eBay had the Q2 2008 earnings call yesterday. The first one with John Donahoe at the wheel. There were decreases. They were blamed on things such as removal of fakes (what?), the economy (shouldn’t eBay do better when people are hunting for bargains?), and added supply, which lowers conversion rates (Buy.com?).
Do you suppose the fact that people are leaving for Amazon in droves may play a part? My eBook which teaches eBay sellers the basics of getting started on Amazon.com is called, “Selling on the River” and it’s having great success. That tells me something.
Anyway, I got to thinking of all the talk of “taking the wheel,” “roadmaps”, and all that travel talk and imagined all the eBay executives on a road trip to Pittsburgh. I thought it’d be interesting to be a fly on the windshield (the inside) and listen to their conversations. It’s all just below this cool graphic I made up just to help you imagine it too:
John Donahoe: See ya Meg! Thanks for everything!
(door slams - everyone giggles) “ROAD TRIP!” they all shout.
The car takes off with John, Lorrie, Rajiv, and Stephanie.
Lorrie Norrington: Pittsburgh here we come! John, you have the roadmap right?
John: Yep. Right here. Rajiv, you’ll navigate okay?
Rajiv: I sure will. I have a new navigation system that will get us exactly where we want to go. It’s called Best Match Navigation - I type in the city and it picks the right one every time! P-I-T-T-S…Hey! Got it already! Lets lock it in.
John: I’m pulling over for a minute, I should check under the hood.
Stephanie Tilenius: It seems like it’s running fine. Are you a mechanic John?
John: No, but I’ve ridden in cars my whole life. - I’ll be right back.
He lifts the hood, and comes back holding a couple of dirty, well-used parts between his index finger and thumb (as if they stink). He seems disgusted.
John: I don’t know who left this stuff under the hood, look how dirty! Yuk. Lets toss them out.
Lorrie: Don’t we need them? It seemed like the car was running fine.
John: Nawwww! Listen. The car is running, lets go. You know? I think I’m going to make some more changes to this old girl. It might slow us down a little for awhile, but just wait - you’ll see. It’s gonna be a LOT better once I’m done.
As they go further, they notice the car slowing down. A lot of noise starts coming from the engine. To make matters worse, they don’t seem to be getting closer to Pittsburgh.
John: Well just like I said, we’re slowing down. But it’s going to speed up any time. Why are people waving and yelling at us? They seem mad…is that smoke? Lorrie do you smell anything?
Lorrie: Let’s stop for a sec. Stephanie and I are going to look under the hood too. Rajiv, could you double-check the Best Match nav system? Something doesn’t look right. Be right Back!
More noises and clunking under the hood. Lorrie comes back with more parts from the engine. Stephanie has masking tape, paint, and a fender.
Stephanie: That did some good. You won’t recognize this car by the time we get to Pittsburgh. It’s looking great!
Rajiv (annoyed, from the back seat): Didn’t I type in Pittsburgh? Because we’re heading to PittsFIELD! Crap. Let me try again… P-I-T-T-S…
Lorrie: John, look at all those people - they’re waving and yelling at us. They’re upset, oh we’ve driven over their lawns, ooops, I think we hit someone’s store too. Well, we don’t have time to stop and talk, they’ll figure out what happened when they try to open for business tomorrow.
John: Yeah, it’s just a lot of noise. Let’s keep going. This car is really slowing down. Look at that boat right there on the River - it’s passing us!
Rajiv: Grrr! I can’t believe this thing! This nav system is not working right at all, we’re gonna have to turn up here John, that sign says Pittsville not Pittsburgh. Gheez, this is frustrating! I’ll try again…P-I-T-T-S…
John: Whew! It’s getting hot in here - and what is that NOISE? Rajiv, where did you get that stupid navigation system? eBay? Hahaha!
(Everyone laughs - except Rajiv.)
Rajiv: No I bought it from you John, remember? You tried selling it on eBay and the buyer never paid. Don’t you remember? They left you negative feedback.
(Now no one is laughing…)
John: Well, it seems like the noise is dying down. In fact - a bunch of those people are getting on that boat. Goooood riddance!! Troublemakers. What River is that by the way?…
(Cell phone rings)
Stephanie: Hey John, there is some kind of analyst on the phone - he wants to know why you’re going so slow.
John: Tell him, uhhh, tell him we’re going slow because of the weather. Things will be picking up very soon though, what we’ve been doing is working. Tell him that.
(She tells him.)
Stephanie: Ok, he said he thought this car was designed to do good in this weather.
John: Uhhmmmm, tell him we took some of the fake parts off the car, and now it’s going a lot slower, it’s going to get better. We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing.
(She tells him.)
Stephanie: He said it seems like the car would do better after removing the fakes. He wants to know if…
Suddenly, John grabs the phone from Stephanie and throws it out the window.
John: There. Too much noise. Lets just hold the course. This thing will pick up. Hey, if we tried getting on the River, maybe we could move a little faster. We need to be more like that boat. Can you even see that boat anymore?
Rajiv: (exasperated) You know what? This is ridiculous! This Best Match doesn’t work. This isn’t Pittsburgh, it’s just the PITTS! I’m getting out. John, stop the car. Nevermind we weren’t moving…
I’ll see you guys, I’m walking.
As Rajiv walks into the sunset, and traffic increases on the River…John, Lorrie, and Stephanie can be seen asking a passing trucker for a lift. The big truck he’s driving says Buy.com on the side…hmmmmm.
Find out more about “the River” - Learn to sell on Amazon.com at www.SellingOnTheRiver.com
Popularity: 46% [?]
July 18th, the official release date for The Dark Knight, the newest Batman movie. For years I’ve been telling people to watch for big releases, and cash in on the buzz with eBay. Does it still work?
I did some research with Terapeak, and the results are interesting. If you have some old Batman grappling hooks, or one of the three Batmobile replicas in your barn, you may want to drag them out. In fact, as I write this, there is a No. 1 issue of Bat-Man on eBay for nearly $6000. (Yes, he was first referred to as Bat-Man.) As the buzz for the movie increases, so will the interest in Batman memorabilia. And there is some really cool stuff out there.
Terapeak results show the sell-through rate for Batman on eBay, over the past seven days is at 52% and climbing. The best sell-through rate is Toys & Hobbies category, with Collectibles category doing a little less, but with the most items listed. The fact is, this is a great example of a predictable pop culture event, that will pull all the Bat-people out of the rafters to sell their stuff. Collectors will be looking and the competition will raise prices.
eBay used to be the go-to place for these things. My opinion is eBay still is. While I love Amazon, no place has the excitement of the eBay auctions for collectibles. With all of eBay’s bruises lately, lets see if they can still perform for the Dark Knight.
Check out the Batman items for sale below. Holy IT Batman!!
Popularity: 39% [?]
eBay announced today they are reversing their decision to count negative feedback comments as negatives. This was a very hot topic at eBay Live! in Chicago last month and likely be welcomed warmly by the eBay community. Effective in late August, neutrals will no longer be counted as part of the Feedback percentage. eBay will be recalculating Feedback percentages retroactively for users worldwide. In the interim, no one will lose their PowerSeller status as a result of neutrals being included in their Feedback percentage. Sweeet!!
The Neutral as Negative policy caused many eBay Powersellers, Trading Assistants, and Education Specialists to lose their status as such. To qualify for those titles, sellers must have at least a 98% positive feedback rating, and counting neutrals against sellers often brought them below that standard.
People were so upset about it because it just wasn’t fair. Neutral does not mean negative. But eBay tried to make the case that since neutral was ‘less than positive’ it should count as a negative. Fine, if eBay wants to rate customer satisfaction like that inside eBay - go ahead. But as for my public feedback score, lets not reinterpret the buyer’s intentions. Good for eBay - they got something right!
Click here to read the entire announcement by Lorrie Norrington.
Popularity: 54% [?]
Last month’s eBay Live! in Chicago was the first I’ve attended where I was not part of the hired staff. eBay always provided the “Staff” shirts for us, but this year I had to buy my own.
I wanted to advertise my humble blog, but I didn’t want to spend a fortune. Then I remembered CafePress. In case you haven’t used CafePress, it’s a site where you can create designs and slogans, have them placed on shirts, mugs, clocks, hats, aprons, and offer them to the public. If anyone buys an item with your design, you get a commission. They even offer a store to feature your stuff. It’s free to create the designs and list your items.
In any case, I created a logo for my shirts. I ordered two polos for eBay Live! with plenty of time to spare. I received confirmation of the order and shipment and eagerly awaited my shirts. By the time I was leaving for Chicago, it was obvious there was a problem with delivery. I was leaving and still no shirts.
Needless to say, I was a bit ticked-off. I email Customer Service and asked them to fix the problem, at least give me a refund since I would not be able to use my shirts (unless of course I’m still a XXL in 2010).
To my surprise, within about 30 minutes I received a reply. I expected the canned “We’ve received your email and we’ll get to it when we can.” message. But no. It was from a real human. Support Associate, Santana J. apologized and said a refund was definitely in order and they’d remake the shirts at no extra charge.
I wrote back explaining that there wasn’t time for all that - unless they could ship them directly to my hotel. Then I left for the mid-west. When I arrived at my hotel in Chicago after a three-day visit with family - my shirts were there. It isn’t often nowadays things go so smoothly - but CafePress pulled it off without any hitches.
It’s nice to see that even though I’m a small first-time buyer I was treated as an important customer. I will never forget that service and I will be back.
PS - For Sellers…
In February when I was playing around with CafePress, I created this mug:
I was really just trying to figure out how it all worked, and basically forgot about it. At the time I purchased my shirts, my account had over $40 in it from sales of that mug. I KNOWWW!! Surely you could think up something way funnier than that. It is definitely a proposition any seller with creativity should look into. Shop or Create What’s On Your Mind at CafePress
Popularity: 73% [?]
I regularly read a very good blog called 37Signals. They have a post that, in my opinion, perfectly describes what has happened to eBay. The MBAs have taken over the place. They do not sell on eBay (as a general rule), and while they may know business by the book, they don’t understand the people who make the business tick.
Here’s a quote from 37Signals from a post called The MBA Myth:
There’s a popular book on entrepreneurship called The E-Myth which claims that bakers shouldn’t run bakeries, plumbers shouldn’t run plumbing companies, and everyone else should think about how they could turn their small business into a franchise. On the face of it, there’s a lot of good advice about how you can’t just be a good baker if you don’t have a business bone in your body and expect commercial success.
Problem is that the reverse is also often true. If you just put MBAs in place — or other professional managers without deep subject matter expertise — you’re equally likely to end up with an uninspiring business that fails to be passionate about the right things. To stay on the ball you need to know what’s a good pass and the best way to do that is to be able to make one yourself.
eBay’s “bakers” and “plumbers” are the small sellers in the trenches. They have valuable information to impart. But listening to the sessions at eBay Live! made it obvious that information isn’t welcomed.
As an example, take a look at the way eBay Education focuses on “growing your eBay business”. Most moms and pops I find in my classes are not the least bit interested in starting and growing a business. They just want to sell their stuff. It used to be that eBay was a great alternative to a garage sale, the hassles were less, and the prices were better. I still find my items bring good prices overall, but the hassles are mounting.
I don’t believe eBay really wants to run small sellers away. The loss of small sellers is “collateral damage” as a result of eBay’s bigger plans. Kind of like the bustling small towns and businesses that are bypassed and suffer when a new highway is built. Too bad - but that’s progress. We’re told it’s for the good of the majority.
Humility?
Unfortunately for small eBay sellers, admitting a wrong course takes humility. Humility, it seems, is not widely taught within business schools. After all, what would it say about their expensive diplomas if a simple common-sense solution by a “commoner” proved to be the best one?
When a small seller in a midwestern town with nothing but a high school education challenges the decisions of top business school graduates - and that has been happening A LOT lately - what do you think will happen?
I think we’re seeing it in action. (I hear crickets…)
Popularity: 98% [?]
