Politicians who are promising “change” should look at how some planned changes at eBay are stirring up a ruckus and causing some eBay sellers to consider shifting their business to Amazon.com and other sites, including their own web sites.

Americans aren’t as ready for change as they claim. They fear it, as any manager who’s tried to implement change knows. And that fear probably is driving a lot of the anger at eBay.

The question that I haven’t seen explored in detail yet is what are the economics and returns sellers can expect from selling on eBay versus its competitors?

And how long would it take an eBay seller or someone new to online selling to learn the Amazon software and technology versus the time it takes to learn eBay’s? When I looked at both services a year or so ago, both looked a bit daunting even though I’ve been learning new software for some 26 years. I finally decided neither service was worth it, but that’s probably just me.

What seems to be clear is that some of the unhappy eBay sellers feel they are entitled to its services at small service rates and with rules that favor sellers over buyers. Sorry, that’s not how business is done nor is it the kind of setup that will attract trusting buyers, which is what the business is all about.

Here are a couple of sites and articles worth checking out if you’re researching Amazon and eBay. I am not trying to become an eBay blog. What I’m trying to do is look at the Amazon and eBay services as a potential merchant and investor.

Power Sellers Unite.
Auction Bytes