dontturnmein
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posted on May 31, 2001 04:29:13 AM new
I am working on some text for my opt-in mailing list. I want to persuade my bidders to follow me to other auction sites, primarily one of my non-Ebay favorites. I have not found the right words yet. I don't want to offend my pro-Ebay bidders; at the same time, a little explanation is in order (of why I am mostly leaving Ebay.)
Any tips? TIA!
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skip555
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posted on May 31, 2001 05:17:01 AM new
I want to persuade my bidders to follow me to other auction sites
Don't flatter yourself they are not 'your bidders' they are EBAy bidders who happened to bid on your item!!
Why not leave ebay now set up on one of the many alternatives and build your business there
To try to steal bidders away from ebay is un-ethical.
Ebay drew them and you profited now you want them to follow you to another site ?
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
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mtnmama
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posted on May 31, 2001 07:01:26 AM new
You say you have a mailing list. Just put a blurb on the bottom that you will be listing your auctions at abcsite.com if they'd like to stop by. Then leave it alone. Please don't spam people and you don't have to tell them why you're leaving ebay. If they're on your mailing list willingly and they like your items, leave it up to them to decide what to do.
ebay doesn't own anyone. We're all free to make decisions and by telling your repeat bidders where you'll be is okay as long as you don't link it to your auctions.
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vargas
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posted on May 31, 2001 07:41:27 AM new
That's excellent advice mtnmama.
Just let your customers know where to find you. They don't need to -- most likely don't want to -- know about your beef with eBay.
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dottie
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posted on May 31, 2001 08:49:25 AM new
Skip: Bidders are not eBays customers... remember eBay is just a VENUE!
It's perfectly ethical and FAIR to notify YOUR customers (folks that have shown interest in your items by placing a winning bid) of where else they can find more of your items... even if that location happens to be OUTSIDE eBays venue.
I agree with the others in this thread though... I don't think folks need a synopsis of your REASONS for diversifying... just that you are and WHERE.
"Check out [URL HERE} and [More URL HERE] for more items currently available!"
Short and Simple.
I include something like that at the bottom of my EOAs - and I make the print BOLD and LARGER so that it stands out just a bit more than the rest of the text! *smile*
- Dottie 
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kudzurose
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posted on May 31, 2001 09:10:11 AM new
Great answers, mtnmama and Dottie - I agree totally.
skip - "they are eBay bidders"? I don't think so. They "happen" to bid on our auctions because we "happen" to PAY eBay to list there. If someone I buy from tells me about another site where I can find the items I look for, I will appreciate it. I can't imagine that buyers don't want to know about alternate sites.
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goldensands
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posted on May 31, 2001 11:00:18 AM new
I am posting quality listings on ePier and sending my customers notification of the fact.
I am posting notices on chat boards, classified ads and in my eBay listings. (Gasp!)
I am pricing my items to sell at a reasonable, not exorbitant, profit margin. One bid wins and that's okay by me.
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tuition44years
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posted on May 31, 2001 12:07:39 PM new
Glad you started this thread. I've been thinking about the same issues over the past week.
I'm moving some items to sellyouritem.com that are not easy to find on ebay. I have an opt in mailing list and many repeat buyers. I absolutely consider them 'my bidders' .. not 'mine' as opposed to 'not yours' but mine as opposed to 'NOT mine' (ie, never bid on anything I list). They come back because they are pleased with what they got and because I provide excellent customer service. I doubt they'll give a rats a$$ where they find the item, as long as they can find it and get it at a reasonable price.
Thanks to those who pointed out that I don't have to say why I'm moving them off of ebay. Sometimes it's so easy to overlook the obvious!
I put a slip in with my packages with auction number, my ID and email, etc. .. so I will also be adding a note that my items can now be found at sellyouritem. Now .. I just have to get listed over there!
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reston_ray
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posted on May 31, 2001 01:27:57 PM new
I'm also inviting "my customers" to visit other locations where I have offerings by including links in emails as a sig line.
I really would like to be part of a combined effort by like minded sellers to direct customers to a single gateway or portal where they could find a combination of both all of my selling efforts and the access to other seller's offerings.
Seller's can offer both a lower price and a wider selection of items through alternative venues but the customers have no convienent means of finding and searching that fragmented mass of offerings.
Most of us include a link in our eBay listings that invite customer to "click here" to see my other items being offered for sale.
It is a natural progression that we then suggest "click here" to see everything I have for sale.
That last step is in our interest but not eBay's so we will have to provide the infrastructure to support it and can expect eBay will oppose our efforts.
The combined mass of VOTE (venues other than eBay)would attract the interest of millions of buyers but they presently have no easy way to find and search the offerings.
When we provide the gateway and the search engine so that individuals can find what interests them, whether from auction sites, classified listings, web pages or RL locations they will come.
We must act in our own interest inspite of what eBay says, does or wants.
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wallypog
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posted on May 31, 2001 10:37:20 PM new
Just a simple note along the lines of:
"To make sure you don't miss any of my auctions, look for me at xxxxxx.xxx and xxxxxxxx.xxx as well."
I also include the URLs on the invoices included with each package.
I sell such a wide variety of stuff and hardly ever have the same type of thing twice so never have got a good mailing list going. Sure is a bummer. 
--------------------------
http://www.wallypogsbog.bizland.com
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airguy
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posted on June 1, 2001 12:12:02 AM new
I'm pretty sure that there are lots of people that would have never even thought about harvesting email addresses, sending out newsletters, or building a web site now are. I'm sure ebay will become paranoid and will step up the time frame of locking out sellers ever being in direct contact with their buyers.
Sorry Skip555 I don't agree, this isn't Wal-Mart, I'm not a vender that puts my stuff on their floor and lets them sell it for me, the customers that walks into Wal-Mart is their customer not their venders. On eBay(the disappearing venue) It's not unlike a Classified ad in the newspaper, the sellers advertise, the paper sells them a little box in the back of the paper, I meet this person selling their stuff, am I the papers customer? no I'm the sellers customer. on ebay monies and items exchange hands and we are rated on our performance(still a load of stuff if you ask me).
The buyers are the sellers customers not ebays, and I sometimes really think people forget, as does ebay, that the sellers are ebays customers.
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gravid
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posted on June 1, 2001 02:10:35 AM new
skip555 - You claim more for them than eBay does.
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fonthill
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posted on June 1, 2001 03:35:26 AM new
Ebay insists that they are only a "venue". So I always try to think of them as that... If you were in an antique mall, and you had regular customers that came every Saturday and bought things from you regularily, you might mention to them that you had another booth in another antique mall (which would be the equivalent of emailing your regular repeat buyers). For those that are "drop-ins" you might post a sign mentioning that you are also located in another venue (which would be the equivalent of putting in your description or "me" page that you are also selling on the other auction site). What will be interesting is to see how ebay reacts to this. My experience with ebay is that they are not a "venue" at all, but rather a fascist corporate entity intent on becoming a monopoly.
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deco100
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posted on June 1, 2001 06:34:23 AM new
You'all got it right! KISS! I'm not puting it in the EOA notice tho which ebay could get hot about. I'm putting it in my thank-you- package has been mailed notice and in the package.
"For more books(or whatever) see me at ebay, epier and....."
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