"Please explain to me though, what use the number of watchers is to the
seller other than to show how many people are "thinking" about buying
or watching their competition without also giving the seller the
opportunity to contact the watcher with an offer."
Hi Eric - Sound like you explained your own question ... the (marginal,
but better than nothing) utility of this number. I was aware of the two
functions, (1) as a buyer tool and (2) showing up on the seller console.
The fact that it appears as a number on the seller's console IMO is
only because some guy in eBay IT discovered he could put it there to
have some of us burn a few remaining brain cells thinking about it.
Your beef seems to be that it should be a sellers enabling tool also -
enabling contacting of the watcher. That would be a little big
brotherish, don't you think? For that matter, eBay has a hits counter,
why not make the same argument for all those hits' contact info as well
(at least those who browse there while signed in)? But watching is just
a convenience tool for potential buyers and market researchers for book
marking auctions. Not really intended to help the Seller and that is
how I meant it. I personally could care less who is watching, but it
has been a year or two since I felt it was worth selling anything
there. Look at the bright side of things, eBay usually allows link back
to web sites - just a
sk Jim - or better yet check out his red-hot
bolide girl logo.
Best wishes,
Doug
-----Original Message-----
From: Meteorites USA <e...@meteoritesusa.com>
To: Mexicodoug <mexicod...@aim.com>
Cc: nwa...@comcast.net; meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Mon, Sep 28, 2009 5:01 am
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work)
Hi Doug, List,
Respectfully I disagree with the statement, though only somewhat...
"...For those complaining about Watchers being useless to Sellers,
check your basic assumptions. Watching is a tool for BUYERS, not
Sellers. It is not meant to be especially useful to Sellers..."
Not really what I meant... I suspect "watching" (when referring to
sellers) doesn't benefit buyers at all. What I'm referring to is not
the buyers "My Ebay" section. I'm referring to the number of watchers
that is displayed in the sellers "My Ebay" section. The buyer cannot
see this number, though they need not see it at all to watch an item. I
understand the reason behind watchers watching and I use it to watch my
competition too as do most sellers. Please explain to me though, what
use the number of watchers is to the seller other than to show how many
people are "thinking" about buying or watching their competition
without also giving the seller the opportunity to contact the watcher
with an offer.
I agree with you 100% on y
our description of the proverbial
monopolistic mass that is Ebay. There does need to be a free, or nearly
free system created to compete with Ebay. They are ripe for a
competitor.
Craigslist was the closest and still does tear away at some of Ebay's
market share. But wait, doesn't Ebay now own 25% of Craigslist? Yup!
They sure do... Some unknown shareholder of Craigslist sold Ebay a
lions share of the company. What better way to defeat your enemy than
to know your enemy from the inside out. Then within a short period of
time Ebay creates Kijiji... A free worldwide classifieds ads website.
Imagine that... ;) lol
Hmmm... Ebay also owns it's own payment getway company Paypal, they own
25% of their biggest online competitor, and they force sellers to use
their own gateway thereby increasing sellers costs! Don't people see a
problem with this?
Buyers should be pissed about this too. Why? Because of what happens
when sellers incur more costs. They raise prices to compensate! This in
turn not only allows Ebay to earn even more from final value fees, but
it cost the buyers money too. Though in an indirect way.
How much? Paypal charges from 1.9% to 2.9% processing fee plus a .30
charge per transaction. We have hundreds of transactions in a busy
month and though we are Powersellers there are many people who sell
much more than us. Some Ebay sellers have 100's o
f thousands of
feedback and transactions, most of which go through Paypal now that
Ebay requires all sellers to accept Paypal.
2.9% doesn't sound like much does it? Let's put that number into
perspective.
Ebay processes millions of transactions per day and receives millions
of payments through their Paypal service each day.
Even if there's only $1 Million dollars worth of transactions per day
(there really is much more that that), that equates to $29,000 in fees
that SELLERS have to pay each day.
Paypal fees collected by total sales per day:
(not counting the .30 per transaction charge)
$2 Million in transactions = $58K fees
$3 Million in transactions = $87K fees
$4 Million in transactions = $116K fees
$5 Million in transactions = $145K fees
PER DAY!!!
$2 Million in transactions = $58K fees x 365 Days = $21,170,000.00 yr
$3 Million in transactions = $87K fees x 365 Days = $31,755,000.00 yr
$4 Million in transactions = $116K fees x 365 Days = $42,340,000.00 yr
$5 Million in transactions = $145K fees x 365 Days = $52,925,000.00 yr
I don't know about you, but I think that's a whole lot of money! And
buyers are paying for it through higher prices charged by sellers!
Are we seeing a pattern here? Ebay is perhaps the biggest monopoly
online right now, and the only thing20that will change it from becoming
bigger is to create something they can't compete with. Craigslist had
it, then they sold 25% of their company (which by the way only employs
about 30 people or so) for an undisclosed amount of money and keeps the
shareholder secret...
How this email turned into an Ebay rant I don't really know, but
buyers, you should really think twice before buying on Ebay,
considering Ebay is raising prices indirectly and you're paying for it!
Their practices are so blatantly unethical it's ridiculous but we
forget about it because of the great deals and excitement of the
auction atmosphere.
You know what, there are a lot better deals on Craigslist! Why do you
think Ebay bought 25% of the company? You think it's just because they
like their business, or they want to be friends? Ebay is run by sharks,
sharks that eat money for breakfast. They drink melted gold from
platinum goblets and smile their diamond smiles all the while dreaming
up new ways to drain sellers of their hard earned money through endless
fee increases and unfair and unethical business practices. Buyers you
pay for it too whether you realize it or not.
Regards,
Eric
Mexicodoug wrote:
"Or...... they are just saving up money from cashing in all their >
empty beer cans. Case in Point........ Sikhote-alin stamp Buy It Now >
for $20- and I have 9=2
0of the left. It has 3 watchers: BTW the auction >
has had only 25 hits since I loaded it !"
Hi Jim
You're right: that is a case-in-point. But if Jughaid is saving >
aluminum cans to cash in, he's likely to be a way more decisive buyer >
than what you've described - the can collectors get my respects for >
being hard working and thanks for cleaning up the environment.
I would say with 99% certainty that these case-in-point "The
Watchers" > are your direct competitors on the stamps. I'd also say
with 95% > certainty that you already knew that ... and just posted to
let them > know they are ubiquitously annoying Taters. And with 75%
certainty you > could guess exactly who the young 'uns are !
The Sikhote-Alin stamps you are selling are actually really cool and
> the brochure that comes with them adds a lot of value IMO. But while
> browsing some of your other auctions, I think the exquisitely >
patterned Esquel slice among others is blinding us to the facts of >
life on eBay. So why even take the time to list minor items if other >
stuff you have is leagues above them - everyone has their needs and >
priorities ...
Rant: eBay is a cruel mutation of a classified ad, where eBay Inc. >
learned to be unethical and call it an "auction" so they can fool
people into taking a percent of=2
0the sale, rather than a simple >
insertion fee for screwing the seller (since when did newspapers worry
about the final sale price - printing costs are the same).
In fact eBay is not an auction in the sense of Blood's "English >
Auction" at all, since there are no auctioneers doing any work or >
having any responsibility to Sellers, especially busting their butt >
promoting the larger items to earn their fees; An auctioneer for the >
Seller is typically under a consignment relationship - contradicting >
eBay's case. For those complaining about Watchers being useless to >
Sellers, check your basic assumptions. Watching is a tool for BUYERS, >
not Sellers. It is not meant to be especially useful to Sellers.
In a real auction, it may well be unethical to start the bidding and
> then pull the item. But in a classified ad, the Seller has no >
obligation to sell the item: no surprise - this is eBay, love it or >
leave it - the Seller actually has no obligation (bids or not: not >
something in anyone's interests to publicize) to sell and like the >
newspaper could care less what happens: eBay.
So actually the power of the Seller is the power to sell only when >
convenient, and the disadvantage of the Buyer is that eBay commits him
> to pay unless the Seller allows the contrary. If you look at eBay in
> these terms, the protections need to=2
0be structured around the buyer.
> Whatever your opinion,20it is wrong to confuse eBay with most common
> auctions just because they call them "auctions". During (live) >
"English auctions", the auction most of us assume when hearing of "an >
auction", there is no "sniping", and other eBay self-crafted academic >
auction crap, the auctioneer simply starts do I hear.... do I hear....
> do I hear.... once ... twice .... sold cycles until he is satisfied >
everyone had plenty of time to bid and works for the benefit of the >
Seller.
Now I won't get too started on why government should regulate eBay's
> monopolistic and bloated fees just as they regulate pawn shops
gouging > and credit interest rates for consumer protection - it makes
sense > until eBay is forced to be broken up just like AT&T was: to
everyone's > benefit, it is too much power in the hands of two few
billionaires > suckling their cash cow on our backs for too long. What
we need is a > Linux version of eBay linking many independent auction
sites in a > Bit-torrent fashion ... where independent escrow companies
have equal > access to process buyer commitments. That would introduce
the > competition where it is needed and online selling fees will
plummet in > consumers favor and finish eBay as effectively as AOL
died.
http://joshreads.com/images/08/12/i081223bgss.jpg
(meteorite impacts?)
Best wishes,
Doug
PS - Everyone could humor Jim by watching this auction >
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200387668267 !
PPS - Mike Miller'
s point about "spousal" consent was hilariously true ... (Loweezy >
could spend hours gossiping with Elviney: Has any woman on the list >
-or in the known universe- ever had her husband deny permission when >
she wanted to buy herself a meteorite?)
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Strope <nwa...@comcast.net>
To: Mexicodoug <mexicod...@aim.com>
Cc: meteorite-l...@meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Sun, Sep 27, 2009 7:47 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] AD... Time to get back to work
Or...... they are just saving up money from cashing in all their >
empty beer cans.
Case in Point........ Sikhote-alin stamp Buy It Now for $20- and I >
have 9 of the left. It has 3 watchers: BTW the auction has had > only
25 hits since I loaded it !
 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200387668267
Jim Strope
http://www.catchafallingstar.com/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mexicodoug" <mexicod...@aim.com>
To: nwa...@comcast.net, meteorite-l...@meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2009 11:12:49 AM GMT -08
:00 US/Canada
Pacific
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] AD... Â Time to get back to work
"I have a question that has puzzled me for some time....... On a
cheap
item, $20- buy it now, why would anyone bother to watch it? "
Hello Jim !
Maybe the IRS.
$20 is more money than 2/3 's of the current eBay prices in the
collectibles category.
Maybe they debate between (grocery=2
0shopping and cooking a romantic home
cooked steak dinner for two), or (some old rock or 40-kopeck (USD
$0.01) postage stamp).... so they put it on a watch list so it
doesn't
get lost.
Or maybe long on bids and with a fixed perk budget. Losing other
auctions, he would pounce on the $20 thingy.
Maybe she is 11 years old and $20 is her week's allowance and she is
waiting for her "paycheck". Or ditto, retired, fixed income,
unemployed.
Do you happen to have several of the same items for $20? Maybe one of
your competitors thinks $10 has been the standard for whatever the
item
is, and he may be thinking, let's see how quickly Jim sells these at
$20 !
My money is on the latter,
Kindest wishes,
Doug
-----Original Mes
sage-----
From: Jim Strope <nwa...@comcast.net>
To: Meteorite Central <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sun, Sep 27, 2009 11:51 am
Subject: [meteorite-list] AD... Time to get back to work
After playing all summer, I find that I must get back to work. So I
have
started listing on ebay again. All items so far are buy it now
listings
with
some of them accepting reasonable offers. Noteable items are a
complete
Portales Valley Stone, nice Esquel slices, complete Millbillillie,
Gibeon,
Planetaries etc, Link is below:
http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=catchafallingstar.com
I have a question that has puzzled me for some time....... On a cheap
it
em,
$20- buy it now, why would anyone bother to watch it? It is only $20-
and not
an auction where you would want to know where it ended or wanted to
bid
at the
last minuite? What is the logic behind cluttering your watched item
list with
this kind of cheap item?
Good luck to all as I have some exceptional items offered and plan on
adding
more in the next few days.
Jim Strope
http://www.catchafallingstar.com/
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