Bought out GameGavel.com, need community input.

[bojay1997]

 

I don't really care what Mike have or had not tried in the past. Moving forward, I only care about what I can do to improve it.

Sure, but ignoring what hasn't worked before is not a good way to move forward.

[PikoInteractive]

Sure, but ignoring what hasn't worked before is not a good way to move forward.

 

Just because someone else tried it and failed, it doesn't mean it shouldn't work.

[bojay1997]

 

Just because someone else tried it and failed, it doesn't mean it shouldn't work.

That's kind of exactly what it means. Yes, you have a good reputation which Mike didn't have at the end, but I can't necessarily fault many of the things he tried to do to build Game Gavel into a viable business. If you're looking at this as a hobby rather than a business, then it doesn't really matter, but if you're legitimately trying to build a profitable business, I think it's pretty important to think about what went wrong the last time and come up with an approach that doesn't just do the same thing in a slightly different wrapper.

[Shawn]

 

Just because someone else tried it and failed, it doesn't mean it shouldn't work.

 

[PikoInteractive]

That's kind of exactly what it means. Yes, you have a good reputation which Mike didn't have at the end, but I can't necessarily fault many of the things he tried to do to build Game Gavel into a viable business. If you're looking at this as a hobby rather than a business, then it doesn't really matter, but if you're legitimately trying to build a profitable business, I think it's pretty important to think about what went wrong the last time and come up with an approach that doesn't just do the same thing in a slightly different wrapper.

 

I've mentioned before, I don't care about making money off of this, I want traffic. Is all I want.

 

@Shawn - Sure, call me Insane. How do you want me to react? Your pic is not going to make me sad or change my mind. Posting that is literally your time being wasted.

Edited May 29, 2017 by PikoInteractive

[CPUWIZ]

47 pages later...

 

 

[Shawn]

 

 

@Shawn - Sure, call me Insane. How do you want me to react? Your pic is not going to make me sad or change my mind. Posting that is literally your time being wasted.

 

Not that you are insane. Ignoring futile past efforts of the same nature and repeating them none the less? That sure is. I honest to God think you are better than this Eli.

[Austin]

To the question about why not start from scratch. Surprisingly GG has pretty good rank on Google searches, one that would take me a couple of years of hard work or a lot of money to reach fast.

 

Clearly it's not doing the site much of a favor at the moment.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I think the obscuring names is just ebay trying to control outside-of-ebay transactions. Same with the feature that prevents you from writing an email address or a domain on a private message. May be I'll add the see the bidders name to paid subscriptions or something like that. Harassing can be reported to staff, and users could get banned and reported to authorities as we would be able to see name, and address and credit card; heck, even a potty mouth fee to the potty mouth jar of the site would be cool. You curse at a member? automatically pay 1 buck etc.

 

To the question about why not start from scratch. Surprisingly GG has pretty good rank on Google searches, one that would take me a couple of years of hard work or a lot of money to reach fast.

I like the "swear jar" bit for swearing in PMs. Pay pittance if you are harassing or abusive to another member or face a ban. Three strikes, you're out policy would be good too.

 

I once had a dispute with an eBay seller which I eventually lost (he sold me a "CIB" Tengen Tetris with a Nintendo Tetris manual, and I rightfully complained it was incomplete), then he swore at me like a drunken pirate and suggested I should "consider suicide." In hindsight, I should have reported his ass for cyber bullying but he smartfully sent the arassing email to my paypal email (yahoo) and not through eBay, so they didn't see it. I gave him negative feedback from me on his profile, which I'm not sure if he got retracted or not. I didn't care. Scumbag seller, "Pedro Games" got banned from eBay sometime later and his website shut down. He was also on the HOS as nintendoage for unrelated sour deals.

 

 

C'mon really? Edison tried and failed 700 different filament materials before he perfected the light bulb. Most people would have given up after twenty tries, if that. And I seriously doubt that phony attribution to Einstein is accurate.

 

EDIT: Oh yeah Eli just ignore all those haters. As long as you keep GG/RR in a separate LLC from your successful Piko Interactive venture, you won't lose your shirt in all this mess. But please don't do what MK did and siphon money from your profitable LLC into your unprofitable ones. That behavior MK tried to pull was borderline money laundering and investor fraud at best.

[Austin]

 

 

Oh I guess I haven't mentioned. But for sure, I'll add toys (preferably vintage), board games, and some other categories. Won't be games only.

 

I agree with others in that if you are dead set on keeping the "Game Gavel" name, then you really should incorporate other forms of gaming. Board games, tabletop games, card games, etc. You should probably veer away from having the main focus be on videogames, and put the focus on being more of a generalized "game" marketplace. That might be a way to attract new blood.

[dj_convoy]

I get why people get upset at the buyer's advantage on eBay, but as someone who buys a lot of stuff there, I still deal with plenty of shitty sellers who don't offer what they claim or ship the wrong item, who don't ship in a reasonable amount of time, who overcharge on shipping, who don't help if something goes awry, etc. People can be jerks. You have to protect yourself, and, if you're setting up a place to do commerce, those protections need to extend to everyone in a fair and reasonable manner. Of course you have to entice sellers, but that can't be at the cost of not protecting buyers. Having an item I want isn't going to be enough to make me come to your site and buy it... I have to be sure that it's reasonably safe and convenient for me to do so.

 

Additionally, Eli, people coming down on you for buying the Game Gavel name... I get that you're high on the idea and a bit defensive... but no one here is out to do you harm. They don't want to see you throw good money after bad. It's your risk, of course, but people like Pipercub and Flojo do have some keen insights. It's up to you if you want to be hurt by the things they say or if you want to take their ideas on board. You can say "off topic" all you like... it's the topic of what to do with gamegavel.com, and people are going to be opinionated about it. You can say "new management" until you're blue in the face... if you are taking on the name, you have to be prepared to take on some lumps. An excellent example is earlier in the thread when the tricky issue of lifetime memberships was brought up... your first instinct was, apparently, to blow it off. Granted, you came in with a probably viable solution later... but that was not a good first thought towards those people in the community who already had dealings with gamegavel.com. I mean, if/when you make a similar thread for RETRO Magazine, you may be surprised by my vitriol... not towards you necessarily (altho' that email thing was still sort of obnoxious... please look before you leap), but my thoughts on how a magazine should be run, formatted and distributed will probably be fairly blunt and not necessarily nice... and I'm a jerk who backed RETRO twice! The very kind of clod who still collects magazines... the kind of person you want to attract. You're putting this target on your own back... it's up to you to make sure your skin is thick enough to deal with it.

 

Best of luck.

[syn]

Once you deal with health issues, doing the same thing every day and getting different results, you realize the opposite is true

[icemanxp300]

Of course you have to entice sellers, but that can't be at the cost of not protecting buyers.

 

This is the 2nd or 3rd time I have seen this now in this thread and lets be blunt here. Odds are you are paying via paypal, if you pay via paypal that's all the buyer scam....err I mean protection you need. Ebay could ditch every smiggin of so called buyer protection they offer because at the end of the day it means diddly when paypal is in the mix.

 

I have had so many douchebags lose an ebay claim just to file a paypal claim and win! I have had buyers bypass ebay all together and just open a paypal claim as they know they would not win on ebay but can work you like a dog via paypal.

 

As a buyer all you have to do is pay with paypal and need not worry about anything else. There is nothing Piko could incorporate that would actually matter. That gets me to the next suggestion. Allow other forms of payment!

[PikoInteractive]

I get why people get upset at the buyer's advantage on eBay, but as someone who buys a lot of stuff there, I still deal with plenty of shitty sellers who don't offer what they claim or ship the wrong item, who don't ship in a reasonable amount of time, who overcharge on shipping, who don't help if something goes awry, etc. People can be jerks. You have to protect yourself, and, if you're setting up a place to do commerce, those protections need to extend to everyone in a fair and reasonable manner. Of course you have to entice sellers, but that can't be at the cost of not protecting buyers. Having an item I want isn't going to be enough to make me come to your site and buy it... I have to be sure that it's reasonably safe and convenient for me to do so.

 

Additionally, Eli, people coming down on you for buying the Game Gavel name... I get that you're high on the idea and a bit defensive... but no one here is out to do you harm. They don't want to see you throw good money after bad. It's your risk, of course, but people like Pipercub and Flojo do have some keen insights. It's up to you if you want to be hurt by the things they say or if you want to take their ideas on board. You can say "off topic" all you like... it's the topic of what to do with gamegavel.com, and people are going to be opinionated about it. You can say "new management" until you're blue in the face... if you are taking on the name, you have to be prepared to take on some lumps. An excellent example is earlier in the thread when the tricky issue of lifetime memberships was brought up... your first instinct was, apparently, to blow it off. Granted, you came in with a probably viable solution later... but that was not a good first thought towards those people in the community who already had dealings with gamegavel.com. I mean, if/when you make a similar thread for RETRO Magazine, you may be surprised by my vitriol... not towards you necessarily (altho' that email thing was still sort of obnoxious... please look before you leap), but my thoughts on how a magazine should be run, formatted and distributed will probably be fairly blunt and not necessarily nice... and I'm a jerk who backed RETRO twice! The very kind of clod who still collects magazines... the kind of person you want to attract. You're putting this target on your own back... it's up to you to make sure your skin is thick enough to deal with it.

 

Best of luck.

 

 

I appreciate your honesty and your comment. My only problem is the same people keep saying the same over and over. Alright, someone already said GG is a toxic waste; lets move on. I understand what I got into, I don't need people repeating it. I know whats up, and I know what Mike did, and how it affected everything. I did this thread and want to talk to the community to improve stuff not to be told "you messed up" every 3 posts. That is why I am brushing off and being dismissive.

 

If people post just for the sake of trolling or being negative or trying to insight drama, they will lose my respect very quickly, specially if they are not my customers already. If YOU MUST say something negative about the situation at least balance it out with something positive or something that could improve or help the conversation. Be Virtuous ala Plato.

[SignGuy81]

 

This is the 2nd or 3rd time I have seen this now in this thread and lets be blunt here. Odds are you are paying via paypal, if you pay via paypal that's all the buyer scam....err I mean protection you need. Ebay could ditch every smiggin of so called buyer protection they offer because at the end of the day it means diddly when paypal is in the mix.

 

I have had so many douchebags lose an ebay claim just to file a paypal claim and win! I have had buyers bypass ebay all together and just open a paypal claim as they know they would not win on ebay but can work you like a dog via paypal.

 

As a buyer all you have to do is pay with paypal and need not worry about anything else. There is nothing Piko could incorporate that would actually matter. That gets me to the next suggestion. Allow other forms of payment!

 

 

I've missed out on so many auctions because I don't use paypal. It will be near the end of an auction. I try to bid and then after I try to confirm it tells me I don't meet the buyer requirements, because I don't have a linked paypal account. Their loss because I always pay right away. I don't see why the requirement some have of having linked paypal account.

[PikoInteractive]

One feature that I will really invest is embedding your items in your website or facebook page etc. This would be more for hardcore sellers or mom n pop shops that want to sell online on their website but don't want to pay big bucks for an ecommerce website.

 

Basically it would give you an embedding code that you paste in an HTML page or HTML part of a CMS, and your items would pop up as a grid or list. It will have a "Powered by Gamegavel.com" branding but they could pay a professional business membership to remove that.

[SignGuy81]

 

If people post just for the sake of trolling or being negative or trying to insight drama, they will lose my respect very quickly, specially if they are not my customers already. If YOU MUST say something negative about the situation at least balance it out with something positive or something that could improve or help the conversation. Be Virtuous ala Plato.

 

I can understand where you are coming from with certain comments which may imply you wasted your time or the site isn't going anywhere. But telling people that they must balance their negative comments with something positive is not the right thing in my opinion. I would instead just ask if you have something negative about something that I can't change then to please keep it to yourself, not say that you have to add something positive to it also. Yahoo is where it is today because they ignored negative feedback. You are basically saying to your users now that when your site is open you don't care what problems people are having with your site because you don't take negativity so well and aren't even going to listen to it unless they throw in something positive. I don't like that.

[icemanxp300]

But telling people that they must balance their negative comments with something positive is not the right thing in my opinion.

 

He never said they had too lol. He was requesting that they do. I can see his point. People keep repeating the same negative discussion over and over. It would annoy me as well.

[Pipercub]

I know of another fellow who didn't like dissenting comments............

[Tanooki]

 

I agree with others in that if you are dead set on keeping the "Game Gavel" name, then you really should incorporate other forms of gaming. Board games, tabletop games, card games, etc. You should probably veer away from having the main focus be on videogames, and put the focus on being more of a generalized "game" marketplace. That might be a way to attract new blood.

Expanding on that further, all gaming at all related merchandise in any form of fashion would be wise. Video/Computer based board games. Anything wearable. Drinks (like those Mega Man E-tank energy drinks.) Soundtracks or homage of the sort style stuff from modern/retro vinyl, CDs, whatever. Anything of some sort of gaming style, and anything marketed that has some form of tie to it. If you drag the net wide enough to snap up anything at all tied to any form of gaming (short of being a gambling site) I think it would work far better than just being a classic video game crap shoveling bin that gets ignored over ebay.

[SignGuy81]

 

He never said they had too lol. He was requesting that they do. I can see his point. People keep repeating the same negative discussion over and over. It would annoy me as well.

 

 

Well, in my opinion it is still good to see all those negative comments just to know exactly how everyone feels, and not to try and suppress that feedback even if by request. You have to know how your users or potential users feel.

 

Even if it is countless posts saying you screwed up, you are wasting your time with that domain, etc. etc. to me would give me an idea that if I had a large percentage of people telling me that that they might be right and would possibly steer me into another direction like start from scratch if that may be. I'm not trying to say he should do that I'm just saying accept the feedback no matter how negative it may be, it isn't hurting anything it can only help by knowing how people feel.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I know of another fellow who didn't like dissenting comments............

Eli is no Mike Kennedy...

[PikoInteractive]

Eli is no Mike Kennedy...

 

I am certainly not, lol Pipercup with the low blows again.

 

 

 

Well, in my opinion it is still good to see all those negative comments just to know exactly how everyone feels, and not to try and suppress that feedback even if by request. You have to know how your users or potential users feel.

 

Even if it is countless posts saying you screwed up, you are wasting your time with that domain, etc. etc. to me would give me an idea that if I had a large percentage of people telling me that that they might be right and would possibly steer me into another direction like start from scratch if that may be. I'm not trying to say he should do that I'm just saying accept the feedback no matter how negative it may be, it isn't hurting anything it can only help by knowing how people feel.

 

I'm not telling you to not post any negative. A lot of people have complained about X and Y within the conversation of Auction website features. The same 3-4 users keep saying the same thing over and over and over without providing anything of value of the conversation.

 

This is not a roast thread.

Edited May 30, 2017 by PikoInteractive

[bojay1997]

 

This is the 2nd or 3rd time I have seen this now in this thread and lets be blunt here. Odds are you are paying via paypal, if you pay via paypal that's all the buyer scam....err I mean protection you need. Ebay could ditch every smiggin of so called buyer protection they offer because at the end of the day it means diddly when paypal is in the mix.

 

I have had so many douchebags lose an ebay claim just to file a paypal claim and win! I have had buyers bypass ebay all together and just open a paypal claim as they know they would not win on ebay but can work you like a dog via paypal.

 

As a buyer all you have to do is pay with paypal and need not worry about anything else. There is nothing Piko could incorporate that would actually matter. That gets me to the next suggestion. Allow other forms of payment!

 

I'm sorry, but this just isn't true. While both Ebay and PayPal offer a significant advantage to buyers in disputes, it is certainly not absolute. I've had maybe 5 disputes as a buyer in the past year out of hundreds of items purchased on Ebay and while three of the five were handled instantly, just try dealing with a seller that does everything to delay a response and/or refund and or makes claims to PayPal that you are somehow trying to defraud them. I had a seller ship me books from overseas in nothing more than a plastic bag despite paying a significant amount of shipping and communicating directly with the seller about how to ship and offering to pay for proper packaging and shipping. I had to return the destroyed books at my expense and while Ebay ultimately refunded my purchase, it took me hours on the phone with Ebay and PayPal call centers in the Philipines to get someone to finally agree to pay return shipping (with Global Shipping Program, the seller is liable for return shipping but has no ability to print and send a label). PayPal and Ebay pointed fingers at each other for weeks and kept telling me the dispute resolution date was weeks away. When the seller sent me a bad e-check, it took hours of calls to PayPal to resolve it. Ultimately, PayPal paid the claim, but it was a horrible experience that ate up hours of my life.

 

I'm sorry you have had some bad experiences as a seller, but as a buyer on Ebay for almost 20 years, I feel very strongly that auction sites must lean heavily in favor of the buyer. There is just too much opportunity for fraud by sellers otherwise and buyers are the lifeblood of an auction site. As others have pointed out, there are just too many sellers that misrepresent items or ship poorly or late or engage in every imaginable type of deception to make a sale. While there are clearly bad buyers, I truly believe that most buyers are reasonable and honest and dealing with the occasional bad buyer is just a price of doing business that must be absorbed.

[icemanxp300]

 

I'm sorry, but this just isn't true. While both Ebay and PayPal offer a significant advantage to buyers in disputes, it is certainly not absolute. I've had maybe 5 disputes as a buyer in the past year out of hundreds of items purchased on Ebay and while three of the five were handled instantly, just try dealing with a seller that does everything to delay a response and/or refund and or makes claims to PayPal that you are somehow trying to defraud them. I had a seller ship me books from overseas in nothing more than a plastic bag despite paying a significant amount of shipping and communicating directly with the seller about how to ship and offering to pay for proper packaging and shipping. I had to return the destroyed books at my expense and while Ebay ultimately refunded my purchase, it took me hours on the phone with Ebay and PayPal call centers in the Philipines to get someone to finally agree to pay return shipping (with Global Shipping Program, the seller is liable for return shipping but has no ability to print and send a label). PayPal and Ebay pointed fingers at each other for weeks and kept telling me the dispute resolution date was weeks away. When the seller sent me a bad e-check, it took hours of calls to PayPal to resolve it. Ultimately, PayPal paid the claim, but it was a horrible experience that ate up hours of my life.

 

I'm sorry you have had some bad experiences as a seller, but as a buyer on Ebay for almost 20 years, I feel very strongly that auction sites must lean heavily in favor of the buyer. There is just too much opportunity for fraud by sellers otherwise and buyers are the lifeblood of an auction site. As others have pointed out, there are just too many sellers that misrepresent items or ship poorly or late or engage in every imaginable type of deception to make a sale. While there are clearly bad buyers, I truly believe that most buyers are reasonable and honest and dealing with the occasional bad buyer is just a price of doing business that must be absorbed.

 

Whats not true? Dude don't even go there. I've been a member over 15 years now. There is no such thing these days as seller protection. Sellers get is shoved up there ass every which way. You honestly think ebay/paypal/piko is going to incorporate a better system for buyers to screw sellers worse than they already can. Go home. You said so yourself YOU WON!

 

Now take some scummy buyer and put them in your shoes and after weeks of claims and phone calls the same outcome BUYER WINS, ALWAYS!

 

Let me repeat this again just in case you missed it. YOU WON! You will always win.