posted on August 21, 2001 06:59:19 PM
Hello all. I’m writing a story for AuctionWatch on seniors who use eBay and I’m looking for folks willing to share their comments, experiences, etc., on why they sell and/or buy on eBay. Would you be interested in contributing? If so, here are some questions to consider and to get things rolling:
--How did you first hear about eBay? What do you like about it?
--Why did you start using eBay (was it a hobby, or did you find that you needed the additional income after retirement, etc.)?
--Do you think more and more seniors are having to find work after retirement?
--How crucial is the income you earn from eBay to your financial situation?
--Were you at all intimidated by using the Internet and computers? What kind of computer skills did you have prior to using eBay?
--Do you have friends around the same age who are reluctant to use eBay? What are their reasons? Why do you think this is so?
--Do you feel that eBay adequately serves the needs of its older users? What more could the company do?
--Also, it would be helpful to provide some basic background about yourself (your age, what you did before eBay, how long you’ve been retired, how long you’ve been buying and selling online, etc.) as I’m trying to put together some user profiles.
Feel free to post your comments here or send them to me via e-mail at [email protected]. (By the way, I’d much rather use real names than user names, so if you’re willing, would you mind including your actual name in your post? If not, that’s OK too.)
posted on August 21, 2001 10:02:17 PM
Thank you. Sorry I can't help, if it was a year or two either way, I would, but it isn't......yet.
Us Baby Boomers know how old we are, but we get a twinge at seeing the numbers, or being called Seniors. The pool of information you are looking to find is in a huge bulge in the population comprised mostly of aging children who are going into old age kicking and screaming.
I think you would have better luck if the parameters are set by range. That is 50 to 54, 55 to 60, etc.., with a title other than Senior.
posted on August 21, 2001 10:17:23 PM
Hey Andy! How old are you?
Ummm....you ask, how long have you been retired? Well, if you are able to retire before 60, you either invested and got out of the stock market in a timely manner, inherited a chunk o' money, or.....well I can't think of many other circumstances where someone might be able to retire before age 60 !!!
We live in a society where the lifespan for women is 80 something now.....if we were to retire at 60 we would have to have enough stashed aside to last at least another twenty years, including the money to pay all the medical bills we might incur
as we near that eighty year mark.
Personal computers hit the market what, about twenty years ago? Do you know how many forty somethings were in their peak earning years, using DOS? Lot's of us! We were there first!
If by seniors, you mean little old gray haired ladies and gentlemen supplementing their Social Security by Ebay, you might want to increase your age requirements quite a bit!
Sorry to jump on you. I think your going to be pushin' some buttons here!
posted on August 21, 2001 11:50:35 PM
I deal with a lot of seniors!
They email me with "I had one of those in 1952!"
I email them back..."I wasn't even thought of in 1952! My Mom was a baby!"
Then they neg me.
Oh well, working on those customer service skills!
posted on August 22, 2001 06:37:51 PM
Retired from what? If you mean you quit your day job and are able to support yourself on Ebay, what does your age have to do with it?
Please Andy, what really do you mean by seniors? You say 60, and then ask questions about "serving the needs of older users"...older than who?
Sorry to rant about this, but your questions seriously bring up visions of toothless old bags, drooling in their porridge! LOL !!!
In my real job, we use the euphimism "mature clients". It goes down a lot easier and reaches a broader audience without offending those who are 59 1/2 and able to tap into their 401k's.
I'm 48, by the way. I feel about one hundred years older though.
posted on August 22, 2001 06:50:31 PM
I'm 60... when I feel like I've become a senior I'll let you know (maybe in ten years).
"well I can't think of many other circumstances where someone might be able to retire before age 60 !!! "
I quit my day job 15 years ago. Diddled around, started ebay 3 yrs ago. You don't have to "retire" before 60, just quit working for someone else and start enjoying life. It's a question of priorities. I have never owned a new car and never will (unless I win the lottery, but the tix are a waste of $).
I will answer one question: "Do you think more and more seniors are having to find work after retirement? "
.... um, sorry, I don't think I can answer it. (I did think about it.) "work", "retirement".. foreign concepts.
I'll just say; Keep busy, keep interested, or die.
posted on August 22, 2001 09:13:18 PM
Vinnie: Exactly my point! I see some "ageism" on this thread when the originator, Andy, assumes that a "senior" equals = "retired". And 60 = senior???
As I said, you can quit your day job (if you want too) at any age! I have been entreprenuering on and off since I quit college! (ha ha)!
The rules have changed! Now we have to ask, what is a "senior", and also, what is "retired"?
My dad is 78 and goes to work every day. He's a landscaper and loves it.....so is he retired? If he has done the same thing with love since he got out of WWII, does that mean he never had a job?
posted on August 22, 2001 09:32:12 PM
Okay, since you asked. . ..
I'm at the young end of your definition of senior. A few years ago we inherited a houseful of "stuff" from an 85-year-old aunt with fairly good taste, and then a mountain cabin from the same lady in which she exercised all the bad taste she'd ever come across. We had boxes sitting in our basement, too good for the thrift store, and no one in the extended family wanted the stuff.
Two years ago I discovered that eBay had a section on wallpockets, which I collect and love. For 6 months I bought wallpockets and learned the ebay experience from the buyer's perspective. Then I felt ready to start unloading Aunt Dorothy's stuff.
Learning to sell on ebay, and especially the picture editing and uploading, was excruciatingly difficult for me. I shed real tears sometimes, and finally an oldtimer on ebay took pity on me and walked me through it, step by step. God bless him!!!
I decided to launch auctions through AuctionWatch because my mentor did. I got a digital camera after 6 months of scanning everything that could be scanned. I spent hours learning, and hours launching auctions, and studying how others sold the stuff I wanted to sell, etc.
Now I'm fairly confident about it and do love selling on ebay. I don't sell enough to put bread on the table, if we were really poor, but I take huge pleasure in turning stuff the family doesn't want into cash!
And the extended family is taking me seriously now, about my love of ebay.
I've begun branching out, buying things I'm sure I can sell at a profit, and don't yet have an "ebay house" but sometimes it scares me!
I'm a technophobe, and I'm sure if I weren't I'd have been able to learn all this more quickly and without tears. But I've taken real satisfaction in proving that I can still learn a new skill.
Most of my friends don't sell on ebay but are interested. When I begin to describe to them how it's done, they back off, usually. No one realizes how much detail work is involved until they try it.
I tell new people to study the market first and for sure to buy several things on ebay first, to learn the buyer's experience and how they will need to treat customers.
