Closing of The Untied Shoes Store

[theuntiedshoesstore]

March 1st, 2009 will be the last day of "The Untied Shoes Store". Due to no interest in my Photo Aceo's and no sales, I have decided to close my eBay store. If your wanted any of my Photo ACEO's and have been holding off for a better day, this is your very last chance to buy any of them on eBay. If you wanted one of the older Photo ACEO's that sold on a one time only sale on eBay, you will need to go to my Etsy store to get another chance to buy them. Here's the link: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5630458 Thank you to all of you that bought my Photo ACEO's in the past. I'll always know you have a little piece of my heart in your collection. Duane aka MrParts -- "The Untied Shoes Store" -- Duane aka MrParts Check me out: http://stores.ebay.com/The-Untied-Shoes-Store http://PhotosByDuane.com http://MrParts.deviantART.com

[artistjillian]

I am sure it's just the changes in eBay - you won't get your work seen. I had a store for 2 years, closed it early 2008 when we 'boycotted' eBay for a week. I reopened it a couple of months ago and realized that it just wasn't working, so promptly closed it. I am SURE it's not your work, please take heart in that. All the best. -- ~Jillian artist, Jillian Crider ... google me!

[theuntiedshoesstore]

I'm hoping it just an economy thing. I know I have been in a winter slump for new photos ... you can take just so many snow photos. I may try it again this summer. I already paid four months in advance at Etsy so they will be around at least 2 more months. -- Duane aka MrParts Check me out: http://stores.ebay.com/The-Untied-Shoes-Store http://PhotosByDuane.com http://MrParts.deviantART.com

[artistjillian]

Etsy is growing by leaps and bounds. Posted huge gains for January. It's good, but also bad. With 4 month postings, it's so difficult to get seen. Though must say my hits are about the same as for eBay. They need a few things 'fixed' on the site though. Not sure where all this is going. SO many sites are springing up, and all posting BIG leaps ahead. One thing is obvious to me - people are looking for a viable eBay 'alternative'. Many of the new ones combine with 'networking' - you can even 'talk' to people who land on your items, and you can tell them about your stuff. I have been on a HUGE learning curve, even with uploading constant feed of inventory getting onto google. Amazing stuff. Makes my head spin. But, as I said, don't know where all this is going. Once it was just 'eBay', and you sent everyone to 'eBay' for anything, but with unfriendly search terms, and sellers not being able to negative bad buyers (I had to give a POSITIVE to a no-contact, non-paying bidder yesterday - go figure!). And sellers getting slaps on hands from buyers who don't understand star systems and ding stars for absolutely things out of seller's control. I'm only here because it still is 'fastest' at selling anything. But it is getting 'livelier' at other places, but so many, people (buyers) aren't knowing where to go. And sellers usually don't get their buyers to follow them. *sigh* -- ~Jillian artist, Jillian Crider ... google me!

[poozybear]

A few weeks ago there was a really good article in Business Week talking about eBay's 4th quarter losses. The article accredited the losses to both the economy and "increased competition." That's the first time I've seen an article where competition has been cited as a threat to eBay. Someone posted the article in forums, and it was immediately pulled. The article DID mention some of the competing sites. I think etsy is probably their most serious competitor at this point. What concerns me about that is that eBay is in the habit of acquiring any site that is a perceived threat and either taking their proceeds, or simply shutting them down. They recently bought out a new payment site that had started up in Europe somewhere and closed them down. As etsy grows, I'm sure there will be a generous offer from eBay. It would be nice if some of these companies would hold their ground and refuse to sell out, but it's awfully hard to say no to the kind of money eBay is putting on the table. -- Kathy

[artistjillian]

Kathy, there are even sites that are 'etsy-like'. I've joined 2 in the past 2 days. Both are thriving. Both have a lot of modern technology that etsy doesn't have, and FAR surpasses some of eBays. Some are SO simple at listing, that it's a blessing - even timing how little time it takes you to list an item. HOWEVER - no matter how technically advanced, or whatever a site is, it HAS to be one that bring buyers! That will be the sites that end up making it. And with so many to choose from now, it's so difficult. One site even allows you to link in a really great abbreviated way all the sites you list on, including blog, website, and networking sites from you item listed. -- ~Jillian artist, Jillian Crider ... google me!