Ina:
Regarding eBay's Town Hall event on category rollups (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y04/m04/i13/s03) where they said:
"Buyer usage of the product finders is increasing rapidly."
Reminds me of a city engineer claiming that "usage of the new toll bridge is increasing rapidly," but not continuing the statement with the qualifier "now that we've eliminated all the other bridges across the river".....
Bob
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Ina,
I just got done reading today's issue of AuctionBytes and your brief comment about the Knarf.ca auction blog, in which you said it was the only one you were aware of that was from the seller's point of view.
I just thought I'd let you know that I've been publishing one from the seller's point of view for the last few months. My sig file below has the URL for it if you'd care to take a look.
Thanks for a very informative and useful newsletter every week.
Gary
http://onlineauctionbiz.com
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On April 12, eBay implemented a new policy on posting on its forums and held a workshop about the new policy on April 16:
http://digbig.com/4bcfa
The following letter is in response to the new policy:
Hello,
You probably already know about this, but just in case you had not heard, eBay started a new "deal" today limiting the number of posts certain members can make. If you have a feedback rating of less than 10, you can only post to the boards 10 times per day. That may seem like a lot, but as many board regulars know, it goes by quickly. As a member of the Misc-Fits (from the miscellaneous board), we can use that many saying happy birthday or congratulating someone on a new grandbaby!
While the goal was admirable, the plan is flawed. Most of the regulars on the board with less than 10 feedbacks are users who have posting IDs. I have one myself, which is what I post to the boards with. We do so because of the lurkers and trolls who find it amusing to wreak havoc on the auctions of someone whose opinion they might not agree with, or for some other random reason. We've seen it happen often - someone will go in and use up all the BIN auctions and never pay, creating problems and financial expense for a seller.
One of the eBay staff named Katy posted this as a reason:
"The fact is that we do have a small percentage of posters who abuse the system badly. Perhaps 5% taking up 80% of our resources. When sanctioned, they return with another ID and continue to cause the same problems. We feel that you deserve to have these resources used in more positive ways."
What eBay has forgotten is that there is no effective way for them to deal with auction vandalism by the lurkers. Many of their volunteers went to posting IDs because of the problems and expense that it caused. Now, instead of punishing the ones who are creating the problems, everyone has to "pay the price" - either get your feedback up to 10 under your posting ID (which is normally zero), or limit yourself, or expose yourself to auction problems by using your selling ID. Not good choices, really.
It seems to me if they know that 5% of the people are using 80% of the resources, they should be targeting that 5%, instead of blanketing 100% with the limitations....
Please see this thread for her entire response:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jsp?forum=115&thread=410101447&modifed=20040415143348 [Editor's note: or try this shortcut URL: http://digbig.com/4bcfb]
I'd better stop - already got too far on the soapbox already! I had only wanted to make sure you were aware of the new rule!
Thanks,
Beth
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Dear Ina:
Let me begin by explaining the situation so you may understand it fully. As you may or may not be aware of there is an increasing number of sellers on eBay (which I have a list of) claiming to be selling genuine Bakelite jewelry.
By being a well respected member of the vintage plastics community, my colleagues and I feel it's a blatant misrepresentation on these sellers part, and subsequently crosses over into the boundaries of a theft by deception fraud which eBay has time and time again failed to recognize or do anything about.
Further more (from what has been ascertained thus far) there is an organized ring working this scam which stretches world wide with Taiwan being the main focal point of this operation.
It is also our contention that most of these sellers, are fully aware of the fraud being committed upon unsuspecting customers, which are spending hundreds and in some cases thousands of dollars on items other than what they claim to be.
Now to understand the full complexity of this situation, I would recommend you talk with others well versed in of genuine Bakelite collecting as well (who have written books on the subject), and are well known within the plastics community as people well respected in their field.
I've personally have been keeping track of these scammers for a year now and started a free on-line discussion group on Yahoo to help warn others from falling victim to this relatively new form of fraud.
Sincerely,
William
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheBangleBarn
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Hi, Ina
Re: Ebay's newly introduced, but force-fed fiasco, their "Item Specifics" application. No kidding, it really is! Sorry to say, this is a complete disaster for the BOOKS category at Ebay, and all its sellers. Regardless, of the latest Ebay official spin, I am not aware of one seller in Books that's happy with this program.
Despite even some Power Seller protests, Ebay has eliminated all genre and specialized categories, forcing every buyer to use this "item specifics" search engine.... which, of course, does not allow for buyers to "browse" their favorite categories. Not without scrolling through 40 or 50 pages, or 8,000 or more listings. Many of the booksellers on Ebay depended on sales from bidders simply browsing a certain category. Now, every time you list ANY kind of book in "Fiction & Literature" (the only fiction category now offered), it simply disappears among thousands and thousands of mixed listings. Who's got the time?
I know it's ruined selling for me.
Read the "bookselling" discussion boards.... you won't find one seller who likes this system. Most are expressing their further frustration with Ebay, and anger at their already declining bids and sales. Check it out.
I know a lot of sellers would love to take their Books somewhere else. But lack of traffic and bidding prevents them from giving other sites a chance. Myself, I'm going to give BIDVILLE a whirl. Free listings, fair value fees, simple image transfers, and a very easy to use loading page. Very fast and it looks good, too.
In lieu of Ebay correcting this latest snafu (which we all know they won't) I hope more booksellers make the move.
Thank you for a great newsletter.
Dan
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Regarding a Newsflash article from April 9
(http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y04/m04/i09/s03):
I was so happy to see this NAA article. I sell alot of vehicles through eBay, and I have been waiting and hoping that NAALive hits hard so that I can stop dropping $100 per car to eBay and selling each car an average of 1.75 times because of NPB's.
Selling cars on eBay is very costly and risky to say the very least! But right now, they have the market. I hope to see that change sometime soon if they don't focus their resources. eBay does nothing to screen bidders, do nothing to curb NPBs, and they will not even tell you the address of who you are dealing with when a NPB comes along. There are tons of fraudulent sellers, which is running off many of the new potential buyers. eBay could be a very GREAT place to buy and sell, but they don't seem to do what they need to do even though they know how to raise their fees.
They are HEAVILY advertising to get more eBay Motors sellers into the arena, but do 0 advertising to attract new buyers to eBay Motors.
Thanks for your column Ina!!
Chris
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Regarding your story about the elite group gathering in NYC (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y04/m04/i07/s01). In particular, eBay's reply and the fact that they wont send anyone to attend. The fact that they won't send anyone is just another indicator of their arrogance. The message being "this group is meaningless."
This is an attempt to demean the group. If eBay really believed in a level playing field why is it that power sellers get special treatment, ie: group health insurance is available to power sellers but noone else. A personal support rep is available to powersellers but none else. The powerseller discussion board can only be posted to by powersellers. So much for the level playing field. eBay is so transparently arrogant and greedy it's laughable!
John
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The eBay elite meeting probably will not do what is needed, unionize in order to stop eBay's management and investors from pulling ever larger shares of sellers' profits. At this point eBay has no incentive to treat its seller well even though the sellers generate the bulk of eBay's income.
There is little hope that management will ever act benignly towards the sellers unless they organize and make demands. I know that no matter what happens, eBay will charge me more money to sell every year and will add other fees in order to enhance the stock price.
While I am all for investors getting a good rate of return on investment, I am not crazy about making sacrifices on their behalf.
In this country the investor class has declared war against the poor and the middle class, intending to diminish the latter and grow the former. At the same time they whine that any attempt at diminished exploitation in our society is a war against them because they are so overburdened with resources.
Kal
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Hi Ina,
I would like to share my experience with a couple of many, many, problems I recently encountered on ebay. If you care to use, fine, if not, I appreciate you letting me vent.
I have been selling full, full-time on ebay for over 4 years now. It was great and very helpful when I first started. Unfortunately, over time this has changed. Especially the past year! I have ridden the ups and downs since then, but today, it has taken the best of me.
I went in to send a late notice, it did not recognize the item was over 3 days sold.
I proceeded to send a request for credit on a different non-paying customer. I was able to receive the credit, but when I went through the process to add the bidder to my blocked bidder account, not only did I discover all my previous blocked bidders were missing, 4 years worth, but when I pressed the add button, it threw me out of ebay, totally out, I had to re-sign in to get back to my account, and then, ebay was non-functioning, every page was distorted in one way or another.
I then tried to leave negative feedback, and all my feedback previous to April 1st, is totally gone!!
So, I proceeded to contact ebay about the feedback and the Block Bidder problem. I wrote my letter complaint, sent it, and logged out. I just got an email from Canada Feedback Support Team, Canada?? I am so lost. What the dickens is going on?
The other Big beef I have, is the category page when relisting an item, or selling an item for the first time. When I click on category, it takes forever for the form to open, reset, and then work. Their forms have become so time hindering, that it is almost not worth the time it takes to process it, which I have come to believe is their intent so as not to have to reimburse you if your item sells the second time around.
It saddens me how a small time seller is getting sqeezed out of ebay. It is so extremely obvious that they have gotten money hungry like so much other companies.
Unfortunately, I have tried selling on Yahoo several different times, giving it a month or more a different occasions, and the sales just are not there. Sooo, despite all the problems with ebay, I am trapped to work where I am no longer happy. It was always work, but I enjoyed it. No longer, now it is a headache, and I wonder what is going to happen next. Even when using Turbo lister, there is hardly a time that when I am loading that it doesn't go down on me and I have to start listing that item all over again.
Is this a sign of what is to come 10 fold? I wish not, but it sure looks it to me.
Just for your information, my computer is well maintained and updated all the time, and my internet service is almost as good as cable internet ready. Therefore, when ebay says it is my cache', or web history, I know they are grasping at straws when I do complain to them.
Linda
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Ina,
Thank you for the subscription. I have learned a lot, and I appreciate the news. Any idea when eBay is going to treat their Macintosh-based Sellers with any respect? TurboLister comes to mind......
Thanks,
Jeff
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Ina,
I just wanted to compliment you on your article regarding live Internet bidding in your article LiveAuctioneers Brings Traditional Auctions to eBay (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y204/m04/abu0116/s04). Anytime that our company sees information informing others about live Internet bidding we are very pleased.
Our company, Proxibid, actually provides the same type of service to a bit more diverse sampling of auctioneers with similar success. If you ever have any questions or interest about learning more from another perspective, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Joe Petsick, Proxibid, Inc.
http://www.proxibid.com
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Dear Ms. Steiner:
Thank you for the informative article on USPS Business Line (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y204/m04/abu0116/s02). My husband works for the Post Office and plans to share the information with his Station Manager tomorrow. We have not seen this service set up in our area but hope that it is a success. With so many delivery services fighting for the customers business, it only makes sense that the Postal Service gets on the bandwagon.
There are so many services that the Postal Services has that the public is not aware that it is great to see customer service increase. Many times, I tell my husband about services the Post Office offers i.e. the on-line labels with/without postage that he wasn't aware of. It is like the website doesn't work with the brick and mortar locations to broaden services. I had to convince our local Post Office that the labels I printed from the Website were legitimate and the delivery confirmation was free.
Another gray area is the 1-800-ask-usps. It is not manned by the Post Office only a contract service from Colorado. That is a definite sore spot for me because half the time the 1-800-ask-usps is of no help.
As always, I enjoy your electronic newsletter and read it thoroughly.
Molly
