TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

From a Popper:

Quote:So, the question is... is it optimism, or blind faith?

After nearly a year of hearing nothing but Boinktard   :lies2n: :lies2n: :lies2n:, what would be the odds of it being "optimism?"

And the following quotes from Mommy Karen:

Quote:the exposure and features we can provide as a company are a direct reflection of revenues collected from participation

Translation: "As more and more Poppers catch on to our little scam and blow the Koolaid stand, expect even less than the basic nothing you're already getting from us."

Quote:A Store seller with 1000 active listings at $9.99 with a $14.99 BIN and Thumbnail Gallery Image weekly (and including the monthly Store subscription) with main site exposure would have the following insertion fees charged"

eBay = $3,415.95
Wagglepop = $9.95

This is such   No Ebay seller has 1000 auctions running at once, each with BIN feature attached and has the same items ALSO listed in the store. I know of no high-volume seller who pays for thumbnail gallery either in auction or store. This scenario is totally bogus, and the point is to SCARE and intimidate Poppers. Add to that, even if there were such a seller, the seller will have netted $11,575 for that month (before commissions and fees) if the items sell with BIN. On WP, nobody sees the items, so nothing sells and the seller nets -$10. Big whoop.

Quote:Perhaps we have made the cost of participation too affordable?

Give me a break! AFFORDABLE? If it's so affordable, and such a good deal, WHY DID 3/4 OF YOUR STORE SELLERS SAY "BY-BY"?  And why did many return to eBay and its "oppressive" fee structure? BECAUSE IT'S NOT ABOUT FEES, IT'S ABOUT PROFITS, you idiots!

Quote:It is interesting to observe that many sellers still think in terms of "listings", and compare sales to inventory.

No wombat poo poo, Sherlock! Could it be that when an item in inventory is put up for sale on a venue, the seller is LISTING it for sale? What planet do you come from, Karen? IT'S CALLED A "LISTING."

Quote:Wagglepop buys nothing. Wagglepop sells nothing. We simply offer buyers and sellers all the tools they need to do those two simple functions: buy and sell.

Like hell. It buys sellers' trust and faith that the site will bring them buyers. And for that sellers pay a minimum of $10/mo. Add to that, you're doing a rather piss poor job of offering buyers and sellers the tools they need, becausee SELLERS are leaving and BUYERS are not coming?  

Quote:If every Store that opened had stayed, we would have over 1,000 Stores and likely 500,000 listings. If everyone had stayed and paid, perhaps over 2,000 Stores and a million listings

Translation: "If all you stupid sellers out there in cyberland hadn't wised up and gotten wind of our little scam and blown our Koolaid stand, we'd be racking in a minimum of $20K/mo. Of course, you'd still have no sales, but what do we care? It's inventory that counts."  

Quote:Suppose for a minute that we could instantly duplicate every Store and every listing that is on eBay here on Wagglepop

But wait, do you want to be like eBay, or not like eBay? What the hell is the point of this comment?

Quote:. . . we are at the point now where the site must begin supporting itself in that regard in terms of overall revenues, with increased participation.

Translation: "You lazy, good-for-nothing sellers better get your   out there and start spamming to bring in sellers for us, so we can bring in more $$$$, 'cause we're going under."

Quote:. . . am constantly thinking where and how we can improve site participation

Translation: "By 'site participation' we mean 'ways to con sellers' and we're running out of no-cost-to-us ideas."

Wake up, Poppers! Read between the lines -- Karen's Rah, Rah is Armageddon in disguise.

More Rah Rah Rah...

Quote:I started this thread and want to be clear. We are here for the long run. The fact that we are talking about this shows we all care about WP. Karen and her staff are doing everything they can to help their sellers. Having WP as a base for our services and products will in time be something worth well. My wife is adding items as I am writing this. We will get to 5K items soon. Karen, I don't think anyone on this thread has any intention of leaving. Together all of us will have success.

I just checked my sales. Good news, I made my first sale!! Now I hope I can do an invoice correctly. In a flash my sales increased by 100%.

Your sales increased because you whined on the boards about no sales!  Works every time.  :

[quote author=RiverRat link=topic=3775.msg49110#msg49110 date=1176207393]
More Rah Rah Rah...

Quote:I started this thread and want to be clear. We are here for the long run. The fact that we are talking about this shows we all care about WP. Karen and her staff are doing everything they can to help their sellers. Having WP as a base for our services and products will in time be something worth well. My wife is adding items as I am writing this. We will get to 5K items soon. Karen, I don't think anyone on this thread has any intention of leaving. Together all of us will have success.

I just checked my sales. Good news, I made my first sale!! Now I hope I can do an invoice correctly. In a flash my sales increased by 100%.

Your sales increased because you whined on the boards about no sales!  Works every time.  :
[/quote]

Someone asks that very question....

Quote:Congratulations Harold & Martha!!

Curiosity question - was it someone off WP or was it another store owner reading the posts?

[quote author=I want 1 2 link=topic=3775.msg49081#msg49081 date=1176175514]
wagglepopCC1   Tue 04/10/07 3:25 am       




If every Store that opened had stayed, we would have over 1,000 Stores and likely 500,000 listings. If everyone had stayed and paid, perhaps over 2,000 Stores and a million listings.

Now that would get someone's attention, and the PR train would begin chugging along.

[/quote]


If one store left WP from New York going 10 miles and Hour and another Store left WP from Boston going 15 miles an hour, how long before they realized what a complete Tool Ray is and that he is currently having an office meeting with himself, Mr Snukems the stuffed teddy and his bunny slippers on how to take over the world???(because it "works"


Choooo!!! Chooooo!!!!

:turkey2:

Todays Daily Chat starts out with

Quote:Hello Wagglepoppers!

Don't forget to pay your WP Invoices! We need all of the stores to STAY on at Wagglepop so we can build it up to something even MORE amazing!

Now the sellers are reminding other sellers to pay thier invoices!

Shaking my head in disgust!

Edited to add.....More Amazing????Wha?????More amazing then what!

Is it just me...or does it sound like there may be a fee increase in the Wagglepop future?

Quote:wagglepopCC1   10 Apr 2007 13:59       



xxxxxxxxxxx,

The existing Information Policy and the Board Participation Policy prevent me from discussing anything about marketing plans or advertising plans publicly.

I can say that we have been investing mostly in some targeted leave behinds and targeted POP3 currently as we work to get a feel for what works and what does not, but that is all I can comment on and I cannot discuss or elaborate on that.

If I may answer in a direct way, based on participation levels, the $9.95 SSP subscription fee allows us to operate at a loss of a "few thousand" dollars per month, rather than "a few more thousand" per month.

That overage in operating expenses is made up with funds from upper management.

Any marketing or advertising is done completely out of pocket on top of that and is wholly and completely unsupported by membership participation.

All marketing and advertising funds are supplied by upper management.

These are the realities we face as a company based upon the type of site we want to be and want to support.

We want to have our existing staff remain in place, to have our small offices, to have an extremely fast and cutting edge server array, to have ghosted automated backups and offsite backups of data four times per day, to have a support contract in place that allows us to address some customer issues in minutes, to have a support team that can address access issues in the middle of the night, to have new features and functionalities designed and coded and tested and implemented; the list goes on and on to reflect the kind of commitment we have made and what we feel membership deserves.

Personally, I don't want to tell upper management anymore at the end of each fiscal month that we have been unable to cover expenses and submit multiple requests for overage checks.

Participation as a whole (not individually, as we have incredible individual seller and buyer support) needs to start reflecting and supporting the costs associated with operating the site, and then we can start talking about what we can do to add features and market things a bit more.

I would say that's just common sense, and above all else, fair and necessary. There is a limit on how much money can be invested unrecovered, as with any business, before budget cuts become necessary.

There is a reason that Wagglepop works, and has unique features and systems and support structures that work. Wagglepop "the site" will be around for a long time, as we can scale things at anytime to operate in a more streamlined fashion, buy we think it's time for growth and nothing else.

As a community, let's show everyone that we can make this work, that the call from the eBay community by so many for "an altrnative" was and is real and that we are making it happen, here and now.

There is nothing easy about it, but that's what makes it so beautiful

Karen - WP Customer Care

.... and that's all she wrote...

Hey all, just a reminder thatI am a certified Microsoft Engineer, so if anyone has any questions on Karen's computer garbage / BS, post or PM me and I can explain in detail.



"targeted POP3"

in other words "SPAM MAIL"

[quote author=Bills Caddyshack link=topic=3775.msg49119#msg49119 date=1176214584]
Hey all, just a reminder thatI am a certified Microsoft Engineer, so if anyone has any questions on Karen's computer garbage / BS, post or PM me and I can explain in detail.



"targeted POP3"

in other words "SPAM MAIL"



[/quote]

Bill -

That's one of the things that makes me so sick everytime I read crap like Karen just posted.
It complete and utter bull$hit.  It's one person operating out of his basement using boxed software, which is maintained/supported by the hosting company.

One computer...one guy...in a basement. 

Going to go take my blood pressure pill now. 

Poppers wake up and get outa Dodge!  I hate to see these sellers continue to waste their time and efforts on a sinking ship!  Time is money and you all have wasted enough waiting for some miracle to happen that never will.  Research and investigate other options!  I thought after the nonexistant add campaign all would see the light and get out!  

End of Rant....

How is everyone doing?  I have been spread pretty thin as of late and have not had the chance to post much.  As some of you know I have been busy on ecrater.  I am having the most success there than anywhere I have been besides ebay.  The best part is I pocket all the profit.  I have pleasantly surprised at all the buyers using google checkout.  More are using google to checkout than paypal.  I would say around 60%.

Though ecrater is great,  I have come to the realization that I need my own on-line store.  I just no clue on where to start the research on how to accomplish this and I do not have much cash to work with at the moment.  Ecrater would be enough if they would change a few things but the longer I am on there a few things have happened that make me realize I may only be able to grow so far on that site.  I had six orders that came in for 1 item within a 2 hour period when I only had a quantity of 1 of that item.  They all paid immediately via paypal and I had to refund 5 people and explain what happened.  I cannot be on line 24/7 to keep up on my inventory count.  They really should do something about inventory control.   I know the likelyhood of this occurring again is rare but it can happen and I hate turning customers away.  These buyers will probably never come back to the site to buy again.  The other thing that I really want is a note section or a marked as shipped button in the order section.  Well I am going to go try and read up on how to start my own site.  If anyone has some good articles I could read on this topic please let me know.

Thanks!