The rise and fall of eBay

The online auction house known as "eBay" was one of the few survivors of the dot com bubble burst. Now it, too, may be on the road to defeat. As shareholders dump the company's stock, and sales volume decreases; some are blaming the economy, but are eBay's policies the real culprit?

Fees have apparently increased on the site, and this had led some to coin the term "Feebay." Policies which protect buyers nearly without question (and leave the seller often considered "guilty until proven innocent") are scaring sellers away. Favoritism extended to large corporate storefronts that sell via eBay are decimating the population of small, independent sellers. These factors are quickly making eBay very dissimilar to the company it was for many years.

Many competing online auction houses sprang up in the wake of eBay's initial success, and many are slowly gaining market share as eBay's sellers flee. It's only a matter of time before we learn eBay's eventual fate, but one thing is clear; even if eBay falls like a house of cards the corporate officers that are responsible for knocking it down will float away under the comforting canopy of their golden parachutes.