Re: F*** the big merchant portals... a thread for building your own thing
I have a few stealth accounts after getting kicked off of ebay years ago. They used to have the featured listing option, for $19 an auction and I used to use that to get first or second page placement, as I had a six figure business with them. I paid them approx. $5000 a month. We had three sites at one time, all legit, and the auctions stopped showing up and the sales started to dwindle. For months I was asking my rep., who claimed to have no idea. Come to find out, ebay had cancelled the program but was still taking sellers money! I paid for months without knowing, and they eventually ended up with a class action lawsuit after so many of us weren't able to cover our fees, and they kicked us all off. They did that for THREE YEARS! Awful. They owe me thousands of dollars..we all got a couple of hundred in the suit and I am still banned for life! The only way to make money is to use ebay as your conduit to get customers for your own business. One sale on ebay should be all a customer does, from then on they should be buying on your site. That is the only way to protect yourself as they are not your friend! You own the customer once they purchase. You can contact them by email and you can put your information in the package. Do they read it? Not necessarily, but I have found a way to give them something that they do read and they do keep! It works and has freed me. I also use an automated mail program to keep in touch with them. I would be happy to talk to anyone about this and help anyone who wants to use my system. They have too much control and they do not care about you or your business. You have to play by the rules of course, but also cover your back. I learned the hard way, but I learned!! Anyone who wants to message me is more than welcome. We can use them the way they use us.....
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