Well, I do still say, let the Wagglepop sellers decide to stay or go. Those that stay should not be called names or have vitriol splashed upon them. It is possible that somehow the site is working for them. However, I suspect Ray has just made it fairly unnecessary to defend the unknowledgeable. The upfront fees have done the work. Perhaps all we need do is say - if you prefer upfront payment and no FVFs - try OLA, at one fourth the price.

Hey PRG - 100% agree about WP sellers deciding whether to stay or go. My hope is that by sharing our experiences, past, present and future - we can help new members here understand the history/events of WP (and other sites).

Nobody should have to spend thousands of hours on a site to have it shut down in the middle of the night. New sellers, present sellers and future sellers IMO all need to be warned of sites/site owners that have poor business practices.

This to me is what PSU is all about. If all everyone is gonna do here is shout praises, it's a pointless site and a waste of time for the few, the proud, the many who've been in the trenches now for multiple years joining, listing, testing, discarding, embracing, etc. all these alternative sites.

So, again - while I agree that existing sellers on any site need to determine if it's working for them - new or future sellers might save tons of time and money by being forewarned. I personally have no issues with Angelsong and wish her and others the best of sales at any/all sites. I do get a little excited with any member here who responds with emotions vs. facts. That's when the attacks start and when the 'supposed' bashing occurs. Just my opinion....

Well, it appears that many Wagglepop sellers are voting with their feet. I have seen the number of stores fall from 212 3 days ago to 165 today. There are, however, 3 new stores today - I surely do hope they didn't think that the price is $9.95/month, as shown on the sign up page, but that they followed the link found further down the page to where the new fee structure of $29.95/month is explained.

I am hard pressed to understand how about 50 of the Wagglepop stores can afford the current fees, let alone the new ones. While some of the largest stores have sufficient products available to support the sales that could support the fees, I can't figure out how a store with 20 or fewer items can support itself. It makes me wonder who owns those stores and what they believe they are buying with their store fees.

"It makes me wonder who owns those stores..."

Only the head pooper knows for sure...

Once the head pooper has built up the listings via insertion of drop shipper's catalogs to few hundred thousand, he'll probably find a sucker buyer to swindle sell it to at a grossly overinflated price.

I have contacted (or attempted to) all who opened a store since the end of February. I have done my penance.

Store count has fallen to 141. VIVA the new SSE program (not!). Listings, too have steadily fallen. Over 1/4 of all listings on WP consist of overpriced, dropshipped, automotive floormats.

Ray claims to have investigated the possibility of purchasing Bidville, which is closing, and claims Ubid was asking $500K for it. Oh, give me a frickin' break! Suddenly Ray has money to purchase Bidville when he constantly whined about never having the two nickles he needed to advertise WP -- even when he had 939 stores and was raking in $10,000/mo+ in store fees alone -- blaming sellers all the time for his financial woes. (boo-hoo) Geeze!

And then, in a vainglorious attempt to poo-poo his competition (and make himself out to be the business-savvy voice of descretion -- which is is ANYTHING BUT) he says:

Quote: › the price quoted seems more inline with the desire to close Bidville and use that closure as a tax writeoff rather than sell or license it and continue it.

What a pile of wombat poo poo. According to SEC filings, the investment in Bidville has ALREADY been written off in the first quarter! Apart from that, why would Ray even WANT Bidville? To spam Bidville's past and present customer list and peddle the valuable customer info to "third party" partners in Romania and Nigeria perhaps? And what an ego you must have, Ray, to even think Ubid would stoop to do business with you anyway.

Admit it Ray. You're a loser. Considering your track record and questionable (at best) reputation, nobody with the brain capacity of a nematode would touch you with a ten-foot, barbed wire wrapped, electrified totem pole.

DB - where does that quote come from? Sounds an awful lot like something Mongoose said...

PRG:

It was extracted from a recent "announcement" from WP's CC dude Andrew - as delivered on the WP boards.

Here is the entire announcement:

Quote: › wagglepopCC2 02 Jun 2008 18:42 WP Members, We have had multiple inquiries in Customer Care about our contact with UBid about the possibility of purchasing Bidville and the costs associated with that. I thought I would share some of the particulars about that for discussion and information. Quoted purchase price (without relaying the points for negotiation or inclusion/exclusion) was in excess of $500,000, with escalations for transfer support. As noted above, the price quoted seems more inline with the desire to close Bidville and use that closure as a tax writeoff rather than sell or license it and continue it. UBid's direction as a parent company is towards the b-to-c and away from c-to-c model and as such we feel their vision is that to allow the ongoing operation of Bidville (by seling it) to be in direct competition with that model.

Hmmm - my impression of that is it sounds like someone has been reading the forums and is basically quoting UBid and what other people have said about what they think UBid's motives are.

Why would there be "multiple inquiries" about WP's "contact with UBid about ... purchasing Bidville"? Did they announce that they planned to contact UBid before they did so, or is this just fluff?

"According to SEC filings, the investment in Bidville has ALREADY been written off in the first quarter!"

You might classify this as the first round off write offs. This probably (can't be sure without being privy to the internal books) includes some of the initial acquisition, transfer costs, etc. They (uBid) will be able to milk tax write offs for quite awhile and for some nice coin. This SEC filing most likely reflects the most dramatic single amount, thereby requiring disclosure to rationalize their losses in operation.

I've seen write offs surpass initial acquisition cost ten fold. They are only limited by the imagination of their tax accountants.

Multi-tabbing Mongoose? Perhaps the wrong tab? BTDT, LOL.

In answer to your question PRG,

This was the original annoucement by AndRay on May 28, I believe:

Quote: › Bidville has always been of great interest here as we aspired as companies to similar markets. The shuttling of Bidville entirely is a curious decision overall to us. While we recognize the parent company (UBid) as seeking to support more of a business-to-consumer model rather than a comsumer-to-consumer model, the valuation they have assigned to Bidville seems designed primarily to ensure the closure of it. We saw their announcement as a possible opportunity for action, but our own valuation of Bidville and the estimated purchase price range given to us by Bidville upon our inquiry are wildly disparate. Our hope now is that the many Bidville members looking for alternatives find us here at Wagglepop to buy, sell, and continue or make new friendships and relationships.

What I found so laughable was that after two years of whining, whining and more whining like a baby with a load in his diaper on the WP boards about deadbeats, no money for advertising, and basically being so broke he was forced to delete features and increase fees by 300%, Ray comes up with this ridiculous BS proclamation.

"opportunity for action" my ars. How was Ray planning to pay for this acquisition? Monopoly money? Wagglebucks?

The only explanation I can find for AndRay making this announcement was to capitalize on an opporunity to look like a big shot and spout more BS to his Koolaid-drugged fans.

Incidentally, according to the stats here on PSU, Ioffer, eBay, Ecrater and a couple other sites are gaining listings, while WP has been loosing listings and stores (currently down to 138), so it's apparent WP isn't receiving many, if any, refugees from Bidville.

"Multi-tabbing Mongoose?"

Just responding to a statement by designerbargins above (post #82). Even though I seriously doubt that the head pooper made any serious inquiries himself (most of his announcement contains stuff hashed and rehashed on many boards), the tax write off agenda is real, IMHO, and not just limited to the initial SEC filing.

Mongoose,

I seriously doubt the head pooper made any inquiries either, and like I said, was simply doing some chest puffing, cranking up the smoke machine and polishing mirrors.

As far as pulling info from other boards, I don't doubt it for a second. We all know the head pooper is a career boardie -- that's where he gets all his ideas and information. I've never seen the head pooper come up with one original idea or thought EVER.