So to become a Powerseller in short your DSR’s need to be 4.6 or above and your DSR ‘lows’ to be as follows:

But as the volume of sales needed to qualify has lowered creating the impression that more will qualify, it means that one transaction that goes a little wonky, can cost a seller their discount and powerseller status.

The minimum is only £170 per month to qualify or 100 transactions, so sellers with low prices and high volume should be quite safe but those who sell a lower volume of higher prices items?

Well we all know WHY eBay is putting this in place, because for the first instance, all its outlets can’t get or keep TRS as well as most other sellers, you have it one month and you loose it the next because of the snow.

The powerseller programme worked. This system of minimum ‘low’ DSR’s is the most abused and fickle condition and should be scrapped.

Hairfreax only needs 32 more transactions per 12 months to become a bronze powerseller, and only does it for fun anyway!

Worried customers should look at the official press releases:

Frooition eBay Designer Goes Bankrupt, Announces MBO

Frooition.com Management Buy-Out Follows Fall Into Administration

and from their site : Management Buy-Out Comes To Frooition

I am going to keep my opinion trap shut on this one as my new company that started in this month (Frooition dies as my new venture is born…) is a direct competitor, but I will say one thing and I quote directly from their press release…

…is the only officially certified eBay designer…

Like hell you are – you wish guys, reign in your PR company!!!!!

As far as I can see it is business as usual for their eBay clients, with a simpler management structure and hopefully a better business plan!

Open for comments, keep it ‘name’ free and friendly.

Discussion in the Tamebay Forum

So I hit ‘contact seller’ from my ‘won section’.

I get automated options but not way to contact the seller. Odd.

So I go to ‘ask the seller a question’ – same.

So I have to go and ‘request’ total and add a message in hope the seller gets it. Rubbish eBay – rubbish! – how can sellers resolve issues if buyers can’t contact them before payment?

Include your email address in your listings! eBay doesn’t let your buyers contact you!

In fact next year I will have more time to devote to my crafty projects and this blog so you will be hearing more from me next year than the one just past.

Hairfreax – new site and restricting handmade hairpiece catalogue. Adding handmade rockabilly Yukata and Kanzashi, as well as funky obi and Japanese/Anime inspired fashion.

Hairfreax eBay – just a few pre-made hairpeices

Keirotech will be partnering with Createyourtemplate and be absorbed into CYT UK – eBay Design, Web Design inc ASPDNSF design, Flash programming, brick to bytes – on-line business integration and business consultancy. New site/info to come.

See you in 2010!

http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/U-K-Sports-Warehouse

Finally my client got to the top spot. Took time though

Seemingly not – which is why a well groomed business facebook page is where it is at!

The fan page for Blakelands Country House has been a great marketing success as well as a way to communicate updates and get those all important reviews.

Many customers have commented that they found Blakelands through friends on facebook, then came to dinner or enquired about a wedding. The new website will be live soon: http://www.blakelands.eu with a more updated design and simpler content.

I brought my rage track because facebook told me too, so use it as part of your marketing campaign. You see the power….

For example, a client who had been surviving quite well on 30 day listings, saw his traffic/eBay sales plummet when TRS was introduced. For the first time his Amazon sales ‘out did’ his eBay sales.

So, what to do? Well we experimented with 5 day fixed price listings, and guess what – you give more money to eBay and you get more exposure.

Sales have increased by 400% and just in time for the Christmas rush really, so he is cashing in on eBay AND Amazon.

Amazon has been stonking this Christmas for all my clients, really come into this own this year. A lot of clients now match or exceed their eBay sales with Amazon and are investing more time on ‘off eBay’ channels.

So why do I think TRS is to blame?

Well one of my clients lists in two main categories. One with a few TRS sellers and one with none. His sales from one category have plummeted due to the presence of TRS, but the other excelled (possibly because his strategy is unaffected by any TRS dominance?)

Soon he will be a TRS and kill off everyone else in THAT category. All’s fair in love and retail but if shouldn’t really be this way. In effect, its not the eBay way.

So in short be a TRS soon or don’t bother with eBay as a business model for lower value items unless you are going to support the fees associated with shorter listings when your Powerseller discount reduces. Large ticket items that have a higher profit margin you can be more flexible with as always.

Use Amazon and your own retail site for the good stuff!

So auctions are back in the game and I hope will be the life line to my clients that have NOT become top rated sellers.

But according to a birdie at eBay, they are having lots of meetings about sellers who did not make the elite. Their sales have stooped dramatically and eBay is consequently loosing money because of a system that doesn’t work.

Watch this space.

Get your foot out of your chocolate whizzway eBay and sort it before we all move to Amazon….oh wait….we have…..my main clients Amazon sales have outweighed eBay for the first time yesterday.

Long may it last.

I will detail my exciting new Formula one based Amazon project soon, and how I am striving for the ‘Buy Box’.

Researching the effect of TRS I searched for a Kooga Rugby Ball and got the dreaded purple pop up covering my clients item:

Sorry the image is a bit too big, you can’t see the text if I make it fit.

So I do as the purple box commands. Only to find that for the rest of my searching session, my search is defaulted to only show Top Rated Sellers unless I clear the search in the sidebar.

Lets face it, ebayer’s can’t find the shipping tab any more in the new item detail layout so it will take time for them to get used to clearing the ‘top rated seller only’ parameter.

So if you buyer does as the purple box commands, you will be invisible. Unless you are part of the fragile elite.

Remember kids ALWAYS make regular back ups – do not trust your host….