Ebay - Art is not an iPod

"Tranquility"

I really hesitate to even bother with this post but it seems to be necessary to bring up a big point. Ebay has probably the largest artist community in the world yet instead of helping artists they are busy pounding them into the same mold along with iPods and other items sold on the site! The same rules apply to artists as apply to iPod sellers....quantity will make you a Top Rated Seller and TRS sellers get top billing in the listings. Offering free shipping will also get you better placement in the listings. So, now, instead of a piece of art selling on its own merits buyers are instead seeing the art of those sellers Ebay gives the most exposure! Most art will not even be seen on the site. Top sellers will grind out the same art enmass to keep themselves at the top - good art will be missed or not seen at all! Ebay still uses its best match search in the arts category. That just has me scratching my head....best match to what? An artist can be brilliant but if he takes his time and lists just a piece or two a month then he will find himself buried in the listings and given little to no exposure. Soon....he is forced to walk away. I just have to ask you art buyers and collectors....are you aware of all this or are you content seeing the same artists over and over again - is this really how you want to buy your art? Comments please....

After my vent I think we need something calming. My watercolor for today is called "Tranquility"

Buying Art on Ebay

I'm posting a very informative article from a fellow Ebay artist. Ebay has one of the largest art communities in the world...if not, THE largest. People need to take advantage of it. There is no need to have cheap dime store prints on your walls - art on Ebay ranges from $1.00 on up into the thousands of dollars. There is definitely something for everyone AND at reasonable prices.




A piece of Marie's artwork presently on auction on Ebay


Friday, February 27, 2009
Buying Art on Ebay

I may have jumped the gun here...with today's economy many people are probably wondering if they should even be buying art in the first place!

Is art a luxury or a necessity? Lets' talk about that briefly and then I'll follow up with some good advice about buying art on Ebay....or you can just skip to that advice by scrolling down.

Naturally, as an artist and as someone who majored in the Social Sciences, I feel that art is a necessity. Art is so much more than something to hang over the sofa. Art is the mirror of the society in which it was created...a true reflection of the concerns, joys, struggles, accomplishments, and priorities of the time.
Art is history.

Psychologically speaking, art holds it's ground here too! Our environment has a direct impact on the way we feel. Each color even has influence over our moods and the ability to concentrate or relax. If we find ourselves in a space that we perceive as open, warm and inviting we are serene, calm, and comfortable. If we find ourselves in a space that we perceive as cold, too cluttered, to stark, or sterile we can feel uneasy, agitated, or even depressed! Comfortable surroundings filled with objects that we find attractive & meaningful simply makes us feel at home and lifts our mood.
Art makes us happy!

So the next time you see a painting or a sculpture or any piece of art and that art speaks to you....GRAB IT! And do so, guilt free..."nesting" is healthy!

BUYING ART ON EBAY

In my opinion, Ebay is a GREAT place to buy original art! From traditional landscapes to modern abstract paintings...Ebay has some of the most talented artists available! Not only that...you can get some really good deals on original art. You no longer have to settle for prints and posters if you prefer original art, but are on a budget. Paintings sell on Ebay from $1 to $1000 depending on auction style, painting size, and artist recognition.

Now granted, Ebay isn't as easy to browse for unique items items as it used to be, but it's still pretty darned easy. Here are some tips for a good experience:

Pay attention to the selections!

From the home page, select: ART: from within the DIRECT FROM ARTIST menu select PAINTINGS.

This area will get you the better deals versus buying from a reseller or gallery...unless you're looking for something "vintage." If that's the case you may prefer the DEALER - RESELLER area.

Once you're in the DIRECT FROM ARTIST:PAINTINGS area you'll want to perform a strategic search. Ebay's "Best Match" search is not all that it's cracked up to be, often leaving out fabulous paintings from artists who are considered "small vendors" because they do not list 2-3 paintings everyday! Best Match might be great if you're shopping for gadgets, but it's the worst way to shop for unique, hand made items.

Having said that, Ebay also has a new tendency to force their ideas upon shoppers...be sure to look to the left of the screen...you may actually have to select DIRECT FROM ARTIST again to refine your search!

Still looking on the left side, scroll down and make any other selections you like in order to refine your search.

LAST, BUT NOT LEAST.....look for the drop down menu near the top right of the screen, directly over where the listings begin...you can find it...really you can! It is there, but by design it's less than obvious. Once you locate it, click to see all the selections and choose either ENDING SOONEST or NEWLY LISTED depending on your preference. NOW, you can really browse through all that is available. Here is where you'll find those wonderful pieces of original art: Landscapes, Original Abstract Paintings, Original Modern Abstracts, Urban Paintings and so much more...all original handmade art. Not some watered down search that features mass produced schlock preferred by Best Match.

Keep an eye on all of your selections, they do tend to revert to Ebay's defaults in between visits...or even if you jump out of a category and then come back.

If it sounds like a hassle, it can be at first, but after a couple of times it really is very easy.

Support the arts..... DON'T USE BEST MATCH!

Warmest Regards,
Marie Bretz
(formerly Marie Bahr)
Paint All Night Studios

Ebay Loses Traffic This Holiday Season!

"The Snowman's Tree"

Sadly, this is almost an "I told you so" but knowing the thousands of good small sellers that Ebay's new attitude has put out of business is way too sad for sneering and saying I told you so.

I think John Donahoe is learning a hard lesson: all the "noise" he heard when he took office was the sound of good business that he infuriated thanks to his outrageous new policies. Donahoe's idea is to destroy a working business model and turn Ebay into an online catalog store - hence the "diamond sellers" he has ushered in and given free or reduced listing fees to peddle their dropshipped junk. He's strangled small sellers to the point where they simply found the site unmanagable and unprofitable and they left...(a LOT of them are flocking to bonanzle.com). I'm sure the fact that most, if not all, of the sellers who left also BOUGHT on Ebay...is giving Donahoe nightmares because he seemed completely oblivious to losing sales when you lose sellers - any CEO with strong Ebay sales experience probably could have warned him.

Donahoe can't seem to understand people don't want....nor do they NEED yet another catalog store online. Amazon fills that bill nicely and every major retailer now has online presence and does it far better then Ebay ever could! What's left? The "noise" Donahoe kicked to the curb! I believe he's slowly learning the site is definitely going to tank without the small sellers who brought their unique, rare and vintage items to the site...THIS is what people want and NEED! Its deceptively simply, John!

An example....I have a white milkglass chandelier that was here when I bought my home. Two of the milkglass shades were broken but I loved the light and so tried to hide the broken shades. The chandelier is probably 40+ years old so you won't find these shades in any store. I've been searching on Ebay and finally found a set of 5 of these exact milkglass shades for the incredible price of only $6.00. I bought them and they are perfect!!! I wanted a large corning teapot that isn't even made anymore...got it on Ebay and love it!! THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE WANT FROM EBAY JOHN!!!! When I bought a new vacuum - I bought it online from Walmart! When I bought a new external hard drive I bought it from Amazon because I knew they would stand behind it. I buy none of these catalog things on Ebay! GET A CLUE JOHN!! WAKE UP BECAUSE THE SHIP IS SINKING AND ITS YOUR FAULT!

After New Year Ebay will be up against far more formidable opponents then Amazon. All the major retailers will layoff workers - streamline and then put on the most stunning sales ever seen in an effort to do enough business to stay afloat and weather our faltering economy! Ebay will be NO match. An example I heard only today is a local furniture store offering $600.00 in gas and $500 in free groceries if you buy a big screen TV from them! Ebay...whatcha gonna do? You're going to tank even faster in the face of competition like this.

So, I humbly suggest....get rid of best match!!! Nobody - not even the buyers - want it. Loosen up the stranglehold on small sellers and let them do what they pay Ebay to do....SELL!! Stop allowing every nutcase buyer that wanders in to destroy seller reputations while giving the sellers NO recourse! Get rid of most of the draconian policies you put in place this year and do it before the economy sinks even farther - which I feel will be mid-January, 2009. If you don't - your company is doomed! This is something sellers have been warning about ALL YEAR and now finally EVERYONE else can SEE it! Wake up!

My painting today is a little ACEO called "The Snowman's Tree"

PeSA Finally Tells it Like It IS!

Released: September 30, 2008


PeSA Official Statement on eBays Marketplace:
Deteriorating eBay Market Conditions Erode Seller Confidence
Members of the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance have been concerned with the vibrancy of the eBay marketplace for the past few years. In the first nine months of 2008, we have observed a substantial deterioration in the value of the marketplace for merchants. Broader e-commerce growth is in the high teens while eBay’s GMV has increased at low single digit rates; a clear sign that eBay is losing wallet share among online shoppers.

We were encouraged with the culture of change that swept through eBay during the past 12 months; however, we believe the flawed execution of change has accelerated the deterioration of the marketplace. Today eBay merchants have an increased level of business uncertainty due to eBay’s poor execution of changes in many areas including seller performance measurement, fees, site search, buyer activity, and seller communication. The result is that merchants are changing their behavior in ways that we believe is not beneficial to the eBay marketplace.

Merchants are pursuing alternate channels for their businesses which are more economical, including launching their own website, participating in other third party channels such as Amazon and Overstock, and even opening brick and mortar stores. Based recent feedback from PeSA members, merchants are focusing on other channels at higher rates than we have ever measured in the past. Prime products that used to find their way to eBay, are now being diverted to these new "premier" channels that are reportedly delivering higher margins with greater certainty and decreased overhead.

Merchants that used to prioritize the eBay channel now regard the marketplace as a venue of last resort used mainly for liquidation of product that doesn’t sell elsewhere. eBay has acknowledged that it may have an undersupply of merchandise on the site, however, they fail to recognize that the supply issue on eBay is a direct result of their relationship with their customers, the sellers. The lack of credible communication from eBay to its sellers about its strategy has resulted in a marketplace of skeptic sellers, which is bad for business. We would like to highlight eBay’s recent move to allow "big box" retailers free access to eBay, at a competitive advantage to its existing seller base, as an example of a decision that exacerbates the situation by threatening the diverse supply of merchandise that shoppers expect on eBay.

As PeSA has stated in its prior position statements, the real issue affecting eBay is buyer activity. We believe that issue still exists. According to eBay’s latest published results, eBay’s annual active user churn rate was close to 40%. eBay has discontinued reporting the data that allowed us to actively monitor the issue, but based upon the flat active user growth, we believe eBay is still seeing poor user activity.

Unfortunately, most of the changes at eBay have been focused on sellers, not buyers. We are proponents for measuring the performance of sellers and rewarding those sellers that provide positive customer experiences. The concept is used in other marketplaces; however, the eBay execution of that concept resulted in a Detailed Seller Rating (DSR) system that is substantially flawed both in its measurement and transparency. We understand that a new system will not be perfect and should be adjusted as experience builds. The real problem is that eBay seems to be building on top of a flawed DSR system that has not been adjusted to reflect true buyer experience.

At PeSA, our position on eBay fees has been that as long as sellers are receiving value, eBay is certainly entitled to share in that value. During the past few years, that economic balance has shifted dramatically to the disadvantage of merchants. In our opinion, eBay still does not recognize that their excessive extraction of value in the form of fees and other monetization techniques has resulted in dramatic underinvestment on improving the marketplace. Declining buyer activity also has a direct result on average selling prices and conversion rates on the platform. Thus the lower margins in conjunction with rising eBay fees, results in eBay taking more value while leaving less for merchants.

In addition, the diversion of traffic off the eBay platform in the form of advertising (run by Yahoo in the US) helps eBay monetize the marketplace, but leaves less buyer traffic for merchants that list on eBay. And, the greater compliance burden of operating on eBay combined with the risk that a merchant business will be shut down with little visibility creates an unworkable environment.

We embrace the effort that eBay has made to adjust fees to better align with the success of merchants. But, again, the implementation of the changes comes across as an effort to increase the take rate on merchants without really investing in the marketplace. While eBay lowered the upfront cost to list on the marketplace, they dramatically increased the fees on the back-end. We were disappointed with this approach and would have preferred that eBay show some commitment to increase value to the marketplace before raising final value fees on its customers.

We argue that the declining economics on the marketplace justified lowering front end fees without an associated increase on the backend. After all, less buyer activity means that the marketplace is not as valuable a channel for a merchant and the cost to list on the marketplace should be less. Unfortunately, eBay does not see it that way and the result is that eBay is placing the burden of all the changes on the marketplace on the backs of its customers, which are its merchants. We continue to experience one step forward on concept and two steps back with execution. We cannot find any other case where a company, with the desire to restructure and improve its business, places the burden squarely on its customer base.

PeSA is focused on promoting professional and successful selling on the eBay marketplace and are actively working with all professional sellers to help them navigate the changes on the marketplace. We believe eBay still needs to better understand its customers and we hope that sharing our views helps highlight the most pressing issues. it is our intention to continue working with sellers and with eBay to effect positive change in the marketplace and will be publishing additional papers with more specific commentary in the near future.