Sigh. With the best of intentions I wanted to update this blog every day, but despite several comebacks I’ve failed. Probably because hardly anybody (or nobody) reads it. But then they won’t read it if I don’t write it.
So I’m back again, eager and willing to waffle about eBay and e-commerce in general. Let’s see how long it lasts this time.
Following yesterday’s abject performance and their exit from the World Cup in a 4-1 defeat to Germany, several good-humoured eBayers have listed the England team on auction.
Highlights include phrases such as ‘will probably not turn up’ and ‘slightly used’.
Here’s a couple of the best
England Football Team 2010 For Sale
ENGLAND football team for sale – 11p start
Personally I think 11p is a bit steep to start the auction at.
I’ve had a break from blogging – not intentionally – I think I just got out of the habit. I’m going to try to post something every day from now on.
Not that anyone actually reads this stuff……..
The world is officially crazy. One of today’s eBay Deal of the Day items is a ‘Jedward’ T Shirt.
The twin boys have mumbled their way through a series of terrible performances on this years X-Factor live finals and have created a wave of publicity, lots of it negative.
As usual some eBay sellers are quick to jump on the latest bandwagon and cash in.
I’ll pass thanks.
Some small businesses in Plymouth are set to join the postal workers picket lines on the days of the coming strikes – to protest against the strikes. Armed with placards, they want to express how the strike called by the CWU is affecting small businesses adversely.
Sounds like a good idea to me – I wish them well.
Ok, so the headline is somewhat tongue in cheek, but it may not be far from the truth. An eBay employee from the UK Best Match team recently posted a number of threads on the powersellers forum regarding the new Best Match search for eBay.
This is the one that really caught my eye;
“We aim to have all of the information needed to optimise Best Match before the ramp up to Christmas, and so the testing of Best Match on the site will finish in mid November”
After admitting that tests are still being carried out (despite previous posts assuring us that Best Match is working correctly) we’re told that it’s ok as the testing will be over before the ramp up to Christmas.
Of course anyone with any sort of retail experience knows that the peak trading season for many starts in early October. Well not according to eBay it doesn’t.
Check the date folks, it’s not April Fools Day.
We’re already into the first week of Top Rated Sellers on eBay UK, and the early signs are not that good.
Many Powersellers who missed out on TRS status are disgruntled because they feel that achieving TRS is a bit like a lottery, and it certainly does seem that way at times. All it takes is for 2 or 3 buyers to mark down your Detailed Seller Ratings and you can lose TRS status, along with the extra discounts that it will bring (from January 2010) and the boost in search that was promised.
Some sellers who achieved TRS status are saying that their sales are down, their items are appearing at the bottom of the search, and overall are unhappy with the recent changes. Many are also worried that displaying the TRS badge will make them a ‘target’ for competitors who will deliberately try to wreck their DSRs. eBay promise us that this will be monitored of course.
Also unpopular is the scruffy looking purple box that pops up (supposedly a maximum of three times) asking if you wish to search items only from Top Rated Sellers. Even buyers have complained about this, comparing it to those annoying pop ups on other websites.
So what about buyers in general? From reading some eBay message boards, it appears that many buyers are already feeling let down by Top Rated Sellers, in much the same way that some seemed to distrust and dislike Powersellers. Some TRS appear to still have illegal return policies, continue to breach other eBay rules and generally don’t give the impression that they are good and reliable sellers. Of course, many Top Rated Sellers deserve their badge, but it does seem to have been handed out to some less scrupulous sellers too.
Only time will tell if the Top Rated Seller programme will be a success, but the early indications are that a lot of people really don’t like it all.
