Most people are too stoopid to make it outside of eBay

[Anita]

half a dozen are making a living? Maybe?

I think it would be a very safe bet to say that mannnnnnny successful online sellers aren't frequenting chat boards. 

[bargainbloodhound]

I believe MrO was talking about himself when he referred to people who "need eBay" and couldn't "make it outside of eBay". 

[xppman]

I'm doing pretty good and I only have to work about three or four days a week
if I choose (about 6 hours each of those days).
I'm just hooked to chat boards I guess out of boredom and not having a real life.  :

When I first started out I used to run out and fill my
orders when they came in out of excitement I guess.

Now I just let them build up a bit and like I say,
only have to work like three or four
days a week until the holidays like Xmas of course.

See that is also one of the other wonderful things about
having a website as opposed to just doing feebay.

Your not constantly having to find work arounds or spending hours listing.

Once you get the hang of it and get your products up on your site.

It is so easy to update prices, run sales and let
the automated carts and well written descriptions as well as
FAQ's be your sales staff 24/7.

Of course once in a while you will need to help a customer
and a few e mails back and forth or a phone call can usually land the sale.

That is another thing I like too.
I have access to their phone numbers, I get to see the IP
that is ordering and can see if the cc data matches up with the card holder.

I get what I feel is TOTAL control of my business
and how I want to market my wares.

All for less than an ebay store costs each month with all the restrictions
and commissions to feebay and being associated with what we all know is becoming
more of a place I think more buyers are opting NOT to visit when looking for stuff to buy online.

[Anita]

Gosh, have I ever been putting my foot in my mouth lately.  I was NOT slamming those that do frequent chat boards.  I just meant there are probably more that don't, then do. 

[bargainbloodhound]

Your not constantly having to find work arounds or spending hours listing.

The time factor is one of the biggest reasons to focus on a web site instead of auction venues.  eBay is constant workarounds that eat up your time, and the endless stream of $195 phpprobid auction crap sites with no buyers the moderators at P*U steer their site's users to (eBay should be paying P*U for steering sellers to these venues because the end result will be most of them will return to ebay convinced eBay offers the best opportunities) tend to eat up (waste) even more time because listing on them is such a pain.

I get what I feel is TOTAL control of my business
and how I want to market my wares.

Probably the biggest reason why everyone should make it their goal to eventually get the bulk of their business from their own web site.  Not having total control over your business (like on eBay) decreases your chances of surviving.

[misteroriginal]

[quote author=bargainbloodhound link=topic=3430.msg12643#msg12643 date=1145467605]
I believe MrO was talking about himself when he referred to people who "need eBay" and couldn't "make it outside of eBay". 
[/quote]Too drunk.

[xppman]

Gosh, have I ever been putting my foot in my mouth lately.  I was NOT slamming those that do frequent chat boards.  I just meant there are probably more that don't, then do.

I wasn't taking it as slamming Anita.  :

In the world of fictitious IDs on chat boards we may never know
how many are really successful online sellers or not.

Just like at feebay's boards.  We will never know
for sure how many of those rah rah types that always seem to elude to others
that feebay is the "only game in town", are really successful sellers
at ebay either.

Now with ebay, what puzzles me is I see some of the rah rah types
that do show their ID's usually have pages and pages of "stuff" just
sitting there and I even researched a few only to find out they are upside down.

Now in the new propaganda (buzz marketing) world that makes
me think that "some" of those over there or anywhere for that matter
who "claim" to be so successful,
may be in fact be dummy accounts created just to keep up the illusion.
Or agents of whatever product / service just trying to hype up or
establish the illusion of success.

Common sense tells me you can't be listing 400 or 1000 items on
ebay and paying all those fees and actually making a living doing it.
Especially if you take a good look at the sell through of many of them.

That can also be said about all the smaller auction sites as well or
even investment type chat boards.

I think many if not all, tend to have agents hyping their sites /services
or stocks for obvious reasons too.

One interesting thing to me is that the blog world seems to be some big craze
and it's funny how all those successful onliners have time to do that.

Now for me, I do have an agenda.
And that is to continue to chip away at sites like ebay that aggregate sellers
and attempt to pull eyeballs away from the rest of us who are on the net
to make a living and I resent their use of scare tactics to do so.

I take it personal when ebay states to everyone
in EVERY email they generate it is UNSAFE to buy off ebay
or to use other methods of payment other than their own criminal outfit PayPal.

I do smile every time I see that FRAUD is the most rampant
on the same site that tells everyone how unsafe other sites or sellers are.
Or that PP chargebacks are the highest of any company online and grew by 150%
in just one year. 

To me it's like the mom and pops against the Wal-Marts of the world who
want to dominate every sector of retail on the planet and go to great lengths
trying to brainwash the public into thinking that they are the only game in town.

If we sit back and do nothing.
They just may do that and retake their market share.
As I recall we all were shaking up that
same dominance of the retail world just a few short years ago.



Oh yea and as BBH eluded about all the endless stream of $195
phpprobid auction crap sites with no buyers.

I would NOT surprise me one bit to find out that half of those
are dummy sites created with funds right out of ebay's coffers. 

[landofsmiles]

If you can make it on ebay, then you can make it anywhere (sung to the tune of New York New York).

Most people who ARE making it on ebay (although most are NOT) are not even making minimum wage. That's not necessarily a bad thing, in certain circumstances, but it is a fact.

[misteroriginal]

[quote author=xppman link=topic=3430.msg12701#msg12701 date=1145538714]

or to use other methods of payment other than their own criminal outfit PayPal.

[/quote]
I thought you used to like PayPal. What happened?

[xppman]

Yes I used to like PayPal. Then ebay bought them
and like just about everything else they have swooped up.
Turned it into the piece of carp it is today.

Shoving it down all our throats and
using all it's scare tactic BS policies like SPP and BPP
that have helped to amplify the perception that to buy
and sell on ebay you need to wear some sort of oversized condom.

The numbers show this whole strategy is backfiring in their faces now.

As it stands they have over 76 million inactive
accounts and only 29 million active.

And those are from the last two quarters of selling and buying activity on the site.
The holiday season and the post holiday season.

That speaks volumes of were they are headed and it makes me happy.

;D