Comments on: Opting Out of the eBay Experiment is Possible when a Seller Takes Back Control

By: vince jelenic

vince jelenic — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:01:28 +0000

Hi, Brews, great read here, and agree totally.

You fly the skies, I sail the oceans. I wrote a very similar piece, but with more of a B&M slant here at
http://greeninkdiary.blogspot.com/2009/08/are-you-captain-or-biz-owner-perfect.html
called “Are you a Captain, or Biz owner? the Perfect Storm” . Whether one is going down with the plane, or the ship, still going down I guess.

In my analogy, sounds like you’ve decided to be an “owner” insead.

Since you’ve previously stated you prefer selling on Amazon now , perhaps it would be great to hear of your experiences there as compared to your solo efforts on your own website and your plans on full independence down the road.
I’m curious.

By: Richie

Richie — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:27:09 +0000

I read something on one of the ebay boards today that shocked me, and it takes a lot to shock this old timer. It also summed up a lot of things I’ve seen written on blogs and message boards about ebay for some time, that word was “Frightened”. Experienced sellers are actually frightened for the future of their business, their livelyhoods and doing any tiny thing that could put their account at risk for whatever bizzare reason ebay find.

Must admit, it made me really sit and think about how many others feel the same way but won’t admit it, I imagine more than we’ll ever know.

I’m not frightened, I’m actually angry at myself for sticking with eBay so long. Looking at cold hard figures, I know that if i’m honest with myself it’s stalled my own business growth over the last few years.

It’s hard sometimes to believe that something that served you so well for so long can turn into this monster, but sadly it has.

By: Gail

Gail — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:05:32 +0000

You are so right. We are all individually responsible for ourselves and our businesses. However, we live in a society that has bred a group of people tht have no desire to take responsibility for themselves and want to blame someone else whenever life ‘goes wrong’.

I have been slowing pulling out of ebay but with a huge inventory it is a hard one woman job. I’m glad I am making trickles of income from other sources such as Amazon and ecrater and know that those trickles will increase as the inventory numbers shift from ebay to ecrater.

Looking forward to freedom from ebay and I sure hope I have managed to move everything out before they crash for good!

By: Anna

Anna — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:17:17 +0000

Indeed, you have to get a point where you just don’t care anymore.

I sold from 1996 until June 2007. Saw the writing on the wall in 2004-2005 and started to leave. (It wasn’t easy and took two years.)

In hindsight it was so difficult to leave because I remembered the opportunities and success eBay offered in the beginning through about 2001-2002. I made a decent living and in most respects enjoyed my “job”.

With every change I tried to adapt but eBay kept making it harder and harder to keep up, the fees kept going up and sell through, along with prices realized, kept going down.

I wanted it to work, as it had for me, so badly that I was unwilling to face the reality that I had to move on. I didn’t want to move on. I wanted eBay to be the venue it had been.

Finally I faced facts. I don’t fight battles I can’t win. I moved on. Sadly I was right in my perceptions that eBay was going in the direction it has, and, fortunately I started to get out from under when I did in 2004.

Now, I just don’t care what eBay does or doesn’t do. The eBay that offered me opportunities no longer exists.

I wish you luck and success.