We're IDIOTS.
No apologies, this is a rant. And more than a little fun.
The answer has been clear for some time.
Short of the Federal government, there isn't another entity with Ebay's capacity to put millions of families on the unemployment line.
And it's obvious from the lying and dissembling that Ebay management is not ethically equipped to wield such power in the best interests of Ebay customers, least of all the American economy.
But it's nuts to replace the liars at Ebay with liars from Washington D.C.
So Ebay should be legally forced to break up into several smaller entities, thereby reducing the proportion of the economy that can be damaged by the decisions of a single, potentially corrupt individual.
As the internet marketplace grows, this will become mandatory. It cannot continue to be controlled by a single person, whether Barbie Meg or her hand picked Ken John Donahoe.
It's not a matter of "if." It's a matter of when. Ebay knows it, has been expecting it since rolling out Ebay Motors.
Sellers are hurting themselves by brandishing fantasy swords about other selling venues. Ebay knows the truth. The only near competitor is Amazon and it is not yet viable for antiques or boatloads of other items.
That's why Donahoe is smirking. Angry sellers are running about doing his work for him, spreading the false illusion that there are other viable alternatives to Ebay.
There are none.
The elephant has to be brought out of the corner, folks. It's too frippin big to keep ignoring. Instead, we need to put a hat on his head and parade him through every congressional office.
Either we do it now or one fine day that elephant is going to walk into the middle of every Main street in America and leave the largest pile of economic crap the world has seen since....well since the mortgage debacle. Except no one in Washington will be jumping up to bail out a few million Ebay sellers.
Here's the truth about some of those so-called alternatives. I invite others who have actual experience to step forward and refute or enhance this (Pulleeeze, Shareholders at CarpetbaggerAuctionUSA, do not chime in here, or may your souls rot in hell, for we are in desperate need of input only from people with actual, genuine experience; we have plenty enough lying opportunists at Ebay, thank you very much.)
Craigs List is good for a limited number of items and useless for many/most of America's small towns. (You might have to drop the price of even a signed original Tiffany Dragonfly shade to $100 to find a buyer willing to travel 12 hours to get it. Exaggeration. A little.)
In 6 months with 200 low priced items that were selling strongly on Ebay, I sold ZERO on Ebid. ZERO
With 100 items on ioffer I sold zero. ZERO.
My friends gave up on Ecrater months ago.
On Esty, if you buy my pot holder I'll buy your candle and we'll each make a dime, but it will be a really meaningful experience.
Ruby Lane is a good performer for antiques, but useless for used musical instruments.
Build your own website? - Bring a big purse. Creating the site can be a do-it-yourself project, but getting traffic to the site is a costly and/or time consuming proposition. I speak from personal, on-going, frustrating experience.
--------------------------
As kids in the 1950s, my brother and I made a telephone of 2 cans connected with a string.
121bid, AuctionsWorldWide,Bid-Alot, BidEasyNow, Bidville, Bidz, Blujay, CQout, Delcampe, eBid, ECrater, ePier, Etsy, GoShopnChat, Hibidder.com, iBootSale, Liquidation, Oztion, PinkAuctions, PlunderHere, QXL, SimplyBidding, SpecialistAuctions, Tazbar, Trade Your Stuff, uBid, Wagglepop, YourHighBid.
What do these "alternatives" have in common? They're a competitor to Ebay like our tin cans were a competitor to Ma Bell.
The test as to whether a company is imposing monopolistic restraints on trade is not determined by whether there are ANY competitors. It is determined by whether there is the capacity for a VIABLE competitor to engage in trade and, if not, the economic consequences thereof.
Why do you suppose Ebay owns a share of Craigs List? Diversifying their investment portfolio? In a pigs eye. It's a chump change investment in growing the competition in hopes Craig will sprout up into a big strong boy and keep anyone from planting the big "M" label where it belongs, on Ebay, the biggest, most powerful monopoly the world has ever known.
While this years crop of angry Ebay sellers are figuring out that the alternatives are not viable, more time will pass. Ebay will become more independent, more belligerent, more unreasonable and more aggressive.
Remember, you heard this here: Ebay's next gambit will be to block all direct email correspondence between sellers and buyers. Communication will only be allowed through MyEbay. They will introduce this change with much mumbo jumbo about security and protection, but the real reason will be to stop the communication between buyer and seller that might lead to a dollar trading hands that Ebay doesn't get a piece of.
Can't have anyone selling anything that Ebay doesn't get a piece of -- too DANGEROUS! Like Bidpay and Western Union payments were too DANGEROUS! The only safe way to pay is with Paypal, every other method is too DANGEROUS! Ebay plays the Danger Card like Rudy at Ground Zero. But Rudy is entitled. Donahoe is just a ho.
And they'll eliminate MePages, with the explanation that they're an unnecessary duplication of MyWorld. The press will not know or care about the truth, which is that MyWorld doesn't allow html -- which means no more links to other websites -- where someone might make a nickel that Ebay doesn't get a piece of.
Feeling suffocated? Like a rat trapped in a maze? You should. We cannot boycott our way out of this. Well we could, but too many sellers think that if they don't rock the boat, it can't tip over.
The answer is government intervention. I hate government more than the average bear, but I've thought long and hard about this for several years and am convinced it is the only answer. Ebay has to be broken up into smaller units and for that to happen, our regulators need to understand this one simple truth:
Ebay has the world by the short hairs.
Yup, said what I meant: the WORLD.
Ebay's stranglehold isn't just on a humorous collection of unsophisticated ma and pa Jesus sandwich sellers. That flea market image Meg and Donahoe so disdain? Just more shuckin and jivin by the smoke screen twins. While the media was inhaling, a metamorphosis took place at Ebay.
Ebay sellers are well aware of this, but for those less involved, if you want to see the real picture, search Ebay for forklifts, xray, Bobcat, tractor, bus and house.
What Ebay is doing today to the sellers who helped build the company, it will be doing in the future to every seller, regardless of size or imagined inoculation. Because they can. Because there is no one, except us, maybe, to stop them.
Here's one for the conservatives: what's to prevent Ebay from moving the platform out of the U.S. and away from U.S. trade laws altogether? Sound like science fiction? Well just 25 years ago sending the image of a single 8.5 x 11 page across the country required rolling it around a cylinder, hooking it up to a telephone and spinning it for 8 minutes. Just 20 years ago the only way to find Star Wars figures was to scour classified ads in toy magazines and travel to flea markets. Just 10 years ago photos were RARE on Ebay. So don't even talk to me about "improbable" changes. Quit guffawing and ask yourself: has there ever before been an international company as potentially portable and powerful as Ebay?
The good news is that Paypal funding from South Africa or Mars probably wouldn't take much longer.
I propose that instead of swaggering about fantasy Ebay alternatives, we paste our posts into a Wordpad file, hit the print button, grab an envelope and send it off to:
Federal Trade Commission
Consumer Response Center
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20580
While you're at it, print 2 or 10 copies. This site makes it easy to find the names and addresses of your congressional representatives:
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml And to amuse ourselves in the meanwhile, lets talk about the best way to break up Ebay.
I'd like to see several strong Ebay segments spun out as separate companies, each with a solid seller and customer base as a foundation on which to build, each with the freedom to compete with one another, in no way bound by its starting base, so that within a very few years we would have 4-5 separate Ebays, each with an focus on its foundation but also selling a full range of other products.
Here's my suggestions for the breakout. Note that there's one each for Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Ken (don't know Ken who? You lose, back to the top you go
How would you change them?
Antiques and collectibles
Vehicles
Business & Farm Equipment
Clothing & Housewares
