amalgamated2000
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posted on September 22, 2000 06:18:31 PM
The October issue of "eBay Magazine" contains a big double-page ad inside the front cover for Auctionworks.com (NOT Auctionwatch, mind you.)
I'm only vaguely familiar with this company.
The ad states:
"The biggest power sellers in America use Auctionworks."
It contains depictions of 15 different Power sellers who all use Auctionworks.
ALL 15 ARE MEN!
What are the odds of this happening by chance? I'm no statistician, but, assuming that Powersellers are equally divided between the sexes, I think the odds of randomly picking 15 of 15 males is over 32,000 to 1.
Even if 75% of Powersellers are male, which I certainly don't think is the case, the odds of this being random are astronomical.
If I were a woman, I would be deeply offended.
As a man, I think it's kinda funny.
Just kidding....
[ edited by amalgamated2000 on Sep 22, 2000 06:36 PM ]
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Brooklynguy-07
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posted on September 22, 2000 06:34:32 PM
I would ask my wife what she thought about this situation but she's too busy cooking and cleaning right now. Uh Oh, I hear her coming up the stairs, gotta go......
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comic123
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posted on September 22, 2000 06:45:21 PM
Maybe you are a sexist against men. I have no problems if they are all women or all men. Maybe it so happens that they do have 15 men who are willing to appear in the ad. So what if they are all men or all women or all white, grey, green or martian blue.
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amalgamated2000
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posted on September 22, 2000 06:53:22 PM
Actually, I am sexist against men (except myself, of course...)
But that's beside the point. The point is that it is very unlikely that this happened by coincidence.
Maybe this company only wants men as customers. I don't know. But they claim that these are "the biggest powersellers in America."
I have a hard time believing that ALL of the biggest Power Sellers in America are men. In fact, I would actually be surprised if a MAJORITY are men.
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anttoinett
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posted on September 22, 2000 07:07:22 PM
Not that I am anywhere near a power seller but I do find it offensive that there were no woman included. There was an add in my local newspaper and the city was hiring engineers, right at the top of the page it said GENTLEMEN:
I was offended and now that you reminded me I have been meaning to write a Letter to the Editor about it. Thanks for the reminder!
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texmontana
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posted on September 22, 2000 07:25:27 PM
It's tough to be a chick in a man's world!!
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sideslam
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posted on September 22, 2000 07:30:51 PM
I believe it. When it comes to the bussiness world I have been discrimnated against numerous times.And all because I am a women.
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amalgamated2000
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posted on September 22, 2000 07:33:13 PM
They are all white males, by the way.
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reston_ray
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posted on September 22, 2000 07:33:44 PM
May be that the nature of the product that results in being the biggest(highest dollar?)powersellers are male dominated field.
I would expect that many if not all of them have/had brick and mortar companies.
Don't have any idea what field they are in but will check it out and expect used cars, computers, sports equipement and jewelry are likely in the mix.
Could be that women are just too smart to call attention to their success, the product they sell and the services they use.
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anttoinett
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posted on September 22, 2000 07:39:17 PM
amalgamated2000
It is always nice to see a man defending Woman. Sorry but this subject always gets me going, I know about a year ago I saw a stat that there are more woman then men on the Internet. I imagine that it is the same for E-bay, most of the purchases I have made have been from Woman.
Could be that women are just too smart to call attention to their success, the product they sell and the services they use.
I am willing to accept this awnser to.
[ edited by anttoinett on Sep 22, 2000 07:41 PM ]
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amalgamated2000
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posted on September 22, 2000 07:52:18 PM
I think there may be some validity to Reston Ray's explanations.
BUT, even if it is not sexist, it is clearly incompetent marketing. And I'm not saying that half of the people in the ad should be women. But I would think that someone would have had the sense to say, "Hey, all 15 of these people are white males. Is that the kind of image we want to project?"
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amalgamated2000
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posted on September 22, 2000 07:57:19 PM
Also, I would guess that these people got paid to be in this ad.
But even if they didn't, their eBay ID, a cute little drawing of them, and they type of products that they sell is mentioned in a huge ad in a national magazine.
I can't imagine that they couldn't find one woman who would be willing to take advantage of that kind of free advertising.
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HartCottageQuilts
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posted on September 22, 2000 07:58:34 PM
The funny thing about the ebay phenom is that it's offered a population that's often hard to employ - stay-at-home moms, older women who've been out of the workforce for decades, and "crips" like myself - a chance to make real money. I'd think that'd be a better headliner than who's powerseller-of-the-year. I don't begrudge these guys their success - I'm delighted for them, because cottage industries that have grown to "real" businesses help give credibility to us small-timers. But I wouldn't call them "news."
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anttoinett
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posted on September 22, 2000 08:25:24 PM
The front of most college brochure's in America show at least one white male, a female (any origin), a Black male or female, and someone of Asian, Indian or Hispanic decent. If our university's can do it why can't our businesses?
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honestjonstoys
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posted on September 22, 2000 08:43:27 PM
Perhaps women powersellers aren't using auctionworks for some reason
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Don't take life so serious, it ain't nohow permanent.
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amalgamated2000
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posted on September 22, 2000 08:54:38 PM
The ad also lists the feeback ratings of these sellers.
The highest is 21,145. Pretty impressive.
Except that I checked this person's feedback, and it is actually 5,342 at the moment.
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honestjonstoys
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posted on September 22, 2000 11:29:53 PM
Perhaps these 15 Powersellers founded Auctionworks and are the only users. 
--------------
Don't take life so serious, it ain't nohow permanent.
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vogeldanl
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posted on September 23, 2000 05:20:16 AM
How do you know they were men?
[ edited by vogeldanl on Sep 23, 2000 05:20 AM ]
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jthorner
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posted on September 23, 2000 05:52:25 AM
The vast majority of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" contestants are male, but that does not prove discrimination.
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macandjan
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posted on September 23, 2000 06:19:12 AM
[ edited by macandjan on Dec 4, 2000 12:17 PM ]
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amalgamated2000
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posted on September 23, 2000 06:55:13 AM
vogeldan, there are pictures (drawings, acutally) of each of them, so it's pretty easy to tell that they are all men.
In reviewing the site, it is clear that the people in the ad are not the founders.
If most of their current users are men, I would think that that would be all the more reason to try to appeal to women. Unless they just don't WANT women as customers.
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vargas
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posted on September 23, 2000 07:23:22 AM
Take a look at the Auctionworks site. It has a very masculine feel. "Power Tools for Power Sellers."
I didn't look far enough into the site to see if anything is "turbo" though.
I guess they don't think women have any need for power tools.
You'd think Auctionworks would get it, considering it's based in the same city as Home Depot, which sells lots of real power tools to women.
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krs
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posted on September 23, 2000 07:33:30 AM
Just because they LOOK like men doesn't mean that they are, Butch.
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mzalez
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posted on September 23, 2000 07:38:25 AM
Maybe for that issue the target audience is men.
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amalgamated2000
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posted on September 23, 2000 08:17:13 AM
In reviewing the Auctionworks site, it's clear that this is not a group that was put together for this one issue. Signing this group appears to have been a major initiative for the company and is even included in the "About Us" section of the site.
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macandjan
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posted on September 23, 2000 08:26:14 AM
[ edited by macandjan on Dec 4, 2000 12:17 PM ]
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magazine_guy
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posted on September 23, 2000 09:38:30 AM
"I guess they don't think women have any need for power tools."
That's not been my experience.
Anyway, it was my understanding that AuctionWorks identified the largest Powersellers using public info, targeted them and recruited them to use AuctionWorks, likely through some sort of incentives. Given the competition in this field, and the importance of "word of mouth" referrals, that seems like a very smart move.
Not sure why they would all be women. It does seem to be a bit of a marketing blunder.
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