EBay tries to calm irate sellers

With many of eBay Inc.’s most faithful sellers in revolt over a rate hike, the online auctioneer said Sunday that it would lower one type of seller fee starting Monday.

If that’s supposed to be a peace offering, sellers aren’t buying it.

The fee break is on the cost of listing an auction item on the site, from 30 cents to 25 cents. But there’s a catch — it applies only to listings that start bidding at 99 cents or less, which are usually for items such as used CDs.

“They are just throwing us a crumb,” said David Steiner, co-founder of the online newsletter AuctionBytes.com.

The uproar started last month when eBay announced that sellers with individual e-commerce stores on the site — including some of the most active sellers — will be paying eBay a minimum 8 percent commission as of Feb. 18 on items sold, up from 5.25 percent. EBay also said the monthly fee it charged store owners would go from $9.95 to $15.95.

In response, numerous sellers said they would look for alternatives to eBay. And Frances Neale of Olympia, who operates the JustonceOnline store, which stocks about 2,000 items at a time, said the rate break announced Sunday wouldn’t dissuade her from going elsewhere.

“I sell books that are worth $200 and other nice things,” Neale said. “Most sellers on eBay can’t start at 99 cents.”

A company spokesman said Sunday that eBay was taking many steps to benefit people with e-commerce stores on the Website, boosting customer support and giving them a one-time rebate on the $15.95 monthly fee.

But Neale said the commission rate hike would really hurt.

“Customer service for us does not improve our business at all,” she said. “What eBay has to remember is that there is no eBay without us sellers.”