When to help ...

[chariot_badges]

I come here for ideas, opinions, etc.

I suspect most of us do.

I usually give advice, good advice IF I give it at all.

Sometimes I don't tell.

The reason I hesitate is because ... 'why should I help my competition'?

I saw a response here, in another thread where the OP complained about poor sales.  

Many gave a lot of good advice.

One gave VERY good advice and I thought "why did he say that?   in a public posting?"   I might have answered in a PM ... but he broadcast a major tip over the unprotected air.   

When EVERYONE is doing the same thing, it has less affect?  Right?

If everybody did these magic tricks (that took my years to arrive at) because somebody spent two minutes explaining it ... just doesn't seem right to me.

Why would someone give away trade secrets?   TO THE PUBLIC. 

Remember when Promoted first came out?   And two thirds were saying "I'm not paying 2% just to ger a couple of sales."   And, those of us who DID pay 2% doubled sales?   Remember those days?   THEN a few of us just HAD to blab .... now, it doesn't work so good.  We gotta pay more for the same bang.     Know why?   Guess.

If you want to tell a friend or associate a hack ... do it.

But, please, PLEASE do not broadcast it over the airwaves.

"Three can keep a secret - if two of them are dead."   Ben Franklin

[gurlcat]

@chariot_badges  I would be curious to know what your guess would be, of the numerical ratio of Community members to sitewide eBay sellers, let alone average number of Community readers per thread to sitewide eBay sellers.   

[pastimpressions]

@richard1rst  I don't remember that one, but the "cheese shop" skit does come to mind.

[pastimpressions]

@gurlcat 

my best guess .000001%

[youn2240]

you come here for ideas but you don't want people to spread ideas? hmmm... 

[inhawaii]

Helping the competition?

18 million sellers.

2 billion sales per day.

I highly doubt that any two of us on the boards will sell to the same buyer, ever.

[youn2240]

what thread did they tell us how to beat those mean old women who are in line for a 9 o clock sale at 430 am? They walk right in while I am way back and they take all the good stuff I have to find weird thing like superman hairbrush but Delores already take it. I can not stand her. what must be done? where is the thread?   

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Before there was an internet, I had cordial relationships with my competition while I ran several different businesses.

On the whole my competitors did more to help than I helped them, but I gave freely of my knowledge and received favors and help to a similar extent from the competition.

Only when I began selling on the internet, where many sellers had no knowledge to share, did I see competitors who worried about sharing their knowledge with competitors.

Most of us who sell collectible items and OOAK items do not compete head to head with our competition. We compete for who gets sales for different item. The health of Ebay as a marketplace for collectors benefits us all. If we help our competitors, the marketplace looks better, buyers trust more sellers and customers do not automatically treat an Ebay seller like crap.

For years I thought nothing of calling a friendly competitor who specialized in a type of item I was not an expert in for help in description, identification and pricing. Sometime I passed the item up the food chain to a competitor.

I had no problem selling a postcard for $500 to another Ebay seller who had a buyer and could turn a profit in a day and neither sale passed through Ebay and had to pay a fee. I picked up my phone and the card was gone.

When I think about friendly competitors some great people who have passed on come to mind, and I share with pride some of the lessons they taught me.

[chevymontecarlo88]

The more information out there, the better. (as long as it is correct, or an opinion based on experience)

As long as it is legal and not violating any eBay policies/rules, who cares. Tricks tend to be trends that eventually change or diminish over time.

People like to do business with others that like to help people who do business. 

[gurlcat]

I would be pretty surprised if less than half of my sales are to other jewelry sellers, whether they resell here or elsewhere, and I definitely get more than half of my inventory from eBay sellers.  I remember once I found the exact same monogrammed bracelet charm in two different mixed lots I purchased about 6 months apart, and then there was THIS guy who was thrown to me at a Mardi Gras parade here (the 'Mobile Leprechaun' of TV news and early Youtube fame LOL).  I threw him into a mixed lot, then he came back to me in another one at least a year later, could have gone through several sellers for all I know.  You know what they say, if you set something free and it comes back to you, it's YOURS.  So I guess I'm his 'forever home.'


And who knows how many unmemorable gold-plated chains and plastic beads necklaces I've bought and resold repeatedly.  Mind you I get my profits, huge ones sometimes.  But I'm sure some others also profit on what they buy from me,  with the main difference being: I prefer to keep a small, short-tail store, versus a big list-n-wait one, as I don't have a patient bone in my body, but KUDOS to those who do, and I'm glad when they make money off my items; then they come back to buy more! 

Long reply short, we jewelry folks are pretty incestuous, metaphorically speaking.😆 And we may not do a ton of helping each other here in these forums, but in other social media groups, absolutely we do!   Because it's just as much a hobby as a business; we want old vintage jewelry to stay alive and treasured.

[reallynicestamps]

In B&M retail the best way to get sales is to be near your competitors.

So you see clusters of similar businesses, a lot of outdoor equipment shops, several tailors, a half dozen tailors.

There are even districts known for it. Rodeo Drive is not a good location for a Korean grocer, but great for a Korean cosmetic store, and perfect for Louis Vuitton.

In the same way, having a lot of sellers with similar merchandise on one site is a good way to attract repeat buyers. Maybe your competitor gets that first sale, but the happy customer returns to eBay and you get the second.

I doubt many sellers have dedicated customers. EBay does however.

When our competitors do a good job, their customers come back --to eBay.

Just as the lady who lunches comes back to Rodeo Drive for a new purse. Maybe she'll buy it at Vuitton, maybe at Prada.  But she's on Rodeo Drive.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

Some of us definitely sell to the same buyers or used to, particularly in certain categories.  In Clothing, many of us used to have the same buyers, so it may be more common than @inhawaii  thinks, but I concede that it's a lot less common than it used to be.  

This is an advice board & no one is required to help here, but gosh, like most thing in life, I would think if you're benefitting from it, you may want to contribute to it, every now & then.   Over the many years I've sold here, I have on many occasions even gone out sourcing with my 'competition', I've never had a bad experience.  There is plenty for everyone & even amongst sellers that sell the same brands, you'd be surprised how we're all drawn to different items.  Bottom line for me, if I can help someone else by sharing my knowledge, I'm happy to help.  

[gurlcat]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

I doubt many sellers have dedicated customers. EBay does however.

When our competitors do a good job, their customers come back --to eBay.

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OMG where is the HeII Yes button for ^this^? 
And just on a problem-by-problem basis, consider how much more we do to help retain buyers and sellers than the overseas phone reps. 
Sadly our reach is so small, just a drop in the bucket.  But I just had an epiphany: I wonder if eBay (or any online selling platform) has ever considered trying shifting some money from call center wages to some kind of incentivized mentorship, here.  Like I don't know ... eBay Bucks, fee discounts, SOMETHING you could earn for successfully helping people, and then direct more people needing help here instead of calling.  EDIT: I don't mean handling the kinds of problems that require access to members' accounts and enacting changes to this or that, just answering the kinds of things we do already here.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@chariot_badges 

"I saw a response here, in another thread where the OP complained about poor sales.  

...One gave VERY good advice and I thought "why did he say that?   in a public posting?"   I might have answered in a PM ... but he broadcast a major tip over the unprotected air.   

When EVERYONE is doing the same thing, it has less affect?  Right?

If everybody did these magic tricks (that took my years to arrive at) because somebody spent two minutes explaining it ... just doesn't seem right to me.

Why would someone give away trade secrets?   TO THE PUBLIC."

If you want to know why he said that, ask him. In a PM if you prefer. 

My guess is the main thing your post has accomplished is to set a lot of people wondering what great secret was mentioned in another thread, and how did we miss it? LOL 

[mam98031]

Promoted listings started in 2015.  However it is more recent years since Ebay started improving the program and pushing the program.  For some sellers PL works very well for them, especially for those in saturated categories.  But there is still a whole lot of sellers that do not use PL at all.

Just imagine the chaos if most sellers used the program!!

[chariot_badges]

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@youn2240 wrote:

you come here for ideas but you don't want people to spread ideas? hmmm... 

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LoL.   Yea.

I see the hypocrisy.

I am willing to observe, and if you wanna talk about it, listen.  

Do I (sometimes) ask questions that are none of my business?   Yup.

Am I sometimes surprised that I get an answer other than "MYOB".    Yup.

Fifth Amendment rights are hard to actually enforce.

It is contrary to human hard wiring to not answer a direct question, ask anyone who'd ever been professionally interrogated.