posted on December 27, 2000 02:28:03 PM new
gday Gboy!
Look at the auctions, they are high turnover ones, she isn't competing with ebayers, she is competing with half, cdnow etc.
plus the whole concept of having a chance to win a cd for one cent means that people get emotionally engaged in auction, and might hang out to go the full tilt at about 70-90 percent of retail. Or more.
Anyhow, those numbers mean that there are a lot of people bidding. And with the ratio it also means a lot of them are happy with the item or the customer service if there is a problem.
posted on December 27, 2000 04:07:47 PM new
Marble said:Another angle on users with 1000 positives and no negs is, oops, this may be a seller who won't leave justifiable negs for fear of a retaliatory neg. Is this good for the online auction community?
I congratulate OneCent on her positive feedback ratio - wish it were mine.
But, that said, just because you don't have any negatives doesn't mean you're not leaving them when a buyer deserves one. I don't have nearly that many FB but they are all positive and I've left several negs to poor buyers.
posted on December 27, 2000 04:20:57 PM new
A congratulations may be in order for anyone who achieves that kind of success, but really, the volume isn't that impressive. You simply buy thousands of widgets at low wholesale, put up a Featured listing on the Homepage, have a dozen workers on hand to fulfill the orders, and wammo, you're a success. In ratio, I bet I do ten times the work as these high FB sellers (my inefficency is to blame).
posted on December 27, 2000 05:56:42 PM new
Quickdraw, not to belabor a point, but recognize that our gross profit works out to less than $2/item. After eBay fees it's less than $1.60.
Since we pay our our employees $10/hour (or $1.60 every 10 minutes or so) the math means we must purchase the items (all purchased individually, by the way, not in box lots), sort and clean the items, post them for sale, complete the auction, send the EOA emails, collect the PayPal payments and/or check payments, pack and ship the items and leave the appropriate feedback, all within LESS than 10 minutes time total per item or I have no money left for me. I have not even taken into account the time I MUST spend on things like paying bills, computing and paying taxes, making bank deposits, etc.
My husband has really streamlined most of the operations of our business and I am proud of our achievements in that area alone.
FYI my husband and I worked full 8 hour shifts on Christmas Eve (and 6 hours apiece on Christmas Day) so our employees could spend time with their families. I'm not asking for sympathy here, just reminding other sellers what is involved with a truly full-time eBay business. It's never ending.
posted on December 27, 2000 07:31:41 PM new
I am totally impressed with the kind of service and work required to get over 1000 FB in one week.
I do disagee with those that say if you have over 1000 with 0 negs then you are not leaving neg. FB. I just checked ours last week out of curiousity on vrane.com and found that I had left 18 negs (+ estimated 15-20 neutrals) out of 1400+ received and 2200 left and still (knock on wood) no negatives.
My experience with leaving negs and avoiding retaliation is to stick with the facts only. Forget the accusations, emotions, etc.
posted on December 27, 2000 08:28:56 PM new
Playing Devils advocate, I'd say that shipping 1000s of cds per week, is IN NO WAY as difficult as shipping antiques & collectibles of varying sizes. Someone with hundreds less feedback than the above mentioned "mega seller" could have much better experience.
posted on December 27, 2000 08:45:30 PM new
You think close to 50,000 transactions in two years (those are the ones who left feedback - not everyone does - she may have completed twice as many transactions for all we know) is easy by any measure?
posted on December 27, 2000 09:06:51 PM new
Going with my number of 50,000 in two years, that's almost 70 individual transactions a day. Every day. Piece of cake. Yeah, I see your point.
posted on December 27, 2000 09:08:34 PM new...is easy by any measure?
By my standards it wouldn't be easy. It would be one thing to offer 5,000 bracelets, or bubble wrap by the yard, but individual CDs isn't quite as easy. Cataloging the items and seeing that the right CD gets to the right person would take more than a few seconds work by my thinking. The logistics in offering individual items instead of dutch auctions makes it a much tougher job.
At the risk of repeating myself, the fact these auctions start at 1 cent without reserve is a neat touch, I'm sure it creates a lot of bids and gets many buyers involved even if they don't win the auction. Once eBay goes completely retail the fun will be gone, and many of the buyers with it in my opinion.
Keeping the buying fun is one of the biggest kudos I can give Marie.
posted on December 27, 2000 09:13:04 PM new
JamesO: You can be smart and sarcastic all you wish - but no, that would not be a difficult feat to accomplish. Especially with several people working at it.
They do indeed deserve kudos for FINDING the merchandise at obviously low prices - that is great and I applaud them. You can bet it won't last much longer though considering all the copycats on eBay.
posted on December 27, 2000 09:29:55 PM new
There are a few users on eBay selling bulk lots of cds (like 1000 at a time)that come out to about .75-.90 each and even one offering free shipping of merchandise...
posted on December 27, 2000 11:08:44 PM new
With regards to Morgantown's copycats, we have watched dozens of copycats come and go in the last 20 months. Most have been NARU'd for being unable or unwilling to fulfill commitments. I am not too worried about copycat sellers at this point.
Yes, we are selling a product that is easy and quick to ship. You can assume we figured that out a long time ago.
Ed, the bulk lots of CDs offered on eBay are worthless to us, they're crummy CDs and stuff we don't like to offer ourselves. We will be doing our own bulk offerings beginning in 2001. Our CDs are purchased by a full time buyer going up and down the length of California to find the best stuff he can.
Mostly manual bookkeeping hee, only the EOA emails are automated. We use paper and pen, not programs, to keep track of our stuff.
James, it's 360 5-day auctions nightly running put up 7 days a week (it's a little different than that at the moment because we've taken the week off), or 2500 individual auctions each week, FYI.
posted on December 27, 2000 11:12:57 PM new
that's cool. I admire your work personaly. I wasnt trying to imply that you use those cheap bulk sellers. Allthough one of them has copied your one cent formula and seems to be doing well with what he's selling. Cheers to Marie
posted on December 27, 2000 11:29:47 PM new
Well, it's an absolutely incredible accomplishment in my book, and an accomplishment any seller, online or retail, should be proud of. Morgantown, your comment reminds me of the anvil salesman who carries his product everywhere he goes.
posted on December 28, 2000 08:17:08 PM new
I applaud each and every seller that can sell in high volume and keep everyone happy. Congratulations to onecent for coming up with a winning formula and congratulations to the high volume sellers of antiques. Geez, congratulations to all the sellers that are hangin' in there and being profitable! You all deserve blue ribbons!
posted on December 28, 2000 10:17:24 PM new... Resale product that comes in cases of 1000 or more.
-- I take issue with that. I have purchased from this seller, mainly because the item was otherwise difficult to find at retail. They are not breaking down cases of brittany spears CDs -- they often have unusual and desirable items which they can afford to start at 1c because they *know* there is the audience there. My CD was shipped faster than I could paypal them. Indeed, a class act.
posted on December 28, 2000 11:27:31 PM new
I admire onecets selling technique and even purchased recently... quick ship, easy dealings. awesome service just like the way I try to be.
I am not a competitor, (theres enough space for us all) but i do sell the same product.
I only run a fraction of what Jereth and Marie do (about 1500 a month)
I use no software, one gal operation, post office trips daily, eoa's within moments of auction end, buying, packing, cataloging, organizing, paypals, feedbacks, listing and all the above mentioned thru out this thread is a fulltime job x 2.
knowing what is easy and fast and desired is one thing that helps makes a seller good at what they do! we all started probably slow and goofed up and learned from the right and the wrongs...
as we get it down .. we also learned to list more or handle more than the month or year before... just because the plain wrap auction listings i use (and onecents) doesnt mean I ain't busting my ass to be effiecent.
my feedbacks in the mid-3K's ( 60% return rate) is poor in comparison to many , but it is well earned. whenever someone says you are too high volume to be a personalized seller, they need to look at the well oiled machine that onecent, me and others and decide what makes that so.
not that negs are desired, they are however inevitable.. it .09% negs is considered 'not so good' then why is eBays policy to be a powerseller a 98% or better
