Ebay has announced the end of the blogs as of Oct. 31, 09. It is suspected that they are eliminating the advantage of free advertising for sellers in the process. It is rumored that the neighborhoods are to go next. No mention of groups though and they could be spared for a longer time since they don't seem to be used to advertise for sales. Google and ebay are competitors and both are interested in selling advertising to sellers, hence the recent difficulties with the google feeds. This is the latest move to further eliminate small sellers. We are going to be censored in our discussions also. We are not allowed to criticize ebay in any way and will risk losing our account if we do so. Perhaps the liveworld contract is costing too much and eating into their bottom line. My store is closed, my fees are all paid. That's that. They can take my account if they want to. At this point, I just don't care anymore. :)
I thought they were moving to that...a sterile corporate environment. So long old eBay.When did you hear it pH? I think we'll all be searching for a site that can take the place of eBay. We'll see.
I heard about the blogs last week, but waited for the whole story. No word on neighborhoods, that's speculation. The google feed thing has been a recurring topic in the jewelry hood.
A clarification to the censorship issue, they are imposing this on power sellers first. For the moment, the rest of us are safe with tellin it like it is.
phenry, I hope you will keep us posted with your observations in the meantime (until we disappear). I rely on places like this for inside information. As to the ebay criticizing issue - are you saying it's costing ebay too much to have liveworld monitor discussions? I wonder if they fear a rebellion where we all get fed up and move to a new location....taking our business with us? By controlling what we say, (it's thought) our actions are controlled. Interesting. When freedom of speach is denied you have to wonder what motivated the decision.
Wow...thanks for the info Phenry! It will be interesting to see what happens next. Actually it's surprising that this post is still here... I'm not selling right now either. EBay hasn't supported their small sellers for a long time...even the powersellers. Everyone knows it's for the buyers only, when the sellers are the ones that make the money for eBay.. Does anyone think eBay will still be here a year from now? Or will it be just another Amazon.com or similar site?
I really think this is a slow process. Ebay seems to be turning into a hybrid of O and A. Platinum powersellers will probably be allowed to continue doing anything and everyone else will eventually go away due to lack of profitability, and support. I am going to stay tuned since there's always a chance that someone else might become the CEO, and maybe they will choose to take things back to the way they were. In the meantime, I am donating the items that didn't sell in my store to get a tax adjustment, which helps offset the money I made here, and am scheduling a party to sell some jewelry. :) (In case anyone didn't know, ebay will begin reporting sales to the IRS in 2010.)
p.s. I cleaned out my garage and found a bunch of items that were never opened, like curtain rods, ceiling fan brackets, etc., and donated these at the Habitat for Humanity resale store.
Great that you donated those items Phenry! At least you know they are going to a worthy cause.
I think I mentioned this before but it looks like Lootslinger has finally launched. I'm keeping an eye on it. At this point there doesn't seem to be a "designer purse" market but who knows...that could come later. But for those who are selling other items it might be worth checking into.
dc, I wouldn't laugh too hard. You see the things we are discussing in this thread will affect you also. But maybe you don't have the accounting skills to notice you are paying ebay fees, yet you aren't making a really good profit for all that work you are doing. Good luck with that and your contentious attitude, you will need it. ROFLMAO!
It figures I'm glad they're closing the blogs, anytime I ever went to one I was treated rude. so I say so what! What I really want to do is sell these last two purses I'll make a buy one get one deal for anyone who asks,
Must use Buy It Now and PayPal.
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