WP will never, ever, amount to anything -- at least in the sense of being a viable auction venue.
That's because it is, was, and forever will be a site for dabblers. Serious career sellers who rely on on-line sales to pay the bills is what makes auction sites work and WP will NEVER attract them, because the owner of the site doesn't make his money from sellers through their sales. He therefore has no incentive whatsover to offer them a site that will help them to make sales. In fact, the less effort the owner can put into it, the better he likes it. It's called "passive income." It's as simple as that.
All Ray can do is try to catch flies by dishing out cultist BS every now and then (or get his adoring disciples to do it for him) in an effort to snag a few disillusioned eBayer toe-testers. Any serious seller will soon move on, but not before Ray has managed to pocket a month or two of underserved store fees. Those who couldn't care less about paying bills might hang out a little longer for that "warm and fuzzy" feeling, or mindlessly keep goosestepping to the mantra because they're too proud to admit the site is full of carp and they were flat-out conned.
WP is simply a lonely hearts club, where individuals pay for the privilege of stroking each other's egos and frolicking in a world of make-believe.Â
Quote:All Ray can do is try to catch flies by dishing out cultist BS every now and then (or get his adoring disciples to do it for him) in an effort to snag a few disillusioned eBayer toe-testers. Any serious seller will soon move on,
That about sums up the world of "eBay alternative" auction sites.
[quote author=sneakymagenta link=topic=3775.msg67511#msg67511 date=1200261488]
Quote:wagglepop view chartsÂ
78,100
-635 auction listing down from yesterday
-0.81%
January 13, 2008 5:28 pm
[/quote]
Update 1/17/2008:
WP down another 1/2 of 1% from same time 1/16/2008Â
eBay up 17.65% from same time 1/16/2008
What does he REALLY mean? Let's make it multiple choice! Feel free to answer!
"Wagglepop is not nearly what we had envisioned in terms of volume or overall participation relative to the expenses for the creation of and support of the site as it exists today."
A. We are making the "Featured Store" mandatory now.
B. WE have been lying all along about how the "state of Wagglepop" was fantastic.
C. We are closing, sold, selling, for sale, oops... was that the "delete" button in our database?
"Internally we have spent the last several weeks reviewing reaction to Wagglepop by the "online selling community" (both participatory and non-participatory), the third-party providers, and the "auction support sites" that "report" on auction site news and activity. Our conclusions are clear and pointed and have led to the creation of a task list for changes we feel we should and must make to Wagglepop moving ahead."
A. We realize that all past sellers really knew what was best from the beginning, we just didn't care as long as they paid.
B. We are desperately trying to re-enlist EX-poppers to pay us again.
C. If we would have spent some of that $10K/month in 2006 on giving sellers the features they wanted, they wouldn't be spreading the truth about WP on Tuliptools.
"Wagglepop members deserve a site and community that gives them everything they need to conduct business in a fair and balanced environment under a fair and balanced fee structure. The changes we will make will ensure our ability to provide that opportunity to those that would make use of it both today and in the future while at the same time reflecting the reality of the behaviors of a large portion of the online selling community."
A. We will be plastering Wagglepop with more ads than eBay to "monetize the site."
B. We will be selling your information to Romanians to pay the bills.
C. This is all a crock of S*** to give you a warm fuzzy feeling about Wagglepop.
"A "100% trust-based" enviroment such as Wagglepop supports has represented a challenge greater than ever anticipated."
A. If we only weren't working for a scam artist, maybe our users would trust us.
B. We really did suspend all those users for no good reason... they can be trusted, but not us.
C. Trust? What's that?
"I will open the meeting at 1:00 PM on 1/21 with a detailed statement, a short announcement and then open the floor for question and answer for the following hour."
A. I will unlock the forum just in time for Sam, Rick, and PS to ask their 3 questions, then delete the rest.
B. I am going to tell you that as Wagglepop CEO, I now have to live off only $3K/month. I wish I had saved that $200K+!
C. Sorry, the hour is up? Where's the freakin' delete key!
"Thank you to all of our Wagglepop members that have helped to build Wagglepop into one of the few truly effective eBay alternatives and we look forward while adapting to partcipatory realities to offering that opportunity for many years to come."
A. We aren't talking about the ones who raised revenues to all time highs in 2006, paid off my house, bought my car, paid my eBay fees, just the few who swap a few sales today and pay my meager salary.
B. I guess the "Grand Opening" wasn't such a great idea after all last year?
C. I am the Wagglepop spelling champion! I wrote my own spellchecker program... can't you tell? Find it for sale in my new eBay store today!
Quote:We are hosting a "Pizza Lunch" discussion meeting here on the SSP Merchant Marketplace board on Monday 1/21 at 1:00 PM EST that will last for approximately one full hour.
I wonder who is buying, the hamster or Ray?Â
Off Topic:
Some of you may already know this but I wanted to give a link to a new site setup by RiveRat and myself to benefit TT members Flying High and The Pet Guy. See link below:
http://sellershelpingsellers.org/
As you will see Flying High was diagnosed with cancer shortly before Christmas. She will be undergoing treatments in the coming weeks and months. We are trying to help alleviate the financial burden this has placed on them via donations that go directly into their paypal account. You can donate by clicking on the ribbon below:
Thank you for your time and please read the info in the links for more information!!!
Let the Truth be Told
Quote:some changes we are going to make moving ahead to ensure that we can continue to provide an effective and affordable eBay alternative.
sliding discounts for board spamming maybe?
2 spam posts=5% discount on monthly WP store fees
10 spam posts=25% discount
50 spam posts (any OAI board)=50% discount
50 spam posts (on the eBay boards)=free store
:twistedevil:
psu Wrote::Â Has Wagglepop finally gone Waggle-poof? #1Â Back to top
I haven't been able to get to their home page in 2 weeks.
This is the error I get:
Software error:
Can't call method "fetchrow_array" on an undefined value at lib/AUC/DB.pm line 3862.
You can't get to the home page because Ray banned your IP.Â
amy Wrote:sliding discounts for board spamming maybe?
2 spam posts=5% discount on monthly WP store fees
10 spam posts=25% discount
50 spam posts (any OAI board)=50% discount
50 spam posts (on the eBay boards)=free store
psu Wrote:You're always claiming lots of WP sales here and on the Blujay forums. Where's the feedback for those sales?
Most of your feedback is from other sellers. Where is the unique feedbacks from all of the "BUYERS?"
Does Ray pay you to spread all this misinformation about WP?
free store discount!
Quote:Perhaps a little historical perspective is in order. Below you will find some numbers that we find shocking and disheartening, but mostly damning in the way it reflects on the overall "online selling community" that collectively created it:
Current Stores: 130
Stores Terminated for Non-Payment: 3,125
Stores Closed: 772
Of the "Stores Closed" number, over 50% were closed in less than 30 days and over 85% in less than 90 days. Hardly enough time to get a URL indexed let alone build a business. The Non-Payment rate is shameful. Wagglepop is a "100% trust-based" community, and we now know what the "online selling community" as whole will do with trust. Outside of our longer term seller base, clearly nothing good or proper. In the single month where we had a "high" of 910 Stores, the non-payment rate exceeded 65%!
ha ha ha ha ha! OMG you are not going to believe THIS! The dirty rat bas*ard deadbeats aren't PAYING their Wagglepop store insertion fees! :
Quote:Many have asked about "advertising" and the best answer I can give is that we tried that to this end - a near 80% non-payment rate over 45 days of the campaign, an onslaught of NPB's, and nothing more than what I will characterize than an "outrageously large" bill to show for it. Indeed, the entirety of Wagglepop represents not much more than one big expense, to date not a single month with revenues exceeding expenses and correspondingly no recovery of invested monies.
Holy cripes , these deadbeat mo****r f****ers got some BIG BIG balls. Jesus. What's next? They gonna come to my house and shoot my cat? So, basically, Im begging STILL for sellers, just so I can make MORE. But at least some rotten miserable no good gullible leeches had the nerve to open stores. .... ScrewUSellers... Ugh.:
Quote:The most surprising part of that is that Wagglepop was created not for ownership to benefit, but for membership benefit.
Quote:The following changes are being made to reflect the realities from my comments above:
1. On 1/28/08-1/29/08, between the hours of 8:00 PM and 8:00 AM all access to Wagglepop will be temporarily interrupted. The interruption is necessary to migrate from our existing array of servers over to a setup more "in line" with current participation and support. Once back online, expect intermittent access issues for approximately 48 hours due to DNS propagation.
Bye bye dedicated server, hello TulipHosting! :
Quote:2. Customer Care will be down temporarily during 1/28 and 1/29 while we restructure the support staff,
Ray's getting a nose job and a chin lift!