Comments on Randy Smythe's articles RSS Syndication from SeekingAlpha.com http://seekingalpha.com/author/randy-smythe/articles http://seekingalpha.com/article/63530-ebay-s-death-by-a-thousand-cuts?source=feed#comment-805690 805690 boğaz turu sayesinde İstanbul'un gizli yerlerini keşfettim.Bu boğaz turu her insanın ölmeden önce yapmak isteyeceği bir şey.Bu boğaz turlarına katıldığında siz de gözlerinize inanamayacaksınız. ]]> Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:29:01 -0500 www.bogazgezituru.com">boğaz turu sayesinde
İstanbul'un gizli yerlerini keşfettim.Bu boğaz turu her insanın ölmeden önce yapmak isteyeceği
bir şey.Bu boğaz turlarına katıldığında siz de gözlerinize inanamayacaksınız.
]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/63530-ebay-s-death-by-a-thousand-cuts?source=feed#comment-698061 698061 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:24:09 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/63530-ebay-s-death-by-a-thousand-cuts?source=feed#comment-637557 637557 Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:59:31 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/63530-ebay-s-death-by-a-thousand-cuts?source=feed#comment-490333 490333 Tue, 05 May 2009 11:51:04 -0400 www.uggeshopping.com ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/67731-ebay-management-and-sellers-need-relationship-advice?source=feed#comment-453823 453823 Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:12:53 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/63530-ebay-s-death-by-a-thousand-cuts?source=feed#comment-426015 426015 Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:08:55 -0400 www.onthesource.com/ce.../]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/63530-ebay-s-death-by-a-thousand-cuts?source=feed#comment-426013 426013 Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:05:16 -0400
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Had eBay accounts, one for buying and the other selling for about ten years, but finally quit selling in late 2008. During nearly a decade, I’ve seen the auction eBay site change from being mostly enjoyable to a general money losing annoyance. For a time back around year 2000, I was pulling in over $1,000 a week in profit from eBay auctions selling odd smaller items such as vintage photo images, old LIFE magazines, antique books and small collectible pieces. It was actually fun and in selling, many online friendships developed. There were lots of eager auction buyers then with all payments in check or money order. With over 6,000 sales transactions there were just a couple problems involving small amount checks.

Selling and buying back then was quite simple too without myriad complex, confusing and useless added enhanced features. Within the past five or so years, eBay has been transformed through gross mismanagement into a politically correct, money losing, authoritative monstrosity.

All of my auctions were cancelled by eBay twice for “inappropriate content” in year 2004. These occurrences both involved old photographic prints. One picture showing the zeppelin Hindenburg in 1936 had use of the term “nazi airship” within the descriptive text. That and 40 other auctions were all wiped out by eBay with my account being at once suspended for 14-days as punishment.

The other episode was a few weeks later involving another photographic print taken in 1942 showing a wartime scrap metal drive having a sign within the picture displaying “All this Scrap to Lick the Jap”. Not only were all other ongoing auctions wiped out, but there was a small barrage of nasty gram robot Emails from eBay that followed. I was threatened with being banned from eBay forever for “racist” content in my auction sales. It was ordered that before my being “allowed” to again become a “ full member of the eBay community”, that I complete an online tutorial with follow up quiz related to “Social Tolerance”. Only after carrying out that task would I be “considered” for reinstatement.

In passing, I have noticed that eBay messages are usually signed by some anonymous persons with a odds-on contrived names such as Crystal, Lance, Tiffany and Moonbeam. Anyway, in response to the demand by some flunky named "Todd" that I summit to an eBay indoctrination in “racial tolerance”, a reply was sent. My response to eBay was simple and brief . . . “I’m married to an Asian you a--holes” “Go and blank yourselves!” “enough is enough!” Within less than a week, my eBay account mysteriously was reinstated as if nothing had happened at all. So much for the eBay diversity doctrine.

By October 2008 with increased listing fees and assorted negative ingredients, such as eBay’s PayPal only accepted payment rules, as a small seller, I just dropped out. eBay is in financial deep trouble due to bad business practices and an overall lousy attitude towards its customers. Seems too that eBay like many other “sales” outfits today have gone totally off track. Corporate attitude is now more like that of a government social service agency rather private business for profit. Since alienating and pissing-off the customer base, eBay is headed for the rocks.

The hard dollar cash economy with millions of small time sellers built eBay. Many tons of Beanie Babies moved back and forth through eBay in the early days. In recent times eBay’s policies are set to drive out modest sellers and pull in big retail dealers. As we know, that model is now in collapse. The whole situation is going bust. As it turns out, due to corporate greed and basic incompetence, eBay has killed it’s own golden goose and driven itself out into the cold. The salad days of eBay are over. Time to move on.
]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/63530-ebay-s-death-by-a-thousand-cuts?source=feed#comment-334846 334846 Sun, 21 Dec 2008 00:55:23 -0500 my site is: 580mall.com and you can find many cheap electronics here, including GPS, and Cell Phone, iPhone style mobile, MP4, Digital Camcorder.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/63530-ebay-s-death-by-a-thousand-cuts?source=feed#comment-328618 328618 Wholesale from Yiwu Now! You needn't to look for lots and lots Chinese small-and-medium-sized enterprises on B2B platform like alibaba.com, and then inquiry them one by one. The only one thing you need to do is send us an inquiry in detail, we can supply your one stop b2b export, trade, sourcing, China wholesale services. Save your time, save your cost. http://www.amandaiec.com : China Wholesale.]]> Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:41:08 -0500 www.amandaiec.com/">Wholesale from Yiwu Now! You needn't to look for lots and lots Chinese small-and-medium-sized enterprises on B2B platform like alibaba.com, and then inquiry them one by one. The only one thing you need to do is send us an inquiry in detail, we can supply your one stop b2b export, trade, sourcing, China wholesale services. Save your time, save your cost. www.amandaiec.com : China Wholesale.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/67731-ebay-management-and-sellers-need-relationship-advice?source=feed#comment-296243 296243 Sun, 02 Nov 2008 09:27:29 -0500 www.sellerdome.com
It is interesting how the 1500 employee lay off received so much attention, however, OVER 10% of total powersellers were laid off/suspended because of flawed aggressive policy poorly implemented has not had a placement. This is proved by:

blog.sellerdome.com/?p=16

This study shows that between 15k-30K e bay powersellers who account for $3000-$20,000 in seller fees paid to e bay each month from sellers. This is the only company separating itself from its long time customers, many, like myself, who has been with the company fatefully since inception and made it a community before new management. This seems a larger story than a simple layoff of e bay employees. Ebay saves money by laying off paid employees, but e bays profit takes a hit by getting rid of partners who contribute to e bay profit. For example: 20,000 powersellers/partners laid off/suspended that account for an average of $5,000 per month seller fees = $100,000,000 each month in seller fees not received by e bay. That is $1,200,000,000 per year in revenue given up for aggressively flawed policy by current management. Figure that on 20% margin and facing the headwinds of a slowed economy. The idea current ebay management had was by getting rid of 10% of its selling partners was going drive back 32% of its buyers, however, that has clearly not been the case, because the policy change was flawed and implemented with such aggression over a short period of time, 6 months total, 3 months aggressively.

Ebay seems to have driven away buyers by this and the new search method that sellers or buyers don't like with no concern of management. The company has managed to drive its investors away in the same motion as stock prices show a drop since new management put in place 6 months ago, before market crash. Ebay management charged its sellers/partners for decline in its core business and seems not to have taken into account the increased competition of walmart, best buy, circuit city and many others putting marketing dollars into the online sector of business. Ebay pushing away its partners, sellers and buyers, is only going to make profit softer and push away investors. With 70% more competitors in the market e bay only dropped 30% seems a strong market hold for e bay and a reason to support its partners in a currently working policy rather than place blame partners and will prove to decline its future market share as pointed out by many market analysis and Powersellers.
Ebay, through the wild west style new management, took a look at itself and realized it had a drop in the number of sellers buying on its site. It decided it was because of bad "buyer experience" and immediately, it seems without full thought of backfire, decided it was the sellers fault. In some cases, this may be true, but it is most likely because of a misunderstanding or lack of communication between ebay, the seller and buyer. If e bay would set up a system so that all involved understood the agreement that was fair for all, then buyer satisfaction would be a great number and managements approval ratings would not be in the 20% range "22% “Approve", see the link below and see what employees are saying about CEO John J. Donahoe:
www.glassdoor.com/Revi... to see Mr. Donahoe's DSR rating.
Note the 168 Reviews under the rating.

This is the only CEO that I know of that has its partners/buyers/sellers asking for them to step down:
www.petitiononline.com...

It is doubtful that the sellers, as well as buyers, who make up the success or frailer of the core business rating of John J. Donahoe would be that high. It should be noted that there was a lay off, but this rating was only 1% more well before the layoff. All you have to do is see the off e bay blogs of e bay sellers and buyers to know how they fell now. I say "off ebay" because e bay understandably deletes any blog on there site where people speak out.

Instead of working within the community, that once believed that "people are basically good", took on a policy that made its tight net community fell like "criminals under big brother" and strong feelings of dislike for the symbol that was once regarded by its employees, buyers and sellers. Ebay has aggressively pushed away its partners will prove to decline its future market share and a relationship that may go un repaired when new management is called upon. When the culture was "people are basically good" employees at e bay were chronic buyers on e bay, now that has changed. It should also be noted that the sellers they suspended are also big buyers on e bay generally.
Ebay has withstood the .com storm because of a superior system and its ability to hold steady to the working core business policy. Its customers fell that is no longer the case and many companies like bonanzle.com and OLA.COM (onlineauction.com) and Ebid.net are rushing to try to meet seller and buyer demands that ebay seems unwilling to meet. Many small auction sites have tried to compete in the past but been successful in driving traffic. Now a once complacent audience of e bay buyers and sellers are seeing the changes and the likely hood they are being driven away through aggressive, unfair, flawed policy changes and are taking note to change to someone with the old values that made ebay a community that worked. You can see from the link below the demand that is being driven away from e bay by Bonanzle, Ebid.net, onlineauction.com Ubid.com that would have been unheard of 6 months ago.
www.quantcast.com/bona...
www.quantcast.com/ebid...
www.quantcast.com/ubid...
www.quantcast.com/shop...
Notice the chart of hits per month going up on these auction sites. Now look at e bays chart, it shows the amount of volume coming to the site is declining:
www.quantcast.com/ebay...

This is a small amount of buyers and sellers compared to e bay, but it does show a market who is hungry to meet the demand of current buyers and sellers, and what is maybe most important that buyers and sellers are finding the ability for change. A safe sales platform that is demanded, products that are truly less for buyers, not just advertised as less, but are less for now because sellers are driving buyers to the site.
When e bay was a "venue", now it is felt by many of its sellers that it acts as an employer or landlord or big brother, by design of new policy, it was profitable for sellers and a great value for buyers. Sellers drove traffic to the site because buyers knew they could get many of the items for a large percentage below retail, at or below wholesale. Seller fees, total have gone up, $0.35 listings are great, but the back end is higher making the total successful sale higher for the buyer and then pushed to the customer. All the discounts given now with the new promotion is good marketing, but those discounts/profit must come from somewhere, it is a known fact that nothing is free. I suspect the seller will foot the bill for this discount, this will cause price to go up or profit to go down. Profit for sellers once offering wholesale prices. This will mean to raise prices or move to a site like OLA.COM or Ebid.net that does not charge listing or final value fee. This will make that seller profitable and give its buyer a low price.
E bay is being accused of being a follower in the last few months and is trying to make itself like Amazon and other .com retailers. Ebay sellers who use Amazon report little to no sales. E bay has a niche (wholesale products) and Amazon has a niche (books, CDs with unmatched distribution etc) and both worked independently of each other, this is why Ebay sellers are not successful on Amazon and Amazon sellers are not successful using ebay. New ebay management, and even investors, have had a hard time realizing Amazon is a different market plan. Many e bay sellers are leaving to do Amazon but it is feared this will not prove successful for them. The e bay system worked and most were satisfied, buyers and sellers could realize other bad buyers or sellers. I sold $30,000 on Amazon per year with my 82 unique product catalog, but sold 1.7 m on ebay with the same catalog. It would be much different if the items were not $100+, if they were books, cds then Amazon would by far be superior.
Buyers and sellers are not happy anymore and the numbers will continue to show as long as this management stays. Economy will play a roll, that is why ebay can't afford to gamble with management that has proven to drive its partners, sellers and buyers, away. The company is large enough it will be around for a long time, maybe not in the online auction sector effectively as it was before, but it is still a mystery to many who use or used to use the site why this management has been allowed to make this aggressive of a change. If this is where they wanted to go, it would takes years to change a company this size effectively, it can't be done in 6 months times and certainty not given a slow in the economy.
Things are not happy under new management/John Donahoe management has made no one happy, employees, sellers or buyers or its investors. It has been a 6 month meltdown since new management fumbled a working system.
I talked to the owner of onlineauction.com 1-800-900-2828, Rowen Grisham, a previous e bay powerseller who seen improper change coming long before many sellers and buyers realized. He said he had seen a flood of sellers and buyers calling to learn about the site in the last 4 months. Rowen Grishamw says they are about to roll out a goggle search program that will make it more visible. This is just one example of where e bay buyer and seller base is going. Grisham seems to want to supply its sellers and buyers with a fair service, as when the ebay site was born and acted as a venue rather than an employer. Small companies that are hungry and taking advantage of a situation where ebay is not satisfying its demand.
Anyone considering investing or putting time into future sales may want to take a look at the aggressive, flawed policy’s they have put in place, there are little to no direct policy as there has been. Sellers, buyers and investors wouldn't be leaving if there was any good reason to stay.
Some of E bay's management ideas were good, however, has done a poor job or implementing the new changes and communicating to its buyers, sellers only after a few months of effect, some loosing there e bay business because of improper, unmonitored data, is still learning and it seems no one knows the answers even at the top account managers level. Its buyers do not realize that the DSR DETAILED SELLER RATING, the 5 stars under the feedback rating is not based on a 100 point scale like every other system in the free world. For example, from 1 to 5, 1 is poor, 3 is average and 5 is excellent. With e bay, 4,5 is average and 5 is good, I am glad they didn't have my math teachers in Collage. So many times buyers rate a 3 when they don't realize they are giving the seller a unacceptable rating that could potentially suspend his/her account from e bay as so many has been suspended in the last 3 months because of improper data that has been now used as the bible of e bay to rate seller performance. It should also be noted that a flaw in the data of the 5 star DSR is that if a customer is happy, they fell that leaving positive feedback served its purpose and they have caused a positive vote to the seller, e bay has not educated the buyer, so they do not leave a star rating at all, and are not required to and a large % do not, but leave a positive feedback as it is not required. But the buyer who is mad and is leaving hasty feedback will be more than motivated to leave a 1 or 2 for all stars. For this reason, good sellers offering great service and products are being suspended from e bay by record numbers, this cuts the life cord of the seller as well as core business at e bay and the reason buyers come to the site and investors invest in the company.

Ebay may have ruined their market flair for both buyers and sellers forever. Too many restricting rule changes, increased charges, paypal demands, seller ratings. This has ultimately destroyed their bottom line.
Many sellers, buyers and investors alike have a dedicated special interest and hope management changes and ebay will turn themselves around, but it is going to take some quick and correct policy change back to the system that worked to undo what has been done in what would be considered by many as well as a powerseller account manager in a telephone conversation said that this is "the most aggressive change e bay has ever done" it is costing sellers there business and driving buyers away from the site. The Best Match search is fatally flawed and $0.35 listings are not going to fix that.

Sellers of the unique items that made eBay famous (and who paid listing fees) are leaving in record numbers, while eBay brokers deals with corporate sellers of new stuff you can get anywhere who don't pay listing fees deteriorate the profits. And their buyers are following them. Watch the Q4 and Q1 09 figures. A company of this size can keep up appearances for some time, but its customers, its customers customers, that is sellers and buyers, are speaking up and cannot be ignored in the long term, the leader of these policy's are and continue to drive away the core business of e bay and investors are taking notice.

E bay bought Bill Me Later, I would have been surprised just 6 months ago, but I am unhappy to report that I am not at this time, the reason is this management has taken down the tread that holds e bay together as can be seen by its buyers and sellers everywhere complaining about the flawed aggressive policies that have taken place over the last few months, maybe you have heard some of them or are one of them. Every comment citing that the previous system was not broken. E bay has had community and trust, this 13 year trust has been violated and has failed both sellers and buyers in just a few months of unfair, faulty policy change that has taken a ship this size and turned it so fast that it is out of control and is facing a challenge to bring the ship back to course as it was before in the core business, although still ignored by management at this time, this is just in the core business, this shows the danger of a lateral move like credit right now. Take into account there couldn't be worse timing as the world economy will not view this favorably given recent events. This policy change was over a short aggressive period, but the negative impact will make it difficult to navigate back in position, if this venture is not successful, it will be even worse for ebay, its investors, and the management that follows. The core business has taken a great hit world wide, now it is committed to a market that is new. A new market during the time when its core business is in jeopardy due to flawed policy and a slowed economy with management proven only to drive away customers. This will prove a challenge that may take years to repair relationships of its sellers and buyers when it has been realized by investors concerned on top of unpopular credit service. Migration back to the system with effective proven 12-15 record, built by previous management over 12-15 years, seems to be the only way to save the future profits and stability the company once enjoyed.

It could prove to be a successful venture, but e bay current management wants its investors to trust it in a huge risk buy, when the investors are clearly concerned and most can see that e bay can not run its core business in a way that is satisfying to its customers, causing them to leave, look for other suppliers that will eventually be able to meet demands of the once complacent sellers and buyers. Employees, buyers, sellers are all saying the same thing, why is e bay letting this happen. Nothing to gain, much to loose.
It would be hard for anyone with basic knowledge of the problems with recent policy of the core business to buy this, having been a seller and buyer for 10 years, it makes it even harder to buy. Why would smart investors believe they will run it any different than there core auction business.

I can say, I am happy to report my family, who bought stock when they seen my success on e bay back in the late 90s, sold there stock when I explained the new managements flawed, unfair, and aggressive policy handed down. The stock has followed since this and many are betting with there dollars fell it will continue to fall. Maybe Jim Cramer, hyper as he is, has a point when he said he could not get behind the company, and that someone should buy the company "and put them out of their misery." It is hard to argue with him, stock sold back in march, when these policies were being talked about, not yet implemented aggressively, sold ebay seems to be the smart move. Stock was $30-$32 per share at that time, March 2008 new management took over, it dropped every since as can be tracked from any stock quote chart. Yes, the economy took the abrupt hit, stock price had already plummeted by 1/3, $19-$22 per share, before it happened that our country was in trouble from bad credit/debt. Some say they wouldn't want to touch this a credit market at this time. I would also not want to answer to shareholders when they learn what long time sellers and buyers have seen in the past few months.

I think this report on NYtimes has some good in site of the problems facing the company with the current buy:bits.blogs.nytimes.com...
Maybe enough people will sign to make it worthwhile?
www.petitiononline.com...
Let me say, I LOVE E BAY, it is just sellers and buyers don't like what new management has done to its strong culture. We have a vested interest and love for the old e bay culture.

Just one of the PAST buyers and sellers temporarily driven away by new management, it will be interesting to see what the new management that is suspected to come will do to the culture. Hopefully Auctionbytes is right in looking for a replacement for JD and you can see the 150+ comments below the article shows not one good thing to say about this management blog.auctionbytes.com/...

Good thing for golden parachutes I guess, maybe that will soften the fall?

]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/63530-ebay-s-death-by-a-thousand-cuts?source=feed#comment-294979 294979 Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:05:54 -0400 www.wholesalediy.com/]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80861-innovate-or-die-ebay-at-a-crossroads?source=feed#comment-272500 272500 Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:15:38 -0400
They should have built UP the auction business by separating it from the "buy it now" model. and they needed to eliminate the sniping software on the site for bidding, because that was the source that created the unhappy bidders who were unable to compete and "win" auctions. The long time sellers who made the site what it is today should have been grandfathered in without having the ratings. Obviously, if they were with ebay for so long, they are worth keeping. The fact that ebay alineated it's best and most prolific antique sellers was the biggest mistake they could have ever made.They will live to regret it.

The NEW disruptive innovator is worthpoint, and their acquisitions will take every last bit of ebay's auction business away, never to return, because the business will not be based on just profits, but the socialization of collecting and finding unusual and rare goods. That USED to be ebay's initial attraction and what made it such a huge success. Anyone can shop online at a discount retail site. They are everywhere, ad nauseaum. Ebay can now sit back and watch the antiques and collectibles business sellers AND buyers, run out the door.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/63530-ebay-s-death-by-a-thousand-cuts?source=feed#comment-261136 261136 Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:55:31 -0400 www.beltal.com]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/63530-ebay-s-death-by-a-thousand-cuts?source=feed#comment-261134 261134 Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:54:13 -0400 www.beltal.com.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/63530-ebay-s-death-by-a-thousand-cuts?source=feed#comment-240699 240699 Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:33:02 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/63530-ebay-s-death-by-a-thousand-cuts?source=feed#comment-209546 209546 Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:18:33 -0400
]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80861-innovate-or-die-ebay-at-a-crossroads?source=feed#comment-194638 194638 Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:32:15 -0400
HEADS UP-
If you have a Bank of America account, watch out because Paypal uses Bank of America. If you try to contest the charges that Ebay and Paypal will try to take from your account once you have been suspended, it will be a lot harder because BOA is PRO-EBAY and Paypal. In my opinion, they are all three scum of the earth!! You can Google Bank of America, Paypal and Ebay and you will get page after page after page of complaints! Be careful!!
Blondie]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80861-innovate-or-die-ebay-at-a-crossroads?source=feed#comment-185661 185661 Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:12:34 -0400 With the new feedback system of neutrals equaling negatives in the sellers ratings, eBay has made it's sellers look bad and is inadvertantly on it's way to making the whole site look as if it's full of untrustworthy sellers. Imagine a retailer, if that's what they plan to be, posting all of their customers complaints on the back label of each product.
They should have gone straight to the source of crooked sellers and supended them for good.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80861-innovate-or-die-ebay-at-a-crossroads?source=feed#comment-185414 185414 Sat, 14 Jun 2008 07:56:30 -0400
A comparison between Kodak and eBAY is an apple and acorn comparison -- they are not even fruits --

eBAY is a service provider - PERIOD -- Despite some imaginary dream turned nightmare within management eBAY is not a retailer - (except possibly via their eBAY store which breaks many of the rules that they blanket other sellers with) --

eBAY is has a closer kinship to the owner of a street market than to any other business model -- They basically rent cyber real estate to peddlers -- and what hasve in effect is an old tyme Turkish Market where on can find most anything -- Its alleys populated with every seller imaginable - from large organized trader to small ma and pa selling some hand made or found stuff

This actuality is a far cry from traditional retail where the purveyor of goods sells a product to the end user -- That transaction takes place between the eBAY seller and the consumer -- eBAY is in fact a third party to what is really a two party contract --

Until eBAY comes to terms with what IT is - IT will continue to flounder for identity -- The process is being made all the more difficult because someplace along the line it seems that eBAY management became ashamed of what they in fact are

eBAY is becoming a marginalized player because of a management team that refuses to embrace the very thing that is eBAY's greatest strength -- as a result --

eBAY is fast reaching a tipping point from which it will be very difficult to recover -- They may have already past it

Carl]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80861-innovate-or-die-ebay-at-a-crossroads?source=feed#comment-184704 184704 Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:19:37 -0400 Though the new way is novel, there is a lack of depth and meaning, that the old ways still have for human beings.

With ebay it'll be the same. When users go to ebay and find they no longer recognize it, they will eventually stop using it's services, (all of them including PayPal, StumbleUpon and Skype) Without the core auction business alive there will be no one to use the other services and ebay will have a fractured identity, with no depth or meaning or unique fun, which is ebay's soul. ebay will turn into just another huge conglomerate slumming it's way along in the commonplace e-commerce universe. There will be nothing unusual about ebay and I doubt it will shine like a star bringing in the billions of dollars it used to generate.

I think donohoe with his disruptive innovation was very confused when he messed with the magical core. Dos he know ebay can never, but never be brought alive again?

Disruptive innovation is just a voguish term donohoe got from a professor. And the prof had no understanding of what ebay was and what he was dealing with. Sometimes a certain term to describe a formula to innovate business cannot apply as one size fits all. There was only one ebay and ebay has died now. ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80861-innovate-or-die-ebay-at-a-crossroads?source=feed#comment-184656 184656 Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:08:08 -0400
Anyways, if the things were as bad as some describe, eBay would have hardly been able to operate and even post any increase in profits & revenues. Some sellers leave? Well, from what I understand that was the intention - to make some (dishonest, lousy) sellers leave. Now, they are back on various forums with 'doomsday' predictions. No wonder - it probably hurts. But eBay finally got the message - it's all about buyers, not sellers anymore.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80861-innovate-or-die-ebay-at-a-crossroads?source=feed#comment-184585 184585 Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:49:26 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/80861-innovate-or-die-ebay-at-a-crossroads?source=feed#comment-184346 184346 Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:39:27 -0400 Congratulations on learning how to use Google, you should be very proud of your achievement.

You are mistaken, Randy does not 'hate' eBay. He is a businessman who built an enterprise on a flawed platform.

Yes, Randy failed on eBay and then took what he had learned & clawed his way back up again. I am sure he learned more from the experience than someone who has never achieved anything in the first place.

What is more to the point is that he has been generous enough to share with those who are capable of learning from his experiences.

What have you built?]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80861-innovate-or-die-ebay-at-a-crossroads?source=feed#comment-184136 184136 Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:28:09 -0400
www.auctionbytes.com/c...

www.auctionbytes.com/c...



]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80861-innovate-or-die-ebay-at-a-crossroads?source=feed#comment-183799 183799 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:31:47 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/80861-innovate-or-die-ebay-at-a-crossroads?source=feed#comment-183753 183753 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:41:29 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/80861-innovate-or-die-ebay-at-a-crossroads?source=feed#comment-183665 183665 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:09:55 -0400 "Instead of all these ridiculous "Disruptive Innovations", eBay should have put it's full weight into stopping scams."


Wouldn't it be refreshing if ebay actually caught someone without users making numerous complaints before action is taken or the police enter the picture. They have never been pro-active about scams on either side of the transaction. Either way they get their cut.

I held on hoping the bigheaded, pigheaded man in charge saw this wasn't working. Today the leak that ebay will soon collect a % of the postage of a transaction has nailed it shut for me.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80861-innovate-or-die-ebay-at-a-crossroads?source=feed#comment-183545 183545 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:14:23 -0400 online.wsj.com/article...]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80861-innovate-or-die-ebay-at-a-crossroads?source=feed#comment-183544 183544 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:14:01 -0400
eBay's Donayahoo is such a loser.]]>