eBay gets tough
from the Why-can't-we-just-all-get-along? dept
eBay has sent a formal letter to AuctionWatch.com asking them to politely stop listing their auctions via the search function on AuctionWatch.com. Why does eBay care? They are in the business of selling items. You would think they would want to have their goods out to as many people as possible. Unless I am mistaken, eBay isn’t a portal, they are a service, and the more they sell, the better for them.
Comments on “eBay gets tough”
My prediction
I hope AuctionWatch wins this. eBay doesn’t own the fact that a particular item is up for auction, just the rights to a commission on the sale. If somebody comes up with a business model that aggregates this information, more power to them.
I think eBay’s just pissed that they didn’t think of doing this themselves.
My prediction; eBay will acquire AuctionWatch early next year or sooner.
MB
Ebay's problem
While I hope AuctionWatch wins this too as I don’t like restrictions on user-entered data, I would be doing the same thing if I was Ebay too. If a lot of people were to start using AuctionWatch instead of Ebay, then I as a seller could go to Amazon or Yahoo or whatever auction vendor had the cheapest commissions and the best service. Ebay can’t stand still and let that happen.
actionwatch does NOT help eBay
Why would actionwatch provide a seach engine for eBay ? To earn cash. If eBay had a search engine and actionwatch had one too, would actionwatch’s search engine “steal” eBay’s search engine potential clients ? Yes ! And at the same time they “steal” a part of the profits.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t condone eBay’s actions, but I just wanted to point this out.