Micah Alpern: eBay

eBay ranks high in consumer trust and satisfaction

Sun, 13 Jun 2004 17:28:36 GMT

ClickZ Networks "Already a valuable resource for small businesses eBay has also proven to be the most trusted company according to a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe." The Ponemon Institutes didn't post the study on their website, but the ClickZ Networks article talks a little about their methodology.

eBay also did very well in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

From Forsee results "eBay is the one non-retail e-commerce company that is among the elite of the ACSI. Their score of 84 is among the strongest of any company measured in the Index."

The ACSI group publishes their results online, although some of the links are broken. Here are the results for Q4 2003.

Amazon's number are a little higher (88) than eBay's but we're growing faster.
I looked for Microsoft's Q4 numbers but the link on was broken.
- A little help from the google index turns up MSN's Q3 2003 customer satifaction score was 74.
- Scoble, you should tell the MSN fokes to get it in gear.
Googles score in Q2 was 82. I wonder what they received in Q4.

eBay announcement board and system announcements via RSS

Tue, 08 Jun 2004 05:40:27 GMT

from InternetNews.com:

Senior manager of developer relations at eBay, Jeffrey McManus, announced the RSS rollout on his weblog and said the feeds would be used to push special offers, promotions and system status messages via RSS. "[There are] highly recommended if you use a Weblog reader and are the least bit serious about using eBay," McManus said.
...
The RSS feeds, which appear to be targeting the hardcore eBay buyer and shopper, are available here:
General Announcements and System Announcements.

We'll we haven't gone as far as Phil Wolf is thinking but eBay is finally embracing RSS. Yeh!

Other 3rd party developers are out in front leveraging eBay and RSS in other innovative ways.

Rummaging: eBay is a platform for celebrity transactions.

Sat, 29 May 2004 17:36:50 GMT

Scoble writes:

Rummaging (a blog that follows eBay and auction trends) says I missed what makes eBay special. "eBay allows people their fifteen minutes in an explicitly transactional manner. In that, it epitomises the age. This seems far more important than statistics about year-on-year revenue growth."

Review of Selling Manager Pro

Tue, 21 Oct 2003 14:53:50 GMT

Knarf.ca is a weblog for eBay sellers. Thier tagline is "Helping you auction more effectivelly."

They have advice on photos, shipping, image hosting, Paypal, a nice review of Selling Manager Pro:

"So How do I like Selling Manager? One of the tools available from eBay. I thought that it was a good tool to simplify the selling process. Was it the best tool for the job? That is yet to be determined. Here is what selling Manager does:

When you start an auction Selling Manager makes it easy to follow the auction from start to finish. You cannot create an auction with it but once you have created the auction Selling Manager Takes over the rest of the job. In all stages of the auction selling manager moves the auction thru the process. Once you sign up for Selling Manager(SM) you will notice that it replaces you Selling tab in My eBay. Your auctions are now sorted into Five categories, Pending Listings, Active Listings Sold Listings. Unsold Listings and Archived Listings the sold listings is the most valuable tab there. It is where you get the most use out of SM." Read more.

Art Exhibit on eBay

Mon, 20 Oct 2003 14:39:59 GMT

Goatsilk, an art studio in Montana, is presenting and selling a show on eBay:

"You are bidding on a conceptual artwork called The ebay Show. The ebay Show has been on physical display at Goatsilk Gallery in Missoula, Montana, since Sept. 5, 2003, and has been viewed by countless others on the internet at http://www.goatsilk.com. The exhibit consists of nine works purchased off ebay - in the last year - for $25 dollars or less. "

"The e-bay show uses artwork purchased on the internet to reveal the internet itself as a work of art. No other technology has comparable power to change the way we live or is so widely used as the internet, which is very young. The e-bay show introduces new possibilities for the dissemination of art and thus captures the infinite number of developments and effects that the internet might bring. For technology always signals a portent of the future. It [eBay] effects our psyche like an effective art. What interests and troubles us is the tendency for people, artists in particular, to judge technology as depersonalizing or destructive while at the same time remaining committed to art."

"Goatsilk is an artist run exhibition space existing in a 1000 square foot garage which was once a used for storing semi-trucks in the winter months. Our name, Goatsilk, comes from an experimental material currently being produced in Canada, where scientists have fused spider genes with the goat genome to raise female goats that produce spider silk in the milk from their udders. We feel that this practical yet bizarre implementation--and its sense of possibility-parallels the dynamisms in the art we strive for. As the only art space of its kind in Montana, Goatsilk is devoted to providing a unique forum for ideas, art, and action."

Fellow eBay Blogger

Tue, 14 Oct 2003 14:37:55 GMT

I just discovered another eBay blogger, Jeffrey McManus.

Here's his bio from the O'Reilly Open Source Conference:

Jeffrey McManus is eBay's Senior Manager of Developer Relations. He has evangelism responsibilities pertaining to the eBay API and eBay Developers Program (http://developer.ebay.com). He is also a developer and has written several books on software development, most recently co-authoring the Addison-Wesley titles "The C# Developer's Guide to ASP.NET, XML and ADO.NET" and "Database Access with VB.NET." He has given technical seminars at developer conferences in North America and Europe, most recently at the eBay Live! conference in Orlando last week. His most recent publication was for the O'Reilly OnDotNet.com site, to which he contributed an article on the .NET open source tool NAnt in January of this year.

Jeff was also at the recent O'Reilly Foo Camp.

Doll Collecting: 10 Tips for Improving Your eBay Auction Prices

Tue, 14 Oct 2003 14:36:58 GMT

"Right now, there is a huge glut of dolls for sale on eBay. With eBay in operation for well over five years, more and more sellers have joined eBay to run auctions. This means that even wonderful dolls can be overlooked by buyers, and that sellers have to work extra-hard to get their product noticed and have it sell for top-dollar." [Denise Van Patten of About.com]

US Postal Service and eBay

Wed, 08 Oct 2003 14:32:35 GMT

ComputerWorld: "The U.S. Postal Service and eBay are offering online access to postal products, services and shipping tools to make it easier to sell goods at the auction site."

Creating Customer Evangelists

Wed, 08 Oct 2003 08:19:53 GMT

There's an interesting discussion about why "Tivo hasn't tipped" at customerevangelists.com.

TiVo is a cause, not a product. Every single thing the company does should be about the cause: rallying people to change their lives. How many times have you heard people say that TiVo has changed their life? President Colleen Barrett and CEO Jim Parker say that Southwest isn't an airline, it's a cause. That's TiVo, too.

Has anyone read their book? It looks interesting. I like the fact that they sell a signed unabridged version on CD read by the authors.

Scoble "arrow" John Porcaro "arrow" Jackie Huba "arrow" Creating Customer Evangelists

Amazon checks into Microsofts Office

Wed, 08 Oct 2003 07:53:38 GMT

CNET News.com: "A writer who's typing a bibliography in a Word document, for example, could click on the name of a book to get catalog information or cover art from Amazon.

Microsoft is making a major effort to encourage partners to build online services that exploit the new Office's XML capabilities, as service providers see Office as a familiar interface that will encourage greater consumption of Web services. Early backers include Factiva, a Dow Jones-owned online research service, and online payment services from eBay's PayPal. "

Bad speling, good deels

Sat, 04 Oct 2003 17:30:34 GMT

The Midnight Blog: "How to get a cheap palm pilot. Search for Plam Pilot on Ebay, according to Cory Doctorows classic essay on Metadata, Metacrap. I tried it today, and sure enough you can find a plam pilot for $5."

eBay Collectibles Summit 2003: The eBay Campus

Thu, 02 Oct 2003 15:27:23 GMT

Barbara Crews of Collectibles at About.com writes:

"Recently eBay hosted a Collectibles Summit, bringing together a cross section of approximately twenty editors, publishers, appraisers, etc. from the World of Collecting.

The objectives of the meeting were to share information, identify challenges and develop ways to work together. The one point reiterated several times throughout the summit was "eBay is committed to Collectibles". eBay feels that Collectibles is their keystone and are dedicated to keeping those roots strong, as they continue to create a marketplace for hard-to-find and vintage items. But first a little bit about the grounds...

The lobby is simple, but attractive with a display of Pez that is seen as the front doors are entered... Once we were into the actual office areas, it looked no different than any computer oriented company."

Obviously she didn't make it up to the eBay Design Labs

That's were the crazies live. ;)

Connecting People

Thu, 02 Oct 2003 07:35:04 GMT

Marc Canter writes:

David Kirkpatrick on Soical Networking. Fortune's David Kirkpatrick on social-networking sites.

Fortune's David Kirkpatrick just posted his story on social-networking sites. My obsession with LinkedIn is cited in the story.

By Joichi Ito jito@neoteny.com. [Joi Ito's Web]

This is a really smart article - analyzing the current state of social networking.

There may be a new kind of Internet emerging--one more about connecting people to people than people to websites. The blog phenomenon, where blogs link to blogs, is another aspect of this same trend. Mark Pincus, an investor in Friendster and founder of Tribe.net, calls this the early phases of the "peopleweb"--a user-controlled network of identities and relationships that transcends any one site or company. How that web will take shape remains murky, but in the explosive growth of social networking we are surely seeing the future, using the Net to connect people with bonds of trust and friendship--and maybe sex.

My own viewpoint says there's money in dating/mating, money in jobs and classified listings and money connecting business connects together. The next question is: "what else?" (emphesis added - micah)

[Marc's Voice]

How about connecting people together around things they love and sprinkling on some commerce?

Ok, enough cheer-leading. I've said I think there our some amazing possibilities to connect the weblog world with eBay, but I'm gonna stop bugging the 3 people who read my site regularly and not talk about it again until I have something I can demo... or at least I'll try. :)

Those who write code earn the right to speak.
Those who have users earn the right to be listened to.

Ross on Social Capital and Knowledge Management

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 09:16:49 GMT

Ross Mayfield is talking about social capital in corporations, but it could just as easily apply to the community of eBay sellers:

"Like with weblogs on the public Internet, the best content and expertise rise to the top naturally. While social capital is a necessary precondition for the development of intellectual capital, such a lofty strategic value proposition is unnecessary. Help people produce first -- and learn as they go." (emphasis added)

eBay needs to learn the lessons of KM (knowledge management). Simplicity and flexibility are paramount. The good news, it's gonna get better, one step at a time.

My first 'live to site' at eBay.com

Fri, 26 Sep 2003 15:19:55 GMT

Yesterday at 5am my first project went LTS (live to site) at eBay.

Introducing the eBay Shipping Center

The Shipping Center is your single source for the latest tip, tools, information, and resources for shipping on eBay. Whether you are new to selling on eBay or experienced, we can help you save time and money.

I'm also working on some larger application level changes that should see the light of day in the next few months. Stay tuned.

eBay Hacks

Fri, 26 Sep 2003 15:17:47 GMT

O'Reilly recently published a book of eBay hacks. It differs from the Google hacks book, in that it's more about how to be a smart seller/buyer then it is a collection of source code. Still it makes an interesting read. You can see the list of hacks here. I'll be posting about some of my favorites over the next few days. I still believe the eBay API offers a unique opportunity that the weblog community has yet to fully explore.

Read Ina Steiner's review of eBay Hacks.
[AuctionBytes]

Mon, 21 Jul 2003 06:15:58 GMT

Gregor J Rothfuss: "For me, the nature of the antiques market suddenly changed. No longer was it a local fair on the streets of Sao Paulo, where Paulistas could haggle over a painting, table or kitchen set. Now it was just another cog in the global antiques marketplace, facilitated by eBay and the Web."

Blogger Dinner

Sun, 20 Jul 2003 07:43:22 GMT

It's my second day living in CA. So, what should I do on Saturday night, unpack my apartment? Nah, I'm going to Scoble's blogger gathering! It was quite a trip. Watching Marc Canter and Dave Winer have a heated debate over pizza was really something. These are two guys who can go all the way up and down the stack from code to UI to managing the business. It was excellent to meet them and get to throw my two cents into the conversation.

I talked with Robert Scoble and apologized for getting him Slashdotted. He's in a tough position having to ~~defend~~ explain Microsoft's position to its most vocal critics and internally explain why blogging publicly, despite the risks, is valuable to the company. He told me not to worry about it.

I got a chance to play a monster card game with Scoble's son Patrick. I can't remember the name of the game but it seemed to be of the same genera as Pokémon. Patrick crushed me.

We all sat around and talked over pizza, beer, and ice cream. I got a chance to tell Scoble, Marc, Dave, Phil Wolff, and Niall Kennedy about my desire to forge a connection between weblogging and eBay and to increase the visibility of the eBay community. I showed them pictures of the 10,000 people who attended eBay live in Orlando.

I think this is a great example of the multiple blogospheres that make up the internet. Weblogers and eBaysians are both high velocity communicators, but webloggers (at least for now) are dominated by tech types, while eBay users are more likely to be AOL-and-email-on-a-dial-up people. I think there's an opportunity for introducing these two cultures to each other.

It was a great time. Thanks Scoble for picking up the pizza tab and organizing the event.

Other accounts of the evening from: Marc, Don, & Dave.

Myers Briggs Personality Types

Sun, 20 Jul 2003 06:10:31 GMT

We'll the cats and I arrived in CA only a little worse for ware. As planned I went into eBay on Friday for a special event.

The whole design labs took the Myers/Briggs personality test. According to the woman leading our workshop Myers and Briggs were sisters who read 3,000 biographies of different people. After doing a card sort/affinity diagrams they organized people into 16 types based on four dimensions:

The Myers Briggs model of personality is based on 4 preferences.

Where, primarily, do you direct your energy?
How do you prefer to process information?
How do you prefer to make decisions?
How do you prefer to organize your life?

By taking a questionnaire you discover where you are along four dimensions.

Extrovert    vs.      Introvert
iNtuition     vs.      Sensing
Thinking     vs.      Feeling
Judging      vs.     Perceiving

These four dimensions generate a matrix of 16 personality types. These types closely mirror the personality system developed by Jung.

It turns out I'm an ENTP. I was excited to hear this is a category popular with inventors.
Of course Weird Al is an ENTP too so who know. :)

After we found out our type the rest of the workshop was about learning to work in teams with other personality types, dealing with conflict, and collaborating with stakeholders outside the team. I don't have time to blog it all, the the take home messages were:

it's important to have a mix of personality types on teams. They can provide multiple perspectives and provide a more complete solution.
When peoples' type differ by more than two letters there's often a fair amount of conflict. This is because:

1) The way they see the world is fundamentally different,

2) While the basic steps in problem solving are sequential different personality types spend more or less time at each stage. Therefor keeping evening 'on the same page' within a team when individuals are of different types can be a challenge.

Have you ever stoped at a stop sign and seen a line of cars preparing to turn. Thier turn signals slowly go in and out of sync. The woman who lead the workshop did an excellent job and I really enjoyed the experience. It made me want to learn more.

If you want to know your type you can take the test online.

Shipping Sticker Shock

Wed, 16 Jul 2003 16:40:00 GMT

Mariann Kosub is having trouble with her eBay buyer:

"Today, I plan on shipping two items I recently sold on eBay. The first item is a Shadowrun Duels limited edition figure, and the shipping estimate came to $8.20. Of course, the buyer freaked out and threatened to leave negative feedback for charging such a high amount and if his item didn't arrive in a "timely manner."

I've experienced similar problems. A few weeks ago I tried selling a piece of my mothers pottery.

Here's the email exchange that ensued:

I mailed the bowl today. I sent it US postal mail wrapped in bubble wrap and double boxed. The shipping came to:

Postage 11.35

inside box 2.50

outside box 3.50

packing 3.25

label .20

Total with tax was 24.68

I hope you enjoy the bowl,

Micah

The Buyer wrote back:

I have purchased over 50 items from ebay, I have never been charged for boxes, labels and packages. Is this your normal routine or are you charging for these items because the piece sold for so cheap?

Veronica

Here's how I responded:

Veronica, I'm sorry it's high, that why I broke the cost down. I just brought it into the local shipping place and that's what they charged me. If I can find the receipt I can fax it to you. I did *not* raise the price. I made the mistake of starting the auction price too low, but that's my problem not yours. This is a fragile piece of pottery so I thought you would want me to double box it (that what the shipping guy suggested). Your getting a piece of hand made artwork for much less than my mother usually sell its for (30 - 80 dollars). My listing said buyers pays the "actual shipping cost." If you don't think I'm being fair let me know and I'll absorb the ancillary costs (boxes, labels and packages).

Micah

And she wrote back:

No, sending me the receipt and absorbing the ancillary costs is not necessary. Thanks for offering and responding so kindly, unfortunately I have not had the same experience with other ebay sellers. I will send you to total amount as soon as possible. I look forward to doing more business with you in the future.

Most problems between buyers and sellers are do to miscommunication.

Being open, honest, and listening will resolve most disputes.

If the problem persists consider a dispute resolution service like SquareTrade.

No one can deny it, being a seller is tough. You some times have to swallow your pride. Dave Winer calls it B.O.G.U. Which stands for bend over and grease up.

"No relationship is perfectly balanced. If you're in business and have customers you're boguing all the time. You know, the customer is always right. That's big big bogu.

Bogu says there are other points of view, and sometimes you have to yield to them, let them have their way."

Disclosure: I'm an interface designer at eBay. The following are my personal views. I don't pretend to speak for the company.

AuctionBytes on eBay Live

Wed, 16 Jul 2003 00:18:00 GMT

eBay Live Wrap-up: AuctionBytes Reports on Second eBay Convention

If you're at all interested in the online auction market you need to read AuctionBytes regularly.

Case Study on eBay's Backend

Tue, 15 Jul 2003 23:52:20 GMT

I'm really loving the fact that Feedster lets me subscribe to search's as RSS feeds.

I saw this nuggest by Kevin Hooke on Javablogs:

eBay's J2EE backend processing 400million transactions per day

Sun have a great Case Study document on their site about how eBay have migrated their system from a huge monolithic ISAPI DLL (3.3 million lines of C++ code), to a well structured J2EE EJB application.
About 75% of their daily traffic is now being handled by the J2EE backend, running on IBM WebSphere.

Why Ebay Works

Tue, 15 Jul 2003 23:45:45 GMT

Meg Whitman:

"We make our money one dollar at a time, literally $1.72 per listing, and a final value fee if the listed item sells."

"our users are on track to trade $21 billion worth of merchandise. "

"what eBay does is create efficient markets where there were quite inefficient markets before. We’re the major player in the two inefficient parts of the overall [product life cycle] bell curve. "

If you want more details and don't my slogging through powerpoint check out the latest corporate presentation.

Tue, 15 Jul 2003 23:35:33 GMT

Ernie the Attorney: "the need to shop is greater than the quest for information"

Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos	Singing Dancing "Do It eBay" Guy