Sellers squawk as eBay evolves to combat rivals

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) Flocks of eBay sellers were squawking as the pioneering online auction website continued "bold changes" aimed at wrenching market share from Internet retail giant Amazon.

The California firm's latest moves focus on making buying items at eBay more like standard store purchases, complete with electronic payments and fixed prices.

EBay is altering anew its fee system, making it cheaper to post items but taking a bigger percentage of sales.

"These are some of the boldest changes we've ever made," eBay spokesman Usher Lieberman told AFP.

"It is a shift in the business model for our sellers and for eBay. We are asking sellers to rethink their listing strategies and giving them economic incentives to do that."

An online eBay chat forum teemed Thursday with complaints as sellers disparaged new rules including a ban taking effect in October on payments using checks or money orders.

"EBay used to be fun," wrote an eBay user with a screen name Starfish2rcn. "Now it's run like a dictatorship."

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