| January 23, 2007 |
 Questions about eBay's Ban on Auction Extenders |
| By: Ina Steiner |
| Tue Jan 23 2007 10:49:50 |
Today's article on eBay's ban of extender tools has raised some questions from readers. They want to know why eBay considers changing auction duration "fee avoidance." Here's what one reader had to say:
"I'm trying to figure out how it's "fee avoidance" if the price for 1-7 day auctions is the same, and if you extend to 10 days, eBay bills you for that."
Another reader said, "The only way you can come up with a fee avoidance by using an extender is if eBay is saying that by using an extender you are increasing your success rate (sellthrough) and therefore having to relist less often and therefore depriving eBay of fees. But even that greed-based concept is flawed since increased sellthrough means more FVF fees for eBay. Again, I hope you can get eBay to clearly explain how an extender constitutes fee avoidance."
In speaking to Hani Durzy yesterday, I had asked him that question. He said an auction whose duration is extended multiple times appears at the top of eBay's search results, which are sorted by "ending soonest," as many as five times. That means sellers are getting as many as five benefits for the price of one, and it is not fair to other sellers.
The same reader also asked, "Also, on the revise page there is the option to revise the duration. If revising the duration is not allowed then why is the option present on the revise page?"
I had asked Hani if during the revision process, eBay would make it impossible to revise the duration. He said, "I am loath to talk about hypothetical." So it's possible eBay will change it. |
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