Wagglepop 2: Deja Vu as Auction Site That Left Sellers Stranded Reopens

[Platzki]

and yet another says they are about to follow.

Who was the other one leaving... do you remember?

[youroverheadbin]

It's Mary's This and That. I had quite the running dialogue with her attempting to help her create clickable pictures for the Share Your Wares thread. She's the one that always says "sells" instead of sales but I think it's because English is not her first language. Her PM correspondence with me proved this. She mentioned a few times openly in the forum that she was considering closing.

[eclectica]

[quote author=chiquita link=topic=3775.msg34721#msg34721 date=1165117192]
Eclectica, the terminology would be abuser and victim, or offender and victim. Either way your point is dead on. All abusive relationships are about power and control. To gain control over another is a matter of convincing the other person that everything is their fault including the abuse. [/quote]

Thanks Chiquita! My brain is so fried these days, lol. It is creepy though.

[quote author=youroverheadbin link=topic=3775.msg34753#msg34753 date=1165163314]
It's Mary's This and That.
[/quote]

Isn't that Scott Bulger's Mary? Or am I confusing her with someone else?

[Alskling]

Beware of places that charge fees, especially upfront fees.. You will have to drive your own traffic to your place and for many of us, that it isnt an option due to time constraints.. If you are going to drive your own traffic, it might as well be to your own website.. FVFs are okay and I would recommend a site that charges those over monthly fees any day because you know they are trying to attract buyers and not just sellers who pay monthly . . .

And another quote: as long as Ray gets a monthly fee he has no incentive to advertise.

EXACTLY! But I think it goes even deeper than that. One fact that is very obvious about the stores on WP, and has been largely ignored, is the over-representation of stores selling trading cards, post cards, magazines, magazine ads and books -- more than most any other e-commerce site, other than Amazon, which is what it's supposed to be. Consider:
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Yesterday I had an internal interview with KaRay:

Q. So, KaRay, I hear you have your own auction site now. What prompted your decision?
A. I was totally P.O.'d at those mo*h*r f*ck*rs at eBay for raising my fees, taking money out of my sales, and for what? Those b*st*rds! I want it all! So I though I'd start my own site so I can keep it all.

Q. Didn't you have several ID's on eBay?
A. Yes, that's because I had several stores, plus I wanted to post with another ID on the forums, so when I ranted and lost my temper and spewed out disgusting swear words I wouldn't attract buyers who would want to get back at me.

Q. What did you sell on eBay? And how so you support your own site?
A. Trading cards, post cards, magazine ads, stuff like that. I wanted to dump eBay and just have my own site, but I had a couple problems with that. To begin with, I couldn't really afford to do that. Second, I was a pretty bad seller on eBay, and had a rotten reputation on the boards, so I knew that it was going to be hard to get business from people who knew that. So I figured a plan. I'd open a site where I could set up my own stores, using various new IDs, like I did on ebay and get others to pay for it. To give my own stuff more exposure and to pay for my stores, I'll spam around (I'm good at that) to lure other pissed off eBay sellers to my site. I'll charge them monthly and for upgrades, commission on their sales (like eBay does) and for advertising their stuff within the site to other sellers. That way, even if I don't sell any trading cards or mag ads with my own stores under various alter-egos on my site, I still have a steady income from others who have committed themselves to pay me every month. It's the perfect scam -- I win either way.

Q. What about advertising? Aren't the sellers who've set up stores on your site going to want you to advertise the site for them?
A. They probably would like me to advertise, but why would I? That would just take away from MY bottom line. Why would I spend money to advertise on their behalf? It's all about me, not them. By not advertising, I'm forcing them to come up with creative ways to get themselves and MY site known. I don't even care if a few get pissed and leave, as long as a few stick around to work their butts off and spread the word on the site, it's a win-win for me. I get free advertising for the site, which is the same as free advertising for my own stores on the site and a steady monthly income, plus I don't have to pay commissions and fees to anybody.

Q. How are you going to convince people to do this? Aren't there free auction sites out there?
A. Yes, lots of them. But I'd never let them find that out. Anybody who makes reference to a free site will have their account terminated. Should anybody ask questions and I can see that they are starting to figure me out, they will be likewise terminated. I try to keep my site full of ignorant people full of love and peace, because, as they say "ignorance is bliss."

Q. HOw are you going to keep people committed?
A. I'm very good at control techniques. Things like "let them smell the chocolate, but never give them a piece". Or how about this one: Always give promises of wonderful things to come, if you behave appropriately now. It's what the concept of heaven is about. It's also the way parents deal with unruly children. "If you're a good little boy, you'll get an extra special surprise." It's kind of an operant conditioning meets Nazi brainwashing thing. Give them hugs and kisses and keep them in line by threatening to take away privileges if they don't behave. I want these retards to feel so honored to part of my dopey site, that they'll invest more and more money. A lot can be learned by TV evangelists and cult figures. I don't know if you've ever heard of Brother Al, but he was a radio evangelist in New York back in the '70s. He had a "prayer team" that would pray for you if you sent in money. The more money you sent, the more prayers you got. He'd get letters from stupid folks all over the country thanking them for the new job, or new boyfriend, or whatever that they got because they sent in a bunch of money and the prayer team supposedly prayed for their wish to come true. You'd be amazed how many gullible people there are out there -- enough to supply me with a good chunk as long as eBay does stupid stuff and raise fees and nobody finds out I'm conning. Brother Al was eventually put out of business, as was that TV psychic, whatever her name was. But they sure made a ton of money in the meantime. And look at it this way, even if most of the sellers on my site bail, I'll still be beneficiary of all the work they did in the meantime to promote the site and, coincidentally, my stores on it, so that maybe by that time I can just change the name to WP Cards and Magazines and have my own site going, when all those other folks have paid my start up costs, advertising and everything. Can't beat that! I'm still way better off than if I'd stayed at eBay.    

Q. How are you going to explain WP1?
A. Pretend it never happened. The less information these retards have, the better off they are. They won't even be able to find me. And I'll have my group of "loyal" cyborgs to spam the boards around the net with all kinds of misinformation about my past (should the topic ever come up) and a bunch of crap about how those boards are just full of nasty folks who want to see me fail. I know they are just trying to warn people about me, but as they say, "the best defense is a good offense." Damn, I love adages, especially the "Rome wasn't built in a day" one. That always works for the impatient ones.

Q. But didn't Rome eventually crumble under Barbarian invasion?
A. Well, ya, but it took a while. And look at Caligula! That guy had pleasure boats that rivaled the opulence of the best modern cruise liners. Talk about a luxurious lifestyle. Get it while you can. That's my motto. Ain't I terrific!!

[youroverheadbin]

[youroverheadbin]

Eclectica, different Mary. The one you are thinking of has Turtle Pond.

[eclectica]

[quote author=youroverheadbin link=topic=3775.msg34759#msg34759 date=1165168880]
Eclectica, different Mary. The one you are thinking of has Turtle Pond.
[/quote]

Thanks - been awhile so I wasn't sure


Alskling - 

[eclectica]

And another one -

That is sad.... unless my sells pick up a lot this week,,,, I am right behind her.Not ven worth putting my store link in... still no lookers...

What a growth spurt we're having this week!

[eclectica]

RE: New search capabilities being integrated (bolding mine)

My listings have mysteriously went from 1897 items or so down to under 1800 today....

During the implementation, listing counts will intermittently vary as we "train" the system how to count listings based on the new search engine

Karen - WP Customer Care

Huh.... you mean train it to double your listings like it has been doing?

[youroverheadbin]

And, include listings either left up when a store closes or listings abandoned when someone is promptly ex-communicated. They will continue to be ignored by the internal search engine for browsing purposes but will still be there to pad the listing count. 

Karay should be congratulated. He/she is the only one in my recollection to successfully disprove that what goes up, must come down.