SUBAT

Hello!

The following message from a reporter at PC Magazine arrived at the SUBAT MySpace page, seeking background info. from sellers involved in the revolt against FeeBay. Everyone who can contact her (e-mail and phone at bottom of message) should, as media attention greatly helps our cause. If you can, please do mention the effort toward a free people’s WeBay — if word spreads far enough, we’re that much closer to getting the numbers needed to bring the WeBay into the world.

Thanks!!
Jul and Lily

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Mar 4, 2008 6:39 PM

Subject: Q from PC Magazine about eBay boycott

Body:
Hi there —

I’m a reporter with PC Magazine and we’ve been covering the eBay boycott story.

I wanted to touch base with some sellers who are participating in the boycott, and I have a few questions for you about your history with eBay and what comes next, if you don’t mind.

- How long have you been with eBay? Have you shut down your eBay operations, or are you just participating in the boycott hoping the situation on the site will change?
- What type of business do you run on eBay? Was this a full-time or part-time operation? Were you considered a power seller?
- How did the fee hikes implemented in 2006 affect your business?
- Is there any particular policy change that simply must be changed, in your opinion? Does the ability to leave negative feedback for buyers trump price listing fee changes, for example?
- Have you moved your business to any other auction sites? If so, which ones and how to do they compare to eBay?

Any insight you could provide on these questions would be great.

You can reach me on my work e-mail at chloe_albanesius@ziffdavis. com.

Thanks!
Chloe

Chloe Albanesius, News Reporter
PC Magazine
212-503-5286

SUBAT Bulletin #2 — Call for Project-Specific Volunteers

The campaign toward a greater people’s ‘WeBay’ has been underway for about two weeks and already our numbers have doubled several times. (If you signed on after Bulletin #1 “Chain-Mail” went out and would like to receive it please e-mail to subater2@yahoo.com.) Our numbers are sufficient now to forge ahead on several projects, if we have those with the skills on board to do it. How such projects should go is up to everyone to decide.

This is an open call for assistance on the following projects:

1) WEBSITE: SUBAT needs a freestanding website, apart from the ‘WeBay’ campaign page at the Point and apart from the SUBATers Yahoo Group. A place to archive news articles on the first eBay strike/boycott of ’08, a home for the (growing) anti-FeeBay image archive, and a common site to host the Comparison Chart of Alternate Venues. How this page should look and feel is up to all of us. If you have web design experience or would just like to help make a permanent on-line home for SUBAT activities, please e-mail Anna at fight_greedbay@yahoo.com .

2) AGGREGATING SEARCH PORTAL: Lee has had what seems like a fairly brilliant idea this week in the form of an aggregating search portal. Such a portal could be capable of simultaneously searching all the smaller non-eBay auction venues from a single page. If such a portal can be developed, and developed soon, it would radically increase the visibility of items listed on all the smaller auction venues, since there could ultimately be only a single convenient place a buyer needed to search all venues except eBay.com. We feel the development of such a ‘universal search portal’ is of immediate importance and could give immediate relief to FeeBay refugees in terms of increased buyer traffic. Therefore, if you have ideas or skills to lend to the project please send an email to subater2@yahoo.com with SEARCH PORTAL in the subject line. With any luck we’ll have a dedicated forum ready for portal discussion and planning in the coming week.

3) COMPARISON CHART OF ALL NON-EBAY VENUES: The comparison chart project has moved ahead and a draft table is being formatted to HTML. However, there are still many questions to be answered, including how such a chart should differentiate between auction sites vs. fixed-price sites. The best way to create such a comprehensive overview is by everyone pooling our experiences and knowledge, contributing what we know to the larger whole. If we can do this, patterns will emerge and choices for sellers fleeing eBay can be based on facts rather than guesswork, chance, or even advertising budgets of the competing sites.

The hope is that this chart can be a wiki, publicly posted on the SUBAT webpage and able to be added to and updated by all, both now and over time as buyer-traffic patterns change. Have you sold on both eBay and iOffer recently and become familiar with how the iOffer pricing structure and sell-through rates compare with eBay? Do you know if dolls currently sell better on certain smaller dedicated venues than on eBay? Which competing site is now statistically best for sales of your category of item, and why? We all need an overview of the competing non-eBay venues, something that everyone can look at to determine where best to go post-eBay, both now and as more bizarre changes are implemented at eBay.com. A collective effort seems the most expedient way to do this.

If you have ideas on how to structure the chart or how to make it a “wiki”, please e-mail to cc_for_subat@yahoo.com.

If you have information to share now (before the wiki function is available) on given alternate venues or on specific categories of items, please e-mail to bijouxlily@yahoo.com with the name of the venue in the subject line (ex. TAZBAR, OLA, ECRATER, etc.).

4) VIDEO & YOUTUBE: There have been a lot of good ideas on how to make a YouTube video to quickly and simply explain the WeBay idea, and why such a people’s site is needed. If you can help crystallize these efforts into a finished form, please e-mail to build_the_webay@yahoo.com with VIDEO in the subject line. Song choices for a WeBay YouTube video leading in votes so far are Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and Boston’s “Peace of Mind.” If you have more ideas for this, get in touch!

Other video project ideas recently suggested: showcasing how and why the changes at eBay are harmful to site users and degrading to sellers, to the tune of Aretha Franklin’s R.E.S.P.E.C.T.; the same concept, to the tune of Judas Priest’s “Victim of Changes” or “Tyrant” (Tyrant FeeBay); an overview of eBay executives’ million dollar salaries (from Forbes), as funded by us and having nothing to do with the actual costs of operating the eBay site, to the tune of (a) Heart, “Barracuda,” (b) Pink Floyd’s “Money”, or © Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.”

5) The SUBAT MYSPACE PAGE: The SUBAT MySpace page needs someone to manage it and possibly develop it on an on-going basis. This could be one person or a few, so long as someone who knows MySpace is keeping track of it day to day and making sure its focus and purpose is broadly anti-FeeBay. Can you help? If so, e-mail to 42de@kendra.com with MYSPACE in the subject line.

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General thoughts? Please do post in the Point’s SUBAT campaign page Comments section, or e-mail subat_forever@yahoo.com

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Upcoming topics in need of investigation for Bulletin #3:

a) Alternatives to PayPal, how do they compare? (Remember, the 21-day hold policy will hit PayPal in a couple of weeks.) The article on how to use PayPal for eBay sales, but sidestep the possibility of having funds held, is also in the works. If you’d like to contribute, e-mail the general SUBAT yahoo address: subat_foreve@yahoo.com. Also, projections: what could eBay do to users who attempt to take eBay-related payments via Google’s service?

b) Should there be a PayPal-use strike to coincide with the introduction of the PayPal 21-day hold? (Are enough of us even still using PayPal for this to be effective?)

c) Brainstorming: tactics for alerting those still using eBay, but unaware of the anti-FeeBay movement, that a strike is planned for May re the feedback changes, specifically May Day, 2008.

Many thanks!

Julia (“sellerX”)