eBay - now is our chance!!!

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Posted By: David Smith

I am only half joking when I say this.

Today, eBay lost a large percentage of their share value after they came out and said their earnings are going to be lower then what they had projected before, even after they had previously lowered expectations.

It is clear to me that the bozos who are in control of eBay need to go if that company is going to survive. So, why not pool money together and buy a stake in the company so as to have a say in setting the company on hte right course??

David

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Posted By: Jim VB

David,

Their market cap is just under $20 billion. How big a stake do you think we need?

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

They called me the other day to inform me about all the exciting changes coming my way...I told the gal that she'll be lucky to have a job in the next year if they don't get rid of their new CEO. I cut her off and told her I know all about the "exciting" new changes and I don't know a single seller that favors them. She thanked me for my feedback and told me she would pass along my comments.

Uh...sure you will.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I can kick in fifty bucks.

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Posted By: Jim VB

I had $50, but after Crandall destroyed the economy (Hi, Jim C.) all I have now is $25.

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Posted By: David Smith

Jim VB,

With the market going the way it is going and with eBay stock most likely falling even farther, the market cap is going to shrink. The key is getting enough stock so as to have a say and to be able to make proposals at the board meeting.

A small collective like the net54 Limited Partners, for example, might not have a big chunk of the company BUT if we (hypothetically) could buy enough stock that we could get noticed and THEN have some good, logical solutions to fix the company, then more people might see what we are trying to do, follow us and vote for the changes.

My suggestions for changes would be:

1) to undo some of the recent changes (accepting PayPal only as a payment method, the new feedback rating system, etc).

2) keep the look of the pages the same. No more changing the look just for the sake of change.

3) doing away with Private bidders and hidden feedback.

4) get away from the focus on fixed price listings and back to auctions. If the management wants a fixed price venue, then split the company into two different companies; one for people who want to sell items at a fixed price and one where people can sell things in an auction format.

5) have only the pre-1930 category for baseball cards and do away with the sub lising categories. A lot of people have no clue what years the cards they are trying to sell are from and just throw out a year and hope. Why even have it?

6) have a Reprint category and MAKE peopel use it!!!!! No more of this, "I don't know if the card is real or not but eBay is making me list it as a Reprint" or "the card doesn't say reprint anywhere on it" crap.

If people list a fake in the authentic section, give them a warning and MOVE that card to the reprint section. If they list another fake in the authentic section, ban them from selling cards for a period of time. If they do it a third time, kick them out.

David

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Posted By: Kyle

In case you need a link to pre-1930s cards, here's the link I use. If someone makes it a tiny url, I'll edit it down again.

http://tinyurl.com/3f9oao

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Posted By: D. Bergin

Here's a fascinating article from the NY Times I haven't seen posted over here which includes an interview with John Donahoe.

http://tinyurl.com/4zs99y


It looks pretty bleak from an auction standpoint. Donahoe seems intent on killing Ebay and becoming Amazon light. He claims the losses on Ebay not changing enough! Auctions are dying and Ebay hasn't kept up with the trends. Idiot still can't see it's Ebay that killed off the auctions and alienated good sellers. Not peoples unwillingness to bid in auctions.

Sellers are just pawns to him to get Ebay to eventually become a retail clearinghouse of sorts.

It's pretty eye-opening. If you rely on auctions on Ebay it may be time to begin exploring other options..................if you haven't already. It really opened my eyes.

Lastly, in case nobody noticed...........Ebay is going to start requiring sellers of DVD's to offer free shipping to customers. It's only a matter of time before they migrate that reasoning to the rest of the site.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

He is intent on killing ebay...I am convinced of that. Now when I go to put up an auction it tells me my shipping is out of line, but you know what I'm getting killed on shipping. I tried to list an auction with 100+ atari cartridges and I put the shipping at $15...ebay told me that my shipping was out of line and that starting in October there would be a limit on shipping for the vintage game category..so I went back and changed it...I sold my Atari cartridges, packed them up and took them to the post office...it cost me $18 to ship that package..there was no cheaper option. Ebay is forcing sellers to lose money on shipping. I listed another auction of 10 vintage playboy magazines from the 1950s and placed them in the magazine (back issues) category...I figured $7 for shipping on the lot...my post office does not allow media mail for magazines at all...and they will have you open the package to make sure you are not cheating them. Well ebay tells me that you can not charge more than $3 shipping in that category. WTF???

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Posted By: joe

Dan, what Post Office do you deal with, I mail magazines media mail all the time. Sounds like a misunderstanding with the Postal employess that work there. Tell them you want to talk to the postmaster at that Post Office.

Joe

Ty Cobb, Spikes flying!

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Posted By: Cat

I think we should all buy 1 share so that they have to send us the voting cards, annual reports, and other BS. It's a good protest statement.

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Posted By: Bob

David- All good suggestions, please add one more that the "Best Match" default be deep sixed and the default revert to "New Listings."

Cat- Not a bad suggestion, we could harass them to death.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I go to the Van Dorn post office in Lincoln, NE...they told me any printed material that has advertising can not be mailed Media Mail.

edited to add: I just found this on the ebay site

http://reviews.ebay.com/MEDIA-MAIL-Shipping-on-Magazines_W0QQugidZ10000000003860736

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Posted By: Red

There isn't any latest rule or regulation regarding magazines and Media Mail. Magazines are not supposed to be shipped by Media Mail. The only question is whether or not somebody at your Post Office, your customer's Post Office, or somebody in between, inspects and enforces the rule. Some Post Offices will use enforcement as a revenue generator because if a media mail package is found to contain non-media then the postage on the package is recalculated to the Priority Mail rate. This means that your customer could receive the package with postage due for the difference. For cheap heavy things the difference could exceed the value. For Ebay purchases this may not go over to well with a customer who has already paid you for shipping.

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Posted By: D. Bergin

Honestly, It doesn't make much sense to me and is very vague as are many things considering the USPS's various rules. Magazines are pretty much the textbook definition of "Media".

"Advertising" and "Advertisements" can be construed as two totally different things.

If a DVD or Videotape has an advertisement for another movie or Coca-Cola in the previews..................does that make it ineligible for Media mail shipping?

Lastly, as an example I am about set to ship a large number of boxing newsletters from the 1960's to the 80's to a customer. These were generally self-published and didn't really contain any advertising. I would still classify many of them magazines. Can I ship these via Media Mail?

The bureaucracy it seems you have to navigate every day from your normal daily life to selling on Ebay just seems to be getting deeper and deeper all the time.