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

[FineThings4U]

The Christian T-Shirt seller at the bay is new at WP and the excitement is overflowing.  Somebody made her a siggy, etc.

I also thought this post was interesting:

Good for you, xxxxxxxx! I am commited to branching out into as many different categories as I can. I have my specialty which is the baby nursery decor and bedding, but my goal is to add about 100 items into each of as many different categories as I can manage. I'm thinking that for example a man can come to my store for a nice polo shirt or a watch, see all the baby items that I have, and tell his wife about it when they're expecting a baby or grandbaby or need a baby gift for a co-worker, etc. I also had a customer who bought a baby crib bumper, a pair of jeans, and a book at the same time. So you just never know when a buyer may find your store because of one item, and purchase something completely different when they see what else is offered.

edited to omit names to protect privacy of poster and original poster because I do not wish anyone any harm.


Since I left it as anonymous as possible, I must say that if you have found your niche, and it is working for you, branching out is NOT the thing to do at this particular venue.  Fill the categories, but not with things you can get at other free sites without registration and telephone confirmations.

By the way, I live in the country and can't get cell phone reception in my home.  If one of my teens leaves the phone in their pigsty room - you may as well leave a message, it's gonna take me way longer than a few rings to find it.

[amy]

[quote author=yyna link=topic=3775.msg41033#msg41033 date=1169579399]
Has anybody sold on abebooks? I have their uploader downloaded and it seems to be pretty good. I have not uploaded it yet so I am not sure how it will work. [/quote]

Amazon,Abebooks, and Alibris are all good for books.  Half, Biblio, Valore are so so but probably better than WP.

If you're going to list books on multiple venues what I would suggest is signing up for a listing service like Art of Books (about $10 monthly) or Fillz (which I use) because then you'll be able to list the same item on multiple venues and increase your exposure.  When you enter an inventory item on AOB or Fillz they automatically list it at all of your venues (Amazon, eBay Stores, Half, Alibris, Abebooks, Biblio, etc).  If the item sells on one venue then both services automatically remove it from your other venues so there is no danger of overselling an item.

[chiquita]

I found something interesting online, I wonder if this is what Ray is using for his phone verification, or something very similar.
It costs 15 cents per call to verify.

http://www.proveout.com/cgi-bin/index.cg...t=faq&sid=

[amy]

Alexa update tonight--WP's 3 month figures are looking ugly.

Traffic Rank: 47,303 (3 month change:  down 6,715)
Reach 15 (3 month change:  down 14%)
Page Views per User: 15.8 (3 month change: down 12%)

[Nikkicute]

WOW!!
Thanks everyone for the very nice welcome.

I seem to be having trouble getting e-mail
notices from this forum, anyone have ideas
on how I can change that?

[chiquita]

Nikki,
you might check your trash file, I know sometimes TT emails get swept up by my spam filters. Just let your email account know that the mail isn't junk mail, and it should deliver it to your inbox.
Hope this helps.

[chiquita]

Regarding phone verifications of buyers as a means of preventing NPB and malicious bidding, a buyer could still register, and end up a NPB. Now regarding online security/fraud it would make more sense to tighten restrictions on sellers.
I found an archived article that has great information, and in discussions of online fraud prevention strict regs on buyers is not mentioned. You would have to estimate the percent of NPB and malicious bidding vs. the potential % of lost business for sellers due to restrictions placed on buyers. It would be better to focus on sellers.

Seller Requirements
Perhaps the easiest and most obvious way to try to prevent fraud is by screening those allowed to sell on the site. Some of the screening methods employed by auction sites include the following:

Verify seller's address
Verify seller's identity
Require business Federal ID and/or personal social security number(s)
Check business credit
Check bank and trade references
Conduct personal credit check of business owner(s)
Conduct criminal background check of business owner(s)
Review business history and website
Conduct phone interviews

Some sites impose additional requirements on sellers in certain categories or in order to sell certain branded items. For example, on Bid4Assets, new real-estate sellers are required to provide the deed to property they list, and new jewelry sellers must provide a copy of their business license and their previous history of selling jewelry. And uBid Certified Merchants are required to show they are authorized dealers before selling certain brands.

Article Link

[Nikkicute]

[quote author=chiquita link=topic=3775.msg41106#msg41106 date=1169610372]
Nikki,
you might check your trash file, I know sometimes TT emails get swept up by my spam filters. Just let your email account know that the mail isn't junk mail, and it should deliver it to your inbox.
Hope this helps.

[/quote]

It's not even making it to my bulk or trash folder.
I don't see it at all.
I've been checking my bulk/trash folder often.
I wonder what's wrong. I usually get my mail
or catch it in the bulk folder and mark it as
not being spam.

[Alskling]

Now regarding online security/fraud it would make more sense to tighten restrictions on sellers.
Chiquita

Now really. Why on earth would Ray want to limit SELLERS' registration? He couldn't care less if all the crooks in the world signed up to sell on WP. As long as they pay their monthly invoice, they are members in good standing. From Ray's point of view, it makes more sense to restrict buyers. After all, he's probably not going to get any foreign buyers anyway, regardless of how hard or easy the registration process. By implementing this assinine verification program, he can tout a "feature" to sellers, making it APPEAR as if he's looking out for their interests by "weeding out" potential NPB's and scammers. In reality, it's all BS. 

I can't speak for other sellers, but I've only had one buyer in many thousands of transactions on eBay, who was a scammer, and this "verification" process of Ray's would not have weeded her out. As far as NPBs are concerned, most of those resulted from return items (I have a very liberal return policy), and almost all of the remainder could NOT have been anticipated, since most had previous positive feedback. Phone verification is no guarantee whatsoever of the honesty of a buyer, since a NPB IS A REGISTERED BUYER FIRST who has entered into a contract with a seller. HELLO, POPPERS! A NPB IS NOT A NPB UNTIL AFTER THE FACT. 

It makes more sense to me that Ray is using the locale/phone verification as a revenue stream, when "sharing" that information (as the TOS states) with "third parties", since third parties will pay more dearly for verified lists. Could Ray is motivated by greed? No wombat poo poo, Sherlock!

DOESN'T THAT MAKE YOU FEEL PROUD, POPPERS? Ray is using YOUR monthly seller fees to pay for HIS locale/phone verification BS system, (which does not "weed out" NPBs and scammers) so he can charge MORE to share sell verified lists to third parties. WHAT BENEFIT DO YOU GET FROM THIS?

Just look at eBay: ARE THE BIGGEST ISSUES WITH "PROBLEM" BUYERS OR "PROBLEM" SELLERS? What assurance does a WP buyer have that the item purchased is authentic? That the seller will deliver? What recourse does a buyer have for non-receipt of item or item significantly not as described, without filing a claim with PayPal?

Oy Vay! 

Edit: Hey, Platzki,  give me a break. I'm old and it's 6 a.m. It's now Oy vay, happy?

[Platzki]

Oui Vay! 

Actually... I think it's Oy Vay... Oui is French for yes...

So you actually said Yes Vay... instead of No Vay which is the more approriate use (Unless of course your Mel Brooks playing his classic little old jewish guy)...

So so to make my point... all those in not in agreement with the phone verification process... say...

NO VAY!!! 

Just teasing!!!  {{{sigh}}}} couldn't help myself...