eBay

envyotb · ‎09-14-2014

I tend to visit the forums very sporadically these days as I find constructive and intelligent discourse hard to dig out under the mass of Ebay rapes us on fees wailing. Ive decided to say my piece once and for all here and now, then wash my hands of engaging in anymore pointless discourses.
The main issue I have and what irritates predominately is the sheer amount of postings that obviously have little to no education regarding business, costs of business, and the realities therein. Having been employed over a decade in management level corporate positions as well as now successfully supporting myself and my family independantly selling collectibles, I can divest a few key facts to the uninformed that hopefully will broaden someones understandings.

Fact #1:
I understand there is a scary large portion of the population running around daily proclaiming the evils of companies concerned with making a profit. The entire purpose of a business is to MAKE MONEY.
Period. The officers charged with running a company have accepted the responsability of implementing operating procedures that result in PROFIT for the business entity that employs them. Publicly held companies (businesses you can purchase stock or ownership of ie invest in) ultimately answer to the shareholders, their owners. As the goal of any investor is TOO MAKE MONEY on their investment, obviously the goal of the company is TO MAKE MONEY. Businesses are not evil for pursuing a profit. It is their sole reason for existing. Stating "they just want to make money" as if a company is an evil entity without merit is ludicrous. That statement is NOT a slander people. No $#!@ they want to make money, ITS THEIR SOLE PURPOSE FOR EXISTING IN THE FIRST PLACE. PERIOD. A company primarily focused on making a profit is not a "bad" company at all. It is a company focused on what it exists to do in the first place.
Keep in mind Im not speaking about ethics here. There are ethical standards every company should be held to that we as a society have established and I am not making a case for operating outside those parameters. You may have a valid argument that a company is pursuing a profit unethically and that is certainly a worthwhile discussion. But simply labeling businesses "evil" because they are pursuing a profit in general is uneducated, inane and ridiculous as are those who constantly post that nonsense.

Fact 2: what the seller buys from ebay

envyotb · ‎09-14-2014

There seems to be an void of understanding amongstsellers as to what they are paying ebay for and what those costs provide. As a seller you are paying for access to a full functional selling platform that provides you the ability to easily make your wares available for sale, process and receive those sales, and expose your inventory to a vast amount of potential buyers. It is a service that requires all manors of operating behind the scenes, from everything entailed with administrating a global internet based infrastructure utilized by millions of users every second. I have as yet failed to see even 1 posting about evil ebay that comes from someone with ANY ACTUAL KNOWLEDGE of the costs associated with operating anything of that nature. If you are employed in a business whose primary operations are related in form or function to a globally operated web based infrastructure such as ebays and can provide first hand knowledge that supports the premise ebay overcharges, BY ALL MEANS SHARE WITH US THAT INSIDE KNOWLEDGE. If you are like the majority of posters going off of their own hunch or belief rather than any ACTUAL KNOWLEDGE please stop wasting everyones time with unfounded postings that only prove your ignorance on the subject. It provides nothing positive to the reader, nothing positive to how you are carrying yourself in public forums and is basically an activity devoid of any merit whatsoever.

envyotb · ‎09-14-2014

Fact 3:
I do not personally posess information on ebays metrics or internal financials, certainly not enough to state whether they are "**bleep**" the seller with their fees. I do however posess first hand knowledge in the costs associated with operating a retail business as well as any business in general. I can say with complete honesty and I believe factual knowledge that the fees to sell on ebay do not appear criminal generally speaking, in spite of what many posters may "feel". I base my opinion on my knowledge of operating costs in general and specifically available to businesses currently. It may be possible that a platform offering sellers the services ebay provides "could" exist at a cheaper rate with maximum profitability however there is currently NOTHING available in the market at this date and time. THAT IS A FACT. Before any boutiquers or etsy pledges respond in wraithful ire, allow me to save you the trouble by pointing out that NO EXISTING PLATFORM OF THE KIND provides exposure to the sheer number of buyers that ebay does other than amazon. I personally did not find amazon cheaper to sell on and rather restrictive as far as what I personally sell. Im sure Amazon makes sense for particular sellers over ebay, and vice versa. That adds zero validity to the argument that ebays cost of selling is criminal however. Keep that in mind before you post please.

Im sure the coming days will bring to mind other points I wish to make regarding this and I will certainly vent them here as such. The point of this post is really a simple exercise for me to vent a frustration once and for all with people. I highly doubt anything Ive said or will say is going to educate anyone currently engaged in this distorted thinking. People generally are quite incapable of analyzing themselves critically and realizing where their thinking is incorrect. Pride and ego are only one obstacle of many that keep the uninformed from growing cognitively.
To put it more simply, stupid is as stupid does.
If you feel an elation that you know "how it is" because a thousand other posters post the same nonsense, knock yourself out posting. Your suppositions are still based on innaccurate fallacies, your actual knowledge on the subject is still nill, and your beliefs will never provide you any measurable success in business. If it makes you feel good though more power to you. I, however, shall no longer waste precious time absorbing such valuless commentary.

envyotb · ‎09-14-2014

P.s. 1

To the "ebay sux they are going down" posters...

Even the quickest perusal of the forums should easily show you 10 years worth of postings exactly like yours, yet ebay continues to grow and remain unchallenged. My question (challenge ) to all who post in this manor is simply this:

"How? Please inform me how? Explain to me with fact based details how a company is going to muster the capital, aquire the necessary assets from payment processing on up, the nature of the platform they will use, and the general business proposition for effectively achieving this."

Anyone that can actually answer me in this regard i will create a posting title "your name" is a genius and i am his/her humble servant.

If however your response is the typical run on sentence "yor dumb ebay sux dey r stupid etsy will eatz thrm" sort of nonsense, well your only proving my point so post away.

tclaw99 · ‎09-15-2014

The good old days of honest Ebay are over with. The evil deeds of greed that consume. Just like our government. Just like cancer it spreads. THE LOVE OF MONEY DESTROYS.

reallynicestamps · ‎09-15-2014

If the love of money destroys, then why are you selling on eBay.?

It would be nicer if you just listed all your stuff on Freecycle and gave it away. Or donated it to the Salvation Army.

Frankly, this kind of post makes me want to ask a few questions of the poster.

Have you ever run a retail business ? I have; both bricks and mortar and mail order. EBay is cheaper.

Have you ever run a public auction business? I have both inperson and online. EBay is cheaper and reaches more customers.

Have you ever attended a 'catalogue' auction? I have. Empire Canada, Sotheby's and Christie's, among others. EBay runs very much like these, not like the uncatalogued 'country' auctions most complainers seem to think of.

Have you ever consigned to an auction, country or cataloged? I have and paid a flat fee plus a consigner's fee on the sale. Fees start around $10 a lot and the percentage on the sold lots runs 20% and up.