posted on January 24, 2001 03:49:59 PM
I just got something from ebays safe harbor..a survey. Is it coincidence? It asked the usual things, but why now? All of a sudden, on the heels of what happened today with the PS thing and my DEAR EBAY posts? Makes me wonder. Anyway, here is what I said in the "what would you do to improve ebay?" (or something like that):
Better PR between ebay and sellers; more support of sellers, who have to pay all the fees (and in timely manner too, I might add), present the items, attract the clientele to be successful so ebay can also be successful. Maybe more input from the "little people" who turn into the "big people" when they ARE successful; someone to represent the smaller sellers who are not big business, but do rely on ebay for their livelihood. More incentives to the SELLERS, who offer the goods that attract the BUYERS; upgrade/change the feedbacks to be more fair to sellers; read other discussion forums, to SEE what the people are saying (you could get some REALLY good ideas from those boards); Offer other incentives to compensate for rate hikes..ie free BIN forever, or free featured ads, or free bold type; Most important of all...dont forget us, the small sellers who hung in there when everyone had fits, threatened to "go somewhere else", who complained at every little thing you did and instead stayed loyal to you, and LISTEN READ AND ACKNOWLEDGE what you hear and then TELL US you SAW, READ, HEARD us. It will make for a stronger ebay, with more loyal users, and all of us will win, yes?
Sorry I didnt say more..but I was typing furiously and I wanted to say so much more, but didnt want to freak them out and make them think Im a weirdo or something. I had all of you in mind..AW in mind, when I was replying...and I hope they DID read what all of us are saying and will come back and read MORE. Hope I made sense to them..and to you.
posted on January 24, 2001 04:57:00 PM
I recently read the book eboys and it detailed how the venture capitalists work and how they decided to back eBay. It is interesting because it makes you understand whatthey expect to get back for their investment. I used to be shy to spend money for many hardcover books like this, but now I read it and auction it off to recover most(I hope) of the cost It make you realize that they will sacrifice you like a lamb on the alter to meet certain goals. I frankly doubt that eBay will be able to meet the goals these fellow expect in a timely fashion.
[ edited by gravid on Jan 24, 2001 04:59 PM ]
posted on January 24, 2001 06:55:04 PM
gravid: eBoys was a FANTASTIC book!!!!!!!!!! Randall Stross should be sainted, or at the very least, knighted.
The one image from eBoys which will NEVER leave me was when the financiers were simply d-r-o-o-l-i-n-g ... when they realized that they could fully automate the warehouse for Webvan, and hire minimum wage laborers.
The item that made this a permanent synapse in my cranium was their ecstacy that said minimum wage slave would not even need to speak English.
I am APPALLED with Vulture Capitalists, and view their abject STOOOOOOOOOOOPIDITY as the sole causation for the recession everyone's predicting.
If you think things are bad with Benchmark, boy oh eBoys, let me tell ya that had KnightRidder been the one to fund eBay, things would be FAR worse that current conditions.
IF you like to read, I strongly suggest that you pick up a copy of Tulipomania.
000000000h, mY!!
Talk about an historical parallel to the conditions itsy bitsy sellers find themselves in today.
Just don't start the book tooooo late at night, or you might be watching the sun rise.
I learned so many things in that book, and the analogies were PAINFULLY clear..........
posted on January 24, 2001 07:15:24 PM
Yes they are not nice people and if you told them that it would be like "and your point is??....."
I will check out the book. I am familiar with a period where people became shall we say over enthused with Tulips as an investment. Is that what this is about? You come close to that here with various exotic goats and birds lately, but not on that scale.
posted on January 24, 2001 07:21:20 PM
gravid, I dont want to make them or anyone feel uncomfortable. I just want what WAS. I want them to HEAR us, SEE us, and WANT us. So far, I dont think they do, and that, my friend, makes me...well...part angry, part sad.
posted on January 24, 2001 07:38:59 PM
My entire life I've read book references to Tulipomania.
NOT once did I ever know that the Tulip Futures Market consisted solely of laborers & artisans & merchants who had NO, absolutely NO experience with anything financial.
NOT once did I know that the collapse of the Tulip Market took maybe four total days, when prices fell from the sky to ziP, and thereafter, there was NO impact, whatsoever on the economy, N-O-T-H-I-N-G, much less any actual recession or anything.
The author is VERY good.
There's a sentence in that book, somewhere about 2/3 of the way through where he states that whenever a financial endeavor is essentially ILLOGICAL, to never ever believe in same, much less invest in it.
I believe that NO ONE will EVER know of any of the trauma and hassles that plenty of humans have experienced via online auctions these past few years, ANY MORE than we know much about the actual people trading tulip bulbs. AND NO ONE WOULD EVER CARE ABOUT ANY OF THIS PATHOS, as you see the online world of small cybersellers is as insignificant as the members of guilds who engaged in the Tulip Market in attempt to earn money.
It is really a wild book, and kept me enrapt until I finished it the next morning.
Books about the railroads may be significant to vulture capitalists and NetBillionaires, but for the liddle widdle itsy bitsy seller, the parallel is NOT in the railroads, nor even with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, but rather with the diseased, mosaic-ridden tulip bulbs and the futures market created by the inexperienced in Holland.
