TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

Based on the performance of Half.com under eBay ownership, the question is what exactly has been learned and why should sellers believe that eBay Express will not also be marked by the same problems and lack of success?

I just sold a book on half last night.

Now, normally that would be a good thing.

Except I sold the same book on Amazon two days ago and when AOB went to update my inventory at half, the upload had an error and didn't process because someone had my book in a cart at half at the time. 
(Don't know if it was the same person who came back two days later and finally checked out or not.)

Half is a real winner.  I just noticed today that on the Half Shops main page 2 of the 4 book shops they are featuring are mombocom and totalcampus.com.  Both sellers were NARU'd months ago. That must make a good impression on customers. 

http://shops.half.ebay.com/

Quote:Great book shops...

superbookdealscom
Vast variety of textbooks, new releases and much more!

totalcampus.com
Huge selection of Brand New Books with over 40,000 feedback!

strandbookstore
Wide selection, with new releases up to 40% off!

mombocom
Must-have books for very low prices plus over 100,000 feedback!

EDIT:  Mombocom was NARU'd January 2005!!!!  I pointed this out to Adam the Pink on the eBay boards

I can say with much certainty that ebay (with out actually saying IT)
knows that the "core" site is a
mess and KNOWS they are loosing market
share very rapidly now.

Despite the BS they say on their forums, press releases
and the announcement board. I believe they are reporting to shareholders,
the SEC and the general public erroneous numbers and statements.
I also believe they are doing so willfully and with
FULL knowledge that these statements and numbers are false.
They may be eventually construed as Enron type activities
and criminal charges may be filed.

I sure hope so.

They do know the real numbers are falling and to even initiate
this "Express" project is PROOF of that. IMO

They are NOT like any other major e commerce site that has and will continue to
take BACK or GAIN market share from ebay's broken down e commerce model.

The majors CONTROL their inventory in a way that ebay with
700,000 + independent sellers WILL NEVER be able to do.

This entire project is based around the "flow" of a PP Shopping Cart that
allows "essentially" people to buy from many different companies
(independent sellers ) all at one time.

They say this will be a smooth buyers experience?

I think it will be as everything else in the last few years ebay has tinkered with.

It WILL be a disaster, a cluster f@$k and only turn more people off to ebay.

Do IT eBay... 

Quote:They say this will be a smooth buyers experience?

I think it will be as everything else in the last few years ebay has tinkered with.

It WILL be a disaster

Based on the Nightmare on Elm Half Street after the last upgrade, I don't think it will be a smooth opening for buyers or sellers.

Its daily posts like this one by Woodland that make me think buyers might be in for a bumpy ride on Express:

OMG does ebay ever work anymore?? ?? ?
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?t...2000072267&tstart=0

Besides fraud, and the pain in the ass process of buying on eBay, the other big complaint buyers have is glitches.  Unless eBay is bringing in a different programming staff than the one responsible for the eBay.com/Half.com glitchfest, buyers are in for more of the same.

From the eBay Developers Network.

Quote:checkout redirect is not supported on eBay Express. Items that use checkout redirect are not eligible for eBay Express unless a special flag is specified on the item when it is listed that says that the item should still be eligible, and that if the item is purchased on eBay Express it will use eBay Checkout

Quote:selling tools will need to support item specifics and eBay shipping options in order to support eBay Express. Most categories of items will require the item condition attribute in order for the item to be eligible

Quote:sellers need to set up a tax table with eBay in order to charge sales tax for items purchased through eBay Express. There is already API support for specifying a tax table

http://ebaydeveloper.typepad.com/dev/200..._ebay.html

Quote:jhunt@paypal.com View Listings  | Report  Jan-20-06 19:09 PST  601 of 687
Hi. My name is Jennifer Hunt and I lead PayPal’s Seller Protection team. I appreciate your feedback and am listening to your concerns about the requirement to accept unconfirmed addresses in order to sell on eBay Express. I will be hosting a workshop in the next two weeks on what an unconfirmed address means, as well as PayPal’s Seller Protection Policy, in order to answer questions many of you have about the protection you receive from PayPal in general as a seller. We are in the process of finalizing a date, so please keep an eye out for it.

As Adam and Chung have mentioned in this discussion, the Seller Protection Policy (SPP) will still apply to all eligible transactions on eBay Express that have confirmed addresses. I understand that some may find that shipping to an unconfirmed address may be too risky. As such, eBay built in the ability for these sellers to opt-out from eBay Express.

Jennifer Hunt makes her living devising ways to steal from sellers. Do you think she'll answer questions on the discrepencies between PayPal's protection policies concerning Ebay.com and EBay.com.cn sales?

Quote:checkout redirect is not supported on eBay Express. Items that use checkout redirect are not eligible for eBay Express unless a special flag is specified on the item when it is listed that says that the item should still be eligible, and that if the item is purchased on eBay Express it will use eBay Checkout

This one is going to be a PITA for anyone who has GTC listings that were launched with checkout redirect enabled.  In order to have your listings included on Express you will have to cancel all of your existing checkout redirect-enabled GTC listings and relist them with the new "special flag".  :

Quote:If the seller has the "ask me" preference set on PayPal, and if the buyer uses an unconfirmed address, then the payment will be shown in PayPal as pending. At this point, the buyer has made a valid payment offer to the seller, however, it is up to the seller to decide whether or not to accept or deny this payment.

This behavior is exactly the same as it is on eBay today. When a buyer uses "Buy It Now" to buy an item, they will go to PayPal and make a payment. If they have an unconfirmed address, the seller has the option of denying the payment. However, the listing is still closed as completed.

You are correct that if the payment is denied, the seller can file on eBay for a Unpaid Item credit, exactly the same as for any other eBay transaction.

The eBay pinks have been doing an admirable job of providing non-answers to the feedback question BUT once a listing is "closed as completed" a buyer (or seller) on eBay.com (and eBay Express) can leave feedback--meaning that if a seller denies a payment that the buyer has made through PayPal the buyer could give the seller negative feedback.

So the seller on Express is basically stuck between a rock and a hard place when payments by buyers with unconfirmed addresses are made: they can either accept the payment and receive no seller protection, or they can deny the payment and risk their feedback reputation.

Quote:The eBay pinks have been doing an admirable job of providing non-answers to the feedback question

They provided one tonight 

Adam the Pink Wrote:In terms of feedback, here we have to be very careful not to deviate from the accepted eBay standards. On eBay today, if a seller uses the "ask me" preference and denies a payment, the buyer is still the "winner" of the listing and is allowed to leave feedback. eBay Express will not change this.

Combined shipping:

Adam the Pink Wrote:You are correct that eBay Express will only be able to offer shipping discounts to buyers for sellers who have configured their combined shipping discounts through the eBay preferences.

She's hosting a workshop on what an unconfirmed address means?

I can hear her now with "like" a valley girl OMG accent going.

Quote:Hi folks "Like my names "like" Jennifer OK? 
Well unconfirmed address means well "like" Idonno it's not like the
same address as on the "like" CC thingy OMG.
But hey it's "like" really safe to send "like" stuff to people that way..
So "like" lighten up and lets "like" do IT OK??? OMG

Gee that workshop should be REAL informational.

These people really think we are all a bunch of morons don't they? :