EBay Strike Extended to next week March 9

The eBay boycott is working -
This was the original message - with the dates now extended, and a new link to the eBay message board here -

EBay buyers and sellers - Join the EBay strike - February 18 to March 9 - don't cross the virtual picket line!
SPREAD THE WORD!
EBay has raised fees to its sellers and changed the terms.
They are upset and are calling a strike - no buying, selling, or other activity from February 18 to 25!
Help sellers and buyers - join the strike!

ebayboycott_1.jpg

EBay is a huge business which helps people to buy and sell on the internet. It enables many individuals to earn a living or supplement their income with a small business they can run from home, whether homebound, a student, single parent, disabled, etc, etc, Medium sized businesses also use this venue.

It benefits buyers and the environment by effectively recycling used goods, frequently at lower prices than are found elsewhere.

It is a resource which should not be run for huge personal profits, yet it charges these small business people fees which are too large, as does its affiliate, PayPal, also a huge business.

Buyers are concerned that the strike message may not get out to enough people to make a difference - so do what you can to spread the word.
Help this local economy to thrive and support all its members and clients.

A SELLER'S MESSAGE:
I wanted to make you aware that I, and 1,000s of other eBay buyers and sellers are participating in a boycott of eBay from Feb. 18-25th. Many are leaving eBay for good.

We are upset because eBay is raising Final Value Fees again (from 5.25% to 8.75% for auctions, from 10% to 12% for stores) and because they are requiring sellers to leave ONLY positive feedback for all transactions, even if they were scammed by a buyer. Buyers will still be able to leave positive or negative feedback.

I hope you will be able to join the boycott. To find out more about it:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000636290&start=0

You can also Google eBay boycott for more info.

A BUYER'S MESSAGE:
Feb-14-08 9075 of 9081

I am a buyer - my seller directed me here and to u-tube for information:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4MtVPuU9-Q (and others there) about the strike.

I will absolutely support it, and tell anyone I know who uses eBay to tell their friends and maybe their sellers.

I will sign the Petitions on Line:
http://www.petitiononline.com/FVF/petition.html
also http://www.petitiononline.com/ebayfee/petition.html

EBay is an important public service and should not be used for profiteering. The sellers and buyers need to have a say in how it is run.
Good luck in getting the word out.
I will try to get my local community radio station to carry a news item about this and will send a news item to my local Indy Media (online news source, anyone may post). Why not post to your local Indy Media?
Go to http://www.IndyBay.org for a list of them.

A NEW MESSAGE with LINKS:
The boycott seems to be working Report Feb-22-08
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?messageID=2009434037&#2009434037
(see attached graph)

As a buyer, I have been well treated by most of my sellers, and support their ability to make a reasonable profit. I also support eBay's right to a reasonable profit, but it seems they are after mega profits, and are taking too much from sellers and obstructing their ability for self defense against, in particular, scamming buyers. (This is not you, I'm sure!)

I'm going to continue boycotting next week, as well.