sportswanted
jcdcubs
Posts: 341
eBay fees is too high. Selling graded cards at eBay that fine. I'm think about sportsbuy.com. sportlots.com maybe not? Do you think sportswanted.com will be a good one? better than both of them?
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Comments
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I have studied it pretty hard.
I am now quite sure that an unknown entity could easily spend
$100,000,000+ to launch a viable EBAY alternative, and they
would lose ALL of that money when the start-up folded in a year
or less.
The problem is reaching critical mass in SELLER population; buyers
will ALWAYS go where the sellers are. Currently, experienced
sellers are "trapped" at EBAY. They simply cannot abandon the
sure money; no matter how many indignities they must endure
to get their hands on it.
If google threw $300M at the project, the would have ONLY slightly
better than a 50/50 chance of surviving at break even after 24-months.
They would be at CM in a couple of months, BUT the investment would
probably never pay money-market rates.
When we strip-out PayPal, EBAY is a crashed enterprise. The auction
model was a fad, and AMZN has captured the "online mall" throne.
This leaves no ball to chase for those who can afford the race. The
risk/reward just does not pencil out; rich folks HATE to lose money.
Stand-alone websites - owned by individual sellers and linked via
multiple portals - is likely the future of MOST currently/historically
prosperous EBAYers.
Niche-sites may make a few dollars, but their owners are essentially
just "buying a job." They could probably make more building sites
for individual sellers; they would certainly be better paid by EBAY
or AMZN.
The Real-World needs thousands of malls, because it is a BIG place.
The internet-world is tiny and flat; millions of folks can travel to the
same SINGLE mall in a second. Displacing the monsters that have
claimed the tiny turf would be more difficult than overthrowing every
WalMart on the planet, and replacing them with your own mom/pop
variety store.
............................................
At EBAY and PayPal, We Are Not Happy Until You Are Not Happy!
<< <i>"... it's gonna take something with much deeper pockets than a sportswanted to effectively compete with ebay. .."
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I have studied it pretty hard.
I am now quite sure that an unknown entity could easily spend
$100,000,000+ to launch a viable EBAY alternative, and they
would lose ALL of that money when the start-up folded in a year
or less.
The problem is reaching critical mass in SELLER population; buyers
will ALWAYS go where the sellers are. Currently, experienced
sellers are "trapped" at EBAY. They simply cannot abandon the
sure money; no matter how many indignities they must endure
to get their hands on it.
If google threw $300M at the project, the would have ONLY slightly
better than a 50/50 chance of surviving at break even after 24-months.
They would be at CM in a couple of months, BUT the investment would
probably never pay money-market rates.
When we strip-out PayPal, EBAY is a crashed enterprise. The auction
model was a fad, and AMZN has captured the "online mall" throne.
This leaves no ball to chase for those who can afford the race. The
risk/reward just does not pencil out; rich folks HATE to lose money.
Stand-alone websites - owned by individual sellers and linked via
multiple portals - is likely the future of MOST currently/historically
prosperous EBAYers.
Niche-sites may make a few dollars, but their owners are essentially
just "buying a job." They could probably make more building sites
for individual sellers; they would certainly be better paid by EBAY
or AMZN.
The Real-World needs thousands of malls, because it is a BIG place.
The internet-world is tiny and flat; millions of folks can travel to the
same SINGLE mall in a second. Displacing the monsters that have
claimed the tiny turf would be more difficult than overthrowing every
WalMart on the planet, and replacing them with your own mom/pop
variety store.
............................................
At EBAY and PayPal, We Are Not Happy Until You Are Not Happy! >>
Interesting points as usual from you.
Also - I don't think guys that try projects such as sportswanted "fully and completely" realize the time and costs involved with maintaining their websites. They all most likely think they can do it themselves, but then find they windup working for $5 an hour when figuring all the real time invested, and there's not enough profit to justify hiring employees to maintain and update the website....and then it's called "going out of business"
It's simple to see...if ebay was "easy" then there'd be hundreds of ebays all over the net. A Google or a Microsoft could likely compete against ebay if they wanted to...but they can spend their time and money doing other more profitable things.
I'm not sure about the history of Craig's List - but I imagine another way it could be done is if a good number, and I mean a GOOD number of software experts would attempt the project willing to spend a lot of time working basically for free for quite some time - sort of in the same way that some dedicated software designers do anti-virus programs and/or forum programs and offer them for free, with I guess the possibility that maybe they could profit with the venture somewhere down the line, but they're not worried about it if they ever profit or not. It's obvious sportswanted wants to profit right out of the gate, and in my opinion, this will be their basic downfall, and I in no way, shape or form am rooting against them.
<< <i>Currently, experienced
sellers are "trapped" at EBAY. They simply cannot abandon the
sure money; no matter how many indignities they must endure
to get their hands on it. >>
I'm not sure if I call that "trapped". Many of these sellers wouldn't even be sellers if it wasn't for ebay.
>
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<< <i>The Real-World needs thousands of malls, because it is a BIG place.
The internet-world is tiny and flat; millions of folks can travel to the
same SINGLE mall in a second. Displacing the monsters that have
claimed the tiny turf would be more difficult than overthrowing every
WalMart on the planet, and replacing them with your own mom/pop
variety store. >>
How very true. Excellent statement.
Shane
<< <i>
<< <i>Currently, experienced
sellers are "trapped" at EBAY. They simply cannot abandon the
sure money; no matter how many indignities they must endure
to get their hands on it. >>
I'm not sure if I call that "trapped". Many of these sellers wouldn't even be sellers if it wasn't for ebay. >>
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That is sort of like saying, "My first employer taught me how to sell widgets for money; now he is allowed
to mistreat me and I will happily stay put and tolerate his abuse forever."
SELLERS - not buyers - built EBAY. The company has now been hijacked by the near 70% institutional
owners, and the 20% incompetent insiders who grossly overpay themselves using shareholders' money.
Aspiring to escape is a noble goal. It's just not easy to do for folks who rely on the money they make
to finance their lives. Thus, I see them as "trapped."
NOTE: I also hope sportswanted and all others who try their biz-plans succeed. I simply know how difficult that is.
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