There was a time when Adam Ginsberg was a model eBay PowerSeller. He did big business, had overwhelmingly positive feedback, and became one of the users the media went to when they wanted to prove eBay was a major financial force. When he was interviewed by UPN News, he assured them that a "very, very small percentage of transaction[s on eBay] go bad."
Lately, it seems like many of Ginsberg's own transactions are among the ones turning sour. As of August 31, 2004, all of his user accounts had been suspended. What happened?
An eBay golden boy
Ginsberg opened his "zbilliards" user ID on October 23, 2001, started selling pool tables from his Los Angeles warehouse, and soon began racking up amazing feedback. He didn't receive a single negative until June 2002, after hundreds of transactions, and he didn't get another one until the next year. He became a Titanium PowerSeller, the highest level of PowerSeller for users with at least $150,000 in gross monthly sales, and opened other user IDs such as zwatches and zspas.
He was becoming popular with eBay and the media. A February 2003 eBay's Sports Seller Newsflash email newsletter highlighted Ginsberg's pool table business, citing 2002 sales figures of up to $800,000 per month. In June 2003, ABC News used Ginsberg as its lead example of "a new day for eBay...a marketplace for a staggering amount of business" and the book "eBay Bargain Shopping for Dummies" spoke positively of him. He spoke at eBay Live 2003 in Orlando, and also donated five pool tables to charity and set up an area where eBay Live conventioneers could play for free.
Summer of discontent
In 2004, however, his zbilliards account started to get more neutral and negative feedback than before. By summer, his recent feedback was really going south. "Worst experience - DO NOT expect any communication re: problems with product!!" and "Horrible service. Still waiting for items. Price not worth headache. Don't buy!" were typical comments. Starting in May 2004, his zbilliards account also started to gather an unusually high number of "Buyer and seller mutually agreed to withdraw feedback for this item" feedbacks.
Ginsberg was temporarily suspended from eBay in June, reportedly because his "zdiamonds" account, opened in April 2004, had a feedback score of -4 (and a positive feedback percentage of 40.9%). He told AuctionBytes at the time that "It's been a positive experience and a learning experience for me," though he was not going to be able to speak or exhibit at eBay Live 2004 as planned.
A few weeks later, he changed his zbilliards user ID to "pegasusbilliards" on July 10, 2004. The next month, as of August 31, pegasusbilliards was "not a registered user" (NARU), and neither were any of Ginsberg's other known user IDs.
Who closed Ginsberg's accounts?
When asked for an update on his situation, Ginsberg told AuctionBytes that his mother had just died, so he suspended all his accounts because it was too hard to deal with her death and run a business at the same time. EBay spokesman Hani Durzy said eBay couldn't comment on the reasons for any NARU.
However, suspending your own eBay account isn't easy. Users who've listed or bid "recently" - Ginsberg's pegasusbilliards account, for example, had sold items earlier in August - must wait 180 days before closing their accounts. Account information is still available during this period, but the user can't bid, list, make purchases, or change his contact info. It appears that, within eBay's rules, Ginsberg could not have suspended his account for an immediate emergency like a death in the family.
EBay's full policy on closing your own account can be found here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/closing-account.html
Get rich quick?
One eBay user suggested, in a message board thread about Ginsberg, that once he "switched his focus" to speaking at seminars, "his sales and feedback went downhill. Before that, he seemed to be a reputable and respected seller." This is possible, though Ginsberg gave seminars for months before his feedback started to suffer.
The course description for one of Ginsberg's seminars, at The Learning Annex in Boston, "How to Buy, Sell and Profit on eBay," read in part: "The best way to describe eBay is this: it's a private money machine in your house or apartment" and "eBay can be a virtual goldmine if you know what you're doing!" As of September 3, Learning Annex operators confirmed that Ginsberg's class was still being offered in LA on September 8 and Boston on October 2.
Ginsberg also appears to have focused his energies on writing a book also called "How To Buy, Sell, and Profit on eBay" (subtitle: "Kick Start Your Million-Dollar Business in Less Than 30 Days"). It is due for release in January 2005 and Amazon is pre-selling it for $11.16. His website, AdamGinsberg.com, already sells eBay-related CDs and workbooks for steeper prices, like the "Creating A Successful EBay Business" pack (three audio CDs, one CD-ROM, one workbook) for $129.
Buyers pool their resources
Since late August, disgruntled buyers, upset about delayed items, partial shipments, and damaged merchandise, have been communicating about Ginsberg (without using his name) in the eBay forums. A team of users quickly took on the duty of gathering information about transactions gone wrong and the monetary amount of losses, to present to eBay and local authorities. It was within days of this team's contact with eBay that Ginsberg's accounts were unregistered. The team is still collecting information.
