And...?
I just want to know when wondering turn into insults? When does talking shop turn into an insult? Don't ask one question about anyone anymore, in any manner or it's a form of an insult?
Man 1: Hey. How's Gallery 63 doing? I heard auction houses don't make much money?
BANG...!!
Man 1: Why did you shoot me?
Man 2: You wondered. It's insulting.
....
"I'm saying that Ebay itself is changing, they don't earn enough from people turning over $500 or $1000 or $2000 a month or even more so they are getting rid of them. $100 a month in fees isn't worth it for them anymore. They have retail outlet stores selling jeans and chinese factories making fake sunglasses who turnover $50,000 a month. I know this from friends who work for Ebay in Dublin - within 5 years there may be no secondhand stuff on Ebay at all. Seriously dude you need to get wise if you are trying to build a business on Ebay. Castle built on sand."
Paulanna said that about 13 posts up. Just so everyone knows for sure. I cut n pasted it, but Paulanna said it. Not me. Cut n paste. def. Paulanna. Windows.
Which is why I followed up with what I did. I still laugh every time I think of it. I think Craigslist might be going to all new next. Followed by antique malls, and flea markets.
.
You really are a chimp aren't you? Its the same thing dumbo. Unfortunately there isn't a way I can explain by which I could be confident you would understand. Basically Ebay sees its future as being the place where people buy things like new clothes and cameras and household goods. The people like you who sell vintage and secondhand stuff represent a very poor Return on Investment (ROI) to Ebay. Less than 1%. You more or less cost more than you're worth. You've sold about 800 items in 10 years. Whatever the word is for something less than chickenshit then that's what you are to Ebay. You are a liability not an asset. People like you will be increasingly marginalised by Ebay because you're not worth it to them. Fact - Donahue describes people like you as 'noise' - I do too but for different reasons - part of Ebay's history. Where do you think the insistence on fast and free shipping is coming from? It ain't to benefit the likes of you is it now? Because thats impossible for people selling individual items to comply with it means they lose powerseller and top rated status. Higher fees, more marginalised and eventually out the back door. Like the first batch they ditched this month. This is Ebay policy. Laugh all you want but this is happening already with a lot more to come. The word I used by the way was MAY be no secondhand in 5 years. Maybe some really big hitters still there but thats it. Laugh all you want but I'm glad it isn't me planning my future on Ebay. Thats the funny one.
Well...
As much as I'd like to sit here and keep the ball bouncing for infinity, I have to start doing some work, or I'm gonna lose my business from bantering back and forth with you all day over something neither of us are gonna gain anything from this very moment.
I don't have the time, or effort needed to try and wonder what's gonna happen in the year 3000, when a plane could land in the house this evening. So, you win. Until that day comes, I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing, and I'll worry about it when I get the notice.
Today I'm here, my customers are here, ebay's here, and they allow the selling of used items. That's all I need to know. plus, I'm sure everybody's ready for this thread to finally make it to page two, so they don't have to see it any more.
Respond back in 5 years, and we'll resume our jousting match then. I'll be ready to see if you're truly right.
Continued.....
I was so worked up after all this happened, that when I went to the swap meet on sat, and sun, I saw the playing field in a whole new light. It all hit me sat morning at 6:10 when I took my first step onto the parking lot. I felt mean, charged up, almost energized in a way to not only find what I already find, but to look, and dig deeper for many more reasons.
It's like I was seeing in spectravision. Could have been those shrooms I just ate though. I slowed way down to check out pottery that I normally would have passed. I spent the time to look at small pieces. I spent extra time I know, looking at more shapes, and lines than normal, not just the overall view. It was if my net got cast even wider, and the projection even further.
But, I needed that to help me out. Also I lost weight by not eating the whole time I argued, so that was a plus as well. I think at least a pound or two. I guess I want you guys to know that I took the whole experience in as it unfolded, and didn't just rebuttle to keep trying to trump you. I took in every part, every word of it. It has been in my mind this whole time, and it has sparked me to get up and do something, and to also understand the difference between various forms of art, and how I am going to start trying to understand and learn it all as I go into the future.
All of your words, and teaching you tried to do paid off even though I know you would never have thought it did. You're a teacher EH, and you helped teach me much like a man teaches a wild horse. You had to be mean for me to get it, but I do get it, and I thank you for it, and I'm glad it happened. It has been a positive experience for me, and it started working on me just a few days later. I'm thankful that you spent the time to show me your world, and give me free advice I wasn't wanting to take, and I appreciate it, very much....
EH and Woody.....
An after weekend realization.
Sorry if this seems a little long. You know when I came here, I felt like I knew a lot. And even though I do know a lot in a certain field, you realize after interacting with people of other fields that in all reality, you're not even scratching the surface on what you think you know.
It's kind of like when I'm walking down the aisle at the swap meet, and I come across a mexican family selling all mexican knick knacks, and fried pineapple skins with Los Lobos playing that that's a world I know absolutely nothing about.
From all the fighting on here, I researched a lot of different styles, and names that I probably wouldn't have if someone just said nicely to go check them out, cuz I'd like 'em. I probably would say ok, but not really look. I needed that kind of collision of the minds to wake me up to a whole other level of art.
The part that really tied it all together is when Woody provided that user, and I saw 30,000 feedback of things I knew mostly nothing about. I thought I knew a lot because I know 800 things. They know 30,000 things. It was then that I realized there was a whole other world behind a hidden door I hadn't even opened yet. It also sparked me to get up, and get more things done so one day I can have a few people working for me.
Thanks..
It did get very frustrating at times. And yes, exhausting.
But even if you did learn something, the drama morphed into something else at some point, and it got real difficult to rationalize some of the stuff I said. (Or at least the way I said it..)
I do apologize to you and everybody here if any of my comments seemed unfairly mean-spirited. I was pretty frustrated sometimes, and it got harder to use restraint.
No excuses though.
It's very gratifying to
see a long argument/discussion end on that kind of note.
I didn't follow the whole tway, as buying/selling isn't my thing. My loss, I'm sure. But I went back and copied something Mark wrote, because it's been true, again and again, in my own life:
"We so dislike in others, what we so dislike in ourselves."
Thanks, guys and gals. This is a great forum.
My main point was only this...
There is a big difference between making a painting and selling one.
(Or buying one)
Learning to see and draw, is a very learnable craft or skill. To use "the formal elements of picture-making" to make "Art" might be seen as another step entirely.
The making of the best art often comes from a life-long process that involves much personal search, time, and the production of many "half-baked" results before a group of works might arrive at some kind of clarity or crystallization into a resolved group of consistent "objects".
Hopefully at that point, those objects have more to offer than "beauty".
So the whole process of artistic search and development is certainly different than the process of learning to "pick", and get a sense of what is desirable in the marketplace, as it translates into commercial value.
Or even the kind of refinement of eye that an avid and serious collector might develop in his or her own search for what rings their bell.
Both require an extremely refined eye of course,
But the overlap of skills and/or intent may be very little in the end, because one is viewing END products, and the other is striving to realize a vision that is perhaps still unclear.
And the creative process can even blind an artist to the obvious for long periods of time. Sometimes artists choose NOT to take the tried and true solution, in an effort to go beyond an already known "academic" solution.
So Art and commodity can and DO overlap sometimes.
But depending upon your point of view, the marketplace might seem to dictate the value of an object for a collector-- or be completely irrelevant at certain points in time for an artist concerned with realizing an idea in a coherent way.
Blah blah blah
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