One year ago today: June 4, 2023, from a safe distance.
Five years ago today: June 4, 2019, potatoes day.
Nine years ago today: June 4, 2015, we never actually spoke.
Random years ago today: June 4, 2018, in the attic, see.
Part of my motive with the tubes was to learn the system, and I’ve learned things I could do without. They’ve taken eBay and turned it into a job. I get it, that has appeal to a certain layer of society. My beef is the end result is a burdensome and labor-intensive web site that so dominates the market that it swamps anybody who comes up with anything better. I was able to list only another ten tubes this morning, as there is no easy way to sort and list your active offers. I skipped one item on my database by accident and it took a half hour of scrolling to make sure I had not listed it with the wrong title.
Inside the boxes are sometimes unknown gadgets like this accessory. It requires some kind of “Z” meter to operate, so I listed it for the going rate, $35. Now it is clear eBay is designed to sell one item at a time, kind of like a real auction. I was expecting to get a template happening, but they have changed that so I’ll have to re-learn if it is the same thing. Ideally, I want one listing where all I do is go in and change the picture, the price and the title. Why eBay would make that difficult stumps me. Be prepared for it to take much longer to sell anything now.
Part of the chore is the haphazard arrangement of the listings. Maybe there is a way to generate the reports I need, but if so they are not intuitive. I had to devise and create methods to store the pictures because eBay is designed for one posting at a time, so if your IQ is over 100, it is inconvenient as hell. Efficiency says take all your photos for the session at once. eBay says stop posting, walk over to the camera, take each picture, and walk back. And make sure you create a naming scheme that keeps the pictures in the order the eBay lists them or you’ll go through hoops later, same with keeping track of what’s listed and sold. If you use eBay’s system, you’re back handling the material slower than paper records.
I’m aware I’m not the first person to encounter this eBay mess, but I am one of the most disappointed. You’d think a company making such outrageous profit would make some concessions to modernizing their system. On the contrary, eBay has retrogressed to what is a horribly inefficient analog system implemented on a computer. Like MicroSoft did with their file management apps.
No progress has been made on the song lists due to this. This afternoon, I’ll record my thoughts on this nef-fangled eBay. I must get the lists done and it would seem some folks imagine it is easy. Wny, you just sit down and write out your song list in groups of three. Really. Why three? What song should be first and why? What is the criteria, or do you just pick tunes you “think” are right? Does the key of the song matter? How about the tempo? Did anyone out there even thing these things matter? Ah, now comes the thinking part.
Y es, the key (for example) is very important. Why? Because neither of us are strong singers and changing key helps. The first tune must always be a catch dance beat and easy lyrics, because the seasoned band manager knows that while it is the men who tip, in an older crowd it is the women who underpin who’s even there. Why three tunes, I’ll give you a hint—it takes half of the first song to get out on the dance floor and start up. Don’t break that momentum, and that third song may be a bit too much, but better than too little. Sorry, Hippie, you can’t learn this doing things the Guitar Center way.
To test not your knowledge of the techniques, but your acceptance of the role of management as a major factor, here’s a pop quiz. See if you can figure the answers before peeking below. First question, why can’t tunes like “Sundown” and “Boot-Scootin’ Boogie” be played second or third, only first? Second questions, why does it take to the middle of the first song for the people to get dancing? Third question, how long is a Chinaman’s name?
Italian amusement park.
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By noon, silver is taking a real hammering. Down below $30 overnight with news that China is making some kind of move. I spent several hours with eBay and it has really gone for a dump. Well-designed software enhances the performance of the user as they gain proficiency doing things “the computer way”. I forget the slang term we had for this backwards step, but it was based on the IBM way of getting things consistently backward. Before we continue, here is another view of the Thrift store fire to show it is completely gone. Practice for the fire department, methinks. Trust me, it is gone.
This leaves Josh & Jacob free to code in all their idiosyncrasies without consequences, so their priority is proving they did their job right. For example, my rule is you never change the default behavior of a function key or text box that works UNLESS you have a very good reason; And if you were born after around 1995, you don’t have a good reason because the education system after that point never taught the necessary background to make such decisions.
As it transpired, eBay has spent (it seems) most of its effort plugging leaks instead of fixing the boat. If you wonder why so many eBay ads look the same, there is little choice. One of my first complaints back in 2005 was that eBay had no proper system to categorize the listings. They left it up to users and anyone who has tried to apply filters to real estate ads knows how that turns out. At some later point, eBay decides to impost a sorting system, and that never works. Now, you have to choose from categories cooked up by yet another fried-brain gamer in Dept. C. If you don’t, the input screen is apt to demand input you don’t have.
A worse example is something that can be taken two ways. You see, eBay has put in a lot of effort, but did so in the wrong ways. If, in the body of your listing you mention, refer to, or even allude to anything external, their system blocks your ad. If your listing says you have two for sale and you later discover you have three, you can’t say that. Forget even mentioning people could walk into your store and buy stuff without giving eBay a cut. It must have taken immense effort and dollars, possibly even custom A.I. code for eBay to police things down to that level.
Does some of this critique sound familiar? If you’ve been a blog fan long enough, it will. Back in the early days, in some cases the 80s, the situations I’ve written about today were early warnings. I was especially alert to allowing IBM to set any standards (like EBCDIC) and now the world is stuck with their nonsense. If you listen closely to a lot of old-timers who don’t like computers, it is for these same reasons. The difference is they did not study computer as early in life as I did and cannot verbalize their objections that amount to the identical outcomes. They know the dangers of letting people use tools they don’t understand worth a shit.
Later, I ran some of the outcomes of doing business according to eBay. Yes, a profit is possible—but only if you use their own system against them. Without going into detail, do no be surprised if eBay becomes the nest big Internet company to get under the gun. There are laws against what they are doing, but the bureaucracy is slow to apply old rules to new situations. It’s amazing in some way that the government recognizes price gouging if it’s analog, but not if it’s digital.
ADDENDUM
Don’t worry if you didn’t pass the quiz, because all the answers have nothing to do with music. The songs that cannot be grouped as described is because the guitar player uses a capo. It would stall the effect if the band stopped for him to put the capo in place, but he can easily unclip it and let if fall to the stage floor without losing inertia. Second answer is because it takes a moment for the lady to nudge the guy, who needs time to squash his cigarette (a figure of speech these days), take a swig, set down the bottle and slide back his chair. You only think that happens fast. And to the third question, “How High is his brother?” Miss that one and you’re in the wrong blog.
