Is Snappy Auctions a Great Franchise Opportunity?
April 20, 2007 by Sean Kelly
Filed under Business
While the largest, most celebrated eBay drop-off store franchise concept , iSold It, has closed 60 stores, suspended domestic franchise sales and warned it may be on the verge of collapse, its next-largest competitor remains upbeat and continues to promote its franchise program.
In a company press release, Snappy Auctions celebrates inclusion on the list that made iSold It famous:
Snappy Auctions has been listed in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500 list for the first time… With over 63 units open, Snappy Auctions ranked 309th in the survey, in only its 2nd full year of operation. The Nashville, Tenn. based franchise enables customers to make money off of items that are sold on eBay…
Snappy Auctions CEO Debby Gordon claims that Snappy Auctions is not suffering the same fate as competitor iSold It. In fact, snappy Auctions is doing phenomenally:
“We are poised for a phenomenal 2007, after an incredible 2006,” Gordon continued, “and this accolade is just the beginning.” In 2006, Snappy Auctions launched Snappy Sales Solutions, S3, which has contributed to its recent success. “S3 is yet another step toward our goal of changing the way businesses get value from retired equipment and inventory.”
Snappy Auction also boasts having been named one of Franchise Business Review’s Franchise 50, which honors franchise systems based on outstanding franchisee satisfaction through owner surveys and comments.
According to a Ina Steiner’s column on AuctionBytes.com, “Despite the challenges, Snappy Auctions CEO Debbie Gordon believes in the concept and says it’s all about execution.”
Can Snappy Auctions really be succeeding while iSold It, with much the same business model, is fighting for survival? Have they successfully overcome the challenges that eBay drop-off store critics contend make the concept unworkable? What do you think?
YOU’RE INVITED TO LEAVE A COMMENT ON WHETHER YOU THINK SNAPPY AUCTIONS IS A GREAT FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITY.
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Although I do not recommend opening a eBay store, if you decide to attempt this feat then remember that when you go into it that you should use eBay to promote your services. I am on tv at least once every few months because everyone thinks eBay is an exciting place and sometimes it can be…but use that to your advantage. Also I use to accept items in value of $30.00 or more. About 6 months ago I change that to $50.00 or more. I have not seen any profit difference. I actually think I make more now since I can work on other services. I am planning on moving it to $75.00 or more. Though the reason I started low was to get customers. My customers base is at about 1100 and I don’t advertise. More to come.
John, please more! MORE MORE MORE!
More of what?!?!
He hit the nail on the head when he said “Although I do not recommend opening a eBay store” and “There is no way a store can make it just selling on eBay with other people’s items”. That’s like saying “I don’t recommend being point on a patrol in Baghdad” or ” I don’t recommend being the unknown dude in the red shirt on the original Star Trek” (hint: He’s dead Jim).
What he’s saying is he’s one of the lucky ones who can at least sometimes make a profit and he knows most people will not be. They have to be lucky BECAUSE THE MODEL DOES NOT WORK!
“My current ebay sales for the past 30 days are $21,000″ should be a clue. I don’t know what he’s charging or what kind of rent he pays, but you can’t survive on those kinds of sales. He has to offer other services to stay alive and that tends to dilute your core competencies. It’s kinda like “Joe’s Auto Repair and Yoga Studio”.
John I thank you for your contributions. Keep ‘em coming since anyone reading these posts will realize this is not something to do to make a living. It’s something you do because you want to (and you have a rich uncle).
Are you being funny or are you serious? I can’t go into details yet because until I get it perfected with the software it is just a great idea…although I have sent my patent info in for the concept/detals without all code..but I have a year to adjust. The reason I will not announce it yet is the same reason I thought I had a great piece of softwareidea when I developed a software connecting the owner and all their info with the item on ebay including all relist and all ebay fees related then connecting that table with all paypal payments including the invoice printing for my customers. The tables also include all shipping dates and feedbacks given. Then I export that info as a iif file to import into quickbooks. This alone has cut down data input by 90%. Doing this program has shown me many error in ebay and paypal and every 5 months or so the change something that screws up my program and it take me a few days to correct. At first I planned on selling this program really cheap (less than 100.00) but then after I had to correct it I thought forget this…even though I would sell it so cheap I would lose it all trying to fix everyones program when ebay changes something again. So I am currently the only user because I could not perfect it. Great idea…just not good enough for a whole bunch of stores to use even if it is cheap. The new program I am currently testing only uses the export features of one of ebays free programs and uses that data to help with backselling and uses ebay to promote your services. More to come. I really do want to help and most of the comments on this board are correct. I feel that if I wasn’t a prior computer manager for 15 years prior to this as well as a logistics manager before that…I would have failed and given up in the first year. Also before someone bust me on my grammar…let me state for the record I am a very smart individual… but for some reason English and writing does not compute in my brain. I can write hundreds…even thousands of lines of code and it will work perfect but a few paragraphs and I crash. Even my wife says English is my second language and I only know one. So please slam me on my ideas…cause I have heard all the grammar comments already :)
My previous comment was for “R” above as he asked for more. As for your comment, I do not have a rich uncle and I do feel sorry for all the individuals that did pay for the concept. I remember looking into the franchise and saw the price tag and said forget that…actually take out the forget and add a swear word. I even had a buddy of mine trying to convince me to do the same thing which I turned down cause I am not that type of person. It even cost me close to $500.00 to get my name trademarked after I made national news in my first year. First, in regards to rent. I have cheap rent…after all those extra fees they add including the merchang group fees it comes to less than a $1,000 per month. My store is somewhat small which is the way I planned it. My store is a store front…not a warehouse. My store is only 640 square feet. Enough (barely) for myself and two part time people. The width is about 14 feet wide. I built a a fake wall with a clothe door so we could carry things to the back for a tempory storage. A door would have been a pain and the customers cannot see what is back there. Also for storage…you cannot beat the sams club racks. I have to own at least 30 of them so far. What is great about this rack which are on rollers and can handle 600lb is that you can double your space as in my warehouse (was inventory/logistics manager). What you do is that you need a 3-4 foot walkway anyways so you that as a common area for pull out racks. You set up each rack right next to each other in a row on both sides. The racks are 4 feet long so you have 4 feet plus the isle 3-4 feet and then the other racks on the other side. So in a 12 ft by say 7 ft area you can have 8 racks plus a walk way. The racks are only 74.00 at sams…great investment that you will lose even if you close your store. As I mentioned before I only use my store as a store front. I have and additional 2000 square feet off site…why pay top price per square feet for storage. Hopefully those tips will help. Also the back end selling is related and actually helps your store and your name in where the yoga and auto is two different areas. Remember I have never spent any money on advertising except my business cards which I need to order more. Also, I am probably the only business in my city that does not turn on an open sign and close the shades. Unless you knock…or attempt to open the door we don’t get up. I know it sound odd…but it is true. Right now I did not have any of my employees put up any new auctions this last week and nothing for this week. We all need a break…lucky for us I have a ebay store with about 300 items in it valued at about 67 grand according to the bottom. More to come.
I was kidding. Although I wish you luck, talking about all of your ideas here are only going to get you slammed by a few people. I wouldn’t waste your energy. There is very little positive energy here.
I would post it on the eBay Trading Assistant pages where people actually trade ideas and positive thoughts (no offense Sean).
R. said: There is very little positive energy here. I would post it on the eBay Trading Assistant pages where people actually trade ideas and positive thoughts (no offense Sean).
No offense taken.
There’s a reason eBay Trading Assistants have a more positive outlook: They didn’t pay franchise fees, aren’t burdened by royalties and fees to a franchisor (in addition to their eBay fees), don’t have the overhead and lease obligations of a retail location they’re locked into, and have the freedom to experiment and try new ideas.
As those who have been contributing from the start know, I tried to solicit positive ideas, plans of action, etc. early on. Eventually, it was impossible to argue with what Chance and others contended from the beginning. As someone said: This dog don’t hunt.
Or, as the immortal business guru and Hugh’s countryman Monty Python taught us: No matter how eloquently you argue to the contrary, a dead parrot is still a dead parrot.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, ALL!
Thanks for your contributions.
I wish John the best. I believed in the concept at one time and I know how that will drive you, but can blind you to the obvious. No software can fix the Snappy, ISoldit, Quickdrop eBay Drop off stores model, but maybe John has a new model. We’ll just have to wait and see.
John, all I can say is if the former CEO of Snappy Auctions or ISoldit come knocking to franchise your model, run away. Sell your software on your own and forget the whole franchising thing.
I have given up on any “new” model for eBay as I feel eBay’s glory days are over. I (and most of my friends) rarely go there anymore since the prices for many items are near retail and why pay that much and not have a well established business to go to if you have problems.
And R., do I need to say again, that you (or any of your cohorts) NEVER came up with any improvements or success stories, so I guess you’re part of that “negative” energy. At least John has given specifics and while the jury is still out, I will give him the benefit of the doubt.
As for me, it’s back to my 2 jobs to pay off my Snappy debt.
Here is the next helpful hint…hopefully. My pictures are the best that I have seen on eBay and I have people writing at least weekly asking me how I do it. Just yesterday a jewerly website with 28 pages of rings alone asked me how I did one of the rings I have up right now. Remember I used to be a computer manager but it still took me two months and two camera before I figure what to do. The software I use is very simple and cheap for setting up my pictures. How cheap….how about $35.00. I will not give the name as it will be part of my program/process as I have already spoke with the company and they are still working on the vista version but they do like my idea of connecting a all the eBay stores together helping each other and are willing to have me resell (and I did tell them I would charge the exact same). What is so funny is that I asked them how many they sell and they said maybe 1 per day if they are lucky…I almost fell off my chair cause I would pay at least $100.00 for the software now…remember that is $35.00 one time fee. Anyways without going into the software let me save you some time on doing your pictures. First get adobe photoshop or a picture program that can accept keyboard shortcuts. What is a keyboard shortcut. Well if you highlight something with your mouse cursor and you hit ‘ctrl’ key and then ‘c’ key next while still holding the ‘ctrl’ key … it copies the highlighted info. Now release that and then move somewhere else and put your cursor somewhere and click the ‘ctrl’ key then the ‘v’ key and it will paste the info. There are many shortcut…the one I use it copy, paste and find. Anyways back to pictures. Now that you have something like photoshop you set up shortcut. Oh but first you need to buy a new mouse. I recommend a wireless intellimouse explorer 2.0 or some mouse that has multi buttons. This mouse has a left and right click. It also has a wheel click. Plus it has on the left side two more buttons to click. Now I am giving you this to help … so hopefully you will appreciate this info as I have told no one else but hopefully you will see that I am a tech guy and that I can help make life in a ebay drop off store easier and profitable. When I do a a jpeg picture and it is opened for me to adjust…to make it perfect. So I have my photoshop set up a certain way…so this is exactly what I do. I hit ‘ctrl’ and then ‘l’ key which adjust the lighting (once you do it to one picture it is set) then I hit my left side bottom button which is enter then I hit my top left bottom button which is close and then I hit my bottom left button which is enter. Now since open all the pictures at once the next one pops up. So since my setting are save all I do is click my middle cursor button which is auto light from the previous setting, click left bottom buttom click top left bottom button and then the left bottom button again. Now I set my last tool used as crop so during all that clicking if I have to crop I just do it and then click my bottom left button. All in all….I can do about 20 pictures now in the same time it use to take me to do 3 – 4. I also use another program to help me organize the pictures and rename them also. When you look at my ebay pictures you are amazed at how many there are and how clear they are. I just sold one of my largest items for $48,000 and it was a store that was closing…it was all there inventory I sold not the store. Anyways I added close to 200 pictures to that auction. Pictures are the most important thing for a drop off store. One from home can even come close to my service. I have at least 20 people who use to do it themselves and could not get the same results. Also all my pictures are free and open in full size 800 x 800 with the ability using explorer to increase it by 200%. Hope this little piece of info helpls. More to come.
I see many grammer error…sorry. Also, I meant to say is that no one that I know can even come close to my picture service and I wrote ‘One from home can even come close to my service.’ The one was suppose to be ‘No one’.
Is there anyone here who still has a store or even cares? Just asking.
We care. We care that anyone even thinking about doing an eBay store knows the truth about the failure rates, the lousy ROI and the questionable franchisors.
We care about helping the store owners out of their predicament. We care that the franchisors will sell a franchise to just about anyone who can fog a mirror and then will blame failure on the store owner.
John, we care that you say you’re doing OK. It’s refreshing to hear even one person can make this work because no one else on this forum who’s tried to make people believe that have brought even a shred of evidence to proof their assertion.
Some of us care we got out with our lives if not much else.
Please remember that I am here to help and I do recommend anyone who is with any franchise to get out of that. Paying anyone a percentage of your sales is crazy. You don’t need a franchise to run the store though if the stores worked together as independants there is a chance to succeed where others have failed. I remember being told I could not do my own trademark without a lawyer who wanted to charge me 3,000. Yeah right…I did it and it only cost me about $500.00. Then I did my own patents and provisional patents myself also….it can be done. A local professor at a university told me that I am the type of person who does not think outside the box but instead changes the damn box and the paradigm. Merry Christmas to all.
No angry Quik Drop owners? Nobody wanting to light up the QD board? Nobody wants to rant on about how they lost everything to QD? Interesting.
Let’s look at the common threads on this forum:
1) Model doesn’t work (not unique to SA)
2) Snappy Auctions HQ support lacking
3) Threats and intimidation from Snappy to closed stores
4) Threats to active stores regarding this forum
5) Threats to stores if they continue using the Snappy name
6) Lots and lots of expensive legal action that failing stores can’t afford
etc. etc. etc.
Maybe, just maybe, Quikdrop did a better job of handling things when they went south and were more worried about the franchisors than their ego.
Quikdrop did the following:
1) …franchise stores will be able to continue to use the QuikDrop name, logos, and signage.
2) “I think it’s healthy,” said Erik Helgesen, owner of a QuikDrop franchise store on Long Island, New York. He is very happy with his location in a town area across from a train station and said about 90 percent of his business is walk-in traffic. Not having to pay franchise fees will give his business working capital to market his business locally….
3) Reynolds said storeowners would be allowed to continue using the franchisor’s QuikFlow software program and said there are people who will support it.
4) QuikDrop storeowners Helgesen and Golub both said they intend to continue running their stores and will continue using the QuikDrop name.
Sounds like a much smoother transition than you’re getting from Snappy. It seems Quikdrop figured it out and worked with the stores to shut it down. I doubt you’ll get the same treatment from Snappy.
Interesting……
An interesting topic would truly be, what is the SA name worth?
Nothing?
Would you keep that name up if the franchise took a dump?
How would the customer know if the franchise failed? If you kept the name it would be transparent to the customer and you wouldn’t have to rebrand your store.
Business as usual from the outside looking in. Quikdrop did it right. Let’s see how Snappy handles it. So far not so good.
Any chance D.G. might go to prison for fraud?
WHAT?!?!?! That would be justice. OJ taught us that enough money can buy you justice and I’m sure D.G. spent more than enough money on CYA contracts. Now a group action lawsuit, that’s another thing altogether.
Interesting.
Well the xmas spirit is alive and well! I see a lot of positive comradery out here with people who are in terrible sitiuations. To be able to speak freely, and find others who are in the same situation, and to do it with a bit of humor, takes great stamina, especially when you have NOTHING left, NO insurance, NO income, and are looking at losing your home. Yep, I’d say that there are quite a few troopers out here, taking their personal time to make sure one more person isn’t snowed by the corp powers above!
Great to hear from a new source too – John. Although the numbers you gave won’t show profit in the busiest time of the year. The two part time employees and two space rentals won’t get paid even if 50% is taken, so please show us some NET profit figures. I too write software and have for twenty years, and “Auctionsound” and “Photolighting” have already perfected the code (at least as well as ebay allows). So spend your time on something that won’t get pulled out from under you, and maybe we can rule the world John!
As for Quikdrop – they have TWO large lawsuits coming at them and the zees are abiding by what their lawyers have told them. In fact many of the testimonials on AITOO are from Quikdrop franchisees. The only difference is that their HQ wasn’t out there still selling these imperfect stores! (Something DG and KS could learn from). And so far, they have NOT pulled the software out from under the few struggling franchisees that are left (must be the Xmas spirits visited them)!
Done that: Don’t worry, DG will have plenty of company in jail. As my partrner says ” THREE DOWN, TWO TO GO!
SEASONS GREETINGS to ALL!
I gotta admit these store owners are a tenacious lot. Even with dismal sales they keep on keeping on and unfortunately are gettng themselves in an even deeper hole.
55% of the stores have 20 items or less listed and the average for the whole bunch is 23.4 items for the last 3 weeks. So if your selling price as $150 per item you be selling about $14,700 per month and well all know that won’t even pay the rent.
Sadly, the majority of the items are selling for less than $30 and most of the listing are also low dollar items. This is really depressing. Even more depressing is we now have even more evidence the model doesn’t work with the demise of yet another franchisor. When will DG fess up?
BTW, who is the other one of the two?
Chance: I agree… with the first software program I designed does everything that AuctionSound does but mine was not going to be $149 per month. I don’t even know I was going to charge that much for the whole program and that was a one time fee. This other program has nothing to do with listing on eBay and that process. This other program is used to increase sales with additonal backselling. I use eBay to make my store more visible to the community without spending any money on advertising. Like I said before… although you think those numbers are bad…they are not really since I do not turn on the open sign anymore and I close all the shades so it looks dark inside and the door is locked. It makes me laugh when people peek through the tinted glass to see if we are there. Many new customers always say “I did not know if you were open” and I say “I figure you were willing to knock so I was willing to get up”. Also I take items that I want to sell and I only allow 3-4 auctions per customer per week. I do reinvest a lot back into the business such as this month I purchased another virtual server which I paid for the entire year and added a bunch of services with it also. I also just had overnighted Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium which was not cheap and I now have to now learn Dreamweaver which is very different from GoLive. Again, a eBay Store is not going to make you money. Oh by the way even after all my puchases and my $2200 Discover bill I was still able to pay my employees and pay myself $2,000. I know that is not much but I did spend a lot this month. Please remember I don’t have franchise fees either or software fees. We all know that just and eBay store will not support you and hopefully anyone who is thinking it will reads all the comments listed here. But, I am doubting there is any store owners (currently running a brick & mortar store) left on this board. So maybe there is no need for me since it only looks like I am bragging and I am not trying to do that. I just thought this site was ranked #1 with eBay stores and my plans only worked with someone who has a brick & mortar store. I was hoping to help them with some of my tricks and bounce some ideas of them. Happy Holiday.
Number cruncher, NuMarkets, eAuctiondepo, and now QD have closed (guess we could include A4U too), and Snappy and ISI have not.
John, your input is wonderful, and anything that might help the existing stores is great. Unfortunately these stores have tried many of the things you suggest, and are so broke that they are unable to try other avenues. The point of the thread is that the “eBay drop off store” concept does not work. That being said, there are ways to make money selling on eBay, but even those are getting harder to find! On top of all of this, the franchisees are being threatened, and have huge loans to pay off-not a real workable situation. One store owner said to me “you know I never realized that the $150,000 that some of the stores owed was more than the total value of their house”, she was in California and a $150,000 is only the equity there. In other words, what works for one may not for another, and most of these store owners are worn out, out of money, and out of patience, all because some fraudulant folks lied to them. As for us, being close to 60, it is hard to start over and ever clear enough money to pay everthing off. The longer the store owners stay open, the more debt they incurr! And the franchisors have done NOTHING to help the situation! Isoldit left their franchisees in the UK completely abandoned, what do you think they will do to their franchisees here?! It is important that these folks get a handle on their money(eliminate sweep accounts), and get into a warehouse, low cost spaces (even garages), and establish multiple B2B at BELOW liquidation. Only then will they have a chance to make a little money! Everyone competes against each other and china-NOT A GOOD SCENARIO! As I have said before-you can make more money working at Walmart. Sad but true!
Happy New Year to all!
Chance – Happy New year to you too. At the risk of sounding like a smooth-talking basket, can I say you don’t look ‘near 60′!
Number Cruncher – You’ve done stirling work on this thread, but for me it’s about stopping corporate selling more of these stores, not daemoniseing the remaining stores. Now I know you haven’t daemonised anyone, but you last post was a bit….er…’What are they doing still trading?’
It may be they have other revenue streams, or outside interests, it may also be that they might yet go under, but they have the right to keep trying, just use the maths (math!) to attack corporate, to prove the concept don’t work! But try not to rub salt in the wounds of strangers?
John – Breath of fresh-air and god knows it’s needed. I think you’re quite articulate but (like me) are probably either dyspraxic/dyslexic or suffer from brain-working-faster-than-fingers syndrome!! Try doing it in ‘word’ or something similar and then cutting and pasting, you may get double-spacing (after pasting), but at least all those red, green and purple wiggly lines will help you build-out the main errors!
Re. Dreamweaver, easiest thing to do is click on [help], click on [tutorials] and let it take you through a few exercises. From your above posts I’d guess your graphics skills are quite advanced, certainly where photo-imaging is concerned, so you should pick it up/understand it quite quickly – like all these office/creative software programs, it’s all about learning a new set of button icons, a new set of hierarchies/protocols and probably a new set of shortcuts! If you use a book I’d recommend the Seybold series as they have colour screen-prints rather than the monochrome of Visual Quickstarts or Idiots Guides.
Hugh…like I said my grammar is horrible. I should use word…but I have given up. It is not a bad thing…it is just something my brain just does not see or get. When I was in college I was on the dean’s list for 5 quarters (3.5 or higher out of 4.0) and I graduated in 3 years with a 3.48 with a Major in Management and a Minor in Computer Management Systems. What is funny is that I would have never passed english class if it was not for the reading and the test. I Just remember the teacher writing all over my paper in red ink….”you have a serious problem here that needs to be addressed.” Like I said my wife says English is my second language and I only know one. Lucky for me I have some other skills that make up for it and I always found a really good admin assistant to proofread my emails. Lucky for me my speaking is better than my writing as I can speak in front of large amount of people with no problem and I am on tv every few months. I was just on our local channel a few days ago. Every year at christmas they come to me for stories about eBay. Hey…free advertising…right. In regards to dreamweaver…it will just take a few weeks…just something knew to learn again. I just get tired of learning over and over again. I have learned programming language from basic to vb4, vb5, vb6 and I bought .net and sql2005 for $900.00 but just messed with a little bit. Took a few courses of Java but I mostly write in VBA and love making databases. I also do some website stuff. I own about 30 domains. In regards to shortcuts…I think that is what has helped me the most. Here is one of my best one for my database (I don’t know what other software does on this…it may do the same). I used to hate relist…because putting it in the databse for .11 cent was a waste of time. Wrote a piece of code that I download all the relist and use the custom number as my intial number that the item came in under. The code searches the table for all the records that have that custom number and put it in order. Then it takes the last record for that set and recopies it to a new record and marks the old record as unsold…etc…etc. So now my relist is just a download and click a buttton. When you relist 300 per month…that can be a pain. In regards to what I am doing…well like I said I am using eBay to promote my business and I provide other services that larger companies have tried and some have had great success but not the personal contact that we as eBay stores good give. Once I get it done I will go to auction byte and contact a bunch of stores and get us all to work together to promote this idea. The difference between me and the franchise is that I am not out to make money…I know that sound cheesy…but I already had a great job…being a computer manager for a 40 million dollar company paid very well…but you know what…I was very unhappy…I don’t make no where near what I used to make…but I am very happy. I help out a lot of local charities and set up/fix networks for all daycares in my city for pretty much free. Money does not rule my life anymore. Though losing a ton from the franchise sucks…and I do feel bad. Like I said before….not one person here so far said anything about still owning a store. Keep up the good work warning all the ones that think they can make it in a franchise that uses eBay…YOU CAN’T. And all the people that think they can set up a website and just start selling items and you will make money at it….YOU CAN’T. To the ones who think they can drop ship items that never see and make a fortune…YOU WON’T. The only way so far I have seen where you can make more money…not a fortune but enough to survive is using eBay to help you and your store with other services. But, to succeed the stores have to work together or someone else will just have more money and charge for it.
John, at the risk of – temporarily – taking this thread away from franchiseing, but why not, like I said; your posts are a breath of fresh air, and I’m sure someone will bring it back to snappy!
It’s hard to read between the lines of your text to work out the system your developing, but I wonder how much you will be allowed to get away with by eBay? They don’t mind you promoting your services as long as they (the services) are tied to ‘their’ (eBay’s) shop. If they begin to suspect you might be making revenue from (but away from) them, using their platform, they can get quite shirtey.
Having said that, the ‘corporate’ I’m busy posting against over on the Auctioning4u pages, seems to have got away with it. As you know as well as me, if you or I log into eBay from our existing pc or service provider link and then attempt to register a ‘new’ name we will have to have a note attached to the new pages saying something along the lines of ‘this trader previously traded as…’ or ‘this seller was formally called…’. Indeed from memory; the last time I encountered one of these, his/her previous feedback history, was included with that obtained under his/her new ID. Something I’m sure most will agree is a good thing as it prevents the dodgy sellers hiding their old ills under a ‘new’ ID.
So how can Auctioning4u/Thetoyauctioneer/Serialsellers all trade as different companies without ‘linking’ or “formally known/traded as” comments? I assume it’s because eBay have decided to allow it, the eBay uk team is not large and can easily be manipulated by a charmer!!
The reason I mention this is because I wonder if the things you are working on might actually be what the world is looking for to ‘take on’ eBay? I always point out that 5 years ago, no one had heard of Google, now it’s bigger than all the other search engines and some of those that were becoming household names 5 years ago have vanished. Now not everyone agrees with or likes Google or what they are doing, but the fact is they did it, swallowing up several other companies in the process, and eBay has followed them in that trend (of buying related – or even unrelated – services). The single thing that differentiates Google from it’s rivals (in my eyes) is the way it’s used interconnectivity to build this empire, integrate its acquisitions and generate revenue, all at NO cost to you or me the ‘home surfer/user’. Except as in the ‘cost’ of friends like ‘Skype’ or ‘Youtube’ loosing their independence and becoming littered with pop-ups or other junk!! – a small price?
Yet it’s been a constant mystery to me why eBay have remained so safe? people like QXL who were there near the start, just didn’t give eBay a good run for it’s money, and don’t seem interested or able to do so. My hope is that they or someone we’ve not yet heard of (like Google a few years ago) might come up with a new concept that will end forever their dominance of the internet selling/auction game.
After all, what do eBay do for their billions? provide server space and a basic service. Customer service is almost non-existent, corporate sellers of a certain size seem to be able to circumvent the ‘rules’ while eBay ignore the – often large and loud – outcry following some of their changes, whether those changes affect the small or large sellers. You can’t get them to address problems with any ease, yet as we heard on these pages, they’ll happily pull your listings if corporate make spurious complaints about them (was it ‘Ted’ or ‘Lone Texan’? I’d look it up but this page is so long it’d take the rest of the evening!!).
Lets hope someone clips their wings, I don’t know where your ideas are leading; but maybe John; it’s you?!! Whatever you’re working on; all power to your elbow! If you can make it easier for all people everywhere to sell on the internet without paying high fees to greedy corporate giants of either the eBay or Snappy model, you will win a million friends.
However – a word of caution; we have had several people come to these pages with ‘new’ ideas, over on the ‘Will Auctioning4u save….’ page we had a chap from Australia, and another called Brian?, both have disappeared without trace!
So – good luck and keep us posted!
Hugh,
No, it wasn’t me.
Now, that’s not to say they didn’t put their snappy roadblocks up when I tried to post items on ebay by having their software run so slow it was impossible to post items, have their s/w crash and lose all of my auctions without a backup of any of my (or anyone elses) data, have their picture server go down and leave all of my auctions without pictures, not provide support when any of this happened, etc… I could go on and on.
But, no, they never had any of my auctions closed early, that would have cost them the $2 in commissions that they dearly needed.
While I wish John the best, I have seen a slow transition at eBay from an individual’s way to sell stuff internationally and at reasonable prices, to a retailers showcase for sellers who don’t want to have a store. I know from my experience what used to sell on eBay and it’s not the same. Hugh may be right that there needs to be some serious competition for eBay. While some items will sell well there, I know a lot of people who are going to Craigslist to sell their stuff. One friend had some genuine designer stuff and eBay blocked her listing because the designer complained to eBay. In my recent experience, most people are going to eBay now to find a super cheap deal and not to pay a reasonable price so individuals, like me, are looking at other channels to sell things like Sterling Siver and Italian crystal. This and horrible mismanagement by the franchisors will finally kill the eBay drop off store.
In deference to Hugh “Stores, you did the best you could. Contact Amitheonlyone.org to learn how to shut down your failing store. If you’re actually making money on a consistent level, kudos to you. You are one in a million.”
Hugh, I have not done anything yet…I am already feeling the pressure. Did pretty good this last 24 hours…added no listing this last week and still sold $1600.00 worth of items. But better than that I sold an item for $72,000 which my commission comes to over $7,400. Not bad…for the first item for the new year…I say that since the gentleman has to fly out here and the wire transfer wouldn’t take place until Thursday. But still…not bad. My ideas of hooking of many stores together has nothing to do with ebay really…although one needs an actual store, professionalism, understanding advertising, provide safety for the transaction which ebay provides with your feedback and most important….the key to all of this is proven ability to sell online. I have many people come to me because they think I am the expert. You mention “taking on eBay”…well…no I like eBay…I mean they have been good to me in regards to making my name known in this area. Yes, there fees are high..but I charge my customers the fees…and yes they have cancel a few of my auctions…one that was really funny since it was a civil war era flag and because it had holes they though it was used in a battle. That was funny. But, the worst thing is when they change their code…really screws up my software. But, if it got to the point where eBay tells me I can’t use their software then I would just sit down and learn their API or I would change mine so it would be a few more entries the store would have to do…but it would still work perfect. But, I don’t think they would do anything since my systems helps them also. But..”get real” has really hit some good points and I agree with him 100% and there is that opportunity where if the right person or company tries to incorporate all these concepts together without screwing each other then everyone will win. My concepts work with me but to really work…it has to be done with many individual stores hook up together to create more trust and create the illusion of being bigger then any one store. This is one area that all these franchises have failed. They are to worried about getting the money and not looking at the bigger picture of being viewed as company who you can trust and use. Sellling is the most important process any company will do. Look at the experience I have … little ole me with close to estimated $700,000 dollars online that I took my commission on through ebay and that does not include any backselling I have done. That is what customers want to see…experience…and eBay does give you that.
John –
Check out dropoffnews.com, just created for the Drop Off Store and Online Selling Industry. You can share your positive ideas and discuss ideas others may have.
Interesting page…who are you…oops…sorry, they?
New York based and so far only managed to mention a defunct company? No Snappy or iSoldIt…yet!
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: DROPOFFNEWS.COM
Created on: 30-Dec-07
Expires on: 30-Dec-08
Last Updated on: 30-Dec-07
If it gets as many post as this site then I will post. It has been a great start to 2008. Remember how I said experience is very important. So far for the first few days of 2008 my sales are $72,000. Not to bad I would say. Plus 5 minute before close today I sold another 5 page website for $400.00 per year (hint on one of the items I backsell). Looks like the new year is going to be great as tony the tiger would say…oh wait they shot him.
Actually Hugh, I’m a seller who’s interested to know if there are any John’s out there who are willing to share ideas and/or talk about the online selling industry, not just franchising. I’ve been following these threads for a while not.
Well, you see that presents what I see as a problem since this is a Franchising web site and a Snappy auctions forum.
Maybe Sean or someone else can set you up with a forum. Not that I don’t want to see what you have to say, just I doubt this is the right place.
Sean????
Senor Real, by no means is this an attempt to tread on Sean’s Blog. What we created is another arena to discuss things in the industry, not just how much Snappy, i-soldit and QD suck.
There are topics to discuss outside franchising, and some people who read this, like John, don’t own a franchise and have real ideas about how to sell online and be creative.
You all are interested in seeing the franchises crumble to their knees. That’s all well and good, but I think Sean would agree that he’s not going to write about which third party consignment software is good…those are the topics that we are interested in talking about at our site.
It’s pretty clear that overall, as you all have said, the concept is a nightmare. However there are a ton of people trying to make it work, so we’d like to try to talk about it and see how they are. In addition to that, discuss selling through channels other them eBay, and if that works.
So, if you’re interested; which we hope everyone is, come over and drop us a note.
John – thanks for the info, I’m clearly using the wrong IP searcher, I got 60% sure it’s New York! Although I did then get two sites saying Scotsdale, what I didn’t get was the same level of detail you did, but I’m still learning how to use this powerful ‘tool for democracy’!!
New Website – Good luck to you, and all power to your sites elbow. The point I was trying to make – as one of the few people using his real name – is someone who’d not posted before drops a quick three-liner announcing a new site, which upon inspection had mentioned franchising, without naming ONE of the companies concerned, or the little shits that run them. Now call me (a little) paranoid, but with an endless stream of corporate stooges paid as part of their work-a-day duties to post – often poorly – on these pages, you must understand that I am suspicious of anyone posting for the first time who doesn’t introduce themselves, or their reason for posting.
Perhaps you could see if Auctioningforyou here in Guildford, Surrey, have any ideas to impart. Two guys, working 10/11/12 hour days out of a little unit on an industrial park (cheap rent), and – I believe – running a 40/50 quid minimum value per item ($80/100), may, over time (and it’s time that tells with these things) do ok?
I say let NEW WEBSITE stay. There seems to be plenty to discuss and the increased traffic will keep this forum high in the Google search. Besides, who’s going to read past the first 4-500 posts and even then, the information in those posts is crucial to eBay store owners.
Let’m stay.
John and New Website: It is always great to have a new place to voice ideas and opinions, but WHY? call it DROPOFF News. The word “dropoff” is the problem. Even as you have stated, THE CONCEPT DOESN’T WORK! a name like “Ebay selling” would be more appropriate, but then ebay has blogs on that subject, so a new one isn’t necessary. This brings up alot of questions? WHY would you start a blog by that name (if you feel the concept doesn’t work)? And what is your ebay id (I hesitate to believe numbers from thin air)? Are you simply trying to get this blog somewhere you can control what is being said? Please understand that YES we are skeptics, but we have ALL gone through some pretty rough stuff in the last couple years, and tried MANY of the ideas you are coming up with now. So on that note, please share your ideas here, but as usual we ask for real proof! I would love to run your numbers and let people know that SOMEONE can make it work! The problem that I have seen lately is, that the numbers for this last holiday season were worse than ever!
The real concept of creating the blog was to draw interest to discussing the industry, not just the franchise side.
As well, we are going to talk about selling items on Amazon and other sites to make more money.
The possibilities of discussion or pretty vast and can be eBay related or just online selling related.
This blog and all of Sean’s articles are great, but only franchise related. You all talk about the franchises going under, but that’s not going to kill the drop-off store or TA industry, nor will it kill the small business online selling industry.
Come over and visit us if you like. We’d love the input and please vote on the poll.
John:
Congrats & best of luck with the new site.
If I might offer a suggestion it would be for you to post your actual identity, eBay ID and contact information on your blog. It would help promote your auctions, establish your experience and credibility, and disarm some of these naysayers.
These DropOffers (Droppers? DropOuts?) are a cynical and suspicious bunch. I doubt too many of the would comment – which discloses their somewhat traceable IP address – to someone who is not forthcoming with their own identity.
Like the old cartoon said: On the Internet, no one knows you’re a ‘zor.
Sean: First, my name is john. Second, I am really not ready to post my ebay name and websites as I do not want the franchise to jump on my ideas yet…although I have patents sent in…being they have stores already in a network…I would rather wait. My ip are trackable not like the blogs. I do not even use private registration.
Chance: I agree…I understand why he named it with the word drop off…but my eBay name and store name does not even mention the word eBay or drop off. The reason is that will lock you down to a specific area. Our name is very generic and yes it is trademarked. Maybe using the dropoff word will help his ranking. I know the name I did pick for us was very generic and that made it hard in the beginning but now we rank #1 spot out of 135 million website. eBay is #2…I don’t know how but it is. It took about 2 years to get to that spot. More to come.
I’m confused. First you say “I am really not ready to post my ebay name and websites..” then you say “but now we rank #1 spot out of 135 million website”. This should make you REALLY easy to find. If your site is ranked above eBay, then your site must be Windows Live ( http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?cc=US&ts_mode=country&lang=none )
John – I for one, was referring to ‘new website’ rather than your posts, but you do now seem to be tying yourself in knots?
New Website – I agree with everything Chance said, I’m afraid with every post you make your project smells worse! Fess-up…
Now that we know that this dog won’t hunt in Iowa, its on to New Hampshire. For poster John, Hillary and I have read your entries over the last several weeks now. At the risk of having you become offended, we would offer that you are either on to something or on to nothing. All the while though, you are ‘Taffy Pulling’. Bits of info here, bits of info there. Others have found and used your site/services, right? Why not be open here and let us judge for ourselves? At worst, you are ‘All Hat and No Cattle’. For those of us that went the franchise route, we already know what that is…
-Billary
I know we’ll be branded as nay sayers and that we only want the industry to fail (remenscient of R,), but I agree something does not add up.
John’s site does better than eBay and he has time to post on this forum?
I don’t too many site on this list most of us would not recognize:
http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=lang&lang=en
So, John please tell us where you fit in this ranking?
John I am curious how you patent software. From my 20 years in computers, I believe you can only copyright software. And I hope you DO have something that works.
Some facts you might not be aware of are that even the independant “dropoff” stores have been closing. The “dropoff” scenario just does not work, and that is WHY New Website’s website has no positive (or any) responses.
Being a trading assistant with a niche is QUITE different than this “dropoff” business. I know someone who sells $150 to 200K a month on ebay. But that does not mean they are making money. In fact they could be losing money (if it cost them 200 to 250k to buy the product, or they got stuck with a 1000 wigets)! The point here is that most of the people speaking out here have tried it all! Many have streamlined the process, created very efficient processes, found other avenues of selling, bought, stocked, borrowed and begged to make it work – and Lo and Behold… IT DOESN’T WORK (unless it is something completely DIFFERENT than a drop off store (and its many faces)). There are some who have found a niche, or work directly under an auctioneer, pawn shop or importer, but they aren’t bringing home any more money than the average Walmart worker. Let’s face it, not everyone can be selling refurbished Rolex watches or the same thing on the internet. No one would be making any money! The competition is not the guy down the street, but world wide, and that includes manufacturers and China. That leaves a selling margins so low no one makes money except ebay and the the credit card companies.
So IF you have some magic beans, please share them, or perhaps speak with the folks at AmITheOnlyOne.org, and get their evaluation. I understand that e-auctiondepo had them come evaluate their system, and they told the CEO exactly what would and did happen(they folded)! No one said you have to listen, but it might help you avoid issues like the drop off fiasco!
Hopefully you have gotton some insight from this blog and others, and that you have something that can turn the industry around. With that being said, we have yet to see one idea that really works, and we have seen many. We just don’t want one more person to lose their home, health, or family!
So John, you work at Google? Wow, how nice!
Been there:
“the name I did pick for us was very generic and that made it hard in the beginning but now we rank #1 spot out of 135 million website. eBay is #2…I don’t know how but it is. It took about 2 years to get to that spot.”
as I stated the name we picked when entered into google ranks #1. I did not mean to imply out of all websites using all the words. As I stated the name we used is pretty generic and if and when I tell you…you will say why did you pick that name…but like I said it took awhile but now we are there. Yes, for some reason ebay does come up as #2 position and I don’t know why since are name is different and does not contain the word ebay in it. But I would assume ebay comes up pretty far on any combination of words you use. Now one of my other website I have been working on for several months and I still come up only on page 3. Still working on that one.
Lousy tshirt: As I mention above if you type in quick drop is going to list all the site that have quick drop in there domain name, title, meta data, keyworks, content and even subdomains. In regards to alexa we probably don’t rank high at all…I guess I should check that. I remember investing in a company and in the yahoo message board someone mention that alexa ranking and I check the companies website against it and ours had way more hits. I will let you know since I honestly don’t know.
Chance: I guess you are right on that. When I did the research on it a few years ago we decided not to attempt to patent/copyright that actual software code because it was very difficult as a nobody to stop people from changing it. Even today I have to admit I look at other peoples screens for their program and incorporate into my ideas. The could change just a little bit and you would be in a fight. Instead the ones we have sent in are the process or the flow. I am sorry if I implied the code was patent. I really enjoy your statements and you are correct…that drop shipping is really hard and the margin are slim. I do not do any of that because the ones who know are not giving up there sources and I don’t know any myself. I am a eBay drop off store and I sell other people items for a commission. I was going to raise up my limit of accepting items in but decided not to for a little bit since 7 1/2 grand just last week. That does not happen all the time but it did at the beginning of 2008 so I can’t complain. I am not saying my ideas are a drop off store saver but I know some major fortune 500 companies are looking at doing some of the stuff I am already doing. Until I feel like I can give the store the software and have the store connect to my server to process everything I am just going to say I have some great ideas. Next tip that I hope helps. I do have the best pictures on eBay because of three main reasons. Yes, that is a bold statement but it is true and I have people emailing me all the time asking me how I do it. Here what I do and hopefully it helps. First, never store your pictures on ebay. I won’t go into the details but you will never get good enough pictures. You need to either go through someone else or get your own server (whether it is a virtual server or a hosting account). Second, buy good photo software. Each software has it own way of reading your data and the auto features really do save time in the long run. Third, get the right lighting. I tried many different contraption including buying a bunch of plastic tubing to create a square that was adjustable and I bought all types of lights. The best lighting I have found is philips daylight fluorescent lighting. I bought these at home depot and have them sitting about 3 feet above my table. Now, what should you use for a background color. Never use white. That is a horrible color. Cameras have a hard time with white and increasing the brightness ruins the other colors. I use only a blue sheet which I purchased at Kmart. I have bought other blue sheet like at walmart but they do not come out as good as the one at Kmart (still have not figure that one out). My camera is only a sony cybershot and it is 6 megs…which a 3 meg would be just as good. The only other thing I recommend for sure is go on to eBay and buy a hd telephoto lense to zoom up on watches and rings. Well that is another tip that I hope helps. I went through two cameras and all types of lighting and found this setup to work the best. Just so you know….chance…thanks for the offer of AmITheOnlyOne.org…but at the moment I do not need their assistant although I am glad they are there to help all the one who did get ripped off. I very much dislike franchise eBay concept. My ideas are not for franchises and that is why I would not come right out and state my ideas. I will give some tips and when I am ready I will give you my email so you can email me with your information and your website. You would also be required to have an actually store front. Like I said before…I use eBay to promote my services and my skills.
R. Funny, I wished I worked for google.
“I was going to raise up my limit of accepting items in but decided not to for a little bit since 7 1/2 grand just last week. That does not happen all the time but it did at the beginning of 2008 so I can’t complain.”
I meant to say I made 7 1/2 grand last week. Although I told you my eBay sales where in the 20’s… I also sell other individuals items and services outside of eBay. If you want to pick apart everything I say…well I guess that is ok…but please remember I just write what comes out and I don’t proofread and I don’t type it in Word first…sorry for the misspelled words and grammar. I hoping my ideas are more important than the way I write so I don’t sit there thinking …how are they going to bust me…cause I not here for that. Good Night and Happy Holidays.
Ok, I checked out alexa and my main site does rank…my other sites don’t…not good I guess. What confuses me is I check our local tv stations and they do rank way higher then me on alexa but when I look at the lower part…I have way way more pages viewed. I will not give you my rankings because I assume there is probably a way to sort it…but it is high I guess…although I don’t know what the cut off is. But here what it says for my stats which I don’t believe it since our tv stations had no where near this and they are rank so much higher then us…I will tell you we are in the millions which at least it is ranked right?. I am not that familar with alexa. I will check it again in a month.
This was listed under “Alexa traffic rank based on a combined measure of page views and users (reach)”
3 mos. Avg. 3 mos. Change
4,69171,974 5,17224,092