Dinah Balk

What Will Become of eBay?

Good morning everyone!

I gave Donahoe an F on his first year end report card as CEO in the last article I wrote. I must have got it right too because eBay DELETED nearly every post that made reference to the article.

What these analysts fail to realize is that eBay is about small sellers. They made eBay and now they're are taking it away - piece by piece in the media, in the courtroom, and by word of mouth because Donahoe destroyed the one thing that made eBay work - trust.

Happy Holidays!

Retail's Black Friday vs. Broadband's Cyber 24/7/365

Thanks Shelly!

Pssssssssst, don't give Donahoe anymore disruptive ideas, lol.

Dinah

Retail's Black Friday vs. Broadband's Cyber 24/7/365

Good morning Shelly -

Good article but it's not the amount of traffic that's important it's the conversion rate and eBay probably comes in dead last. Why?

1) Home page. It loads as slow as molassas if at all for dial up users.

2) Best Match. Buyer's can't find IT because best match was designed to "think" for them despite having an IQ of less than 50 & dropping fast.

3) Advertising. After buyers give up trying to find IT, all they need do is click on any of the millions of ads that send them off site and into the arms of retailers who are more than happy to help them find IT.

4) Mandatory Paypal. Paypal is holding sellers funds hostage from 21 to 180 days. What seller is going to ship before they're paid?

5) eBay is not secure. If it was, then hackers wouldn't have been able to procure many if not all of the $1.00 deals eBay has been promoting.

Amazon and eBay Off to a Good Start This Season

coyotebait -

It's unfortunate that the person who wrote the CNBC article didn't take the time to research eBay before they wrote the article because there is no rivalry between eBay & Amazon EXCEPT in Donahoe's mind.

Amazon is far superior because they know how run a clean site & they sell their own inventory!

Amazon and eBay Off to a Good Start This Season

coyotebait -

1) go to medved & look at the sell thru rate - hope you're sitting down.
2) yahoo finance will show you how far the stock has dropped
3) eBay's debt rating was lowered to A- this week
4) alexa will show you the traffic drop
5) visit ebay discussion boards - this will give you great insight

It's unfortunate that eBay still hasn't realized that if they leave the site alone, use basic simple keyword searches, it will take care of itself & make everyone money.

But then again, if eBay did that, Donahoe's one minute old MBAs, his junior techs, psycho babble experts, & marketing "experts" that never sold anything on eBay would be out of a job.

Amazon and eBay Off to a Good Start This Season

Let's recap eBay Scott.

1) best match is at a point beyond repair
2) not 1 day goes by with a "glitch" occuring
3) advertising continues to drive buyers off site
4) the sell thru rate is the lowest I've seen in years
5) buyers can't use coupons because they don't work
6) eBay is hiding listings that don't have FREE shipping
7) Paypal holds have increased by leaps & bounds
8) mega sellers negative feedback is being removed
9) regular sellers are being suspended due to idiotic dsr's

All the strategies in the world won't make any difference either because if eBay were run properly, no one would need them.

Amazon, eBay: Headed for a Holiday Showdown

Happy Thanksgiving Et tu Brute!

Where I live we have 1st Friday & 3rd Saturday Art Walks. Vendors who sell handcrafted Florida style items are doing really great but the vendors who sell cheap junk (especially SMC stuff) are doing lousy.

This tells me buyers want good quality at affordable prices.

Top 10 Online Retailers, Shopping Categories

I am sad to see Nielsen Online publish something so meaningless.

eBay Caps Shipping Rates: What Is the CEO Thinking?

Here's a good question for everyone.

Does anyone know how many lawsuits have been filed against eBay or Paypal since Donahoe took over?

Please include the status of each suit (for example is the lawsuit still going on, did the court dismiss it, or did whoever filed the suit win).

Thanks!

eBay Caps Shipping Rates: What Is the CEO Thinking?

Dinah's response to Ahu -

I respect your opinion because everyone's opinion is important but I don't agree with it. Here is my main reason why:

Prior to eBay John worked for one company his ENTIRE LIFE - that being Bain (1986 thru 2005) as a consultant. Prior to Bain he was student (Stanford 1984 thru 1986 and Dartmouth 1978 thru 1982). Note there is a gap from 1982 to 1984.

From the moment John walked through eBay's front door he started making changes based upon ignorance because he lacked experience. These changes included:

1) taking away premium stores FREE keyword advertising

2) flooding eBay with ppc advertising & cookies

3) opting MILLIONS of buyers into guinea pig tests from which there was no escape.

4) shoving best match down our throats knowing it doesn't work

5) making Paypal mandatory (more or less)

6) damned stars & no seller feedback

7) raising eBay fees & Paypal fees & holds

8) systematically destroying stores

. . . and these are only the highlights.

John's gross mismanagement of the site is so obvious that even Wall Street is worried and no matter what John does to "bring back buyers" it won't work because no seller trusts him. Who would?

If John really wanted to "fix" eBay he'd remove eBay's childish looking home page that begs teenagers to "sign up" & then resign because every change Donahoe made was designed to destroy sellers (which also happen to be eBay's buyers).

eBay Caps Shipping Rates: What Is the CEO Thinking?

Dinah's response to disgruntled seller -

I couldn't agree more - hourly wages for doing eBay related work are either equal to or less than slave wages!

This is just a suggestion but have you tried Fedex? If you set up a business account they will automatically give you a 15% discount. They'll also help you set up flat rate shipping & spend as much time with you as it takes to make it work.

Their customer service is fantastic! I've only had a couple billing errors in over 2 years & each time they issued me credits immediately.

eBay Caps Shipping Rates: What Is the CEO Thinking?

Dinah's response to lookwhatbobfound -

I looked high & low but couldn't find anything in the August 20 announcement that referenced insurance costs so if my assumption was wrong that shipping caps included insurance please forgive me.

But even if sellers add the cost of insurance to the caps, sellers still loose money because the new rates were not based in reality.

eBay is just a venue! Donahoe has no business setting shipping caps because he doesn't make the decision of how any item is shipped - it's the seller's responsibility because they own the item - not Donahoe!

Amazon vs. EBay: Looking Beyond E-Commerce

Great article Trader Mark!

I suspect if the shareholders don't get off their complacent behinds & pull the plug on Donahoe and his entourage of mba's by the end of the year there won't be an eBay left to save.

Dinah

eBay's Best Bargain - Itself

The 2 biggest frauds that take place on eBay occurs:

1) when eBay takes seller listing fees & then makes it IMPOSSIBLE for buyers to find the seller's item due to best match (hasn't worked from day one); and

2) eBay's requirement that sellers accept paypal worldwide in the near future to combat fraud.

Both are unconscionable acts and eBay's SPIN that sellers cause their own demise & that acceptance of paypal is a matter of safety is so unbelievable that even a low grade moron wouldn't believe it.

It is reported (but unconfirmed) that the Griff has given eBay only 2 more years of life but this author suspects it may be substantially less.

Q1 Data Bodes Well for eBay's New Fees

So you think best match is better? I used to sell $700 to $1,000 monthly but haven't sold one damned thing since they put the collectibles category in the best match test mode & ultimately as the default. This is true for many other collectible sellers.

And since when are shopping.com lstings counted as eBay listings? This sounds more like Donahoe is cooking the books and the only light I see at the end of the tunnel is a train derailing because sellers are going on a month long strike in May.

Beachy