o.c.d.collectibles

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    • Mon Oct 27th 00:52 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Skype's the Limit
      The few ebay cheerleaders left have so much hope, it's a real shame they have to be disappointed in ebay's core crumbling down to the lowest of low stock prices it's ever seen in 7 years. I expect that so many folks have lost at least 1/2 of their initial investment, and some even more than that. What a shame! And to think the stock will tank even further is almost painful just to think about, these days. And the CEO's can't even figure out what to do about it. Instead they continue to make impulsive un-thought-out decisions that continue to cover up the bad decisions they have already made too quickly. What a shame! Ebay used to be a booming growing company, made up of the most diligent and hard working sellers. Most are packing their bags and leaving. They can't really benefit from Skype anyway, it never took hold on the site itself. Paypal was a lucky fluke for ebay. They have no business investing in anything BUT their failing and crumbling core.The recent loan to purchase yet another loser company was yet another big blunder..but these poor decisions continue until someone with vision is able to put a stop to this madness and rid the site of the poorest management anyone has ever seen in recent days.

      Noteably, the collectibles, antiques and vintage items sellers have been busy on Etsy's new vintage venue that they have offered to the ebay immigrants who have just arrived, ready to go to work selling again...the site is just recently booming with attention and page visits, as can be seen in this site comparison chart. siteanalytics.compete....

      It does not appear to be hurting Etsy's site that the economy is weak right now. Lots of items being listed and lots of seller support there! Very Impressive! Go Etsy!
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    • Mon Oct 27th 00:19 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay Q3: What it Means for Sellers
      By the way, Etsy is very supportive of it's sellers, as are all the other sites they (the ex-ebayers) are fleeing to. You might want to pass that along, Scott. I'm not so sure it's just the quarterly reports and the analysts who have noticed ebay is slightly lacking in it's organizational structure.
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    • Mon Oct 27th 00:15 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay Q3: What it Means for Sellers
      Well, it looks like the stock has lost another 10 points since your article 9/6/08. Hopefully, you didn't have TOO much invested in this company. I could see buying a bunch of it at $5 a share, which I'm sure it will be shortly when all the rest of the "flea market sellers" who make "noise" pack their bags and leave. I would expect that someone will come around and eventually pick up all the broken pieces of core ebay when someone finally gets the intelligent idea to get rid of the present CEO's who have ripped the foundation out from under the ebay marketplace.

      I suppose the decision making strategies should slow down a bit during the holiday season, but most likely they won't because Mr Donahoe doesn't have a clue about basic management policy execution. He'll end up doing something else that's stupid, that's a "given". I think we are all familiar with his hatred of vintage antiques and collectibles auctions so we all know where the sellers of those things will be going.

      It appears that Etsy is booming in site visits and time spent by visitors on that site. What a genius thing to make a whole section devoted just to antiques, vintage, and collectibles! That sure makes it much easier for ebayers to get set up again where they left off when they were run off of the ebay site.

      Check out the compete site siteanalytics.compete....
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    • Mon Oct 6th 18:22 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Big eBay Developments: Layoffs, Gobbles Up BillMeLater
      This comes as no surprise. Ebay is well known for their predatory practices, only now it will be inflicted on their prized posessions, the buyers! No wonder they consider the buyers "their customers"! That makes sense!

      Ebay has been so good at extracting money from people's pockets, it's a wonder they don't change their name to "pick-pocket pal" and just forgo the whole retail and auction business! What do they need it for? They can prey on buyers anywhere now, and the quality of the users of this service will be like people usually are when they max out credit cards! (irresponsible and impulsive).

      These are not the kinds of customers most of us seasoned and moderate sellers would want, but for ebay, it might just be right up their alley! They might want to think about purchasing a collection agency too! They can call that "e-collect pal".LOL!

      The news didn't do much for the stock which is now hovering in the 17's now. I don't think losing all those employees will affect much, in the way of customer service. There isn't any customer service, at all, anyway, so no one will even notice.

      I suppose the individual sellers will have to accept "bill me later" too? Does that mean that they can wait even longer to get paid than when they have to wait for paypal to release their funds, after holding those funds, for no good reason?: I wonder?

      Anyone who would give their ssn to get "credit" online from a company that deals with "non credit card customers" will be in for a big surprise, and will end up causing more headaches than they are worth. You have to think about the profile of a person who would use that kind of service. it wouldn't be someone of any significant wealth, that's for sure!LOL!

      Good luck to ebay, and may all of their deals be just as economical!
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    • Fri Oct 3rd 09:56 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Consumer Discretionary Firms Under Increasing Pressure
      Ebay has been masking their core business failure with paypal.All their antiques and collectibles sellers are leaving, or have already left, and are doing quite well elsewhere, where these types of products are recession proof. Not so for retail consumer products. Ebay now has a complete catalog of CD's and appliances just like Walmart. Maybe Walmart can buy them out, then JD can return to his home base.
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    • Fri Oct 3rd 09:29 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay Down Further as Morgan Stanley Downgrades
      The collectibles and antiques marketplace are what gave ebay it's distinction and attraction for the unusual and hard to find items. The minute it became retail it started to lose it's mystique. The millions of antique dealers are now spreading to sites that appreciate their business and treat them accordingly, for the same amount of fees that ebay now demands from it's sellers.Only now they can have customer service, something ebay has NONE of. The network of Worthpoint and it's merger with GoAntiques will be the final nail in ebay's coffin once it gets the technology going for the auctions that ebay no longer wants. As it is now, all of the affiliated sales venues with worthpoint are doing very well, including TIA's which is growing in leaps and bounds, as are the sales and listings on GoAntiques. Ebay will be devoid of anything special or hard to find on it's site. Instead it will have tons of walmart stuff with higher prices, and the new BIG retail sellers will be taking their business to their outside sales venues after the ebay technological problems start to surface for them too!
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    • Fri Oct 3rd 09:15 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Innovate or Die: eBay at a Crossroads
      Ebay's stock price should speak for itself, now. Ebay was ALREADY a disruptive innovation in an of itself. What it needed was NOT disruptive innovation again, but SUSTAINING innovation. In addressing the customers, they needed to address the REAL customers, the sellers! Without the auction sellers, they will have no magnet to draw buyers in. Ebay does not deliver a good product to it's sellers, the folks they sell space to.

      They should have built UP the auction business by separating it from the "buy it now" model. and they needed to eliminate the sniping software on the site for bidding, because that was the source that created the unhappy bidders who were unable to compete and "win" auctions. The long time sellers who made the site what it is today should have been grandfathered in without having the ratings. Obviously, if they were with ebay for so long, they are worth keeping. The fact that ebay alineated it's best and most prolific antique sellers was the biggest mistake they could have ever made.They will live to regret it.

      The NEW disruptive innovator is worthpoint, and their acquisitions will take every last bit of ebay's auction business away, never to return, because the business will not be based on just profits, but the socialization of collecting and finding unusual and rare goods. That USED to be ebay's initial attraction and what made it such a huge success. Anyone can shop online at a discount retail site. They are everywhere, ad nauseaum. Ebay can now sit back and watch the antiques and collectibles business sellers AND buyers, run out the door.
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    • Tue Sep 30th 17:41 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Live Search Cashback and eBay Bucks: Review of Services
      If ebay just remained a simple program like it once was, it wouldn't cost so much to run it, there would be less WASTE on prgrams that either don't work, or people are just not caring enough to bother with them, or they are too ridiculous to be utilized by any normal person.

      Too much advertising, too much policy chaging, too much tech changing all at once, and too many CEO's and affiliates clogging up a nicely working system.

      Ebay: clean house. get rid of the dead wood management, go green, and stop micromanaging the customers. The destructive innovation model is useless in the context of your old company. "Simple" would be a better fit. Spend less, make more money by giving your customers, the sellers, good service.
      There is NO customer service now, and you can't very well expect the sellers to treat buyers any better if you can't do the same.

      the company is trashed. no bucks or rewards will attract people to your site. the good sellers have left and are still leaving.
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    • Wed Sep 24th 17:13 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      How Would an eBay Layoff Impact Sellers?
      Didn't they want to get rid of the individual sellers and just recruit the retailers? If that was the case, then there should be no problem, since the big retailers obviously know how to attract customers to ebay and to take care of their customers' complaints themselves. Then ebay won't need anyone for the support department, at least not for buyers, that is..they will need to have someone present to explain to the new sellers why ebay would be necessary in the first place, when the folks who used to attract buyers and shoppers, are all gone.

      Remember? The auction business and the rare, unusual, hard to find collectibles, used goods, and antiques were what ebay was famous for and what put them on the map. Since they will all be leaving to go to Worthpoint and GoAntiques, ebay won't have to use those sellers to bring in business, they can rely on the advertising schemes that Mr Wingo has sold them.

      So far I don't see that working very well. But I could be wrong. I guess we can wait and see what happens, in this case, watch the stock and the 3rd quarter reports as ebay tries to tread above water, as they sell ff bits and pieces of itself.

      Ebay cannot be amazon.Ebay cannot be Craigs, Ebay cannot be Nordstroms rack, or Filenes Basement, or CarMax. Ebay cannot have ads all over it's special auctions from people who spent hours putting together a nice template and nice photo, ebay cannot afford to pay so much to all their management employees and affiliated partners, when they need more help in technology. They don't need the ads, they need to maintain the best search engine around, not destroy it in order to gear up to be an online mall.

      Ebay is none of those things. They are an online auction site and an online auction community.

      Unfortunately, they have been run by non ebay sellers. That's why they are falling off their throne now, and will continue to fall as long as they follow the Walmart Nordstroms CarMax model, which they really have no experience in either.


      It is too late now, the process has begun, and the sellers who used to be the most loyal and long term participants and renters of ebay space will now be moving on to greener pastures. The exodus has been obvious, even though ebay is trying to cover it up with catalogs full of listings, that are not even selling, then covering up their deficits by selling off the junk(stumbleupon) that they bought as a mistake a few years ago..(or was that last year??)They can't cover up marketplaces with paypal's income. it will not be enough.Someone needs to ask ebay to break out the exact income of the core site, and report it with the cost of operating that site, not including all the decorative junk they add to it, to make it look like it's doing well. The stockholders deserve to know, and so do the new sellers who are entering this deteriorating minefield, only to find out that the attraction to ebay by buyers is not what it was, when they were signing up to join a community of auctions.


      The ad junk is junk, whether it is there, here, or any other site, No one really cares about it or uses it. Selling it to online business is a predatory practice that needs to stop, and remain on media sites only.If it was in the community forums that would be ok, but not on the business pages themselves. It's insulting and commercially wasted on folks who are ANNOYED by it.

      Anyway, the collectibles site that everyone will be going to is Worthpoint and GoAntiques. Ebay is only good at letting go of affiliates that are beneficial.What a terrible error in judgement! This will cost them dearly, and they still don't "get it"...well, It must have something to do with not wanting private companies around that they cannot control with their subversive policies...Good luck Scot, your days are numbered too.
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    • Wed Sep 24th 12:51 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay Looking to Sell StumbleUpon
      That being said, above, if ebay manages to go into recovery by giving up the bad parasitic advice they've been getting, then there might be a possiblity they can recover some of their status, but they will need to scale down considerably, and go back to their roots where they actually knew what to do, and that was, in the past, listen to the sellers, then...get rid of the ad word junk all over their site.There was nothing wrong with the up front fees being raise a few cents. They would not have lost customers over that. The high percentage of sales price? They will lose sellers for THAT! I refuse to list under those circumstances. I'm sure the big retailers that they now have on the site would NEVER get charged that kind of percentage of the sales..
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    • Wed Sep 24th 12:44 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay Looking to Sell StumbleUpon
      Why is all of this a surprise to the world?Ebay became what it "was" thanks to the online auctions it was the very first to succeed at. That is the one thing they abandoned, because the advertising parasites became a part of their entire genetic code. The sellers of these advertising services have been the modern day "Lucifer"to Ebay's execs. and caused the collapse of this company, with all of it's attending dunces who "bought into" all of the insanity that was sold to them. One of them writes articles here. Why that is, I guess we'll never know...but it matters not! Another company will take over where ebay left off, they are slowly gathering steam, and WILL BE providing the venue that was abandoned by ebay with slow and steady growth to their site at 5% a day. It is a privately owned company, otherwise I would stake a few grand on it at this time and date. Ebay stock?? No, not as long as Mr Wingo is part of the company's dealings.Poor choice, that's all I can say.

      Ebay should have "partnered" with a company like paltalk, a privately owned company who has the best of the worlds' communities viewing and being able to communicate in a "live" fashion. Ebay never had to purchase anything but paypal and even that is getting messed up by the poor ebay decison making skills of the CEO's who now operate at the helm.

      Whoever decided to hire them needs to fire them.Whoever they do business with now, needs to be halted until further actions are taken to rid the top execs from the site, and then let the poor place be for a while so it can settle from all the turmoil and painful mistakes it has made.

      I would not buy this stock now. The quarterlies are due in a few weeks and that will be even worse news, as well as added lies from the top execs there who mask the truth with paypal's successes. The new company who will steal all of the antiques and collectibles business from ebay will be ready to pick up all the lost sellers that ebay tossed off for having the "4's" that ebay states are "acceptable" to the buyer when pushing the buyer to click that number, but "NOT acceptable" to the seller when allowing them to remain on the site. They still need to re-define what a "4" is to both sellers and buyers, because there is misinformation there that has never been addressed. We're talking "simple" here, people, this is not rocket science!A number cannot have 2 definitions and be used as a grade for a fee paying seller.(thank goodness I stopped listing there too! I left my ratings all high!LOL!)
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    • Fri Sep 19th 01:02 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay Is a Losing Bid - Barron's
      Ebay is spinning down the drain at an alarming speed now. Due to the board of directors not caring about ebay's future,(since they already made their profits years ago), they allowed a very poor cast of characters to take over once Meg left. She left the place in a shambles with her mistaken purchase of Skype, and the CEO's don't even know what to do with it, except cover it with another bandaid, throwing good money after bad...

      Decisions are made in an uncoordinated and impulsive manner at the site's structure, adding incomplete and ineffective software "improvements&quo... that are actually crippling the listing power of all the sellers, including the ones who get to list free!

      The order of listings was supposedly based on some hair-brained idea of rating sellers on a scale that is irrelevant to the actual sale transaction itself, by buyers who are "ebay cued" into checking off ratings that they don't even understand the meaning of, especially as non ebayers who are new registrants.

      The search has been turned upside down over the last 3 days and sellers who have paid for their listings to show up, are not having that happen. This is not the first of the many mishaps that have been occurring over the last 6 months, in several, if not most, of the new "developer programming".

      Ebay uses some entry level folks to code and enter the new programs instead of hiring staff that is highly trained and tech savvy. Most of their money is wasted on poorly defined ad campaigns featured by advertising showmen, such as the writer Mr Wingo, that are linked to other sites by ad words and links to other stores who affiliate themselves with ebay.

      Ebay has become a commercial model of an advertising media site, and less of a search for the rarest and most unusual things anyone could ever find.Those days are gone. Ebay has no interest in the collectibles and antiques market, or in auctioning those sales on their site.

      In spite of the fact that most buyers come to the ebay site to look for items like that in the first place, the new CEO's do not understand the significance of that fact, and that without the sellers of those goods, there will be very little attraction to the site for just ipods and refrigerators that could be purchased at Best Buy.

      The largest groups of collectibles and antique sellers who sell the quality collectibles, are now joining the ranks of the online antique malls, opening stores at the high fee prices that now ebay charges it's smaller sellers. Why stay on ebay, for the same cost, when the seller can have a SECURE transaction with a customer who will be treated as no more than a customer of the seller, by the host site, and have the extra level playing field and support of the host site as an added bonus?



      Ebay does not deliver a product to it's customers, the sellers, that is high enough quality, for what it costs. Their selling product is overpriced, unsupported, and overly marginalizing the seller's efforts.

      Most of ebay's listings "numbers" are deceptively increased by having the entire contents of some new retailer's catalogs dumped into all the different core listings within the site, now meant to be sitting unsold for a month, and misleading the reports of increased value and listings, for investors to see. There are multiple member numbers also, since the encouragement of sellers and buyers to make up more ID's to avoid the negative comments that they had on their other ID's, were disadvantaging their listings preferences in order of rank.

      All in all, ebay listing value is uncommon, unless the seller is a retail operation, and most of the individual sellers are unable to sell there any more due to the cost of business and the cost of losses incurred by the buyers who are able to run roughshod over the auction seller "victims".

      Criminal activity with buyers who are able to take back their payments and keep merchandise is now a regular event, rendering the site unsafe for high end antiques dealers to list and sell on, if they do not sell in volume .

      The only way this stock would be a buy would be if the entire CEO core was eliminated and the business started from scratch to rebuild.

      This makes for a very run of the mill type of business that does not deserve the historic prices it once had.
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    • Tue Sep 9th 09:04 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay: Triple Whammy Weighs on Stock Price
      For anyone I referred to this comment board, the site I just joined is GoAntiques. They were recently acquired by Worthpoint Corp. and Worthpoint just acquired another auction company called Heritage Auctions. As they quietly grow into a giant service, that also provides Price Miner, a better search engine for completed sales prices than Terapeak (owned by ebay), they ae now working on making an online auction venue that will be very similar to ebay USED to be when we all loved it. Right , you can list whatever you want at a monthly fee of a price that is much lower than your fees would be on ebay if you sell moderatly priced collectibles. Obviously ebay does not want these types of sales, but GoAntiques is where the best antiques and collectibles are.They have had dealers selling on that site for years, even before ebay was ever around. They have a marvelous collectibles channel as well. No new China import garbage on that site!! You can see for yourself!

      Anyway, the folks there are so kind and wonderfully helpful to you, as a seller, that you will just be overwhelmed by the amount of customer support offered to you! The fees will be less in comparison to what you were paying monthly on ebay, if you sold in the moderately priced collectibles range.
      Most of the sellers who are naysayers to GoAntiques are ebay paid providers who cannot make any income if the sellers leave. Their income is from selling to sellers who have expensive storefronts for thousands of dollars. If the average sellers leave, the buyer audience will leave too, and that leaves all those certified providers out in the cold, as well as their sponsored sellers, who, by the way, get better placement for using their services. It won't matter anymore, though.

      This is the perfect opportunity for an experienced site (many years older than ebay) to get ready to receive all the fleeing sellers. Thank goodness they have fair and equal policies for all! That will be the best selling point they have in attracting the highest quality customers. The listings there are still fixed price, and very simple. But another seller there, and at Tias', told me last week, that she fetches much better prices on her goods there, than on ebay.

      People who market advertising packages will not be able to prey on the site like they do on ebay, costing ebay way too much in profits and offering really nothing tangible.
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    • Sun Sep 7th 23:14 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay: Triple Whammy Weighs on Stock Price
      I'm suprised there are not more comments here about this article. What I found, after a little more analysis, is that Jeetil Patel wrote an analysis back in October 07 that was similar to this, and he was the only one who saw the truth. That the advertising expense and the lack of seller loyalty was the cause of all the loss ebay is going to experience. He knew this a year ago!! He said it a year ago! he knew ebay was headed for a crash when all the other analysts were upgrading it to be some kind of movie star.

      Jeetil, you are a hero, and a genius. Too bad the CEO's of ebay didn't believe you. Then maybe Mr Wingo here wouldn't be crying about his ebay advertising contract being at risk...he would have never had it in the first place, and ebay, being dumb enough to support Channel Advisor even more. What part of 'financial loss' do we not understand?

      Ok now folks, get it line, GoAntiques is waiting for you. Your listings will be just fine, and safe there, from predators and buyers who extort for money and free goods, and from paypal keeping your money without any good reason. You won't experience the humiliation of feedback at all, and the quality of the sellers and buyers there will be much higher than those of ebay. You will have a committed host partner to list with, and the best customer service you ever had, that's actually Alive!Enjoy your new home! Ebay only has room for Nordstroms and Macy's now!
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    • Sun Sep 7th 10:17 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay: Triple Whammy Weighs on Stock Price
      Dinah, it's too late! LOL! There is another online auction community being formed as we speak,The company is composed of all antiques and collectibles sellers and buyers, supported by LIVE auction houses and some awesome business partners who will be delivering a site very similar to the old ebay. The folks on ebay know all about them. And so do these affiliates, like Scott, because they won't be included in this business.

      He will not be able to make money off of the advertising packages his company sells to the delusional ebay sellers, to sellers on this other site. He will be cut off from many of the old sellers who are on ebay now, when they leave.

      And mark my words, once this other place gets rolling, ebay administration will be squealing like a stuck pig, along with all of it's parasitic advertising affiliates!

      Does GoAntiques, Worthpoint, and Heritage Auctions ring a bell?

      It's kind of funny, no ebay ads on those sites!LOL!
      View article »
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