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What a surpise...not
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m01/i10/s00
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I know I'm missing the point, but it always appeared to me that AuctionDrop developed a huge infrastructure to do what most of us do quite comfortably out of our homes. The only real difference is that we get up and go out scrounging ....
Christine
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AuctionDrop spokesperson Andrea Roesch confirmed the store closings and layoffs, which were completed last week. "Our business has evolved as we've learned about this industry," Roesch said.
"Evolved" is an interesting choice of words. Isn't the english language great?
Randy Adams, Bill Rollinson and Andy Jeffrey founded AuctionDrop in 2002. It opened its first store in San Carlos, California in March 2003, announcing it had received venture capital funding from Draper Associates and Mobius Venture Capital. Three months later, AuctionDrop announced it had completed a $2.5 million round of funding led by Mobius Venture Capital and Draper Associates, bringing the total raised to over $3 million.
By November 2003, AuctionDrop had opened its fourth store in the San Francisco Bay Area, and it secured an additional $3 million in VC funding from Mobius Venture Capital and Draper Associates in December. The new funding, which brought the total to over $6.5 million, was slated to be used to begin national expansion.
Hands please... how many of you people here think you could "learn about this industry" with a $6.5 million stake?
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Well.......knock me over with a feather. There goes another million dollar idea.
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Do you or would you do ebay for other people, like auctiondrop or trading partner?
I've done it a few times for friends, without much success. People have over-rated ideas of the value of their stuff. Last month I listed a buddha stone from china for a friend, and it did not sell. It was the 3rd time it had been listed. Racked up about $20 in fees, and I am still waiting for him to reimburse me.
I turned down a friend of a friends plea for me to sell some pickle servers (servers?) cause he had them appraised at $300 or more, and the same ones were going for $50-60 on ebay. But he "just knew" that his would go for the appraised value. He did not understand that ebay is what ebay is.
A friend of mine sells high-end bikes for her son, and even there it's a major hassle for her to get the kid to ship the bikes in a timely manner.
I've thought about doing it professionally, here, from time to time, but I just don't know if it would be worth the hassle. I mean, I would have to have rules and such.
?
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I have and do do it on occaision
I turn down three or four offers aweek.....now it doesn't matter how sweet a deal sounds, I don't have time to listen.
But someone locally is advertising in the paper and I just hand out their number
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Geez, I told you guys this was happening 6 months ago.
AuctionBytes is pretty slow on the uptake, IMHO.
The partnership with UPS is a loser, too. AD has drastically reduced the number and types of merchandise it will accept, hoping to skim just the cream.
fLufF
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I'm watching an Ebay drop site locally, expecting to see the doors barred any time now.
They run FULL PAGE newspaper ads (to the tune of thousands of dollars a pop), they rent an expensive location on a major highway near a mall. Every time I drive by I see the same three vehicles parked outside. I can't imagine they can be making enough money to cover the advertising and rent they are paying, not to mention any employee costs they might have.
Their ads say they take items valued at $50 and above.
Oh man, I would hate to be sitting there and facing someone like my uncle who thinks everything he owns is worth more than gold, and is a grumpy old man to boot.
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Oh, in case you don't habla AuctionFlop-speak:
Today AuctionDrop announced the appointment of George Northup to the new role of Chief Financial Officer. Roesch said Northup wants the company to have as lean a corporate structure as possible.
That means more firings. And if that doesn't turn the company around in a jiffy, that means a fire sale of the remaining assets to recoup what they can.
"We are also exploring other possible corporate relationships, but there is nothing we can talk about at this point."
Translated from AuctionFlop-ese that means:
"Hey eBay, buy us. Please. And hurry!"
Trouble is, they don't have any assets worth acquiring. Their fabled research comes straight from Andale. AFAIK, all their other software is other peoples' stuff, straight out of the box. The rest is a few computers, a few cameras, some Gorilla Racks and maybe that big AuctionFlop truck I used to see driving around town.
fLufF
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im glad to see them failing. Makes more room for the little guys to be trading assistants.