Tanks Fer Nuttin eBay

[vtbub]

First off, I apologize for not updating my dynasty on running a business.

I owe a couple of you PM's and figured this was a good place to generally respond.

This has not been a good week.

I run a store on eBay. I opened, IIRC, in late April. I feature classy, not, cheap jewelry, good priced discount computer games, and sone radio equipment like cb's and family radio walkie-talkie's.

eBay had invited us who did not own stores to try them for free for a month and then pay $15.95 a month there after. They charged a reasonable fee to list items with a picture, .03 a month per item. My sales took off in May. I had my largest month by nearly six-fold and came real close to actually making some profit. Things were looking good.

Summer came and sales dwindled. That was to be expected as it was summer and with the warm weather, people don't want to be trapped by their computers to shop. An occasional look at the message boards showed a disgruntled group of store owners, but naysayers on message boards are a dime a gross, or dozen dozen. Let's say while the language here can be a bit coarse, this place is at least civil, with the duly noted exceptions of political and moderation threads. :)

Sarah, my wife's, birthday came around the fourth of July, and I devoted some quality family times. I took advantage of the sales slowdown to figure out where I wanted to take the direction of my baby company and invested time in resurrecting the whole SGS idea with blogs that dealt with individual sports, (A sincere thank you to all those who responded). The college football blog has exploded beyond belief in readership. We launched an NBA blog as well as I tried to figure out just what I wanted to write about on a baseball blog.

A fourth blog was past the planning stage and still is very close to public launch when I received a rather bizarre email Wednesday night.

(Yes, I know that this is long winded.)

Two months after being begged by eBay to take a store, we were flat out told that stores were a drain on eBay's resources and had "drained the magic out of eBay." (uh-oh)

As a result in trying to rebalance the marketplace, reportedly 83% of eBay listings are in stores but only giving 9% of the revenue, they were rasing fees for the stores. Effective 8/22/06, listings that were under $25 were to go from .02 to .05 and those over $25 were to jump from .02 to .10. (Gallery pictures cost a penny.) And, oh by the way, the commission jumps from 8% to 10%. (Gee thanks.)

They want more auction listings, so those puppies keep the same fees.

Did I mention this came out the same day as they reported their second quarter earnings that showed revenues in the neighborhood of $1.4 billion and profits of $250 million? (my $121 in fees this quarter helped :) )

My base fee, my store rental and 163 item listings, will jump from $18 to nearly $32 a months. That does not include any auction fees, and they charge if it sells or not, or any commission from anything selling from the store.

The store closes August 1st. I don't work for eBay, I work for myself. eBay was an advertising medium, not a way of life.

I'm working on a number of things and hope to be on a couple of other venues very soon.

My silent partner and I estimate that I've been set back six months. I feel angry and hurt, kinda silly I know. My plans to have things settled on the blog end by September to focus on the holidays is long gone. I have to build a store and other promotional crap needs to be done by then now.

The baseball blog has hit the back burner, hopefully to return sometime shortly after the season.

While I don't feel defeated, I do feel used. I wasn't doing enough business on eBay before the store offer came along to even consider doing it without the offer, and then, as a group, to be singled out as major problem was bewildering and strange.

To top it, I had started to make a major expansion in what I was going to offer and need to deal with that as well.

(OK, vent over.)

Anyone have any suggestions?

[lynchjm24]

Anyone have any suggestions?


I mean this in a most sincere way. Get a real job.

[Schmidty]

I mean this in a most sincere way. Get a real job.

You are a fucking dick.

Ron is a better man than you will EVER be.

[cthomer5000]

do something you want to do. anything else and you'll quickly be miserable. I know, because I'm miserable and in the midst of taking a series of steps to remedy that.

[lynchjm24]

You are a fucking dick.

Ron is a better man than you will EVER be.

Settle down there buddy. Someone of his intellegence shouldn't be messing around with stuff like Ebay stores. I don't know any backstory of why he might have felt he needed to do anything like that, but I can't believe for one second it's his best option.

[Schmidty]

Settle down there buddy. Someone of his intellegence shouldn't be messing around with stuff like Ebay stores. I don't know any backstory of why he might have felt he needed to do anything like that, but I can't believe for one second it's his best option.

Ok.

I just don't like my friends to be fucked with. I'm a bit excitable. :)

[lynchjm24]

Ok.

I just don't like my friends to be fucked with. I'm a bit excitable. :)

Wasn't fucking with him at all - quite the opposite.

[Schmidty]

Wasn't fucking with him at all - quite the opposite.

I understand. Your tone just pissed me off.



Well, there goes my monthly explosive episode that makes me look like a psycho dickhead. :)

[saldana]

Well, there goes my daily explosive episode that makes me look like a psycho dickhead. :)

fixed it for ya.:D

[lynchjm24]

Your tone just pissed me off.


My fault, not yours - It happens a lot :).

[vtbub]

Settle down there buddy. Someone of his intellegence shouldn't be messing around with stuff like Ebay stores. I don't know any backstory of why he might have felt he needed to do anything like that, but I can't believe for one second it's his best option.

See, that's why I love the internet. You only reveal about yourself what you wish :)

Finding someone to hire you with a rather substantial disability is extremely difficult. And that would be me. Trust me, the computer and the internet are great equalizers.

No offense taken, and no fighting Schmidty. :)

That's a bit of the backstory :)

[Lorena]

I understand. Your tone just pissed me off.



Well, there goes my monthly explosive episode that makes me look like a psycho dickhead. :)

Psycho dickhead? Nah, just a passionate friend, that is all ;)

[Schmidty]

fixed it for ya.:D

I'm incorrigible. :)

[vtbub]

I'm incorrigible. :)

You are too young to be a curmudgeon. :)

[Lathum]

I allready thought you were a Psycho dickhead :)

[Franklinnoble]

I mean this in a most sincere way. Get a real job.

Unfortunately, unless there's another large online marketplace for you to do business (Amazon?), I think this is probably sound advice. Getting a real storefront would be costly, and if you can't afford this online overhead increase, you probably need the stability of regular employment.

The costs of starting your own website would probably be higher than what eBay is charging you, and you would have a fraction of the traffic.

[saldana]

I'm incorrigible. :)


i must admit, i am having a pretty good time following you around the threads tonight.:p

[Logan]

Flere should make a diagram about the typical FOFC thread.

1. Someone makes a post.
2. Someone makes a comment.
3. Someone overreacts in response to comment.
4. Someone explains himself.
5. Multiple someones apologize.
6. Lovefest ensues.

[Franklinnoble]

Ack. I didn't read the disability part until after I posted...

[lynchjm24]

That's a bit of the backstory :)

I figured there was some reason why you needed to work from home.

There are hundreds of companies that are moving people from the office into their homes. The amount of work being done in India shows just what can be done through the internet.

I interview about 60 people a year and I would say at least 2/3rds of them couldn't put together a coherent paragraph. We pay people that are complete morons 50k who have no life or business experience to speak of - they are just the best of a mediocre lot. I'd gladly trade some of their abilities for some of yours.

I don't know what you've done in the past but don't focus on what you can't do and focus on what you can do. Have you researched organizations that might be able to help put you in touch with companies that have a need for work from home employees?

EDIT: As for being used by Ebay, I'm sure that was the business model they had in place when they started to encourage you to open their store.

[DaddyTorgo]

is there a way that you can turn SGS into a profitable enterprise Ron? Or maybe just pimp your store on there via ads?

Ideally I guess, SGS would take off and you could sell it for mega-$'s, but in the absence of that, could you sell your web-design skills or do some internet-based consulting based on that or something?

[DaddyTorgo]

I figured there was some reason why you needed to work from home.

There are hundreds of companies that are moving people from the office into their homes. The amount of work being done in India shows just what can be done through the internet.

I interview about 60 people a year and I would say at least 2/3rds of them couldn't put together a coherent paragraph. We pay people that are complete morons 50k who have no life or business experience to speak of - they are just the best of a mediocre lot. I'd gladly trade some of their abilities for some of yours.

I don't know what you've done in the past but don't focus on what you can't do and focus on what you can do. Have you researched organizations that might be able to help put you in touch with companies that have a need for work from home employees?

EDIT: As for being used by Ebay, I'm sure that was the business model they had in place when they started to encourage you to open their store.

this is sound advice from lynchjim. otherwise, maybe a real storefront, although then you'd have to hire staff to run it, which would of course up the $$, and then you'd need a single "core focus" for it.

[vtbub]

No more apologizing for me not being candid :)

Lynch, I'd be interested in a legit list, actually.

[kcchief19]

Flere should make a diagram about the typical FOFC thread.

1. Someone makes a post.
2. Someone makes a comment.
3. Schmidy overreacts in response to comment.
4. Schmidy dolaposts taking back what he just said.
5. Someone explains himself.
6. Multiple someones apologize.
7. Schmidty calls himself a name.
8. Schmidty blames his outburst on Bloody Marys and margaritas.
9. Lovefest ensues.
Fixed it for you.

Of course, now that we're getting the sober Schmidty god knows what will happen.

[chinaski]

The jump in fees seems pretty harsh, how bad does it really effect your running costs? Couldnt you just swallow your pride and continue on?

Ive set up a few shopping carts with oscommerce (http://www.oscommerce.com/) + paypal and it works very well for a small business. I dont know how much the ebay store costs you overall - but at least with your own domain and cart, you wont be paying anything more than the hosting cost. Might be worth checking out. I imagine the ebay store creates a little more exposure to your products? One of the downsides of running your own domain/store is you really have to fight for exposure.

[vtbub]

The jump in fees seems pretty harsh, how bad does it really effect your running costs? Couldnt you just swallow your pride and continue on?

Ive set up a few shopping carts with oscommerce (http://www.oscommerce.com/) + paypal and it works very well for a small business. I dont know how much the ebay store costs you overall - but at least with your own domain and cart, you wont be paying anything more than the hosting cost. Might be worth checking out. I imagine the ebay store creates a little more exposure to your products? One of the downsides of running your own domain/store is you really have to fight for exposure.

The new website store will be a zencart+paypal set-up. I gotta think that the $80 on eBay a month could be better spent, and that's before adding new stuff.

There are a few things that would do well at auction on eBay that will go up for the holidays. We're talking some handmade Vermont soaps and candles.

The exposure was by far the selling point of eBay. We'll see how the holiday goes, if there is a market for it, I could see selling that stuff in an eBay store come January.

[zums]

I figured there was some reason why you needed to work from home.

There are hundreds of companies that are moving people from the office into their homes. The amount of work being done in India shows just what can be done through the internet.

I interview about 60 people a year and I would say at least 2/3rds of them couldn't put together a coherent paragraph. We pay people that are complete morons 50k who have no life or business experience to speak of - they are just the best of a mediocre lot. I'd gladly trade some of their abilities for some of yours.

I don't know what you've done in the past but don't focus on what you can't do and focus on what you can do. Have you researched organizations that might be able to help put you in touch with companies that have a need for work from home employees?

EDIT: As for being used by Ebay, I'm sure that was the business model they had in place when they started to encourage you to open their store.


What business are you in? I consider myself a pretty sharp guy, and I would love to make $50k a year.... for the record I'm a 23 year old recent college grad trying to decide where I want to go in life.

[Vince]

What business are you in? I consider myself a pretty sharp guy, and I would love to make $50k a year.... for the record I'm a 23 year old recent college grad trying to decide where I want to go in life.

I wait tables and bartend, and I'll probably make about that this year.

[vtbub]

Thanks for all the feedback.

To see what I sell on eBay, click http://stores.ebay.com/Bubs-Discount-Barn

:)

[Marc Vaughan]

What business are you in? I consider myself a pretty sharp guy, and I would love to make $50k a year.... for the record I'm a 23 year old recent college grad trying to decide where I want to go in life.
If you love money and are willing to work hard then there's good money to be made in most technology sectors (when I did 'mission critical' real-time software that was a fairly lucrative field - although the financial sector is even more so).

Personally though when deciding my career I simply determined what I thought I'd enjoy doing most and went with that - I've never regretted it, you spend more waking time with your job then you do your family (sad but true for most people) so you might as well enjoy doing it ..

[vtbub]

If anyone is interested, my online store is now open and kind of ready for business.

Check it out at:

www.bubsdiscountbarn.com

[Silver Owl]

If anyone is interested, my online store is now open and kind of ready for business.

Check it out at:

www.bubsdiscountbarn.com

FYI
Site looks good but the load times are very slooooow for me with cable internet. It is taking about 30 secs. on each page.

[stevew]

yeah, the hosting is really slow for me as well.

[vtbub]

It loads slow here too, unfortunately.

[Oilers9911]

If I can make a suggestion, the spelling on the front page is poor.

Bub's features quality affordable jewelry, great software, and your favorite electronic gadets from protable DVD players to handheld GPS units.

[vtbub]

D'oh

Thanks

[Oilers9911]

No problem :)

[vtbub]

Fixed (hopefully)

[WVUFAN]

VTBub:

Sent you a PM.

[vtbub]

VTBub:

Sent you a PM.

TY:)

Will reply later.