Former #1 eBay Seller Glacier Bay DVD (Randy Smythe) Speaks

[mandy]

8 months later...Glacier Bay DVD's owner speaks

Well, I’m not sure anyone is still interested in this topic, but since I owned Glacier Bay DVD, I thought I would jump in and explain why I no longer sell on eBay or anywhere else for that matter.

You might ask why I waited 8 months to speak up, well I’ve been observing eBay over these past 8 months and I’ve come to the realization that they are a ship without a rudder, and it is affecting a group of people that I care a great deal about: EBay Sellers. So I thought I would lend my voice to the discussion. I have a unique perspective on eBay, and since I no longer sell online I can speak freely.

When I shutdown Glacier Bay I was number 2 in total feedback with 265,950 unique positives and 539,703 total positives, but I was also seriously in debt. We had been losing money since March of 2004, and I had to make a decision. Do I keep trying to make this work or is my business model so broken I’ll never be able to turn it around. I made the decision to shut it down, which was a very painful process for me, my employees, my vendors and for some of my customers. If you were affected by the failure of Glacier Bay DVD I sincerely apologize for the trouble it may have caused...

full article: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...story.html

[BellisimaJ.]

Okay, I read the article. It seemed possibly sincere to me until I reached the end, where Smythe pointed us to "a great article on the state of eBay".
Being a curious sort, I natch clicked on the article and proceeded to read a bunch of wombat poo poo .

Here is an excerpt:

But the upbeat forecast is not without warning. "We caution that we do see longer term issues for eBay," wrote Peck in his report, "should it not address the concerns of the community shortly. However, we believe that management is embracing the community's ideas more than ever. The rest will be up to execution." (Peck could not be reached this morning for further comment.)

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/essential...hp/3633926

Both articles are an attempt to make ebay look more appealing to the targets/investors.

In a nutshell, I am of the opinion that Randy Smythe (AKA Glacier Bay) sold out to his buds at ebay and agreed to provide some much-needed positive spin. Wonder what his remuneration is? :lies2n: ign032:

[xppman]

Wasn't this one of those .01 or .99 cent cut throat CD sellers?

Got to love it. He say's further in the article
"I believe it can still be a fantastic venue for small businesses
and hobbyists and I don’t want you to go through what I did."

What? Dude... you couldn't make it and you sold over
$15 million dollars worth of DVDs and CDs over 5 years.
But you contend that "small businesses and hobbyists" can still do it?
Did Meg put you up to this?  :blinkie:

Even the fast food joints are learning about cut throat "volume sales".
If you sell 15 million hamburgers for a buck a piece to snuff out your competitor
who is selling theirs at a fair price or 1.95 and it costs YOU 18 million to do so.
Ummm YOUR LOOSING MONEY.

You know, I wonder how many publicly held corporations
are really on the brink of bankruptcy today and the only thing keeping them afloat is
their creative accounting techniques, cash flow and the fact that many share holders
haven't called in their markers on these companies yet.

I got to admit I do feel a bit bad for the guy but on the
other side of the coin, if this was one of those cut throat sellers then shame on
him as it was people like him who
got greedy and diluted the market for the other honest sellers in that sector.  >

Now here he is over TWO years after KNOWING he was upside down going to give advise to the rest of us sellers who are STILL here, maybe not -millionaires, but at least still showing some profit in our online endeavors.

He's politically correct stance about Meg and team's involvement for the demise
of so many may be a indicator that he is hoping that he may be picked up by eBay.
After all they need another eBay university instructor don't they?

I could go on about this but I'll just shake my head and chalk it up
as another one bites the dust.

Maybe a fitting title topic would be.
eBay Mega Sellers... Where Are They Now?

[cranky_hippie]

The dude lost me when he said Meg is a nice person.  >

[iron_chick]

However, we believe that management is embracing the community's ideas more than ever.

[xppman]

Yea we all wanted blogs, MyWorld, EE (with non verified buyers paying via PP),
MatchUP, Free listings from China and up front fee increase for the "vibrancy".

We wanted a new and improved search, a SYI page that takes 30 minutes to list one item
and all the other stupid little bells and whistles over they years they added as "enhancements".

Someone get me a rope to hang this fool with or a bucket to  in.

[Anita]

Is it possible that he is trying to play nice nice by NOT slamming eBay 100%... as to not tick off the cheerleaders????

[BellisimaJ.]

[quote author=Anita link=topic=219.msg25128#msg25128 date=1159450919]
Is it possible that he is trying to play nice nice by NOT slamming eBay 100%... as to not tick off the cheerleaders????
[/quote]


NO.

[xppman]

He's politically correct stance about Meg and team's involvement for the demise
of so many may be a indicator that he is hoping that he may be picked up by eBay.
After all they need another eBay university instructor don't they? :

[Anita]

Obviously, the guy isn't tooooo smart or he wouldn't have held on for TWO LONG YEARS, but I think if he had ripped eBay to shreds in his comments... people would have saw him as a sore loser kind of a thing.