Former #1 eBay Seller Glacier Bay DVD (Randy Smythe) Speaks
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10-05-2006, 07:41 PM,
Post: #271
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Former #1 eBay Seller Glacier Bay DVD (Randy Smythe) Speaks
Quote:The best example of a "big guy" who couldn't justify listing on ebay after the latest fee hike was casacaiman. From a peak of near 500,000 listings to 0. They currently have 1.7 million items listed on Amazon which cost them $40 monthly (before FVF)--compare that to the $85,000 monthly it would cost to list those same 1.7 million items in an eBay Store. Perfect illustration. That's why Overstock and Amazon have subscription plans that anyone can sign up for. Pay a flat fee, get unlimited listings. It's a no brainer and a great way for large sellers to ensure success. It also doesn't force small sellers to pay a bigger fee if they're only going to list a few items. If eBay ever puts a subscription plan in place (which I doubt), they'll probably only make it available to certain people, anyway. And Randy--you are so right. How many of us can withstand 14 days with no business? Some big corporations can't even handle a 4 hour downtime, much less 14 days. During the rolling blackouts in San Francisco (2000 - 2001), the large internet company I was working for hit the rocks after three days of 5 hour downtime in a row. A local corner liquor store went out of business after 4 days of 5-hour downtimes. In a place where your rent is sky high, you need every minute of the day to earn, earn, earn. Since it takes so long for things to propagate through the eBay system, it's a real struggle when eBay tampers with listings and status. In 2002, during the busy season, eBay shut down hundreds of our auctions because of a random (probably competitor reported) line of text in our auction template, left over from before they disallowed you to do certain things. The text roughly said, "We also sell other cool stuff, like anime figures and posters." It was tagged as keyword spamming. A massive batch gone instantly. At the time, we were using 7-day auctions as our primary selling format because store items weren't moving at all. We had no income from eBay for 7 days, until the newest batch worked its way through the system. Plus--all of the items that had had bidding wars didn't have them the next time around. Customers probably got spooked by a yanked auction. And we're just such a tiny, tiny example compared to the many who've had thousands of listings ended, or who have had unjust NARUs for 14 days or who've been netcopped to death. Brick n' mortar stores can't handle unplanned closures. Neither can webstores. It's almost the virtual equivalent of having your webstore go up in flames and burn to the ground--except with a brick n' mortar or business space, you actually have insurance to cover your losses.
Plastic Pumpkin Designs | Plastic Pumpkin on Etsy
"I believe I can see the future, 'cause I repeat the same routine..." --Trent Reznor |
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10-05-2006, 07:45 PM,
Post: #272
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Former #1 eBay Seller Glacier Bay DVD (Randy Smythe) Speaks
Randy - there is a "quote" button at the top right of each post. Click it to . . . yep, you guessed it . . . quote that post.
Here is my biggest problem with eBay . . . they seem to be operating under both a very very short term business plan (their long term goals seem to be limited to the end of each current quarter) and one that is dependant on sellers' failures rather than sellers' successes. They seem to be placing all of their eggs in the "lets gets as many sellers as possible to list and RELIST items in core" as their main mode of generating revenue. Compared to AZ. All they get from me is $40 a month unless stuff sells. They only make more money when I make more money, so they have a vested interest in making sure that my stuff gets seen and purchased. Unless all eBay ever wants to be is sort of a rolling garage sale, where newbie sellers come in, lose money, and move on . . . it seems like this business plan is very flawed. |
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10-05-2006, 07:59 PM,
Post: #273
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Former #1 eBay Seller Glacier Bay DVD (Randy Smythe) Speaks
Quote:Perfect illustration. That's why Overstock and Amazon have subscription plans that anyone can sign up for. Those subscription plans, and eBay's lack of a subscription plan, are why we're on A and O and not on E. In 2001 I could justify paying an up front per item listing fee to sell on eBay. In 2006 the market has deteriorated to the point where I can't justify it. Quote:In 2002, during the busy season, eBay shut down hundreds of our auctions because of a random (probably competitor reported) line of text in our auction template...The text roughly said, "We also sell other cool stuff, like anime figures and posters." It was tagged as keyword spamming. You too? We received a warning in 2002 for having a very similar line in our template that linked to our eBay Store. They didn't pull any of our auctions though. The warning was basically "you can keep the text until the listing (some of which were 30-day store listings) ends, but remove it before you relist the item". Quote:In a place where your rent is sky high, you need every minute of the day to earn, earn, earn. Living in Manhattan I can definitely relate to that statement. ;D |
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10-05-2006, 09:22 PM,
Post: #274
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Former #1 eBay Seller Glacier Bay DVD (Randy Smythe) Speaks
If I had a large inventory like some of you guys do I'd do the subscription plans
at the O and the river (OK maybe not the O as it seems I would be competing directly with them for sales) Their auctions at both, don't really get that much action. (At least not for my products or only around the holidays if I decide to list a few items) It's my understanding and from reading around here that those stores over there do get the traffic but auctions are on the back burner and really always have been IMO. Knowing this a few years back also reaffirmed my belief that the "action" format was going south as the trend wore off on the general buying public. It's no wonder we haven't seen a BIG player emerge to take on that market and give feeBay a run. They obviously recognized it was going to be a pain in the asp and not cost effective to even bother trying. Sometimes what we don't see.. helps us to see. Hey that sounds like something thentavius would say. :blinkie:
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10-05-2006, 10:18 PM,
Post: #275
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Former #1 eBay Seller Glacier Bay DVD (Randy Smythe) Speaks
Quote:Here is my biggest problem with eBay . . . they seem to be operating under both a very very short term business plan (their long term goals seem to be limited to the end of each current quarter) and one that is dependant on sellers' failures rather than sellers' successes. Yep and yep. Very well put. They push a new gimmick for a quarter or two, then retract it and replace it with another. Remember when they forced stores on us, and how we said it would destroy auctions? Remember when they forced us to close our stores only a few weeks ago? Remeber when they touted "enhancement" A, B, C, or D, only to discontinue it a year later in place of E, F, G, and altered AA? That's what it seems like to ne. It's as if they only care about meeting quarterly or yearly projections, and about filling the hole in the dike with quick, temporary, and shareholder pleasing putty. This time around, they seem dependant upon getting a bunch of people to fail and shut their stores--thereby achieving the goal of closing down the stores concept. Quote: They seem to be placing all of their eggs in the "lets gets as many sellers as possible to list and RELIST items in core" as their main mode of generating revenue. Plain and simple. And because having core will turn them into a shopping portal 2.0 with their magaziney Express and all their new "social features." [/quote] Quote:Unless all eBay ever wants to be is sort of a rolling garage sale, where newbie sellers come in, lose money, and move on . . . it seems like this business plan is very flawed. And that's exactly what seems to be happening...
Plastic Pumpkin Designs | Plastic Pumpkin on Etsy
"I believe I can see the future, 'cause I repeat the same routine..." --Trent Reznor |
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10-06-2006, 01:12 AM,
Post: #276
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Former #1 eBay Seller Glacier Bay DVD (Randy Smythe) Speaks
Hey everyone, I just launched my own blog at http://rksmythe.blogspot.com/ I will be able to make quick comments on what I see happening in the world of eBay, and the rest of ecommerce here and leave my Associated Content site for articles that are less bloggy (Is that a word)
BTW, I'm doing a little research on eBid.net does anyone have first hand knowledge of the site? What are your impressions? Thanks! RKS |
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10-06-2006, 01:26 AM,
Post: #277
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Former #1 eBay Seller Glacier Bay DVD (Randy Smythe) Speaks
Quote:BTW, I'm doing a little research on eBid.net does anyone have first hand knowledge of the site? What are your impressions? we've been members on several IDs for over 3 years. They've been around for almost 7 years. They were strictly UK until they started adding international sites in 2/05. Free stores (1st store is free, additional stores are $1.98 monthly) were added later in '05 (currently 800+ US, 3000+ UK stores) Owners are that rare breed of auction site owner who don't spew loads of BS to their members. The membership (especially buyers) remains very heavily UK based and as a result sell through rates for US sellers...SUCK. Music items (Vinyl, CD) sell the best (for UK sellers) and the site has a heavy concentration of listings in those categories. They're one of the very few sites with pre-fill for media items (CDs, DVDs).
"Well, Jay was so giddy that someone named Jay was involved with this site we posted our first non-eBay listing in 3 years here at Lunarbid (we tried two items at Yahoo once upon a time, they bombed)" -Marie posting in a LunarBid thread at OTWA in 2005 wins the award for 'most moronic reason ever given for choosing a venue"
"thanks twat u must have nothing better 2 do. do u talk to all your members like that. will not be recomending your site. best way to put it is TULIPTOOLS.COM IS REALLY SHIT. DONT JOIN." -pubescent owner of rinky dink off2auction.com in 2011 |
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10-06-2006, 01:47 AM,
Post: #278
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Former #1 eBay Seller Glacier Bay DVD (Randy Smythe) Speaks
BBH thanks for the info, that is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm trying to identify a competing ecommerce site that has the best shot at grabbing some of eBay's store biz come first Qtr.
Anyone else have an experience +/- ? I've heard of other sites like Wagglepop and Bidville etc. Any other thoughts? They would need to already have a stores platform. RKS |
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10-06-2006, 02:03 AM,
Post: #279
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Former #1 eBay Seller Glacier Bay DVD (Randy Smythe) Speaks
Quote:I've heard of other sites like Wagglepop and Bidville etc. Any other thoughts? They would need to already have a stores platform. Forget waggleflop. They aren't even in the running. And Bidville isn't much better although they have more time in and new owners so who knows? |
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10-06-2006, 02:13 AM,
(This post was last modified: 10-06-2006, 02:19 AM by bargainbloodhound.)
Post: #280
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Former #1 eBay Seller Glacier Bay DVD (Randy Smythe) Speaks
[quote author=rksmythe link=topic=219.msg26709#msg26709 date=1160099270]
I'm trying to identify a competing ecommerce site that has the best shot at grabbing some of eBay's store biz come first Qtr. [/quote] They need money to grab share. eBid doesn't really have the cash to mount a large scale advertising campaign (they currently run an affiliate program and do google adwords). The only US ecommerce sites with any money and stores are Amazon (media only) and....coming soon Overstock Outlets which blow away eBay stores in terms of features and will be priced lower. uBid's recent purchase of Bidville make it an outside possibility if uBid does any advertising of BV (although I think uBid's primary reason for the purchase was to add another 900,000 names to its mailing list). more info on Overstock Outlets..not much news since they previewed the stores at Overstock Oasis though http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...672.0.html EDIT: I just saw this: Quote:Wagglepop  The site has no money to advertise and has stated it may never have the money to advertise. Its store growth went into reverse when eBay started cracking down on the nonstop spamming of the eBay boards that was promoting Wagglepop. Unstable owner who shut the site down once in 2/05 after one week of being open (search Auctionbytes archive)--reopened May 2006.. No money...did I already say that? I could go on... Wagglepop is attracting lots of inexperience but its name recognition only goes as far as the boards its members have spammed. Traffic: there are many days when this crappy message board beats Wagglepop's traffic. Summary: not a contender
"Well, Jay was so giddy that someone named Jay was involved with this site we posted our first non-eBay listing in 3 years here at Lunarbid (we tried two items at Yahoo once upon a time, they bombed)" -Marie posting in a LunarBid thread at OTWA in 2005 wins the award for 'most moronic reason ever given for choosing a venue"
"thanks twat u must have nothing better 2 do. do u talk to all your members like that. will not be recomending your site. best way to put it is TULIPTOOLS.COM IS REALLY SHIT. DONT JOIN." -pubescent owner of rinky dink off2auction.com in 2011 |
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