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Goodbye Ebay- And Thanks...


Guitarfetish

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Tomorrow is our last day selling ANY of our products on ebay.

 

Three years ago I had the idea to take the pickups I had been hand winding for a select group of people and try and have them made in larger quantities. Wasn't thinking of building a business, just making a few bucks on the side and having enough product to rewire all of my 70's Strats!!

 

No money for a store, a NAMM show booth, magazine ads or artist endorsers, so I trademarked a brand name, had some boxes made and built an ebay store. Total up front investment for the sales end of the business was zero.

 

Right from the first minute the world took notice, stuff started to sell at auction, I added fixed price listings, got a bigger office, hired a guy to help etc. etc. The website didn't even happen until a full year later.

 

In three short years we've grown from ME and a card table to a multi million dollar business that is now able to play hardball with the world's largest factories, both in the States and overseas.

 

But it all started on ebay.

 

Unfortunately, as "Dealers" Started to realize that the party was on ebay they took advantage of the ebay store format- where you pay a penny or a nickel to list 100 items, and only pay a commission when they sell. Good deal for us. Then ebay changed the rules. Higher listing fees, Much, Much higher sell-through fees- All to discourage a guy from listing 100 pcs of "Ipod Nano 4GB" and NOT putting any up for auction to the highest bidder. The idea being that ebay is the thrill of the hunt, NOT a repository for vendors who could not afford to build their own web presence. I get it. But we sell ONLY our own proprietary stuff, and the ebay store was a real positive for our cusotmers- but the damned fees were too high.

 

Secondly- we had decided to keep an ebay presence- about 50% of our inventory on ebay. We looked at ebay as advertising. People could use the search tool, stumble upon us, love our stuff and migrate to our website to see the rest of the product line.

 

But then ebay started the "Keyword Spamming" stuff. We got busted because we put this title up- "GFS XX- Sounds like God". They took it down because we cannot compare ourselves to another product in the title. Since when is "GOD" a product? Can't use "Like", "Similar" "Same as" or any of those words in the title- even if you are not breaking the rules. No matter- auction ended. Even the "Fits Les Paul" was getting us in trouble. If people cannot FIND us on ebay- How can we sell on ebay? The dumbest one was when they cancelled all of our "Tortoiseshell" listings because tortoises are endangered!! It's PLASTIC. Ebay basically told us to go screw- and we were at one point putting nearly a Hundred Grand a year in their pockets- and they treated us like crap.

 

Well as we kept arguing with our incredibly arrogant reps at ebay a funny thing happened. The pickups we DID NOT sell on ebay became incredibly popular on our website. Sales on the website grew quickly, while ebay began to shrink. One day we wake up and ebay is only 15% of revenues. So I hate to lose the 15%, but so be it.

 

So I'll be on ebay under my personal account buying gretsch parts and Alfa Romeo fuel pumps and generic inkjet cartridges and stuff like that- but ebay as a sales tool for us is OVER!!The plan is to finish our ebay business and then tie in our master inventory with our web store so inventory is adjusted in real time- Now we run out of something before we can yank it from ebay- and ebay has their own rules- so sometimes an item closes that we do not have- nothing we can do about that.

 

So I hope getting off ebay will result in a smoother operation, better service, faster shipping and less hassle.

 

For those who ONLy found us through ebay and for those who now will NOt find us- That's life I guess.

 

So my apologies to those who wil miss us there- and my apologies if this is shilling on HC- Not my intent- Just a way to explain our actions. As always if you're a forumite with an issue or question please email me directly and I'll do my best to help you out- And THANKS to you HCEG'ers who have helped people find our website in the first place. I'm gonna give you guys a coupon code next week as a Thank You- I'll email it to one guy and he can spread the code here- i don't wanna break the rules. But you guys earned it!

 

Jay

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.....So I'll be on ebay under my personal account buying gretsch parts....

 

Goddammit! Stay way from my Grestch parts! {censored}er!:mad:

 

;)

 

Congrats for moving on...growth creates problems, and you're dealing with `em. That's one of the keys to continued success.:thu:

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I've gave Ebay the boot, as well. Having a physical storefront helps quite a bit, especially when it's right next to your house and included in your mortgage. The fees are up, non-paying bidders are up, after-auction haggling/extortion is up, paypal can be a nightmare for sellers as well. I remember when ebay was a decent place to do business. Only in the last couple years has it really gone to smash. A big FU to feebay.

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I know it's just as scammerific, but since Craig's List has hit the radar, I never go to fleabay anymore. Why? Because I can buy local, try stuff out, and there is that thrill of the hunt in finding something in my area. And I do sell there, but usually only local and have never had an issue. It's easy to spot the scammers there.

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Though I found your stuff through E-Bay, I never bought anything from there. In fact I never bought any until the pups started getting recognition over here. I don't think you'll be missing much by not being on E-Bay, at least not at this point.

 

Keep up the good work, Jay.

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Though I sometimes buy from eBay stores, if the company has any other Web presence I go there. For my Strat's new pickups, I went to your site rather than taking a chance on the Bay. 9 times out of 10 it simply isn't worth the trouble to deal with eBay in general, though some things are rare enough that there's really nowhere else to look.

 

By the way, I love the 70's NS Greybottoms I bought from you. I thought after I bought them that the mid might not be RW/RP since the page doesn't mention it, but I wired em up and lo and behold 2 and 4 are noiseless.

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Jay, you are to be congratulated for having the business sense to move your company to the next level.

 

 

I agree. Thanks to Ebay you were able to start a successful business. Now that business is successful and you don't really need Ebay anymore as they are no longer your main method of interfacing with your customers

 

Good luck and continued success

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I'm gonna give you guys a coupon code next week as a Thank You- I'll email it to one guy and he can spread the code here- i don't wanna break the rules. But you guys earned it!

 

 

Hotdiggaty!!!

 

I'll need to pull together an order, stat.

 

Jay, I'll bet you get a huge rush of orders next week. Better be prepared! :evil::D:thu:

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:thu:

 

A little over a year ago, I suggested staying on ebay, but lately they really put the screws to the sellers. I try to avoid selling there at all costs now the sorry bastards. Anyway, congrats on the business, :thu::thu: for leaving them as a business.

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Congrats on your success story. I think ebay help you find some customers, but you're so well known now that you don't need them. I first found you on ebay, but if I was looking for affordable pickups for the first time, I'm sure I would find you.

 

I got into ebay 6 years ago, and it was a different place back then. So much has changed so quickly. A big portion of the listings I see are from fixed price retailers selling at retail + shipping. I'm sure they make some money, but I live in a big city so I can get to any bricks and mortar store and save money there.

 

Long live craigslist for personally reselling stuff. The craigslist police do a good job of flagging regular retailers spamming stuff, so you don't have to wade through pages of pink guitars to find your wraparound bridge.

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Thanks Jay, I discovered you on Ebay. I must admit I won way too many auctions at low low prices. You always shipped. I still have a set of your Strat Pups in the box. I think I gave like $9 something for them. I need to buy you a few lunches.

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Jay, I found you on eBay long before you had the store. I've sent many a happy person to you since then. I'm glad that you have been so successful, it sounds like a super success story (let me know and I will write the book for you that can be turned into an after school special movie ;):D). The one thing I will miss about eBay was sliding in on an auction that no one was paying attention to and getting a great deal. I often would buy a pickup I didn't need at the moment, just to score the good deal. Maybe that is where the HC coupon will come in. I look forward to seeing your online store grow. Hey, what's the word on the kit guitars you talked about on here several months ago? And for all the haters who want to cry spam when you answer, please remember, I ASKED!!!!!

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Congrats on moving up. I also never bought anything from you through E-Bay, its just easier to go the website which I think is organized better than most and I love the descriptions of everything as well as what I consider to be very nice pictures of the items.

 

I had wondered why even bothered with E-bay, but the advertisement part makes a lot of sense.

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Hey Jay

Lets see some pics of your new guitar models?

 

 

Soon-

 

Hey thanks to everyone for the nice words- Someties forums like this can get really contentious, and it's nice every now and then to feel like I'm part of this community, even though I'm a filthy capitalist...

 

Jay

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Tomorrow is our last day selling ANY of our products on ebay.


Three years ago I had the idea to take the pickups I had been hand winding for a select group of people and try and have them made in larger quantities. Wasn't thinking of building a business, just making a few bucks on the side and having enough product to rewire all of my 70's Strats!!


No money for a store, a NAMM show booth, magazine ads or artist endorsers, so I trademarked a brand name, had some boxes made and built an ebay store. Total up front investment for the sales end of the business was zero.


Right from the first minute the world took notice, stuff started to sell at auction, I added fixed price listings, got a bigger office, hired a guy to help etc. etc. The website didn't even happen until a full year later.


In three short years we've grown from ME and a card table to a multi million dollar business that is now able to play hardball with the world's largest factories, both in the States and overseas.


But it all started on ebay.


Unfortunately, as "Dealers" Started to realize that the party was on ebay they took advantage of the ebay store format- where you pay a penny or a nickel to list 100 items, and only pay a commission when they sell. Good deal for us. Then ebay changed the rules. Higher listing fees, Much, Much higher sell-through fees- All to discourage a guy from listing 100 pcs of "Ipod Nano 4GB" and NOT putting any up for auction to the highest bidder. The idea being that ebay is the thrill of the hunt, NOT a repository for vendors who could not afford to build their own web presence. I get it. But we sell ONLY our own proprietary stuff, and the ebay store was a real positive for our cusotmers- but the damned fees were too high.


Secondly- we had decided to keep an ebay presence- about 50% of our inventory on ebay. We looked at ebay as advertising. People could use the search tool, stumble upon us, love our stuff and migrate to our website to see the rest of the product line.


But then ebay started the "Keyword Spamming" stuff. We got busted because we put this title up- "GFS XX- Sounds like God". They took it down because we cannot compare ourselves to another product in the title. Since when is "GOD" a product? Can't use "Like", "Similar" "Same as" or any of those words in the title- even if you are not breaking the rules. No matter- auction ended. Even the "Fits Les Paul" was getting us in trouble. If people cannot FIND us on ebay- How can we sell on ebay? The dumbest one was when they cancelled all of our "Tortoiseshell" listings because tortoises are endangered!! It's PLASTIC. Ebay basically told us to go screw- and we were at one point putting nearly a Hundred Grand a year in their pockets- and they treated us like crap.


Well as we kept arguing with our incredibly arrogant reps at ebay a funny thing happened. The pickups we DID NOT sell on ebay became incredibly popular on our website. Sales on the website grew quickly, while ebay began to shrink. One day we wake up and ebay is only 15% of revenues. So I hate to lose the 15%, but so be it.


So I'll be on ebay under my personal account buying gretsch parts and Alfa Romeo fuel pumps and generic inkjet cartridges and stuff like that- but ebay as a sales tool for us is OVER!!The plan is to finish our ebay business and then tie in our master inventory with our web store so inventory is adjusted in real time- Now we run out of something before we can yank it from ebay- and ebay has their own rules- so sometimes an item closes that we do not have- nothing we can do about that.


So I hope getting off ebay will result in a smoother operation, better service, faster shipping and less hassle.


For those who ONLy found us through ebay and for those who now will NOt find us- That's life I guess.


So my apologies to those who wil miss us there- and my apologies if this is shilling on HC- Not my intent- Just a way to explain our actions. As always if you're a forumite with an issue or question please email me directly and I'll do my best to help you out- And THANKS to you HCEG'ers who have helped people find our website in the first place. I'm gonna give you guys a coupon code next week as a Thank You- I'll email it to one guy and he can spread the code here- i don't wanna break the rules. But you guys earned it!


Jay

 

I'm right with you. I've been buying and selling on ebay for years, but they have really gotten out of hand. Fees are through the roof, and the new "final value fee" is complete crap. Plus, if you use paypal it gets even worse! I do not have a store on ebay, but I'm getting to where I do less and less on their site. Plus, if you run into a problem, they could care less. I think they treat everyone like a steaming pile of poo.

 

Something better needs to come along....soon. Ebay is terrible. :mad:

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