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1/5th of business, gone.

Okay, I’m trying not to be a crybaby or a whiner here. I really am. But I just wanted to vent for a bit about eBay’s new listing policies, and how it will totally suck for me and literally hundreds of others who sell digital items.

Have not a clue about what I’m talking about? To recap, eBay decided today that they will no longer allow the selling of any type of digital delivered item. Not only does this mean ebooks (which used to make up a bunch of my eBay profits), but this also means domain names, websites, digital photos, templates, graphics, advertising…. the list goes on, but I think you get the idea.

I have sold on eBay since 2000. When my son was a baby, I sold so much that I (accidentally) attained PowerSeller status. Got a certificate and everything - and it’s still hanging in my living room (I’m such a loser, I know). Never did I need to go to the post office. I sold 99.99 percent of my goods online, via digital delivery (there was one time, where I was selling a large website of mine for a big chunk of cash, that I created a backup CD of website files for the new owner).

I have said time and time again, that selling digital items on eBay is one of the BEST ways to make income from home. Very stress-free. Now all of this will be changing, and I’m really not seeing it changing for the better.

Ebay was 1 out of 5 ways that I made/make money online. I will need to think long and hard about how to turn this into a positive. My only idea right now is to use eBay solely as a means to drive traffic to my website(s) via classified ads, with my digital items being sold directly on the site.

I will keep the blog updated on this topic, and if I can find any other positives to this change. I am SO not happy about this. What a suck-ass thing to wake up to!

Posted on 25 March '08 by admin, under Ramblings.

One Comment to “1/5th of business, gone.”

#1 Posted by admin (11.03.09 at 20:34 )

For the record…. although this is a super-old post, I wanted to clarify the “no digital items” rule that eBay implemented last year.

At the time of my posting above, it was undecided by the eBay police as to which digital items would not be allowed to be sold.

Within a month or two, eBay decided that they would still allow certain digital items to be sold, such as domain names, developed websites, and advertising.

They DID, however, ban ebook sales unless the ebook was sold on a CD and mailed. Now, as to how many people actually abide by this rule is unclear… there are always rule breakers.

But I think it’s safe to say that the majority of digital sellers (of ebooks) either now play by the rules and do not sell digital downloads, or they’ve moved on (and do not sell digital items anymore).

I kind of lost interest in eBay anyway and slacked off with selling there, but if I ever do go back, I have a clever way to go around the digital selling rule involving a postcard with a web address and password.