Auction Hall of Shame!

ckb · Post by **ckb** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 4:35 pm

A monkey could come up with a better business model. But to compete, you could need massive venture capital for advertising. 50M. 100M.

myron wrote:so...who has the know-how and capital to start a competitive on-line auction house???

X-O HoboJoe · Post by **X-O HoboJoe** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 5:29 pm

Think a "Comics-Only" spin would work, or would it be too narrow. Maybe a Pop-culture only (toys, gaming, art etc.) would work?

MedicAR · Post by **MedicAR** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 5:35 pm

Chalk up another INVALID ITEM:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 97163&rd=1

But that's ok, he replaced it with this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... =650659283

Now it's just a game.....

x-omatic · Post by **x-omatic** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 5:37 pm

MagnusRF wrote:Chalk up another INVALID ITEM:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 97163&rd=1

But that's ok, he replaced it with this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... =650659283

Now it's just a game.....

this is getting fun.

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 6:39 pm

Someone at eBay's watching him.

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 6:40 pm

I love that idiots like this can violate eBay policy all day long, but heaven forbid you don't pay some arsehole because he wants to not combine shipping, and you get booted...

...then, if they find out you've used the same Paypal account for other accounts, they boot those, too.

Just a matter of staying one step ahead of eBay. Ugh.

DawgPhan · Post by **DawgPhan** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 7:03 pm

ckb wrote:A monkey could come up with a better business model. But to compete, you could need massive venture capital for advertising. 50M. 100M.

myron wrote:so...who has the know-how and capital to start a competitive on-line auction house???

Yeah there are several online auction sites that are successful in their genre, but nothing compares to Ebay...you really would have to spend tons of money advertising to even start to compete...it would probably be best to start something up...advertise the crap out of it and hope to start taking some of ebays business...then maybe they would buy you out for several times what was put in...then use that capital to start again...

MedicAR · Post by **MedicAR** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 7:42 pm

There are other sites, but they are exclusive to a particular area. Comic Link and Astro Auction are the two that I can come up with off the top of my head. I'm just not sure anyone could compete with eBay shy of a giant like AOL, and then, why would they do it?

DawgPhan · Post by **DawgPhan** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 8:12 pm

MagnusRF wrote:There are other sites, but they are exclusive to a particular area. Comic Link and Astro Auction are the two that I can come up with off the top of my head. I'm just not sure anyone could compete with eBay shy of a giant like AOL, and then, why would they do it?

ComicLink's business model, to my understanding, could never really compete at the level of an Ebay. Never. They would have to charge even more than ebay does. I am not really familar with Astro Auction. AOL should change their business model because their current one will not longer be truly viable in the coming years. Getting into and auction thing could be great for them right now. They have the name and the users built in.

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 8:24 pm

Not really on MAIN topic, but....outstanding news!

http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/19/news/fo ... tm?cnn=yes

400yrs · Post by **400yrs** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 9:06 pm

ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote:Not really on MAIN topic, but....outstanding news!

http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/19/news/fo ... tm?cnn=yes

Not sure what you mean by "outstanding."

E-bay did not perform Poorly, they merely missed the Wall Street mark. I think that investors are overeacting. They only missed forecasts by one penny per share. Granted, companies are expected to outperform Wall Street predictions, but $.30 per share in the fourth quarter alone is nothing to shake a stick at. In addition, they are splitting stock, which is generally a sign of strength.

It looks like the reason that they raised fees is so that they can actually hit or out-perform the 2005 Wall Street Predictions. You may want to scream at Wall Street for its speculation which most likely caused the price increases instead of Ebay. If the expectations were more reasonable or more in line with the company's expectations, there probably wouldn't have been the price increases.

The thing that catches my eye in the report is the fact that the company had more than $20 million in extraordinary items. Strange for a company with no real front or inventory. Maybe I'll take a look at the financials to see what happened there.

Ricomortis · Post by **Ricomortis** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 10:09 pm

I knew I should have shorted the snot out of EBAY when I saw them increasing their fees. They have beat expectations and raised guidance seems like forever now. Ebay has depended on its "growth of ebay" to continue its surge forward, earnings, revenue, and stock price have all gone with it.

When I saw their increase I instantly told myself....uhoh...not growing like they were....so next best thing....raise prices. UGGGGGGG and they were down 13 points at one time in after hours. someone shoot me for not listening to my instinct.

400, you are correct in other words

Rico"

"Mortis

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:11 pm

400yrs wrote:
ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote:Not really on MAIN topic, but....outstanding news!

http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/19/news/fo ... tm?cnn=yes
Not sure what you mean by "outstanding."

E-bay did not perform Poorly, they merely missed the Wall Street mark. I think that investors are overeacting. They only missed forecasts by one penny per share. Granted, companies are expected to outperform Wall Street predictions, but $.30 per share in the fourth quarter alone is nothing to shake a stick at. In addition, they are splitting stock, which is generally a sign of strength.

It looks like the reason that they raised fees is so that they can actually hit or out-perform the 2005 Wall Street Predictions. You may want to scream at Wall Street for its speculation which most likely caused the price increases instead of Ebay. If the expectations were more reasonable or more in line with the company's expectations, there probably wouldn't have been the price increases.

The thing that catches my eye in the report is the fact that the company had more than $20 million in extraordinary items. Strange for a company with no real front or inventory. Maybe I'll take a look at the financials to see what happened there.

It's outstanding because it is the very first BAD news eBay has posted in nearly 10 years. That means a LOT on Wall Street.

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:20 pm

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 2289900824

Anyone remember TLC giving me the most amazing ration of *SQUEE*, telling me I 'didn't know what a 10.0 looked like'...?

Got this in the other day....the Premiere #15, despite the missing page, was graded 'NM-' by him....well....not quite.

It's got an inch...1"...spine crease right above the top staple, a PLETHORA of small dents and nicks the entire width and length of the front and back covers, a 1/8" tear at the top of the bottom staple, a dirty back cover with lots of small wear, top corner of back spine is slightly crumpled, and additional less severe spine stress marks (1/2" or less.)

Does that SOUND NM- to anyone...? It's a VF- VF on a good day. Farrrr too many little defects to be in the NM category.

Now I know why he was so adamant...he just can't grade.

x-omatic · Post by **x-omatic** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:23 pm

ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote:I love that idiots like this can violate eBay policy all day long, but heaven forbid you don't pay some arsehole because he wants to not combine shipping, and you get booted...

...then, if they find out you've used the same Paypal account for other accounts, they boot those, too.

Just a matter of staying one step ahead of eBay. Ugh.

So how many ebay accounts are you up to now?

x-omatic · Post by **x-omatic** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:26 pm

ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 2289900824

Anyone remember TLC giving me the most amazing ration of *SQUEE*, telling me I 'didn't know what a 10.0 looked like'...?

Got this in the other day....the Premiere #15, despite the missing page, was graded 'NM-' by him....well....not quite.

It's got an inch...1"...spine crease right above the top staple, a PLETHORA of small dents and nicks the entire width and length of the front and back covers, a 1/8" tear at the top of the bottom staple, a dirty back cover with lots of small wear, top corner of back spine is slightly crumpled, and additional less severe spine stress marks (1/2" or less.)

Does that SOUND NM- to anyone...? It's a VF- VF on a good day. Farrrr too many little defects to be in the NM category.

Now I know why he was so adamant...he just can't grade.

Thats why he has been selling alot of Valiant books as NM after he choose which ones to send to CGC.

gowaltrip · Post by **gowaltrip** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:58 pm

ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote:

despite the missing page, was graded 'NM-' by him....well....not quite.

Maybe Im not up to date on the term Qualified, but I did not think anything with a missing interior page could ever be considered anything even close to NM

Thats like an insult to the word NM to me.

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 12:36 am

x-omatic wrote:
Thats why he has been selling alot of Valiant books as NM after he choose which ones to send to CGC.

It gets worse....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 2289903179

He graded the Bite Clubs (the only ones I really wanted) as 'NM+' right....?

So, #1 fifteen (15) spine stress marks on the front cover, some as big as 1/8", three of which are 1/4"+. The bottom of the spine is split 1/8", the bottom right corner is creased 1/8", and the back cover has a 1.25" light bend on the bottom left corner. You know the look, like a book that's sat in a quarter bin for about 2-3 weeks, or the shelf. It's not HIDEOUS...but it's got obvious wear. You know, 'shelf wear'.

NM+...ROFL!!!

magnusr · Post by **magnusr** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 12:43 am

gowaltrip wrote:Maybe Im not up to date on the term Qualified, but I did not think anything with a missing interior page could ever be considered anything even close to NM Thats like an insult to the word NM to me.

It is a good example of when to use the word qualified. One single flaw that is way out of line compared to the others (and I do believe ZWH only referred to other flaws). CGC gives a gren label and writes the fault on the report card. It is sometimes referred to as a Green Label Of Death. Other flaws that can give a green label include missing coupons and signatures ("Name written on cover in marker"). The latter I don't mind at all.

/Magnus

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 12:49 am

x-omatic wrote:
So how many ebay accounts are you up to now?

Mmmm...30, 40, 50...I dunno.

My fatal flaw is if there's a problem....then the 'seller in question' gets my info...and eBay suspends me cause, naturally, it's fake.

I can lose them, but the one that hurt was Graysoncollectibles....my selling account.

They suspended THAT one because it was connected (by name) to Timdrake72, and THAT was suspended because eBay changed the rules for suspension...which they've done several times since I joined. When you win 100+ auctions a month...you're going to, of necessity, going to forget some of them...especially in the days LONG before all these 'auto notifications'....

And then there's the ones where the seller turns out to be an *SQUEE*.

And I just can't stomach getting screwed by sellers, ESPECIALLY when sellers pull the *SQUEE* they do....

So...<shrug>

eBay is just the worst SUCCESSFUL corporation that I've ever dealt with. That's really the bottom line.

X-O HoboJoe · Post by **X-O HoboJoe** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 12:53 am

ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote: eBay is just the worst SUCCESFUL corporation that I've ever dealt with. That's really the bottom line.

Amen to that.

oldjello · Post by **oldjello** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 2:00 am

This one doesn't involve Valiants... but it belongs in the hall of shame on principle.

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d ... ious_shoes

Brother J · Post by **Brother J** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 4:18 am

oldjello wrote:This one doesn't involve Valiants... but it belongs in the hall of shame on principle.

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d ... ious_shoes

OMG, I have an open sale with this a-hole, and I didn't realize all this was going on until you just posted this. Crap, what do I have to do now? Well, thanks at least for posting it....

depluto · Post by **depluto** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 11:11 am

Maybe the dude is dead or something.

X-O HoboJoe · Post by **X-O HoboJoe** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 11:21 am

depluto wrote:Maybe the dude is dead or something.

His credibility as a seller certainly is.