eBay Expands Seller-Led Events as Future of Quarterly Check-Ins Remains Unclear
eBay is leaning into more seller-hosted events, including a Promoted Listings Seller Circle Follow Up, as layoffs call future of official check ins into question.
Prior to launching controversial new Promoted Listings attribution policies in the US, eBay staff took questions and feedback during a Seller Circle event hosted by Liz O'Kane from Colorado Reworn in November 2025.
Liz Morton
And now that the new policy has been in effect since January 13th, Liz is hosting a virtual follow up conversation with eBay Ads Product Managers Kye Mou and Rishi Vora on March 10th.
Register here:
While it's great to see eBay staff engaging in these conversations with sellers, it's notable that eBay continues to move toward seller hosted/managed events "supported" by the company rather than official eBay events.
It's a trend that sellers have noticed for years - eBay publicly presents these changes as increasing seller engagement, but in reality it seems that select sellers are simply being used as a buffer between eBay and the broader seller-community, insulating the company even further from actual engagement and direct feedback about how new features and policy changes are affecting their users.
For example, when the official eBay for Business Podcast ended in 2024, eBay instead began sponsoring a seller-led podcast and as weekly chat sessions turned to monthly and then were discontinued completely in 2024, official eBay staff engagement in the community forum has waned significantly, often replaced by volunteer seller "mentors."
Liz Morton
More recently, eBay has been leaning heavily into Seller Circles (in-person and virtual meet ups hosted by sellers) and introduced a new monthly seller-hosted webinar series which got off to a bit of a rough start last month.
Liz Morton
And just like the community chat, sellers have now seen official eBay-hosted Check In events go from monthly in 2021, to quarterly starting in 2022, and now apparently just twice a year in 2026 with the Spring Check In slated for May 28th and a Winter Check In on October 8th.
eBay also just announced a mass layoff affecting ~800 employees last week, including some seller support and community roles.
Liz Morton
And while it's not clear if she was part of the layoffs or the timing was just coincidental, Director Seller Community and Engagement, Rebecca Michals, also announced she was leaving eBay last week.
In that role, Rebecca often served as host and main coordinator for the quarterly check ins and other official eBay events and her presence will surely be missed by sellers.
Let us know in the comments below if you prefer official eBay-hosted events and community engagement or seller-led meet ups and peer to peer support.
