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Jen · 10-05-2006, 12:08 AM,

Randy, to be honest I've learned more from my business failures than I ever have from my successes. Without my business failures I would not currently have my successes. I'm sure the fall of GlacierBay was a very painful experience for you - professionally and personally. Thank you for sharing your perspectives. I for one will listen, evaluate the content objectively, and see what lessons I can apply to my own business.

rksmythe · 10-05-2006, 12:21 AM,

Thanks Jen, that is what this is all about. I'm very concerned for eBay sellers and I'm hoping my failure can help others. At least then I could see something good come out of it. It is becoming clearer each day that eBay is modifying their business model and they will be leaving sellers in their wake. They think this is something that they need to do and ultimately don't care if it destroys lives. That sounds dramatic but I can tell you that I may have been the first Media seller to go under but there are other big ones to follow and I'm sure the same is happening in other categories.

I'll try and keep the pressure on as much as possible.

RKS

thentavius · 10-05-2006, 12:28 AM,

Quote:If I werent considered a threat they would have left me alone.

Absolutely. Proof again that eBay can give a flying fudge about small sellers. Big sellers can make big waves. Big sellers that leave can make even bigger waves.

If you're not with them, you're against them--apparently (in their eyes). So bet it, I suppose.

Quote:Randy, to be honest I've learned more from my business failures than I ever have from my successes. Without my business failures I would not currently have my successes. I'm sure the fall of GlacierBay was a very painful experience for you - professionally and personally. Thank you for sharing your perspectives. I for one will listen, evaluate the content objectively, and see what lessons I can apply to my own business.

Absolutely. In fact, in any field. Some of the greatest mistakes lead to the greatest discoveries and breakthroughs. I often learn best by seeing what NOT to do--or how to avoid making common mistakes. I'm sure there are many others out there like me.

Your articles can benefit anyone who wants to improve their business.

stardust · 10-05-2006, 01:15 AM,

Quote:I often learn best by seeing what NOT to do--or how to avoid making common mistakes.

That's what I learned from the ebay boards before I even listed the first item. What NOT to do. I did not make listing mistakes that were against policy or that were not buyer friendly. Any web site that opens under my name will also hopefully not be full of marketing or anti-buyer mistakes.

Learning what NOT to do does not tell you what TO do for your own success. But it certainly helps keep you from following the non-thinking lemmings over the edge....

rksmythe · 10-05-2006, 01:29 AM,

thentavius - I'm not sure what PR book they are reading from but I would ask for my money back. They must think they are bulletproof. If they wanted the unrest to die down they should have handled things much differently.

They wont attack me directly unless I start to get some traction with my comments. I would guess if I were to get TV coverage that might up the ante. Ill have to look into that.

rksmythe · 10-05-2006, 02:04 AM,

Hey everybody - Here is the link to my latest article. It's a doozie.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...oming.html

Jen · 10-05-2006, 02:06 AM,

One of the biggest questions you could answer would be "what happened?"

There were so many negatives towards the end of buyers not receiving the product they payed for. Were you using a dropshipper, or did events snowball, or what? It would be very informative for current ebay sellers to understand what lead to your downfall. I think for your comments to ring sincere, and sellers to truly identify with you, this issue needs to be addressed (IMHO).

Jen

stardust · 10-05-2006, 02:17 AM,

I second that. Smile

rksmythe · 10-05-2006, 02:26 AM,

Jen, did you read the Auctionbytes articles? I thought we covered most everything in the interview but maybe not. In January I alerted BuySafe that there would be some orders we would not be able to fill and they said they would take care of it. They contacted each of my customers who had purchased an item in January of 2006 and instructed them on how to get reimbursed if their item did not arrive. It looks like there were just over 200 orders that were not filled and yes it was because things snowballed.

The Negs we received towards the end were for slow delivery and items not showing up at all. Since I had laid-off my CS staff most emails went unanswered so the NEGS increased.

If you think this information still needs to be discussed I would gladly write an article about it.

Thanks
Randy

Jen · 10-05-2006, 02:38 AM,

No, I didn't read the auctionbytes article. There are too many places to try to keep up with nowadays. I just didn't remember reading the answer to that issue in my internet travels, and thought that others might have the same questions as I - that the information that you give is good, but doesn't answer the big question (why?). I guess I'll go digging on AuctionBytes now, since I apparently missed something interesting. It's a shame that eBay blocked your ID from posting on their boards - I'm sure many people could learn from the issues that you ran into.

Jen