This petition speaks on behalf of the many thousands of small sellers on eBay who wish to express their absolute disgust at eBays latest conniving dictate which forces small sellers to offer free shipping in many media categories which will effectively prevent them from continuing to trade.

Until 19/10/2009 sellers advertising low-value items did not pay a listing fee if the opening value of an item was 0.99p or less and with postage and packing fees realistically capped in most categories. Obviously eBay could not and did not levy their commission charges on postage and packing fees.
Now however, having forced sellers to offer free postage and packing, eBay advises those same sellers to lump shipping costs into opening bids thereby (because all such opening bids will be well in excess of 0.99p) not only attracting an immediate revenue stream in listing fees that they were not gaining previously but also effectively levying commission on those very same inherent shipping fees when an item is sold!

It is a morally bankrupt, contrived and underhand move on eBays part to purely bolster its own revenue stream and we, the undersigned, strenuously object to it and wish to illustrate our disgust. Furthermore we urge eBay to either revert to the system as it was previously or, at the very least, only enforce this dictate on higher priced items with a starting price above 10.00 a level capable of enveloping free shipping.