Keep in mind that a Bronze Powerseller needs to have an average sale or $1,000 per month. Therefore the 2 items sold are sufficient for Uncle Griff to maintain his Powerseller status.
We do notice sizable gaps in the Terapeak selling record. Well, Terapeak is supplied data from eBay, and eBay does recommend Terapeak to sellers.
Okay, let's try getting a better picture through eBay itself.
Feedback for uncle_griff. http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=uncle_griff
eBay user uncle_griff has 1984 positive feedback. An oddly familiar sounding number. And since 26 May 1996, eBay user uncle_griff has received 2,223 feedback. As a buyer and seller.
As a seller uncle_griff has received ... 119 feedback, beginning 11 November 2001.
hmmm?
In the last two weeks uncle_griff has sold one item. .
Over the weekend, AuctionBytes.com ran a story under the headline: “eBay’s Operation Catalog Flies under the Radar”. It generated a number of responses (at last count 89 comments) and I received a few emails from folks asking about the validity of the post.
Even though I knew the meat of the post was primarily speculative and, as a result, inaccurate in some places, I thought it best to go internally to better address the post directly. Having met with a couple of folks today about it, I came to the conclusion that it was best coming straight from someone who knew more about the topic at hand than I (otherwise, you just get regurgitation from me). So, without further ado, I welcome Jim “Griff” Griffith to eBay Ink.
Cheers, RBH
Thanks, Richard. I would be more than happy to offer some responses. I think its best if I just break down Ina’s post point-by-point to make sure we don’t lose anything in translation.
“eBay announced a Diamond-level PowerSeller tier in June, and as I blogged in mid-August, more companies will be joining Buy.com and be allowed to list on the site for free.”
The new Diamond-level of the PowerSeller program is no secret. Any business who qualifies for this level – whether currently on or off eBay - is welcome to list on eBay . However, this is pure speculation with regard to the listing fees. I think it has been covered on Ink before (that fees charged to Diamond-tier PowerSellers are negotiated on a case-by-case basis).
“Now I’m hearing that eBay is introducing a pilot program next month in which a number of manufacturer and big-box retailer catalogs will be launched to eBay.”
Cataloged data is nothing new on eBay and has in fact, been available for certain categories for several years. These include all media and most electronic consumer goods. Potentially expanding the breadth and depth of catalog data on eBay would in fact, be a benefit to all sellers and to buyers as well. For one, as is true today, all catalogs currently used on eBay are available to all sellers. In addition, having access to more cataloged item information would speed the listing process since all sellers will be able to use this new catalog data to describe their items, much as they can now do in the media category. For buyers, it would mean a more consistent experience.
“Third-party vendors will work with these sellers to get them onto the eBay platform - no small feat given the quantity of product SKUs in their catalogs… These Diamond PowerSellers will be given special privileges. Commission (FVF) fees will be negotiated individually, and it’s my understanding that participants in this pilot will not be charged listing fees, nor will they have to meet eBay’s seller standards during the 90-day pilot program, which I’ve dubbed Operation Catalog.”
Again, the statements regarding fees are uninformed speculation. It is no secret that since earlier this year, we have opened up the concept of fee discounts to all qualifying sellers, something that, in my opinion, we should have done a lot sooner. However, the statement about seller standards not applying to Diamond Level PowerSellers is absolutely false. In fact, the standards are actually higher for all Diamond Level PowerSellers who must maintain 4.8 across all DSRs or risk voiding any arrangement they have made with eBay.
There are no shortcuts. There are no special dispensations for existing policy compliance given to any eBay seller. All eBay sellers, no matter the size of their business on or off eBay, are held to the same seller standards and for Diamond PowerSeller, the privilege of selling on eBay is tied to even higher standards then the rest of the eBay seller community.
“The potential Gross Merchandise Volume of these sellers is enormous, and it fills out eBay’s product line and helps it move toward providing a more uniform buying experience on the site, or so it hopes… The flood of inventory onto the site in October could have a major impact on certain sellers in categories affected. As I write in tomorrow’s editorial in AuctionBytes-Update, not only will some sellers find themselves competing with the manufacturer of the product they sell, but that competitor is getting free listings and better exposure.”
The statements regarding free listings are, again, pure speculation on the part of the author. The statement regarding “better exposure” for certain sellers is absolutely incorrect. A seller with a large inventory is not necessarily going to get better exposure than a seller with less inventory. As any eBay-interested party knows from reading Jeff King’s July 31st Announcement Board post, the changes to Finding that limit duplicate listings and the number of listings for one seller that appear on a page of results cover all sellers, including Diamond PowerSellers. Again, it is about the quality of the seller – specifically, the quality of their merchandise and of their customer service – not the size of the seller’s inventory.
“If Operation Catalog does roll out in October as expected, sellers will find themselves going up against competition they never knew existed, with no time to adjust their selling strategy during the all-important holiday shopping season.”
The idea of bringing on Diamond PowerSeller level business (which include bigger sellers or retail stores) as competition is, with all due respect, absurd. eBay sellers are already competing with these businesses both online and in search engines. By bringing Diamond PowerSeller qualified businesses into the eBay marketplace, these businesses will bring along their sizeable buyer traffic. This is a huge benefit for the enterprising smaller eBay seller of similar merchandise since they get to compete right alongside of the retailer and offer the retailer’s customers a better deal.
The view among some that eBay is somehow a protected marketplace (”don’t let in my competition!”) or that said competition will be detrimental to the business of seller’s with less inventory is unfortunately, misinformed and has no basis in reality. In fact, big sellers have been a part of eBay since nearly the beginning; Sears, Disney, IBM, Dell, HP, etc to name a few. Some remain. But some found they couldn’t compete with existing sellers on eBay who by dint of their smaller size of operations, tend to operate much more efficiently than a bigger business. So, despite the uniformed predictions of some, selling on eBay is not and has never been, an “Either/ Or” proposition with regards to big and small businesses. Any attempt to portray online commerce, and commerce on eBay in particular, as Big vs Small, is lacking in any real understanding of business .
On eBay, all sellers, regardless of the size of their operations or inventory, succeed or fail on eBay working under the same rules, standards and listing policies.
Thanks for your comments. I do appreciate your passion for eBay.
The sole purpose of my post was to correct some alarmingly incorrect statements made on another site. Allow me clear up a few points made here since I posted.
1. The post is mine. My words written by me. No one asked me or told me to write it. Anyone who thinks otherwise does not know me or my history with eBay. I approached Richard yesterday and asked him if he wouldn’t mind my posting to the Ink blog. He agreed. I posted.
2. The statements I pointed out (regarding standards, treatment, and exposure for certain sellers) were wrong. Period. I corrected them and I stand by the corrections.
3. Although I cannot fault anyone for engaging in speculation, let’s be clear: speculation is speculation. Nothing more. Comments made by anyone about the undisclosed details of any relationship between eBay and any eBay member are pure speculation.
4. About those details: We cannot and will not publicly discuss the details of any member’s eBay account, regardless of who the buyer or seller might be (and that includes every seller of any size, who has ever sold on eBay).
5. I sell (and have bought and sold) on eBay since November 1996 under my civilian user id uncle_griff. I always have merchandise up for sale.
Employees get no special dispensation, deals or treatment when selling on eBay. We have to meet the same PowerSeller eligibility requirements that other sellers must. We have to follow the same rules and we have to maintain the same performance standards.
Rest assured I have earned honestly my PS status, my ratings, my feedback and the loyalty of my regular customers.
Feel free to email me at any time: [email protected] My IN Box is always open (and I answer my own email).
Keep in mind that a Bronze Powerseller needs to have an average sale or $1,000 per month. Therefore the 2 items sold are sufficient for Uncle Griff to maintain his Powerseller status.
We do notice sizable gaps in the Terapeak selling record. Well, Terapeak is supplied data from eBay, and eBay does recommend Terapeak to sellers.
Okay, let's try getting a better picture through eBay itself.
Feedback for uncle_griff. http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=uncle_griff
eBay user uncle_griff has 1984 positive feedback. An oddly familiar sounding number. And since 26 May 1996, eBay user uncle_griff has received 2,223 feedback. As a buyer and seller.
As a seller uncle_griff has received ... 119 feedback, beginning 11 November 2001.
hmmm?
In the last two weeks uncle_griff has sold one item. .
Over the weekend, AuctionBytes.com ran a story under the headline: “eBay’s Operation Catalog Flies under the Radar”. It generated a number of responses (at last count 89 comments) and I received a few emails from folks asking about the validity of the post.
Even though I knew the meat of the post was primarily speculative and, as a result, inaccurate in some places, I thought it best to go internally to better address the post directly. Having met with a couple of folks today about it, I came to the conclusion that it was best coming straight from someone who knew more about the topic at hand than I (otherwise, you just get regurgitation from me). So, without further ado, I welcome Jim “Griff” Griffith to eBay Ink.
Cheers, RBH
Thanks, Richard. I would be more than happy to offer some responses. I think its best if I just break down Ina’s post point-by-point to make sure we don’t lose anything in translation.
“eBay announced a Diamond-level PowerSeller tier in June, and as I blogged in mid-August, more companies will be joining Buy.com and be allowed to list on the site for free.”
The new Diamond-level of the PowerSeller program is no secret. Any business who qualifies for this level – whether currently on or off eBay - is welcome to list on eBay . However, this is pure speculation with regard to the listing fees. I think it has been covered on Ink before (that fees charged to Diamond-tier PowerSellers are negotiated on a case-by-case basis).
“Now I’m hearing that eBay is introducing a pilot program next month in which a number of manufacturer and big-box retailer catalogs will be launched to eBay.”
Cataloged data is nothing new on eBay and has in fact, been available for certain categories for several years. These include all media and most electronic consumer goods. Potentially expanding the breadth and depth of catalog data on eBay would in fact, be a benefit to all sellers and to buyers as well. For one, as is true today, all catalogs currently used on eBay are available to all sellers. In addition, having access to more cataloged item information would speed the listing process since all sellers will be able to use this new catalog data to describe their items, much as they can now do in the media category. For buyers, it would mean a more consistent experience.
“Third-party vendors will work with these sellers to get them onto the eBay platform - no small feat given the quantity of product SKUs in their catalogs… These Diamond PowerSellers will be given special privileges. Commission (FVF) fees will be negotiated individually, and it’s my understanding that participants in this pilot will not be charged listing fees, nor will they have to meet eBay’s seller standards during the 90-day pilot program, which I’ve dubbed Operation Catalog.”
Again, the statements regarding fees are uninformed speculation. It is no secret that since earlier this year, we have opened up the concept of fee discounts to all qualifying sellers, something that, in my opinion, we should have done a lot sooner. However, the statement about seller standards not applying to Diamond Level PowerSellers is absolutely false. In fact, the standards are actually higher for all Diamond Level PowerSellers who must maintain 4.8 across all DSRs or risk voiding any arrangement they have made with eBay.
There are no shortcuts. There are no special dispensations for existing policy compliance given to any eBay seller. All eBay sellers, no matter the size of their business on or off eBay, are held to the same seller standards and for Diamond PowerSeller, the privilege of selling on eBay is tied to even higher standards then the rest of the eBay seller community.
“The potential Gross Merchandise Volume of these sellers is enormous, and it fills out eBay’s product line and helps it move toward providing a more uniform buying experience on the site, or so it hopes… The flood of inventory onto the site in October could have a major impact on certain sellers in categories affected. As I write in tomorrow’s editorial in AuctionBytes-Update, not only will some sellers find themselves competing with the manufacturer of the product they sell, but that competitor is getting free listings and better exposure.”
The statements regarding free listings are, again, pure speculation on the part of the author. The statement regarding “better exposure” for certain sellers is absolutely incorrect. A seller with a large inventory is not necessarily going to get better exposure than a seller with less inventory. As any eBay-interested party knows from reading Jeff King’s July 31st Announcement Board post, the changes to Finding that limit duplicate listings and the number of listings for one seller that appear on a page of results cover all sellers, including Diamond PowerSellers. Again, it is about the quality of the seller – specifically, the quality of their merchandise and of their customer service – not the size of the seller’s inventory.
“If Operation Catalog does roll out in October as expected, sellers will find themselves going up against competition they never knew existed, with no time to adjust their selling strategy during the all-important holiday shopping season.”
The idea of bringing on Diamond PowerSeller level business (which include bigger sellers or retail stores) as competition is, with all due respect, absurd. eBay sellers are already competing with these businesses both online and in search engines. By bringing Diamond PowerSeller qualified businesses into the eBay marketplace, these businesses will bring along their sizeable buyer traffic. This is a huge benefit for the enterprising smaller eBay seller of similar merchandise since they get to compete right alongside of the retailer and offer the retailer’s customers a better deal.
The view among some that eBay is somehow a protected marketplace (”don’t let in my competition!”) or that said competition will be detrimental to the business of seller’s with less inventory is unfortunately, misinformed and has no basis in reality. In fact, big sellers have been a part of eBay since nearly the beginning; Sears, Disney, IBM, Dell, HP, etc to name a few. Some remain. But some found they couldn’t compete with existing sellers on eBay who by dint of their smaller size of operations, tend to operate much more efficiently than a bigger business. So, despite the uniformed predictions of some, selling on eBay is not and has never been, an “Either/ Or” proposition with regards to big and small businesses. Any attempt to portray online commerce, and commerce on eBay in particular, as Big vs Small, is lacking in any real understanding of business .
On eBay, all sellers, regardless of the size of their operations or inventory, succeed or fail on eBay working under the same rules, standards and listing policies.
Thanks for your comments. I do appreciate your passion for eBay.
The sole purpose of my post was to correct some alarmingly incorrect statements made on another site. Allow me clear up a few points made here since I posted.
1. The post is mine. My words written by me. No one asked me or told me to write it. Anyone who thinks otherwise does not know me or my history with eBay. I approached Richard yesterday and asked him if he wouldn’t mind my posting to the Ink blog. He agreed. I posted.
2. The statements I pointed out (regarding standards, treatment, and exposure for certain sellers) were wrong. Period. I corrected them and I stand by the corrections.
3. Although I cannot fault anyone for engaging in speculation, let’s be clear: speculation is speculation. Nothing more. Comments made by anyone about the undisclosed details of any relationship between eBay and any eBay member are pure speculation.
4. About those details: We cannot and will not publicly discuss the details of any member’s eBay account, regardless of who the buyer or seller might be (and that includes every seller of any size, who has ever sold on eBay).
5. I sell (and have bought and sold) on eBay since November 1996 under my civilian user id uncle_griff. I always have merchandise up for sale.
Employees get no special dispensation, deals or treatment when selling on eBay. We have to meet the same PowerSeller eligibility requirements that other sellers must. We have to follow the same rules and we have to maintain the same performance standards.
Rest assured I have earned honestly my PS status, my ratings, my feedback and the loyalty of my regular customers.
Feel free to email me at any time: [email protected] My IN Box is always open (and I answer my own email).
From eBay PR and Uncle_Griff - Some Needed Clarification
In regards to the AuctionBytes.com article “eBay’s Operation Catalog Flies under the Radar”, eBay personality Uncle Griff has posted two responses on eBay's PR blog.
Uncle Griff signed off with:
...
"Rest assured I have earned honestly my PS status, my ratings, my feedback and the loyalty of my regular customers."
Being curious we decided to check out Griff's bonafides.
According to TeraPeak these are Griff's selling statistics from 7 June 2008 to 4 September 2008:
.
.
General Stats
Keep in mind that a Bronze Powerseller needs to have an average sale or $1,000 per month. Therefore the 2 items sold are sufficient for Uncle Griff to maintain his Powerseller status.
We do notice sizable gaps in the Terapeak selling record. Well, Terapeak is supplied data from eBay, and eBay does recommend Terapeak to sellers.
Okay, let's try getting a better picture through eBay itself.
Feedback for uncle_griff.
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=uncle_griff
eBay user uncle_griff has 1984 positive feedback. An oddly familiar sounding number. And since 26 May 1996, eBay user uncle_griff has received 2,223 feedback. As a buyer and seller.
As a seller uncle_griff has received ... 119 feedback, beginning 11 November 2001.
hmmm?
In the last two weeks uncle_griff has sold one item.
.
.
Seller uncle_griff currently has 16 items up for sale
.
So is uncle_griff the epitome of eBay Sellers, with a selling record to back it up?
You tell us.
//
//
//
Monday, September 8th, 2008
http://ebayinkblog.com/2008/09/08/some-needed-clarification/comment-page-4/#comments
Some Needed Clarification
Over the weekend, AuctionBytes.com ran a story under the headline: “eBay’s Operation Catalog Flies under the Radar”. It generated a number of responses (at last count 89 comments) and I received a few emails from folks asking about the validity of the post.
Even though I knew the meat of the post was primarily speculative and, as a result, inaccurate in some places, I thought it best to go internally to better address the post directly. Having met with a couple of folks today about it, I came to the conclusion that it was best coming straight from someone who knew more about the topic at hand than I (otherwise, you just get regurgitation from me). So, without further ado, I welcome Jim “Griff” Griffith to eBay Ink.
Cheers,
RBH
Thanks, Richard. I would be more than happy to offer some responses. I think its best if I just break down Ina’s post point-by-point to make sure we don’t lose anything in translation.
The new Diamond-level of the PowerSeller program is no secret. Any business who qualifies for this level – whether currently on or off eBay - is welcome to list on eBay . However, this is pure speculation with regard to the listing fees. I think it has been covered on Ink before (that fees charged to Diamond-tier PowerSellers are negotiated on a case-by-case basis).
Cataloged data is nothing new on eBay and has in fact, been available for certain categories for several years. These include all media and most electronic consumer goods. Potentially expanding the breadth and depth of catalog data on eBay would in fact, be a benefit to all sellers and to buyers as well. For one, as is true today, all catalogs currently used on eBay are available to all sellers. In addition, having access to more cataloged item information would speed the listing process since all sellers will be able to use this new catalog data to describe their items, much as they can now do in the media category. For buyers, it would mean a more consistent experience.
Again, the statements regarding fees are uninformed speculation. It is no secret that since earlier this year, we have opened up the concept of fee discounts to all qualifying sellers, something that, in my opinion, we should have done a lot sooner. However, the statement about seller standards not applying to Diamond Level PowerSellers is absolutely false. In fact, the standards are actually higher for all Diamond Level PowerSellers who must maintain 4.8 across all DSRs or risk voiding any arrangement they have made with eBay.
There are no shortcuts. There are no special dispensations for existing policy compliance given to any eBay seller. All eBay sellers, no matter the size of their business on or off eBay, are held to the same seller standards and for Diamond PowerSeller, the privilege of selling on eBay is tied to even higher standards then the rest of the eBay seller community.
The statements regarding free listings are, again, pure speculation on the part of the author. The statement regarding “better exposure” for certain sellers is absolutely incorrect. A seller with a large inventory is not necessarily going to get better exposure than a seller with less inventory. As any eBay-interested party knows from reading Jeff King’s July 31st Announcement Board post, the changes to Finding that limit duplicate listings and the number of listings for one seller that appear on a page of results cover all sellers, including Diamond PowerSellers. Again, it is about the quality of the seller – specifically, the quality of their merchandise and of their customer service – not the size of the seller’s inventory.
The idea of bringing on Diamond PowerSeller level business (which include bigger sellers or retail stores) as competition is, with all due respect, absurd. eBay sellers are already competing with these businesses both online and in search engines. By bringing Diamond PowerSeller qualified businesses into the eBay marketplace, these businesses will bring along their sizeable buyer traffic. This is a huge benefit for the enterprising smaller eBay seller of similar merchandise since they get to compete right alongside of the retailer and offer the retailer’s customers a better deal.
The view among some that eBay is somehow a protected marketplace (”don’t let in my competition!”) or that said competition will be detrimental to the business of seller’s with less inventory is unfortunately, misinformed and has no basis in reality. In fact, big sellers have been a part of eBay since nearly the beginning; Sears, Disney, IBM, Dell, HP, etc to name a few. Some remain. But some found they couldn’t compete with existing sellers on eBay who by dint of their smaller size of operations, tend to operate much more efficiently than a bigger business. So, despite the uniformed predictions of some, selling on eBay is not and has never been, an “Either/ Or” proposition with regards to big and small businesses. Any attempt to portray online commerce, and commerce on eBay in particular, as Big vs Small, is lacking in any real understanding of business .
On eBay, all sellers, regardless of the size of their operations or inventory, succeed or fail on eBay working under the same rules, standards and listing policies.
- Griff
//
//
//
Griff On 09.09.2008 at 10:39 pm Said:
Hi all,
Thanks for your comments. I do appreciate your passion for eBay.
The sole purpose of my post was to correct some alarmingly incorrect statements made on another site. Allow me clear up a few points made here since I posted.
1. The post is mine. My words written by me. No one asked me or told me to write it. Anyone who thinks otherwise does not know me or my history with eBay. I approached Richard yesterday and asked him if he wouldn’t mind my posting to the Ink blog. He agreed. I posted.
2. The statements I pointed out (regarding standards, treatment, and exposure for certain sellers) were wrong. Period. I corrected them and I stand by the corrections.
3. Although I cannot fault anyone for engaging in speculation, let’s be clear: speculation is speculation. Nothing more. Comments made by anyone about the undisclosed details of any relationship between eBay and any eBay member are pure speculation.
4. About those details: We cannot and will not publicly discuss the details of any member’s eBay account, regardless of who the buyer or seller might be (and that includes every seller of any size, who has ever sold on eBay).
5. I sell (and have bought and sold) on eBay since November 1996 under my civilian user id uncle_griff. I always have merchandise up for sale.
Employees get no special dispensation, deals or treatment when selling on eBay. We have to meet the same PowerSeller eligibility requirements that other sellers must. We have to follow the same rules and we have to maintain the same performance standards.
Rest assured I have earned honestly my PS status, my ratings, my feedback and the loyalty of my regular customers.
Feel free to email me at any time: [email protected] My IN Box is always open (and I answer my own email).
regards,
Griff
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