Poll: Who is to blame for sellers leaving Wagglepop en masse?

rho · 05-27-2006, 04:35 PM,

It would be nice to see an alternative(s) to 'Bay get some traction. WP was well on it's way last year. I was one of the early supporters. After the uncerimonious dumping 3K pre-registered members and about 1K members who were inventoring the server, WP/Ray has created huge obstacles to overcome. It will be interesting to see how creative he and current/future members can be on the road to success.

Shame about the lack of verification. Kinda' hard to balance "honesty and integrity" with "Buyer beware." and "...hope you get paid, seller."

I've been asked by some of the other 2004/2005 supporters if I'll go back. No. Regaining trust in WP/Ray could occur, but there's little to no point in dealing with fraud, NPB's, ect., when other sites eliminate those issues altogether.

On the bright side. Ray had some good ideas. Maybe this time around he'll be smart enough to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge and help his customers - sellers - bring to a venue.

stardust · 05-27-2006, 05:54 PM,

Quote:I've been asked by some of the other 2004/2005 supporters if I'll go back. No. Regaining trust in WP/Ray could occur, but there's little to no point in dealing with fraud, NPB's, ect., when other sites eliminate those issues altogether.

It must be too much of a hassle to *deal* with. Apparently much easier to stick head in sand and claim non-responsibility...

iron_chick · (This post was last modified: 05-27-2006, 08:04 PM by iron_chick.)

Yeah, me! Instead of listing at WP, I've spent the past week working on a zen cart for my bookstore. Today's addition . . . SSL! Now that I have it, I'm adding my gateway info tonight! Yeah, me! Smile

(My zen cart will still be here next month. Smile

And, it doesn't cost anything to list my widgets there. Smile

)

Edited to add: Added the gateway info, put a charge through, and it WORKED!! Occasion18

stardust · 05-27-2006, 08:14 PM,

Coming up again. 64/8

Good for you, Beth!

bargainbloodhound · 05-27-2006, 08:46 PM,

[quote author=amy link=topic=3775.msg15100#msg15100 date=1148681943]
62 stores with a combined total number of items that is less than the the number of items in my Amazon zShop is robust? Dontknow

[/quote]
[quote author=stardust link=topic=3775.msg15156#msg15156 date=1148760861]
Coming up again. 64/8
[/quote]

Our number of Amazon listings is veeery tiny compared to other Amazon sellers but it's still probably more than all the WP stores put together...which is kind of sad (sad because many of the people posting on the eBay Stores board have more items in their ONE store than WP has in its 64 and yet WP is being pushed on the boards as "the" alternative venue to go join). A handful of items scattered across 64 stores isn't exactly a magnet for buyers.

I don't think buyers will be rushing to WP, and if they do visit WP those 12,000+ empty categories will have them hitting the back button (and the other 3,000 categories with 1 or 2 items will have them doing the same thing)

[quote author=sneakymagenta link=topic=3775.msg15135#msg15135 date=1148742002]
[quote author=amy link=topic=3775.msg14666#msg14666 date=1148306412]
6 days after opening and there aren't any questions on the WP bidding/buying board . That's a good sign isn't it--the buyers must be too busy buying to post! Angel1

[/quote]

Day 11. The snorepop bidding & buying help board still is waiting for its first post..
[/quote]

0 posts from buyers after 11 days is the most telling statistic.

bargainbloodhound · 05-27-2006, 08:47 PM,

[quote author=iron_chick link=topic=3775.msg15155#msg15155 date=1148759384]
Yeah, me! Instead of listing at WP, I've spent the past week working on a zen cart for my bookstore. Today's addition . . . SSL! Now that I have it, I'm adding my gateway info tonight! Yeah, me! Smile

(My zen cart will still be here next month. Smile

And, it doesn't cost anything to list my widgets there. Smile

)

Edited to add: Added the gateway info, put a charge through, and it WORKED!! Occasion18

[/quote]

stardust · 05-27-2006, 11:05 PM,

There won't be any *buyers*or *peeps* until he advertises in some way. And if there are basically no sellers/items on the site, he prolly won't spend time nor $ to advertise for buyers.

Catch22.

rho · 05-27-2006, 11:17 PM,

You're right, Stardust. Without buyers, unless he fell back@$$ward into some money, he won't have funds to advertise. In '04/'05, he made mention a couple of times of finally having "convinced" his wife that the auction software was a good investment.

Independent store is a gooooood way to go. Converting customers you already have a relationship with between now and the annual buying season will certainly help set a store owner on the road to success much quicker.

One seller I know has had her store a couple of years. She lists at 6 - 10 venues and this year, her store is outpacing venue sales. Plus, she's able to upsell venue sales from her store, eliminating some listing and FVF's. Eliminating those partners and cutting down the overhead of store fees, listing, etc., along with the increased sales makes a huge difference. Plus, there's no direct competition. I know I've lost sales for a quarter.

vitalfinds · (This post was last modified: 05-28-2006, 12:57 AM by vitalfinds.)

I've sometimes wondered what part of Ray's stories had some truth to them and which ones didn't. Here's a theory:

Sometime after having told everyone that he was heading a department in a local college, he "slipped" and gave a bio and mentioned that at some point he was "given the opportunity" (or "had the opportunity") to go to (or back to) college [which would have been a later-in-life thing]. During his final night of insanity on his forum, he mentioned having a problem with his eye (or was is his ear?)

Having been a ebay seller for a couple years with a perfect record might mean that he had a lot of time to spend on it, with keeping customers informed, etc. versus trying to run the ebay store while working full-time. I also remember a couple of "slips" which somewhat indicated that his wife either made the money and/or wore the pants to some degree. We all now that he wasn't working full-time while planning WP1 and never said much about that.

So ... I think that he might be disabled - possibly due or sight or something as he mentioned on the last night of his forum. His story about heing the head of a department might have to do with him being a student with some time on his hands and possibly helping out a bit in the computer lab.

On another note, I've wondered about the Wagglepop name and that cereal box idea that came and then quickly vanished without a word. He mentioned having a neice. I think that the name Wagglepop came from cereal - possibly what his niece called Cherios or something. The idea that he told everyone about the ad on the cereal box might have almost been him being a jokester and not letting anyone in on the joke.

Anyway, I've just been curious about some of that stuff.

stardust · 05-28-2006, 01:27 AM,

I would wish very much that he could succeed -- That somebody could succeed, to offer a viable, interesting alternative for a community venue like ebay. I don't see it happening, as the signups have flattened out too quickly. Folks don't like to maybe get bit twice......

I would have thought that more folks would have signed up, actually, to try to give it a big push -- even tho they might be leery from the first time. Just not happening.