PlunderHere and AlsoShop: A Web of Privacy Violations, Backstabbing, and Deceit

[Mojavelyn]

been awhile!

Total Listings  53,088
Total # of Current and Closed Items Bid On  4,290
Total Members  1,972

nearing the end of the 3rd month...

Aug 11th... 3107/50199 
Aug 29 ......4292/53088

looks like a fair amount of increase to me.

[Kristijntje]

Auctionbytes has a review of PlunderHere:

Picture eBay in the early days and you'd be looking at a pretty good description of the PlunderHere auction site. Although they've been at it for a couple of years, they still consider themselves an "up-and-comer" with a chance of challenging the auction giant. And they think they can do it with an approach that's pretty much the same game - only with rules that favor the players instead of the house...

PlunderHere imposes a flat rate 2.5% final value fee on any item that sells. There are no listing fees for posting an item on PlunderHere.com. In fact, there are no listing fees, no reserve price fees, no gallery fees, no Buy-it-Now fees and no second category fees. There are, however, nominal charges for other auction posting features such as bold or highlighted listings (.25), featured item listings ($2) and main featured placement ($5), should you wish to use them. These seller costs are low compared to eBay, which charges $5, $19.95, and $39.95 respectively for those same services. For store owners, preferred placement is $5 per month and featured placement is $2.50, otherwise basic stores are free...

full article: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y208...bu0212/s04

[Dixie_Amazon]

Did you see that they quoted a past owner?

[regic]

Changes at PlunderHere:

http://www.plunderhere.com/auction/cgi-b...d=announce

***Plunderhere Becomes a Company*** Date: 4/8/2008 Time:3:27:50 AM ET

Important announcement to all Plunderhere Members

       

In Dec 2007, negotiations were opened for the purchase of PlunderHere. These negotiations and contracts were completed as of April 1, 2008.

Part of the deal is I'm to stay on as admin.



The acquisition will give PlunderHere the financial backing that I, as a sole proprietor, cannot give.



Since PlunderHere will soon be moving servers, and while for the most part this should be without a hitch.. I do wholeheartedly suggest making back ups of your listings. The easiest way would be to open a spreadsheet file, like the boostlister format, and make the necessary copies.



Below is a statement from one of Plunderhere's new backers or better known in the foums as 'Superdeals' the Wordsmith.



Just remember I'm, still the 'Chief Skillet Wielder'

Mo

Hi Everybody



Well it’s been a very hectic time for us with the negotiations  with Mo and all the work involved in taking on a site as big as PH.



Mo has done a phenomenal job in building this up from when she took over and has been a massive help in both the handover and the ongoing  work both in progress and also with what is planned.

To put it simply, PH has simply gone from a sole proprietorship to a Corporation and only change is there are now more people to take away the work crippling Mo.



Personally, we do not view this as a sale but more as step for us to come in as financial backers as Mo's actual remuneration

will not only remain the same but will improve as the site grows.



Plunderhere.com and .net will be registered under Palgold Card Services LLC, which is a US company trading as Plunderhere.com



I have been active in the PH forums for awhile working in conjunction with the tech team to sort out and enhance the running of PH as the site has grown so fast, Mo I know was flat out with answering emails, helping in the forums, doing all the accounts and for her to work on the tech stuff too was just way too much so we stepped in



Now Mo is still doing what she does best and that's helping everybody at PH, she isn't going anywhere and will remain as a very valuable asset and partner to the business.



The server change will be performed by a professional server manager who fully understands the script we use, backups will be made and when this happens we will go into 'maintenance mode' so nobody is caught off-guard, we will also give at the very least a full weeks notice prior to the change so everybody is aware. It will be a day during the early hours of the morning (USA time) and could take up to 24 hours to complete simply because the site is so big.



Listings can continue comfortably up to the point we announce the move and then I recommend you hold off until we are completed, this we will announce very soon first in these forums and then elsewhere.



Now we only recently completed the deal with Mo to step in and the last week has been chaotic for us as Mo needed some urgent work doing which gave us little or no time to announce anything.



We have the fortunate luck to have a wonderful team of moderators, several whom now I have dealt with personally and especially Kevin (Kevinatgrannys)  who has liaised between myself and the Tech team to help us improve and PH to where it is now. Mo has continued her super support to the user base enabling us to get on with this work, which is still very much ongoing even as I write this.



Also a special thank you to those of you who have helped me already  and to the rest of you I will come to know soon who are already helping in a massive way.I cannot express what an amazing community spirit runs through these forums other than it is the only site I have come across with such a family and friendly orientated feel to it.



Even I do not get to avoid Mo's 'Skillet' if something doesn't work so we will all keep each other on our toes!!!



Other than adjust the cosmetic look of PH we have NO plans to change the fees, or fiddle and play with anything that will upset or disjoint you, our valuable members. We will listen to feedback and as Mo and Kevin know, if we come up with an idea I/we consult with them first but at the

same time Mo and our users are giving us great ideas too, many of which are being worked on now.



Plunderhere Europe will soon be ready and we will announce when this will officially launch!



Mo, I know will continue to treat PH as her own as she has a vested ongoing interest not just working with us but to help all of you, our valuable users to build your businesses as best as possible.



Kindest regards

Mark ‘Superdeals’ the 'Wordsmith'

Plunderhere Tech Team

[sneakymagenta]

Changes at PlunderHere

Total items Sold in last 30 Days: a gross amount of: $8,324.17

Wake me up when/if the changes include more buyers. 

[xwpopper]

[quote author=sneakymagenta link=topic=9139.msg68950#msg68950 date=1207710580]

Changes at PlunderHere

Total items Sold in last 30 Days: a gross amount of: $8,324.17

Wake me up when/if the changes include more buyers. 


[/quote]

When my eBay business was full time, I sold double that every month myself. Sure, i paid heavily to eBay, but I also made money. It's amazing how so many sellers can be convinced that 2439 sales for a total of $8271 (only avg. $3.39 per sale) is successful when it is split among 475 sellers.
Do the math: Average sales per seller, 5, $3.39 sale price, for a grand total income of $17.95 monthly. Now, they are advising sellers to backup their listings "in case" of a glitch in transferring servers. This also includes a former site owner (Bidz UK) who crashed his site while changing servers. Now, he will run plunderhere.eu, which mysteriously has top sellers listed on the front page from the old Bidz site. See for yourself... some registered in 2005... That just means he transferred his old database. Maybe a chance to start fresh without any Ewaey or Wagglepop comparisons? Not when you store your database and transfer all your old site members to the new one. It just seems really suspicious that the the EU site will have the Bidz members. If one email is sent from a plunderhere.eu address to an unsuspecting Bidz member, that is a violation of SPAM laws and ordinances in Europe.

Now, I have always like Mo, and am not criticizing her efforts with the site at all. My earlier comments were about a majority of alternative auction seller expectations, not site owners. She has done a great job building it to where it is, but I just hope she isn't signing a death warrant with "Superdeals." This whole EU branch has a foul smell... it smells like the EUwaey.

[amy]

Do the math: Average sales per seller, 5, $3.39 sale price, for a grand total income of $17.95 monthly.

My hourly gross sales are more than that.  ;D

[Mojavelyn]

gee, take a look back at this thread for april 14th. those 540 sale had been for 3 months...

Nothing it seems is going to please you guys... unless it looks or acts or squawks like ebay... WHO in the hell wants ebay any more?

6,942 sales in 3 months.

Amy, it doesn't matter if it compares to you zen cart sales or not. its two different animals.  And frankly I could give a rat's ass if it does or not.

FACT! the site has grown!

FACT! sales have improved!

If its not to your satisfaction... TFB!

[xwpopper]

[quote author=Mojavelyn link=topic=9139.msg68977#msg68977 date=1207764118]

Nothing it seems is going to please you guys... unless it looks or acts or squawks like ebay... WHO in the hell wants ebay any more?

[/quote]

Mo,
Could you address this concern here? I would ask it on PH but am scared of the skillet.
The entire user database from BidzUK appears to have been imported to the plunderhere.eu site. Also, items that sold from those users were imported. It basically looks like the site was cloned directly from the Bidz database.

Does this mean that all member numbers for PH-EU are going to be inflated by more than 1,000? Does it mean that the members have no idea that their personal info was never removed from cyberspace, and is now stored and used under a new name? Or, does it mean "Superdeals" will be spamming users with newsletters from a site they never signed up on? Or, will he do the right thing and completely delete the database after the 'BETA' test?

If anyone needs verification, view these two links:
http://www.plunderhere.eu/user_reputatio..._id=101250

Now, look at the cached front page showing the name of the newest member:
http://web.archive.org/web/2007051817284...dz.org.uk/

Mo, with all due respect to your efforts on PH, this is a big mark for potential illegal spam to former Bidz members. I am not criticizing your decision to take on some partners, but I am criticizing the partner and offering a fair warning. If that database has private information about users based on the past privacy policies of BidzUK, and is transferred, that could be a potential business wrecking lawsuit.
http://web.archive.org/web/2007062712035....uk/pp.php

[mandy]

BidzUK

Naming a site bidz.org.uk or BidzUK is about as ethical as the Canadian site ioffer.ca that attempted to piggyback off the success of the real ioffer.com a few years back.

Bidz.com is a NASDAQ traded company and is one of the largest online retailers (#86 on the Internet Retailer 500) and reported $187.1 million in revenues last year. The term Bidz is also a registered trademark of Bidz.com Inc..  I'd find it hard to believe that the UK site owner (one of plunderhere's new owners) didn't know both these facts when he violated Bidz' trademark by registering the bidz.org.uk domain name.