PatchDog wrote (View Post): › I even repressed my own WP experiences until you insisted that I register and join a forum.

KEN, it was a simple suggestion in response to YOUR idea that seemed to be related to something in the announcement. It makes sense to me that the person to discuss that idea with would be the guy who wrote the announcement. It was a simple and logical and intended to be helpful suggestion. Take it or leave it.

mongoose wrote (View Post): › Other sites, and there are more than just one, are basing their growth on creating a closed, almost incestuous community, dictating more participation amongst the members while drawing more resources away from the sites for personal gain. Without any demonstrable gains in benefits for participation by either new or existing members, they float specious listings via programs such as competing drop shipping and/or fanciful images presented as coming enhancements to create a facade of a robust growing site. But unfortunately without increased new traffic, steadily growing final sales volume and higher verifiable STRs, all of the supposed coming improvements and benefits are no more than smoke and mirrors set in place by doublespeak and slight of hand. A very careful look at "the man behind the curtain,' the actual verifiable accomplishments without benefit of embellishment nor inflated listing techniques will show the objective observer whether or not participation with such a site would be financially advantageous or just another con structured to siphon money from the unwary hard worker.

Mongoose, you are gonna force this swabby to invest in a dictionary. You have stock in Webster's or something?

But I agree with what he says. We need to minimize the impact of the sites built on a social or sociopathic base and focus on the sites with a business base.

Angelsong777 wrote (View Post): › KEN, it was a simple suggestion in response to YOUR idea that seemed to be related to something in the announcement. It makes sense to me that the person to discuss that idea with would be the guy who wrote the announcement. It was a simple and logical and intended to be helpful suggestion. Take it or leave it.

It was a suggestion that was in direct contrast with my principles and furthermore your responses are not addressing the real issues.

Did you even read the WP announcement before you posted it on this forum? If you read it, did you really understand what is was actually saying? What response did you actually expect to receive in regards to the announcement?

Angelsong777 wrote (View Post): › LOL no, I wasn't annoyed by any of it. I like how they're dedicated to finding solutions to problems and making the right decisions to move forward in a positive direction even if most of the online selling world doesn't understand or agree with their ideas. WP isn't closing its doors to buyers, but they are definitely moving in the direction of being more selective with who will be allowed to sell there.

You claim to admire the site for making the right decisions to move forward but they have made no decisions to move forward. the only decisions they made were to TRIPLE the amount of money they are making. Those FVF that they have eliminated were actually nothing because you need real sales to actually collect Final Value Fees.

It is not so much a case of WP being more "selective" in regards to sellers but it is the sellers who are selective in regards to WP. Simply put, they do not select WP.

This is a case of Ray taking advantage of his loyal sellers and nothing more.

1 year from now the only thing that will have been accomplished will be that he will have doubled his profits (I would say tripled but I am sure that the WP community will have declined by an additional third by then).

I would even see WP going the way of Overstock and plummeting to the point of falling off of the Auction Site Count but Ray has even figured that one out, he will keep his listing numbers up by going into the drop shipment business.

Patch - "Mongoose, you are gonna force this swabby to invest in a dictionary. You have stock in Webster's or something?"

I apologize for my choice of words at times! My main source of income these days comes from being a political analyst and commentary writer. While it's fortunate that I have a clientèle that prefers a lot of 50 cent words in order to come across as faux intellectual (somewhat like Donahue), my choice of words is poor when attempting to communicate with real people!

Thanks for the heads up -- I'll try to drop the haughty tone and actually write to express instead of impress...

PatchDog wrote (View Post): › It is not so much a case of WP being more "selective" in regards to sellers but it is the sellers who are selective in regards to WP. Simply put, they do not select WP.

Whoa, there! Full Stop!! Read that again!!! Ken just hit a very elusive nail dead on the head. There was one bit of doublespeak that eluded translation for me. I puzzled and puzzed 'till my puzzler was sore, but I saw no sense in it, no reason behind it, no purpose in the 'spin'.

WagglePop Announcement wrote (View Post): › There may even be a short period where we will not accept new sellers into the Marketplace.

But now, thanks to Ken, I see the advance preparation for the spin on the future fallout.

Just imagine what great things could be accomplished if that sharp, insightful, forward-thinking mind had different priorities for WagglePop... *sigh*

No need to apologize Mongoose. I was joking. And I really did understand 3 out of every 4 words.
Ken

Thought I'd check up on the possible fallout:

Using My All Items Search - http://tinyurl.com/6fj65d

Number of listings:
85,432 May 3rd
82,955 May 11th

Store count:
http://www.wagglepop.com/bin/eStores?cmd=search_stores
212 May 11th

Newest member as of now:
http://www.wagglepop.com/bin/Search?cmd=simple_search&querytype=3&sellerSearchstring=20232

As I kept upping the number, looking for the end of the numbers - 18500 or so was in early March. I went through about 50 users, most of which appeared to be buyers only (maybe) as they had no items listed. I remember about 3 or 4 had items. I hit a few numbers on the way that the user number did not have a user associated - maybe skipped or maybe NARU? I see no easier way to look for newest members or any membership info, but here is one tool.

added: member 20049 joined 1 May and has 110 items listed, still.

http://www.wagglepop.com/bin/Search?cmd=simple_search&querytype=3&sellerSearchstring=20049

The number of members has vacillated between 211 and 212 for 3 - 4 days.

A few more accounts appeared today. New users? Possible, but not necessarily. Some of the new ID's may be setting up for the drop ship inventory. Ray knows that SEO is easier when store fronts house like inventory as per conversations back in the FAS days.

As of Friday, members had not received notification by phone or e-mail of the pending changes. The changes were posted to the forum. Therefore, it's entirely possible that the majority of WP users will not know about the changes until their subscription comes due in June. Depending when people close their accounts, they may find themselves in the position of being billed for the increase even if they have no intention of staying.

I have taken it upon myself to direct WP members to the announcement on WP forums and will continue to do so as time allows.

Lurkey, the announcement can also be accessed from the Announcement button (purple) towards the top right on the home page. Also if you click "Learn More" at the bottom of the blue Sell box on the home page you will get a hint of it.

A new seller might stumble on it but an established one who doesn't visit the kool-aid laced forum would have no reason to click on any of these sources to discover this rude awakening.

KaAndRay stated shortly after the new fee structure was announced that members would be advised by email and that the home page would be changed to reflect the new fees when members inquired about notification.

Quote: › 02 May 2008 23:41 Andrew, Can wagglepop send out the new information to ALL wagglepoppers? I am afraid that not all check the boards regularly and they really should be informed. We have some pretty good sellers but they just don't use the boards that much.

The response:

Quote: › wagglepopCC2 02 May 2008 23:54 Beginning this weekend we will start the process of updating the site with the changeover information and notification of affected members. AP

Well, it didn't happen - last weekend or the one about to end. Just another empty promise to quell a flock revolt.

Good Idea Lou - very civic minded of you. I just alerted Chictique (the one I bought my Bali Bras from) as I have her email. Are you following any system? In order by ID number? Using ASQ? Could others help if the work was divvied up?

purple_reading_giraffe wrote (View Post): › Good Idea Lou - very civic minded of you. I just alerted Chictique (the one I bought my Bali Bras from) as I have her email. Are you following any system? In order by ID number? Using ASQ? Could others help if the work was divvied up?

Purple, we ex-poppers, tried to warn the innocent in the past when there were changes to WP that were not beneficial to the sellers. We have done the same thing as you and Lurkey are currently doing. Some sellers appreciated our efforts but some vilified our concern as unsolicited interference. We were considered guardian angels, thanked; or tagged as bitter misguided, inept sellers and told to mind out own business. You will likely experience both reactions.

Good luck to both of you. You have my full support for what you wish to accomplish but I'll opt out of this round.

Sure, register with a new ID, and cough up $29.95 for the dubious privilege.

I just closed my store. After 3 months, and three sales which totaled $26.47 I couldn't see how no fvf would have helped me.

My storefront went from 9.95 to 29.95. My fvf's totaled .75 for three months. Wow, retirement here I come!!!!

To top it all off, I was charged extra for a month I would never be using.

The traffic was seriously low and my only 3 buyers were other poopers.

What really annoyed me was that I was given no warning about the increase. I found out about it on blujay.com

Nice

Pretty good strategy on WP's part. They know they will lose 80 percent of their sellers after this increase anyway so rather than contact their members in advance, they plan to serve notice in the form of a 30 Dollar Invoice so they triple their little bit of income before sellers can close their stores.

As the collective personas of Ray, AP, et al, build WP into a drop shipping site where they don't need membership (though will keep collecting fees as long as the gullible permit) I would imagine they are only grudgingly posting the new structure in limited areas hoping that the majority don't see it. That way they can continue to collect fees during the conversion. Even evilBay sent out announcements via email to everyone. Perhaps the dictator/s are trying to out skunk eBay in duping and using their members.

Mongoose, you could very well be on the right track. The current billing period will see the usual 30-40 deadbeat sellers excommunicated. But the Jun 10 period will be a blockbuster!

I keep editing to removed signature attached - sorry