Certified eBay Teachers go bust: eBay firm Auction Safari misses mark, closes

[mandy]

Auction Safari, a startup Howard County electronic commerce consulting firm, has gone out of business.

Launched in 2004, the Columbia company which billed itself as an eBay brokerage firm, was highlighted in numerous media outlets this year, including the Baltimore Business Journal and the Baltimore Sun.

A letter signed by Auction Safari CEO Ronald Bratt states that "V-Traders LLC known as Auction Safari ... will be dissolved by mutual consent of all its members as of Nov. 7, 2005."

full article: http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/sto...from_rss=1

Interestingly, the firm's web site contains this info, "Auction Safari is an eBay Power Seller and a Certified Education Specialist".  Based on the firm's  imminent demise, It would seem the concept of 'profits' was not part of what was being taught to eBay users.

[xppman]

More than 700,000 Americans derive most or all of their income on eBay.

Soon We Will See These Headlines:

600,000 eBay sellers / employees Laid Off... Receive Generous Severance Package.
2006 fee hike alleged to have KILLED positive income possibilities for ebay
sellers / employees. These sellers / employees are NOT happy about the
"Severance Package" they received or how to obtain IT.

A spokesman for eBay stated:" It was NOT the fee hike that did them in.
The former sellers / employees are just confused".

COE Meg Whitman came out in defense of the
"Generous Severance Package" stating:
"We did offered them A Pen On A Rope and a 2 liter bottle of our special Koolaid.
All they had to do to receive this very Generous Severance Package
was pay the $49.95 S&H via their PayPal account balance". 


In a related stories:

Hans Dizzy Announces Enhanced Customer Service Feature on eBay.
We are please to announce that we may now service the over 100,000 employees,
um I mean sellers we have at our eBay US site.

All they need to do is  download SkypeBay and pay the $19.95 a month
subscription fee. For Power Sellers and Stores members the subscription fee for the service will be reduced and credited back to your eBay account at a later date.

When asked what the subscription fee would be for the PS and Stores members.
Mr. Dizzy stated. "We are currently working on that."
He added: "Live Help will still be available FREE of charge to all members. Sometimes".


COE of eBay Please About the Overall Vibrancy, Security and Safety of eBay US.
Mrs. Whitman was quoted saying: Remember, there is safety in numbers and our sellers
DON'T sell animals here either. 

[amy]

Certified eBay Education Specialist is another way of saying bad advice because these eBay  Education Specialists wrongly limit the ecommerce world to the eBay site which in many cases means their victims. students businesses start out with one strike against them: i.e. lower profit margins caused by high listing fees.

I think the shutting down of this "eBay Education Specialist" who had over 600 sales in the past month and yet couldn't make a go of it by relying 100% on eBay speaks volumes.  If they had diversified at least part of their sales to a web site (and eliminated the high fees associated with eBay sales) they might still be in business.

[mandy]

2 weeks later,  Auctionbytes  does an article on the story:

The former CEO of Auction Safari, Ron Bratt, now admits that the "eBay brokerage" model didn't quite work. The company is out of business, and he is selling at home and helping to take care of four small children. The lessons he learned as a result of his experience can serve as a cautionary tale to other eBay sellers.

Lesson 1: Don't Take On Too Much ...
Lesson 2: Don't Slice Your Margins Too Thin ...
Lesson 3: Keep Personnel Costs Down...
Lesson 4: Don't Lose Control of Your Business ...

full article: http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y206/m01/abu0158/s02

[bargainbloodhound]

It's getting more and more difficult to make a business work on eBay. Profit margins are so thin that sellers have to keep overhead to a bare minimum

think web site    higher average selling prices + lower costs = margins that aren't razor thin 

[xppman]

[quote author=bargainbloodhound link=topic=1903.msg7402#msg7402 date=1136916663]

It's getting more and more difficult to make a business work on eBay. Profit margins are so thin that sellers have to keep overhead to a bare minimum

think web site    higher average selling prices + lower costs = margins that aren't razor thin 


[/quote]

Now where have I heard that before?

That is why I loves  this group so much over here.
You folks are intelligent free thinking level head individuals.

I am proud to a member of this fine group.

If they had diversified at least part of their sales to a web site (and eliminated the high fees associated with eBay sales) they might still be in business.

Ditto to that amy.