Power Sellers Unite

coyoteknife · Joined: 07 Feb 2005 Posts: 52

I have not posted on these boards for some time, buy I come to this site often to find the latest news in online selling. I also like to read the posts made by new sellers, and how they think..

I had something of value to say, and felt this was the place to let it fly and maybe in some small way I can improve the lives of other sellers. I also am speaking directly to auction site owners who are grappling with decisions of what to do, do, do.... or not to do, do, do.

My idea cries out to me about once every year, and it baffles me that something so obvious could get missed by so many? I sell on ebay, and yes it sucks, and yes it's expensive, and yes I want out - OUT. I am a fulltime seller, but that in no way means I make much money...

I have been around the block, I have seen alot, experienced alot as an online auction seller. Things change often, you yourself will change as time passes and your knowledge grows about selling online. Today does not equal tomorrow, you will change when new doors open.

About once a year I need to change something in my terms and conditions section of auction listings. For whatever reason, maybe your phone number changes? Maybe your email? Maybe you now ship UPS instead of FEDX? Whatever the reason, it is invariably a pain in the royal AZZ to change 500 auction listings.

If you sell only 25-50 items it's manageable. If you desire to sell, rather than spend your time reworking listings it becomes problematic. What we need is a link to a pop-up window that holds our terms section for our auction listings and can be changed easily and apply to every auction listing. As I've tried to explain, this pop-up window would be the "master" and could be updated in only 5 minutes. Now, I realize that Ebay will never do this so new site owners, you will have a leg up on the thieves at Ebay that are draining the life out of the users.

Ebay will never do this because why would they want to do anything that would make it easier for a seller? They want gravy, easy money so they can go buy a phone company business. I want to leave ebay, as I don't see multi-millionaires wanting, or having the desire to improve the lives of the selling community. Only when there paycheck gets smaller will they start to take any active role.

When I read of sellers on this site ending up with a 10% profit selling on ebay, I feel like I should go puke somewere. Do you know that .80 cents of every $1 that ebay generates is pure profit. That is 80% profit, after you and me do all of the work.

I see good things happening with some of the newer sites. I hope ebay gets everything they've got coming to them for years to come. The bad vibes they have sewn, are sure to linger for a very long time. Maybe that is why they bought a phone company?

Checkout systems with automatic email systems on these smaller sites will allow the larger sellers on ebay to migrate to more user friendly sites. When will Ebay try to close the barn door, and keep it's core sellers? When it becomes to late? A price increase on ebay this year might be a very good thing to drive off even more vendors.

Ebay must realize they are overpriced for the current market, but can they stomache the stock price falling yet again? Yea, I know why the bigwigs are selling off stock, because the stock is overvalued and they aren't stupid poeple. Ebay is doomed to drop rates to stay competitive in the auction business.

I like many other sellers have alot of old-stock sitting on the shelves. When this inventory sells off at discount prices, and sellers reroute there future plans away from ebay into personal websites, etc. It will be a little late for Ebay to shut the barn door and stop the exodus.

Wishing you all well in what you do..... The Coyote.

grannysuze · Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 7:46 pm Post subject:

Hi there ... Vendio has that capability. Your terms and other aspects of your auction templates and your automated emailings after sale tracking, etc, are all changed globally.

I quit using them when I quit ebay. Broke my heart, but Vendio didn't support the smaller sites, so I let them go, too.

But i liked Vendio. A lot.

mojavelyn · Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:17 pm Post subject:

HI Coyote, I used to sell on ebay also. But I quit over a billing dispute. Still waiting after over a year to hear from billing.

But here is what is a real easy fix. Of course you will have to rework your items, and I know what redoing 500 items is like... I had 535 listed at B-A, and right now its down to 317 so I can do some fixes. But in my ads, I have "See ABOUT ME for addtional terms of sale and shipping details." Then I only have to change my about me page.

That simple!

bidup

Biduptoday uses this type of sellers info, that shows the info in the sellers store page.

Store Pages
Store Home
Holiday Schedule
Out of Stock
Policies
Shipping Restrictions

Store Links
View feedback
About Me
Send a Message

Take a look at a users store for example

http://www.biduptoday.com/cgi-bin/Shop/WESTX

Saves time and benefits users

coyoteknife · Joined: 07 Feb 2005 Posts: 52

Ebay's "ME" page is not a good solution to this problem, and the reason being.... As of late this page on Ebay will not open. Many times I have seen were the "me" pages will not load, and I have been getting an error page continueously for the last 2 weeks.
Taking the buyer to a different page is not an ideal solution to draw, or distract your potential buyer from his interest in your item. I would hope a better solution can be resolved.

Coyote.

mojavelyn · Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 12:05 am Post subject:

Ebay's may not be, but other sites are.

2BOYSandTOYS · Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 10095 Location: Kansas

I just updated (small changes) my about me page @ the bay in the last day or so - and I've not had any issues reading others...I wonder if your issue is global or specific to your system...

My template has my shipping, returns, payment, etc. right into it. So for every item I list - it's in front of the potential buyer. I also have the exact same info on my about me page. I still get questions, so buyers don't always read the details, no matter where ya put them! :D :wink:

angelsolutions

Bidville has a "Personal Message" section that appears at the bottom of every listing. And with a click, it will appear at the bottom of all your store listings also.

This "personal message" area can be handy to notate new news that you haven't had time to incorporate into your listings. For example, I'm in the process of signing up with AlertPay. I can't imagine editing 500+ listings, so I plan to add a notice to my personal message area and my about me page, indicating that I now accept it (when it goes through).

Bidville's had this for as long as I've been there. And it's proven pretty handy. :D

By the way, stores are free at Bidville this month as a promotion. After this month, they are $5 for a regular store & $10 for a featured. They are working hard on their site and I'm loading it up in preparation to migrate away from eBay to Bidville, Yahoo and my personal web site.

God Bless,
sylvia
angelsolutions

Pipphoe

Thanks Sylvia. I was trying to figure out what to do with the Personal Message thingy. HiBidder has this, too. I was listing items and thought, hey, what do I want to put here. Too much thinking at the moment, so didn't do anything. But this is great, because, gee, even though all my listings are in templates, and my preferences are, of course, boilerplate, if I change the preferences I would have to change every listing everywhere.

Thanks for giving me this idea. This is a very good things for site owners to add. HiBidder, I believe, uses the same software as Webidz, TAM and Eroo. Another thing that HiBidder has done is incorporate a calculator that I think came from NashBrooklyn.com, but Nash I believe got it from AuctionInc., where I got the ones I use. Just another idea. So auction owners, check out AuctionInc. and see if they have anything that you could incorporate into your listing software for sellers. I think next to easy invoicing, this is a very, very important tool and helps in getting sales.

From a buyer's standpoint, I really like this. Nothing better than going into a seller's store and being able to click and pay immediately with PayPal. Nice for the seller, too. :)

This is another thing that Bidville is doing. It's not online yet, but it was in the announcements yesterday when I was there. Can't wait for this. Bidville is finally going in the right direction and getting their ducks in a row.