A Couple of Things on My Mind

[puppetmaker]

Ebay changes the rules of how business is done
The discounts to the power sellers I can understand. And a few of the other changes I saw coming and of course they benefit those who sell the most on E-bay. However I cannot say that I am sanguine about sellers not being able to leave buyers feedback. It is going to make it hard for people to figure out if the buyer is legit or someone who is going to cost them more money and aggravation than the sale is worth. Now I hear that this is to make sure that the sellers get realistic feedback from the buyers and the buyers are just making nice nice to get a positive from the seller. But now sellers are going to be more cautious about the buyers that they let buy from them. I also expect E-bay is going to see a serious rise in disputed fees. The feedback was a system of checks and balances that worked for a long time and now I think it is going to be pretty useless.

No Food for You! One Year!
There is a bill pending in the Mississippi legislature that is getting a lot of press right now. According to the bill, it would be a crime to serve food to "any person who is obese based on criteria prescribed by the state health department." Now this is unenforceable and probably against federal law. Their reasoning is that this will make people think about obesity. No, it will make people wonder what they are smoking in the Mississippi legislature. I put this one with the legislature that wanted to regulate low riding jeans in my book of absurd bills I have read.

Miracle Baby found I am sorry that this little boy is never going to know his mother since she was killed in the twister that grabbed him and tossed him like a rag doll. But he is alive and, considering all that he went through, in good condition. And that is a miracle in itself. He will grow up and be told the story of how he was found. I pray that his grandparents will be able to care for him until he reached adulthood. Many people lost a lot in those storms. They will be rebuild their lives for some time to come and I hope we don't forget them in their continuing time of need.

And you are fooling yourself if you don't believe it (Bonus points if you know the song I am referring to). This one struck home for me on more than one level. I think part of it is how our brains work and part of it is how society has informed us of how we must act to be part of society. I had heard about imposter syndrome in women a number of years ago when a friend referred me to an article on it because of some stuff I was going through at the time. I am on the side of the fence that tends to belittle what I do rather than trumpet it. I have an easy time promoting others and their work but a very hard time promoting myself and what I do and have done. This blog is a stab at trying to get over that hurdle but it is still hard for me to do.

Here is an example of this. At the Superbowl party we had, one of my neighbors told the other that I had gone to Yale. The other asked me if that was true. I told them that I had gone to the Yale School of Drama for my MFA. Everyone was impressed and I was a little embarrassed and a bit angry with myself for being embarrassed. Because I did go to the YSD and graduated from there and then worked in theater for another 10 years before finally moving onto something else. I was a stage manager for almost 20 years which is a heck of a lot longer than most stage managers last. And I was good at my job. But I don't talk about it much because I don't want to sound like I am bragging.

I am grateful for things that make me stop and think for a bit.

Comments

[spydielives.livejournal.com]

Is the song a "Styx" one?

It sounds so freaking familiar... but I am horrible with titles.

"Get up, get back on your feet, you're the one who can't blow it, so show it."

Or something like that..

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

It is Styx. It was running through my head while I read that article for some strange reason.

[spydielives.livejournal.com]

*claps hands*

Oh! Oh!

What do I win?

*grin*

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Internet Karma Points to be used the next time you need them *grin*

[spydielives.livejournal.com]

Sweet!

I can use those.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Yep. Karma Internet points for you.

And don't be embarrassed about being from Mississippi. I swear each legislature in the US has one or more of these kinds of idiots.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I read about that one too which left me with a serious case of WTF?itus. Do they have tools to measure it?

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

The miracle baby story gave me sniffles... and the Obesity thing.. I mean.. what?

I'm all for healthy eating and reducing obesity, but people are free to live their life how they wish to. or if they have health problems that lead to obesity there;s not much that can be done.

I am also a self depreciating artist a lot of the times. :(

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

And you DO know how much I love your art.

You are a wonderful artist with a whimsical style that is so much fun.

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

I know! And it's folks like you who keep me doing what I'm doing :)

Thank you

[jenny_evergreen]

If eBay drives out the honest small players, everyone would be better simply moving to Amazon, which is a better way to buy mainstream goods from mainstream sellers.

This is exactly what I thought as I read the article; Ebay is doing precisely the OPPOSITE of what it should. What needs to GO are the power sellers; that kind of business is available all over the internet. They need to revive the SMALL sellers and encourage buyers to use those small sellers. *sigh*

I've always felt a bit like Hercule Poirot; I'm just stating facts, facts that I am often not responsible for (genes gave me my native intellect just like they gave me pretty eyelashes)...of course, just as with Poirot, some people may consider me arrogant. I used to care, then I decided that, since I could never please everyone, I would concentrate on pleasing people I respected...and I respect people with the wisdom to recognize the difference between self-respect and self-glorification. *firm nod*

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Ebay is shooting itself in the foot for the immediate dollar. They are no longer the end all and be all of Internet auctions or even sales. Etsy has been roaring to the forefront and frankly I think a lot of people are tired of losing an auction due to electronic sniping that Ebay has done nothing about.

[jenny_evergreen]

*nod* Etsy was the first thing that came to my mind as well; they should (have they?) expand beyond the crafty stuff to used goods, I think. They have the best chance of picking up all the business Ebay is losing.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Etsy is a heck of a lot more straight forward than Ebay.

[norda.livejournal.com]

I agree with all your points, and am thankful that we personally have moved away from eBay and no longer depend on it for anything more than the occasional advertisement of our goods and services.

The new regime at eBay seems all too close to the attitude espoused by the bookstore owner I used to work for who was painfully, painfully shortsighted and too impatient to play the long game. he's now out of business, surprise, surprise.

[jenny_evergreen]

I really wonder if it is possible for someone to fill that gap and, if so, who? Etsy is the only one that comes to mind, but I don't know that it wouldn't muddle Etsy up. I've never seen another online auction site that was good enough.
Blah.

*nod* Exactly. Business needs to learn to play the long game again.

[norda.livejournal.com]

Because we sell specialty merchandise, we're fortunate enough to be able to use Furbid (http://www.furbid.ws/cgi-bin/auction/main.pl), which focuses on science fiction, fantasy, and anthropomorphics.

But it isn't a good model for booksellers or non-F/SF collectibles vendors, for a start.

[jenny_evergreen]

*nod* What's needed is that generic, all encompassing sort of thing. I was thinking maybe if the rule was only used/secondhand goods, that would be a good start...

[norda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, an eBay-like-eBay-was-before-they-got-too-big-for-their-britches model.

[norda.livejournal.com]

1. eBay=bleccch. They were a good tool for us ten years ago as an adjunct to our own website, but they have nickel-amd-dimed everything to pieces with their fees.

2. Styx and Supertramp are now fighting it out on my inner music box. This is not a bad thing.

3. Oh, the impostor syndrome, how it loves to lurk behind our eyeballs. I had it pop up yesterday when someone on my flist described me as a mover and shaker and hard worker in "comics and related fen materials". My connection to comics these days is very tenuous and more geared to independents or works that are available from mainstream book wholesalers, since we stopped ordering from Diamond, thus ceasing to carry titles from the Big Two, in 1994. I'm torn between correcting him and taking the credit, because it's not enturely UNearned.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

take the credit. You so deserve it. Oh and Peter thinks you should talk to Marilyn at least since she can direct you to who needs to be talked to (Kett comes to ming)

[norda.livejournal.com]

I guess longetivity does put me in the position of being some kind of guru. But I still feel more confident as a science fiction retailer and a children's bookseller than I do as some sort of comics maven. And we won't even "go there" as to how I feel about my editorial skills. Thank you for the encouragement.

And I will take your advice and Peter's about contacting Marilyn. I'm glad you don't think it will be out of line for me to suggest tracks.

Can you tell my self-confidence is in the toilet this week?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to see eBay's doing that - plenty of times I've read the seller's reactions to comments to know if a negative rating was deserved or not. It's pretty easy to tell from the professionalism (or lack thereof) from the seller's comments.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Yeah but there you go being all rational and stuff. *grin*

[querldox.livejournal.com]

I've found it amusing for some time that folk who went to the Big 3 Ivies (Harvard, Yale, Princeton) almost always won't directly answer the "Where did you go to school?" question. They'll say "Massachusetts" (or Connecticut or New Jersey), maybe narrow it down a bit, but you really have to push to get an actual school name out of 'em.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Well maybe because they are members of the various secret societies that permeate those school. I knew two Bones men and a Wolf's Head who had to leave the room if the conversation of the clubs came up.

My father did his post-doc at Harvard so I lived rather near the campus when I was young. There are places in Boston that look so familiar and I'll tell my parents where I was and they could tell me if I had been there.

I will say that being a Yalie has both helped and hurt me.