Question
High profile eBay seller 'eValueville' (they've been used in eBay advertising and promotional films, and they were a guest of honor at the first eBay Live convention in Anaheim in 2002) has shut down. They have also shut down their off-eBay website.
Note to customers and friends at their 'about me' page:
eValueville 'About Me' page
This posting is not intended as anything other than a reminder to all of us how difficult and evanescent this eBay selling can be. Good luck to eValueville and their employees.
Marie and Jay
Answer
They say they're coming back in 2004 - I wonder if that's true.
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Bottom line, they are losing money.
Nothing is easy on eBay.
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So doing ebay is an EXPENSE.....
are these people large enough for ebay to worry about?
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> So doing ebay is an EXPENSE.....
are these people large enough for ebay to worry about?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Well, eBay will have to find a new poster child. The promotional video that was shown in Anaheim quoted the CEO as saying they would soon be auctioning 10,000 items PER DAY on eBay, which was a number I heard several times that weekend.
EValueville was also one of the companies that met with Wall Street analysts earlier this year (at eBay's request). With hindsight it is at least a little embarassing for Channel Advisory and eBay, I suppose.
AuctionBytes article on Wall Street Presentation
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> They say they're coming back in 2004 - I wonder if that's true.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I'm afraid these types of press releases always say that. It calms down creditors.
Marie and Jay
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If they REALLY had a 75% sell through rate at an average of $60, and assuming ebay clipped them for about $5 per item average - then what was apparently what was killing them was high purchase prices on their items and vapor thin profit margins.
Thats the problem with 'numbers'. Its not theoretically difficult to sell $100,000 per month. Quite easy if you purchased $99,000 in merchandise wholesale.
The problem is profit.
And being a veteran of real life auctions (I've even worked for one) , recent trends are showing that with the economy tanking people are flocking to ebay to pay bills, but are so clueless that they are going way over retail for a wholesale market....
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Actually, it sounds to me as though they've committed lots of $$$ to programming and infrastructure... and a combination of overhead and the stuff mentioned above has done them in. It's always just a cash-flow problem, right? http://community.here.com/infopop/em.../icon_wink.gif
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Didn't eValueville take a break like this at least once before?
I would not be surprised if they returned in 2004.
Ms. C.
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"..our suppliers of merchandise are very focused on meeting the needs of their primary distribution channels during the 4th quarter of the year."
Does this mean that they can't get the volume of store returns and other backroom rejects that they need to sell on eBaY, during the fourth quarter? Is that what they are selling? Otherwise, I'm puzzled as to why they would say something about their suppliers. I'm not having any trouble getting stuff from my wholesalers.
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There's also less "excess" merchandise to be had in the higher-end clothing market.
An increasing number of "designer" brands are deliberately underproducing their hottest styles. Waiting lists that used to be the norm only at boutiques for very expensive items (as in $2,400+ purses and the like) are becoming common even at stores at the Banana Republic level. It's the new way to keep prices high and reduce discounting.
And with the 4th quarter focused on the holidays, the clothing labels' focus is on the full-price retailers -- not the close-out sellers. First-quarter '04 for them will likely depend on how good the retailers' sales are at Christmas.