Been talking to several sellers in the highly competitive unique goods/collectible markets that still stupidly sell on ebay and they all seem to confirm the current form of attack from their competitors seems to be the return hit. Also the obvious DSR attack
Even though they are still getting the occasional irrational negative feedback, and all the other rubbish ebay have set up for the scum but now the increase of direct to ebay return requests seems to have risen to the extreme for most, if not all of them. These could be down to a change in customer but it does seem to correlate to a drop in the older attack methods and they all seem to go along the same lines, as if a format were being used.
What I have been told is that these hits seem more preferred due to the long term damage, as even if the account of the attacker gets closed down the damage of the return request is still effective and often greater than a negative feedback. Also unlike with negative feedback, there is no stain on the account, so you can use it to attack more sellers.
Now the way this system is supposed to work is that it is supposed to be the last port of call for the buyer that feels the seller is taking liberties. But as always with ebay there is nothing to stop the buyer going direct to the return request without contacting the buyer. Too many of these and the odd negative feedback and the smaller accounts will be limited and then eventually closed down with continued attack.for none performance.
The return demand can also be used instead of the NPB when you are selling the same item and the sellers is obviously going to get more money than you, as they are better than you. Instantly hike up the bid with two accounts, removing the got to have it buyers that tend to start bidding at a lower price.
These returns also have the added benefit of hiding your own feedback cleaning and over bids on your shills, as they also have to relist it after a sale and are often too afraid to mention what the problems were with the sale. So relisted goods become common place on ebay and make it easier for you to hide your own activities.
If they are stupid enough to mention your involvement in the previous sale, then use the other "ebay tool" (I'm not talking about Donahoe) and say to ebay that the item is counterfeit. It does not matter that it is real ebay will remove it without looking.
THE SCAM
There is also a clever little scam using, "seller=bad", "buyer=good" ebay idiot mentality, the ebay return what you like system and the ebay combined purchase system.
Where the buyer buys more than one item, then goes direct to ebay to demand return, and no matter what the seller has in their terms of sale you can use any reason you want for return. I don't assume ebay would mind if you wrote "competitive attack on another seller" but more likely you will say "changed my mind." But what you do here is put the claim in for both items.
The buyer will have no choice but to refund you and will more often than not use the combined payment as the return on paypal for both items. Now this will clear one of the items but not the second. So once you have been paid the full amount for both items you demand payment for the second item.
The seller will refuse, and try to explain to ebay that they have paid due to the combined payment for both items, which the ebay employee will obviously have no understanding of what the seller is talking about, using the ebay ethos "seller always bad", "buyer always good" and will hit the pay button for the second item. So ebay pay back the buyer for the second item and then demand that money from the seller. This demand, as always is final so you keep the money and the seller looses their money, which most buyers on ebay seem happy about, obviously if ebay is aiding the theft of the money, why wouldn't they. This is not some small company, this is the "massive ebay" that look after them, so this must be the right thing to do.
The defense, other than moving your sales to ebid.net and saving yourself the stress of selling on ebay, is to pay back the items individually as partial refunds. There is no defense against the return I am afraid other than sell more, so that it does not damage you.
This really should show you how little you are thought of by ebay, as this is not a complex thing to see happening, or to fix but I assume they really do think that a buyer can't be bad. But you could also be correct in thinking what do they care, as it is not their money they are giving away and even a bad buyer that is only out to scam the seller is better than none at all. They will definitely tell all their friends about it who will also come to use the ebay system. Isn't that great?????
Showing posts with label selling online. Show all posts
Showing posts with label selling online. Show all posts
Friday, 16 July 2010
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
eBay seller fined in court for bidding against himself to rig online auctions
Jul 6 2010 Dave Higgens
A CROOKED eBay seller who rigged his own auctions has been fined £3500 and given 250 hours community service.Paul Barrett is the first person in Britain to land in court for putting goods on eBay then bidding on them himself to drive up their prices. He was also hit with a costs bill of nearly £1500.
Judge Peter Benson told the fraudster: "It is an obviously dishonest practice, whichever way one looks at it."
He added that Barrett's lack of a record for dishonesty had saved him from going to jail.
Married dad-of-one Barrett, 39, used eBay to sell lots including two Mercedes vehicles, a Land Rover, a pie and pasty warmer, three mobile phones and a digital camera.
Bradford Crown Court heard he had two eBay user names - "paulthebusman" and "shanconpaul". He would set up auctions using one name and bid in them using the other. If he ended up making the winning bid, he would leave feedback on the site praising himself. Harvey Murray, prosecuting, told the court that the pie and pasty warmer had been set to sell on eBay for £74. But Barrett placed five bids himself just before the sale closed and it eventually sold for £127.
Trading Standards began investigating Barrett after an eBay customer complained he had been sold a "clocked" minibus. The bus had been advertised with a mileage of 55,000 but had actually done 132,000.
Officers looked into Barrett's eBay deals and discovered the "shill" bidding. Both his user names were traced to the same computer.
The full story here
My Opinion
I just love this story, as you can see ebay has no involvement in catching the offender, who was ripping off those poor customers. The customers concerned did not even know that they had been ripped off, as ebay had done so much to hide the fact, possibly because it would interfere with what equates to a protection racket, where sellers have to buy their own goods using alias accounts to clean up their feedback as they struggle to live up to the unrealistic expectations of ebays feedback system. Which all means more money for ebay.
The ebay response
An eBay spokeswoman said the site used the latest technology to track down "shill" bidders. She added: "We are extremely pleased with Paul Barrett's sentence."
So no mention of why they did not catch this one then?and he was not using any of the things that others have said you need to get past ebays "brilliant security" LOL.
Shill bidding is a common part of ebay, along with other dubious practices like attacking anyone that dares to compete or to use alias accounts to clean up the feedback. All ebay have ever done to stop it was to make it easier and to offer more encouragement to those sellers that are willing to pay the extra fees.
Take some advice and no matter if you are buyer or seller move to ebid.net and tell those that you buy from or sell to to do the same. Eventually ebay will get the message and go away to the tax collector in the sky.
Always wanting to end on a happy note. I know of several sellers that are using aliases to clean up their accounts attack other sellers and more than likely shill bid their customers and before there was nothing you could do about it, as we all know ebay did nothing about it when you did. But now you can hand that information over to Trading Standards http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/ and let them deal with it.
I know you may feel you don't care about this, as you have moved on from ebay but you are wrong, as this is going to damage all online auction sales where ever you go, as looking at some of the responses on forums and other places over this matter, then people seemed to accept it as the norm, as if it were something we all knew was happening and accepted it. What happens to online sales if that spills outside of ebay and the buyers feel that is the norm?
One last point I thought was funny is that auctions on ebay were based on the same system as auctions in the UK with the buyer beware system, so that if you bought it then it was yours with no returns. Ebay removed that system and destroyed their auction business in doing so and now added the "buyer beware" term to the general use of ebay. Beware of those sellers second accounts.
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER !!
Just got this in an email and thought it was funny
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CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930's 1940's, 50's, 60's and early 70's ! First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer. Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.. Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds , KFC, Subway or Nandos. Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death! We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because...... WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY , no video/dvd films, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no Lawsuits from these accidents. Only girls had pierced ears! We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time... We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays, We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet! RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bully's always ruled the playground at school. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade' and 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla' We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL ! And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were. PS -The big type is because your eyes are not too good at your age anymore |
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Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Feb 18-25th 2008: Worldwide Ebay Strike
Here we Go Again?
I have just skipped that article that you can find if you do a google search, as I personally think boycotting ebay is a waste of your time. If you want to hurt ebay and those die hard sellers that act as if ebay can do no wrong, and it is all your fault then the answer is obvious. STOP PAYING THEM YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY AS BUYER OR SELLER TOTALLY AND FOR EVER. Easy as that. BUY and SELL somewhere else and if you see something you want and it is only available on ebay then say to the user "If you sold on ebid.net where I buy and sell then I would have bought that off you for a better price than you are going to get on here and it could have cost you nothing to sell it to me." But what do I know?
So here is an article that explains how some are looking at the changes and how little ebay management think of you and a little more from me at the bottom, as I can't resist a chance to rant.
"What a joke," commented one person on the eBay Seller Central forum, asking for advice about transferring the items from an eBay "store" to another auction site. Another suggested putting together an April Fool's Day protest.
eBay representatives say that these opinions come from the minority. "A lot of the sellers that we're talking to are very, very happy with these changes," said Todd Lutwak, eBay's senior director of seller experience. He said it gives a better array of options for different kinds of sellers. "What we've done with these price changes is, we've segmented the seller population and then we've provided those segments with what we feel are better options to meet their needs."
Here's the math: Individual eBay items with a starting price of 99 cents or less no longer have a listing fee, and if they don't sell, the seller pays nothing; but if they do sell, the final value fee is 9 percent with a maximum of US$50. Previously, it had been 8.75 percent for the first US$25, and 3.75 percent after that. For more serious eBay sellers who purchase subscriptions to run "stores", final value fees have been altered so that they start at a lower threshold, but in some cases can ultimately get higher. eBay piloted these changes in some European markets starting in 2008 (with success, representatives say), and later added some U.S.-based beta testers whom it's showcased in a new promotional site explaining it all, called "The Best Place To Sell".
"People who have store subscriptions, who sell thousands of items a month, are being advantaged," explained Alan Lewis, who worked at eBay as a product manager for five years and now serves as the platform manager for Auctiva, a site that makes tools for eBay sellers. "(This) continues the direction that they've been going for the past couple years, which is catering more and more to large sellers...It's something that makes sense for eBay. They just have to deal with the consequences. If they are bringing on larger sellers, there will be consequences for smaller sellers."
An eBay pundit who goes by the handle "AuctionWally" wrote a blog post in which he speculated that the fee changes "will benefit the savvy consumer of collectibles, antique and unique items as this plan brings a lot more product to the marketplace with low starting bids," and that "this stuff can be more like reading tea leaves than a flow chart, but it looks pretty good from an auction seller's perspective, and just as nice for most store sellers." Still, many of Wally's own commenters disagreed with him--some with extremely strong language.
Granted, when a company makes a product change announcement, it's the ticked-off ones who are the most vocal. But those dissatisfied sellers sure want to be heard.
"The lower announced listing fee decreases are absurdly trivial to the extreme, and will cause eBay to become more cluttered than ever with overpriced, worthless stuff that people will put purely on speculation that some fool will bite," an Alexandria, Virginia-based antiques dealer related to CNET in an e-mail. "I have been selling on eBay since 1997 and I know eBay like the back of my hand. It is a true love-hate relationship."
Any community site--particularly one where members may be making a profit by participating in that community--is sure to experience some dissent when changes are made. For eBay, however, the uproar from some sellers about this week's fee changes was more vociferous than usual. It amounted to Orwellian doublespeak, some claimed; and the "Best Place To Sell" microsite was little more than propaganda.
"Maybe eBay thinks a simple and transparent 'spin' that they are trying to offer will work--dropping their listing fees, which are small, and then upping the final sale fees from 3.5 percent to 9 percent--and just slip by all their sellers," said Northville, Mich.-based eBay seller Bill Wever, who says he has used the site for over a decade and owned eBay stock since its initial public offering in 1998, in an e-mail to ZDNet Asia's sister site CNET.
"After reading (this week's) announcement, I will be expanding my presence on other sites and will be significantly reducing my presence on eBay," another seller e-mailed to CNET on the same day the fee changes were announced. "It never ceases to amaze me that eBay management seems to dismiss or disregard how constant change negatively affects their fee-paying sellers. Last year, there were two major change announcements. This year there will be three."
At the center of the mayhem, really, is a problem that eBay has had a rough time with in recent years: It obviously wants to make a profit. That profit comes from commission fees, and those commission fees are biggest coming from the sales of relatively expensive goods by well-established sellers--many of whom pay a subscription to operate "stores". Hiking up listing fees has had a noticeable impact on eBay's quarterly earnings in the past.
"All the things that they've done in the past couple years have been to bring more large sellers onto the site and bring them the economic incentives to do so, and they really haven't done anything for small sellers," said Alan Lewis of Auctiva, which targets smaller-scale sellers.
And eBay has been feeling the pressure for years. It made some arguably poor acquisition choices in the past half-decade that ultimately resulted in the selling off of properties like Skype and StumbleUpon, all of which dealt a blow to shareholder confidence. Plus, online auctions are no longer the hub of deals that they used to be: An increasingly diverse cornucopia of e-commerce innovations has emerged in recent years, from handmade-goods emporium Etsy to fire-sale deal-a-day outlets like Woot and Gilt.
But the flip side of this is that eBay still has a lock on auctions. It smoked out much of its would-be competition years ago, and many of its sellers deal in niches that are better off operating as auctions rather than flat-fee sales that could be handled over Amazon or Craigslist. eBay can make many of these controversial descisions and rest assured that it still owns the market.
"All of us have been hoping for someone else, perhaps Google or Amazon, to step in and provide true competition, but that has not happened," said the antiques dealer from Alexandria. "It would require a huge investment to do a proper worldwide advertising campaign to get something going."
eBay admits that the most recent changes will make the auction process more expensive for some sellers, but stands by its decision.
"There are cases in which this new fee structure is actually more expensive than what they were paying before," admitted eBay's Lutwak, "but the fact is, what (the sellers) asked us for is they want the lower risk associated with lower fees on the front end, and that they were willing to pay the final fees."
eBay hopes to extend an olive branch in the form of new buyer-protection coverage that it says will make buyers more comfortable spending money on eBay, particularly in large amounts--and that sellers will make more money as a result. "Coupling these two messages not only shows that we're making some adjustments to the fee structure but that we're also making major investments as a company to ensure that our customers are coming back more," said Kellie Cobaugh, manager of the buyer protection program.
Article from here
ME AGAIN
More messing around, more increases and with more options to scam sellers for bad buyers. This is even more reason for users not to be there, as ebay no longer want those users that are both buyer and seller, as you read above from Kellie Cobaugh, manager of the buyer protection program.who says "we're also making major investments as a company to ensure that our customers are coming back more" They are talking about their customers who are now only buyers not the normal users on ebay that both buy and sell. I still can't see what they view those users that also sell as?
Great Really Great!
If you want to look through it and see what they are talking about then check here on ebay. If you can make sense of it when you consider the enforced free shipping and the fact that ebay is no longer a place you are guaranteed a sale of anything other than the start price if you get a sale at all then maybe you can let me know.
Not sure if there is going to be another boycott, I think most sellers have giving up caring enough to boycott ebay, and most will just float off to the alternatives like ebid.net where they really do offer free listing and those that should not stay and fight to stay will just fade away and stop selling as it becomes impossible to make a profit.
The normal suspects on PSU are voicing their opinion, as everyone expected them to, and I really do wonder how some can ignore the fact that there are very few buyers on ebay. Most users are both buyer and seller, so even if the changes ebay make do not effect their sales directly, they will eventually be effected by the loss of customers, that I have still not seen ebay do anything worthwhile to replace.
But if you are tired of ebays changes and attempts to get rid of you, then maybe this is a good time to jump ship completely and start setting up your stores on places like ebid.net, as the sellers that fight to stay with ebay will eventually find themselves with nothing.
But as always I will wish you good luck for the future.
I will see you back on ebid.net soon, as I am busy researching some marketing stuff with Social Networking like FaceBook that is taking up a lot more time than I had hoped, and looking at some new product lines that I may consider selling.
I have just skipped that article that you can find if you do a google search, as I personally think boycotting ebay is a waste of your time. If you want to hurt ebay and those die hard sellers that act as if ebay can do no wrong, and it is all your fault then the answer is obvious. STOP PAYING THEM YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY AS BUYER OR SELLER TOTALLY AND FOR EVER. Easy as that. BUY and SELL somewhere else and if you see something you want and it is only available on ebay then say to the user "If you sold on ebid.net where I buy and sell then I would have bought that off you for a better price than you are going to get on here and it could have cost you nothing to sell it to me." But what do I know?
So here is an article that explains how some are looking at the changes and how little ebay management think of you and a little more from me at the bottom, as I can't resist a chance to rant.
Is eBay facing seller revolt?
eBay's latest move, some of the auction site's devotees say, is straight out of the Ministry of Truth's playbook.
The company made an announcement last week about lowering the listing fees for items--even though, in many cases, final value fees will be raised. The company's discussion forums simmered with outrage over the executive decision, and frustration over the lack of other options for auction-style e-commerce.
"What a joke," commented one person on the eBay Seller Central forum, asking for advice about transferring the items from an eBay "store" to another auction site. Another suggested putting together an April Fool's Day protest.
eBay representatives say that these opinions come from the minority. "A lot of the sellers that we're talking to are very, very happy with these changes," said Todd Lutwak, eBay's senior director of seller experience. He said it gives a better array of options for different kinds of sellers. "What we've done with these price changes is, we've segmented the seller population and then we've provided those segments with what we feel are better options to meet their needs."
Here's the math: Individual eBay items with a starting price of 99 cents or less no longer have a listing fee, and if they don't sell, the seller pays nothing; but if they do sell, the final value fee is 9 percent with a maximum of US$50. Previously, it had been 8.75 percent for the first US$25, and 3.75 percent after that. For more serious eBay sellers who purchase subscriptions to run "stores", final value fees have been altered so that they start at a lower threshold, but in some cases can ultimately get higher. eBay piloted these changes in some European markets starting in 2008 (with success, representatives say), and later added some U.S.-based beta testers whom it's showcased in a new promotional site explaining it all, called "The Best Place To Sell".
"People who have store subscriptions, who sell thousands of items a month, are being advantaged," explained Alan Lewis, who worked at eBay as a product manager for five years and now serves as the platform manager for Auctiva, a site that makes tools for eBay sellers. "(This) continues the direction that they've been going for the past couple years, which is catering more and more to large sellers...It's something that makes sense for eBay. They just have to deal with the consequences. If they are bringing on larger sellers, there will be consequences for smaller sellers."
An eBay pundit who goes by the handle "AuctionWally" wrote a blog post in which he speculated that the fee changes "will benefit the savvy consumer of collectibles, antique and unique items as this plan brings a lot more product to the marketplace with low starting bids," and that "this stuff can be more like reading tea leaves than a flow chart, but it looks pretty good from an auction seller's perspective, and just as nice for most store sellers." Still, many of Wally's own commenters disagreed with him--some with extremely strong language.
Granted, when a company makes a product change announcement, it's the ticked-off ones who are the most vocal. But those dissatisfied sellers sure want to be heard.
"The lower announced listing fee decreases are absurdly trivial to the extreme, and will cause eBay to become more cluttered than ever with overpriced, worthless stuff that people will put purely on speculation that some fool will bite," an Alexandria, Virginia-based antiques dealer related to CNET in an e-mail. "I have been selling on eBay since 1997 and I know eBay like the back of my hand. It is a true love-hate relationship."
Any community site--particularly one where members may be making a profit by participating in that community--is sure to experience some dissent when changes are made. For eBay, however, the uproar from some sellers about this week's fee changes was more vociferous than usual. It amounted to Orwellian doublespeak, some claimed; and the "Best Place To Sell" microsite was little more than propaganda.
"Maybe eBay thinks a simple and transparent 'spin' that they are trying to offer will work--dropping their listing fees, which are small, and then upping the final sale fees from 3.5 percent to 9 percent--and just slip by all their sellers," said Northville, Mich.-based eBay seller Bill Wever, who says he has used the site for over a decade and owned eBay stock since its initial public offering in 1998, in an e-mail to ZDNet Asia's sister site CNET.
"After reading (this week's) announcement, I will be expanding my presence on other sites and will be significantly reducing my presence on eBay," another seller e-mailed to CNET on the same day the fee changes were announced. "It never ceases to amaze me that eBay management seems to dismiss or disregard how constant change negatively affects their fee-paying sellers. Last year, there were two major change announcements. This year there will be three."
At the center of the mayhem, really, is a problem that eBay has had a rough time with in recent years: It obviously wants to make a profit. That profit comes from commission fees, and those commission fees are biggest coming from the sales of relatively expensive goods by well-established sellers--many of whom pay a subscription to operate "stores". Hiking up listing fees has had a noticeable impact on eBay's quarterly earnings in the past.
"All the things that they've done in the past couple years have been to bring more large sellers onto the site and bring them the economic incentives to do so, and they really haven't done anything for small sellers," said Alan Lewis of Auctiva, which targets smaller-scale sellers.
And eBay has been feeling the pressure for years. It made some arguably poor acquisition choices in the past half-decade that ultimately resulted in the selling off of properties like Skype and StumbleUpon, all of which dealt a blow to shareholder confidence. Plus, online auctions are no longer the hub of deals that they used to be: An increasingly diverse cornucopia of e-commerce innovations has emerged in recent years, from handmade-goods emporium Etsy to fire-sale deal-a-day outlets like Woot and Gilt.
But the flip side of this is that eBay still has a lock on auctions. It smoked out much of its would-be competition years ago, and many of its sellers deal in niches that are better off operating as auctions rather than flat-fee sales that could be handled over Amazon or Craigslist. eBay can make many of these controversial descisions and rest assured that it still owns the market.
"All of us have been hoping for someone else, perhaps Google or Amazon, to step in and provide true competition, but that has not happened," said the antiques dealer from Alexandria. "It would require a huge investment to do a proper worldwide advertising campaign to get something going."
eBay admits that the most recent changes will make the auction process more expensive for some sellers, but stands by its decision.
"There are cases in which this new fee structure is actually more expensive than what they were paying before," admitted eBay's Lutwak, "but the fact is, what (the sellers) asked us for is they want the lower risk associated with lower fees on the front end, and that they were willing to pay the final fees."
eBay hopes to extend an olive branch in the form of new buyer-protection coverage that it says will make buyers more comfortable spending money on eBay, particularly in large amounts--and that sellers will make more money as a result. "Coupling these two messages not only shows that we're making some adjustments to the fee structure but that we're also making major investments as a company to ensure that our customers are coming back more," said Kellie Cobaugh, manager of the buyer protection program.
Article from here
ME AGAIN
More messing around, more increases and with more options to scam sellers for bad buyers. This is even more reason for users not to be there, as ebay no longer want those users that are both buyer and seller, as you read above from Kellie Cobaugh, manager of the buyer protection program.who says "we're also making major investments as a company to ensure that our customers are coming back more" They are talking about their customers who are now only buyers not the normal users on ebay that both buy and sell. I still can't see what they view those users that also sell as?
Great Really Great!
If you want to look through it and see what they are talking about then check here on ebay. If you can make sense of it when you consider the enforced free shipping and the fact that ebay is no longer a place you are guaranteed a sale of anything other than the start price if you get a sale at all then maybe you can let me know.
Not sure if there is going to be another boycott, I think most sellers have giving up caring enough to boycott ebay, and most will just float off to the alternatives like ebid.net where they really do offer free listing and those that should not stay and fight to stay will just fade away and stop selling as it becomes impossible to make a profit.
The normal suspects on PSU are voicing their opinion, as everyone expected them to, and I really do wonder how some can ignore the fact that there are very few buyers on ebay. Most users are both buyer and seller, so even if the changes ebay make do not effect their sales directly, they will eventually be effected by the loss of customers, that I have still not seen ebay do anything worthwhile to replace.
But if you are tired of ebays changes and attempts to get rid of you, then maybe this is a good time to jump ship completely and start setting up your stores on places like ebid.net, as the sellers that fight to stay with ebay will eventually find themselves with nothing.
But as always I will wish you good luck for the future.
I will see you back on ebid.net soon, as I am busy researching some marketing stuff with Social Networking like FaceBook that is taking up a lot more time than I had hoped, and looking at some new product lines that I may consider selling.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Succeeding in Your Business by Cliff Ennico
Ten New Year's Resolutions for 2010 (Part One)
A happy and prosperous 2010 to all my readers. As always this time of year, here are my 10 New Year's resolutions for business owners and self-employed professionals.
Update your Web presence. Look at your business website and make at least five changes that will make it more attractive, fun and "cool" to prospective customers. Post some content-rich articles answering commonly asked questions about what you do. Put some videos on your website (and post the videos on YouTube) demonstrating in an entertaining way how to do (or not to do) something. Start a "blog" or discussion group where your customers can talk to one another about the stuff you do, with you as the all-knowing "moderator." Most importantly, hire a search engine optimization consultant and learn what you can do to get your website higher in the Google search rankings.
At the same time, delete things from your website that are boring, difficult to access or not driven by your customers. If you are a lawyer or accountant, nobody cares what you look like or where you went to school, so get rid of the website photo and biography. Put up your fee schedule instead because clients do care about how much you are going to charge them for your services! Also, a little free advice on commonly asked questions wouldn't hurt.
Don't have a business website? Create one! People expect you to have one, and it dings your credibility if you don't. Make sure your Web address appears on all of your business cards, stationery, telephone answering message, the signature line on your e-mail messages, and all offline marketing materials (such as the stenciling on your car or van).
Find three new places to sell stuff online. E-commerce is evolving rapidly right now, and the goal is "ubiquity" — promoting your goods and services in as many places as possible. Are you selling on eBay but are not happy with recent changes benefiting buyers and bigger sellers? Learn how to sell on Amazon, Yahoo and other online retail sites that still treat the "Mom and Pop" retailer with respect. Start listing your stuff on some of the "eBay clone" sites that many smaller eBay sellers are migrating to, such as www.bonanzle.com, www.ebid.com and www.ubid.com. If you sell antiques and collectibles, look for collectors associations online — they usually have a website and will post your ads for free if you agree to become a member or write a couple of articles for them.
If your market is primarily local, list your goods and services on the Craigslist site for the region or subregion nearest you (just stay away from the "personals" section).
Learn the meaning of "marketainment." As people are increasingly bombarded with media 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year, and as their attention spans grower shorter and shorter, they expect more from you than advertising. They want a show! And you have to provide it for them. Whenever you're selling anything, online or otherwise, you are in "show business." Your message must be memorable, entertaining and "fun" in order to stick in people's heads.
Create a "blog" and post it on your website. Create a crazy, offbeat instructional video and post it on YouTube. Get involved in discussion forums on eBay, Craigslist — heck, anywhere there are people who share your interests, passions or personality. If people like you, they will want to know more about you and what you do. Show people you share, or at least empathize, with their fears and passions (what turns them on, and what keeps them awake at nights), and they will like you. Oh, and don't forget to talk about the stuff you're selling online that will either turn them on or help them sleep better at night.
The rest of the article here
A happy and prosperous 2010 to all my readers. As always this time of year, here are my 10 New Year's resolutions for business owners and self-employed professionals.
Update your Web presence. Look at your business website and make at least five changes that will make it more attractive, fun and "cool" to prospective customers. Post some content-rich articles answering commonly asked questions about what you do. Put some videos on your website (and post the videos on YouTube) demonstrating in an entertaining way how to do (or not to do) something. Start a "blog" or discussion group where your customers can talk to one another about the stuff you do, with you as the all-knowing "moderator." Most importantly, hire a search engine optimization consultant and learn what you can do to get your website higher in the Google search rankings.
At the same time, delete things from your website that are boring, difficult to access or not driven by your customers. If you are a lawyer or accountant, nobody cares what you look like or where you went to school, so get rid of the website photo and biography. Put up your fee schedule instead because clients do care about how much you are going to charge them for your services! Also, a little free advice on commonly asked questions wouldn't hurt.
Don't have a business website? Create one! People expect you to have one, and it dings your credibility if you don't. Make sure your Web address appears on all of your business cards, stationery, telephone answering message, the signature line on your e-mail messages, and all offline marketing materials (such as the stenciling on your car or van).
Find three new places to sell stuff online. E-commerce is evolving rapidly right now, and the goal is "ubiquity" — promoting your goods and services in as many places as possible. Are you selling on eBay but are not happy with recent changes benefiting buyers and bigger sellers? Learn how to sell on Amazon, Yahoo and other online retail sites that still treat the "Mom and Pop" retailer with respect. Start listing your stuff on some of the "eBay clone" sites that many smaller eBay sellers are migrating to, such as www.bonanzle.com, www.ebid.com and www.ubid.com. If you sell antiques and collectibles, look for collectors associations online — they usually have a website and will post your ads for free if you agree to become a member or write a couple of articles for them.
If your market is primarily local, list your goods and services on the Craigslist site for the region or subregion nearest you (just stay away from the "personals" section).
Learn the meaning of "marketainment." As people are increasingly bombarded with media 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year, and as their attention spans grower shorter and shorter, they expect more from you than advertising. They want a show! And you have to provide it for them. Whenever you're selling anything, online or otherwise, you are in "show business." Your message must be memorable, entertaining and "fun" in order to stick in people's heads.
Create a "blog" and post it on your website. Create a crazy, offbeat instructional video and post it on YouTube. Get involved in discussion forums on eBay, Craigslist — heck, anywhere there are people who share your interests, passions or personality. If people like you, they will want to know more about you and what you do. Show people you share, or at least empathize, with their fears and passions (what turns them on, and what keeps them awake at nights), and they will like you. Oh, and don't forget to talk about the stuff you're selling online that will either turn them on or help them sleep better at night.
The rest of the article here
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Christmas postal strike postponed
Thu 05 Nov 2009
LONDON (SHARECAST) - The prospect of major disruption to Christmas post receded today as the Post Office workers called off their planned strike tomorrow and Monday to allow talks to resume with management over modernisation plans.TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the decision had been made to provide "a period of calm" to enable a long-term deal to be thrashed out, though he added agreement over a deal remained a long way away.
Communications Workers Union deputy general secretary Dave Ward said the decision to end the strike action had been unanimously agreed by its executive board.
"We can now have a period of calm where we hope we can genuinely take forward modernisation in a way that puts the union at the centre," he said.
"It will take exceptional efforts to rebuild trust," he said. "But we will work very hard to ensure that the agreement stays on track," he added.
More here
Thursday, 29 October 2009
is ebid.nets good news of three million listings being hidden?
I know most people like a who done it, so here is one for you.
This blog post popped up in my google news stuff for ebid.net and it shows this link
http://thingstosellonebay.net/ebay-alternative-other-places-to-sell-and-buy-online/
As you can see I made some changes to the original spam of the article, I marked out the first few in red to point that out what I have changed. Basically changing ebay to ebad and then changing ebid to ebid.net
Currently is eBad is the biggest player in the online auction and e-commerce game. But things are shifting and these shifts are not necessarily in Ebad’s favor. (Though eBad remains a great way to make money — as well as a great place to find great stuff at a great place, many are looking for an eBad alternative.) Now is that a marketing line or not?
The reasons for this are several fold. But the number of reason people are looking for alternatives to eBad is that eBad has made several changes in the past couple of years. The most important of these for sellers has been the initiation of new fees for listings. As a seller you will have to pay a fee when you list your item as well as when it sells. If it doesn’t sell, you still owe Ebad for the listing fee.
There are other reasons people are looking else where as well. These include buyers who have grown weary of the old Ebad style of business. Despite the fact that there are well over 100 million eBad users, the company’s growth has slowed and people (both buyers and sellers) are finding new sites to do business.
There have been alternatives to Ebad which have cropped up in the past, Yahoo!Auctions is a good example, but many of these were not successful in part because most everyone was pretty happy at Ebad. Today, many folks are looking elsewhere, so if you are looking for an alternative to sell your products, here are a few of the best options.
eBid.net
My favorite non-Ebad e-commerce site is the fast-growing eBid.net for a couple of simple reasons. First, and most importantly, my stuff has sold well there even though it is still a much smaller marketplace than Ebad. But it’s growth quarter over quarter has been phenomenal.
The other reason why Ebid.net rules is that they do not have any listing fees so your costs will be lower. Some sellers use the lower costs to offer buyers better deals, but most simply pocket the difference and improve their margins. In fact, some people that I know use both eBid.net and eBad for simultaneous listings and to great effect. But, back to the listings.
On eBid.net you have the option to enroll to their basic or premium seller structure. As a basic seller you are charged 3% of the selling price per item. As a premium seller you can buy access to the site in chunks for a time. You simply pre-purchase access for a week or a month and can list and sell items during that period. It’s a hassle free way to do business and works for both volume sellers (who work as premium sellers) and smaller sellers (who operate under the basic plan).
But, clearly, the best thing about eBid.net is that there are not any listing fees. This is huge if you want to test out a market or have some items that you aren’t sure will sell. For this reason, eBid.net is my number one Ebad alternative.
Another option is netSpray which bills itself as the “Free Online Marketplace.” At netSpray there aren’t really any fees. You don’t face an insertion fee, a service fee, a final value fee or have to subscribe to the site in order to use it. Additionally, you can export your listings via a widget and place them in your own website or blog or on another site such as Facebook or MySpace. You can also include mini-listings of your item in emails if you have a newsletter or are an email marketer.
So those are a couple of options you might consider if you are looking for an ebad alternative. And of course there will always be new e-commerce sites popping up every now and again and I will do by best to keep you appraised of those. But, and here is my final word:
For most people eBad remains the best place to start out. If you are already a powerseller, you have the resources and background to conduct a successfully campaign on another site. However, if you are just looking to learn how to make money with auctions then eBad remains your best bet. Sure, sign up at eBid.net and netSpray but focus most of your efforts on Ebad. You can still make a lot of money on eBad if you are willing to learn the game and learn your market. Even in the face of new fees, most people are still doing well on eBad and will continue using the site.
You can read the rest if you follow the link and You can find the real ebid fees here http://uk.ebid.net/help_money.php and if you would like to know what ebid.net sellers are doing to promote their products without paying others money you can check here http://meetup.ebid.net/forumdisplay.php?f=131
Most ebid sellers do offer their goods cheaper than ebay. In fact if you search the blogs, almost every seller offers their goods cheaper on any other venue, including their own sites or auction sites like ebid.net. This is one of the problems ebay is trying to face, as they offer their powersellers around 20% discount, in a hope that their sellers would pass on the discounts to buyers. Problem is none of them did, so ebay had to start offering the discount coupons direct to the buyers, which also seemed to fail.
The only thing you may notice on ebid, is that sellers will list at the lowest price they want, as they are not restricted by the extortionate fees that ebay have for simply listing an item, and as everyone tells you, that ebid.net is the growing site, and the traffic is still building. So the start price will often be the end price, and unlike the hidden buyer system of ebay, if anyone shills on ebid they will be kicked, and unlike it seems on ebay, that will not depend who they are.
One or two of us tried to add a comment telling the writer of their error, but, as with so many of these ebay promo articles, the comments are ignored.
NOW THE PUZZLE
Now this is an ebay marketing blog, which is easy to see, as it has mentioned them more times than anyone would in a lifetime, and they offer ebid as their favourite alternative, my stuff has sold well on ebid.net. (Adding that red to indicate their clever use, or none use of the name when they mention that their stuff sold well on ebid.net. It is littered with that stuff)
Now there is so much that is puzzling me on this, so I may add to this page over the next few days, as I gather my thoughts.
But one of the puzzling things is this blog is basically a nothing blog, and by that I am not calling the writer, I just mean it has nothing on it to warrant its rating 1/10.
Then when I did a search for its back links
I got this
1 http://easywaytoebay.blogspot.com/ items to sell on ebay
2 http://4myc.com/?p=2004 things to sell on ebay
3 http://b2bshirts4u.com/?p=43 items to sell on ebay
4 http://www.submittolinkdirectory.com/Auctions/ Things to Sell on Ebay
5 http://ft8.org/detail/link-640.html
6 http://www.thinkrevs.com/category/online-business/
7 http://www.submittolinkdirectory.com/Auctions/eBay/ Things to Sell on Ebay
8 http://ezinearticles.com/?Best-Things-to-Sell-on-eBay&i.....
9 http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-Money-on-eBay-Wit.....
10 http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-a-Sustainable-Inc.....
11 http://www.scottsoloff.com/the-single-secret-to-buildin.....
12 http://www.auction-essentials.com/secure-your-financial.....
13 http://www.homebasedbusiness.1stforgen.com/achieve-fina.....
14 http://hubpages.com/hub/Things-to-Sell-on-Ebay things to sell on ebay
15 http://www.cmasterson.com/home-based-business/the-singl.....
16 http://www.cmasterson.com/38/home-based-business/the-si.....
17 http://www.printingaustralia.com.au/printing/business/t.....
18 http://www.printingaustralia.com.au/printing/business/a.....
19 http://bigebayprofits.blogspot.com/ things to sell on ebay
20 http://bigebayprofits.blogspot.com/2009/08/ebay-alterna.....
21 http://www.cash-mission.com/2009/08/16/secure-your-fina.....
22 http://www.cash-mission.com/2009/08/16/secure-your-fina.....
23 http://www.lcroskey.com/rss.php?c=691 items to sell on ebay
24 http://ft8.org/blogs/making_money/
25 http://auction-tips.datgms.net/?tag=internet-business products to sell on Ebay
26 http://bigebayprofits.blogspot.com/2009/08/is-there-sti.....
27 http://www.internetmarketingreview101.com/online-busine.....
28 http://shywriting.com/?cat=5
29 http://cheapest-wholesale-products.com/category/uncateg.....
30 http://emialcash.com/achieve-financial-freedom-with-a-s..... wholesale products to sell upon ebay
31 http://www.yoursrank.com/achieve-financial-freedom-with.....
32 http://www.cmasterson.com/achieve-financial-freedom-wit.....
33 http://www.deniseasinclair.com/the-single-secret-to-bui.....
34 http://www.auction-essentials.com/achieve-financial-fre.....
35 http://qualityarticlessite.com/secure-your-financial-fu.....
36 http://www.homebasedbusiness.1stforgen.com/secure-your-.....
37 http://www.cheapwebsitehostingaustralia.com.au/the-sing.....
38 http://www.cheapwebsitehostingaustralia.com.au/secure-y.....
39 http://ft8.org/blogs/making_money/?s=H&p=1
40 http://www.submittolinkdirectory.com/Auctions/eBay/Thin.....
41 http://www.onestoponlinebusiness.com/blog/index.php/tag.....
42 http://www.gogosun.net/computers_and_internet/world_wid.....
43 http://1aaadomains.com/blog/?p=1930 stuff to sell on ebay
44 http://www.cmasterson.com/tag/ebay/ items to sell on ebay
45 http://nichearticle.net/directory/category/Business/too.....
46 http://g-p-group.com/gpgblog/the-single-secret-to-build.....
47 http://www.cmasterson.com/the-single-secret-to-building.....
48 http://auction-tips.datgms.net/714/achieve-financial-fr.....
49 http://auction-tips.datgms.net/721/secure-your-financia.....
50 http://www.helpinyoursuccess.com/blogs/secure-your-fina.....
51 http://www.rekliarticles.com/business/secure-your-finan.....
52 http://www.submittolinkdirectory.com/home/consumer-info.....
53 http://resolutionsale.com/blog/2594/the-single-secret-t..... wholesale items to sell on ebay 83
54 http://www.hongkongawards.com/2009/08/secure-your-finan.....
55 http://www.artipot.com/articles/416964/achieve-financia..... wholesale products to sell on ebay 41
56 http://www.learningisfree.com/internet-business/ecommer.....
57 http://www.learningisfree.com/internet-business/ecommer.....
58 http://www.rhinopm.com/v9/content/view/15388/116/ wholesale products to sell on ebay 57
59 http://mantrauangsaya.co.cc/2009/09/06/make-money-onlin..... wholesale items to sell on ebay 110
60 http://www.kelseypub.com/blog/internetbusiness/ecommerc..... items to sell on ebay 246
61 http://www.kelseypub.com/blog/internetbusiness/ecommerc..... best wholesale products to sell on ebay 246
62 http://www.verygoodsearch.com/blog/internetbusiness/eco..... wholesale items to sell on ebay 213
63 http://www.theuniquearticle.com/achieve-financial-freed.....
64 http://bigebayprofits.blogspot.com/2009/08/ebay-brings-.....
65 http://www.bablouse.com/index.php?c=139 Things to Sell on Ebay 35
66 http://cheapest-wholesale-products.com/how-to-find-prod..... things to sell on ebay 26
67 http://www.lcroskey.com/blogs/making_money/ Things to Sell on Ebay 93
68 http://www.lcroskey.com/detail/link-9013.html Things to Sell on Ebay 61
69 http://directory.ezweb-tools.com/Gambling-Casinos/Inter..... Things to Sell on Ebay 57
70 http://auction-tips.datgms.net/tag/internet-business/ products to sell on Ebay 40
71 http://www.monsterlinkdirectory.com/Computers_and_Inter..... Things to Sell on Ebay 63
72 http://directory.ezweb-tools.com/Internet/Internet-Mark..... Things to Sell on Ebay 57
I left it in a bit of a mess at the bottom as I got bored cutting out the crap but I am sure you get a idea of the sites that they are back linked to, and what they do. You may not be able to do this again, as all the back link sites I checked today no longer show anything for this site.
The who is reads like this
Domain ID:
Domain Name: thingstosellonebay.net
Created On: 06-Jan-2009 00:00:00
Expiration Date: 06-Jan-2010 00:00:00
Sponsoring Registrar: 'Check Whois' (GODADDY) (GODADDY)
Status: client_delete_prohibited,client_renew_prohibited,c lient_transfer_prohibited,client_update_prohibited
Name Server: ns1249.hostgator.com
Name Server: ns1250.hostgator.com
Registrant Name: Bryan Stabile
Registrant Street1: 1013 Oaklands Dr
Registrant City: Round Rock
Registrant State/Province: Texas
Registrant Postal Code: 78681
Registrant Country: United States
Admin Name: Stabile Bryan
Admin Street1: Round Rock, Texas 78681
Admin Country: (512) 255-9879
Admin Email: bryanstabile@hotmail.com
Now there is the question of who done it and why?
Could it be that ebid.net has a lot of talk going on about the fact ebid.net are about to reach three million listings, and if you swamp the search engines, with professional use of search words and a forced 1/10 rating, then anything you write will be pushing the real story to the bottom of the listing, and people can be lazy, and not look further than page one.
netSpray by the way does not really look like an alternative selling venue, but is more some form of marketing tool, used by ebad sellers. Never heard of it so I may look at it later.
If you are new to online selling or an old hand, check out http://www.ebid.net
If you are new to selling, I can only advise you to stay away from ebay, if you are wanting a safe place to sell, as it has become a hard place for those that have been there for years and have seen it all. So I really do not know how hard it would be for someone new to selling to start up on ebay.
You will be better off going to ebid.net, where the sellers on the forum will help you all they can. Even if you sell what they sell, they will still offer guidance. Unlike ebay where if you sell what another user sells, then you will either be attacked for daring to offer the same goods, or they will use you for a supplier, while ebay hides your goods in the best match.
But if you have found this and are looking at the article above, then do your own research before taking anything as gospel, as there does seem to be a lot of misinformation flying around.
I may work on this again in the morning, but now it is late and I have had enough for the night.
But hopefully you ask the same question as I have is ebid.nets good news of three million listings being hidden, and by who?
This blog post popped up in my google news stuff for ebid.net and it shows this link
http://thingstosellonebay.net/ebay-alternative-other-places-to-sell-and-buy-online/
As you can see I made some changes to the original spam of the article, I marked out the first few in red to point that out what I have changed. Basically changing ebay to ebad and then changing ebid to ebid.net
Currently is eBad is the biggest player in the online auction and e-commerce game. But things are shifting and these shifts are not necessarily in Ebad’s favor. (Though eBad remains a great way to make money — as well as a great place to find great stuff at a great place, many are looking for an eBad alternative.) Now is that a marketing line or not?
The reasons for this are several fold. But the number of reason people are looking for alternatives to eBad is that eBad has made several changes in the past couple of years. The most important of these for sellers has been the initiation of new fees for listings. As a seller you will have to pay a fee when you list your item as well as when it sells. If it doesn’t sell, you still owe Ebad for the listing fee.
There are other reasons people are looking else where as well. These include buyers who have grown weary of the old Ebad style of business. Despite the fact that there are well over 100 million eBad users, the company’s growth has slowed and people (both buyers and sellers) are finding new sites to do business.
There have been alternatives to Ebad which have cropped up in the past, Yahoo!Auctions is a good example, but many of these were not successful in part because most everyone was pretty happy at Ebad. Today, many folks are looking elsewhere, so if you are looking for an alternative to sell your products, here are a few of the best options.
eBid.net
My favorite non-Ebad e-commerce site is the fast-growing eBid.net for a couple of simple reasons. First, and most importantly, my stuff has sold well there even though it is still a much smaller marketplace than Ebad. But it’s growth quarter over quarter has been phenomenal.
The other reason why Ebid.net rules is that they do not have any listing fees so your costs will be lower. Some sellers use the lower costs to offer buyers better deals, but most simply pocket the difference and improve their margins. In fact, some people that I know use both eBid.net and eBad for simultaneous listings and to great effect. But, back to the listings.
On eBid.net you have the option to enroll to their basic or premium seller structure. As a basic seller you are charged 3% of the selling price per item. As a premium seller you can buy access to the site in chunks for a time. You simply pre-purchase access for a week or a month and can list and sell items during that period. It’s a hassle free way to do business and works for both volume sellers (who work as premium sellers) and smaller sellers (who operate under the basic plan).
But, clearly, the best thing about eBid.net is that there are not any listing fees. This is huge if you want to test out a market or have some items that you aren’t sure will sell. For this reason, eBid.net is my number one Ebad alternative.
Another option is netSpray which bills itself as the “Free Online Marketplace.” At netSpray there aren’t really any fees. You don’t face an insertion fee, a service fee, a final value fee or have to subscribe to the site in order to use it. Additionally, you can export your listings via a widget and place them in your own website or blog or on another site such as Facebook or MySpace. You can also include mini-listings of your item in emails if you have a newsletter or are an email marketer.
So those are a couple of options you might consider if you are looking for an ebad alternative. And of course there will always be new e-commerce sites popping up every now and again and I will do by best to keep you appraised of those. But, and here is my final word:
For most people eBad remains the best place to start out. If you are already a powerseller, you have the resources and background to conduct a successfully campaign on another site. However, if you are just looking to learn how to make money with auctions then eBad remains your best bet. Sure, sign up at eBid.net and netSpray but focus most of your efforts on Ebad. You can still make a lot of money on eBad if you are willing to learn the game and learn your market. Even in the face of new fees, most people are still doing well on eBad and will continue using the site.
You can read the rest if you follow the link and You can find the real ebid fees here http://uk.ebid.net/help_money.php and if you would like to know what ebid.net sellers are doing to promote their products without paying others money you can check here http://meetup.ebid.net/forumdisplay.php?f=131
Most ebid sellers do offer their goods cheaper than ebay. In fact if you search the blogs, almost every seller offers their goods cheaper on any other venue, including their own sites or auction sites like ebid.net. This is one of the problems ebay is trying to face, as they offer their powersellers around 20% discount, in a hope that their sellers would pass on the discounts to buyers. Problem is none of them did, so ebay had to start offering the discount coupons direct to the buyers, which also seemed to fail.
The only thing you may notice on ebid, is that sellers will list at the lowest price they want, as they are not restricted by the extortionate fees that ebay have for simply listing an item, and as everyone tells you, that ebid.net is the growing site, and the traffic is still building. So the start price will often be the end price, and unlike the hidden buyer system of ebay, if anyone shills on ebid they will be kicked, and unlike it seems on ebay, that will not depend who they are.
One or two of us tried to add a comment telling the writer of their error, but, as with so many of these ebay promo articles, the comments are ignored.
NOW THE PUZZLE
Now this is an ebay marketing blog, which is easy to see, as it has mentioned them more times than anyone would in a lifetime, and they offer ebid as their favourite alternative, my stuff has sold well on ebid.net. (Adding that red to indicate their clever use, or none use of the name when they mention that their stuff sold well on ebid.net. It is littered with that stuff)
Now there is so much that is puzzling me on this, so I may add to this page over the next few days, as I gather my thoughts.
But one of the puzzling things is this blog is basically a nothing blog, and by that I am not calling the writer, I just mean it has nothing on it to warrant its rating 1/10.
Then when I did a search for its back links
I got this
1 http://easywaytoebay.blogspot.com/ items to sell on ebay
2 http://4myc.com/?p=2004 things to sell on ebay
3 http://b2bshirts4u.com/?p=43 items to sell on ebay
4 http://www.submittolinkdirectory.com/Auctions/ Things to Sell on Ebay
5 http://ft8.org/detail/link-640.html
6 http://www.thinkrevs.com/category/online-business/
7 http://www.submittolinkdirectory.com/Auctions/eBay/ Things to Sell on Ebay
8 http://ezinearticles.com/?Best-Things-to-Sell-on-eBay&i.....
9 http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-Money-on-eBay-Wit.....
10 http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-a-Sustainable-Inc.....
11 http://www.scottsoloff.com/the-single-secret-to-buildin.....
12 http://www.auction-essentials.com/secure-your-financial.....
13 http://www.homebasedbusiness.1stforgen.com/achieve-fina.....
14 http://hubpages.com/hub/Things-to-Sell-on-Ebay things to sell on ebay
15 http://www.cmasterson.com/home-based-business/the-singl.....
16 http://www.cmasterson.com/38/home-based-business/the-si.....
17 http://www.printingaustralia.com.au/printing/business/t.....
18 http://www.printingaustralia.com.au/printing/business/a.....
19 http://bigebayprofits.blogspot.com/ things to sell on ebay
20 http://bigebayprofits.blogspot.com/2009/08/ebay-alterna.....
21 http://www.cash-mission.com/2009/08/16/secure-your-fina.....
22 http://www.cash-mission.com/2009/08/16/secure-your-fina.....
23 http://www.lcroskey.com/rss.php?c=691 items to sell on ebay
24 http://ft8.org/blogs/making_money/
25 http://auction-tips.datgms.net/?tag=internet-business products to sell on Ebay
26 http://bigebayprofits.blogspot.com/2009/08/is-there-sti.....
27 http://www.internetmarketingreview101.com/online-busine.....
28 http://shywriting.com/?cat=5
29 http://cheapest-wholesale-products.com/category/uncateg.....
30 http://emialcash.com/achieve-financial-freedom-with-a-s..... wholesale products to sell upon ebay
31 http://www.yoursrank.com/achieve-financial-freedom-with.....
32 http://www.cmasterson.com/achieve-financial-freedom-wit.....
33 http://www.deniseasinclair.com/the-single-secret-to-bui.....
34 http://www.auction-essentials.com/achieve-financial-fre.....
35 http://qualityarticlessite.com/secure-your-financial-fu.....
36 http://www.homebasedbusiness.1stforgen.com/secure-your-.....
37 http://www.cheapwebsitehostingaustralia.com.au/the-sing.....
38 http://www.cheapwebsitehostingaustralia.com.au/secure-y.....
39 http://ft8.org/blogs/making_money/?s=H&p=1
40 http://www.submittolinkdirectory.com/Auctions/eBay/Thin.....
41 http://www.onestoponlinebusiness.com/blog/index.php/tag.....
42 http://www.gogosun.net/computers_and_internet/world_wid.....
43 http://1aaadomains.com/blog/?p=1930 stuff to sell on ebay
44 http://www.cmasterson.com/tag/ebay/ items to sell on ebay
45 http://nichearticle.net/directory/category/Business/too.....
46 http://g-p-group.com/gpgblog/the-single-secret-to-build.....
47 http://www.cmasterson.com/the-single-secret-to-building.....
48 http://auction-tips.datgms.net/714/achieve-financial-fr.....
49 http://auction-tips.datgms.net/721/secure-your-financia.....
50 http://www.helpinyoursuccess.com/blogs/secure-your-fina.....
51 http://www.rekliarticles.com/business/secure-your-finan.....
52 http://www.submittolinkdirectory.com/home/consumer-info.....
53 http://resolutionsale.com/blog/2594/the-single-secret-t..... wholesale items to sell on ebay 83
54 http://www.hongkongawards.com/2009/08/secure-your-finan.....
55 http://www.artipot.com/articles/416964/achieve-financia..... wholesale products to sell on ebay 41
56 http://www.learningisfree.com/internet-business/ecommer.....
57 http://www.learningisfree.com/internet-business/ecommer.....
58 http://www.rhinopm.com/v9/content/view/15388/116/ wholesale products to sell on ebay 57
59 http://mantrauangsaya.co.cc/2009/09/06/make-money-onlin..... wholesale items to sell on ebay 110
60 http://www.kelseypub.com/blog/internetbusiness/ecommerc..... items to sell on ebay 246
61 http://www.kelseypub.com/blog/internetbusiness/ecommerc..... best wholesale products to sell on ebay 246
62 http://www.verygoodsearch.com/blog/internetbusiness/eco..... wholesale items to sell on ebay 213
63 http://www.theuniquearticle.com/achieve-financial-freed.....
64 http://bigebayprofits.blogspot.com/2009/08/ebay-brings-.....
65 http://www.bablouse.com/index.php?c=139 Things to Sell on Ebay 35
66 http://cheapest-wholesale-products.com/how-to-find-prod..... things to sell on ebay 26
67 http://www.lcroskey.com/blogs/making_money/ Things to Sell on Ebay 93
68 http://www.lcroskey.com/detail/link-9013.html Things to Sell on Ebay 61
69 http://directory.ezweb-tools.com/Gambling-Casinos/Inter..... Things to Sell on Ebay 57
70 http://auction-tips.datgms.net/tag/internet-business/ products to sell on Ebay 40
71 http://www.monsterlinkdirectory.com/Computers_and_Inter..... Things to Sell on Ebay 63
72 http://directory.ezweb-tools.com/Internet/Internet-Mark..... Things to Sell on Ebay 57
I left it in a bit of a mess at the bottom as I got bored cutting out the crap but I am sure you get a idea of the sites that they are back linked to, and what they do. You may not be able to do this again, as all the back link sites I checked today no longer show anything for this site.
The who is reads like this
Domain ID:
Domain Name: thingstosellonebay.net
Created On: 06-Jan-2009 00:00:00
Expiration Date: 06-Jan-2010 00:00:00
Sponsoring Registrar: 'Check Whois' (GODADDY) (GODADDY)
Status: client_delete_prohibited,client_renew_prohibited,c lient_transfer_prohibited,client_update_prohibited
Name Server: ns1249.hostgator.com
Name Server: ns1250.hostgator.com
Registrant Name: Bryan Stabile
Registrant Street1: 1013 Oaklands Dr
Registrant City: Round Rock
Registrant State/Province: Texas
Registrant Postal Code: 78681
Registrant Country: United States
Admin Name: Stabile Bryan
Admin Street1: Round Rock, Texas 78681
Admin Country: (512) 255-9879
Admin Email: bryanstabile@hotmail.com
Now there is the question of who done it and why?
Could it be that ebid.net has a lot of talk going on about the fact ebid.net are about to reach three million listings, and if you swamp the search engines, with professional use of search words and a forced 1/10 rating, then anything you write will be pushing the real story to the bottom of the listing, and people can be lazy, and not look further than page one.
netSpray by the way does not really look like an alternative selling venue, but is more some form of marketing tool, used by ebad sellers. Never heard of it so I may look at it later.
If you are new to online selling or an old hand, check out http://www.ebid.net
If you are new to selling, I can only advise you to stay away from ebay, if you are wanting a safe place to sell, as it has become a hard place for those that have been there for years and have seen it all. So I really do not know how hard it would be for someone new to selling to start up on ebay.
You will be better off going to ebid.net, where the sellers on the forum will help you all they can. Even if you sell what they sell, they will still offer guidance. Unlike ebay where if you sell what another user sells, then you will either be attacked for daring to offer the same goods, or they will use you for a supplier, while ebay hides your goods in the best match.
But if you have found this and are looking at the article above, then do your own research before taking anything as gospel, as there does seem to be a lot of misinformation flying around.
I may work on this again in the morning, but now it is late and I have had enough for the night.
But hopefully you ask the same question as I have is ebid.nets good news of three million listings being hidden, and by who?
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
The lunatics have taking over the asylum or ebay
Ebay seems to have taking over the clawback procedure, and as always they have their own idea of how you should read the distance selling regulations, or will just blatantly ignore them,
Ebays links you to this:
So if you need an auction, where you are assured that the idiot is not going to come back 35 days later after they have tried to sell the item, and failed, and then asked ebay for their money back then go to http://www.ebid.net/, where auctions still work.
Ebays links you to this:
Your legal rights and obligations
The Distance Selling Regulations 2000 generally apply to sales to consumers made by sellers acting in the course of a business, which have been made at a distance. In other words, where there's no face-to-face contact between the seller and the consumer before the contract is made.
The Distance Selling Regulations apply to items purchased via Buy It Now listings and Second Chance Offers on eBay.co.uk. However, they don't apply to auction format listings on eBay.co.uk.
These regulations provide a period of 7 working days after the date of receipt within which the consumer can cancel the contract (often referred to as the "cooling off" period) and get their money back, including the original postage and packing charges.
The consumer can be asked to return the goods at their own expense, but only if the seller informed them of this requirement before the contract was made (otherwise, the seller is responsible for collecting the goods).
This right of cancellation does not apply to:
Custom-made goods - Goods which are tailored to your own specifications (such as custom-made wedding gown).
Goods that by reason of their nature cannot be returned – This covers medication for example.
Perishable goods - like fresh foods or flowers.
Sealed items, which have been unsealed - audio or video recordings or computer software that you have unsealed.
newspapers, periodicals or magazines
Accommodation, transport, catering or leisure services - where the seller has agreed to supply the service on a set date or within a set time period (for example hotel accommodation; plane, train, or concert tickets; car hire; tickets to sporting events).
The regulations above only apply to a business seller – consumer buyer transactions. However, even a consumer seller is required to ensure that correctly describe the item. Learn more about returns and your legal rights and obligations
As you can see Auctions are excluded, and are supposed to be excluded on ebay UK but, you think sellers are going to be allowed to use that. Not in this lifetime.So if you need an auction, where you are assured that the idiot is not going to come back 35 days later after they have tried to sell the item, and failed, and then asked ebay for their money back then go to http://www.ebid.net/, where auctions still work.
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