Yesterday I shared a pretty shocking graph with you, that showed that eBay has lost 20% of it's seller within the past couple years, yet eBay profit is almost at an all-time-high, which leaves one to wonder how losing so many sellers would equate to booming profits.... unless the profits are all related to the remaining 80% being bombarded with fees.  Regardless of the reason, as of November 2021, a giant amount of long-term sellers are calling it quits... and their complaint, ironically, is the fees.  

An eBay seller, called ElevationMotorCompanyLLC started a thread in the eBay Community forums titled, "After 17 Years, Fees are So High, Why Keep Selling?".  Of course the first couple responses were from people such as DownUnder-61, who quickly jumped on this thread to justify the increased fees... which is quite amusing, because DownUnder-61 actually has 0 items listed on eBay and 0 feedback.... yet, for some bizarre reason this person likes to defend decisions eBay makes that REAL SELLERS hate.  Hmmmmmm.... kinda looks like DownUnder-61 IS eBay, infiltrating it's own forums to explain away why increased fees are "no big deal".  Looking at DownUnder-61, he / she created their eBay account in early 2021 and has since used the forums 6,651 times (as of 12-19-21) to provide utterly useless commentary and suggestions... 

...anyhoo....

ElevationMotorCompanyLLC (who we will refer to as "M.C." for short), went on to explain, "My store has tanked down about 75% this year... Most items I can't raise the price because then I won't sell anything .... something has happened I would ship at least 300 items a month now I'm lucky to do 10 items. I had to remove items because shipping cost and fees have jumped so high that it's not profitable. Now I'm below standard so I just got hit with 5% fee and I always offer free shipping. I just sold an item for $415 and the fees were $75 plus free shipping so it was about $100 to sell this one item. After reading some of these posts I'm not the only one having this issue what gives"

And after you scroll past the first couple troll replies to the  thread you will reach the REAL, LEGIT SELLER responses, which include:

BuySellJack2016 responded, "While I still list on eBay I diversified long ago. While most of the other sites I use do not have the buyer base that eBay does I can also list items cheaper on those sites since a lot of them have either no fees or very low fees. Several of the sites are also more local so there is no shipping involved, no worry about damage or lost packages, most exchanges are person to person at a neutral site, the person gets to look at what they are buying before they actually take possession and most transactions are in cash."  and later added, "unless selling "one-off" items it is hard to sell, and make money on items that have to be shipped when they can be purchased by walking into a store." then went on to explain, "I just bought vent visors for my truck. Looked on eBay. Ended up with an Amazon purchase for the same item 10% less."

Stuff4Divassaid "I am only moving about 20% or so of my merchandise through eBay the rest is through a number of other sites. EBay's fees have not increased that much over the past few years but I do not expect that to remain the case if Congress increases the corporate tax rate.

I experienced the same dramatic sales drop since the roll out of the PLA program, Promoted Listing Advanced, launched Sept 19

So if one cannot afford to pay those additional fees, your items won't be shown as vigorously as they use to be since those sellers are paying to have that higher visibility"

In a similar thread, seller "DoNoFrio4" dropped the hammer on eBay: 

"I have been a seller since 1998 I am quitting this is a con artist system now where they steal your money with the managed payments and even with 100 percent feedback I am considered a defective seller because items ran out of stock. Also they now rate you on scanned items and if the postal service is Kate I am held accountable. Beware after all these years I am out of this corporate bull **bleep**. They are thieves liars and have no more customer service in the USA. **bleep** you eBay.

I am writing this to warn other sellers beware they steal your funds with this managed payment system. They also charge you seller final value fees on sales tax. Which is unethical. They charge you final value fees on shipping fees to.
I used to work for. myself selling fine dolls toys Teddy bears etc now I work for eBay and they rob you.
Sorry I am so defective eBay but you are the defective **bleep**s to lose a good seller like me. me.
I asKed to speak to someone in California they told me no one takes calls from there anymore. They are too busy taking all the money they steal from eBay sellers.
Your going down eBay all the losers employees who con sellers to fill the pockets of the corporate scum

Ebay Youre defective, not sellers who provided good service to clients. Goodbye. I hope other sellers read tgus and investigate your managed payments which is actually managed stealing" 

Similar frustrations were echoed in a thread posted by The_Killer_Offerings that says:

"Leaving due to the demands of my personal information in the form of a Social Security Number. Good ridden to 15% fees + 0.30 cents extra fee-higher-than-the-Paypal-fee-already-was + all the lying Ebay call center employees in India and the Philippines who said Ebay would refund me the $14.47 they STILL owe me for an overcharge on shipping. Taking my business elsewhere. Outta here permanently! Now bring on the Ebay shill replies and the deletion of this post.

And just a little more info for those reading and wondering more about the "Inform Consumers Act" which will make all of your private information publically available:

It is being pushed by companies such as Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, and more via their lobby group "Buy Safe America". A few of the companies supporting their "Buy Safe" info grab agenda: 3M, CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Lowes, Home Depot, JCP, HP, GSK, etc.

If you don't make raucous noise against all of these Inform Consumers laws in your State, ALL of these marketplace sites (not just Feebay) will demand your Govt ID, Tax ID, Bank info, Contact info (name, address, phone) and then make it PUBLICALLY AVAILABLE to all involved. Research this topic NOW."

A fellow seller, MyBigSale responded, "Yes - all sellers should leave eBay now! Run - do not walk. Besides the fees and personal information requests, eBay's fee on shipping and taxes is not just a transaction fee rate but makes them a profit off the shipping and taxes. eBay could have a lower fee to only cover their transaction COST on tax and shipping (at lease shipping purchased through eBay Shipping) and leave their profit rate to only the item being sold plus shipping above that actually paid through eBay Shipping. I've also noticed over the past year with increased sellers, unique items aren't so unique and more items show up in searches with lower prices then previous years.

I'll make the sacrifice and stick around for eBay reconnaissance. Look for my message. I will let you know when the government drops eBay tax reporting requirements, eBay brings back PayPal options, eBay drops fee rates, eBay selling improves and/or other important eBay developments."

NewHavenToys pointed out "Look for your local flea market or tag sales. I bet your going to see more and more are going back to the old way where you actually get to keep your money and don't have to ship or pay the almighty bay etc. It might be an eye opener."

There's tons more posts and replies, if you want to keep reading them, here you go.