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 your 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 of 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 thing that 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
Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work)
Hi Eric, I Googled the term auction sellers fees and found this page: http://auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/charts/chart.pl?Auction_Site_Seller_Fees Scanning through it, it seems that most auction sites charge anywhere from 1.5% to 5.5% commission to the seller, plus either a listing fee, a transaction fee, or both. Following the online payments link at the bottom of the page, it looks like most of the online payment services are in the same ballpark fee-wise as PayPal. I know credit card companies in the US charge retailers a 1% - 2% fee too... I'm not being critical of you comments, and agree lower fees are better than higher ones for sellers and buyers, but I'm curious what auction houses charge in general. Its been a long time since I've gone to an auction in person, but I know that they usually charge seller fees AND buyers fees, so they get paid by both sides of the transaction. Maybe to provide some perspective, Micheal Blood can comment about auction house fees? -- Richard Kowalski http://fullmoonphotography.net IMCA #1081 __ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work)
Oh, thanks a lot Doug. Now I have 6 watchers on this cheap item.! On a side note, because of this listing, I made a $2200- sale off of my website. Having my ebay name (catchafallingstar.com) correspond with my website name has had it's benefits over the years. Ebay does not allow .com names anymore but I was grandfathered in. My 12 year anniversary is coming up next month. There are many complaints about ebay but it would be very difficult to gain the type of exposure anywhere else that ebay provides. My accounting over the years confirms this. Jim Strope 421 Fourth Street Glen Dale, WV 26038 http://www.catchafallingstar.com/ - Original Message - From: Mexicodoug mexicod...@aim.com To: nwa...@comcast.net Cc: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2009 10:41:25 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work) Best wishes, Doug PS - Everyone could humor Jim by watching this auction http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemitem=200387668267 ! __ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work)
When it comes to wheeling and dealing meteorites, I'm so far just a buyer. Some day I might sell a few just to adjust my collection some to my satisfaction. Most of my purchases have been off ebay. I make one or two purchases per month and I try to be picky and exact as to what I will bid on. I'm often a Watcher with several items on any given day though, whether I intend to buy or not. I like to try to second guess the other watchers if I'm interested in buying. I also like to get a feel for what similar meteorites will sell for. This kinda helps me establish my highest price for something. It also lets me know what I might be able to get away with if patient enuf. Some sellers are their own worst competitor. They tend to sell meteorites like car dealerships. They get in a bunch and just must sell or move them within a week. Often offering 30%, 40% But Wait! Even 50% sale discounts! I look at these offers this way...They are discounts from a price that they can't move because they are often over priced in the first place. As a buyer, I'm looking for a bargain and settling with a cost that should be the price in the first place doesn't appeal to me. For some reason I like ebay and if it wasn't for all those disgruntled sellers, I wouldn't be there. While I'm on the topic of ebay etc, another thing that turns me off is the Buy It Now items. Those prices are usually jacked up and I just ignore them right off. And those that take bidding with a minimum price along with a Buy It Now price, I also ignore. There's simply no wiggle room to find a bargain. I visit ebay in the first place to look for bargains. I'm not there to make sure a seller gets a fair price. :O) If you have high overhead costs, then don't expect getting a fair price there. I use to be a seller of natural gold on ebay and even then I got less than what I thought I should be getting. But I also discovered that although I was getting less off of ebay, I was getting more than what I got by selling thru non-ebay places...such as jewelry stores. 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. As a buyer, this wouldn't work on me. You raise prices to compensate, I just simply won't buy. Not all sellers will have the same overhead. I'll just look for those with less and wait for the desired item to show up cheaper.. Judging by the apparent glut of sellers out there, the wait really isn't that long. 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! Again...those sellers with less overhead can afford to accept lower prices. It's their edge over the used car salesman approach. 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. I have checked many meteorites for sale websites and generally the prices listed there are higher than what I can eventually acquire off of ebay. As a buyer, so far I like my odds on ebay. I also do enjoy the excitement of the auction atmosphere. 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. Maybe so...but it's cheaper than most meteorite websites. George Zay __ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work)
Most of my purchases have been off ebay. I meant to say that most of my purchases are from ebay. geozay __ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work)
Hi Doug, Jim and List, 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 ATT 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. Wow, Doug just described 75% of corporate America and 95% of Fortune 500 companies. LOL Best regards and clear skies, MikeG On 9/28/09, Mexicodoug mexicod...@aim.com 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 of 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 the 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 be 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 ATT 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?ViewItemitem=200387668267 ! PPS - Mike Miller' s point about spousal consent was hilariously true ... (Loweezy could spend hours gossiping with
Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work)
Hi Mike, Oh, did I ? Like Walmart/Costco, ExxonMobil/Shell, General Motors/Ford, General Electric/Philips, HP/Dell, Home Depot/Lowe's, Boeing/Airbus, Motorola/Nokia don't have viable competitors, if they are not on the rocks themselves? Here is the Fortune 500 list: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2008/full_list/ I just went through the Fortune 100 companies. Only #44 comes close to having no significant competitor and a grip on its customer base that looks, smells and tastes like a monopoly to all involved. It's Microsoft, with 93% OS market share and 67% market share for web browsers. It was fined a few billion dollars, you might recall. eBay knows its days are limited in an efficient market, that is why their future as PayPal is being shoved down (leveraged) everyone's throat and they are being anti-competitive with Google, etc. Then the only other companies that fit the bill are regional utility companies - heavily government regulated. EBay is just as much a utility as your Internet and phone lines. Lucky for us they are greedy which is already leading to losses in China, Japan, and even in the home market. The Reserve Bank of Australia had it right: Clearly, the public benefits are exaggerated or illusory…and will be outweighed by those anti-competitive effects as competition will be restricted, innovation and development will be constrained, new entry will be discouraged, and PayPal will=2 0be able to increase fees and charges to eBay users. It is also ironic that a site that prides itself on providing its users with the opportunity of shopping around for the best deals and prices, wishes to mandate that its users must use eBay’s own payment service and pay whatever fees and charges PayPal chooses to levy,” But then again, the Australians sold New Zealand on eBay ... For eBay, only Taobao (Chinese), Amazon and Yahoo seem to have a chance. Currently eBay is estimated to have 95% of the online auctions market an the sellers are doing all the work. 'Nuff Said! BTW 33% off listing fees until October 11 on eBay ... watch out for the stampede :-) ... time to catch a falling star.com Best wishes, Doug -Original Message- From: Galactic Stone Ironworks meteoritem...@gmail.com To: Mexicodoug mexicod...@aim.com Cc: nwa...@comcast.net; meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Mon, Sep 28, 2009 11:25 am Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work) Hi Doug, Jim and List, 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 ATT was: to everyone's benefit, it is too much power in the hands of two few billionaires suckling their c ash cow on our backs for too long. Wow, Doug just described 75% of corporate America and 95% of Fortune 500 companies. LOL Best regards and clear skies, MikeG On 9/28/09, Mexicodoug mexicod...@aim.com 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 of 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 the 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
Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work)
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
Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work)
Hi List, Did anyone mention one of the prime reasons that potential bidders/buyers put items on watch? I do it foe several reasons. eBay reminds me by eMail when my watched items get close to bid closing time. I buy almost everything off eBay and I don't have time to keep checking to see what's closing out. I watch items so that I can see what's been, and being bid. This type of purchasing cannot be compared to any other method. It's fast. It's private. There's no salesperson in my face. I can take all the time I want to inspect and research the item. I can get real time comparisons. I can pay instantly using several methods, including cash. I can speak to the seller before and after the sale. I get to bid my price in competition with others..I can play bidding games for my own excitement and pleasure. I can see material for sale from all over the world and buy it...now... because eBay is open 24/7. Items come right to my home saving the expense and danger of travel. I meet many very generous and professional sellers and I'm given free protection from unscrupulous sellers. Yeah for eBay! And I don't give a damn how much money they make! You don't like 'em.. then don't use 'em. ...And for the List, my eBay ID is airmuseum... Member since 1999. Both selling and buying. See you on eBay and in Tucson. (God willing) Guido -Original Message- From: Mexicodoug mexicod...@aim.com Sent: Sep 28, 2009 4:06 PM To: meteoritem...@gmail.com Cc: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work) Hi Mike, Oh, did I ? Like Walmart/Costco, ExxonMobil/Shell, General Motors/Ford, General Electric/Philips, HP/Dell, Home Depot/Lowe's, Boeing/Airbus, Motorola/Nokia don't have viable competitors, if they are not on the rocks themselves? Here is the Fortune 500 list: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2008/full_list/ I just went through the Fortune 100 companies. Only #44 comes close to having no significant competitor and a grip on its customer base that looks, smells and tastes like a monopoly to all involved. It's Microsoft, with 93% OS market share and 67% market share for web browsers. It was fined a few billion dollars, you might recall. eBay knows its days are limited in an efficient market, that is why their future as PayPal is being shoved down (leveraged) everyone's throat and they are being anti-competitive with Google, etc. Then the only other companies that fit the bill are regional utility companies - heavily government regulated. EBay is just as much a utility as your Internet and phone lines. Lucky for us they are greedy which is already leading to losses in China, Japan, and even in the home market. The Reserve Bank of Australia had it right: Clearly, the public benefits are exaggerated or illusory…and will be outweighed by those anti-competitive effects as competition will be restricted, innovation and development will be constrained, new entry will be discouraged, and PayPal will=2 0be able to increase fees and charges to eBay users. It is also ironic that a site that prides itself on providing its users with the opportunity of shopping around for the best deals and prices, wishes to mandate that its users must use eBay’s own payment service and pay whatever fees and charges PayPal chooses to levy,” But then again, the Australians sold New Zealand on eBay ... For eBay, only Taobao (Chinese), Amazon and Yahoo seem to have a chance. Currently eBay is estimated to have 95% of the online auctions market an the sellers are doing all the work. 'Nuff Said! BTW 33% off listing fees until October 11 on eBay ... watch out for the stampede :-) ... time to catch a falling star.com Best wishes, Doug -Original Message- From: Galactic Stone Ironworks meteoritem...@gmail.com To: Mexicodoug mexicod...@aim.com Cc: nwa...@comcast.net; meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Mon, Sep 28, 2009 11:25 am Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work) Hi Doug, Jim and List, 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 ATT was: to everyone's benefit, it is too much power in the hands of two few billionaires suckling their c ash cow on our backs for too long. Wow, Doug just described 75% of corporate America and 95% of Fortune 500 companies. LOL Best regards and clear skies, MikeG On 9/28/09, Mexicodoug mexicod...@aim.com 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 of 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
Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work)
Hi Guido, When it comes to eBay, Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before. and you think: Too much of a good thing can be wonderful. Depends on one's mood, I guess, life is too short to worry sellers' problems, since, he who has the gold makes the rules (and we ARE off the gold standard). Anyway, unless I've missed something, your profile has feedback for just one sale in 10 years, - I enjoy buying on eBay as well. It's a great privilege to have you with us on the list. Best wishes, Doug -Original Message- From: countde...@earthlink.net To: Mexicodoug mexicod...@aim.com; meteoritem...@gmail.com Cc: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Mon, Sep 28, 2009 6:26 pm Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work) Hi List, Did anyone mention one of the prime reasons that potential bidders/buyers put items on watch? I do it foe several reasons. eBay reminds me by eMail when my watched items get close to bid closing time. I buy almost everything off eBay and I don't have time to keep checking to see what's closing out. I watch items so that I can see what's been, and being bid. This type of purchasing cannot be compared to any other method. It's fast. It's private. There's no salesperson in my face. I can take all the time I want to inspect and research the item. I can get20real time comparisons. I can pay instantly using several methods, including cash. I can speak to the seller before and after the sale. I get to bid my price in competition with others..I can play bidding games for my own excitement and pleasure. I can see material for sale from all over the world and buy it...now... because eBay is open 24/7. Items come right to my home saving the expense and danger of travel. I meet many very generous and professional sellers and I'm given free protection from unscrupulous sellers. Yeah for eBay! And I don't give a damn how much money they make! You don't like 'em.. then don't use 'em. ...And for the List, my eBay ID is airmuseum... Member since 1999. Both selling and buying. See you on eBay and in Tucson. (God willing) Guido -Original Message- From: Mexicodoug mexicod...@aim.com Sent: Sep 28, 2009 4:06 PM To: meteoritem...@gmail.com Cc: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work) Hi Mike, Oh, did I ? Like Walmart/Costco, ExxonMobil/Shell, General Motors/Ford, General Electric/Philips, HP/Dell, Home Depot/Lowe's, Boeing/Airbus, Motorola/Nokia don't have viable competitors, if they are not on the rocks themselves? Here is the Fortune 500 list: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2008/full_list/ I just went through the Fortune 100 companies. Only #44 c omes close to having no significant competitor and a grip on its customer base that looks, smells and tastes like a monopoly to all involved. It's Microsoft, with 93% OS market share and 67% market share for web browsers. It was fined a few billion dollars, you might recall. eBay knows its days are limited in an efficient market, that is why their future as PayPal is being shoved down (leveraged) everyone's throat and they are being anti-competitive with Google, etc. Then the only other companies that fit the bill are regional utility companies - heavily government regulated. EBay is just as much a utility as your Internet and phone lines. Lucky for us they are greedy which is already leading to losses in China, Japan, and even in the home market. The Reserve Bank of Australia had it right: Clearly, the public benefits are exaggerated or illusory…and will be outweighed by those anti-competitive effects as competition will be restricted, innovation and development will be constrained, new entry will be discouraged, and PayPal will=2 0be able to increase fees and charges to eBay users. It is also ironic that a site that prides itself on providing its users with the opportunity of shopping around for the best deals and prices, wishes to mandate that its users must use eBay’s own payment service and pay whatever fees and charges PayPal chooses to levy,” But then again, the Australians sol d New Zealand on eBay ... For eBay, only Taobao (Chinese), Amazon and Yahoo seem to have a chance. Currently eBay is estimated to have 95% of the online auctions market an the sellers are doing all the work. 'Nuff Said! BTW 33% off listing fees until October 11 on eBay ... watch out for the stampede :-) ... time to catch a falling star.com Best wishes, Doug -Original Message- From: Galactic Stone Ironworks meteoritem...@gmail.com To: Mexicodoug mexicod...@aim.com Cc: nwa...@comcast.net; meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Mon, Sep 28, 2009 11:25 am Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] OT eBay (was AD Time to get back to work) Hi Doug, Jim and List, Now I won't get too started on why government should regulate eBay's monopolistic and bloated fees just
