eBay is sold to the public on many different levels...
To the consumer eBay is offered as a great online place to find anything - cheap
Consumers are also told what a "safe" and easy place eBay is to shop.
All well and good, in most cases, except for the fact that eBay does not have to stand behind the promises they make to the consumer, eBay leaves that bit of dirty business to the individual seller and they use PayPal as the big stick of enforcement to make sure that the sellers keep the buyers happy, no matter the cost or situation. (more on that later)
To the Individual Seller eBay is offered as the easy and fast way to sell the junk that accumulates in the garage or attic
eBay has been promoted as the place for anyone to start a business (selling junk from your garage) for years. (More recently eBay went courting the corporate world, offering enticements and sweetheart deals to big sellers like Buy.com and others). For awhile it looked as though eBay would turn its back on the small individual sellers in lieu of the huge volume possibilities offered by the Buy.coms of the world.
Some eBay Kool Aid?
Thankfully, eBay has not completely forgotten the little guy, they are happy to take his/her money and they have taken some minor steps to entice the small seller back. To be honest, I still don't understand the "selling junk from the garage" business plan "drink the kool aid" approach, but that must just be me...
2008
2008 was a long year in eBay-land, the changes and turmoil wrought by the eBay executives decisions (right or wrong) made an impression on the rank and file. The effect of these constant changes on eBay's core audience of sellers (the little guys and gals) became more than an annoyance. For some of these smaller sellers the constant state of flux of 2008 - early 2009 ended a long term love affair.
I will admit that my own love affair with eBay ended in 2008.
It was just too frustrating at times, not only dealing with the changes in my own eBay selling business, but also fielding questions from my clients regarding unexplainable and sometimes indefensible new rules or policies and outrageous games with fee structures. I pretty much shut down all operations on eBay myself and quietly told my good clients that they might want to take a fresh look at eBay, it was time to evaluate whether the price in terms of time, frustration and costs, had possibly become too high for some to do business on eBay.
eBay is what many call the 100 pound gorilla of eCommerce.
It may have been a long while since you have heard anyone repeat that phrase but it bears remembering from time to time. Just the shear vast amount of merchandise available on eBay along with the volume of sales on a daily basis is just awe inspiring. This is why many of us jumped into the eBay vortex feet first.
eBay for some people is an addiction much like the gold rush of the 1890's.
Some merchants find the mother load, while others have been panning the same weak stream for many years. There always a comes a time when it is wise to look at other ways to make money. Many think that means leaving eBay altogether, while others feel it is blasphemy to utter such thoughts. Is there a happy medium? I think so....
We have all heard or told stories about those who just packed it all up and left selling directly on eBay. Many claim it is because of the massive changes or because of the rules, or more often because of the fees. Others just face the reality of the combination of smaller margins and an increasing work load and they make a business decision to find other marketplaces.
Change is growth and we all live in an ever present state of flux when it comes to the eCommerce business. No matter if you choose to keep eBay as your home listing venue, or you move on to Amazon or Etsy or Bonanzle, eBay will always be that Gorilla in the corner of your mind... Reminding you that there are thousands of smart people making more than a living on eBay every day.
In fact, some of them are making more than a living on eBay, without ever listing a single product or paying a single fee.
Now, that's a concept - making money on eBay without all that hard work of sourcing, stocking, listing, photographing, handling customer service or paying the ever increasing shipping to deliver your low margin product to the consumer!
From the very first day of my involvement within the eCommerce world, the holy grail of selling online included offering product on multiple venues yet managing that inventory from one central location or software package. Personally I have worked towards that goal for several years, working with developers and designers who had greater resources than my own and trying to convince them of the need for an entry level multi- channel solution. It's always nice to know you had the right idea all along, even if someone else implements it before you do.
What the company has to say about it's new eCommerce solution:
The Vendio Platform is a complete eCommerce solution that includes a robust, feature-rich online store as well as item, order and customer management – all for free. It doesn’t matter whether a merchant sells 10 or 10,000 items in their Vendio store – they pay no web hosting fees, imaging hosting fees, listing fees or success fees. There is no catch. No gimmicks.
Features of the Vendio Platform with free online store:
Fast and easy setup: Be up and running in minutes. Create your items and store without any development work or technical knowledge.
Customized look-and-feel: Customize your store with your logo, custom categories, featured items, external links and more. You have complete control when you use our easy-to-use Store Builder to see exactly how your store will look as you build it.
Professional designs: Dozens of free templates to choose from to make your store stand out.
Simplified sales: All customers, items, and orders managed from one location. No need to worry about tracking transactions across different channels - it's all in one spot.
SEO & Analytics: Add meta keywords and descriptions quickly and easily in order to help buyers find your store via search engines. Google Analytics integration assists you in monitoring and understanding your store traffic.
Custom URL: Get a free Vendio domain or create your own custom domain name to keep your brand intact.
Item Search: Buyers can search both your item titles and descriptions.
Widget: Promote items anywhere online such as your website or blog with a cool widget that shows off your items.
Again, Vendio offers all these store features as well as the sales management, for free. Just because the Vendio store is free, doesn’t mean that it’s subpar to existing paid store offerings on the market such a Pro Store or a Yahoo Store. Here is a helpful feature matrix that differentiates the Vendio store from just some of its competitors.
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What’s most unique and powerful about the Vendio Platform is that all items uploaded into the Platform are automatically placed in the store, immediately available for sale.
If a merchant wants to reach more buyers in places where they shop, such as eBay, Amazon or Google, then they can easily extend the Platform to multiple marketplaces for a small monthly fee plus percentage of sales. Extending the Platform means that the merchant uses just one set of inventory details for as many marketplaces as they’d like to sell on – all managed from one, single interface. This results in countless saved hours and inventory management control mix-ups.
For merchants who are interested in extending the Vendio Platform to marketplaces, Vendio is currently offering a 60 Day Trial. Along with the trial comes a great bonus – Vendio is waiving its Amazon fees for the rest of 2009.
What "Others" are saying - Robert Scoble interview with the Vendio Founders
My Take on the Vendio Platform eCommerce /software solution:
Scott's Take
Vendio has a long history as a third party software and applications developer and is a familiar company to eBay sellers. The work that has obviously gone into this multi-channel solution is very apparent and indicates a long standing understanding about how merchants, especially eBay merchants, work to get product online.
Usability: I give it a 8 on a scale of 10
Functionality: I say 9 on a scale of 10
Intimidation Factor: 3 on a scale of 10
The Vendio platform may indeed be the light at the end of a long tunnel for many eBay merchants, especially if they have not yet expanded beyond eBay to sell on other channels or on their own web store.
If you are an experienced eBay seller, this Vendio Platform solution will give you the confidence to go forth and find new markets, to boldly go into the ecommerce world - feet first, while knowing that you will have familiar surroundings and procedures available at all times. No need to leave the comfortable blanket that is eBay or the traffic the megasite produces, yet with the Vendio Platform tools, new markets await that may help you to see beyond the eBay safety net. Expanding into multi-channel ecommerce is the next logical step for any eBay merchant.
The software has been extremely well thought out, it is apparent that years of development work went into this package. And the prior experience with an eBay focused offering shows through here.
Importing existing eBay listings is an easy proceedure and once complete all can be converted to free web store listings.
Importing eBay Listings
The control panel is well laid out and the instructions are comprehensive as can be seen by reviewing this extensive create listings PDF found in the help section. Or you can read it here before you sign up for your free account.
Keep in mind this is just one of the 23 extensive help manuals available for download on the site:
While the platform has had a great deal of sweat equity poured into it prior to launch in March of 2009, this does not mean that the new platform is completely finished.
One example of need for improvement comes when users begin to list a new item. The list new item screen (which is a one page piece of organized well thought out web engineering) unfortunately does not have an integrated image upload function. A user must first go to Images -> upload images and then create a folder to then upload images one at a time to the site. Then come back to create a new item and choose the folder where the images reside to include those images in a new listing. Obviously this process needs to be refined to allow for a faster method of uploading image files directly from the listing form. I contacted my Vendio contacts about this issue to find out if there were any way to speed up the process? I had an answer back within 1/2 hour - the entire image upload process is being re-worked and should be complete in a few weeks.
It seems that not only does this company listen to their users, but they also act on the needs of the users to improve the product.
Overall Impression: I say give Vendio a try, the ecommerce webstore is free forever and with an eBay import you can easily see how the system works for you. Having the ability to test products and control inventory on Amazon and eBay as well as in other search driven marketing and a stand alone ecommerce store from one control panel is the ideal solution that I have been looking for ages. Vendio as a company has been working with eBay sellers for a long time and they know the business. One does need to keep in mind that optional features incur monthly charges but the base online webstore is completely free. Why not give it a test drive?
Additional Tid Bit: One feature that Vendio does not tout regarding this free hosted webstore that I find most intriguing is that the eCommerce webstore package can be added to any existing domain. In other words if you have a business with an existing brochure style website and you would like to add an ecommerce shopping cart to that site without all the expense or hassel of starting over from scratch, give Vendio a hard look. By following a few simple instructions and simply creating a folder on your server with a single FTP upload a small piece of code your website can almost instantly become and eCommerce website. http://mywebsite.com becomes http://mywebsite.com/store with a fully functional ecommerce shopping cart that is secure and can accept multiple forms of payment. How cool is that? And it is Free!
Here is a table of existing Vendio Webstores for your review:
Recent earnings announcements along with this last years alteration of the core philosophy at eBay seem to have had a negative effect on many of the third party solutions providers who have built businesses upon the foundation eBay created in the late 1990's.
Rumblings and rumors always abound in a industry such as this, but recently changes made at the top levels of some of the most prominent 3rd party providers seems to predict a consolidation and possibly belt tightening within the firms who revolve around and depend upon the eBay brand.
It is true that some new players are entering the market with interesting solutions, software and services yet at the same time, are the executives at older and more established companies making what could be considered exit strategy moves?
From the announcement of a new CEO at Infopia, Coleman Barney, which in and of itself is seen as a move towards new blood and not a barometer an industry crumbling, to the recent departure of the managing director of Frooition, a UK based eBay stores and template design company, changes at the top of several eBay centric service providers seem to be occurring at a faster rate than normal.
I was quite surprised when I noted earlier today that Grenville Wheland had left Frooition and is now seeking new opportunities through LinkedIn (see Below). Grenville had been purported to be one of the financial backers of Frooition and while his skills as a start up entrepreneur were also touted, on the outside we can only wonder if his reasons for departing may have included deeper financial concerns for the future of the business model.
No Longer With Frooition
Frooition grew very quickly into a multinational marketing powerhouse for eBay based design work and is still strong today yet they have relied upon eBay as the basis of the business strategy for what seems to be too long when branching out into eCommerce was an available avenue for expansion. My readers will know that I have worked with Frooition as a representative in the States since mid 2007, My dealing with Mr Whelan have always been cordial and above board. I am sure Frooition will notice his departure.
eBay Live 2008 - Karl, Ciz, Grenville Whelan, David Sullivan of Frooition
Channel Adviser, while not changing the steadfast leader of the pack Scot Wingo, has had some major personnel cuts in recent months. As eBay has itself, a Rolodex or Blackberry full of contacts at eBay in 2007 would be suspiciously empty today.
The industry that has based itself on the largess of this giant we call eBay is morphing into a new animal. Eventually changes beget changes. While we all wish the likes of Grenville Whelan and Bjorn Espenes of Infopia the best (Bjorn is now the COB), we only have to wonder... who is next?
While riding the gravy train of eBay can be a sound business decicion (at least many of us thought it was), the hard crash at the end of the tracks can be just as abrupt. Other have noted that eBay may be on a uncontrollable death spiral (i.e. Scot Wingo) into the abyss that some great companies (AOL) fall into.
Is it possible that some of these highly placed executives see a bad wind a blowin and have chosen to diversify before the end comes?
I know that even though my heart will always have a place for eBay and I still promote the site and services surrounding its capabailities, I myself have diversified and are very glad that I did. I no longer depend completely upon eBay as a seller or a service provider. Having options for myself and my clients is what I am all about now.
Some other service oriented eBay centric companies could take a note...
One inventory distributed throughout the world on eBay. Efficiently and easily with complete control... Without cross border charges or additional eBay fees. Offering products in Australia, the UK, Germany or Italy when you know they will move in those fantastic markets, all from a single inventory.
Offering your products in 21 global markets around the World from a single standard inventory and managing every product and every market from a simple to use web based console, even if you sell under multiple ebay accounts.
Selling on eBay here in America or throughout the world just got easier with MerchantRun-GlobalLink
Would this be an interesting prospect for you as an ebay Powerseller?
Does this sound like an expensive and complicated proposition? It is not...
With MerchantRun-GlobalLink these capabilities and more are available and easy to manage in a single low cost solution. We all know selling on eBay can be challenging and exploring worldwide markets with multiple eBay accounts via eBay can be even more intimidating with other solutions, yet doing either with MerchantRun-GlobalLink is makes the process painless.
Manage multiple selling names in as many of eBay's global markets as you wish without duplicating inventory data or managing multiple listing solutions for each market. Know at a glance where your products are selling, where they should be offered and at the same time enjoy the ability to place inventory where it will sell at a moments notice in any market in the World. Continue reading “21 eBay Global Markets – One Inventory – Dream Come True? MerchantRun GlobalLink” »
This morning I was greeted with a pleasant email from our friends at eBay and Microsoft. Since I already had a Nintendo DS Lite and assorted games in my Amazon.com shopping cart, I decided to investigate the coupon opportunity presented by eBay and our friends at Microsoft Live Search.
Here's how to save up to 40% with a coupon + Microsoft Cashback:
1. Search for an item on www.live.com.
2. Click the sponsored ad with the Microsoft cashback symbol You'll be taken to eBay.com.
3. Make sure the item is Buy It Now and the seller accepts PayPal. If the item is eligible,
you'll see a cashback notice on the "commit to buy" page.
4. Enter code: CSHOPEBAY2008. Pay with PayPal before midnight PT on Dec 1, 2008.
I found what I was looking for on eBay with free shipping, albeit at a higher price than on Amazon. The special coupon deal should make up more than the difference between the prices on the two sites, right?
Found it on eBay
Coupon on eBay - 60 day delay?
The discount looked good, in effect I would be getting about 3 games for free with this deal - great!
Then I saw the detail "you must have a Microsoft cash back account" whats that? Hmmm, lets look into that before we pull the trigger on this purchase.
When I read the terms below and found there would be a 60 day delay to realize my $71.97 savings on top of several other possible ways that I would not or could not qualify for my "coupon" the thrill was gone. I went back to Amazon and bought my Christmas gift.
Amazon does not play these games, or make people jump through these hoops. Most buyers would not bother to read the fine print and therefore would expect a actual discount at checkout. The way this coupon seems to be setup, you must first buy from the eBay seller, before learning that your coupon would not be good for another 60 days. Technically, that is not a coupon, that is a rebate.
Yes, there are small links which will lead anyone to the information presented below, but how many shoppers will actually follow those links before using the buy now button. The sellers should not be dealing with unhappy buyers who have been lead to believe they would be saving money instantly with this deal.
Does this make for a Great Buyer Experience?
But before you dive into the dry fine print of the cashback program, check out this recent article on APPScout about the Microsoft Live Search Cashback Program (Thanks to Elizabeth for forwarding the link). I think the App Scout article confirms my reaction to the 60 day delay in payment. The article also suggests that Microsoft has reacted to complaints about the 60 day delay by offering instant reimbursement for "some" eBay buyers, but those eBay buyers will only know if they received the reimbursement after they have made the purchase. (How fair is that? You MIGHT get your 40% off today, or 60 days from now, or never... it really depends upon who or what we may think of you.)
eBay Terms for Live Search Cashback Rewards
Your participation in the Microsoft Live Search cashback program ("Cashback Program"), is subject to the Microsoft Service Agreement at http://tou.live.com (the "Program Terms"), and these eBay Terms. In the event of a conflict between the Program Terms and the eBay Terms, the eBay Terms shall apply.
Cashback Program
Eligibility
Qualifying Purchase
Receiving Cashback Rewards
Limitations
The Microsoft Live Search Cashback Program provides cashback for up to 12 qualifying purchases per account on www.ebay.com. The amount of cashback will be determined by eBay, specified at the time of checkout on the "purchase review page" and equal to a percentage of the sale price (excluding shipping and handling fees, insurance fees and other such fees) ("Cashback Rewards"). The maximum amount of Cashback Rewards per qualifying purchase is $200.00 USD. In addition, all Cashback Rewards (including Cashback Rewards earned in connection with purchases made on websites other than www.eBay.com) are subject to the annual $2,500.00 per person cap set forth in the Program Terms.
You are eligible to participate in the Cashback Program as long as you: (a) are at least 18 years of age and reside in the United States, (b) have a confirmed US eBay.com account in good standing, (c) have a verified US PayPal account in good standing, (d) have a Microsoft Cashback Program Account in good standing; and (e) comply with the eBay Terms and the Program Terms. In order for your accounts to be in good standing, they must not be limited or suspended. To make a qualifying purchase, you must do all of the following:
Search for an eBay.com item on www.live.com.
Click on an eBay.com sponsored advertisement on www.live.com that has the cashback icon a gold circle with a dollar sign, next to the advertisement. When you click on the advertisement, you will begin an online session. Sponsored advertisements typically appear at the top or along the right hand side of the page of a www.live.com search results page in a shaded or colored area of the page.
Purchase an eligible eBay.com Buy-It-Now item using PayPal within 60 minutes of the time you began the online session. Cashback Rewards will apply only to the first eligible item you commit to buy during an online session. You may make only one qualifying purchase per online session.
To make additional qualifying purchases, you must repeat each of these steps including initiating a new search on www.live.com.
After your first eligible purchase is completed, you must go to My Messages on eBay.com and look for a message from eBay with "cashback" in the subject line. Click the "Get Cashback" link or button in the message to set up a Cashback Program account with Microsoft by providing all information required by Microsoft (or, if you already have a Cashback Program account, log into your account in order to associate your eBay purchases with that account). Once you have created a Cashback Program account and have logged in to associate your eBay purchases with your account as described above, the Cashback Rewards will be available in your Cashback Program account approximately sixty (60) days after you pay for your qualifying purchase. PayPal in its discretion may decide to pay your Cashback Rewards more quickly on a case by case basis. Cashback rewards are issued to the PayPal account you used to make the qualifying purchase on eBay.com. Only certain items selected by eBay from time to time in its sole discretion will be eligible for Cashback Rewards. eBay will notify you on the purchase review page of the Buy-It-Now transaction process if the item you wish to purchase is not eligible.
Please review the purchase review page carefully before you commit to buy an item. Please note, the following will always be ineligible for Cashback Rewards: purchases that are completed on www.express.ebay.com or www.half.ebay.com; purchases of automobiles or other vehicles; purchases of real estate. Cashback Rewards cannot be transferred or applied to multiple eBay.com accounts. Purchases on eBay.com of gift certificates, gift cards and items acquired for resale will be eligible for Cashback Rewards. eBay may permit you to combine Cashback Rewards with other eBay promotions, coupons, or gift certificates. With the exception of eBay promotions, coupons and gift certificates, Cashback Rewards cannot be combined with any other offer on purchases on www.eBay.com. eBay shall determine in its sole discretion whether your purchase is a qualifying purchase under the eBay Terms. PayPal may disqualify transactions or remove previously paid cash rewards from your PayPal account if you return or cancel a qualifying purchase, participate in any fraud or abuse relating to the Cashback Program (including conducting "sham" transactions or otherwise colluding with merchants, or otherwise), or fail to meet the Program Terms or these eBay Terms. In the event that you receive Cashback Rewards for a purchase that is later determined to be an ineligible purchase, you provide PayPal with the right and authority to remove the Cashback Rewards from your PayPal account, even if it means that your PayPal account will have a negative balance for which you will be liable. Live Search cashback is a Microsoft Corporation program. Cashback Rewards are funded and paid by Microsoft. Neither eBay nor PayPal have any obligations to you regarding Cashback Rewards or your participation in the Cashback Programexcept as set forth in these eBay Terms. eBay is the official time keeper for determining whether your purchase is made within 60 minutes of the time you initiate an online session. You hereby agree to release eBay Inc. and PayPal, Inc. from any claims, demands and damages arising out of or in any way connected to your participation in the Cashback Program. In addition, you hereby agree to release Microsoft from any claims, demands and damages arising out of the eBay Terms. eBay provides Microsoft with limited information about your eligible purchase (such as the date, time, amount, and item description) when you apply for a Cashback Reward. Microsoft will use this information only to process and manage your Cashback Rewards, and not for any other purpose. eBay may change these terms and conditions from time to time by posting revised terms and conditions on www.eBay.com, and all such changes will be effective when posted.
Today is Tuesday (Happy Veterans Day to all who served)... many have wondered what the heck is Scott talking about with this silly slogan...
Wednesday 1:14
It's a great question! To tell the truth, I wonder sometimes myself...
It is not a quote for the book of Genesis and it is not some sort of weird eBook pitch... "sighs of relief", all around.
Wednesday at 1:14 is the start of something new. New for me, new for you and new for this space.
Many of my regular readers know I have been part of the meteroic rise to stardom of one very interesting fellow known to many as ColderICE.
John Lawson is what I call him, but he can have a cool handle if he likes, it fits his personality and his message. (Maybe I should have a moniker like that? Hmmm.... What would I be... WarmerFudge?)
John is a Platinum Powerseller on eBay and also has his own website at 3rd Power Outlet http://www.3rdPowerOutlet.com. He brought hip hop merchandise to eBay and has had great success with this very finely crafted niche market. John is a pillar of the PESA community and he has brought a fresh new look to both eBay and eCommerce.
John Lawson is a straight shooter, a matter of fact kind of guy and he has little time for BS artists or scammers. I wonder why I like him...
John gained a greater audience, or dare I say his very first national audience through my insistence that he guest post here on the Trading Assistant Journal. You can review his guest post writings and other mentions on this site here.
John has since started his own eCommerce blog or videoblog and named it ColderICE.
He seems to be more comfortable in front of the video camera than at a keyboard and I am less excited about doing video blogs than writing.
To each his own.
We have remained steady friends since the day we met thanks to Scot Wingo and his Channel Advisor Catalyst conference. Some may be surprised at John and I being friends if they had followed our political battle on Twitter over the last several months. Yet, we never have let the politics cloud our respect for one another, even in the heat of battle.
John and I are very different people, yet we have a great deal in common. We each come from very different backgrounds and may have never met if it were not for a common interest. That interest is making money on the Internet.
Our friendship is based upon more than this one thing however.
John Lawson and I are each very interested in, and good at, looking at the big picture when it come to the overall business of selling online. More importantly, we each, in our own way, have found ways to share what we think is important information with the world through blogs and videos. We get a lot of fulfillment from helping people to understand what we wish we had understood when we each started.
So, back to this Wednesday 1:14 question...
On Wednesday - This Wednesday November 11,2008 @ precisely 1:14 Eastern Standard Time a new Internet talk show and podcast will be born.
No Nonsense
No Sugarcoating
No self promotion
The idea is simple, No BS eCommerce, eBay and eBusiness. We won't be selling and DVD sets and we won't be pulling any punches when it comes to sharing our opinions about anything to do with the industry. We know that as co-hosts we will not always agree on every subject but this is also what we think will make us unique.
The show is scheduled to air on Talkshoe every Wednesday @ 1:14 in the afternoon. Why 1:14? I will let John tell you that... but it has it's own significance.
(Talkshoe link with appear on the Agents of Revenue site soon)
The website will have a email form available for all of you to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or other interesting and useful information. The show will only be on for 1/2 hour per week so we will not get to everyone's questions, but be assured... if its a good one, we will discuss it live.
Why "Agents of Revenue" as a name?
We just kinda landed there while discussing the concept of the show. We want to impart information which will help people produce what really counts, and that's real honest cold hard cash - or positive revenue.
We also want to enforce a no BS atmosphere and be matter of fact about what it takes to become revenue positive in eBusiness. Part of the show may be dedicated to John and I duking it out in a point counter point style on some subjects but overall we just want to bring a fresh, no nonsense perspective to the space.
The fedora hats are a Blues Brothers or Elliott Ness reference, they signify our goal of being straight shooters and honest advisors.
OK the Blues Brothers were neither, but they were very cool... they wanted to help the Sister, and they were ultimately very good at what they did for a living.
Elliot Ness just got the bad guys and he was Untouchable...
OK - along these lines comes a comment from one of the readers here on the Trading assistant Journal...
One of the biggest pain points for buyers on eBay is the checkout process.
With all of the third party solutions and off eBay checkout links there is no standardization of the payment process.
eBay aims to correct this mess and we have seen the first steps taken to do so with the elimination of paper payments.
While not everyone agrees with the ban on checks and money order payments, it could be supposed that most small merchants would appreciate an integrated merchant account capability within the eBay checkout itself. This would allow everyday merchants the ability to shop for merchant services accounts which fit thier needs and budget and still offer the buyer a choice to check out with a credit card at the time of purchase directly within eBay.
These Twitter Tweets are notes I am taking as I listen to the call. The notes I will place here will be merely my opinions and impressions of the meat of the conversation. For the actual transcript please contact eBay investor relations.
Prior to the "Investor Relations" teleconference, eBay will lay-off 10% of its workforce while the stock price hovers near a 5 year low.
I am scheduled to tune in to the investor relations call, and hope to gleen some sort of further insight from the information presented, but be assured eBay will promote this as a good move. It remains to be seen if Wall Street agrees (what with Wall Street having its own problems of late).
I will follow up after the early Monday call....
Oh, and sorry if you are one of the eBay employees packing up your desk today, really... I know it hurts.
John gained a greater audience, or dare I say his very first national audience through my insistence that he guest post here on the Trading Assistant Journal. You can review his guest post writings and other mentions on this site 
One of the biggest pain points for buyers on eBay is the checkout process. 