iAuctionShop – Once eBay’s Largest Pottery Outlet* Removes Its Final Item from Listing on eBay

Sandbach, United Kingdom, July 16, 2007 --(PR.com)-- iAuctionShop has today removed its last listing from eBay. From a high of 6,500 product lines in 2005 and in common with many professional dealers, iAuctionShop is turning its back on eBay as a sales outlet.

Having been fully engaged members of the eBay community since 2002 and at one time running its full-time business almost entirely on eBay, iAuctionShop has finally removed its last listing from that site. iAuctionShop Ltd’s Managing Director Simon Russell stated “…it was a very straightforward decision to make in the end. Buyer apathy, ridiculous pricing expectations, fraud and ever increasing fees combined to make the profitability of the eBay marketplace woefully poor for iAuctionShop. It was actually quite a sad day for us. My wife started the business part-time in 2004 and we enthusiastically embraced every innovation, idea or piece of advice that came out of eBay, opening a store, eventually upgrading it to Anchor level and investing thousands of man hours into making it into a great place for eBay buyers to browse. When eBay’s much reported removal of Stores in Search combined with the huge increase in Stores fees finally hit, the management team resolved that iAuctionShop’s relationship with eBay had to come to an end.”

The margins being achieved by iAuctionShop on eBay had been steadily eroding from a high in 2004/2005 to the unacceptable levels being seen during 2007. Fewer visitors coupled with the attitude ‘I’ll only buy it if it’s really cheap’ and the ever-present threat of PayPal chargebacks by fraudulent buyers caused iAuctionShop’s management team to concentrate on its own websites and other on-line marketplaces where the company’s commitment to Customer Delight would be better appreciated. iAuctionShop Director Rebecca Russell read a well-researched article by David Steiner of www.auctionbytes.com titled ‘Data points to Problems on eBay.com’. Rebecca commented “The article’s content absolutely mirrored our own experience in the eBay marketplace over the past couple of years. We were receiving scores of emails and telephone calls every day telling us that our prices were too high as ‘one sold on eBay last month for a couple of pounds’, and ridiculous offer after offer at perhaps 10% of the listed price. eBay really had become the new car boot sale where everything has to go for pennies and customer service is not valued”.

At its peak on eBay, *iAuctionShop was the largest pottery and porcelain outlet in the UK as evidenced by eBay Pulse, listing some 6,500 product lines. These lines are now listed on www.rscollect.co.uk, www.iauctionshop.co.uk, www.specialistauctions.com and as an Amazon Merchants@ partner iAuctionShop on Amazon.

iAuctionShop Director Simon Russell intends writing a more detailed account of the ups and downs of his company’s experience of utilising eBay as a sales outlet and how it is easy to be kept too busy just managing an eBay account to find the time to look at other marketplaces. Please contact the author to reserve an advanced copy of this account.

iAuctionShop Ltd trades as R & S Collectables listing over 5,000 product lines at any one time - mainly in the antiques, collectables and replacement tableware marketplaces, although traditional toys and games, jewellery and home wares feature heavily in their catalogue. iAuctionShop lists across several internet sales venues;

http://www.iauctionshop.co.uk
http://www.rscollect.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_dscm/202-0624567-7755039?url=search-alias%3Daps&
field-keywords=iAuctionShop&Go.x=6&Go.y=12
http://www.specialistauctions.com/shop.php?userid=101862

Other services include tax-free shopping for customers outside the European Union and gift-wrapping options that can be selected at checkout.

iAuctionShop also markets items on behalf of a large number of clients. Notable sales have been c£6,200 for a Faberge vesta case and c£2,000 for a historically important Nagra IIc tape recorder.

Simon Russell / Director / 12 July 2007 / Cheshire, UK

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