redbaron

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  • What Will Become of eBay?
    What happened to Dianah's eBay post on SA? Is SA allowing eBay to delete posts here? And if that is indeed what is happening, where is free speech and dissent going next? Anything negative to eBay has been deleted on their boards for years, but deleting it here in the public arena is something new, at least to me. Perhaps I've not been watching close enough, but I hadn't seen this before. With all the dumb and uninteligent posts that SA allows, it would seem only proper that someone with inside eBay experience should be allowed to post thoughts on what is actually happening within the company. SA, are you listening. IMHO
    Dec 22 09:44 am |Rating: +3 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • What Will Become of eBay?
    Ebay, in my opinion, is broken, but not permamently. All they really need to do is get back to what worked before. I have sold there since the beginning in 1996, and the new management has alieneated both buyers and sellers with their 2008 changes. It is not too late to go back to the model that worked for the previous 12 years, but first one must admit that the most recent changes have been a mistake. One very basic mistake they have most recently made is forgetting that it is sellers who pay all the fees, which, IMHO, makes sellers the customers. Some communication with sellers would go a long way to improving the site, but first management must be willing to do that. Go back to your roots, Ebay, back to basics, and it is not too late to turn this all around.
    Dec 21 20:19 pm |Rating: +4 -1 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Sector Overview: Internet Stocks
    The eBay model is broken, and current management has made it worse. The stock has bounced up a little currently, and this should be used as an opportunity to sell. Again, short this stock if you don't own it, and sell it, if you do. The bottom is not yet in sight.

    No company can succeed using a strategy like they have now implemented, treating their customers like they are now treating theirs.
    Dec 14 06:40 am |Rating: +1 -2 |Link to Comment |View article
  • eBay Caps Shipping Rates: What Is the CEO Thinking?
    I have read the announcement several times, and have also tried to understand the details by using the discussion boards, but I have yet to find anyone who can explain this new policy to me completely so that I can understand it. In reading the announcement, the workshop discussions, and the boards, the eBay reps clearly don't understand it either, and the explanations seem to change with each question and answer. Some better clarification soon is badly needed, but then perhaps I just don't understand.

    Like you said in the middle paragraph, 'What the hell is John thinking?'

    He seems to be trying to drive all of his customers away, or at least, all of the sellers.

    I do understand that he is trying to get rid of over-charging for shipping, that has been a problem on the site, but the categories are now so complex that he can't do that without making the changes so complicated, no one can understand.

    Perhaps what is really needed is some new management, and make it someone without a background as a consultant.
    Sep 05 08:09 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • EBay's Aim at Amazon: Off Target
    As a long time ebay seller of the 'unusual items' that magscanner is trying to buy, ebay management is continuing to make it even tougher to continue to sell on the site. I just finished trying to read and understand their most recent batch of changes (announced today, 8/20), and it is so complex that only a consultant could love it. The site that both buyers and sellers loved for a decade, is no longer recognizable. I continue to try to do business on the site, but the constant changes are making me want to just go away. There are many other options for sellers, including selling my unusual items through non-online options, or just collecting them myself, which is where I started out. I like this stuff also, as do many sellers, and have no problem just keeping it. If in fact this country gets into the inflationary cycle it did in the 1970's, holding collectable hard assets may in fact be a very smart strategy. I, for one, am willing to own these myself, instead of just giving them away on ebay. Buyers and sellers both understand that ebay has completely destroyed the pricing structure for these unusual collectible items, and has driven down prices by over-supplying the market. These items are now so cheap that the incentive to sell them has nearly disappeared, and I don't think that is a permanent situation. One might very well see this market recover at some point in the future, and holding some of these items may well prove to be very smart. I can still find these items, even though it is increasingly difficult, but why should I work my buns off finding them, then jump through ebay's structure to list them, and see them sell for near to nothing? The good stuff is going to go into some sellers collection, it seems to me, and the junk is going to go onto ebay, like it has been doing recently. At least, that is going to be my strategy.
    Aug 21 00:46 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Amazon vs. EBay: Looking Beyond E-Commerce
    Good article. As a long time (1996) ebay power seller, the new ebay management has really screwed things up badly. There was a time when I would deplete my precious inventory of extremely hard to find items, in order to get them on ebay and sold as quickly as possible. That trend has completely reversed in the current policy situation, and now when I buy something that I know is rare and valuable, my first reaction is to put it away until I can find a better way to sell it. What ebay fails to understand is how difficult it is to find some of this really valuable stuff. Flooding their site with free listings from other mass merchandisers is not going to provide the traffic and hits that selling rare items would provide. They have taken away the traffic that good sellers and good merchandise provided, and replaced it with mass merchandise that one can find anywhere. And in that process, they have replaced paying customers, with customers who they have to offer free listings to get their numbers back up. Some say the sell-through rate is as low as 2 percent for some of these mass merchandisers, but they managed to keep the listing numbers up in the process.

    It is not yet too late to reverse this trend, as ebay power sellers are on-line and watching, but as more and more of them find new homes, and get their own sites, the time to make significant changes is getting critically late. Ebay management is too stubborn to admit what they have done, and I don't see any hint that they would reverse some of these policy decisions. The first thing that would be needed would be management admitting they made a mistake, and I see nothing that would lead one to think that was the case. They are going to 'fiddle, while Rome burns', it looks like to me.

    Sell Ebay, buy Amazon, is the right trade, it looks like to me. Or short ebay, long amazon, as one might prefer to play it. Certainly not long ebay.
    Aug 18 12:02 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • A Stockholder, and Merchant, Loses Confidence in eBay
    I am a 12+ year seller on ebay, with 99.9% postive feedback, generating approx $50-60,000 per year in sales, and I am short EBAY. There is no way these current policies are going to generate increased revenues for the company, and current management will not change if what they say is to be believed. (And if what they say is not to be believed, what does that say about the company?)
    Jun 16 05:52 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article

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