Another of eBay's Top Sellers Bites the Dust: Parrothead88, FB of 74,500 closes

[diger7]

[quote author=bargainbloodhound link=topic=3718.msg14701#msg14701 date=1148329076]
[quote author=xppman link=topic=3718.msg14048#msg14048 date=1147712245]
wouldn't surprise me if his supplier raised it's prices to them and them a few months later bought them out to get thier customers.
[/quote]

Something similar happened to my former shipping supplier shippingsupply.com. She was an amazing seller (FB 45,000, 99.9% positive), fast shipping, great communications, etc but she made the really bad decision to grow her business by merging with a shipping supply distributor who basically let customer service slip.  Rather than letting her reputation and customer service go down the drain, she decided to shut down the business and have her account closed (NARU'd) last Summer.

Her story is on her about me page:
http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=shippingsupply.com
[/quote]


:blinkie:

Very nice people.  We met Karen and her husband back in 2004.  That was before the merge.

[thentavius]

Update on the Parrothead situation:

FROM OTWA

Hello members of the OTWA community!

I work at the website www dot packitright dit net, and I recently noticed a few hits from a link posted on this forum. I saw that some of the members were discussing Parrothead88, and one of them posted about how the old website mailersandmore dot com forwarded them to our new website, packitright dot net. Well, after some more searching, I found that a lot of you guys were talking about when Parrothead88 suddenly stopped selling on eBay and received a ton of negative feedback during the middle of May, and were un-sure what had happened to him.

Well, allow me to explain as best as I can...

Back in 2004, the original owner John Hannon sold the company to a former Bargains Galore Store employee Michael Kolman, who then changed the company name to Mailers and More. Due to rising prices in the industry and the rising cost of running business, Michael was caught in the squeeze between maintaining competitive prices and covering the increasing costs he was facing. Unfortunately, he failed to recognize the deficits he was experiencing, and eventually found himself running out of money. Then in early May, he was forced to close the doors on both his online sales, as well as his local retail outlet in Port Ritchey, FL.

Now here is where we fit into the puzzle. We were both John's and Michael's original suppliers, and at the time that we began to see Michael falling apart, we were already in the process of getting our own internet sales operation up and running. When Michael eventually had to close down, he agreed to relinquish his former website, along with his customer information, 1-800 number, and email address to us. We just finished getting our new website online last month, and we have been talking with a lot of the former Mailers and More / Bargains Galore Store customers over the phone and thru the Parrothead88 email address, and is has really helped us to get the new store up and running.

We really appreciate those customers that have already begun purchasing thru our new storefront. For those of you whom were former Parrothead88 customers, and haven’t seen our new website, or anyone out there looking for somewhere to purchase shipping supplies at online, you can check us out at packitright dot net. Also, as a special for all OTWA community members, we are offering coupons for $5.00 and $10.00 orders of $50.00 and $100.00 respectively, good until the end of November. Simply enter the promotional codes OTWA5 or OWTA10 at checkout to have discounts applied to your order.

If you have any questions about what happened with Michael, or any questions regarding our new website, please feel free to contact over the phone, or thru an email. Our phone number is 1-800-981-9064, and you can reach us via email at either Sales*PackitRight.net or Parrothead88*microd.com.

Thanks again everyone,
PackitRight dot net

PS: I will be watching this thread as much as I can, so if you post any questions, I will try to answer them as soon as possible.

http://www.otwa.com/community/showthread.php?t=44873

[sneakymagenta]

Due to rising prices in the industry and the rising cost of running business, Michael was caught in the squeeze between maintaining competitive prices and covering the increasing costs he was facing. Unfortunately, he failed to recognize the deficits he was experiencing, and eventually found himself running out of money.

Now here is where we fit into the puzzle. We were both John's and Michael's original suppliers, and at the time that we began to see Michael falling apart, we were already in the process of getting our own internet sales operation up and running. When Michael eventually had to close down, he agreed to relinquish his former website, along with his customer information,

I wonder how much the supplier contributed to the squeeeze. 

[Anita]

[quote author=sneakymagenta link=topic=3718.msg23350#msg23350 date=1158364351]

Due to rising prices in the industry and the rising cost of running business, Michael was caught in the squeeze between maintaining competitive prices and covering the increasing costs he was facing. Unfortunately, he failed to recognize the deficits he was experiencing, and eventually found himself running out of money.

Now here is where we fit into the puzzle. We were both John's and Michael's original suppliers, and at the time that we began to see Michael falling apart, we were already in the process of getting our own internet sales operation up and running. When Michael eventually had to close down, he agreed to relinquish his former website, along with his customer information,

I wonder how much the supplier contributed to the squeeeze. 
[/quote]

Hmmmmmm

[FiberGuy]

I wonder how much the supplier contributed to the squeeeze.

Squeeze pressure was undoubtedly directly proportional to the number of zeros in the "account balance" column.

[xppman]

Yep looks like more of a case of:
"WOW look at all the biz this guy's getting, and
he is selling it for 65% more than what we are charging him wholesale.
Hey lets get in on this act. Raise his prices to squeeze him out then
we will swoop down and get that 65% mark up direct.
Also start going to forums now and SPAM them to let them know
that our new website is up and running. Lets drum up some biz guys get to work on that".

That's what is looks like to me.  :
They squeezed out parrot, got their site up and now going to forums acting all
innocent and caring about poor little parrot, when in fact is looks more like
they are doing the old "forum marketing thing" we have all seen time and time again.

[thentavius]

That's the sense I got from it, too. It was a little smarmy of them, to say the least.

[Anita]

[quote author=xppman link=topic=3718.msg23400#msg23400 date=1158417323]
Yep looks like more of a case of:
"WOW look at all the biz this guy's getting, and
he is selling it for 65% more than what we are charging him wholesale.
Hey lets get in on this act. Raise his prices to squeeze him out then
we will swoop down and get that 65% mark up direct.
Also start going to forums now and SPAM them to let them know
that our new website is up and running. Lets drum up some biz guys get to work on that".

That's what is looks like to me.  :
They squeezed out parrot, got their site up and now going to forums acting all
innocent and caring about poor little parrot, when in fact is looks more like
they are doing the old "forum marketing thing" we have all seen time and time again.
[/quote]

I was thinking the same thing... but thought maybe I was missing something.