"Wargames Market E-bay Spam" Topic

I have been hearing about how great this Wargames market site it from many people. It is supose to be the e-bay for gamers. How nice, I just got spammed by them.

"Hi I presume you have heard about the ebay.com fee hikes? On a $24.99 USD sale with gallery, the new fees effective from 20th February will add a 21% increase to the fees paid. Yes the gallery is free - but what's the point if everyone is in there?? Average seller expenses are set to rise to around 20% due to ebay and paypal fees. As well as that sellers will not be able to leave negative feedback at all - leaving them wide open to being exploited by buyers. Its also worse than just feedback. In some categories ebay intend to REQUIRE paypal as the only method of payment allowed and paypal will delay releasing payment until the buyer leaves positive feedback or confirms delivery or 21 days elapse! A lot of gaming sellers are moving over to wargamesmarket.com as they are a specialist gaming auction site. Their listing fees are around 75% cheaper than ebay and they do not charge final value fees - so…"

waaaa

I echo jtipp68's comment: waaaa

I got that too, but I believe you actually have to have signed up with them to be on their mailing list. If you have, its a simple manner to opt out on your profile page.

Wyatt

But they sent this through my E-bay ask a question account!

You're right, that is bizarre. They sent it to you through e-bay? That's just asking for trouble.

Wyatt

I got the same thing through my Ebay "Ask Seller a Question" page, and am rightly annoyed by it. Well, if nothing else it has ensured I NEVER use WM in the future.

A friend of mine sent me their link…they have very little anyway..not missing anything if you don't go…

Just out of curiosity, what was the "senders" handle? Was there mention of a certain reference number? If there was a number involved, then its not WargamesMarket doing the spam, but one of its members looking to get paid by WM for bringing in references. The number is how WM tracks references.

I suspect that if this is the case, it is not condoned by WM and will likely lead to forfeiture of the reference award and termination of their account. Forward the message to WM and see what they have to say.

Wyatt

Guys

Before this turns into another 'grab a pitchfork and burn the evil wargames market people' thread could I just point out:

1. We have a strong anti spam policy relating to people generating emails FROM our site – the only bit we can control.

2. This has evidently been sent from outside of our control as it has not used a WM system to send it.

3. We have a referral program so it may be someone from that trying to get referrals. If the email contains a link with a code then feel free to pass it on and I will speak to them.

4. If it does not contain a referral link then it could well be one of our over-zealous members trying to spread the word. There is a lot of upset about the ebay price hikes and so this is a possibility.

5. We had a brief spam problem from our server which comprimised one of our personal forwarding email addresses (nothing to do with member accounts), so conceivably I suppose it could be something to do with that. However that avenue was quickly stamped out yesterday.

To the OP and Cold Warrior – that is one hell of a knee jerk you have there! You may be annoyed but you also jump to a massive conclusion in assuming it has come from us directly. Thank you for being so completely irrational and spreading unfounded rumours rather than getting in contact with us first – how nice.

What is it about playing with toy soldiers that makes people so irrational?

And to stosstruppen….

"A friend of mine sent me their link…they have very little anyway..not missing anything if you don't go…"

We have had over 30 ebay sellers contact us in the past week saying they need to move or die due to the ebay fee hikes. This includes people who currently sell over 300 items per week on ebay.

This price hike is currently only on Ebay US – so its set to get worse when it rolls out across the globe.

The bizarrely negative attitude you display about a GAMING site is a vote for ebay and in the long run will mean that when you got to ebay you will find nothing there either!

Talk about a knee jerk reaction WGM – listen to your customers – we DON'T want to be contacted about Ebay fee hikes – if we did we would subscribe to your site and ask for the email. (BTW – I did subscribe to your site and have turned on the email but have yet to list anything – been too busy to get it done!)

So, if you have a "referral" service – you should probably put those on notice who are spamming others they had better knock it off – spamming is NOT a referral system – it is a way to guarantee you will lose potential customers – especially here on TMP where many gamers come to discuss the hobby. Irational behavior abounds in all places, you can't stop everyone – but by making it known you will not tolerate spammers or "referral" spammers either, you make a bold statement that your site is a valuable addition to the wargaming market and something we as gamers SHOULD participate in. If you allow those who spam in your name to continue – you are only contributing to the notion that it is easier to go with the global giant that is Ebay and pay the higher fees than to go through your lower cost site.

Just my two cents – hopefully you understand they aren't necessarily against your site – but against those who spam in your name. So, get out there and put a stop to it.

I'd also like to let you know that I too have received the Ebay ask a question spam but simply deleted it.

M

Wyatt,

It was from a "0" feedback "buyer" that was a recently registered account. The URL they gave (the message was the same beowulf posted above) contained no referrer info, was just the URL to WM home page with nothing else in the link. Probably a throw away account, as I can't see it being someone trying to gain referrer credit, as nothing was there that would credit them.

Was not going to even bother posting it here til I saw it had occured with someone else. Probably some more out there that received it as well that we haven't heard from. Just forwarded it on to Ebay, let them handle it, if they even care to.

Given the penchant for hyperbole shown by WM in the past, IMHO I would honestly not put this past them, sorry, but they have made exaggerated statements in the past, and are trying to compete with a big fish in a small pond, and have not been very succesful thus far, so I honestly don't blame them doing whatever they can to remedy this.

What I do take exception to is the way they go about it. You can run a succesful business and compete without the hyperbole, or engaging in questionable tactics, and if you choose to take the gloves off, at least be honest about it.

Myself, honestly doesn't matter to me one way or the other (was merely annoyed by the spam), I won't be using WM, but I certainly don't disparage those that do…..

Sorry the spam about the place turned me off. I checked them out and quite frankly it was a ghost town of things to look for. As a seller I prefer E-bay as I get more eyes on my stuff. I mean lower sell fees are nice, but if it cuts into my final value then I have a problem.

As far as deals, I have had better luck with Bartertown.

they need to move or die due to the ebay fee hikes

I find it difficult to beleive any professional wargame seller is making so little on ebay that the increase in fees makes them lose enough money to cease trading.

My own bigger concern if I was selling on ebay would be the changes in the feedback system.