is ebid missing the oppotunity of a lifetime

[Roundsound]

I think the most confusing thing about this site is..Auctions with BIN.

The scenario.

"I want that thing, mm its being auctioned yet there is a bin price aswell, erm if i try auction i may get cheaper,ah wait a minute, 10 days after 1st bid mm dont like that, But if i BIN i pay more...mmm mmm what to do?
Ile forget it, too much choice and im stuck in the middle so ile buy elsewhere."

For me, and if for me then also for millions of potential buyers this is just to confusing and needlessly so.
If Ebid did what most want from Ebay , which is a seperate Auction site and seperate BIN site then im sure both parties would sell a lot more stuff.
Why have BIN on Auction? Crazy if you ask me, its just messy and confusing for the buyer and a real confusion when listing..

Why is Ebid NOT doing more to make the site more of a competitor to Ebay, Becouse that is where the money is, For sure.

Having said the above, i went looking around and i think im beginning to understand this site a bit better.

There is real potential here so ile stick around and see what happens


http://uk.ebid.net/stores/Jiveporncom

[bkheavy]

[QUOTE=gazlannathai;1122396]Oo-er missus, now THAT's Snarky!

It's becoming obvious from all your posts in this thread that you either suffer from emoticon-illiteracy or, as it's sometimes called - smiley-blindness.

As to "ise" and "ize", I take it you've had little exposure to the subtle differences between correct British English and the polluted version in use within our former colony?

"American Spelling" does seem to be a frequent topic here.
What I find interesting is having viewed and posted in numerous forums dominated by Americans, I have NEVER seen anyone comment on Englishmen, Australians, Canadians, Irishmen etc. spelling as is their normal method.
Snarky indeed......
Smilies? I haven't seen any smilies that were changing the tone of any previous postings.
Snarky, is that a one way street?
I could use a definition, not part of the American vernacular.

[bkheavy]

Yes & Yes - Google's rules require listings to be Buy Now and have a minimum time to run before expiry, or they will not be included in the product search results. Using the 10 day x 10 relist gives your listing a 110 daylife (almost 4 months) plus 11 shots at being "time ending soonest" at the top of on-site searches.
Whichever route caused a buyer to end up on your listing's page, and bidding - the transaction processes normally within eBid .. just as it would on any ecommerce site or 3rd party channel including over on the dark side.



As we all know and deal with daily, yet some sellers of unique items still manage to build and maintain listing catalogues of 1000's of items - imagination is a wonderful asset in a sales person. Sell the sizzle AND the sausage, so to speak..



The faster you immerse, the sooner you get returns - I was one of the few who made a full time living off eBid alone (back in 2003-2004) when it had significantly less than 10% of the membership and listings it now has. You WILL get out what you put into it, if you lose the snarkiness, and wise up to the tongue-in-cheek, trans-Atlantic rib-poking that goes on in the forums regarding the use of English and how to spell things.



Sorry to hear about your health - unlike on the dark side, poor health here is not always a good reason for bad attitude as a buyer or seller - on eBid, members have recovered from cancer and similar, and returned to active trading, whereas over "there" I have had many customers claim terminal illness as a reason to not pay, yet they continue bidding (and paying other sellers) for months or years afterwards - in return for filing a NPB, they gave me negatives ..... so I would getout the voodoo dolls and the loooooooooonnnnnnnng pins

Learn to relax in the forums over here, we all help each other, but stomp on snarks and trolls pretty dammed hard ..... you don't want to be under my foot - it smells

Gaz

My reference to health is just an answer to those that would have me posting thousands of items here and running an ebay business too and so on.
My life is a solo one and with limited energy.
NOTHING to do with the slimeballs that claim to be at death's door to avoid paying.
My favorite was the guy who used his sister's supposed termimal status and then skipped out of paying when my time to give a negative expired.

[gazlannathai]

Ahh bkheavy (your post #81), you have to understand that "Yank-baiting" is a form of national past-time in the British psyche - I think it stems from the WW2 phrase about Americans being "over-paid, over-sexed, and over here" - making the most of the majority of British manhood being overseas on active duty whilst the American units were stationed in the UK pre D-Day. I do know that it remains most practised amongst current and former members of the British Armed Forces, perhaps for the same reason?

The other factor is that Brits (even the ones with grammar and spelling worse than my 2-year-old) are very defensive of "Queen's English" when it comes to mis-spelling and mis-usage of the language by other nationalities - you'll often see complaints about using SMS-speak or Text-speak in forums and listings (a complaint I agree with) in addition to the usual reprimands about typing in all capitals etc. Maybe this defensiveness will gradually disappear as Generation X dies off to be replaced by Generations Y & Z?

Part of the spelling complaints might stem from the British "high" schools (basically those for the over 10-year-olds) still teaching Latin as a compulsory subject up to the late 1970s (some might still do) because it is the foundation for most of the languages from western and southern Europe, including English. The Gaelic and Germanic/Nordic elements of the language are mostly submerged under the Latin roots of spelling and verb form, and from Medieval to modern times, a majority of British words have spelling roots from the French form - - - for example "colour" comes from the French "coloure" and both have a "u" before the "r" - American does not. Why?

Similarly, words that end "ize" in European English are normally words taken directly from American; there are exceptions such as the original (military) meaning of "magazine" which came from the French I think, but in reviewing books published in the late 19th and early 20th century, I often see use of the spelling "magasine" from British authors and publishing houses when referring to printed periodicals, indicating that the American spelling has "polluted" and subverted Queen's English.

I'd hazard a guess that the reason you've not seen Americans use similar posting contexts (against other nationalities) is due to the over sensitive "political correctnessing" of US forum moderators, and your culture generally.

That said, on every forum I've read, there is a tendency for rabid lambasting of Asian sellers and whining about low prices with high P&P - I put it to you that the Asian sellers can sell cheaply due to low labour costs and efficient non-unionised manufacturing, while the high P&P is a reflection solely of distance, and the western consumers' "I want it yesterday" attitude causing a requirement for fastest delivery method - distance and speed affect delivery costs far more than size and weight of package.

Example - I can ship a small 8-ounce (200g) box by sea to the US with international registered delivery for under $10. If you want it within a month (allowing for US Customs and Homeland Security paranoia towards packages from Asia) then Airmail is going to set you back around $15, but if you want it the same week, then EMS is going to cost you just over $50. If you absolutely must have it next day, then an escorted transit - hand carried by a registered air courier - will cost you around $400, but you will have to collect it from the port of entry airport.

Yet none of the above shipping awareness is visible in the onslaught of posts bemoaning the "flood" of Asian sellers listing on "western" auction sites - it is simply using Asian sellers as a convenient whipping-boy for western sellers inability to operate efficiently. It is the western sellers who do operate efficiently, buy effectively, and sell competitively, who do not complain about the Asian sellers.

On some forum systems, smilies are also known as "sarcasmics" - and I know sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but it's fun, and as said above - it's a form of British national past-time regarding the special relationship between the UK and North America. If you want to see it elevated to an art form - observe and listen to a mixed contingent of UK and US military at rest in a war-zone. Each side giving as good as they get, and strengthening the "all in it together" co-operation between the two nations' forces.

Smilies have been used liberally in posts addressing you - the one you quoted in #81 contains an example, so I cannot understand why you say you cannot see their use changing the tone of the words.

Gaz

[bkheavy]

No, Americans stay away from comments about other's spelling because we realize that it is part of the national differences and not something to be jerks about.
The Thais I have met seem to have a differnt take on the effects of industrialization of their country than you.
Horrible polliution, loss of culture and really lousy wages in those non union factories.
Those that can seem to vote with their feet. I have worked union and I have worked non union. Have you?
When I ship overseas, I will NOT put anything on a ship. Custumers either pay for first class mail or they don't play.

[gazlannathai]

Tell you what bk - you come and live in the "Land of Smiles" for 10 years, living off what you can earn here (not savings or investments) and you'll find you meet an all together different type of Thai to the ones who marry walking ATMs and escape to foreign lands.

While you're still over there though, ask your Brooklyn Thais whether their politics lean to the yellow or red shirts, your comment about industrialisation leads me to think they're closet nationalists of the red shirt variety, and they'll believe Thaksin Shinawatra was a good man. Ask those same people if they think Hitler was a good man, and they'll say yes ... because he was a strong leader.

Then ask them which part of Thailand they're from - I can probably guess already - they'll say Issaan (North East Thailand), or somewhere like Phitsanulok, Uttaradit or Sukhothai and that they grew up on a rice farm or in a small town. Then do some research on ThaiVisa.com and find out exactly what all that means - I guarantee your perspective of what they are telling you will reverse 100%.

Thais here WANT jobs in factories - they get much higher than national minimum wages, plus free lunches, plus free uniforms (and all Thais love their uniforms) plus retirement and medical benefits - a Thai working in a Japanese or western owned factory here gets several times the national income when all benefits are lumped in - making them far better paid than the police or the army, but without the opportunity to boost income via "graft", that may be their sole gripe about industrialisation.

If you don't know the reality of this country, I don't expect you to know the right questions to ask, and without those a Thai will very very rarely offer the information (it's actually an Asia-wide trait) - worst of all, Thai education is based on only giving half answers - you have to know the questions to get both halves - and that firmly grips how they deal with people socially and commercially. A simple example being they will not tell you about a product warranty if you don't ask if one exists, nor about a promoted discount if you haven't seen the advert and ask for it..

Union / non-union - yup, worked both, several times. Also been at the bottom of the corporate chain and at the top of it, plus several places in the middle. Nothing special about any of that.

Love to see you get a drag-racer's rear tyre into first class mail - be sure to send me the photo of the post office clerk's face when you ask for it.

[JaBek1]

I don't know exactly how this discussion turned to spelling, but just let me say, "Y'all talk funny, but that's okay. Just make sure that if you find yourself in each others country, you drive on the correct side of the road."
Dennis

I almost forgot, the reason I use BIN pricing in an auction is because of Google Search Engine requirements. On the Bay the BIN usually disappears once the first bid is placed. However, some categories it stays active until 50% of the BIN is reached in the bidding. I must admit, I don't care for that much.

I'm not sure about eBid, I had assumed that once a bid was placed the BIN option was removed. This is probably a mistake on my part. It isn't wise to assume.

[bkheavy]

Tell you what bk - you come and live in the "Land of Smiles" for 10 years, living off what you can earn here (not savings or investments) and you'll find you meet an all together different type of Thai to the ones who marry walking ATMs and escape to foreign lands.

While you're still over there though, ask your Brooklyn Thais whether their politics lean to the yellow or red shirts, your comment about industrialisation leads me to think they're closet nationalists of the red shirt variety, and they'll believe Thaksin Shinawatra was a good man. Ask those same people if they think Hitler was a good man, and they'll say yes ... because he was a strong leader.

Then ask them which part of Thailand they're from - I can probably guess already - they'll say Issaan (North East Thailand), or somewhere like Phitsanulok, Uttaradit or Sukhothai and that they grew up on a rice farm or in a small town. Then do some research on ThaiVisa.com and find out exactly what all that means - I guarantee your perspective of what they are telling you will reverse 100%.

Thais here WANT jobs in factories - they get much higher than national minimum wages, plus free lunches, plus free uniforms (and all Thais love their uniforms) plus retirement and medical benefits - a Thai working in a Japanese or western owned factory here gets several times the national income when all benefits are lumped in - making them far better paid than the police or the army, but without the opportunity to boost income via "graft", that may be their sole gripe about industrialisation.

If you don't know the reality of this country, I don't expect you to know the right questions to ask, and without those a Thai will very very rarely offer the information (it's actually an Asia-wide trait) - worst of all, Thai education is based on only giving half answers - you have to know the questions to get both halves - and that firmly grips how they deal with people socially and commercially. A simple example being they will not tell you about a product warranty if you don't ask if one exists, nor about a promoted discount if you haven't seen the advert and ask for it..

Union / non-union - yup, worked both, several times. Also been at the bottom of the corporate chain and at the top of it, plus several places in the middle. Nothing special about any of that.

Love to see you get a drag-racer's rear tyre into first class mail - be sure to send me the photo of the post office clerk's face when you ask for it.

The people I met worked very hard here in the US.
I am no longer in Brooklyn, I can't interview any Asians there.
Land of smiles, I know how that works.
I will work on getting stupid enough to fit your image of me. I tend to sell stuff that is EASILY shipped. No TYRES or Tires.
Oh, and yes my old friends sure must have been Nazis if they did not like some of the changes in their country.

[gazlannathai]

BK - well done - you did good on line 4 of your last reply, within the last line of it.

Nazis is the common abbreviation for a specific group of people in a specific place during a specific period of time. The fact it has been used as a slang "accusatory" ever since those times does not remove the uniqueness of its correct application.

Nationalists on the other hand are not Nazis in the sense of the German Nationalist Socialist Party of the 1930s-1940s. It is possible to be nationalist without demonstrating any of the less-desirable qualities of the Nazis. Almost all Americans I have met are extremely nationalist, it's part of your culture (e.g. brainwashing school kids to stand and salute the flag each morning while singing the national anthem (they do the same here in Thailand) - that's just an example, don't dwell on it).

But I am puzzled. Why is America called America if it's named after its discoverer (which was not Columbus - he found the West Indies), why isn't it called Amerigo or Ameriland or similar - maybe it's something to do with Vespucci's native tongue and how they form possessive nouns? Or was it those dastardly colonial Brits that named it wrong at the beginning?

[gazlannathai]

Back on topic - Is eBid missing an opportunity?

Latest news from the dark side regarding the effects of policy on international sellers says yes.

Consider the latest fees promotion from their UK office - must have a UK shop subscription, must offer free postage, cannot charge for insurance or request any surcharge (e.g. to cover PayPal cross border currency conversion fees, which PayPal does allow vendors to pass on to customers), cannot use buyer collect but must offer free domestic shipping etc etc etc - all designed to make the "promotion" non-viable for overseas sellers.

It is exactly this sort of exclusionary behaviour that eBid could capitalise on as an international venue of choice for merchants worldwide .... if they'd open the gates beyond the list of named countries on their home page.

In all honesty, if one half of the reason for "Asian flooding" of eBarf's sites is due to "low fees" (the other being customer base) then the same would happen here, but how many times do we hear remonstrations in eBid forums that it's choice and availability that bring in the buyers? A lot of what is available on the site was made in Asia anyway, so why not allow the "direct from source" sellers onto the site?

disclosure - I obviously have a vested interest in this topic, and am privileged to be one of the few that got grandfathered in when the ion-curtain dropped a few years back.

Gaz