IMPORTANT!
I have gotten so MANY emails from sellers who have been contacted saying they talked to eBay and their listings are allowed and it's business as usual. PLEASE do not put your business in the hands of a CS rep! What they tell you ultimately means nothing if they don't have the right info-words are just words. Based on the many conflicting reports NOTHING is certain yet. STOP BEING OSTRICHES WITH YOUR HEADS IN THE SAND! If eBay allows spell cast or spirit bound jewelry it will be wonderful but it's looking more and more like it IS out. Come the end of the first week of September you could get so many listings pulled and the resulting policy violations your accounts could be suspended for good. Maybe THIS IS eBay's plan?
NOTE: Please see lists of eBay email addresses, fax #'s and phone numbers as well as all official Facebook pages on the Bombard Ebay post!
People are coming up with many good ideas as an option to offering our items on eBay but unfortunately, none are as currently good as eBay itself. Many take time to build traffic and get established. These are options for our futures yes, but in the immediate we need to unite and petition eBay not only for clarification of the changes but to keep our particular items around in some form. If they are concerned with 'intangibles' then perhaps making sure all spell casters, conjurers, and psychics actually mail an item would be fine. A broad ban, or even a 'pick and choose' ban on anything psychic, magick or of a certain alternate belief seems drastic and draconian on eBay's part. Some have said it reflects a type of religious discrimination even.
I'm certain this ban is in answer to the many 'hit and run' meta sellers who list .99 cent buy it now spells and spirit bindings, collect money and then disappear after a few negatives and leave a slew of claims in their wake. We have all seen this happen over and over again. BUT I ask, and we should ask eBay, HOW is this different than what happens in ANY category as long as an item is mailed.
Most Metaphysical sellers have great feedback. Probably better in percentages than electronics sellers. ANY category has it's share of fraud and bad sellers.
I know many of us offer full money back and or exchange. With a reading this is complicated since it relies upon the subjective opinion of the buyer. Perhaps some type of refund compromise could be worked out. Say all meta listings must offer 30 or even 60 day refunds.
There has been some success in the past getting reconsideration of certain decisions at the highest levels by using an email campaign. Directing a mass influx of emails to all corporate officers and department heads at eBay is an option I think we should all consider. Perhaps an email can be written up that can be passed around and even personalized by the sender. I belong to several wildlife and animal protection lobbying groups that do this all the time-they provide emails and email addresses to various government officials that we can send out.
So, please add you comments below with your ideas that we can implement to change eBay's mind and save our categories and businesses. Any and all input is welcomed.
Some people-myself included are having some issues posting comments. If you can not get it to work after a few tries email ebaymetaphysical@gmail.com or anewgoldendawn@gmail.com and it will be posted my us.
ReplyDeleteFROM JINNANDTONICS--
I have no idea why my posts will not work on your blog, but here ya go:
We are currently working on our own web store as well, However, here is our concern:
Even though ebay is only removing intangibles, the guy we spoke to stated the dept responsible for policy review would be looking at items based on keywords. That dept. is run by several ebay employees (hundreds perhaps) we have had them pull auctions by mistake before that were not in violation of any policy. Especially our spirit foods and Dragon Eggs items. As food and egg were keywords they looked for in violations. There will likely be mistakes and lost revenue when we remove these prohibited keywords, especially due to the impact on search results on ebay. So, we cannot assume if we remove the prohibited keywords all our auctions are safe and traffic on ebay will stay the same. IT WON'T...
Ultimately ebay will push us out through starvation (no traffic).
The sooner we all become diversified on other sites the better. Non-Meta sellers already recommend this in the ebay discussion boards. We will start to list our products everywhere to get the traffic. Artfire is next for us. (AVOID eCrater - they offer NO support at all, and you do all the SEO)
We are open to a Meta-Market Place. Especially if it can be executed in a professional manner.
No offense intended, but, we do not want to get caught up in anything that hurts our brand, like Ash and Magnolia went through with the unification of sellers years ago. It is counter-productive to create anything that allows any "group" segregation or secrecy. Being open without hidden rights to some sellers or privileges that are not available to all will create the same issues that plague other unified sites.
Perhaps,
A marketplace should be just that....a store only. Keeping the social stuff to our private web sites. We can contribute to the store in what ever way possible, be it through assistance or funds.
Perhaps a gotomeeting should be held where we can all come together to work it out? Like a townhall meeting?
Jinnandtonics
Tiffany
I agree that a store-only format would be best. Rules will have to be laid out that are fair, and will prevent the types of problems that have occurred on Ebay and in other venues.
ReplyDelete(Out of room in last post to write stuff.)
ReplyDeleteA side-note, for posting comments is an issue with blogspot. Apparently it doesn't work on Firefox. It does work on Safari. It first didn't work on Safari and then one day mysteriously did. I even have my own blog on blogspot I run for a family member and it never got comments despite removing all the restrictions I could, and now I see why. But Safari seems to work. As for IE, I'd never want to use that thing ever.
I've had no issues posting at all, and I use Firefox.
DeleteGoogle keeps eating my post I want to post here.
ReplyDeleteFrom The Anunnaki----
ReplyDeleteWe need an eBay alternative. I mentioned some stuff in http://ebaymetaphysical.blogspot.com/2012/08/lets-all-talk.html?showComment=1344745578382#c801967272636642818 but here is a summary of why no for sites.
Bonanza -- They don't do auctions. They also are stalkery like eBay. People complained they are G-rated, and well a sexy pic is not that important, just for getting sales. I always hated on eBay if I do a sexy pic and then I'm worried some a-hole will go and try to get my auction removed for it so I try to avoid them.
CH -- Without millions of dollars invested like a big site, it'll eventually be hacked badly. Plus CH is always a terror to sellers. Everyone not in her clique is scared she will decide to target you for destruction, and you know it when you get an attack post in her forums with pure lies, then hordes of fake bidders decend and bid to leave negative feedback on you.
Artfire -- I am unfamiliar with this site but it looks like something similar to etsy.com. So I don't know if they'll oppose selling spells. Someone posted their store http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/lilithslair and well this appears not to do auctions.
Also there aren't "hit and run 99 cent sellers". I have talked to people who will sell items really cheap. They are real people who practice some type or paranormal practice (wicca a lot of times) who are bad salespeople, and what we do is basically hard work. The hit and run I've seen are people who are used car salesmen, really good sales pitch, who come in and sell a few items for $1000 from a new account and then vanish. I don't think eBay is responding to any hit and run sellers as I have never seen them. The ones I've seen who quit will do so after selling tons of items and then just one day they get sick of selling. eBay claims on its website that it is really wanting to get rid of digital goods and making people use classified ads.
Essentially what needs to be done is a bunch of sellers be able to just pick a good site and then dump a lot of items there. As for the CH site, even if CH didn't have the problems I mentioned, it is too specific. It needs to be on a normal auction site so people will casually, accidentally come across these items.
Now I've seen various goth auction sites. So I googled "goth auctions" without the quotes. I find gothauctions.com . Hardly anything there. And already a category for metaphysical stuff. http://www.gothauctions.com/auction/XcAPViewInCat.asp?ID=40 Problem is like CH, it is still too small. Not well known, lack of google juice, and not much invested to protect from a big hack.
There's a bunch of eBay alternatives. Though I'm not sure if any are good. You can google for eBay alternatives and find some. Two I found are bad, not from listing meta, but from listing DVDs. eCrater likes to ban you falsely saying the DVDs are fake and gets no traffic. eBid people say it will, but it didn't for me, however it gets no traffic no matter how low I price things.
...
You mentioned the "spirit food" and "dragon eggs". Well I hope eBay doesn't decide to suddenly remove auctions of jewelry because it has the word spell/spells in it. Those keywords generally make the thing sell better. eBay on its page said it is removing "advice; spells; curses; hexing; conjuring; magic; prayers; blessing services; magic potions; healing sessions; work from home businesses & information; wholesale lists, and drop shop lists". So it seems spells, curses, hexing, conjuring, magic, prayers, blessing, and healing -- might be bad keywords. No mention of "Haunted" so still it is a keeper; go figger. Words like spirit and channeling are not on the bad list either.
They would have a massive headache if they tried to flag those keywords, because they're used in everything from Pokemon to books, artwork, video games, you name it.
DeleteWhatsoever we decide, unity is going to be the key to keeping our work from completely scattering to the winds. If we all "turtle" and scramble to take care of ourselves individually, the buyer community will be completely fragmented.
ReplyDeleteAny conflicts from the past need to be set aside NOW. From this point on, we are no longer competitors, rivals, etc. We must unite against the common enemy of this dire situation.
We need to unite ALL of the eBay meta sellers together here and figure out the best alternative, possibly creating it if we must--though time is a definite factor in that regard.
Once decided, we need to ALL direct our buyer lists, twitter followers, etc. toward the same location, shifting the largest possible portion of the community to the new marketplace all together within a focused time frame. I would suggest the final week of August, the message goes out hard, heavy and loud.
This is the only way we can preserve at least some aspect of the eBay meta-buyer culture and give us something to work with and build upon.
Right, and I know that on August 31, I will be sending out a message to as many previous buyers as I can find IDs for, to simply tell them that if I vanish from Ebay, they can find me easily by googling 'WingedWolfPsion'. (Hopefully that is just barely not against the Ebay TOS, but it if is, too bad, lol).
DeleteI think if ALL META-SELLERS were required to have the 30 day refund policy, then complaints surly would be dramatically reduced. I don't know if eBay would be interested enough in us to implement this special "rule." They would have to set up their own system to enforce it. But perhaps they would consider it, as we must be bringing in a sizable amount of income for them. And as was mentioned most have very high repeat customers, and excellent feedback. In this area, having bad feedback is more detrimental than in other areas. I think the idea of an "EMAIL" that we all sign, or send would really be a good idea. There doesn't seem to be very many of us on this blog. How do we make sure and reach all the sellers?
ReplyDeleteTo kikiandpops--
DeleteI have been messaging as many as I can each day since I found out what was going to happen. I have been sending as many messages a day as eBay allows using three different ID's.
I'm sending this message below now.
PLEASE if you can send it out too. Sellers won't mind being contacted more than once I'm sure.
-----------------------------------------------
In case you are not aware of how eBay's new rules will affect you and the sales of spells, readings, energy work and magickal items on eBay-please see this blog where many sellers are sharing opinions and info as each contacts eBay for clarification of the new rules banning magick, spells, conjures, tarot, psychic readings, rituals, Tarot readings, Reiki, etc... taking affect Aug.30th
ebaymetaphysical.blogspot.com
Spread the word!
I'm personally NOT inclined to offer a refund policy...especially not a 30 day refund policy. That is more than long enough for someone to use an item, and be done with it, and then return it for money back. I consider that an unreasonable request. I can count on the fingers of one hand the people who have not been satisfied with anything I've sold, and half of those were trying to scam. The others, I simply refunded on a case by case basis, not as a matter of policy. I don't want to attract curious skeptics who will buy up items and then demand their money back, because the items didn't make them psychic.
DeleteI agree that a united, concentrated effort to move our clients to a new venue is a great idea. I've personally tried Ebid, Weensy, Etsy and Ecrater, and the only place I've ever made sales (and only a few) was Ecrater. Those were all regular clients too, not new customers, and I directed them over there in the paperwork I send with my items. For the most part though I've barely had any hits at all, much less sales, other than ebay.
ReplyDeleteNOTE: Please see lists of eBay email addresses, fax #'s and phone numbers as well as all official Facebook pages on the Bombard Ebay post!
ReplyDeleteWith the help of an amazing idea from BlueJay:
ReplyDeleteSo here is how we can do things.
Take your current spells on list tem in eBay category:
Everything Else > Religious Products & Supplies > Educational Materials
Then list the item as a printed paper and ship it to the buyer as an added page for their Book of Shadows. Of course on your end you can do the direct spell and whatever you desire.
If we see in the coming future that eBay is having a problem with metaphysical, paranormal, haunted jewelry we will simply list them here: Everything Else > Religious Products & Supplies > Jewelry
I wanna see them try and delete all our "Religions Items"
Great minds working together here folks can create great accomplishments.
Again these are temp fixes to the current eBay problem, the only way we can truly fix this is through the Mega-Meta-Online Marketplace. I now have 16 meta sellers aboard and ready, pass this along so many more can join. If interested please message me.
I NEED HELP!
ReplyDeleteI have a list of over 1600 eBay employees and department heads but these names need to be put into the standard email format eBay uses. This is easy but I can not do it all myself. It would take me hours and hours.
We NEED these emails for our mass email campaign to get heard.
So--PLEASE email me at ebaymetaphysical@gmail.com if you are willing to help. If we split the list among us we could be done quickly.
We could buy the list complete with emails and phone number extensions but its 1500.00
ReplyDeleteUPDATE: Aurora completed the first group of names of eBay dept. heads and out of about 230 possible email addresses over 160 worked!
We still have HUNDREDS of names to go and then we will have a large database of working eBay email addresses to send out our 'protest' emails to. Send enough from enough people and it might make a difference!
Magnolia from Creepy Hollows
ReplyDeleteTo start, I can tell you nothing is going to happen if you guys don't stay united, in a positive way. If you start making enemies of each other & other sellers nothing is going to get accomplished.
The Anunnaki: I have no idea who you are, but we don't have anyone in our "clique". Our forum & Marketplace has been, & always will be, open to any seller who wants to conduct themselves in an honest & forthright manner. We do not have groups for sellers, there is no secrecy, our forum & Marketplace regarding seller interactions is completely open to ANY seller who conducts themselves honestly & fairly with buyers.
JINN: We got caught up in the whirlwind of the UMAD issues, we never created the group nor did we select who was admitted, not to mention, we were NEVER even a member! Our site was collector based ONLY. We offered a spot on the site for UMAD members and non-UMAD members to advertise their eBay shops. That's the extent of our participation with that, specific group. We've always offered free advertising for sellers on our sites.
We, personally, have nothing against those of you we know & those of we do not. Of course, we actually would contact you personally to ask questions rather than letting someone else's gossip form our opinions for us.
This really goes for all of you sellers who have not actually spoken with Ash or myself, and are developing your own opinions based on the rumors & gossip, neither Ash or myself has ever denied a seller who was honest, forthright, sincere, and fair in their business practices from advertising on our forum, joining our forum, or selling in our Marketplace. The Marketplace is an open venue to everyone, which is why it is separately branded.
We don't make professional friendships with other sellers at any level. We have an open door and all we ask is that anyone on our site conduct themselves accordingly, which is not too much to ask for. You are not asked any differently on any other site. Any site you participate in would request that you be honest, fair, and forthright.
Any of you are welcome on the CH Marketplace at any time. And, before you go listening to people who have no idea what they're talking about and are just looking to cut others down, stir up drama, and hurt others for the self-satisfaction they derive from it, it would be in your best interests to actually go to the person & form your own opinions! Be it CH or any other seller.
Any of you can contact me or Ash directly at ash@creepyhollows.com or magnolia@creepyhollows.com or go and register for free on the Marketplace at www.creepyhollows.com/marketplace
If you guys don't want to take us up on the offer, that's okay too, I understand. I wish you guys the best of luck in your endeavors if we don't hear from any of you.
Also, a little tip, if you are thinking about starting your own sites for selling, keep on top of the new laws coming down the pipeline regarding collecting internet sales tax. If you start your own site for selling it is greatly worth it to invest a small amount in a business lawyer in your local area to help you get started on what you need & what local and Federal laws that need to be followed. And, if you are going to collect credit cards on your site make sure whatever software you choose is PCI compliant, or you can have a fine minimum of $50k.
I don't envy you your battle with eBay, and we've already spoken to eBay several times and continue to do so, but I can't say it would make any difference at this point. The number of chargebacks and complaints plays a big part in why the category is being shut down. That is what I was told directly by multiple staff members, and that the category is becoming "unmanageable".
If you guys decide you want to actually talk to us rather than listening to outside rumors, we welcome your email! :)
Magnolia, I PERSONALLY sent a message to you via an eBay listing about this blog. Please don't feel we were excluding you at all. I only found out about this on the night of the 10th/morning of the 11th and created this central place so we could talk and to share opinions and strategy. I planned on sending you a personal email ASAP asking if you had any ideas to help and if you would post of the email campaign on CH forum. It has just been a whirlwind of activity the last 4 days. Hundreds of sellers with no clue this was happening needing to be notified, email lists collected, etc.... I STILL have many sellers I have not contacted YET.
DeleteWe were not trying to exclude CH or anything. You know who I am, we have a good relationship I believe, and I took this anonymous 'ebaymetaphysical' name because I did not want this organizing of the group to be about me. Like you say-we ALL need to stick together.
I'm not giving up-I think eBay can be convinced with enough pressure but this means ACTION on all of our parts to put that pressure on them-from inside and out.
If having problems posting comments please email ebaymetaphysical@gmail.com and they will be manually posted.
DeleteFROM JINNANDTONICS
Nice to meet you Magnolia. We apologize if you were offended by our reference to your being victimized publicly. Bringing it up only serves to show our intention is to instill a reminder, how easily any group's good intentions could draw harm if we are not careful and wise to protect the fragility of this circumstance.
In this situation, it is painful from anyone's point of view to watch the entire community be torn, trashed, and mired by ebay, fraud, or any other circumstance. If this group gets redirected by personality conflicts or mistrust it could potentially devastate the future of some sellers. We need to stay focused on the goals, keep communication public, and work together. This is bigger than any one of us. At some point, all things in life will come full circle, we are being given a chance to connect, forgive, open communication, and heal this community which has been struck hard with shock waves.
Our point is we all need to be wise, and heed the experience of those of you who have gone before us in these same experiences. The founders on ebay, like you and Caiyros, who paved the way for us in online commerce, who have dealt with ostensibly, unscrupulous frauds, your experiences can save us much grief. In our experience, we learned it is better to prevent a tragedy than to overcome one if at all possible.
Personally, our goal is to protect our community, our beliefs, and our clients. We are happy to share our plans, our resources, and our efforts with those who are also open and receptive. The more each one of you succeed the better for us all.
We are open with a humble heart, to hear all who want to share, and we sincerely offer our support where we can.
Oh yes, I know ;) ((hugs)) For any others, I just don't want anyone claiming things about us that aren't true. We haven't been anything but open with eBay sellers. And our site has a lot of tenure & a good reputation amongst real collectors & buyers.
ReplyDeleteAt this point I don't know that any amount of pressure on eBay is going to change their mind. You're talking about changing the minds of a faceless corporation. However, I wouldn't stop trying. We actually won the battle in 2005 about allowing spirits to be sold in the category. But, back then there was around 20 sellers, there wasn't the hundreds there are today. Back then I bet they thought what damage could 20 people do? And, as far as I know, all of us were writing into them weekly until we received an answer.
If you guys are making a united effort you certainly have our voice behind you as well, just tell us what you have drafted as a message & which addresses you want it sent to!
Methias & BlueJay, I don't think that solution is going to work. Here is the list directly from the site: Items that will be prohibited include: advice; spells; curses; hexing; conjuring; magic services; prayers; blessings; Psychic, Tarot, Reiki, and other metaphysical readings & services; magic potions; healing sessions; work from home businesses & information; wholesale lists, and drop ship lists.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link: http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/fallupdate2012/categoryupdates.html#removed
It is in the drop down of "What items will be prohibited?"
Which means, eBay is going to have keyword filters. If you type in the word "spell" it likely won't let you list it, and it will be taken down September 1st. This list also included titles like "Custom Conjuration", "Psychic Reading", "Magick Amulet", etc.
It isn't going to be as simple as moving your items. The keywords are no longer permitted.
Not to mention, you can't take the religious angle. They aren't prohibiting religious items, they are prohibiting spirits & magick, which are life choices, not a religion. They are still allowing metaphysical items & jewelry, just not with spells or spirits.
They are taking the stance that legally it cannot be proven in a court of law whether or not something contains a spell or spirit, and with psychic readings whether or not what the reading contains will really come to pass, or not come to pass.
In 2005 when the first spirit keeping listings were posted, they took them down, and we contacted eBay and they said we couldn't sell them because they were intangible, and we, along with the others who were there are the time argued that something tangible was being shipped to the buyer. They eventually agreed, but it was a lot of work, and the category was small, there were only maybe 100 listings there at any give time.
It's a different ball game now, there are thousands of listings, hundreds of sellers, and a lot of problems in the category involving fraud. That was not an issue in the beginning because there were so few of us & so few listings that it didn't have the attention it has now.
eBay has invested a lot of time & money in making these changes, and it's great to keep up the fight, but you are about to lose a major portal for traffic, and the success of the community as a whole is teetering on the brink.
In the reverse I don't think its that easy for eBay to go ahead and just filter words and cancel listings. When placed in different categories and a tangible item is being sent for everything, the game becomes harder for them, and that is all we want.
ReplyDeleteIn the end we will simply offer toned down listings with enchanted items under the Wiccan ~ Pagan category. That is religious.
Thanks for joining the fight.
Methias Thirdeyecommunications ~ Mrs. Gula
They do it already with word filters, they have the software in place for other keywords. They started the word filtering over 5 years ago. It simply won't let you list if certain keywords are in your listings.
ReplyDeleteTrue--try putting up or revising a listing with the term 'out of stock'. You will get a warning every time you try and start a listing. I have had it happen. You have to word it differently to bypass the filters.
DeleteA keyword like spell? That can mean many things? We can change it to enchanted.
ReplyDeleteA word like magic? I thing Harry Potter would be mad, and countless others.
It doesnt quite work that easily.
This blog is becoming so large I dont want anything lost in the shuffle so I will add this on every page. When the eBay smoke clears and we have all done what we each decided to do to protect ourselves we are planning on forming a meta site in the forms of eBay for all of us to join and drive traffic to. For everyone that emailed me already I have received them and will introduce everyone in some type of format in the coming future. For the rest that still want in please email me here: thirdeyemaster1@gmail.com
DeleteIf you still want more info look through the posts on what we are proposing.
Good Luck my friends.
Methias Chinoa - Thirdeyecommunications ~ Mrs. Gula
Methias- this is merely from an eBay rep via phone, so take it as you will, any prohibited keyword in the Everything Else categories would be blocked. I cannot say site-wide on eBay, they simply said in the Everything Else: Metaphysical category! However, if you press your luck by circumventing in listing in other eBay categories, you run the risk of being suspended from eBay.
ReplyDeleteFor all sellers who've been absolutely great here & are truly involved in getting true unification together for the ultimate good of the community, if you need anything, you can contact Ash or I directly, and once you guys get going, let us know so we can do any part we can to get the word out!
I have no doubt that you guys can come up with a great plan! Don't leave eBay, keep up "legal" listings there, and place listings in EVERY available venue, not just one!!!
We're here if you need us for anything.
Very true, thanks for your input. They can make these softwares extremely sophisticated.
DeleteFROM JINNANDTONICS----
ReplyDeleteIt is important that we not panic folks, we can survive this! We (jinnandtonics) have opened a store at ebid.net as well (it's not turned on, so you can't see it, but we ARE there.) We are in support of a big traffic drive to that location. Some things to consider, some sellers need enough time to move their products to ebid.net, as well as, become familiar with using it.
Here are some suggestions to ensure the sales flood in, let us know what you think:
1) Set a "meaningful" jump date. (Date to launch the grand opening, or big welcome to sale) - This gives more power to motivate the buyer to appear and participate if they "feel" emotionally connected to the cause. We suggest using the ebay deadline Aug. 30th. We can start organizing the advertising of the sale date (email lists from all sellers, all FB and Twitter accounts, forum postings etc.) around 5 days in advance. Any sooner than this, and the buyers will forget and loose interest. We have to get the buyers excited, just like we are! We will use a social media count down and help it go viral in our community. Everyone wants to "be part of something", buyers included, this gives them the chance to get involved.
(For those that need to start selling on there for income stability, we recommend that you stay on ebay as well, right up to the very last minute. Don't pull out from the good traffic too soon. Trust that the larger sellers will support you and push the buyers to your new store.) This takes unity and trust folks, this is a moment of truth for us all. We are being testing, and I have complete faith in all of you, that you understand the power in working together.
2) Everyone participate in the sale (establishing a min. discount required) not all sellers can afford to discount at the same %, but, everyone should agree on say 15% baseline to encourage the sale.
3) Marketing and Promotion can be based on "the cause" for instance, we can promote a Flash Sale, where everyone shows up at a specified time to buy items from us all. Buyers love the frenzy, but we also need to give them something to buy. We can all choose from our selections, but multi-quantity items work great. (buy till gone mentality works well in a flash sale). Recommendations: small priced items, spells, greatly reduced priced items, here is where you offer the EXACT ITEMS EBAY IS BANNING, kind of a haha to ebay.. see how the community wants us. Even if you take a small loss on these items, the buyers will be directly connected to buying from your new store. This will bring them back and many of them will make multiple purchases.
4) For the sellers who do not want to stay at ebid, it will be worth your while to at least go there and participate in the sale and pay the small fee to add a pic, any items you sell, offer you the ability to send your new store info with the shipping. Consider it advertising fees.
Another option is to stage a Flash Sale at more than one location (a different location every week) to move the buyers around to catch most of the sellers. ebid.net one weekend, Bonanza the next, Artfire the next, ect. However, for this to work, All sellers must promote the Flash Sale at its location regardless of if they are in the location. This is called affiliate viral marketing. It works really well, when every participates.
These types of cooperative marketing, help the smaller sellers who don't have the resources to utilize big marketing maneuvers, and in return, these smaller sellers push their clients and everyone grows from these efforts.
The key to making it work is in the unity, participation, and being organized. Shout back with ideas or suggestions.
There is nothing about your post I don't like, JinnandTonics! Great, great idea! Let's get everyone (including us!) excited!
Deletesounds wonderful. I really think eBid is the way to go, if we have to. No sense reinventing the wheel, as eBid.net is the closest thing to what our customers have come to know and trust. Being integrated with PayPal is extremely important, and the cost and fees on eBid are great. I'm already set up, have a few items posted, and hoping I never need to use it.
ReplyDeleteI have gone ahead and hired some of my people to begin the process of building the mega meta marketplace. It will cost several thousand but will be highly advanced and unique. I will foot the bill, that is not a problem. Follow updates on its new facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/MagickMarket
ReplyDeleteMagickMarket.com is the name chosen by several of us.
That way in case something happens it can be ready. I will update all those that have emailed me shortly.
Everybody is playing a role in this and together we will strive.
Calvin pissing on ebay~love it!
DeleteI just received another email from ebay's Executive Office. Don't we all love the canned answers we get from these people every time we contact them? I asked for specifics, and got ambiguity.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I asked:
Thank you for your response, but I still have some questions. Please clarify the following points for me:
1) Can we sell jewelry or other objects with attached Spirits, Guardians, Djinn, and/or other types of Entities?
2) Can we sell jewelry or other objects that has been cast with spells, blessings or other types of energy?
3) Are there certain banned words, and what are they?
4) Do these banned words apply to Listing Titles only, or to the listing itself?
5) Can we use other "words" other than the banned words that mean the same thing?
There has been a lot of conflicting information coming from your customer service representatives about what will and will not be allowed, so I would appreciate you giving me a definite answer on each of the above so I can plan accordingly. My livelihood will be seriously affected by your decision.
Peace,
Aurora Sundberg
Ebay's Response:
Thank you for your response as well. I will be glad to clarify the additional points you raised:
#1 & #2
We are not exiting ALL of Metaphysical categories; 42 subcategories will remain. Items that have a tangible value (based on a physical object) but also may be used in metaphysical rites and practices (jewelry, crystals, incense, candles, books, etc.) are allowed, as long as the value of the item is not significantly based on the metaphysical claims of the listing.
Intangible items – things that eBay would not be able to confirm whether the buyer received or items where the value is placed on an intangible factor (someone’s “soul”, spells, potions, hexes, curses, prayers, blessings, psychic and tarot readings, remote healing sessions advice, etc.) aren’t allowed.
#3 & #5
We do not have a list of banned words regarding this change. The information I provided in response to #1 & #2 should hopefully help answer this question as well.
#4
While we don’t have a list of banned words, when reviewing listings for any policy violation, we review the listing in its entirety (description, product details, title, and more).
I would also like to apologize for your experience with our customer service: I am sorry to hear that a consistent message was not provided to you by our customer service teammates when you called in for clarification. I’ve shared this information with our Quality Assurance team, and we will be taking the appropriate action to ensure that our teammates are providing both an accurate and consistent message on this topic.
I hope I’ve been able to provide the clarification you were looking for.
Regards,
eBay's Office of the President
I just made my first sale on Ebid.net, and it was enough to cover their lifetime fees. It was one of my clients from the only 125 or so I sent a "test run" email to, so I feel very encouraged. I really think that if we all went together to another venue (my vote being Ebid) and sent emails to all our clients, had huge sales/promos/incentives to get them there, they'd go. Our clients want to buy these type of products, so once they're not allowed to be sold on ebay, logic dictates these people WILL go elsewhere. If a large number of us are in one place, then that's likely where they'll head, too.
ReplyDeleteI support all of you who are trying to come up with alternate plans, creating sites specifically for metaphysical offerings and whatnot. However, we are RUNNING OUT OF TIME. For those of us who are small volume sellers, we MUST have an alternate in place and hopefully already getting traffic when ebay stops allowing our products.
Let's organize a mass email project, full of POSITIVE ENERGY (This isn't a bad thing! We will still be on ebay, and you can choose what you like there and we'll customize it with the spell/spirit of your choice! We're actually EXPANDING our businesses, not disappearing!). Let's put up a slew of extremely well priced pieces to entice our clients to head in that direction. Let's offer buy one get one sales, or free shipping, or free gifts with purchases! Let's bombard our clients with deals they can't pass up, and they will come! Once they've made a purchase at the alternate site, they'll begin to see how easy and similar to ebay it is, and they'll be comfortable coming back for more. I'm ready to get started. Who's with me??
I am having my 60,000 plus saved emails(and aren't I glad i save everything! LOL) 'crawled' for customer addresses. Something I SHOULD have done long before now. So far my helper has 3,000 plus potential/past customer email addresses ready. These are from eBay, our website and other sources.
ReplyDeleteI am happy to post items on both eBid and Artfire and send out announcements. We have had a website, three actually, for years. We never pushed customers much to go over there but am starting now by putting a note in each package mailed.
I also plan on listing some items in the CH Marketplace and adding to my Etsy listings. I also will re-up Bonanza soon.
Of course we will stay on eBay as much as possible too
I have not edited ANY of my listings yet because I've been busy as some of you know.I will wait till the last week to do this to see how this plays out with eBay. I'm putting MORE listings up till then.
I think if we offer eBay some type of compromise they might be swayed. Perhaps they could give us our own section or make buyer protection not apply to our listings-something like that. They DO have the adult section totally segregated and always have. Not ideal for us but an option to keep us on eBay.
I believe if we keep up the pressure on eBay they might cave or compromise. I think the two pronged assault of discrimination and the severe financial issues this causes thousands of people(us)is good.
Many of those who may not believe will still empathize with us and our plight of a big corporation taking away our businesses we built over years. Consider the 99%er protests.
FROm JINNANDTONICS
ReplyDeleteGreetings,
We have started the email marketing process to alert our buyers of the ebay changes, we have included as many of your site links as we could locate, if you did not submit yours to us and want to be included please contact us at jinnandtonics@yahoo.com
Furthermore, we have included the most popular eCommerce sites that everyone seems to be going towards. The professional marketing company we are using will collect the buyer click through rates giving us some indication of which sites the buyers are interested in going to. We are more than happy to publicly post these reports on the blog to share the data with you. This will help you see which stores are getting the buyers traffic. As we do these marketing plans over the next six weeks you should experience an increase of buyers to your locations, since we will continue to help push buyers to all the sellers without discrimination. If you are not sharing your urls links you may be missing out on free help from the community to boost your sales.
If you prefer to do your own marketing, not a problem, just a recommendation, we are using the online company Vertical Response.
If you have any questions feel free to contact us. Blessings
jinnandtonics@yahoo.com
Tiffany
FROM JINNANDTONICS---
ReplyDeletePresented by Vertical Response Marketing Company
Facebook 101
Webinar Registration
Have you set up a Facebook page for your business but are stymied as to what you should do next? Or are you still not sure how Facebook will work in with your marketing plans? Join our VR Social Marketing experts as we take you through tools and suggestions for getting started with your Facebook Pages.
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/885066424