Anyone interested in launching our own sellers market site ?....

[XHIBIT]

98% is not a terrible feedback score.
1 was from 11 months prior that I should had bit my tongue on but didnt. That I take responsibility for (which was actually the post offices fault due to last years blizzard which delayed flights and shipping nationally).
The 2nd one was from a fraudulent claim.
So before you assume, make sure you KNOW.
Even the supervisors I spoke with said they didnt understand why there was a problem with my case.


So if 2 negatives out of 411 positives and all stars is terrible to you...then so be it, it doesn't really matter to me and that's not the purpose of this thread.

YOU said 98% of people violated eBays T.O.S ...not me.
And thats not true.

[FrancisK]

Originally Posted by XHIBIT

98% is not a terrible feedback score.
1 was from 11 months prior that I should had bit my tongue on but didnt. That I take responsibility for (which was actually the post offices fault due to last years blizzard which delayed flights and shipping nationally).
The 2nd one was from a fraudulent claim.
So before you assume, make sure you KNOW.
Even the supervisors I spoke with said they didnt understand why there was a problem with my case.


So if 2 negatives out of 411 positives and all stars is terrible to you...then so be it, it doesn't really matter to me and that's not the purpose of this thread.

YOU said 98% of people violated eBays T.O.S ...not me.
And thats not true.

Well I only know what you told me and you told me you had been suspended previously and had 98% feedback.

If I am looking to purchase something and see you have 98% feedback I will look for another seller first.

If you were suspended previously how exactly do you figure you never violated TOS?

Look I'm not trying to get into a pissing match with you, like I said I would be the first one to congratulate you and offer support. All I am trying to say is your own actions contributed to the suspension of your account, I know people don't want to hear that but it's the truth. If you had 99.8% feedback and it was your first violation on record they certainly would not have suspended you.

I know that because I get silly violations all the time on my accounts for things that are grey area, I just call them up, explain and everything is hunky dory again. Either they apologize and take care of it for me or I don't relist the item or anything similar to it ever again. Ebay doesn't want to get rid of you if you are an established seller, you have to give them a reason to.



Again the very very vast majority of people on these forums lead to their own demise, knowingly or not. There are outliers but it certainly is not the norm, like in prison where everyone thinks they're innocent? They'll never get on with their lives and will always be criminals because they don't think they did anything wrong.

Bad analogy I know.....

[XHIBIT]

The suspension was because last year there was a MAJOR delay in shipping due to a blizzard in the Northeast where I live. The airports up and down the eastern seaboard were closed for days. I had a 3 day shipping policy listed (that eBay encourages sellers to use). It was out of my hands and the buyer made a stink about it because he couldnt wear his jersey to the game due to the blizzard.

Not only did I make eBay aware of it, they even posted a possible shipping delay bulletin on the site itself but didnt consider my individual case and I received a 3 day suspension.

In hindsight, just to shut the whiny buyer up I could have spent 30.00 or so bucks and sent another one via UPS overnight delivery....but then I would not had only lost out on shipping, but a 2nd item which the original would never had been returned once he received it.

It was just a tough break for me and these things happen.

Also, who you speak to at eBay and how you speak to them can be determining factors.
if your rep. is mad at his nagging wife, has a hangover, and got bit by the dog for kicking the cat, then you're basically at his mercy regardless.

[FrancisK]

Originally Posted by XHIBIT

The suspension was because last year there was a MAJOR delay in shipping due to a blizzard in the Northeast where I live. The airports up and down the eastern seaboard were closed for days. I had a 3 day shipping policy listed (that eBay encourages sellers to use). It was out of my hands and the buyer made a stink about it because he couldnt wear his jersey to the game due to the blizzard.

Not only did I make eBay aware of it, they even posted a possible shipping delay bulletin on the site itself but didnt consider my individual case and I received a 3 day suspension.

In hindsight, just to shut the whiny buyer up I could have spent 30.00 or so bucks and sent another one via UPS overnight delivery....but then I would not had only lost out on shipping, but a 2nd item which the original would never had been returned once he received it.

It was just a tough break for me and these things happen.

Also, who you speak to at eBay and how you speak to them can be determining factors.
if your rep. is mad at his nagging wife, has a hangover, and got bit by the dog for kicking the cat, then you're basically at his mercy regardless.

I'm definitely with you 100% on that one. Sometimes when I get that "guy" when I call in I hang up and call back for another rep. Really it's all up to them, they can always get done for you what you're asking but it's all about their mood.

[First Edition]

Originally Posted by FrancisK

I read exactly what you wrote, 98% is a terrible feedback score and you were previously suspended for something else. You were a problem so ebay disposed of you, it's not a special circumstance.

If it's a terrible feedback score, don't buy from the guy. Customers see feedback prior to bidding. When ebay first started they wouldn't kick anyone based on feedback, but instead they preached "buyer beware". And it should be that way.

[RedShootingStar]

hope you all have a good lawyer. and i am sure once one issue arises you all will flee

[freedomplz]

Originally Posted by First Edition

Wrong. You're projecting your own experiences onto strangers. There are a lot of people that have been kicked because they sell high risk, they sell as sole proprietors, they have bad credit... in 2008 they were kicking people off with 99% positive feedback and 3.8 DSR's. When you say things like this, it makes me not care what else you have to say, because you don't consider every circumstance, and you're not looking at the bigger picture. Perhaps you assume everyone is kicked for a good reason because you were?

Some people just want to be able to sell in a stealth fashion... others have been kicked for good reasons, others have been kicked because they moved into a house of a suspended seller, for example.



Although, I have been trying to tell these guys ebay is a business, and there are good reasons why they do the things they do. If you think you can run a site without doing these things, you're wrong, and naive.

We need to establish standards. If a seller deliberately/knowingly sells stolen goods and there is proof, I say give him the boot & report him to the authorities.
Everyone else needs to be evaluated almost on a case by case basis.

For example: A seller who has been around for several years ships 12 defective units (brand new sealed in boxes). He stops when he discovers there is a problem and replaces the units or refunds the buyers. He has 7 ignorant, irate buyers who want to dismember him, so the just leave really nasty feedback. Such a seller needs to be lauded His negative feedback should not count. An official explanation needs to be attached to the feedback. We need sellers like that.

Sellers run the gamut. That is why I keep emphasizing the human aspect will make our site friendly for both buyers and sellers.

[freedomplz]

Originally Posted by FrancisK

Well I only know what you told me and you told me you had been suspended previously and had 98% feedback.

If I am looking to purchase something and see you have 98% feedback I will look for another seller first.

If you were suspended previously how exactly do you figure you never violated TOS?

Look I'm not trying to get into a pissing match with you, like I said I would be the first one to congratulate you and offer support. All I am trying to say is your own actions contributed to the suspension of your account, I know people don't want to hear that but it's the truth. If you had 99.8% feedback and it was your first violation on record they certainly would not have suspended you.

I know that because I get silly violations all the time on my accounts for things that are grey area, I just call them up, explain and everything is hunky dory again. Either they apologize and take care of it for me or I don't relist the item or anything similar to it ever again. Ebay doesn't want to get rid of you if you are an established seller, you have to give them a reason to.



Again the very very vast majority of people on these forums lead to their own demise, knowingly or not. There are outliers but it certainly is not the norm, like in prison where everyone thinks they're innocent? They'll never get on with their lives and will always be criminals because they don't think they did anything wrong.

Bad analogy I know.....

What is that number you call? Do you have a contact at ebay to smooth things over every time? I have had to deal with crappy service from reps who had no concept of the meaning of customer support. Now I have encountered some reps that I wanted to kiss over the phone. However minor violations can lead to suspension. If you make 10,000 rules then there are more possibility for infraction than if you make 75 rules. We need to ensure that our new site does not make a list of unnecessary arbitrary rules - not too many "gotchas". If you have such a perfect record, you deserve a halo. However many of us humans have had run ins with ebay because of invalid VERO claims or ignorant, irate buyers who would ot be happy if you gave them their money back and asked them to keep the item as a goodwill gesture.

[XHIBIT]

Yes I concur the HUMAN ASPECT is very very relevant to a successful sellers market.
Every business cannot operate with an iron rule and expect longevity.
There's a shelf life to what people will be willing to tolerate and most companies that have cracked the multi million dollar mark seem to forget that fairness and courtesy should always remain the hallmark of their industry.

[gamezoom]

Good Luck, Bonazle did it im sure you can also. I already started at the same goal way long ago. Im sure mine will work also

[Pringles]

im one of those who are here because of a family member.
anyway good luck OP let us know how it goes

[slapped]

Although I COMPLETELY Agree with all the Posts above that talk about the "Human Factor" I do KNOW that the Human Factor is VERY Expensive. If Ebay was to use Humans for EVERY case they would need many THOUSANDS more employees, which would leave for a FAR Greater margin for error.

Ebay Knows that it is Better off Permanently suspending Tens of Thousands of Honest sellers who make mistakes on Ebay with customers for whatever reason than allowing Hundreds of Dishonest sellers having the ability to Convince a Human that they deserve a Second Chance or something like that. Buyer protection claims would SOAR. They may even be forced to STOP the Buyer Protection insurance, which would KILL the amount of Buyers on Ebay.

Also Remember Ebay does NOT hire the Brightest People, They would NOT even Hire Americans for that job, Most of Ebay and Paypals "Call Centers" are in INDIA.

It is ALWAYS easy to TALK about something like the Human factor, but the Difficulities involved with what you discuss begin to manifest themselves when you IMPLEMENT the Human Factor. It is NOT so easy

[XHIBIT]

YUP !
Thats why its a very thin line on a slippery slope in my opinion.
I think that by exercising greater control over WHO and what is allowed to sell nips alot of the foo foo sellers and items in the bud for a while (until the site grows that is).
Then the HUMAN FACTOR can also become a liability at that point.
Rules are rules and must be adhered too, otherwise the entire machine collapses under its own weight.

Each instance or case would have to be reviewed with a much greater scrutiny with many factors influencing the final outcome.

Perhaps raising a sellers fees for a 6 months after his second offense along with a brief suspension could be a deterrent.

Also limiting the amount of items the seller is able to list in a month until a review is given could also counter a lot of problems.

eBay started off by allowing anyone to sell and almost anything to be sold.
After their numbers grew and they made some legitimate money things changed as expected. But at one point they did have a human factor, now they have a money factory.

[imjustme]

The problem with eBay is the size. If you have 10,000 or 100,000 possible people breaking rules every single day, how do you handle that with only humans?

And limiting seller activity or punishing sellers with higher fees isn't a solution. eBay is already doing that, and we see how sellers are reacting to it.

[XHIBIT]

A new smaller site isn't eBay though, therefore its easier to control WHO and WHAT is allowed to sell there.
I'm not looking at it as being an instant eBay rival simply because it never will become one.
The smaller the site, the less problems.
When the site grows and these problems become pertinent as well as constant then obviously a new course of action will be implemented.

It seems I cant stress this enough when I say, having more control of who sells and the items they are listing is the key factor here.

EVERYONE will not be allowed to list items.

Its a privilege not a right.

[First Edition]

How do you plan on making a profit?

It seems I cant stress this enough when I say, having more control of who sells and the items they are listing is the key factor here.

< now I'm confused. How will these be different from ebay?

Its a privilege not a right.

< ebay has said this several times.

[XHIBIT]

Its already built into the script how I will make a profit. And only members need to know.
As they make money, then I make money...nowhere near as much as eBay because I'm not trying to be greedy.
The site will pretty much govern itself because as stated over and over "There will be a much greater control over who and what is allowed to sell and be listed".

Sellers can transfer their ebay feedbacks with a 1 button click that auto integrates.
I have a pretty big network and own quite a few websites that I can post banner links too. And eBay sellers that are admitted can attach notes to their invoices alerting their buyers of the alternative site.

Its not as hard as people make it out to be.

Plus I will be listing my own items there.

There are front page options, bold listings, seller stores, different membership packages, vouchers....long story short it has 50 times more options than ebay offers and different means to accept payment.

[GrannyT]

When do we kick off?

[XHIBIT]

I've uploaded the script and will be adding products to check the features out first. To use as a demo.

Members will have the ability of having their own stores with multiple options (its a hellauva lot to list so keep checking back).

One small example is if you own a store (you can also list on the site homepage as a Featured Listing or Preferred Seller with multiple options for that as well).

If its listed onsite then you can have standard or dutch auctions with a buy out now option.
I've discovered as an incentitive that if its listed in both (store and onsite) you can list a permanent buy now price in store and as an auction have a start listing and a slightly higher buy now price. What better way to lure customers to buy directly from your store than multiple listings, because in the end it saves them a few bucks.

Also theres an option to speed up the auction timer if a buyer bids.

Example:

If you have an onsite listing for 3 days, and someone bids and meets your price...the item jumps up to 1 or 2 days remaining (as opposed to having to wait 3 days for the bidding wars to begin if people really want that item).


Like I said this script has 50 times more options than eBay does.

Reverse Auctions
Wanted Ads
Multiple Categories (far better than eBays)

and MUCH MUCH MORE


It probably would take about an hour to list everything in a post but I plan to just as soon as I personally test everything out to see what I will have enabled.

I can suspended sellers/buyers...ban, limit and the amount of payment options is ridiculous.

Anyways as soon as I get a few things ironed out, I'll link my working demo.

[imjustme]

Originally Posted by XHIBIT

I can suspended sellers/buyers...ban, limit and the amount of payment options is ridiculous.

Yaaaay

[XHIBIT]

I dont even see why a handful of people who have already voiced they have no interest in the project continue posting here.

You've made your points, the points have been noted...so move on instead of hatin.

Its sad that if people dont agree they have to be ugly about it and try to ridicule ideas.

Either way, its going to happen and its faaaaarrrrrrrr more support than it is naysayers. So from here out I wont be responding to the negativity whatsoever.



Constructive criticism is ok, and I welcome and embrace it, but attempting to derail with constant negativity regardless of how subtle or brash it is only drives me to get this going even more.

[XHIBIT]

The following is a brief list of SOME (not all) of the features/options that this script is capable of. I want even get into the mod add ons that are available and its over 200 that I've checked out thus far.



The site setup menu allows you to change the sites basic settings, including:-

Site name
Site URL
Mail type
Admin E-Mail address
Site skin
Site logo
Default language
Enable/disable maintenance mode

General Settings

Set user registration settings
Define how many days after an item closes it is removed from the database
Set your home page featured item preferences
Set your category featured item preferences
Set how many recently listed items are displayed
Set how many popular auctions are displayed
Set how many ending soon auctions are displayed
Set how many wanted ads are displayed
Control your image settings, including how many images can be uploaded per listing and the maximum file size per image
Set your currency settings, including the sites default currency, display format and decimal digits
Set your time settings, from here you can offset your sites time against the server time
Enable SSL support on the user end
Enter your general meta tags
Select how to run your cron jobs. The cron jobs are used to keep the site updated and close items on time etc. There are two ways in which to run the cron jobs, 1) from your server 2) from the software. This section allows you to set which method you wish to use
Define the minimum registration age
Select your buy out methods, this allows you to enable "buy it now", "make an offer" or both
Invoice settings, add a header/footer notice to your fee invoices

Enable/Disable Menu

Enable/Disable shipping costs
Enable/Disable the user end login box
Enable/Disable the user end news box
Enable/Disable the registration and listing terms and conditions fields
Enable/Disable the "item swap" feature
Enable/Disable user end stat counter
Enable/Disable second category listing
Enable/Disable the user end language engine
Enable/Disable anti-sniping
Enable/Disable private site. Private site enables you to run the site as select seller venue only. If enabled you can select which registered users are able to list items for sale on your site.
Enable/Disable preferred sellers discount. This feature allows you to offer a percentage reduction to selected users on all site fees.
Enable/Disable BCC E-Mail to admin
Enable/Disable "Ask the seller a question" feature
Enable/Disable Wanted Ads
Enable/Disable bid retraction
Enable/Disable others items from same seller (displayed on item details page)
Enable/Disable Bulk Lister
Enable/Disable category counters
Enable/Disable the display of sellers/buyers telephone numbers
Enable/Disable the mod_rewrite engine
Enable/Disable auctions approval. This feature enables you to verify all items that are listed before they go live on your site.
Enable/Disable seller verification

Edit Tables Menu:-

Add/Edit/Delete countries
Add/Edit/Delete auction durations
Add/Edit/Delete bid increments
Add/Edit/Delete off-line payment options
Add/Edit/Delete shipping options

Site Content Menu

Setup and control vouchers
Add/Edit/Delete help topics
Add/Edit/Delete news items
Add/Edit/Delete F-A-Q topics
Edit the about us page
Edit the contact us page
Edit the general terms and conditions page
Edit the privacy policy page
Add/Edit/Delete custom pages
Edit system emails
Edit user end language file
Add/Edit/Delete user announcements
Add/Edit/Delete ad banners

User Management Menu

Add/Edit/Delete new admin users
View full details of all registered users, including:-
Active/Suspend users
Verify users as sellers
Delete users
Enable/Disable auction approval
Enable/Disable selling privileges
Change accounting mode
View items listed by user
View bids placed by user
E-Mail user
View/edit user details
Alter users balance (add credits/debits)

Setup registration custom fields
Login as a site user
Manage user reputation comments
Add custom reputation fields (for sales and purchases)
Re-send activation E-Mail
Send newsletter to registered users
Ban/block users
View abuse reports

Auction Management

View and manage open auctions
View all closed items
View suspended auctions
View auctions pending admin approval
View sold items
Setup custom listing fields
Manage wanted ads
Setup custom wanted ad listing fields
Manage user-user messages

Stores Management

Enable/Disable user stores
Create and manage store subscription packages
Manage live stores

Categories

Add/Edit/Delete site categories

Fees

Set main settings, including account type:-

ACCOUNT MODE FEATURES:-

Users can build up a account which is paid off once a month or annually. The admin user can set the credit limit any user can go to. Once the credit limit is reached the users account is blocked until they make payment. The admin user can also send any invoice requesting payment. You can also give any user free credit or debit their account. This allows sellers to lists items without having to pay each time. Overall it works like eBay.

PAY AS YOU GO FEATURES:-

Users pay fees on demand. For example when listing an auction the seller must pay their fees before the item is listed. If you enable Pay As You Go the system will forward the seller to the relevant payment page and prompt them to pay the listing fees. If the seller fails to pay the listing fee the auction isn't listed. The end of auction fee works slightly differently. When a sellers successfully sells an item the buyers contact details are withheld until they login into the members area and pay the end of auction fee. Once it's paid the buyers details are forwarded to the seller.

Set signup credit incentive
Set the maximum credit level
Set your suspension preferences
Setup your payment settings, within PHP Pro Bid you can choose to accept payments through any of the below merchants:-

PayPal
Nochex
WorldPay
Ikobo
Protx
2Checkout
Authorize.net
MoneyBookers

Setup and edit your site fees, including-
User signup fee
Auction setup fee (set or percentage based)
End of auction fee (set or percentage based)
Home page featured item fee
Category featured fee
Highlighted banner fee
Bold text fee
Wanted Ad fee
Item Swap fee
Custom listing time fee
Buy it now fee
Reserve price fee
"Make an offer" fee
Re-listing fee reduction
Second category fee
Image/media upload fee


*
I have 2 category listings set for FREE to give sellers better exposure

Accounting & Taxation Menu

Review your sites accountancy, by month/week/day or all
Create your taxation codes and rules
Set your exemption rules

Tools Menu

Word filter
Block free E-Mail addresses
Currency converter




This is just a partial list and believe me when I say its much much more. I havent even started on the mod/add ons yet and I'm going slowly to master each feature and iron out any potential wrinkles.



More to come...

Also for a private demo tour just PM me