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The Auction Guild Notes Wed 12 Dec 2007
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THIS ISSUE -
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AREN'T YOU USING GOOGLE CHECKOUT YET?
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EBAY UNANNOUNCED TEST PRICE INCREASE DISGUISED
AS AN UNANNOUNCED FREE STORE LISTING PROMOTION
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CLOSING AN ACCOUNT ON EBAY
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UNCHECK GALLERY IN YOUR EBAY RELISTS
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EBAY US 20 CENT FIXED PRICE LISTING FEE PROMO
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Bid and buy from sellers living in the United States, and get
your products shipped from within the United States. Let
your bidding experience be easy and stress free. Upperbid.com
http://upperbid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?Affiliate=tagnotes
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For VHS Films, Books, Games, Toys, Sewing Kits & Patterns,
Collectibles & Craft Items http://www.attiegirl.com/
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This issue brought to you by the preceding ads, supporting TAG
through their advertising dollars. Please support them, by
clicking on or copy/pasting their links and buying their products.
TAG's advertising rates are at -
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic99.html
Visit The Auction Guild Web Log at -
http://auctionguild.blogspot.com/
A link to the complete TAGnotes archive can be found at -
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic113.html
Don't forget to visit our chat site at TAGchat-OAI. There are some
interesting tips on one thread on how best to exploit ebaY relistings to
the sellers best advantage with some experiments performed by one user
after the last promotion.
http://tagchat-oai.com/forum/index.php#1
TAG does not endorse the companies or products advertised
12500 subscribers
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AREN'T YOU USING GOOGLE CHECKOUT YET?
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TAG decided to sign up for Google Checkout and give it a try. TAG found
it easy to sign up for, and easy to use. We haven't integrated it into
a website shopping cart, which is supposed to be relatively easy to do,
instead we have been using buttons and invoices. So far it has worked
flawlessly for selling and buying. We recommend you try it.
Google Checkout is free through 1 Feb 2008. Once Google puts fees in
place, they will be 2% + 20 cents per transaction. AdWords advertisers
will be eligible for free credit card processing for some or all of
their Google Checkout sales. (Compare to PayPal fees - 1.9% to 2.9% +
$0.30 USD)
Though ebaY wont let you use Google Checkout as a choice you can offer
for payment in your listing, nothing stops you from adding a line to
your description with an email link, saying that you offer other payment
methods, and click here to make contact, and learn what those options
are. Don't let ebaY control how you and your customers determine
payment for the merchandise you sell.
http://snipurl.com/1v2td
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EBAY
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PINK QUOTE OF THE DAY I - Hani Durzy, in an email announcing his leaving
ebaY on 11 Jan 08, talking about what a great job ebaY was, said, "It
has afforded me the opportunity to do what I love best - to tell stories
and to work with the media." It is interesting to see Mr Durzy
admitting he was telling lies all along, since"telling stories" is a
euphemism for lying. TAG always said that you could always tell when
ebaY personnel were lying, their mouths were moving.
PQOD II - During the last ebaY earnings call conference on 18 Oct 07, in
answer to a question about implementing ebaY programs, Meg Whitman said,
"I donšt believe therešs going to be much more rollout in 2007 because
we pretty much put a moratorium on the site for the holiday season but
wešre encouraged, and youšll see the pace of change accelerate more
rapidly in the 1st Quarter of 2008." And "One of the great things is we
have laboratories around the world that we can test this strategy."
http://www.123jump.com/earnings-calls/Ebay-Earnings-Call-Transcript/23512/61
So all ebaY users should be comforted to know that all the dozens of
poorly implemented changes made on the site since October don't count as
changes, or Meg would be lying about the moratorium. TAG is sure ebaY
users will all be happy to know that Meg considers them lab rats to be
experimented on, and that Meg is happy we pay her to experiment on us.
PQOD III - CFO Bob Swann during the ebaY earnings call conference on 18
Oct 07 said, "What wešve experienced in the short term with rapid growth
is our customers have a tendency to use Credit Card in their initial
early adoption of PayPal and the less we know about consumers, all else
equal the higher the fraud losses. So in high growth periods which
Merchant Services are in our transaction expense and our fraud losses
have a tendency to be higher and thatšs what wešve been experiencing
over the course of the first couple Quarters this year in the
transaction margins on PayPal. But we believe over time, as customers
mature in the usage of PayPal, what they have done is adopted more ACH
methods of payment that enhances margins and as we learn more about
them, our fraud models are more effective in detecting a potential
fraud. So all that means is we feel great about PayPalšs growth. We feel
even better about the traction wešre getting in Merchant Services and
long term operating margins in PayPal we believe to be in the 20% to 25%
range. "
http://www.123jump.com/earnings-calls/Ebay-Earnings-Call-Transcript/23512/61
TAG thinks the double talk fails to disguise that consumers are getting
smarter and using their credit cards to finance payments through PayPal,
so that the consumer's credit card companies provides the protection
PayPal does not give them.
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EBAY UNANNOUCED PRICE INCREASE DISGUISED
AS AN UNANNOUNCED FREE STORE LISTING PROMOTION
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ebaY held an unannounced promotion 2 though 15 December. It would
probably be more accurate to call it a test of a price increase, since
the savings is iffy on items that sell for more than $25.00, in the ebaY
Motors parts and accessories stores. If you list an item in your store
in ebaY part and accessories, there is no listing fee, but a flat 10%
final value fee (no matter what the item sells for - normally it is a
decreasing percentage). Since this only saves 5 or 10 cents up front,
and costs the seller more on items that sell above $25.00, it will
actually cost the seller considerably more for items that sell above
$25.
This "promotion" reflects a rather large (unannounced) price increase,
as even on the second tier it represents a 75 cent to $1.50 increase
(3% more than normal) in cost to the seller, if an item sells and then
goes up from there, 5% more in the third tier, and 7% more in the
fourth.
Sellers, those store listings use Good Till Cancelled (GTC), might be in
for a shock if items get relisted during the promo. There is no way to
opt out of the promotion, or prevent GTC listings from relisting, short
of ebaY's advice of close the store until the promotion was over, by
putting it on vacation. Great advice during what is normally the
busiest selling season of the year.
http://pages.motors.ebay.com/promo/freesiflisting/12207/
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ebaY announced 30 Oct on their UK board that UK listings made just
before and just after a promotions, that should show on the US site,
wont.
"We thought we should let you know that listing an item around the time
that our one-day promotions take place (such as this Thursdayšs
Half-Price Listing Day) will affect your itemšs visibility on eBay.com.
If you list an item on eBay.co.uk from any time after 10am the day
before a one-day promotion until 10am the day after a one-day promotion,
that item will not be shown automatically on eBay.com, even if it meets
the normal criteria for visibility (see our previous announcement for
details).
This restriction on visibility on eBay.com will apply for the full
duration of the item listing."
ebaY is doing this to prevent non-ebaY UK sellers from taking advantage
of the listing promos, but are hurting UK listers in the process.
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ebaY UK is experimenting with a UK community court to determine if a
feedback received is fair. Not a bad idea in theory - but TAG is not so
sure about it in practice.
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/community-court.html
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/confidence/community-court-faqs.html
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HOTEL CALIFORNIA EBAY - YOU CAN CHECK OUT
BUT YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE
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We have heard from several ebaY users who have tried to close their ebaY
accounts. ebaY delays account closings for many months, if you can get
them to close your account at all. Once the account is closed, or as
closed as you can ever get an account on ebaY, ebaY then assigns the
account a number, removes the user ID, and replaces it with this number.
TAG strongly advises anyone who wants to close an account, change your
contact information to something fictional, and your bank account and
credit card info to something fictional, (and to be most secure cancel
and close both ebaY associated accounts) and then request the ebaY
account closing.
To read what becomes an amusing adventure of one users experience, read
the account at,
http://www.eBaiting.com
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UNCHECK GALLERY IN YOUR EBAY RELISTS
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As of 12 Dec the forced down your throat "free" gallery promotion has
ended on ebaY. ebaY will opt you in for gallery listing on all the
relisted items automatically so make sure you check your relists of
items that had free gallery to remove the check in the checkbox, or you
will be charged for galley.
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EBAY US 20 CENT FIXED PRICE LISTING FEE
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ebaY US is holding a reduced price fixed price listing day from
00:00:01 PT (12:00 AM plus one second) on Thursday, December 13, 2007,
and ending that same day at 23:59:59 PT (11:59 PM plus 59 seconds).
ebaY is excluding auction listings, all ebaY Motors listings (including
parts & accessories, passenger vehicles, motorcycles, powersports and
other vehicles), international, live auction, professional services,
real estate, Ad Format and Store Inventory Format listings, and business
and industrial categories in tractors & farm machinery (91952), heavy
equipment (25249), concession trailers, carts (67145), imaging and
aesthetics equipment (92035), forklifts and other lifts (97185),
manufacturing equipment (92080), metalworking equipment (92082) and
commercial printing presses (26247).
All other fees apply.
http://pages.ebay.com/promo/20cent2007/
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VOTE SITES
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A few more VOTE sites have opened (vote is venues other than ebaY).
http://www.bidderssite.com - general merchandise
http://www.littlebaymotors.com - vehicles
http://www.ovabid.com - agricultural products
http://upperbid.com - general merchandise US only
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THE AUCTION GUILD
and eTRADERS GUILD
www.auctionguild.com
Not just a venue
http://www.auctionguild.com
email us - tag@theauctionguild.com
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Copyright 1999 - 2007 The Auction Guild Inc All rights reserved
