Getting Rid of Online Seller Apps.

I've been telling myself for years now, "I've got to focus on my website and get away from these corporate investment platforms".

The year was 2005 and I was a BIG vintage video game collector. Ebay was the place to find these collectibles. I would buy "lots" and keep the ones I wanted and "resell" the ones I had multiples. This was GREAT back then. Today...... not so much.

Today, if you have an idea, creation or just things you want to resell, there are many online seller platforms to help you do so. There are many "marketplace" type sites, even social media has a marketplace and options to sell. So when starting out, it looks like a walk in the park to getting started selling stuff. They all "advertise" as you need 0 to little money to get started. So why on earth would I stop using these apps? Let's dive a little deeper......

The first thing anyone will tell you is, these apps have the hard work done for you. They have a marketing team that can advertise your business far better than a person trying to get their business off the ground. This is true, however, as I will describe, has a sense of signing a deal with the devil.....let's describe this with Ebay. Ebay is the pioneer of these apps. When Ebay was created, it was good. The "greed" hadn't set in yet. Ebay was pretty reasonable in fees and they created Paypal, during that time there wasn't many online payment platforms other than credit card systems. Don't quote my every detail, I'm going from my memory. Paypal fees were reasonable. But what happens in time.....Ebay was sold, to another single person, no, this is America, when you create something, only a giant will buy from you. Paypal was separated and sold. What happens then? Fees go up, year after year, fees go up, followed my more "rules". Ebay created a recipe for investors to invest in new Ebay type platforms.

We now have many online seller platforms that charge fees that pretty much yearly, those fees increase. These platforms start cheap, have minimal policies, advertise the hell out of it, get people signed up, hooked to the sales and then start adding all the fine details later. Now I'm going to speak of my own experience and explain why they don't work for me.

Let's start with Etsy.

I joined Etsy in 2019. The fees were comparable to Ebay, so I wasn't surprised there. There weren't a whole bunch of rules, the standard you would expect. So not bad, let's give it a try. I liked it, I didn't have many problems at the beginning. As I already expected, the fees increased each year. The fees are what had me saying I need to focus on my site. When you are trying to have a competitive price, starting out, all the pennies add up. Where I drew a line was this past fall. Getting ready for the busy season, I was going through my listings, changing out different ones and after I listed one, one I had there for years, I got a message saying Etsy took down 1 or more listings due to policy violation. I'm like HUH? I then learned Etsy was implementing AI into the system, so I figured it was that being screwy. Listing after listing I'd put up and PAY FOR and minutes later, I would get another message about policy violation. So I go to use the "Chat" to find out why and it's an AI Bot. I ask for help, like 10 mins later, I get a human. I tell them the situation and they tell me they will send it to a "team" and I will get an email soon. A day later, I get a generic email stating all the reasons for a policy violation and to recheck my listings. So I spend half a day trying to figure it out. I finally found what I thought was my website link in my description. I removed my link in all of my listings and try to list another one. Nope, that one was taken down as well. At this point, I gave up, I said whatever listing I have, I guess that will be it. 2 months later, out of curiosity, I tried again, the listing stayed. I tried another, it stayed, HUH, I guess they fixed it. So I thought. Recently, I tried to list some new ones. They came back saying policy violation. I was at my wit's end. I said, there has to be a way to get a hold of someone. I took a day trying to find a way to speak with someone. Even going through the AI bot getting a human on "Chat" and they said they don't do phone calls. I said can I email or "Chat" with someone of superior, they said we don't have anyone to talk. THAT! THAT RIGHT THERE! So as a seller, you get charged fees, if you are a "Star Seller" you get discounted fees. They have 3 requirements to be a "Star Seller". One is responding to messages within a certain period. So I get charged more if I don't follow your rule. A RULE you don't even require yourself to follow. From what I gathered, my recent listings were taken down because it said it looked like "production work" So I can only have so many listings or it looks like I'm a production company? So they can limit my amount I want to work? Limit my income? I'll pass. Etsy has a "Buyer Protection" program. If a buyer has a problem with a product, they have up to a year to hit the "HELP" button. This sends you a message from the buyer but also send an "alert" to Etsy to watch. I've gone to bed at night, woken up in the morning, fire up my computer and see someone had messaged me wanting a refund. I then saw Etsy had refunded them. ALL WHILE SLEEPING. I had no time to do anything. This was over a "Made to order item" that still had a few days before process time was due. I've had this happen MULTIPLE times. Again, there is no one to speak with. What this did was just make me anxiety ridden with any sale on Etsy. It made me focus more on getting those sales out to prevent Etsy from just throwing my money around. I had people I can't speak with, that had zero knowledge about what I do making business decisions for me. No bueno! Why have I been lacking on my website.......

I could go deeper but that's the overview. I have countless messages with people I've saved. I make bodies for "hobby grade" R/C's. Ever since I was 14 I understood the difference between "toys" and hobby grade, there is a whole community of us out there. We love how tech has brought the hobby further. Etsy brought me customers, way outside of this community. I had parents buying for kids who have never done any of this customizing and when they can't do it, bash me. I've had people want refunds while keeping the body ( Thanks Amazon ). I've had customers tell me they don't know how to do a return, they never have. It's turned into something more general than a specialized hobby. At the end of the year, doing the math AFTER ALL THE FEES, I ended up with I think 60% of my sales. MAJOR STRESS and a whole lot of B.S. app wise and customer wise that I no longer have the patients for nor even want to deal with. I want this to be enjoyable again. I think I have 23 listings on Etsy currently. I plan to keep 5 at most and they will only be something I have ready to ship.

Ebay Store. My current Ebay account was created in 2005. I had a 100% feedback rating until I started selling bodies. Why did I get negative feedback? Messages. I put the item was "made to order" and made a process time of 10 BUSINESS days. People either don't understand BUSINESS days or are impatient. My experience with Ebay was someone would buy, then want to talk to me.I'd not see the message and I'd have a negative feedback before the item was even due to arrive. I guess my clue is when I'm being told I "ghosted" them. How old are you? Haha, I'm over here running a business making things, I have no interest in this "ghosting". So in my mind, I'm like, oh this is what Ebay is bringing, I don't want to deal with this, I don't, I don't have time for it. So I took all listings down there and will close the shop soon.

So this is where we have gone. People shop these "apps" mostly for buyer protection. So the "little guys" in this hobby, not only have to deal with the costs of items, yes, remember since the hobby began, 95% of materials come from China. Then add, to get scene, you need to be on these apps, with fees. Then it gets filled with buyers who learn these rules to their advantage and the "big guy" ultimately holds the cards and you are left with no mercy. So investors rule all, we just keep giving them the money.

I refuse. I got rid of the big name website host and went with a low cost one. Yes, it screwed me up while changing but I hold the cards now of my business. I'm less stressed and can use that more at products than trying to calm my mind. I will have less sales but will have more time for each customer, more of where I wanted to be. I can be that small specialty shop that I intended from the beginning. I can make MUCH cooler stuff with a clear mind. I can be myself again.

So that is an overview of why I have made the changes I have. My body helped me make that decision. It's a hard choice to make but at the same time very exciting to still do this on a whole other level. Only time will tell, wish me luck!