eBay: Auctions Listing Digital Items Violate Our Policy
A week after I decided to start selling digital items on eBay, they decide to ban them; how convenient, right? The new policy basically says digital products must use the Classified Ads Format, which prevents transactions from going through eBay. In other words, no digital product auction listings, and no feedback. According to the official announcement, the policy was put in place to combat alleged feedback manipulation. Apprantely Mr. Burke and other eBay decision makers belive the feedback system lacks integrity.
The Policy is Already in Effect
Despite the date provided in the announcement (March 31st, 2008), a number of sellers are saying their auctions have already been removed. A Powerseller that claims to sell over $20,000 a month in physical product started a thread that’s already reached 138 posts (at the time of writing) in just over a day. Just to sum up the seller’s dilemma, they provide product information ebooks for $1, which is refunded whenever the product mentioned in the ebook is purchased. The power seller continues to explain the situation,
What our representative told us is that it seems that eBay will soon be coming out with a new policy that prohibits the sale of electronically delivered products (like ebooks). The policy has not been announced and the eBay customer service representatives have received no notification about the “new” policy. It is an unannounced policy that sellers will learn about “sometime in the near future” and my rep said it is “rather unusual” for eBay to take action (like removal of listings) prior to a policy actually be announced.
So, my ebooks were removed and I was issued a violation warning (which I was told that the warning will be removed from my record — snicker, snicker… like I really can “trust” eBay Trust & Safety to keep their word) for a policy that has not yet been announced.
And it’s Not Just eBooks
The new policy applies to anything that’s digitally delivered, for example:
- Digital Audio: mp3s, podcasts, audio books, etc.
- Digital Videos: xvids, flvs, divx, wmv, etc
- Websites: no more site flipping on eBay
- Domain Names: these don’t have any value, do they?
- Graphic Design Services: your services are worthless
- Photo Services: so are yours
- Any product or service delivered electronically
Don’t Start Job Hunting Just Yet
This morning I received an email from my mom (thanks ma) containing a helpful link. John Thornhill of PlanetSMS Blog proposed a solid solution to this new policy problem. Just put your digital crap on CD’s, and ship ‘em - how easy is that? John also points out several reasons why this will work to a seller’s advantage, so check out the post for more info.
Since this new policy totally ruins my plan for world domination, perhaps I’ll reveal how I managed to earn $34.35 (minus $1.30 in fees) with only ten minutes of extremely painful clicking and typing (/sarcasm). Show some interest in the comments or just stay tuned.
Technology Made Simple
Here is the...
Absolutley going to hurt digital product marketers, also interested in your revealed secret, thanks
Im in the same boat, just when i raised prices and my sales were picking up, eBay goes ahead and does this.
You’re right, we can’t always trust eBay.
Here is the official forum for the policy change. Sign up and voice your opinion, lets make some noise.
http://www.topebooksites.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2
Publishing digital material to CD or DVD is not the answer for most of us that sell high quality downloadable products. Our customers want it NOW. Not in 2 weeks after it has been burned, packed and shipped. However, using classified ads present an advantage in that you send the buyer to your web for the purchase. Capture their email and name on a landing page that then sends them to the buy page. No additional eBay fees and the customer is all yours.
If you’re selling your digital item for say $14.99, could you really not afford to over-night the item? It’s not as immediate as “NOW” but better than nothing. The idea of capturing their info is also a great idea, but the auction page will clearly indicate the item is a physical CD and will require shipment, so hopefully they’ll understand.
I would have to agree that this is very shady business to remove a “Powersellers” items and having the nerve to issue him a “Violation” before the rule was even in affect. I can see the good and teh bad with this new policy. The bad, many people that base their bussiness off of digital purchases will have to scramble to keep in the race, the good…Do like John Thornhill suggests, sell them a CD, and now you can charge shipping and handling fee’s
It may not seem like alot, but if your making over 20K a month and manage to keep 90% of that rate, you can add another estimated 5% on top of that for the shipping fees, and in due time, who knows, you might be making more.
Very true! Profits may actually increase as a result of this change.
Guys DON’T let this new eBay policy stop you from going forward. Im now useing Youtube to promote all my digital items and affiliate products, its real easy to do, and the free traffic tht you can suck from youtube blows ebay out of the water, with half the effort. A good starting place to learn some gr8 tactics would be http://www.TubeMastery.com there is also a gr8 7Day ecourse you can get there, grab it and get started! Here you will also learn how to use ebay classified and the correct way, mostly unheard of info, and very powerfull i must say!
Guys this is unbelievable!! I will not use eBay anymore!!
Come on!! 10 bucks fee??
Let’s start use other services for that!
I tried several.. now I’m with www.zipidee.com and I’m good so far! By the way they are going to launch e-books selling next week.. a good option for selling digital files.
Have a good one!
Hrm, interesting page, the overall layout and design of your page is nice and your articles are not bad either.
When you get a chance, feel free to drop by mine at http://www.hedgeagainstspeculation.com
I also I have monthly contests, so I would really appreciate it if you donated or entered
Richard,
thanks for the kind words. Whenever I get caught up, I’ll stop by and check it out.
-Guy
The CD method is a good way around this. You could also email the item once the purchase has been made and send the CD. The emailing method could be done as a “service” to the customer and no mention would need to be made in the auction. Same with a website for sale. Offer set up to the customer once the CD with the website files has been shipped.
Just my two cents.
Another fantastic idea - thanks for the great tip! Just because digital items are no longer permitted doesn’t mean you can’t send them a courtesy email in addition to the physical CD. Perfect!
Not doing eBay myself, but this is very good information to know - ahead of time! Thanks!
Hopefully this isn’t a duplicate post - something strange happened when I hit “add comment” - if it is, please delete it
Anyways, this is terrible for people who actually want to sell legitimate things on ebay…one of my columns I write features the stupid stuff for sale on ebay - apparently it’s still okay to blatantly beg for money or sell a rotten strawberry as long as it looks like Jesus!