Dinah Balk

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.

Top 10 Online Retailers, Shopping Categories

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

Wal-Mart vs. eBay: Which is a Safer Stock to Own?

On Oct 1 new shipping caps go into effect for media sellers. I bet eBay will be down millions of listings by the time the last media seller picks up the phone & calls Amazon, lol.

eBay fixed rate for shipping DVD or CD = $3.00

USPS actual charges per their website:
$2.23 = media mail assuming less than 1 lb.
$1.75 = insurance (value up to $50.00)
$0.70 = delivery confirmation
$4.68 = TOTAL

Sellers will lose $1.68 per sale plus the cost of shipping materials (boxes & bubble wrap) which is at least another fifty cents to a dollar IF they ship media mail (2-9 day delivery) & not priority mail.

Wal-Mart vs. eBay: Which is a Safer Stock to Own?

Dinah's response to eBay****

Sellers are already paying for Donahoe's 3 qtr damage control.

1) Increased advertising revenue is driving buyers away from eBay.

2) Paypal holds on seller funds are driving sellers away from eBay.

Even a low grade moron knows that a company is measured not only by the numbers but by management or lack thereof . Donahoe's disruptive innovations have shown the contempt he has for sellers and now they're leaving because he violated their trust.

You should also take a good look at eBay's Motion to Dismiss in Malone vs. eBay (2007 antitrust lawsuit) and compare it to recent policy changes. It's real interesting reading, lol.

Wal-Mart vs. eBay: Which is a Safer Stock to Own?

Dinah's response to eBay****

What wasn't in eBay's last qtr report is far more important than what was in there. For example:

1) There was no mention of the ongoing antitrust litigation.

2) There was no mention that the sell through rate has dropped like a rock.

3) There was no mention that hundreds of thousands of complaints have been filed by buyers & sellers because it doesn't work.

4) There was no mention that hundreds of stores closed due to disruptive innovations & a powersellers are leaving.

And next quarter there won't be any mention of this:

1) Best match is deleting listings right & left because it doesn't know the difference between dups & similar items.

2) Each seller only gets 10 items per page & eBay picks which page they appear on so theoretically items ending soonest could be placed on page 50 of search results & items ending in 30 days could appear on page 1.

3) Paypal 21 to 180 days holds have increased by leaps & bounds. SNAD refunds are being issued within hours of a purchase.

4) Best match now includes every factor you could think of except one - what the buyer wants.

5) Store owners got opted into a SYI guinea pig test that hides their listings and destroys their branding.

6) eBay is now 17th in intenet traffic - pre Donahoe it was 8th.

7) Shipping was capped for media sellers - thus putting them out of business because the rates didn't come close to reality. Shipping calculator can be used in lieu of capped rates but who would use it because it hasn't worked in over 2 years!

8) eBay keeps opting users into one guinea pig test after another.

Given the above, why would any buyer or seller stay? That's why eBay is fast becoming the internet's largest ghost town & a sell at any price.

Wal-Mart vs. eBay: Which is a Safer Stock to Own?

Et tu Brute -

. . . a few short years? You're being very generous today, lol. I suspect that if the shareholders don't give Donahoe his walking papers and hit the delete button on his disruptive innovations eBay won't last more than a year.

Buyers, sellers, and management are at war with one another due to Donahoe and like any war, there's no winners - everyone loses.

Still working on site. Never dreamed it would be this complicated.