I’ love eBooks. I have several favorites, from recipes, cookbooks, How-To eBooks on a variety of topics. It’s great being able to download them immediately by digital delivery, and have them right on my computer to refer to when I need to. I’ ve even sold them in my eBay Store, Moomette’s Magnificents where I’m a Power Seller. But recently eBay changed their policy and no longer allows digital delivery as the means to transfer the product to the consumer. This has thrown quite a few eBay sellers out of business.
As a result of this policy change, like a good soldier, I now sell all of the eBooks on my Moomette’s Magnificents Olde Towne Shoppes site, and still offer Free digital delivery.
Additionally, I belong to several forums. Here’s a post from eBay Coach Free Forum, that I feel is worth mentioning for the purpose of fostering discussion. I’m a Moderator on this forum, (which by the way ~ come visit ~ it’s an active community of eBay sellers that’s a breath of fresh air!) What’s nice about this forum is, although everyone may differ in their opinions, everyone’s genteel & polite if they aren’t in agreement.
Although I may not be in total agreement with all of the comments posited by the author of the following post, I feel the post is worth mentioning. The part that I’m in agreement with is going “Green” and conserving and saving the planet.
EBAY ECO-FRIENDLY ATTITUDE SENT DOWN THE RIVER
April 1, 2008, eBay announced a ban on digital delivery products through its core auction site.At a time of consumer concern for reduction in unnecessary waste, eBay, the international auction giant, is encouraging sellers to enlarge the carbon footprint of literature. Sellers are being told to move away from computer delivery in favor of selling unsustainable physical products shipped by snail mail.
Sellers are boycotting eBay over the new policy in addition to price increases, and many are on the front steps of Amazon.com.
As a purported “green” company, eBay is now permitting only physical information products in their core selling categories in the U.S. and other countries. The move is seen by buyers and sellers alike, as an inefficient, backwards, and ecologically unsound position for the global auction Goliath.
Sellers of digital products must now use separate $10 per month classified ad listings to sell their digital delivery goods, compared to pennies per month in an eBay store listing. This amounts to eBay charging 100 times more after April 1 than it did before April 1, for listing an identical product.
After years of telling buyers and sellers to not do business outside of eBay for security reasons, they are now expecting sellers to build consumer trust for eBay in this new selling category. Purchases through classified ads are consummated directly between buyer and seller.
eBay’s new policy also blocks sellers from putting adequate contact or purchase information in their classified ads by not allowing links to leave the eBay platform or redirect to PayPal for purchase payments. PayPal is the payment and credit processing service used by eBay buyers and sellers, primarily at eBay’s urging. eBay owns PayPal.
Classified Ads is now the only category in which the digital delivery format may be sold, making the shopping experience for thousands of buyers less than friendly.
It seems eBay is willing to risk its reputation with this politically incorrect posture by establishing and enforcing policies that belong in the middle of last century.
Among many eBay members, the company is seen as being as ecologically foolish as they were greedy with fees increases, another issue that has irked eBayers into staging boycotts.
This may be the misstep that will peeve eBay stockholders even more than buyers and sellers who wish to use the digital format. Sellers of digital delivery products are welcomed at Amazon.com. Last holiday season Amazon beat out eBay for the first time as the leader for internet holiday retail sales. eBay’s blunder may put Amazon in the number one spot for good, as sellers of digital delivery products leave eBay for a friendlier environment and an even bigger buyer base.
eBay buyers and sellers have long thought the company to have an eco-friendly orientation. New eBay policies bring this thinking into question as digital format sellers jump the eBay ship to sell down the Amazon River.
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This article presents one view of the current direction of eBay, that of the author, Annie Haselwood, April 13, 2008,
http://www.FirstVarietyStoreOnTheMoon.com
If you’ve been a buyer of eBooks from eBay in the past, what do you think? Where will you go to buy your eBooks now?
