Something to Show You

[minousbijoux]

Sorry Minous, I thought I was vaguely contributing to the topic lol.

You absolutely were on topic! I was responding to Chrono's concern a few posts back that she was threadjacking and hoped I didn't mind.

 

[minousbijoux]

Minou,
The "everybody" is doing it makes poor business sense. Why waste money and time in shipping, photoshopping, eBay fees and etc just so that someone will buy it only to return it a few days later? Isn't it better to take accurate pictures and have happy customers who will buy more later and also recommend them to their friends?

Chrono, hon, you're preaching to the choir! I was attempting to represent their point of view...

 

[CYIW]

edit: ...most people have seen it "too"....

Hmm Chrono, wouldn't it would work in the following business environment?

(a) Selling low cost gems so that returning it would just be a waste,
(b) A market with a lot of buyers so that you don't need to rely on repeat business,
(c) A market with poor sharing of information so that dissatisfied customers don't significantly influence potential buyers.

But in a well-informed, communicative, smaller, more expensive market yes I think it would make poor business sense.

Minous: phew

 

[chrono]

(a) Selling low cost gems so that returning it would just be a waste,
You'll need volume to make up for the smaller profit margin.

(b) A market with a lot of buyers so that you don't need to rely on repeat business,
If the feedback is poor, iffy or few, the vendor may not get the volume of buyers needed to make this methodology work.

(c) A market with poor sharing of information so that dissatisfied customers don't significantly influence potential buyers.
Isn't this why eBay has customer feedback on vendors?

Feel free to disagree and /or poke holes in my logic.

 

[CYIW]

Ok Chrono - how is this

(a), (b) and (c) were meant to be taken together i.e. the imaging process in question would work in a market with all of (a), (b) and (c).

So your objection to (a) is dealt with by including (b).

Your objection to (b) does not quite work because you don't necessarily need feedback to attract buyers (especially i'm guessing where prices are low and the pictures nice).

However, your objection to (b) might work if the potential customer base is well-informed but we assumed they weren't in virtue of including (c)!

And you objection to (c) won't work because i didn't say the market in question related specifically to ebay!

But if you want to talk about e-bay specifically...i'll have to think it over :p

 

[chrono]

Yes, the scenario only applies to eBay since we are discussing eBay vendors. I'll play along for a scenario outside eBay. How will the vendor get the word out to as many potential customers as possible with the help of the giant eBay to rack up the sales?

 

[CYIW]

lol ok fair enough

Do you mean "without the help of the giant eBay"?

Well, I assume non-ebay sellers will sell like many non-ebay sellers...advertise. Then I suppose it comes down to the cost of advertising versus the volumes you get.

Now if you want to say it's impossible to get the volumes through advertising well I can't comment on that. It's at least "logically" possible

 

[minousbijoux]

See here's the thing - the dicey part of this transaction is the speed with which the vendor cancelled. Perhaps they are super efficient and wanted to take care of the transaction while they were thinking of it. I'm still not clear on the timing of the cancellation and at what point they lose their final value fee, but it seems to me its a tough position to put a customer in, to accept the end of the transaction before the transaction has been completely ended with a refund. From my perspective, I wondered why the seller cancelled so quickly and noticed that were I to have accepted the cancellation of the transaction, it would've precluded me from leaving any feedback - is that what they were shooting for, no feedback left? And based on the discrepancy between the stone and the vendor picture, my answer is yes, I believe that part of their business model/plan is to hope stones don't come back but avoid negative feedback if they do by canceling quickly.

I want to clarify something. I am not trying to say this seller is egregious in any way. They are just like so many sellers on ebay that I have seen, like: gem-earth, siamgold78, easternnee, chanthaboongem, exclusivegems, ploythai, precioussiam2010, to name just a few who appear to maximize the saturation and brightness of the stones they are selling to the point where I think its no longer a fair representation of the stone being purchased. But how can they not, if all their peers are doing it (rhetorical question; not really looking for an answer)? They have to make sure to level the playing field as much as possible, so they take a calculated risk that the stone will be acceptable to the majority of buyers and won't come back - and if it does, well, they've planned for that too, and cancel the transaction to avoid the negative feedback. We buyers are willing to put up with it, because every once in a while, we find a great deal hidden in all the dreck. But we are also lucky to have sites like PS, where people with disappointing experiences like me can warn others about it - and that is just what this thread is for!

So, if anyone else has ebay sellers they know photoshop or amp up color etc., now is your chance to warn others and let us know who they are! I, for one, thank you in advance!

 

[tara3056]

exportgems does as well. You can get some decent stuff from them, but their pics are completely doctored up to present their stones in the best possible, and thus generally quite unrealistic, way.

 

[CYIW]

"...so they take a calculated risk that the stone will be acceptable to the majority of buyers and won't come back"

I think that sounds right.

"But we are also lucky to have sites like PS, where people with disappointing experiences like me can warn others about it - and that is just what this thread is for!"

Yes totally agree

 

[iLander]

Ummm . . .

I must be some kind of dufus, because I like it . . .

I'm thinking it's pretty . . .

Aww, honey, there is nothing wrong with liking it! But you can probably understand how I was a bit taken aback when it arrived. The lightest I ever saw it was the outside (on the faded wood) shot. The third photo in the first batch (all grey laptop surface background), my favorite color it showed, was taken with a flashlight aimed right on it. Otherwise, all other shots were what I saw and they are taken in different lighting situations - at night, afternoon sunlight, diffused natural light, halogen, etc. I was surprised at how different it was, and disappointed that it did not adapt well to different lighting, but closed up in all but direct, bright light.

Well, you're right, it is kinda like a bad internet date; "but the photo looked so good!".

Pretty much bait and switch.

Definitely do NOT cancel the transaction until you get a refund.

 

[chrono]

"...so they take a calculated risk that the stone will be acceptable to the majority of buyers and won't come back"

I guess so; they are banking on novices who think everything looks pretty or the type who feels bad to return a stone.

 

[erinl]

Does Tan open a cancel transaction request before the stone has been received? I cannot remember. If the entire transaction goes over 45 days I don't think it can be canceled right? And some stones take a month to even arrive here in the States from Asia.

All i know is that if you are sending registered mail to Asia and the vendor opens the cancel transaction request as soon as you say you are returning it, there is no way the vendor will receive it in 7 days. You either ignore it and it closes on its own or deny it and the vendor loses 10%. I have returned quite a few stones to Asia and several of the transactions have been closed before the vendor received the stone and I got my money back. I had an expensive purchase from colorgemstore (900 dollars) and the transaction closed, it was being returned via registered mail, and the post office person did not listen to me and add the insurance that I asked for (which I noticed only after leaving the post office), so that month-long plus return was a real nail biter. That is why I have stopped buying more expensive stones from ebay vendors unless I am really sure it is something I want to keep.......

 

[LD]

(a) Selling low cost gems so that returning it would just be a waste,
You'll need volume to make up for the smaller profit margin.

(b) A market with a lot of buyers so that you don't need to rely on repeat business,
If the feedback is poor, iffy or few, the vendor may not get the volume of buyers needed to make this methodology work.

(c) A market with poor sharing of information so that dissatisfied customers don't significantly influence potential buyers.
Isn't this why eBay has customer feedback on vendors?

Feel free to disagree and /or poke holes in my logic.

This definitely works but has a limited timeframe which is why some vendors constantly have a few shops on the go at any one time and will close one when things get a bit less favourable to them!

 

[minousbijoux]

Okay guys, working together here, I think we've figured out the ebay business model and we're ready to open our own ebay gem store! Quick, someone grab a camera...