A personal note from Mark: ebay was fun... about 5 years ago!
Plain and simple...I got tired of ebay and I left. Many of my ebay friends & customers have asked; "what happened"? So, here's the scoop: Glaucia and I were fairly successful selling on ebay, and we met many wonderful people here over the years.
The one thing I just couldn't see past was the fact that I was basically a volunteer ebay employee. Well, actually I was paying for the privilege. Sourcing raw materials, designing and creating artwork, generating content to enrich the ebay website (in regard to search engine visibility) and of course promoting our ebay store vigorously.
When it came right down to it though... I was promoting the ebay brand, rather than making a name for myself as an independent artist. I can see how that wouldn't be an issue if you're just selling a Little House On The Prairie lunchbox. Then, perhaps it wouldn't really matter if your buyer only remembers "I got it on ebay".
However, as an artist I couldn't help but realize that with each item sold here, I was cultivating a following for ebay. It bummed me out to imagine that when somebody commented one of my glass pieces, the owner would say "I got it on ebay". Which meant that all the energy I poured into my "business" was creating an unhealthy dependency upon this site. Putting all my eggs in one basket so to speak (by building everything on this patform, and relying on ebay to look out for the future of my business). As a general rule of thumb: when dealing with massive corporations, or anyone to whom you are expendable... always keep your eyes wide open.
You want particulars? Ok, here's a few that immediately come to mind:
1. I did not like competing with the massive influx of Chinese imports when ebay began courting the Asian market.
2. I did not like having to compete against folks who were willing to take a LOSS just so they could build their feedback (meanwhile they degraded the very market they had hoped to enter). Another low-priced feather in ebays' cap... but horribly detrimental to the sellers in any particular category.
3. I particularly resented the way ebay instantly collects their final value fees from sellers the second a "buyer" ends your listing... however, when the payment is not forthcoming, we as sellers must wait for an extended period of time, then jump through several hoops to request a refund of our final value fees. Meanwhile, ebay is sending our "trading partner" all kinds of draconian messages almost certain to illicit a negative response. Beyond the shaddow of a doubt ebay retains MILLIONS of dollars every year just because sellers neither have the time to persue the Unpaid Item Process, nor do they care to risk having their valuable feedback rating maligned by someone using a disposable buying ID.
4. I was deeply concerned by the alarming volume of spoof / phishing emails masquerading as ebay/PayPal: payment alerts, account suspension notices, user information update required, etc. After forwarding these to spoof@ebay you simply receive an auto-responer email telling you how to identify a scam email. Hello... I clearly know how to identify a spoof. Hence the forward. The question is: when will ebay take the appropriate action and devote the necessary resources to combat this unprecidented level of predatory spam? I deal with several banking institutions & legitimate business contacts online, and none of them have ever exposed me to such a withering barrage of malicious junk mail. I shudder to think of how many nice people were drawn to ebay, enticed to sign up just in order to purchase something from me here, and then sometime later may have fallen victim to one of these crummy spoof emails. Not cool.
5. More than anything else, I did not enjoy having my business defined by the collective experience people had with other ebay sellers. I'm not saying that ebay has become synonomous with fraud... however, all the "feeler" questions, and urgent emails from buyers within miutes of making a purchase are quite telling; "please let me know when the item has shipped, please send me a tracking #, etc". In America we are (supposedly) presumed innocent untill proven guilty. Yet ebay buyers regularly treat you as shady untill proven legitimate. All I'm saying is that a lot of ebay sellers must have let these people down. Therefore, I 'd much rather work to strengthen the reputation of my own brand: Glass Paradise, instead of bending over backwards to compensate for the shortcommings of some ebay PowerSmeller who did these folks wrong in the past. Call me a capitalist... I like being rewarded for my own hard work.
I remember a time when I had taken my Grandmother with me on a vacation to Tahiti. We met a lady who was an art dealer there, and she asked where I sold my glass. My Grandmother proudly announced "he sells it on ebay" and I cringed. Same as if she'd said "he sells his art at the swap meet". That day was an epiphany. For the first time I realized that I really shouldn't be doing anything I'm not completely proud of.
I'm not writing this to disparage anyone else's ebay endeavors. Opening an ebay store was my first experience selling online, and it served as a great stepping stone. I learned from selling here much of what I needed to build and operate my own website. Furthermore, the deficiencies I perceived on ebay have given me the valuable insight to offer a far superior shopping experience without using adservers (which plauge a customers browser with dozens of adware tracking cookies), slow-loading advertising banners, etc.
Ultimately, my ebay business reached the point where I was paying over $500. in fees each month, and it doesn't require much business acumen to recognize that is simply not equitable (five hundred dollars goes a looooong way toward hosting and advertising our own stand-alone website).
I really appreciate the lessons I learned here on ebay, and I have put all the money I'm saving on fees toward the things I have always dreamed of: more international travel, new glass blowing torches (GTT Phantom and Delta Elite), a horse trailer for hauling my liquid oxygen tank... all kinds of fun stuff!
Do what you love, and you won't have to "work" a day in your life.
I wish you success in all your endeavors. Sincerely, Mark Black
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