Philip Cohen

Amazon, eBay: December Same Store Sales

Hi a.palmer jr,

The Donahoe-driven lack of bidders is unfortunate for sellers but it is at least an indication that the seller is scrupulous. At the other end of the scale you could check out the completed listings for “beckertime”, an eBay-touted “selling success story”: no shortage of bidders or bids there on this seller’s 99c-start auctions; of course, the majority of the many bidders on these auctions appear with embarrassingly monotonous regularity. Gee, I wonder why that is so? But don’t worry, eBay has promised to protect you from such unscrupulous traders—just don’t hold your breathe while you are waiting.

A most unscrupulous, bordering on criminal, organisation: eBay, that is.

Amazon, eBay: December Same Store Sales

Hi Leftfield,

Duplicitous, because everything they do is intentional and (desperately, now) for their benefit alone.

Stupid, because they are not smart enough to recognise that it is their own actions that are killing what was the golden goose.

At a ratio of about 1:1, I suspect.

Did you persevere long enough to have a look at the bidding patterns on the eBay-touted “selling success story”, BeckerTime?

Totally unscrupulous, eBay and BeckerTime, and many other “professional” sellers too …

Amazon, eBay: December Same Store Sales

Hello, as ever, the eBay stooge is present, greatly outnumbered as usual. God, it must be depressing to be trying to hold back the tide with one finger. Could “it” possibly be a bot? Its arguments are bot-like; somewhat similar to the child-like canned responses we have all come to expect from its employer.

But what about those eBay figures, are they sales or just listings? A look at practically any seller’s completed listings indicates that eBay must now be getting most of its revenue from listing fees rather than FVFs. How long can that situation possibly be maintained?

“Dead Man Walking” certainly sums it up.

Donahoe must surely be feeling like a “made man” of old who has just lost a lot of the Mob’s money and is waiting for the retribution that he knows must surely come in the form of a silenced .22 auto at the back of his head—and the sooner the better.

And another thought: If Meg is able to get herself elected as Governor of California she will have a personal interest in hog-tying the state’s attorney-general with respect to any local investigations into eBay’s range of criminal activities, and then eBay really will be able to get away with murder—while at the same time continuing its slide into the abyss..

‘Noise’ Donahoe steering the good ship ‘eBay’ on down the sewer, biting and scratching and knifing everyone on the way; all that criminal facilitation with respect to the shill bidding fraud that is, since the masking of bidding IDs, even more rampant now on eBay than it ever was (if that is possible). What an frightening proposition for us all to look forward to.

Good luck California—you’ll need it if Meg wins.

Why is ‘Noise’ Donahoe still trying to destroy eBay?
www.auctionbytes.com/f...

Fun eBay Math: What Does 1.4 Million Cyber Monday Transactions Mean?

And, anyway, what difference does it all make; the buyers are going; any sellers that have not already donned their life jackets and jumped overboard will simply slowly starve to death as the old tub, under the command of the latter-day Captain Queeg, spins around and around in ever diminishing circles until eventually ...

Fun eBay Math: What Does 1.4 Million Cyber Monday Transactions Mean?

@ Tony P,

Don't forget to include is that calculation all the unscrupulous dealings in feedback at $0.01 per "transaction".

Does CEO Age Affect Stock Performance?

What a load of nonsense! Age is irrelevant. In “Noise” Donahoe’s case, age certainly is irrelevant; eBay's problem is that Donahoe is a “turkey” and the question that follows is how can this headless fowl possibly survive another Xmas given that he has reduced eBay's staff levels, revenues and profits four quarters in a row? And undoubtedly the December quarter will bring more of the same.

Why is ‘Noise’ Donahoe trying to destroy eBay?
auctionbytes.com/f...

American Express Buys into the Alternative Online Payments Revolution

‘Noise’ Donahoe has even talked about the possibility of offloading PayPal because he is just smart enough to know that PayPal is as ‘clunky’ as the eBay auction system is, that PayPal is a system more suited to a banking operation and that if ‘the banks’ and their credit card company partners ever get off their butts and introduce a like terminal/card-less payments system to supplement their credit card operations (which the major credit card companies would undoubtedly implement professionally), the banks will dispose of PayPal—outside of the ever-shrinking eBay marketplace—in about five minutes flat.

Why then is Donahoe still trying to destroy eBay?
www.auctionbytes.com/f...

Might the Consumer Banking Revolution Be Coming?

PS: I'm in Australia: four major national banks; a few smaller regional ones. I do all my banking on line; I haven't written a paper cheque now for several years; although I have received the odd one from some "stoneage" entities.

No matter how uncoordinated the many banks may appear to be in the US, they seemed to have been able to cooperate on the matter of the credit card system; why not on a card/terminal-less system? When they do wake up and do so, it will be bye bye PayPal ...

Why is “Noise” Donahoe trying to destroy eBay?
www.auctionbytes.com/f...

Might the Consumer Banking Revolution Be Coming?

This OP is upside down.

"Noise" Donahoe will even talk about the possibility of disposing of PayPal because he is just smart enough to know that PayPal is as “clunky” as the eBay auction system is, that PayPal is a system more suited to a banking operation and that if “the banks” and their credit card company partners ever get off their butts and introduce a like terminal/card-less payments system to supplement their credit card operations (which the major credit card companies would undoubtedly implement professionally), the banks will dispose of PayPal—outside of the ever-shrinking eBay marketplace—in about five minutes flat.

Same Store Sales for Black Friday, Cyber Monday

Clearly, as every day passes the situation at eBay is getting more and more desperate for “Noise” Donahoe and his gaggle of fellow incompetents (God help McAfee). How can this team of “turkeys” possibly survive yet another Xmas?

When is the “Ho” going to face reality and do the honorable thing: commit seppuku?

Why is “Noise” Donahoe trying to destroy eBay?
www.auctionbytes.com/f...

What Cyber Monday Looks Like for a Mid-Tier Retailer

And, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to buy their Murano beads from this seller as many of the unscrupulous sellers who trade in eBay feedback are selling such beads for $0.01 each (with free postage)! See
shop.ebay.com.au/i.htm...

But, don’t worry, eBay will put a stop to this unscrupulous activity: certainly? maybe? eventually? never? (tick one box). Probably never, because they really don’t care about such devious activity, that allows the unscrupulous to totally distort the feedback system; nor will eBay do anything to anybody if it might detrimentally affect their revenue, no matter how unscrupulous the activity.

The situation at eBay is obviously getting more and more desperate every day for “Noise” Donahoe and his gaggle of incompetent fellow “turkeys” (God help McAfee). When is this man going to face reality and do the honorable thing: Seppuku.

What Cyber Monday Looks Like for a Mid-Tier Retailer

Hi Scott,

I appologise for being so cynical; unfortunately, life has taught me to be so, particularly when it comes to commercial PR.

What Cyber Monday Looks Like for a Mid-Tier Retailer

"The subject of this photo though is that stack of paper there in the foreground. That is their Cyber Monday orders printed out to go in the shipments and to help with pulling/pick/pack/ship. That's one order per page and it took them 7, yes 7!, reams of paper to print out the orders."

Scott, If you are going to compound other people's claims, you should at least get them to give you a better picture to back it up. When paper goes through a printer it does not usually come out in such a tidy stack; most of the paper in this stack appears to have barely been taken out of its wrapper and I doubt has seen the inside of a printer yet.

Will eBay's Change in Holiday Promotional Strategy Work?

As other readers have implied, eBay shouldn’t even need promotion; simply by being what it used to be was sufficient to generate great user activity; now, eBay management seems to have added superfluous bits and removed vital bits to the point that the “machine” simply is no longer able to work effectively.

Reminds me of the classic statement by William Strunk Jr in “The Elements of Style”:

“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subject only in outline, but that every word tell.”

eBay management clearly has no appreciation of this concept.

Internet ETFs Await 'Cyber Monday' Results

“… and eBay (EBAY), which has seen a sharp increase in usage of its PayPal service (it reported a 20% uptick in payment volumes on Black Friday) …”

How come no mention of any “upticks” on the eBay Marketplace?

Good onya’ John, you’re doing a great parenting job—someone must think, although I cannot imagine why.

How can this turkey possibly survive yet another Xmas?

Why is “Noise” Donahoe trying to destroy eBay?
www.auctionbytes.com/f...