StoryBook Ceramics : We Hate Fakes Too
24 July
Dim all the lights…
This week marks the end of an era for StoryBook Ceramics.
Since the winter of 1998 we have been a partner on eBay, and have watched it grow from a primitive, bare-bones electronic “auction” website to one of the true monoliths of the Internet age. We were one of the first sellers to offer pictures in our listings, taken with an unbelievably expensive digital camera that offered an equally unbelievable 320x160 resolution. We had a technical head start on a lot of fellow sellers, since I am a computer software engineer by training, but in many ways, we were all so very equal then. No power-sellers, no multitudes of listing formats, no super-giant mega-shooting-star listers.
We offered our wares to each other in auctions, and later in Buy in Now and Fixed Price Listings and by 2001, in specialty “stores”. The eBay company thrived, and went public. Some would say that was when, to coin CEO Meg Whitman, the “magic of eBay” began to die.
As profits and margins took the front stage, the actual buyers and sellers increasingly were dropped lower and lower down the list of important considerations. Search results grew buggy, and stayed that way for months at a stretch. “Tweaking” became the name of the game, in a never-ending effort to squeeze maximum profits from each customer and from each sale. Not every change was inherently bad, but they were often poorly rolled out, and usually without any warning. The rule of thumb was clear. Change meant chaos, and sellers scrambled to try to rewrite business plans, rewrite ads, and change their pricing to meet the constant demands placed on eBay “numbers” by the investors market.
We have rolled with the punches for eight years and worked to make our eBay store an affordable, pleasant place to shop. We love our customers and the thousands of relationships we have cultivated through eBay, so that made our recent decision to disengage from the eBay venue particularly painful.
EBay announced late last week the fee structure for eBay stores will radically change. Listing fees are going up by 250-500% and Final Valuation Fees will rise to 8-10%. These numbers speak for themselves. There is simply no way for small businesses to absorb those levels of increase and still provide value to their customers. Hundreds of eBay stores, if not thousands will be closing as the new fees go into effect. EBay projects that 15% of their current stores will close. We predict the numbers may be much higher than that.
As much as we have enjoyed our eBay experience, our customers are our #1 Priority and we refuse to pass on this kind of fee increases on our products simply to satisfy eBay shareholders.
Our eBay store will remain open, in a fashion, for some time so that our previous customers can continue to find us and migrate to our website. We will offer a few of our popular items for as long as eBay keeps the store format, but we will no longer be stocking the eBay store with any new products.
It’s always hard to say good-bye to a long time relationship, but it’s clear that eBay’s vision has changed to the point it is no longer compatible with ours. We wish the company, and the powers-that-be, well, though it is with the hope that they will find a way to remember the people who made them great before the people no longer remember them.
Since the winter of 1998 we have been a partner on eBay, and have watched it grow from a primitive, bare-bones electronic “auction” website to one of the true monoliths of the Internet age. We were one of the first sellers to offer pictures in our listings, taken with an unbelievably expensive digital camera that offered an equally unbelievable 320x160 resolution. We had a technical head start on a lot of fellow sellers, since I am a computer software engineer by training, but in many ways, we were all so very equal then. No power-sellers, no multitudes of listing formats, no super-giant mega-shooting-star listers.
We offered our wares to each other in auctions, and later in Buy in Now and Fixed Price Listings and by 2001, in specialty “stores”. The eBay company thrived, and went public. Some would say that was when, to coin CEO Meg Whitman, the “magic of eBay” began to die.
As profits and margins took the front stage, the actual buyers and sellers increasingly were dropped lower and lower down the list of important considerations. Search results grew buggy, and stayed that way for months at a stretch. “Tweaking” became the name of the game, in a never-ending effort to squeeze maximum profits from each customer and from each sale. Not every change was inherently bad, but they were often poorly rolled out, and usually without any warning. The rule of thumb was clear. Change meant chaos, and sellers scrambled to try to rewrite business plans, rewrite ads, and change their pricing to meet the constant demands placed on eBay “numbers” by the investors market.
We have rolled with the punches for eight years and worked to make our eBay store an affordable, pleasant place to shop. We love our customers and the thousands of relationships we have cultivated through eBay, so that made our recent decision to disengage from the eBay venue particularly painful.
EBay announced late last week the fee structure for eBay stores will radically change. Listing fees are going up by 250-500% and Final Valuation Fees will rise to 8-10%. These numbers speak for themselves. There is simply no way for small businesses to absorb those levels of increase and still provide value to their customers. Hundreds of eBay stores, if not thousands will be closing as the new fees go into effect. EBay projects that 15% of their current stores will close. We predict the numbers may be much higher than that.
As much as we have enjoyed our eBay experience, our customers are our #1 Priority and we refuse to pass on this kind of fee increases on our products simply to satisfy eBay shareholders.
Our eBay store will remain open, in a fashion, for some time so that our previous customers can continue to find us and migrate to our website. We will offer a few of our popular items for as long as eBay keeps the store format, but we will no longer be stocking the eBay store with any new products.
It’s always hard to say good-bye to a long time relationship, but it’s clear that eBay’s vision has changed to the point it is no longer compatible with ours. We wish the company, and the powers-that-be, well, though it is with the hope that they will find a way to remember the people who made them great before the people no longer remember them.
Comments
Jean Dokken wrote:
I, too, sell on Ebay and you hit it right on the head. I try to keep my prices as low as possible and still make a decent profit, and it is getting harder and harder to do as Ebay becomes more and more greedy. Thank goodness I found your products and website, as I love Shawnee and other vintage cookie jars and can;t usually afford the "real thing" so I am very happy to have found yours. I will be order as soon as I can to complete my collection of Shawnee cookie jars. I, too, hope Ebay will see the light and become more seller friendly. I am in the process of setting up a webpage and hope it will give a much need push to my business as I can no longer list all my items in my store there. Best of luck. You offer find items very reasonable. Jean Dokken, Ebay Yesteryear Carousels.
08/09/06 18:40:13