We’ve had enough of eBay, Inc! With the recent fee hikes, we no longer believe that the corporate-run eBay site serves the needs of its users, we who made that site in the first place. However, the eBay Community now has a massive userbase. We must secure the commitment of a critical mass of sellers in order to develop a realistic alternative.
If we can secure the commitment of 10,000 eBay members to migrate to a new site, that will give us the numbers we need to make the move without risking our livelihoods. Run the seller unity badge in your sales, wherever they are! We’ll show FeeBay who really runs that site!
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BULLETIN: The new FeeBay fee hikes hit on February 20th, 2008.
We will save a nickle on listing fees, but FVFs will almost double! SUBAT -Sellers’ Union & Buyers’ Association Together- is urging all sellers, yes, leave eBay now if you can and sell elsewhere. (A comparison chart of smaller venues is coming next week.)
February is “Close Your eBay Store Month”!
However, do NOT cancel your eBay membership. No, we’ll need them again later, to infiltrate the eBay.com site periodically and speak up as anti-corporate-FeeBay sellers, helping others to avoid the pitfalls of dependence on FeeBay.
The eBay sellers are eBay and it’s time the Tyrant FeeBay knew it. The seller unity badge should be run in 1 cent sales, links made to this campaign clearinghouse site, and we should express ourselves in unison on the eBay discussion boards in numbers too great to be purged. Then they’ll know.
It is a legal right to organize and belong to a union.
Soon a library of pro-seller anti-FeeBay fliers, graphics, banners, logos, and widgets will come on line, too, free for anyone to download from here and use. If you have material you would like to add to the archive (images, UTube videos, songs, etc.), let us know!
This is an appeal to all eBay sellers and buyers, worldwide (UK, Germany, Australia, Canada, etc.). By coordinating action from a single place we gain the ability to focus collective pressure on individual eBay sites. Is your regional/national eBay behaving badly? <a href=“mailto:”mailto:subat_forever@yahoo.com">subat_forever@yahoo.com">Let SUBAT know!
SUBAT is in 100% solidarity with all global eBay sellers.
EBayers of the world, united, cannot be intimidated!
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The problem facing eBay sellers is a collective problem, and therefore requires a collective solution.
Only the eBay users themselves can truly break the eBay Inc. monopoly, rescue our auction businesses from destruction at the hands of corporate greed, and save the original eBay person-to-person trading concept as an open marketplace of equals.
The eBay users -united, in our millions - can make a new fee-free home for ourselves on the Web and simply move there en masse, replicating the traffic of the eBay.com site.
Together, we can recreate the eBay Community, beyond the reach of eBay Group, Inc. The users made eBay the first time, and we can do it again — this time to suit our needs, rather than just line the pockets of FeeBay executives and shareholders.
If you haven’t heard about what eBay is going to do to sellers on February 20, 2008, see The Problem is FeeBay
Resisting eBay: Why a Tipping Point Campaign is the Answer
Boycotts and seller-strikes, in the form of no-listing days, have been held since 1999, as many may recall. What they lacked for success was coordination. There cannot be just one strike/boycott. There must be many, in waves, like the flexing of a muscle. When we are truly organized our structure will be like the fingers of a hand, able to draw together into a fist and, at will, cause eBay sales charts to soar and plummet. Our collective will can do this, if we unite now.
In prior years petitions have garnered massive support, too, and the media have noticed when sellers acted in unison. Yet eBay Inc. never cared and never listened to the chorus of petitions.
To date, eBay Inc. has never rescinded a single fee hike, no matter what the users comprising the eBay Community did, how nicely or angrily we asked. The reason is simple economics. They were never truly threatened before because they know they have a captive market. They have understand the purpose of a monopoly in a way we users have not, until now.
The purpose of a monopoly is coercion, forcing All to serve the One, through simple lack of effective alternatives. Therefore, the only strategy that can break the back of such a monopoly must:
- UNITE the All in opposition to the One,
- ACT COLLECTIVELY against the common enemy to solve the common problem, and
- CREATE AN ALTERNATIVE, for the first time, where All are welcome, but the One is barred.
This is what eBay sellers must do, if we are finally to break the monopoly and win against FeeBay. Coordinated collective action is what eBay, Inc. truly fears, the only action we sellers can take that stands any real chance of success. The truth of the matter is, the eBay sellers are eBay. The time has come to show eBay Inc. just what that means.
A loose confederation of frustrated sellers and buyers, including veterans of past strikes and boycotts going back to the 1990s, has recently formed to address this problem and has devised a basic plan to achieve final seller freedom from FeeBay. This is the SUBAT —Seller’s Union & Buyers’ Association Together — and it welcomes everyone. The plan is for a free people’s ‘We-Bay,’ a safe, free, and fair auction home we users will make to replace eBay.com. Such a site for eBay refugees is possible, but only if we unite now.
- If you want to see eBay Group Inc. tremble for the first time
- If you want to take back eBaying for the eBayers
- If you want to stop feeding corporate greed
- If you want to strike a blow for Internet Freedom
Vote YES for seller freedom and join this campaign! Run the SUBAT Fight FeeBay unity badge in your sales to let FeeBay know who really controls the eBay.com site! Get a copy here, but be sure to change the file name so they can’t find it easily on the site.
A library of FeeBay-mocking graphics and cartoons is in the works…we hope FeeBay likes them! We encourage everyone to use them - to show eBay Inc. that, no matter what lies they may spread, the truth is that the sellers are eBay. They can’t warn, slap, suspend, or boot all of us at once - because we are their business.
They started the battle. We’ll give them a war!
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Joining Phase I of the campaign for a free people’s ‘We-Bay’ is safe and anonymous. No one’s name will ever be released unless and until the 10,000 point is reached, when there is safety in numbers. And you will never be spammed.
When we are 10,000 strong and sellers running the unity badge are legion, Phase I of this campaign will tip and work will proceed through Phases II – IV, until Phase V -final victory over the Tyrant FeeBay- is achieved. Collective action is the natural solution and, if we work together, it can be done.
The very prospect of takeover by the sellers strikes fear in the heart of the arrogant Tyrant FeeBay. This is why they have tried so long and so hard to promote helplessness and silence outraged sellers. But the silence is over.
This time, sellers say ENOUGH!
If they will not treat us justly, we will simply make a new auction home for ourselves, free of the fear and free of the fees. If word spreads far enough, such a free people’s site becomes not just a possibility, but an eventuality. Pass it on!
Read more:
What is a free people’s ‘We-Bay’? What could such a ‘We-Bay’ become?
Phase I: Voting & User ID Reservation — Goal 10,000
Phase II: Yes, I’d Give $5 to be Free of FeeBay Forever! — Goal 20,000
Phase III: a People’s ‘We-Bay’ Site Comes On-Line — Goal 50,000 or $250,000
Phase IV: the Exodus & Reunion — Goal 430,000
POWER TO THE SUBAT!
Fight FeeBay — and this time FIGHT TO WIN!
