ads.

Sincerely,

Brian Burke
Director, Global Feedback Policy

Digital Products List that will be banned
Ebooks
Domain names
Websites
Graphics
Ebay auction templates
Spreadsheets
Digital Software
Powerpoint, Excel & Word Templates
Digital Photos
Digital Embrodery
Digital Patterns
Digital Printables
Advertising
Audio books
Digital music downloads
Digital Service Manuals -- cars, machines, etc
Digital Delivered Business cards
Machine Building Blueprints
Architectural designs
Wholesale Lists
Digital Scrapbook Pages
Video Tutorials
Website Scripts
Plans - farm equipment
Plans - Kids stuff - ie puppet theaters, swings playhouses
Plans -model making, boat building
Home repair
Furniture building
Craft instructions - not patterns- such as "how to mosaic" "Pottery"
Tattoo Flash
Prepaid cellular phone cards
Coupon codes (Staples.com, etc)

[VintageSilver]

 

[WayOutWest]

well, on one hand it will hurt sellers that sell ebooks and erecipes.  But, on the other hand it will help those sellers use ebay to drive traffic to their site.  And, since ebay is doing away with feedback for buyers anyway (and thus sales were already going to drop), this might be a good thing for ebook and erecipe sellers.

[Sade]

I agree WOW. If sellers still want to sell that type of product they can always snail mail it.

[Sade]

This probably has everything to do with the feedback changes in May. Sellers won't be able to purchase cheap positive feedback to increase their feedback %'s.

[Suthrnjewl]

Printing out that info and/or by offering CDs...check I've offered that service for 10 years.

I've always offered that service. AND I sell roughly about 4 or 5 a month that take me up on that offer.

The PS rep I spoke with this evening stated they weren't certain if they were going to allow that means of delivery either. It would be skirting the rules.

And it ain't just me this is concerning, There are alot of digital delivery items, not just recipes and eBooks.

Template designers, store designers, website, software and more.

Echo sent me the email address that I'd been looking for.

If anyone else has any other email addy's...I'd appreciate them.

[Sade]

And it ain't just me this is concerning, There are alot of digital delivery items, not just recipes and eBooks.

Template designers, store designers, website, software and more.

It will hurt a lot of good sellers (sorry Donna  ) because a lot of bad sellers abused it.

[WayOutWest]

yeowch.  I just looked at the classified ads fee.  $9.95 a month for listing

I'm wondering about the links policy for classifieds.  Seems like they used to allow links to off-ebay sites in 'em, but cant find any references to that now.

[Suthrnjewl]

As my PS rep stated..it's sad, cuz I'm the kind of seller that eBay wants.
Good DSRs, handle my customers personally, always pay my bill on time, no violations, I don't manipulate the feedback system (automated feedback) and more.

There's plenty of good ones that are going to be hurt. I wouldn't have 300+ newsletter sign ups if I were a bad seller. I have customers that purchased from me 10 years ago that still keep in touch with me and buy, too.

I have always matched Kinko's rates for printing and charged media mail to send the CD.

But there are very, VERY few that want the CD service. They want it within 24 hours.

Relegated to the Classified Ads of eBay...10.00 an ad and it's only good for 30 days. One item per ad.

Not even searchable.

The eBay boards are starting to churn..one person that designs templates has already contacted over 200 members and states she will be up all night contacting eBay sellers who might not be aware of this.

Seven flippin days notice.

And they are already booting members items off as out of violation when the new rule hasn't even gone into effect. Ahhhhhhhhhh...yes, they are already hitting members up for a rule that hasn't gone into affect and cancelling auctions/bin.

Think about we members who have items in our store after the first...as I was told, I will be in violation of eBay's rules (something I've never been) and all of those items will be violations and it could lead to booting me to to NARU. Lose my feedback I've worked hard for 10 years to accumulate.

[WayOutWest]

according to a post in seller central,

They do show up in search and they all contained links to their outside website

I know it's not a perfect answer, but if they are searchable and they do allow links, then there's at least a glimmer of hope.

[Suthrnjewl]

Good morning,

I've been up most of the night thinking about this...yes, the business I've owned and built for 10 years going classified and the impact it will have on myself, my income and more.

Lemme see, I run around 250 as that's what works for me. 10.00 a pop for classifieds times 25 = alotta money I don't pay that much in fee's.

During the wee hours of the night, I attempted to find items on classified via search after reading the post. I don't know where folks are searching for these items. There is no category tab for classifieds. There is no place to click to enter classifieds. And I'm not finding items coming up in searches that are in the classified ads. And I've been trying...hard.

Amazon's Kindle has taken off. I've watched it.

I've been quietly gathering real tangible books here to setup on Amazon to sell, however in the last months, I've watched Amazon buyers coming to eBay to buy various digital products for their Kindle so I hoped to sell both. Amazon has quite the market for digital goods i.e., only certain ebooks and/or newly published books for 10.00 delivered digitally. Amazon hasn't yet opened the gate to smaller eBooks, recipes and such.

Thus Amazon Kindle owners are coming to eBay.  I and others are the ones that are selling to the Amazon sellers. Hopefully those 300+ that are on my newsletter and those that I have harvested emails from PP and GC will follow me or find me via a websearch to purchase from my website/ecrater/BISI.

Amazon Kindle

Classified Ads have the following features:
List your asking price. No bidding takes place.

Interested buyers fill out a contact form, and their information is sent to you.

List a phone number, and interested buyers can call you (optional).

List your item, service or property for a specific period of time.

Revise item-specific information at any time while the ad is active.

<sigh>

[Suthrnjewl]

And the list continues to grow:
Ebooks
Domain names
Websites
Graphics
Ebay auction templates
Digital Embrodery
Digital Patterns
Digital Printables
Spreadsheets
Digital Software
Powerpoint, Excel & Word Templates
Digital Photos
Digital Embrodery
Digital Patterns
Digital Printables
Spreadsheets
Advertising
Audio books
Digital music downloads
Digital Service Manuals -- cars, machines, etc
Digital Delivered Business cards
Machine Building Blueprints
Architectural designs

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000671814&start=240

It's amazing to watch..honestly the varying answers from PS reps and of course eBay live is answering with canned responses.

[WayOutWest]

Went to ebay and grabbed service manual for canon photocopier while I still could.

[Suthrnjewl]

Glad to hear it WOW.

[WayOutWest]

this whole thing really bites, for the buyers as well as the sellers.   I've bought many a digitally delivered item (primarily technical reference stuff) and now it's gonna all be gone    

I do hope the sellers such as yourself come up with a good solution that works well for ya.

[Sade]

The whole thing is stupid. Why not just set a minimum starting bid price of say $5? That gets rid of the problem feedback sellers. STUPID!!!

[WayOutWest]

and feedback sellers are going to be gone anyway once the 'cant leave feedback for buyers' goes into effect.

there's gotta be more to it, but dunno if it's legal probs with the copyright violations (like the copy of service manual for photocopier I just bought), them thinking they can get higher fees since a classified costs a whole bunch more than regular listing (and if you deliver on cdrom then paypal gets an extra chunk sliced off of the s/h), or if it's something else.

All I know for sure is that ebay speaketh with forked tongue and that there's more to it than what theyre saying. (and the truth behind it can usually be found when you look at what they think will benefit their bottom line)

[Suthrnjewl]

The new format that eBay will be using (I've seen it as they were testing my account one day with it) will not allow for any template or customization whatsoever.

Tabbed top, item description, terms of service, yada yada..however, no tab for your store link and no way to link your store in with your auctions/bin either. So no way really to make multiple sales to one customer.

Straight text and pics.

No custom templates, no store designers needed.

There are other reasons coming up.

I just don't understand why the 7 days notice.

Actually it's not even 7 days notice, eBay is shutting auctions down even before the policy goes into effect.

I'm trying to stay optimistic.

Really I am.

[WayOutWest]

and that having TOS under a seperate tab (which is essentially having it on a seperate page) is going to cause a ton of headaches for sellers. 

After all, why should a buyer be bound to TOS that are hidden?   I know my merchant acct provider sent out notices back a long time ago saying that your TOS has to either be on checkout page or has to be linked from checkout page with a place on checkout page for them to check a box saying theyve read the TOS.

That's also why ebay's own policy says that the primary part of a seller's TOS must be included on the item description page.

[Thurston]

The new format that eBay will be using (I've seen it as they were testing my account one day with it) will not allow for any template or customization whatsoever.

Does that mean that the custom Auctiva template that I sweated blood to create probably won't work anymore?



PS - Hey Donna!