With all the changes to eBay, ranging from policies & fees to management reorganization, I have taken a few minutes to read the many eBay discussion boards, both on eBay and in other forums.

I would have to say that about 95% of the posts were unhappy in nature, if not calling for an all-out boycott and holy war against the evil eBay empire.  The other 5% were accused of being eBay schills.

I think it's clear that message boards tend to attract people who have something to say - and people generally have something to say when they are upset.  People who are satisfied with their lot in life tend not to feel the need to express themselves to the online community.  So, in my mind, it's key to take the voluminous furious posts with a grain of salt.

Is eBay experiencing challenges to its business?  Yes, I think that is clearly the case.  Have they made changes to try to address concerns?  Absolutely.  Has the sky fallen to date?  No.

There are curious changes that I think hurt the seller - this bizarre new "best match" sort that hides my auctions despite my decent DSRs and feedback, the inability to leave negative feedback for felonious buyers, and of course the change in pricing structure.  The timing of these changes, at a time when the economy is struggling, both on line and off, makes the changes seem even more drastic.

But before getting too steamed by these changes, I think it's worth my time to be patient and continue to try to do a good job as a seller.  These changes are intended to help make eBay a better marketplace - I'm willing to give the new policies a few months before calling for a revolution.

I've looked around like so many other sellers and despite concerns I have about how expensive it is to sell on eBay and how tight profit margins are, I don't see other marketplaces that can attract buyers like eBay does.  Searching some of the other eBay alternatives, I get the impression that there are 20 sellers for every buyer - I see auction after auction with no views by buyers.

For me, a small seller with limited resources, eBay gives me what I can't get on my own - a customer base from which to make sales and tools that help me sell.

It's not perfect and I'm hoping eBay is able to react as sellers communicate their problems with the new policies.  I'll continue to search for alternatives but will have patience with eBay as it tries to find its way again.

Ah, the non-paying bidder...a seller's biggest hassle.  With a rise in business around the holidays, we've seen a few auction winners that never quite got the idea that there's more to eBay than bidding - sometimes you have to pay.

I think the eBay dispute process works pretty well.  Time heals many issues and in a couple of cases, the mandated time tables built into the dispute process produced a resolution to the issues.  Being the holiday season, one of our NPBs just needed a nudge to submit payment.  In another case, there was a misunderstanding about the shipping charges for an international transaction which was easily resolved.

That left the hardcore NPBs - people who just didn't intend to pay.  After going through the dispute process and hearing nothing back from the "buyers", I've closed a couple of cases and will be credited my final value fees from eBay.

The real quandry is my feedback response.  Clearly, when someone ties up a couple of weeks by withholding payment and not communicating, they deserve negative feedback.  Sadly, the eBay system doesn't protect a seller from receiving undue negative feedback in retaliation.  What would the NPB have to lose by slamming me with a negative feedback post?

eBay's help section explains that they cannot remove retaliatory negative feedback and tries to humor us by explaining that a few negatives are outweighed by the other positive marks.  They say to look at each seller in the overall context of their performance.  Which sounds good in theory.

But, eBay has designed their feedback system, which I think otherwise is brilliant, to be based on numbers and percentages.  Who doesn't take a quick glance at the percentage and score when comparing sellers?  If I were to be comparing sellers with the same product for sale, and one had the higher percentage score, I would be pretty inclined to buy from them, regardless of whether the other seller had received unfair feedback, as I wouldn't take the time to investigate every comment in their history.

So, instead of doing what I feel compelled to do, which is leave negative feedback for a couple of NPBs to warn the rest of the eBay community, I will do nothing.  Until eBay creates a policy that will allow the truly free exchange of honest feedback in these cases, I can't risk taking a hit to my score.

(My defensiveness was born out of a negative feedback I received buy a buyer that I can only describe as a feedback vandal.  A video game was purchased from me and it was sent and received quickly in the described condition.  The buyer posted a nonsensical comment and left negative feedback.  Further investigation showed that the buyer posted a rash of bizarre comments and negative feedback for a half dozen sellers that week.  It was as if a child got ahold of someone's account or the buyer took leave of his senses.  eBay was completely unwilling to remove the nonsensical feedback as it didn't fit into their narrowly defined categories for feedback removal.  So I will always carry the negative mark and be weary about leaving negative feedback for anyone else.)

Anyone else in the same quandry?  Or, can anyone offer a better solution for me going forward? 

With so many businesses utilizing the internet for everything from research and purchasing to recruiting and advertising, the United States government is making a serious effort to participate.

As a boon to small business owners with an internet sales presence, the United States Postal Service offers complementary scheduled package pickups.  eBay sellers who use the USPS for their shipping services don’t need to hang around those infamous long lines at the post office anymore – just hop on line, take about a minute to fill in your address information and, Presto!  The mailman will get your packages at the front door the next day.

As an owner of a small internet company, I’ve tested this service for the last couple of months and can attest to the savings in time and effort.  Around the holiday season, when a dozen packages had to go out daily, I couldn’t imagine inserting myself into the chaos of the post office, packages in tow, and standing in the line of 30 people watching the government employees go through their deliberate motions.

It’s a real competitive advantage – paired with free shipping boxes and electronic postage, it’s getting harder for the other shipping companies to compete for small business accounts.  As good as it sounds, it’s still got a way to go to catch on, at least in my part of Wisconsin, where our carrier only has one other business on his route that uses the pickup service.

About the biggest downside with the Postal Service pickups is the vague feeling of guilt while I sit comfortably at my workstation as the carrier braves the elements to get to my front door. 

The feeling passes quickly.

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While an online business is certainly less expensive to start-up and run than a traditional bricks and mortar set-up, every eBay seller knows there are supplies that you will constantly need, especially for shipping.  Boxes, packing peanuts, labels, and tape are things buyers don't think about, but if you are selling and shipping product, you'll be purchasing these things.

In the spirit of keeping costs down, I decided to buy Packing Tape in bulk (from a great eBay seller) and I of course looked for the most tape for the money.  As I have started getting busy this holiday season, I am starting to understand that you get what you pay for.

The packing tape I got is sufficient and sticks to my boxes - the thing is, it's thin.  Real thin.  If you've tried to use very thin and sticky packing tape, you know where I'm going with this.  About half the time I use the tape, since it has no structural integrity, it tends to fold back on itself.  Since the adhesive could probably hold a small building together, the tape sticks to itself and generally becomes useless.  So, I end up using about twice the tape I should while uttering more profanities than anyone should while sealing a box.

The good news is that I've learned my lesson and will get a better quality tape when I run out of what I have.  The bad news is that I'd have to reach Amazon.com levels of sales to actually finish the supply I bought.  So, tape sellers, look for another big order, sometime around 2018...

A funny thing happened to me after starting my eBay business last summer.  The 9 to 5 world called and sucked me back into an office job.  The pay was good and I could work from home much of the time, so I went for the sure thing and took the check.  My just-started eBay business was put to the side as I had long days and some travel to disrupt my schedule.  Add a new baby into the mix and I found eBay was a distant memory.

Well, with the implosion of the mortgage industry this summer, my job went the way of the 25 cent newspaper.  And suddenly by old friend eBay came to mind again.  I decided to revisit what I had started.

My, what a difference a year makes.  My first surprise was that my listing service, mPire (which I really liked), had discontinued its listing division to focus on other areas of online commerce.  So, I had to find another provider and learn the ins and outs of a different listing service.  After about a half dozen new listings, I am getting the hang of it.

I had signed up with a wholesaler product provider last year, and upon firing up their web site, I discovered that they, too, were no longer there for me.  I was directed to a different eMerchant who had no record of my account.  Looks like I'm starting over with that, too...

The appeal of selling on eBay is like riding a bike - there was a genuine feeling of excitement with my first few sales last week, getting the packages sent quickly and hoping to please the buyers.  That is one thing that didn't change in my year sabbatical.  And that's the one thing that counts.