By Jacqui Cheng
August 20, 2008 - 08:20PM CT

eBay is making some changes that will further shift its focus from online auctions to fixed price resellers. The company announced Wednesday that it plans to drop the cost of listing an item under "Buy It Now" by 70 percent, extend allowable listing periods for these items, and lift a number of other restrictions in order to attract even more sellers.

Although auctions are about to disappear, the move is an example of eBay's shifting priorities, and not everyone is happy about it. Sellers will now only be charged a flat $0.35 fee for listing fixed-price "auctions," and can list multiple quantities of the same item for that single fee (previously, multiple quantities of a single item meant racking up the listing fees).

Sellers can also now list items for a full 30 days, significantly longer than the standard 7-days. This is all meant to encourage more Buy It Now listings by significantly lowering the cost of entry, and we have no doubt that there will soon be an explosion in fixed price listings as a result. That may be good for consumers who are increasingly turning to the site to buy cheap(er) things right away, but long-time online auctioneers aren't thrilled by the changes.

eBay has made a name for itself as the place to go for online auctions, and now the site's focus will be more about giving resellers another online storefront than engaging in bidding wars. eBay claims that it isn't about to dump the auction format, however. The company said that sellers can still choose to list things as auctions and that it remains the most cost-effective way to offer items for sale.