As part of the initiative to support the victims of the recent tragedy eBay is encouraging the nation to sell and bid on items where proceeds will go directly to help the relief effort. eBay hopes that many Americans will pitch in as part of this initiative, including some who may not be familiar our community. These members will need help getting started on eBay.
That's where you can help. If you are an experienced eBay member with:
a feedback rating of 50+
fewer than 3% negative feedback comments
an account in good standing
You can do your part to support your fellow Americans who lack your eBay skills. Together we can help those whose lives have been dramatically altered by these events.
Program Information
How this program works
Join the Members Helping Members directory now!
Remove yourself from the directory
How to handle rules and safety questions
Need more information on the program?
Join the Members Helping Members directory
How this program works
To participate in the directory you first must qualify as an experienced member and then you enter your information in the directory. When new community members in your area contact us seeking help we will use the directory to give them contact info for experienced members nearby. As a member of the directory you tell us how often you want us to give out your name and whether the person should contact you via telephone or email. If you wish, you can hide your telephone number. You also get to define hours when you are most available to be contacted.
While we believe you will enjoy being part of the directory you can remove your listing at any time. If you need to change your information in the directory please remove your listing and then re-submit yourself to the directory.
As the experienced eBay member you set the ground rules. You can limit your advice to email or telephone or you may choose to meet the new member in person. Either way it's a great way to make new friends and help our community grow. While eBay has no way of verifying any contact information that these potential new members may provide, we generally enjoy working with new members of our community and we hope you do as well.
How to handle rules and safety questions
If you are asked Safe Harbor type questions by a member who you are helping, please direct them to our rules and safety webform:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/select-RS.html
Need more information on the program?
If you have any specific questions that you cannot answer about the program, please write to [email protected] and we will give you the necessary response to assist the member.
posted on September 23, 2001 04:16:05 PM new
So not only does ebay want to take credit for "donating" 100 million dollars in the media, they want to generate new accounts using a national tragedy, and they want their users to be the support staff...
posted on September 23, 2001 04:49:06 PM new
When I complained that I could not join A4A, I was told that I could be a helper. Why should I help Greed Bay with their marketing efforts? If any folks in USA want help with sales to UK, I am happy to help.
posted on September 23, 2001 05:15:35 PM new
Ha Ha Ha- best laugh I have had all day- Darn it- you made me wet my pants-
He He He- don't make pregnant board posters like me laugh so hard...
posted on September 23, 2001 05:52:04 PM new
If I did not see it on their pages, I would not have believed it. How "charitable" of them. Really amazing!
posted on September 23, 2001 06:05:35 PM new
So this is the AW Members Helping Members Program. Any buyers or sellers with UK can post questions here. Edited to add eBay users only to escape moderators!
[ edited by GreetingsfromUK on Sep 23, 2001 06:12 PM ]
posted on September 23, 2001 06:12:03 PM new
So they want me to teach my future potential competition and for free no less. I don't want any selling competition in my area. I figured it out on my own (with a little help from my auctionwatch friends)
posted on September 23, 2001 06:23:15 PM new
ewora. Just out of interest, when I am bored, I wage war against my competitors who ignore eBay rules. If you compete with me and ignore eBay rules, your auction will be pulled.
posted on September 23, 2001 06:24:04 PM new
Between this and the FREE shipping being expected of Sellers, I don't know which is worse. You read all the press statements from eBay in the past week, talking about "100M$, just by users buying and selling on eBay", it makes me sick. The comments are so vague, and do NOT give the general public any indication of where this 100M is coming from. They never mention that the money is coming from the Sellers giving their items for FREE, and shipping the products and forking over their cash to the post office for FREE.
You know, I wouldn't doubt it if a lot of buyers who are bidding on A4A items even realize that the sellers are giving their stuff away and paying the shipping out of their pockets. They are paying from the auction page and probably think that eBay is making a contribution, and that the money is still going to the seller, or a portion of it. Sure, eBay is waiving the fees on A4A auctions, but when you look at the HUGE portion of regular auctions still active compared to A4A auctions, they are still making a huge profit.
Yet, THEY can't DONATE any manpower to separate shipping charges from bid price so that the bidder could still pay the seller for the shipping charges, like the bidders EXPECT to. I'm sure their computers are well aware of what an auction's final bid price is! All they would have had to do is, on a $25 auction, and the bidder pays $30 through Billpoint (because of a $5.00 shipping charge), transfer $25 to the charity and leave $5 in the sellers account. How hard would that have been? Bidders would not have had any problem paying for shipping! I don't understand why they had to put the shipping on the seller's shoulders as well as the free items. But, I know this issue has been beaten to death.
Also, THEY couldn't DONATE any extra manpower to handle customer service for all the NEW customers they're going to get out of this!
posted on September 23, 2001 09:39:42 PM new
GReetingsfromUK...I wasn't referring to competition on E-Bay. I was referring to local competition. Anchorage isn't a very big place and we are pretty isolated. I of course buy things to re-sell and seeing as we are so isolated there is a limited supply.
I've had people ask me to show them how to e-bay. One even saying she wouldn't sell the same things I sell. Pretty tough considering I will sell anything I think I can make a profit on.
As far as looking at the competition's auctions for rule infractions...Who has the time? What kind of rule infractions do you look for?
posted on September 24, 2001 02:14:07 PM newjust4laffs Yes, I am donating 100 items, 1 for each day.
Jim
Toot Toot!
Edited to add, woops wrong subject. While I am not offically on their rolls as a helper I have helped many members with questions about buying and selling.
Jim
[ edited by LaneFamily on Sep 24, 2001 02:15 PM ]
posted on September 24, 2001 02:36:29 PM new
Yes, I will be more than happy to help. Now how much did they say they where willing to pay me for consulting fees?
posted on September 24, 2001 08:50:47 PM newis anybody actually going to participate in this program?
I thought that the classic "Billpoint stole my rent money" letter was about as low as a company could sink ... until this.
eBay trying to take advantage of its user base to take over its email support function - and for FREE no less!! - and then try to wrap it up in some feel good crapola related to the WTC tragedy
posted on September 24, 2001 08:58:43 PM new
gs4: You'll have the notion that you did this out of the goodness of your heart while running yourself out of business--what more could you possibly want?!? LOL!
posted on September 24, 2001 09:29:38 PM new
ewora
My local friends and I believe that ebay is big enough for everyone and don't mind selling the same type of items even here in Anchorage, as I have been watching people moving up here since the 50's and sadly it's not the same town, with this competition concept, as we just aren't in that mind set thank goodness.
posted on September 24, 2001 09:45:32 PM new
Hey if it brings more people to BID on Ebay, I'm happy... If it brings more newbies to list HOT items that end at 3am PST on a Wednesday morning, so I can snap them up, hey i'm happy... SIGH....
posted on September 25, 2001 12:30:37 AM new
I network with most of the regular dealers in the categories in which I specialize. We share knowledge and information. We work together to not list items that are too similar in the same time span, resulting in more bids and greater profits for all of us. We have become friends, helping each other grow our eBay businesses. We do not view each other as competition but as resources. For all of us, eBay is a tool, a way to increase the customer base.
Life is sweet when you are nice, when you possess a positive attitude, when you view the glass as half full instead of half empty.
When I go to bed at night, I sleep well. Many of you who contribute to these topics, you post messages full of bile and hate, how eBay is out to get you. I don't know how you can sleep well when your mind is focused on ire, doom and gloom, a need to blame others, a need to spill out negative energy in posts to these boards.
Early in life many of us figure out there are two types of people in business: the coupon clippers and the income generators. The first category of people spend their careers clipping coupons, focused only on the cost of doing business and how to decrease costs. These people are rigid and unyielding, unable to compromise, unable to adapt if they cannot control their costs. The second category of people, they don't waste valuable hours of their lives clipping coupons. Instead, they spend their time increasing their skills and gaining knowledge to enhance their ability to generate more revenue. The second category, they share, they network, they create. When it comes time to retirement, the first group is still clipping coupons. The second group, they are on the golf course every day enjoying life to its fullest.
Not too many income generators post to these topics. It isn't a good use of time. The rest, the coupon clippers, I feel sorry for all of you. You just don't get it. You can't see that you are the bitter old man or woman in the rocking chair on the porch, looking out at the world, watching others' lives pass you by, unhappy and discontented, harping on how you were wronged
Turn your attitude around while you are still able to do so. Count your blessings. Spend your time on the positive, how to build your business, how to share, how to hold out your hand. If you do, you will be rewarded. If you don't, you will suffer from the diseases which afflict the dissatisfied.
walkalot
[edited the punctuation]
[ edited by walkalot on Sep 25, 2001 12:42 AM ]
posted on September 25, 2001 02:59:56 AM new
let ebay hire back all those they just laid off and let them respond to the emails.
so just to get the points straight
1) I donate my stuff so ebay gets put in the spot light
2) I donate my time to answer emails to my future competitors
3) eBay lays off people but then "hires" a free work force
4) eBay will not provide the buyers zip code to sellers, but you can meet these people in person
5) eBay prohibits having your picture on your ME page, but you can meet these people in person.
6) eBay has a hard time following their own rules, we are to help these people understand that?
7) We are to help ebay expand THEIR user base and their bottom line out of the goodness of our heart and we I can't even have a link to our site on my paid for advertisement that's on ebay
8) The more diluted ebay becomes with sellers and listing the lower the sales per person and we make less while ebay charges more in fees.
I have helped dozens of people to learn how to host pictures, I've helped to teach people how to use templates. I don't have a problem giving of myself and my knowledge. But I'll be damned if I'm going to help put me out of business.
Recently I dumped all my fees information form ebay in to a spreadsheet. When I started selling on ebay there were about 250,000 to 300,000 items listed at any given time, EVERYTHING I listed would sale for far more than it was worth, that's right everything. It was pretty awesome to think that I really had a stake in ebay back then because I at times had around 800 items listed, that was huge back then. Their numbers grew to about 1 mil in listings I still closed on about 95% of what I listed but the closing fees prove out that the items were selling closer to what they should. Listing grew to around 3 mil and we took a big hit our sales dropped to about 40% close of items listed and most items close for about the starting bid. They grew to 5 mil, where we are now, we now hover around 20% of the items listed close with bids. Also in there they raised their listing fees by at least 20% and up. Also everything here was checked against our records in quickbooks and it is accurate to within 1-2%
If you noticed I said we closed the auction with bids, that doesn't mean that we made a sale, in the beginning we had almost 0% deadbeat bidders. I haven't done the math yet to know percentages but we have filed for FVF's on 861 auctions from the first of this year alone.
So if you believe in the statistics, and I don't know how you can't, we are looking at a further drop in sales. The question that everyone likes to ask over here so what category do you sell in? we sell in all categories, we list over 3500 items for sale a week, this is our full time job. Our average sale on an item now goes for less than or about what you would find it on sale or on a clearance table at your local store and still there are people that are listing the same stuff we sell for 5-10% mark up. One of our best selling and most recent lines was some Harley stuff, a person with around 40 feedback is now selling the same stuff and are listing it for cost. I guess they hope to get a second bid, meanwhile I've pulled out of Harley until they self destruct. There are a few people that list on a regular basis stuff that even with shipping is less than our suppliers, and we buy from the source. How? don't know but I've bought from them and resold it for a profit when they are run out of inventory.
With the influx of new buyers and sellers, the pot will just become more diluted, and the deadbeats will rise. Unless ebay wants to start teaching how to run a business we are all doomed, at least as people making a living at on line auctions. There are now too many people that are just hobbyists, or people wanting to dump some junk that is the exact stuff your selling or close enough to sway the people into buying it and not yours. eBay always said they wanted to handle bigger more high dollar stuff, I guess that is why they created "ebay premier" eBay itself has become the one thing that didn't want and never wanted it to be called, "the biggest flea market in the world"
If you have ever wanted to witness the beginning of the end of something I think your in the right place at the right time. Me I'll stick it out until the first of the year that is when the building I plan on leasing will be ready to move in, or so they tell me, I hope so. My lease will run me 1/4th of what my ebay bill is a month for a 3000+ sqft shop on a corner with a stop light in my town. I even already have a clientele that buys from me that will more then cover the rent so if there is a increase it will go in my pocket and not someone that takes a percentage of every sale, let alone $$ for everything I have sitting in my store when I unpack my boxes and place it on the shelf.
Our sales shrank 5-10% for every million they have gone up in total listings, if they get their listing up to around 6-8 million it would just be cheaper to send them a payment every month and not go through the hassle of listing at all. If you want to survive ebay you better get out while the getting is good. Heck I made a better return selling stuff in my last yard sale that will end up on ebay I'm sure and I didn't have to send ebay a dime.
posted on September 25, 2001 09:47:17 AM new
Sorry, but there is a HUGE difference in setting up a dealer network to help, and Ebay starting this program to make themselves look like a nice, caring company WHILE saving money on technical support! I'm all in favor of helping people, I have helped others with ebay stuff, but a program set up by ebay so they can save money on hiring staff, that is WAY over the top!
posted on September 26, 2001 10:59:27 AM new
Sorry I only help fellow sellers who wish to make eBay a strong selling venue. Why would I want to decrease the income I and eBay earn and thereby undercut the amount of money sent to Washington that then goes to relief or war efforts?
For a MEGa-buck dot.com, I'm surprised they can't do the math. Maybe we need to send Meg a calculator. I can donate one
