Cats and Dogs Skinned ALIVE!

Recently while researching a project, I came across a very disturbing video on the faux fur industry in China. I felt it was important to share this with other animal lovers to make them aware of what the faux fur could be that is on garments these days. These cats and dogs live a life of unimaginable cruelty, only to be skinned alive and turned into gloves, coats, hats or fur trim. Their skins are also used in the production of drums and other musical instruments. This video is extremely difficult to watch and just heart wrenching! I had to force myself to look at it, but had to often turn away unable to bear the horror of what I was seeing. As long as I live, I shall never forget, the face of the poor raccoon dog that was still alive at the end of the video despite the horrific cruelty that it had just endured. That frame will haunt me until the day I die. Even if you cannot bear to watch the video, please visit the sites and educate yourselves before doing your winter shopping this year. I know many of you that read my blog are animal lovers and I know you would not willingly want to contribute to such a barbaric industry. You can watch the video and get more information at:

http://www.animal-protection.net/

For further reading visit:

http://www.caft.org.uk/factsheets/cats-and-dogs.html

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Now I’m going to go and hug my babies and thank God that I don’t live in China!

All My Best,
Suzy

My Favorite eBay Alternative

At a time when our economy is in dire straights and people are already struggling to make ends meet, the big online auction giant eBay decides to stomp on it’s sellers some more, even though they posted net earnings of $460.3 million in the second quarter, up 22% from $375.8 million a year ago. Sellers final value fees have gone from 5.25% to a minimum of 15% over the last 6 months, and many sellers find themselves shut out of the marketplace, just as they were preparing for the season to start. I depended on my eBay income to pay for medical expenses for myself, and a darling cat that we took in after he was severely injured and abandoned by his owners. Others that I have met are in even worse circumstances as they depended on their eBay income for daily living expenses of food, shelter and gas. Well Merry Christmas to us all eBay! How greedy can one company be?
Meanwhile sellers are flocking to other sites, in the hopes of salvages the ruins left in the wake of eBays policy changes. One up and coming site stands out among all that I have researched. At Bonanzle.com you can set up a free store with relative ease, and if you need help there is an excellent community of friendly buyers and sellers eager to help, as well as excellent support from Bonanzle themselves. What a refreshing change it is to actually converse with a real person, and get real answers, not a form letter that takes you no where. Problems are solved quickly, and the powers that be are actually interested in what you have to say and welcome suggestions for improvement! How about that! There are no auctions on Bonanzle, however sellers can set up their items, where buyers can haggle with them over their prices. It’s like going to a flea market with friends. Buyers can talk with sellers in real time and sellers can also hold a Bonanza sale, which highlights their booth for a specific time period. Did I mention the low final value fees? How about:

Less than $10 - .50
Less than $50 - $1.00
Less than $100 - $3.00
Less than $1000 - $5.00
$1000 or more - $10.00

Compare that with what you’re paying now and I believe you will run, not walk to Bonanzle! All in all, this is my favorite eBay alternative and you owe it to yourself to check it out! Steve and Peter, I hope to see you there! Best of luck to you!

Suzy

Ebay's New Important Seller Update: Pricing and policy changes

Tonight I had the displeasure of receiving yet another notice from eBay regarding pricing and policy changes. These changes include:

Limits on shipping and handling charges
Big seller rewards for free shipping
PowerSeller fee discounts
No more checks and money orders
New seller standards

With sellers still reeling from their last policy and fee changes, I doubt that I will be the only one more than a little disgruntled over these new policies. Are they deliberately trying to run their company into the ground? Do they want their good sellers to continue to go elsewhere? The bottom line is that their policies will have a significant impact on buyers as well as sellers.

When they decided in their infinite wisdom earlier this year, that sellers could no longer leave negative feedback for buyers, my rate of non-paying bidders went up significantly! There are good buyers as well as bad and sellers should have the opportunity to let other sellers know who they are through feedback. It works both ways folks. Now in their infinite wisdom, they have decided that THEY are going to decide how much you can charge for shipping, and how buyers can pay for their wins. Gone are the days when a buyer can send me a check or money order, which I prefer because it saves me paypal fees. God forbid that eBay doesn't take a chunk there too!
I know some of you are cheering over the shipping policy change and I don't condone sellers who inflate their shipping prices to cover an auction that they listed with a starting price of 99 cents. But read on. There are two sides to every story.
I believe the starting price of an auction should include the cost of the item plus expenses to list, so at the very least you break even. However eBay encourages it's sellers to start at 99 cents so some sellers tack on their costs in shipping amounts, others end up in the hole and of course eBay makes it's profits no matter what! They don't seem to care if a seller profits or not, and disgruntled sellers result in poor customer care. I charge below industry standards to ship my packages, which are properly packed to prevent damage. Books are shipped in boxes with protection or bubble mailers with a cardboard backer, and all shipments include delivery confirmation for tracking. I cannot tell you how many letters I have received thanking me for the care I took in packing. Like many of you I have received books and other items that were just tossed carelessly into a box or unprotected mailer, only to arrive in less than optimum condition. You get what you pay for folks, and sellers have to cut costs wherever they can to accommodate eBay’s policies. Now that I will have to conform to what eBay thinks is a fair shipping price, I will no longer be able to pack my items the way I think is best, because I will lose money under eBay’s new policy changes. That doesn't sit well with me because I take great pride in delivering a quality product to my customers. In response to their email I fired off the following letter to eBay and I hope you will express your opinions to them as well. These new changes will hurt good sellers and ultimately result in dissatisfied buyers as well.


Dear eBay:
I find it very interesting how you constantly want to make changes that will drive your buyers and sellers away. Your new policies will only drive more sellers including myself to sell our books on Amazon, Alibris, Google or many of the other sources on the web, or our own websites where we not only have a higher profit margin, but we don’t have to contend with your constant changes that drive down our bottom line! In most cases its low enough already! While Amazon and others charge flat rate shipping, the books sell at a much higher price than on eBay so a seller can still make a good profit. Since you don’t seem to understand the concept of shipping and handling let me explain it to you:

• Bubble Mailers cost MONEY!
• Boxes cost MONEY!
• Cardboard backers cost MONEY!
• Tape costs MONEY!
• Gas to get to the post office costs MONEY!
• Labels cost MONEY!
• Ink costs MONEY!
• Plastic protective covers cost MONEY!
• Bubble Wrap costs MONEY!
• It takes TIME to package a product and if you have to pay help it costs MONEY!
• Delivery confirmation costs MONEY!
  

So while you are sitting up in your executive offices thinking of more ways to screw your sellers try putting yourself in our place for a change. I spend at least two hours on every auction, only to make a very small profit if anything at all after listing fees. I treat my customers how I would like to be treated and they appreciate the fact that they receive an item that has been properly packed and not carelessly thrown into an unprotected envelope. THEY understand that it COSTS MORE THAN THE ACTUAL COST OF POSTAGE TO MAIL AN ITEM!!! And now you have the audacity to offer INCENTIVES to those that offer FREE SHIPPING!! All this is going to do is take more money out of the sellers pocket and of course not yours! Well let’s see…

Sold on ebay: $9.95
My item cost: $6.45
Ebay fees: $1.19
Paypal fees: .75
Profit: $1.56
Free Shipping: 2.58 (actual shipping cost, excluding packing materials and expenses)
Profit: -$1.02 (excluding packing materials and expenses)

Oh yeah that’s the ticket! I’m going to jump right on that bandwagon!! It seems that the only one that you are interested in making money is eBay! You charge sellers paypal fees on the total cost of a transaction including shipping costs. If I sell a book for $9.95 and it costs me $35.00 to ship it overseas, I have to pay you fees on that shipping amount. It’s fine for you to make a profit on shipping but I’m not allowed to roll in my expenses to ship an item??? Sellers are not stupid. Your last reduction in fees was no reduction at all. You just increased your profits on the back end and drove sellers away. You need to realize that your little sellers are the backbone of your company and if you continue to drive them away your stock prices will continue to crumble and you will not only lose sellers but investors as well. That will affect YOUR bottom line not to mention your reputation as a company. You seem to forget one of the first rules of business…the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid). You don’t try to fix things that aren’t broken. What is broken is a good working relationship with your sellers and if that isn’t fixed very soon, your company will be irretrievably broken. Work on that! I have already begun to sell elsewhere and I will continue to move my items off of eBay to sites where I make a much better profit with a lot less grief. I strived to bring a touch of class to your site, by offering quality products that I sent gift-wrapped at my own expense to make my buyers feel special. I will no longer sell my best merchandise on your site and as so many sellers before me, will eventually completely move on to better pastures.

Sincerely,
Suzy