HiBidder Database Implodes, 95% of Listings Lost

[stardust]

Well said and very considerate, xpp.

[amy]

I see no reason to burn anyone and everyone at the stake
who try to offer an alternative online auction or mini mall type format.

Only the LSOSB and spamming small (and large) auction sites get burned at the stake. 

[stardust]

And here I thought it was popcorn time with some high drama....

[rho]

xppman, I agree with you.

The fragmenting you refer to has filtered down to the core of sellers who're willing to use alternative venues. This is good for eBay. As these crappy little venues rise and fall, sellers group and regroup. The groups get smaller as does the united front, and all important networking.

You're 100% spot on regarding establishing an Independent Website as the core of your business, and right now. I agree that continuing to list at alternative sites can be cost effective marketing for products.

While some vendors are true blue and trying to do a good job, they're generally missing an important piece of the success puzzle to be more than a decent niche for a few sellers. Unfortunately, creepy people slink about with their greasy hand out to take advantage of sellers. It's not impossible to take advantage of them, though.

A couple of days ago, I put up WagglePopSucks.com to help inform sellers who do research before making business decisions, and to help a few small venues that are networking for the cause. My motives are not entirely altruistic; my personal banners will be featured as my sites go live. I'll be doing a few more of these. It's cheap marketing and it feels good to retaliate the sh!tty treatment of various vendors and their cheerleaders. BTW, Ray, WagglePopSucks belongs to me, it's an independent venture. You and your lap-dogs can squash any conspiricy theory. The venues mentioned are unaware that the site exists. No conspiricy.

Now. This is a HiBidder thread, so I'm going to post some stats I've gathered. Y'all may or may not know that there's a thread devoted almost exclusively to posting HB stats over at PSU. The stats, taken day by day, give the appearance that the site is actually growing. It is not.

On 09/15/2006, right before the unfortunate database incident, two particular stats were here:
Total Items Sold: 1702
Avg Sale Price: $7.63

09/27/2006 - After being back for, I think, about a week:
Total Items Sold: 113
Avg Sale Price: $6.69
Avg # Items Sold Daily: 22

10/07/2006 - 10 Days Later
Items Sold: 170 (09/27/06 - 10/07/06)
Avg Sale Price: $6.52
Avg # Items Sold Daily: 17

10/17/2006 -10 Days Later:
Items Sold: 143 (10/07/06 - 10/17/06)
Avg Sale Price: $6.62
Avg # Items Sold Daily: 14

10/24/2006 - 7 Days Later. This morning:
Items Sold: 31 (10/17/06 - 10/24/06)
Avg Sale Price: $6.59
Avg # Items Sold Daily: 10

Both the number of items sold and the average sale price are on the decline. Most newbies to diversification don't know how to take a reality check and are being set up for an unpleasant disappointment. There are currently 2209 members at HB. If only 1/2 are sellers, on average, about 1 in 100 gets a sale on any given day...and a lot of those sales are less than $1.00.

We're all tired of working for eBay. But there's no value in leaving eBay to throw your business onto another business, and promoting that business...unless, of course, volunteer work is your gig.

[bargainbloodhound]

BTW, Ray, WagglePopSucks belongs to me, it's an independent venture. You and your lap-dogs can squash any conspiricy theory

BTW, Ray,  even though you applied for a trademark for the name wagglepop, you can't do wombat poo poo about it being used as part of the domain name in rho's site because her site is a noncommercial protest site so the use of wagglepop is not a trademark violation under the UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Policy) and WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) would decide in Rho's favor if any action was taken by Wagglepop.

For Ray's benefit:

If the domain name owner's site is being used to criticize, protest or parody the trademarked entity or its owner's products and/or services, the panel will probably find that the domain name owner has a legitimate interest in the domain name. This will probably be true, even if the domain name is, for all practical purposes, the same exact thing as the trademarked word.

Also for Ray's benefit 
FAQ about Protest, Parody and Criticism Sites
http://www.chillingeffects.org/protest/faq.cgi#QID86
Domain name legal issues
http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...,79.0.html

[xppman]

[quote author=amy link=topic=5129.msg28808#msg28808 date=1161709438]

I see no reason to burn anyone and everyone at the stake
who try to offer an alternative online auction or mini mall type format.

Only the LSOSB and spamming small (and large) auction sites get burned at the stake. 
[/quote]

I agree with that. 

[sneakymagenta]

War on the Ebay boards between Hibidder and Lowbid Hibidder's board mod tells folks on HB's forum to hurry on over to Ebay and do some spamming.  5 pages over at HB  bragging about spamming Ebay,reporting Lowbid members posts, and getting pink slaps.

http://www.hibidder.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2695

Thread title "My seller left...how do i find them?"

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?t...2000234762&tstart=0&mod=1159891220452

Let's all get in over there! Looks like another site is moving on in

Man, am I having fun with that Report button over there!!! HB'ers - you better get over there, it's a LB extravaganza!

Who the F is that duma$$ from LB? He is really making that site look like I wouldn't want to be there if that's the attitude I would get.

In addition, I have to admit (and I think I said it earlier) that I did get some frustrations out by using the report button over there. I noticed a lot of HiBidder threads were getting pulled, but no other sites, and I got angry. I reported a few from other sites

Here HiBidder's admin and owner Rich thanks a different HB mod for spamming:

http://www.hibidder.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2568

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?t...1000358952&tstart=0&mod=1159370869982

Originally about the "barg" bag lunch, I stated some opinions last night (anyone have a Texas size trash can laying around?) and a member today sugeested not only another boycott, but for boycotters to list 20 items all on another site...

If we could get that site to be HiBidder, I believe even after the boycott, people would stay here...

I'm leery of mentioning HB directly there, for fear of removal, but have pointed in the direction of my message board for further discussion...

Wouldn't that be grand?

Thanks for everything ****! You really have consistently gone the extra mile over and over again!!!

Thank You and everyone else who help keep the HB name "Out There"!!!!

dumb question . . . i don't take part in any of the boards on ebay so i am totally lost when it comes to things like this. what will ebay do? is it because you want to keep selling there? will they delete your account? suspend?

the reason i ask is that i don't sell there anymore. i would offer to go to the boards (you'd have to point me as to where) and promote HB.

[stardust]

Geez...I think I take back my nicenice stuff on post #49.  :-[

[mandy]

Hibidder's board mod tells folks on HB's forum to hurry on over to Ebay and do some spamming.  5 pages over at HB  bragging about spamming Ebay,reporting Lowbid members posts, and getting pink slaps.

eBay doesn't need to pay LiveWorld when it has HiBidder's moderators doing the same cleanup job for free.  :

Congratulations to HiBidder which just joined Wagglepop as the only auction sites to have a nice red AVOID - NOT RECOMMENDED next to their names on our Auction Site Traffic Rankings chart..  Good job HiBidder!  :

[mandy]

HiBidder's parent company BBB record (from domain whois records).  The company has an unsatisfactory BBB record and didn't respond to any of the complaints filed against it in the past 2 years. 

Wholesale Autos of Idaho
Membership Status: This company is not a BBB member
Type of Business: Auto Dealers-Used Cars

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to unanswered complaint(s).

The Bureau processed a total of 3 complaints about this company since the firm's BBB file was opened in June of 2004. Of the total 3 complaints since the firm's BBB file was opened in June of 2004, 1 of those was closed in the past 12 months.

Complaints Concerned
Repair Issues: 1
Outcome of the complaint -
No Response: 1

Service Issues: 2
Outcome of all complaints -
No Response: 2