Razzle-dazzle Bonanzle!

Back in June I wrote a post about my break-up with ebay due to their ever-escalating fees, burgeoning play-book of rules, and disingenuous treatment of sellers. As I mentioned then, they had informed me that for 30 days I would retain my preferred seller badge and power seller icon just in case I changed my mind about leaving. So yesterday along comes an email informing me that my power seller status is “in jeopardy.” Ya think? I haven’t listed so much as a postcard in six weeks!

I wish I could report that I laughed all of this off, but the fact is I sort of did and sort of didn’t. I couldn’t help but remember the euphoric day I got the email telling me I’d become a power seller. It wasn’t all that long after I began with them, maybe four months or so. The following week the mailman delivered an ebay tee-shirt the size of a house (which I wore as a nightgown) and a somewhat cheesy, but fun and festive, certificate which reminds me of those great TV commercials they used to have where everybody bursts into song --"You can buy it on eeeee-bay!" I thought then that maybe the day would come when I would keep it simple and sell on ebay exclusively. Back then they offered sellers so many perks, including consultants who would analyze your ebay store and seller practices and show you how to best maximize your potential. Today you need the Hubble telescope just to find their phone number! Anyway, the email filled me with a sad nostalgia.

But that was then and this is now, so there’s no point moping about it. In the previous post about ebay I’d hinted that I was flirting with a new site. I've been batting my eyelashes at it for six weeks now and am finally ready to dish. The site itself is fabulous – attractive, interactive, and populated by the world’s nicest sellers, most of whom, like me, had been kicked to the curb by ebay. It’s called Bonanazle (I called it Bojangles for the first couple weeks) and to me its ebay on steroids – graphically superior, filled with collectibles and handmade things like ebay used to have before they fell in love with mass merchandisers, and so affordable for sellers that it’s possible to lower prices for the consumer. There’s one little problem though. Bonanzle has just shy of 300,000 users to ebay’s millions, which means of course that sales, except for the more established sellers, are not popping like champagne corks on New Year’s Eve. I have yet to score my first one.

So, why bother, you’re probably asking. I admit I have asked myself that question too, but here’s the thing – Bonanzle shimmers with an energy that fills me with enormous hope. All the warm fuzzies people used to have for ebay have been unleashed and quadrupled there. The sellers affectionately refer to the owners as “the boys” and will leap over burning buildings to help “the boys” succeed. Not only that – they help each OTHER succeed. When I first started setting up my store surprise messages danced across the dialogue box welcoming me. A seller from California helped me with a technical issue, another provided me with tons of google information, and the other day a guy made the banner with my store name on it (see above) and GAVE it to me. “The boys” made Bonanazle a fun place to be and the sellers grabbed that dynamic and ran with it.

I have to believe that this much positive energy can only be a force for growth and success. If I fail there, and I could, I don't think it will be because of bonanzle, but because of the winds of change blowing through both the publishing world and the book world right now. No one knows for sure where the future of books and bookselling is headed, but I do know this -- I, too, will work hard to help “the boys”, I will reinvent myself if need be, I will even go back to square one. If the books come tumbling down count me among the last booksellers standing.