This week's Barron's has a cover story on Ebay called Ebuy. This Dow Jones Business and Financial Weekly indicates "Ebay's core e-tailing business is rising, while its PayPal and Skype units thrive. The auctioneer's stock, up 50% this year, is still cheap. Look for another 30% jump before the gavel comes down." As much as Ebay may not work for you Bruce, it seems to be working very well for its board of directors and stockholders and unfortunately I don't think some unhappy auctioneers and buyers are a concern to the Ebay management. Auctions have apparently become a much smaller part of Ebay's bigger business. FRANC
-----Original Message----- From: MoPo List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bruce Hershenson Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 12:52 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [MOPO] An experimental idea: Let eBay be eBay! 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 Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
