PeSA Committee Chair for Events www.wegotthebeats.com Bites the Dust

[amy]

Another top ranking PeSA member bites the dust leaving a string of buyers complaining they never received what they paid for.  PeSA's Committee Chair for Events www.wegotthebeats.com is apparently history although his eBay store is still open.  The last Google cach page of his web site is from late January.

www.wegotthebeats.com was featured in the book eBay Powerseller Secrets by AuctionByteMe contributors Debra and Brad Schepp.  Also featured in the book was the also out of business PeSA member/CEO of Ethical Technologies Scott Samuel.  Don't trip over each other rushing out to buy the book.

Other top PeSA members who couldn't make it on eBay and went out of business in the past 2 months  include PeSA board of Directors member Sell2All who filed for Chapter 7 earlier this year after making $8 million and spending $9.5 million doing it, and eBay's former #1 seller GlacierBayDVD whose 268,000 feedback rating on eBay masked his worst possible F rating by the Los Angeles BBB.

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=www.wegotthebeats.com

related topics:
PeSA Director Sell2All Files for Bankruptcy, Wrote Book on Getting Rich On eBay
http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...026.0.html
PeSA: eBay's Former #1 Seller NARU'd and a 5th Member Reaches 10,000 neg Club
http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...ml#msg8996

[misteroriginal]

Vital thinks it was 'cuz they hired a web designer. Can someone break it to her gently that not all web people are as evil as the evil MrO?

[amy]

Vital thinks it was 'cuz they hired a web designer.

No, its because only a blithering id**t would rely on eBay for 100% of their sales if they're selling common music CDs.  Average selling prices for most items are below wholesale, and most sellers (including j.ayandmarie) operate on margins of a few pennies--if they're lucky. One bad move or one small increase in their costs and they're history.

If eBay hadn't cut fees on under 99 cent items the past 2 years a very large percentage of eBay's high volume sellers would be out of business today.

[amy]

They were BuySafe sellers so if the buyers file claims they'll get their money back.  First GlacierBayDVD, now this seller--BuySafe has had to make a lot of payments to eBay buyers this year.  :

[bargainbloodhound]

If any CD Sellers (and what I'm about to say ONLY applies to CD sellers) are lurking and reading this thread...DON'T LISTEN TO AMY!!! She's wrong! eBay is the best place for you to sell YOUR CDs.  In fact, I would advice you to sell YOUR CDs exclusively on eBay!  Put all of YOUR selling efforts into selling on eBay!  I really, really hope that ALL of you CD sellers (including all those 1 cent CD sellers at Amazon) take my advice and move ALL of YOUR inventory to eBay.  eBay is the best place for YOUR CD selling business. 


*thinks, hmmm, I should post this on the Amazon boards too...maybe my ASPs at Amazon will go up if enough fools listen to this advice*

[xppman]

Now your thinking BBH 

eBay is the best place for all those CD sellers.

There are a lot of those "other" sellers that need to stay there too.

Like Mr O was talking about in that other thread. 

[wegotthebeats]

Wow, this was interesting to find in a google search LOL.  Hi all, I'm Tony, currently known on ebay as wegotthebeats (formerly www.wegotthebeats.com)  I changed the grandfathered username when it no longer made sense, but have maintained the same profile since 1999. Anyway, I know this is a really old topic and probably nobody cares, but I thought I should at least set the record straight.  To clear a few things up: I never "bit the dust" as so many sellers do, i.e. my business model never failed.  All those pearls of wisdom about selling cd's on ebay were...well, off.  If you would like to know the truth, here it is: I was seriously injured in mid-2005, and found myself flat on the floor for over two months - literally couldn't move, couldn't do anything, much less work.  It was very humbling, if not downright humiliating (not to mention financially devastating.)  But the way I see things, it was a good life lesson for me, and I took it as such.  Despite membership in pesa, I was (and still am) a silver powerseller with no employees.  Fortunately at that time, I had a friend who lived nearby come over to wrap up existing orders for me, and all went smoothly - until I tried to come back to work too soon in early 2006, reinjured the same thing, and this time was completely alone and could do nothing to get orders shipped.  (and incidentally, someone on my Events Committee took over as Chair, which was the least of my concerns at the time.)  As soon as I was able, I contacted every single customer and made them whole one way or another.  Many of them withdrew their feedback, some didn't, and many of them still buy from me to this day - but either way I made good on every transaction because it was the only right thing to do.  I then voluntarily took some time off and took a "regular job" until I could be sure I was in the clear physically, to avoid any such thing happening again.  Glad to say I have been back for a couple of years now, and doing well.  No hard feelings about the article.  Just know that assumptions are not always correct.  And you can always contact me directly for comment! 

[amy]

Hi Tony It's good to know you're OK and were able to rebuild your business after the setback.

All those pearls of wisdom about selling cd's on ebay were...well, off.

I think the changes eBay made in the media categories fee structure have made it a much more hospitable environment for media sellers than it was when I started this thread 3 1/2 years ago.

I'm not among those who think Buy.com listing on eBay spells doom for small media sellers.  eBay sellers were already competing against Buy (and Amazon and every other media selling website out there) for shoppers' attention whether they knew it or not.

[wegotthebeats]

Hi Amy - thanks.  And you're right, the listing fee structure has helped.  It basically time-warped us back to 2002 or so (with the exception of the FVF's which are insane IMO.  Amazon charges 15% too, but that includes payment processing, whereas paypal is another separate fee here.)

I think when CD's really go away, they'll go quickly, like the VHS tape did (one big chain announced they would stop carrying them, then another and another...)

I don't think the download market has been anywhere near maximized yet, and I think people of my age and older (30s 40s) are somewhat more resistant to it.  I like to download something once in a while just to hear it for a particular reason, but I also like to own things, have "the official version," give gifts, etc.  People have been able to copy things for a long time without completely taking down the hard-goods market.

I also cater to the collector and out of print market, and they MUST have the original packaging, the front and back inserts in good shape, etc. - something itunes can't provide, and a market ebay is built for.

The biggest threat, as far as new releases go, is actually Amazon.  Unlike ebay, Amazon directly competes with their sellers.  They sell new releases at or below my wholesale cost (with free shipping, no less!)  Sometimes I actually use Amazon as a wholesaler to re-sell on ebay.  (Ssshh...insider tip lol.)  But I didn't even bother with new releases until very recently.  (Thank you, Lady Gaga!)

Hope everyone is having a stellar holiday selling (and buying) season.

Tony