posted on April 27, 2001 08:02:03 AM
Dan---To save you time, here is the relevant quote about eBay and PayPal in the Al Gore At The Movies Review:
"What the Rich Chick should have done was list the sword (the "Green Destiny" on eBay after she stole it. The sword was four hundred years old and made of jade so it was worth a bundle, probably four million at least. Once the Rich Chick had sold the sword on eBay and gotten her money via PayPal, she could have made a beeline for L.A. and spent the rest of her days happily living off Laurel Canyon and shopping on Rodeo Drive."
posted on April 27, 2001 10:54:06 AM
"In addition, all numbers used in the composition should be spelled out. In the same sentence you use the number and type it out."
Actually, one doesn't, as a review of the AP Stylebook would show. Writing compositions is not exactly the same as writing news and features, as I learned during the course of earning a degree in journalism some years back. Many of the "rules" are rather different, especially in feature writing, where it is even permissible to begin a sentence with a conjunction.
Other than a minor typo ("them" where I believe the intended word was "they" ), and a missing comma in the next paragraph, Mr. Costello's writing is appropriate in terms of journalistic style.
His post may indicate a bit of naivete about the OAI, but it seems he posted here in an effort to learn more from people who participate in it. I do hope he finds this thread useful.
(edited to remove errant smilie)
[ edited by tabbinosity on Apr 27, 2001 10:55 AM ]
posted on April 27, 2001 01:43:41 PM
I think he found out what eBay has been telling him for quite some time. The vast majority of eBay sellers are quite content and happy using their venue. And there are some, a very small percentage, that would find fault with any and every thing, including reporters asking their opinions.
According to the IRS, if you are selling and buying on Ebay frequently, YOU ARE A BUSINESS. I don't know many people who are doing eBay just for the fun of it.
I myself am an antique dealer who was living in a depressed community in Buffalo, New York. While I could buy well, I found I could not sell in my area. Since I specialize in furniture, shlepping(sp?) it around to antique shows was not the way to go. So one day I found eBay and I haven't left since.
Having recently moved to Florida, I set up a retail shop for the antiques, thinking people in Florida would love antiques -- WRONG!!! However, if eBay had not been around, I would be bankrupt by now.
Ebay allows both my husband and I to be home with our youngest son, gives us freedom to travel when we want without the structure of a job. Ebay is our main support. We do have others that supplement now, but most of our income is through Ebay.
Most of the criticism you are getting from this site is due to the fact that the news likes to publicize HORROR stories - it sells more papers!! We are constantly frustrated at how the decent folks of eBay are bypassed in favor of the few CROOKS on eBay. There are crooks everywhere - in real life and in the virtual world. What most of us want reporters like you to write about are REAL stories about the REAL sellers and buyers of Ebay. Sometimes the world could use a little positive news!!!!
posted on April 27, 2001 03:09:23 PM
Xenainfla, great point!
I have been on eBay for years, have never had a bad experience as a buyer and only two bad experiences as a seller - and they were not that bad; ultimately neither cost me any money.
Most people I know love eBay and do not have problems as long as they use good judgment (i.e. not paying for a computer with a $1000 money order).
Now as far as the way eBay and PayPal treat their customers, well, uh, that's another story!
posted on April 27, 2001 06:28:56 PM
Oh reporter... there's a great story how ebay went down on a Friday night should you care to live up to reporter status. The next scheduled downtime is Sunday. It's a habitual thing with ebay. Spanky tie's too!
posted on April 28, 2001 07:57:16 AM
Perhpas you could do a story on how online business people had greatly enahnced the decline in civility in our society.
I guess it's just much easier to be rude on the compter than it is in person.
posted on April 28, 2001 12:11:56 PM
Gosh Dan, I've been a buyer on ebay for 3 years, and a seller about 2 1/2 . . . I would give you my perspective on what is/isn't selling and what has changed about eBay . . . but my insight would be marred by the fact that I do this as a business. Sigh . . . . .
posted on April 28, 2001 02:30:19 PM
One thing which has changed in ebaY's response to site outages.
A couple of years ago when ebaY had a site outage they showed an interest in good service to their cutomers by a policy of refunding the fees and extending by 24 hrs all auctions effected.
Then they seemed to decide that that was too costly. They now have frequent outages, but now have things more distributed such that usually some parts of the site work and others don't. They have have redefined a site outage as the entire site being completely out of commission for 2 hours or more; thus the auto-extensio and fee refund does not occur.
These non-qualifying site outages can be extremely painful and costly for sellers. A large portion of the exerienced ebaY buying community knows that they tend to get the best deals by entering their bids at the last moment (i.e. "sniping". Several third party services support this with services to automate entry of bids in the last seconds. Therefore it is very common that when a item of value is posted on ebaY at a low opening without reserve, it stays at a very low bid price until the final seconds but closes at good price. When these non-qualifying site outages occur these last minute bids are prevented and the auctions close at whatever bid they had - often extreme bargains; ebaY terms of service call for these results to be honored.
In this area ebaY chooses to be deaf to the problems of its sellers. They minimize admissions of the outages to the point of mendacity. Seller's must either accept this additional risk or not use token opening / no reserve offerings.
posted on April 28, 2001 06:04:33 PM
YIKES! A fearless reporter plumbing the depths of internet chat rooms for yet another insightfull piece on the American economy.
posted on April 28, 2001 06:37:04 PM
Gee Dan, we didn't run you off did we???
If you REALLY want to know about ebay, and what's going on, WE (meaning most everybody here) will be glad to tell you all about it. All about functionality problems, how the feedback system works (and doesn't work), about deadbeat bidders and ripoff sellers, about how ebay's policies affect what we are trying to do on ebay.
We had to poke fun at you about wanting the scoop on ebay, but NOT wanting to talk to the people who know ebay best. Do you want to base your article on what one or two inexperinced sellers might tell you about what's up with ebay? If so, like I said, I can't help you. But if you want to make your article a GUIDE for the Yuppie wanting to sell his Armani Ties, we could help.
on eBay after she stole it. The sword was four hundred years old and made of jade so it was worth a bundle, probably four million at least. Once the Rich Chick had sold the sword on eBay and gotten her money via PayPal, she could have made a beeline for L.A. and spent the rest of her days happily living off Laurel Canyon and shopping on Rodeo Drive."
