New, 'eBay new' and a recent NYT article

Last week, I wrote about a misunderstanding triggered by a Citigroup analyst remark around so-called unproductive listings.   Yesterday, a question posted by a member at the monthly Stores Team Brown Bag Lunch highlighted a new issue causing unrest in the selling community.  Early in the hour, one member asked this question:

"Recently, I read an article online that quoted John Donahoe as saying that the core site was best suited for used items at bargain prices. He went on to be quoted as saying that new items on eBay didn't make sense (I'm reading that to mean that he meant the eBay core site)...As a store seller, I'm confused by this article. Bill Cobb thought we were ruining the eBay experience so he raised our store fees and told us to list more in core, Now John Donahoe is seeming to say that new items don't belong on core."

The question refers to a recent New York Times article The eBay President in Charge of Breaking Patterns, by Brad Stone, published February 21, 2007. The article profiles eBay Marketplaces President John Donahoe, who joined eBay two years ago to lead the global marketplaces business.  In talking about some of his accomplishments so far, this paragraph in the article has some sellers wondering whether eBay welcomes new items on the site:

"Mr. Donahoe’s plan for eBay began, paradoxically, with getting certain products off its main auction site. When he joined the company, he says, sellers put anything and everything on the service, which is best suited for the sale of used items at bargain prices. Selling newer products on eBay 'didn’t make any sense,' he said. 'It watered the experience down.' "

eBay members -- buyers and sellers alike -- are right to find this statement quizzical.  On a personal note, I just bought a new Nikon digital camera on eBay recently, not to mention the many other new items I've purchased on eBay in the not-too-distant past, like a computer, printer cartridges, and even a brand new bed.  I wondered what John had meant by that statement, too.

I tracked down Brad Williams, VP of Corporate Communications. He'd been with John during the interview, and he explained that the comment had been included in the article without its full context.  Basically, John had been explaining to the NYT reporter the series of events relating to Store Inventory listings (not auction items) that had led up to the decision to re-balance the marketplace back in July of 2006.  With the inclusion of Store Inventory listings into core search, a huge inventory of non-unique items flooded buyers' search results. These items were often, but not always, new items that were easy to find elsewhere and that had not been priced to sell on eBay. 

Brad confirmed for me that new items -- while they were mentioned as a descriptor of some of the items that had been listed in Stores when the insertion fees were so low and exposure so high -- the fact that they were new was not the real issue.  John had never intended that new items in general did not "make sense" on eBay.

Since this the second time in a short few days that an attempt to describe the re-balancing efforts to outsiders was responsible for confusion among our selling Community, I emailed Lori Goler, Senior Director of eBay Stores, for another perspective on how sellers can think about new items on eBay.  Here's what she wrote back:

"As you know, there are thousands of new items on eBay ... new in box, new with tags, new in original packaging, and many other descriptions.  I might describe these items as 'eBay new' meaning that they are new, as in 'not used.'  What's unique about eBay is that these 'new' items are often not new-in-season items that a buyer could find at a local retailer. 

One of the things that buyers love about eBay is that they can find what they need when they need it on eBay. This might be a 'new with tags' bathing suit in August when brick and mortar stores have already moved on to the fall line-up.  Or it might be last year's model of a new, never used cell phone - new, but no longer available somewhere else.   These 'eBay new' items are an important part of what buyers are able to find on eBay.  Good prices are equally important to eBay buyers.  Importantly, buyers can often find these 'eBay new' items at better prices on eBay than new items elsewhere, and they're always excited to find a great deal. "

So yes, despite some confusing representation in the media of a complex subject, eBay is still a place "where you can buy or sell practically anything on earth."   And that holds true whether it is new, or 'eBay new.'