Right On Bruce.
But sadly, the stock market thinks ebay is making all the right moves
now
so I doubt they'll wise up!
On Aug 4, 2009, at 9:52 PM, Bruce Hershenson wrote:
The Dish network where I live has been showing the show "The West
Wing" from the very first episode, so I began taping it and watching
it (I like watching entire dramatic series from the first one).
I was struck by a story line at the end of the first season, where
the President (Bartlett) has been making weak decisions, trying to
steer a course that will make everyone happy, and in the process
pleasing next-to-no-one, and getting little worthwhile done, and at
the end of that arc, the President's top aide gives him a note that
says, "Let Bartlett be Bartlett", meaning quit making decisions you
think everyone else wants, and start making decisions you personally
believe it, and in essence, go back to the roots of what got him to
the Presidency in the first place.
Whether you like this show or hate it is irrelevant. It struck me
that there is a very strong parallel between that TV idea, and
eBay's problems.
I say, "Let eBay be eBay". Forget all the changes and new-fangled
notions that have brought eBay down, and return to the roots of what
made eBay what it was.
Get rid of DSR's, and the micro-managing of sellers. Let people
charge what they want for shipping, and above all let search work
like it used to.
Charge a reasonable listing fee, and allows hidden reserves, but
charge a high listing fee for reserve auctions, and then rebate 90%
of the listing fee if the item sells, to greatly discourage people
listing reserve items that don't sell.
About the only change from the eBay of 2001 I would suggest would be
what I first saw as a painfully obvious necessary change when I
started selling in large quantity that year.
Qualify all the users (with good ID) and each person gets ONE ID,
and if you screw up bad (with set rules defining what screwing up
bad is) then THAT PERSON is banned, not just their ID.
Let the millions of good buyers and sellers deal with each other
just as they did in 2001, and given today's difficult economy, I
think millions of old users and millions of new ones would flock to
the site.
Let eBay be the eBay that was. It worked perfectly well until the
leaders of eBay fixed it until it is now broken (maybe beyond repair).
Bruce
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