This article kills me. They are talking about the decline of the auction format on eBay and saying that it must be because people just aren’t interested anymore. This just shows a complete lack of any research at all on their part. They are reporting the effect as news when this is simply the cause of eBay’s actions.

Hmm, it couldn’t possibly be because most auctions are for collectibles and not brand new items and that eBay chased off all the collectibles sellers with policies that specifically penalize them in favor of courting brand new item sellers?

It couldn’t be because they are all but requiring us to offer free shipping so that Buy It Now is our only choice?

It couldn’t be that auction themselves are doing just as well as they always were, there are just less sellers offering them because people have been leaving en masse because of the eBay changes?

It couldn’t be because the new rules and price structures favor fixed price items?

What upsets me most about this is that eBay is now spinning (in that article) that they made all these changes BECAUSE auctions were on the decline, completely ignoring the fact that they are the ones that put them on the decline in the first place. They are playing pea under the cup with cause and effect and hoping no one notices.

I still sell mostly in auctions and my auctions not only do very well, but usually better than they have in the past. Is it because I am one of the only people left doing them? Maybe. Am I just awesome? Maybe. But it really irritates me to see eBay trying to turn this around and say “See, no one likes auctions” based on data that is only showing the result of the changes that they made.

It’s like they justdoubled the price on chocolate ice cream and then published an article about how, clearly, no one likes chocolate ice cream because more people are buying vanilla.