RebelGuns
|
posted on January 16, 2001 11:39:31 AM new
Yahoo establishing a fee schedule and eBay raising their rates when dot coms are becoming an endagered species.
Glad these people didn't plan Desert Storm.
Lets drive even MORE shoppers from the internet back to real-life flea markets and stores by making it even more expensive to deal on-line where most are hesitant to deal anyway.
What a pack of self-destruct strategists.
[ edited by RebelGuns on Jan 16, 2001 11:41 AM ]
|
forshoppin
|
posted on January 16, 2001 11:46:33 AM new
I'll bet the USPS is involved with this. Postage rates are high. It's gonna discourage a lot of buyers.
|
RebelGuns
|
posted on January 16, 2001 11:48:14 AM new
It's going to make it less worthwhile to shop on-line, that's for sure...
|
VeryModern
|
posted on January 16, 2001 11:48:58 AM new
I agree...
The timing is stunning. Right on top the postal increase.
As a seller, I am leaving auctions 95%.
As a buyer, I will not even bother to shop them anymore.
Uh - I think it's fair to say this fad has ended.
Last one out, turn out the lights
|
stockticker
|
posted on January 16, 2001 11:58:17 AM new
Maybe the fad is ending in the U.S., but it hasn't even begun in many countries. My goal has always been to get a piece of that huge international pie when the rest of the world goes on-line in mass. Yahoo was a promising place to start (better than eBay) and I have had a number of overseas buyers. That's probably why I'll focus on portal sites
Irene
|
RebelGuns
|
posted on January 16, 2001 12:01:06 PM new
I was actually thinking of posting on some nice looking British auction sites until I saw they were about as dead as most of ours.
|
stockticker
|
posted on January 16, 2001 12:10:15 PM new
If I spoke German, I'd be posting on eBay German site. The category I'd post in is very active and my prices would be quite competitive. However, I don't think I'm up to an e-mail correspondence in German...
Irene
|
RebelGuns
|
posted on January 16, 2001 12:11:46 PM new
There should be on-line trasnslation programs that should make it interesting. I know I was toying around with one awhile back and converting my web site into German etc. Has possiblities, but I couldn't tell you where I ran into it.
|
forshoppin
|
posted on January 16, 2001 12:15:20 PM new
yep, I used a translation program to email a buyer in japan not to long ago. Boy let me tell you, talk about some real interesting sentenceing structering
|
RebelGuns
|
posted on January 16, 2001 12:18:28 PM new
I've often wondered how many times the Native Americans pulled our legs with meanings of words. "Weehawkin" (New Jersey) is supposed to mean 'place of the gulls," but it PROBABLY means "silly Anglo-Saxon looks like ugly duck."
Know what I mean???
|
stockticker
|
posted on January 16, 2001 12:24:31 PM new
The on-line translators can be a riot - particularly between German and English as the sentence structure of the two languages is quite different.
|
RebelGuns
|
posted on January 16, 2001 12:26:43 PM new
I think maybe someone familiar with the language had better proofread! Otherwise, who knows what one might actually be listing!
|
motive8
|
posted on January 16, 2001 01:00:15 PM new
Speaking of translations, I speak French reasonably fluently, and have actually corresponded by email in French for several eBay transactions (people notice I live in Montréal and just assume I speak French, which I do, just not 100% perfect.)
Do you think it's worth making a note that correspondence is available in French? (I wish I spoke German too, however I do know Russian, but I hesitiate to make that well known since I'm not very good at it)
Would that be in violation of some Yahoo TOS? I just added that to my eBay ads, but I'm new to Yahoo, and I'm seeing I can't use the same techniques here. In any case, I'll have to check out some French language auction sites, and see if it's worthwhile listing on any other auctions.
BTW: Maybe some of you also speak another language, be forewarned, some bidders just like to chat in the other language, like it's a novelty to them, but it I'm afraid to tell them they're wasting my time incase they get mad & post a negative feedback.
|
RebelGuns
|
posted on January 16, 2001 01:03:46 PM new
I speak Southern, of that helps...
|
stockticker
|
posted on January 16, 2001 01:10:33 PM new
Motive8: I don't think you will find a French-speaking auction site worth listing on at this point in time. In the 1980s the French the developed a telephone connnected computer system (for ordering tickets, etc.) which I gather was quite popular. I even recall something similar starting up in Montreal around that time. In any case, the Internet came along, making the system obsolete. However, I gather that the average French person was slow to give up on the old system which as "comfortable".
|
forshoppin
|
posted on January 16, 2001 01:23:44 PM new
Yahoo's TOS are pretty iffy at best. I would be very, very careful about anything I did at that site. After selling on there for 2 years some of the stuff I am hearing just blows me out of the water. For 2 years they haven't paid a bit of attention to the auctions and now they are closing accounts, etc.
|
CAgrrl
|
posted on January 16, 2001 04:57:39 PM new
you guys could always put links in your auction ads that say "click here for translator".
Irene- the international customer base is one of the reasons I have been so thrilled to sell on Yahoo all this time. There have been weeks when ALL my Yahoo sales were from Austalia, Japan, Canada, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands...it makes it not quite so important what the stock market is doing here if there's someone unaffected by it winning your merchandise elsewhere.
It would be cool to list on the Ebay Germany site, but ONLY if I could get a grip on international shipping charges...I still feel completely in the dark about them!! I did take 2 years of German in high school but I doubt that would be of much help now. At least my horribly bad accent wouldn't be an issue through email!! tee hee!!
Anyway, back on topic for a minute, I just want to say that I agree with RebelGuns' first post in its entirety.
|
zzyzx000
|
posted on January 16, 2001 06:02:49 PM new
I've had some Japanese sales where the buyer's English was obviously done with a translator program. It was quite amusing but we did manage to get the deal done.
One place I've seen that will translate text between major languages is Bablefish. They are part of Alta Vista. here they are:
http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn
|
stockticker
|
posted on January 16, 2001 06:25:19 PM new
CAgrrl: Yes, I noticed a higher ratio of overseas sales on Yahoo (and even on zShops when I was listing there) than on eBay.
One big advantage of being internationally diversified is the seasonal factor. The biggest mail order/internet sales are always during the winter months. Well, south of the equator the seasons are reversed. So slow summer sales here could be offset by booming sales to locations like Australia which are in the middle of winter. 
Irene
|
stockticker
|
posted on January 16, 2001 06:30:23 PM new
Zzyzx000: I used Bablefish to translate the entire eBay Germany site when I was browsing there. It did a very good job of it. The only text not translated was (obviously) the text which was in the form of icons/images. That wasn't really a problem because the German site is similar in set-up to the U.S. eBay site so I was able to guess what many of those words meant.
Irene
|
zzyzx000
|
posted on January 16, 2001 06:44:37 PM new
In case you wonder about the name, the Babelfish is from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The babelfish is inserted into one's ear canal and automatically translates any language spoken by anyone in the universe into the language of the one with the Babelfish stuck in their ear.
|
gem10a1
|
posted on January 16, 2001 06:51:39 PM new
QTip ? How do you spell QTip in British.
|
RebelGuns
|
posted on January 16, 2001 08:52:41 PM new
All I've learned in British so far is that a "rubber" in an eraser. Well, I guess it has similar meaning here...
|
zzyzx000
|
posted on January 16, 2001 09:00:43 PM new
A "car park" is a parking lot.
A "jersey" is a sweater
And a "wanker" is.....never mind....
|
motive8
|
posted on January 17, 2001 12:59:01 AM new
Hi ah!
Delighted to hear what all you jolly good blokes added here! Now let's see, where did I leave those flaming letters I need to drop in the post.....oh yes, how daft! They're still in the boot of me car, or did I leave them on the windscreen, out in the car park? And would't you know it, I can't find me jersey! Sunshine, would you see if I dropped it in the lift? Cheers!
My father learned English in England, so I used to hear lots of that sort of thing, but as time went on he became more "Canadianized."
I better check with Yahoo and eBay if I'm violating any terms by offering service in French on an English site. I'd hate for them to cancell all my listings for that.
Then I need to learn German!
|
CAgrrl
|
posted on January 17, 2001 02:42:46 AM new
Irene- good point!! I never thought of that, but Aussies sure did help rescue my slow summer, that's for sure! Gotta love 'em!
|
lovepotions
|
posted on January 17, 2001 05:23:53 AM new
There should be on-line trasnslation programs that should make it interesting......RebelGuns
if you go to Altavista.com
click on the "world" section you can copy and paste anything into it and have it translated into any major language.
You can also type a url and have the entire website translated.
If you have a website that you would like to have translated into French for example. On the main page of your site put up a flag icon with a link to your site through the bablefish translator in altavista and your non english speaking customers will be looking at your website in their language of choice........
Add a little flavor to your love life with "Love Potions"
|
RebelGuns
|
posted on January 17, 2001 05:41:52 AM new
That must have been the site that I used.
Other than that, Aussies haven't done much for me. The only Aussie that ever won a bid on my stuff begged out because it cost too much to ship there.
|
motive8
|
posted on January 17, 2001 12:31:51 PM new
Ok, so we can translate into other languages, but what do we do the bidder emails us, and doesn't know Enlgish (or any other language you know?)
|
stockticker
|
posted on January 17, 2001 12:34:34 PM new
You can cut and paste the e-mail into the translater site to get it translated into English... However, the translation is literal and also doesn't take different sentence structure into consideration. That's why I decided not to list on the German eBay site.
|
