Thanks for the answer. In that case I'm ready to share with the group. I'm doing far worse under the new payment plan. I used both the metrics suggested earlier in this thread and both show a slide.

My numbers averaged for the first nine months of 2009 (old system)
Earnings/GMB = 6.4% (my earnings divided by the gross sales showing what my commission was)

Earnings/WBR = 59.99% (my earnings divided by the eBay revenue - pretty much the old system payout)

My numbers for October 2009
Earnings/GMB = 3.48%

Earnings/WBR = 48.5%

What is keeping me up at night scratching my head is there seems to be no true relationship between these figures WBR and GMB on a daily basis and my EPC. I operate in a niche collectibles market where most of the items are auctions. Sunday just happens to be the biggest day for auctions in that subcategory to close. What I saw this weekend for example is that on Sunday I had a GMB of almost $7k but only got credited with an EPC of .05. Under the old system I would have made $316 on Sunday but instead I made about less than 1/5 of that in the new payout structure. Maybe that $7k in GMB will help boost my metrics in the mystery algorithm for Monday, Tuesday, etc but it just seems to me that you can't see the relationship. Trust me I've downloaded spreadsheets and sorted them by every which way. Maybe auctions are penalized too hard under the new system? I just don't know....

I have figured out a crude way to easily show the click date compared to the bid date (as opposed to eBay's suggestion to compare the click date to the auction close date).

Download all transactions for the month. Now separate out the Bid transactions in Excel. Move the Item ID to the first column and sort by it.

Now separate the winning bid transactions. Use the VLOOKUP function to basically link your winning bid transactions to your bid transactions by item ID (that's why it had to be sorted). You can retrieve the event date of the bid versus the event date of the winning bid this way. It's not foolproof, particularly if you're sending people to Buy it Now transactions with multiple items listed. But it's pretty good.

I found that 30% of my transactions closed the same day as the click. Another 6% closed on days following the click, but were bid on the same day as the click. The 6% is being valued less, from what I understand of the algorithm.

I checked some of the winning bids vs. what the user clicked on. Some were off-target, but others were spot-on, including an item that was the exact same item clicked on, and won 6 days later. Under QPC, my understanding is that such a transaction is not highly valued, even though it was clearly a bullseye.

eBay is trying to walk a very fine line here. They want new customers, but only want to pay if those customers become "regulars". And they want sales, but only if those sales come from customers that aren't "regulars".

Hey, thanks, it works!

September Earnings/WBR = 54.5%
October Earnings/WBR = 34.8%
Yesterday Earnings/WBR = 10.75%

Nice downtrend, huh?

September Earnings/WBR = 59.2%
October Earnings/WBR = 70.6%

July Earnings/WBR = 119%
July Earnings/GMB = 12.3%

August Earnings/WBR = 136%
August Earnings/GMB = 12.8%

September Earnings/WBR = 162%
September Earnings/GMB = 17%

QCP
October Earnings/WBR = 108%
October Earnings/GMB = 10.7%

Old Method ($28 ACRU, 55% WBR)
October Earnings/WBR = 114%
October Earnings/GMB = 11.4%

October
QCP Earnings/Old Method Earnings = 94.9%

The only one I find relevant is comparing October QCP to the old earnings method. I'm down about 5%.

Perhaps we should make sure that each of our links to eBay include the following disclaimer: "CLICK HERE FOR EBAY"... but only if money's burning a hole in your pocket and you're in the mood to bid/buy NOW, and especially if you don't already have an eBay account and will need to create one. Before clicking this link, you agree to bring out your credit card or have your PayPal ID & password at the ready, stay focused, (avoid "travelling" and clicking around so you don't dilute my earnings per click), stick to this niche, and mentally commit to become an "eBay regular". Oh, and ignore the sidebar ads and other 3rd party ads you may see whilst browsing eBay since even though my link enticed you to visit eBay, I won't get credit for any purchases you make through those... actually, I've been told I will, but I'm unable to find any evidence of that. I hope your trip to eBay will be prosperous (for me)."

I haven been wondering where they went too. However, I tend to think that someone there had a great idea to put up a forum, but no one there is taking any ownership of the site and we are just here spinning our wheels talking to ourselves.

I think it's a good indicator of the internal culture at eBay. Lacking their own quality, yet expecting everyone around them to have quality.

So much for leading by example.

You're assuming they still work for eBay.