Horizon Road

The new rating system of trying to avoid 1’s and 2’s in the DSR’s (Detailed Seller Ratings) is unfair and wrong on so many levels. It takes the power out of the majority and hands it to the few. And to make things worse, the few that now have the control over any sellers ability to remain a top-rated seller are the least desired eBay buyers…the overly critical, the impossible-to-please, the ones that hastily buy without reading descriptions, and the new members that have little buying experience. The majority no longer matters. And this is so very unfair, especially to the sellers that sell high volume.

Under the old system, one needed to maintain a 98.5% rating in all four DSR categories (Item As Described, Communication, Shipping Time, and Chipping Charges) to maintain the highest level of selling standards. Those that can accomplish this should be the ones getting the Top-Rated Seller status. Period. This system involves ALL of the buyers that seller has sold to during the time period of evaluation. That is what eBay was originally built on, a rating and evaluation from all buyers, not just a select few.

Under the new system, the higher volume sellers become very vulnerable since they receive the most traffic from a higher diversity of buyers. A seller that sells to 500 buyers per month can now have 99.9% of their customers give a perfect DSR score and be thrilled with their purchases while one or two individuals can prevent the seller from maintaining their Top-Rated Seller status. If one person buys five items without reading the description or is new and has higher than realistic expectations or is simply over-critical or mean by nature, they can give the seller all 1’s or 2’s (out of 5) whether the seller deserved it or not, and the seller loses his Top-Rated Seller status…all because of one buyer.

In the new system, even if the other 499 buyers from that month think this seller is the best thing on eBay, their ratings no longer count. All that counts is that one disgruntled individual who may or may not have had the right to rate the seller the way he did. All the power, the future of that seller, the ability for that seller to continue his business, now rests in the hands of one individual. That is not right.

This has happened now to me. My DSR numbers are way above the eBay average. More than 99% of my customers think I am a fantastic seller, and many claim I am the best seller on eBay. I describe each item’s condition in detail. I supply pictures of the actual item being sold. I have many, many faithfully returning customers. I work with my store full-time. This is my sole source of income and I work very, very hard to make sure my customers are getting exactly what they thought they were getting and are happy when they get it. I treat all of my customers exactly as I would want to be treated when I am the buyer.

But one person that bought 4 albums was not happy with the S&H charges and gave me all 1’s or 2’s in that category even though the charges are outlined in every listing and no one was forcing him to buy from me to begin with. He was new to eBay, had no experience with the S&H charges and did not understand what goes into them. The fact is, my S&H charges are similar, and in most cases even lower, than most other sellers on eBay selling the same things. But if I were to get one more customer like him in a month, I lose my status, and subsequently, half my business…all because of one person that doesn’t understand.

I have had a couple people cause my status to be temporarily lost in the ‘As Described’ section of the DSR’s. These were most likely a couple of buyers that did not read the description of the item. They were most certainly buyers that did not inform me why they were unhappy with their purchase and give me the chance to make them happy one way or another. They probably saw the picture or title and bought without reading for any flaws. I always describe any flaws in detail within each and every listing and price the item accordingly. While my feedback is jam-packed full of comments about my items being exactly as described or better than described, I now lose my status thanks to one or two overly-critical or impatient buyers that decide to give unwarranted ratings in my DSR. That is way too much power to put into the hands of a single buyer. While my average is 99.2% or better in every DSR category, I can, and have, lost my Top-Rated Seller status due to one individual, as opposed to keeping my status because of the clear majority of my customers that think I am one of the best sellers on eBay. That is simply not fair, not right, and should not be allowed to happen.

Taking the power away from the majority and giving it to the minority is a dangerous thing to do in any setting.

As for the new Top-Rated Seller icon, it has taken away the need for a PowerSeller icon. People used to seek out PowerSellers and preferred to buy from them, knowing they were buying from an experienced and enduring seller. Now people seek out the Top-Rated Sellers. I know this because my business was cut in half the moment my Top-Rated Seller icon was wrongly stripped from me. I have had my lowest sales in over a year since being unjustly stripped of my status. With my DSR average still as high as it has ever been from the voice of the majority of my customers, not to mention higher than the majority of current Top-Rated Sellers on eBay, my business now suffers greatly thanks to the voice of just one or two customers out of my 500+ customers per month.

I now have to stop listing new items and stop re-listing old items that don’t sell for at least the rest of this month, so that I have a chance of surviving the next month with my sales drastically cut in half thanks to one or two individuals that gave me overly-critical and unwarranted low DSR ratings. This is definitely not right.

The new system is unbelievably unfair and I am amazed that it was ever approved by the powers that be in eBay. It takes the well being of eBay’s sellers out of the hands of the majority and puts into the hands of the few. I now have to suffer for a month because of it.

eBay’s new system of avoiding low DSR’s is desperately in need of a logical re-evaluation.

Call me old-fashioned, but this trend of tattoos and belly piercings for women is such a turn-off. What happened to the beauty of smooth, clean, beautiful skin? I see so many beautiful bodies these days with graffiti all over them, metal hanging from the belly, the lips, or speckled on the nose. I hate it. Not that my opinion matters. I’m an old man and I am talking about younger women. I won’t be dating them, but then, if I were young, I wouldn’t want to.

Now I see on the news that the new Barbie Doll comes with tattoos that the kids can apply to their doll.

It’s a pity. It’s a turn-off.

I think women’s beauty, like rock ‘n roll music, peaked in the seventies. Now the more they try to improve it, women’s looks, rock music, the worse it seems to get. Today’s super-models don’t look half as gorgeous as the girl next door in the 70’s did.

A real pity.

“Nowhere”.

A common compound word using two smaller words, “no” and “where”.

Or are the two words “now” and “here”?

Is there really a difference?

After 49 years of struggling to get some where,

I am now here,

having gotten no where.

I have never been a William Shatner fan. I enjoyed the original Star Treks a time or two, but I was not a trekkie and seeing an episode more than once in a five year period was probably once too many.

Then there was the drunken night that his wife died in the pool. He was found not to have anything to do with it, but I always had my suspicions…unwarranted, of course, I just didn’t like the man very much. I had a bias for reasons that I could not readily explain, but I felt the way I felt and could not deny it.

Recently I moved from Minnesota to Florida. I’m not a much of a TV watcher to begin with. I watch some sports…well, football…the NFL, to be precise. But football is only on Sundays…and Monday nights…and sometimes Thursdays, and only then when in season. At any rate, in Minnesota, I had access to HBO. I didn’t actually watch it much, but I often used the TV for background noise while working. When there wasn’t a football game on, one of the multitude of HBO channels was usually where it landed. There are no obnoxious commercials on the movie channels, therefore no sudden surges of volume, as is always the case when the network or cable shows take a break to earn some money.

Then came the move. I suddenly found myself in a new state, a new town, a new home, no friends, and nothing to do but work. Though I’m not complaining. I enjoy my work. But I hadn’t yet found a radio station in town that I liked and being busier than ever, I still needed some background noise while I worked. I also hadn’t subscribed to any of the movie stations. Since I don’t actually watch them, they’re just background noise after all, I couldn’t justify the extra expense as I tried to get myself re-established.

So network/cable television, on low volume so the commercial breaks wouldn’t jolt me from my concentration, was going to have to do. And that was when I saw my first episode of Boston Legal.

As I pointed out before, I am not a William Shatner fan. But I do like Candice Bergan. I like James Spader, too. So I didn’t change the channel just to spite William Shatner. Thought about it, but decided it didn’t matter. I wasn’t watching anyway.

I realize I am late with this and watching reruns, but somehow Boston Legal took my concentration away and I found myself actually paying attention to it. On a personal note, I haven’t had much reason for laughter in quite some time, longer than I can remember, if truth be told. But Boston Legal is on several nights a week here (Denny Crane) and I found myself looking for it in the on-screen guide and planning my evening’s around (Denny Crane) it and laughing at William Shatner’s character despite my initial unwillingness to do so (Denny Crane).

I love this show! I love the subtle humor in it. And I love William Shatner as (Denny Crane). I can’t imagine anyone else doing that role as well. He and Spader make a great, quirky, slightly insane team of brilliant lawyers that do nothing by the book.

I felt I needed to write this out as a sort of apology to William Shatner for not liking him for all these years for reasons that I could not define.

And with that said, I leave you with these two words that have brought at least a little laughter back into my world…

Denny Crane.

I have Vista and I LOVE it!

Due to an incredible increase in spam attempts to litter my blog with trash, and since I am too busy to be deleting them every ten minutes, I have temporarily, indefinitely suspended the ability for outsiders to leave comments. Once again, the abuse of a few ruin the use for many. Just another example of the far too many thoughtless people out there that don’t care about or have any respect other people’s hard work.

Okay, sometimes I feel too stupid to live, but luckily I have a good brother watching my back.

As you may or may not know, whoever you may be, I have recently opened up an eBay storefront, NextDoor WebStore. As the hundreds of thousands before me have also done, I went into the business with high hopes thinking all I had to do was work real hard at it and I couldn’t help but succeed. With millions of people visiting eBay every single day, all I would have to do is find a few things that sell and then sell the shit out of them. Even if all I make is a buck or two per sale, you can’t go wrong if you work hard enough to put out a couple hundred auctions a day and half or even a third of them produce sales. The numbers very quickly add up to no more delivering newspapers.

Well it’s only been a month now, but I can already see that it just doesn’t work that way. After hundreds of hours of searching for the right drop shipping wholesaler, and even finding a couple that are actually legitimate, I find myself in the same boat as the other hundreds of thousands that put pen to paper and produced the same optimistic figures that I did; unable to move my products because there’s a hundred thousand others out there trying to move the same stuff from the same drop shippers. It comes down to who’s willing to take a loss.

I sold a briefcase and after eBay listing fees and sales fees, and after PayPal took their cut and the wholesaler added $2.00 for processing and shipping for me, I made a grand total of 25 cents. So I raised my price by a dollar and the next order I made $1.25. Okay, so now if I can figure out how to sell 10 of those a day and find 10 more products I can sell 10 a day of, presto, I’m making $100 per day.

Well, not only had I only sold 8 briefcases after the first three weeks, the last one went to some remote town in northern Maine and cost $3.00 more to ship. I lost a couple bucks on that sale. So to try to cover myself from that happening again, I raised the price two more dollars. Of course by now, there are plenty of others selling the same briefcase for the amount that I had run from and I haven’t sold another since.

So, maybe buying a little in bulk, getting combined shipping on said bulk, would translate into lower selling prices and enable me to sell for less, shipping myself for less than those doing the drop shipping, as well.

Again, on paper, it looks great. Reality is another story altogether.

So now I have about 8 different kinds of chess boards (several of each), and several exotic looking dragon thingies (several of each), and (a bunch of) super cool Reapers vs Skeletons Tic-Tac-Toe games. Like I said, sometimes I am so stupid I even amaze myself.

Yes, you guessed it, haven’t sold a one.

So, what am I doing wrong? That was the million dollar question. I see there are indeed people on eBay selling 50-100 items a day, they’re called PowerSellers. All I wanted to do was figure out how to become a PowerSeller.

Now please don’t misunderstand my motivation here. Many, if not most, go into this venture thinking they’ll only have to work a couple hours a day and eBay will do all the work and they will just sit back and reap the rewards. 100% of those folks fail.

I went into this KNOWING I would have to work very hard, PLANNING on working very hard, and so far I have been putting in about 15 hours a day for the past month trying to figure out how to get this to work, how to become a PowerSeller. But, so far, I’m still clueless.

I have generated over $1100 in sales over the past month, however, mostly from books and DVDs and CDs from my own collection. Now if that had been ALL I had been selling, I’d probably have most of that money in my pocket, but of course, I’m trying to build a business. I have bought bulk shipping supplies, a scale to weigh shipments for postage, a digital camera for images in my listings, business cards, and let’s not forget $1300 of inventory hanging around in my basement. I’ve listed close to 100 auctions for drop shipping products and have sold the 8 briefcases and one Global GPS unit (made $21.00 on that sale, but one a month ain’t gonna bring home the bacon). So eBay is making a killing on thousands of us wannabes trying to figure out the secret to being a PowerSeller and ultimately giving up but only after listing a couple hundred dollars worth of crap that won’t sell because everyone and their mother is already trying to sell the same damn thing from the same damn place!

But still, I log in to eBay every single day and see them sitting there, laughing at me, shaking their heads in dismay, those PowerSellers that are raking in all the sales, even selling stuff that I can’t, like they belong to some secret exclusive club of know-how. They know and I don’t and like the magician on stage, they aren’t giving away any secrets.

So, along comes Simplx.com. (You were beginning to wonder if I had titled this article wrong, weren’t you.) Simplx.com, the answer to your dreams, the inspiration of hope, the holder of the secret of the PowerSeller. For only $700, you can get yourself a coach that will advise you on what to sell, how to sell it, how to design your store, where to find the products to sell, and basically hold your hand until they make you a PowerSeller! Exactly what I had been looking for. Exactly what I needed to get my business off and running. They claim, and my numbers backed it up, that I would make that $700 back the first month and if I don’t, they have failed me and would return the investment.

Where do I sign?!

I signed, I paid, I planned, I was on my way.

Thank God I mentioned all this to my brother that same day. Within minutes he had emailed me numerous links to stories and articles about this company (and others run by the same criminal) where people had been left high and dry. One hour of coaching and then a good luck pat on the back was what most had received. There were a few successes out there, but no where near enough for any sane person to get involved with them. And for all I know, those few could have been planted by Mr. Joshua Lee himself!

Like I said, sometimes I think I am just too stupid to live.

So, heeding my wise brother’s advice, I stopped payment on the check I had mailed them, a convenience check from my credit card. Then suddenly remembering that I had also given them my credit card number for a monthly membership fee to the largest selection of name brand drop ship goods in the world that would start after my coaching was complete, I decided I had better not take any chances and I canceled the card altogether and requested a new one, leaving no room for doubt.

Okay, saved by the brother. Thanks, Tim. I owe you plenty. But here’s the funny part and the final proof that my wise (younger!) brother was quite on the mark. Simplx.com didn’t know that I had stopped payment on the check. Today they gave me a call to set up the coaching. Here’s exactly how that conversation went…

Simplx Guy: David! How are you?! Are you ready to set up your coaching and start your new career?

Me: You know, I told my brother about this and he sent me about 50 links…

The phone went dead.

Like I said, I owe you, Tim.

I’m still working at my store. And I even still think I can make it a success, though I may never become a PowerSeller. But it’s not going to happen with drop shipping and I’m done looking for any coaches or paid professional advice. I’m not buying anymore memberships to any wholesaler’s warehouse and I’m not buying anymore bulk goods to sell. I do have a business card and I believe a consignment storefront in eBay will do much better than trying to drop ship everything with thousands of others trying to move the same product.

I’m also not going to limit myself to eBay, especially where this excess inventory I have laying around is concerned. Today I put ads up on craigslist.com and oodles.com for some of my inventory items. And guess what, the ads were free. I’ve already gotten one email, a couple hours after posting the listing, for a pair of dragon-head book ends (they haven’t bought a set yet, but that one question about my product was more than I had gotten on eBay for the same product after a week). They really are nice. I bought a pair for myself, too. On eBay, there are several others selling them for the pretty much the same price I am. On criagslist, no one else is selling them.

So this is what I am going to try to do, expand my playground. Sure, I will continue selling on eBay because you can’t find a bigger audience anywhere in the world. But I am also going to try to find other places to sell.

And I am keeping my paper routes. They pay the bills. Maybe my store will be a good supplemental income sometime down the road. I will continue to work hard at it, but with a new goal in mind. It may not become the full-time business I was hoping for, but it could even be a little fun (which is how it started a month ago…but it really hasn’t been very fun lately) assuming I don’t fall for anymore ruthless traps laid out by assholes like Joshua Lee who feed off the hopes and dreams of people like me who are still trying to figure things out.

Thanks again, Tim. You’re a good brother.

So I’m sitting there watching North Carolina, or at least I thought it was North Carolina, getting trounced by Kansas in the Final Four match up last night, and decided a pizza might at least make the bad game I couldn’t not watch a little better.

Since I hate using my modern new-fangled mobile phone that does so many different things it makes it hard to do the one thing it was made for, talking to people, I decided to order my pizza online. I won’t have to adjust any volume, assuming I can find the volume adjuster when on the phone in time for it to matter; I wouldn’t have to ask the phone person from India fielding the incoming calls to repeat the question a few more times so I can figure out what it is they are trying to say through their accents, and I could continue focusing on the obvious conspiracy unfolding in front of my very eyes on the basketball court. I mean, how else could a team averaging almost 100 points a game only manage 27 in the entire first half of the most important game of the year for them?

Anyway, I finally finished ordering the pizza online and suddenly “The Pizza Tracker” appeared on my screen. It looked a bit like an over-sized downloading bar. The left end was glowing and pulsating, as though my pizza had just begun its download process.

And sure enough, that’s exactly what was going on. Above the glowing end was the header “Order Placed”. Looking right, above the over-sized download bar, I noticed the other headers, Prep, Bake, Box, and Delivery.

Below the bar, it told me that I had ordered my pizza at 8:55 PM.

I watched as my pizza was prepped and put in the oven at 8:57 PM by Kevin.

The second half of the game was under way and I could tell the real North Carolina team had finally made it to the arena and taken over for the replacements that had covered for them in the first half. But I was even more amazed at what was going on on my computer screen when my pizza was placed into a HeatWave™ bag at precisely 9:03 PM.

Then 2 minutes later, as I noticed North Carolina had somehow already turned a 28 point deficit into a 4 point barn-burner, the final third of the over-sized download bar started pulsating and told me that Thomas left the store with my pizza at 9:05 PM.

At 9:09 PM, I went upstairs and turned on the porch light…just as Thomas was pulling up in my driveway.

I went back downstairs missing less of what had turned into a great game while waiting upstairs for the pizza than I had while watching the Pizza Tracker sitting in front of the TV. Of course, now that I had my pizza and was paying attention to the game again, Kansas was pulling away again. But I had a very good pizza to make the lousy game a little more bearable.

Billy Crystal recently celebrated his 60th birthday living out a lifelong dream in full Yankee uniform leading off the game at the plate with the stands filled of cheering fans. He struck out, but he was able to make contact with one pitch and scratch another entry off his “Bucket List.”

Today I heard a talk show host ranting about how Billy Crystal had no business standing out there in a Yankee uniform leading off the game, even if it was only a pre-season exhibition game. (I think he was probably more jealous than anything else.) The more disturbing part was that there were actually people calling in agreeing with him.

His gripe was that Crystal might be setting a precedent or a trend that could hurt the game of baseball. “Who knows how far it could go,” he was saying, inclining that pretty soon exhibition baseball games will be filled with egotistical celebrities taking advantage of an opportunity to put themselves into the spotlight under yet another venue.

Well first of all, who cares? It’s an exhibition game, for pete’s sake. Last I checked, that means the game doesn’t count. The whole purpose of exhibition games is to give veterans a chance to get their game legs back and managers a chance to see what some of the potential newbies can do in game situations. If a manager decides he wants to give Billy Crystal or Tiger Woods or even Hillary Clinton or Tracy Ullman a shot at getting a hit during an exhibition game, it should be his choice.

As it was, Billy Crystal ran into Yankee player, Derek Jeter, while on vacation (I forget where…unimportant) and Jeter, a friend of Crystal’s whom he had mentioned his dream to, made it happen for him as a 60th birthday present during a recent exhibition game.

But I think Billy Crystal and Derek Jeter could be on to something here. The talk show host thinks the gift was absurd. He’s either over-thinking the meaningless incident or not thinking about it far enough. I think the Major League Baseball Association should take what Crystal and Jeter did and run with it, put in the rule books a new entry that allows any manager to insert any lead-off hitter they desire in as many exhibition games as they want.

Then it would be great if teams around the league started offering that opportunity to different people in different ways. How about the “Make a Wish Foundation?” I’m sure there are some late teen/young adults whose shortened lives might be a little brighter given such an opportunity experienced by so few in front of so many. Or maybe a home team could auction off the lead-off spot for each of their home exhibition games, donating the proceeds to something like Cystic Fibrosis. So the home team gives up an out to start 95% of the pre-season games, big deal (and wouldn’t that other 5% be fun to watch in an otherwise meaningless exhibition game?!).

At any rate, I see no problem with Billy Crystal being given a nice gift from a friend that was capable of giving it. Happy Birthday, Billy Crystal.

By the way, after he struck out, the fans gave Crystal a standing ovation. Everyone had a good time. And there weren’t any steroids involved.

Just touching base. I’ve been feeling guilty about not contributing to my blog lately and felt the need to come and explain. (Although I can’t explain WHY I feel guilty about that…OR the need to explain.)

Anyway, this is why. NextDoor WebStore.

I finally got around to opening up an eBay storefront. Lately, all of my free time has been spent learning the ins and outs of managing, promoting, and marketing an online store, specifically, an eBay storefront. Then there’s figuring out all the new software and what can be done and what can’t, stocking the store, shipping accounts to set up, wholesale warehouses to find…and the list goes on. It is almost overwhelming but since I decided I was in no hurry (for sanity’s sake) it’s been going pretty smoothly so far.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. I am anxious to continue writing Freddy’s Blog and I also have a planned explanation of Freddy’s Blog to post in this section, too, when I find time to get to it, but that time could be a little while yet while I work on getting NextDoor WebStore up to speed.

Okay…got that off my chest. Back to work.