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I made $100K from a dick joke

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Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#261

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

blendergeek wrote: post #227
0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm often unconvinced with arguments like "marketing is about fulfilling a customer's needs" or "adding efficiency to the market". This product is actually an ideal case for marketing, because most people weren't aware that a product like this existed. The best ads notify you about something you genuinely want to buy. What you're really complaining about is astroturfing , not marketing. The more dubious sort of mark…

> There are a lot of old consumer brands, and there are a lot of brands known for junk, but there aren't a lot of old consumer brands that are known for junk. This is why repeatedly buying old consumer brands and then turning them to junk is so insanely profitable. It takes years or decades for consumers to realize that a trusted brand is junk. The consumer never knows that the corporation that turned their brand to…

Indeed.

I wonder if such acquirers tend to reduce marketing spend? This could make sense, if they're operating on a shorter time horizon. Seems a little silly to try to both accumulate and spend down brand equity at the same time.

If so, lack of advertising could be a handy indicator of dropping product quality ;-)

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#262

Post by amelius »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #260
amelius wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Acme won the auction because it was able to bid more. It was able to bid more because it has better lifetime value per customer, i.e. it does a better job of satisfying customer needs. This is obviously not true. What if they are backed by investors? And there are a gazillion other reasons why they could spend more on that ad ...

>What if they are backed by investors? I agree that could nix the argument about better lifetime value per customer. I think the overall argument ends up going through anyways, because investors want to invest in companies that make good products. Paul Graham is constantly emphasizing the importance of pleasing your customers. >And there are a gazillion other reasons why they could spend more on that ad ... I think a…

It depends on if you can make up for a crappy product by good advertising and end up with a net profit. That this is not possible is what you should prove.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#263

Post by phatfish »

alias_neo wrote: post #157
varsketiz wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those in europe - check out vinted.com

My wife uses Vinted (UK) for selling hers and the kids clothes, usually single-to-double digit values at most (or she uses Oleo to just give it away). It works _fairly_ well from what I've heard, but she does have the occasional issue with people complaining about things and sending them back for obtuse reasons, often hardly worth it because the value was so low, the cost of the shipping there and back eclipsed the v…

On a whim I once bid on a "collectors" type Switch game. Me and someone else raised the price near the end of the auction. Not being used to eBay bidding I wasn't ready near the final seconds and got outbid.

A couple of days later I saw the same item relisted. I wouldn't be surprised if the person I was bidding against was just there to pump the price for the seller, or was an alt account of the seller. Obviously against eBay's TOS but I'd be surprised if it didn't happen.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#264

Post by veunes »

agmater wrote: post #166
veunes wrote: post #158

SHIPYOURENEMIESGLITTER is amazing idea!!! I already hav a list of people who would really "enjoy" such a letter!

Not so amazing, you're essentially earning money by helping people bully others anonymously. Probably some collateral damage (i.e. delivery) as well. Its just mean. OPs product is much better in that it can be seen by the recipient as funny, and edible at the least.

It’s all about intent... Sent to a friend with a shared sense of humor, it could spark a laugh rather than any negativity

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#265

Post by veunes »

fsckboy wrote: post #253
veunes wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Situations like these really annoy me. And the platform's complete disregard is infuriating.

when ebay was "invented", i remember reading articles talking about how amazing it was that it actually worked, total strangers would send each other goods and money across the internet. the incredulity was that everybody imagined that there would be more scammers out there than honest people, but there weren't. but what is ebay supposed to do about people who claim they sent things vs people who claim they didn't re…

I get that it’s tricky for eBay to determine who’s being truthful, but ignoring evidence feels unfair

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#266

Post by JansjoFromIkea »

steveBK123 wrote: post #173
JansjoFromIkea wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

imo it's slightly more pro-buyer than it was a couple of years ago. If only because unreasonable buyers have killed off most of the value of having 100% positive feedback. Remember losing it a few years ago when an obvious scammer tried to bully me into a partial refund for an item he had already resold at a 50% markup.

Yes I have a 25+ year old account with 100% feedback, but I don't think it matters nearly as much anymore. Also clearly some subset of buyers understands they can abuse high feedback sellers who want to maintain their feedback rating. In a way I like the more conversational forum buy & sell system where I have feedback, but also each purchase starts with a DM. I usually can suss out from a few DMs if a buyer is going…

I set basically everything at an inflated price and accept offers. The kind of person who's going to be a pain will basically never pay an inflated price and if they do you can partial refund the amount you actually would've accepted to let them think they've won.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#267

Post by brewtide »

fsckboy wrote: post #253
veunes wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Situations like these really annoy me. And the platform's complete disregard is infuriating.

when ebay was "invented", i remember reading articles talking about how amazing it was that it actually worked, total strangers would send each other goods and money across the internet. the incredulity was that everybody imagined that there would be more scammers out there than honest people, but there weren't. but what is ebay supposed to do about people who claim they sent things vs people who claim they didn't re…

Car (and other I assume) forums always were a magical place in this regard. You send a random person a PayPal, they send the part or piece. There were always a few people who got taken here and there but the self moderating and reputational aspects of a forum really kept things quite in check.

Accountability and reputation is the missing secret sauce in this world it seems.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#268

Post by pattibreeze »

eBay locked me out of my seller acct on Dec 3. Almost all the times I called them, the automated system tells me to go to help and then hangs up. I tried contacting them to verify who I was. The questions they asked had nothing to do with me. I asked to speak to a manager, she said no and hung up on me. The problem is that all of my listings are still public. People are buying things. I cannot ship if I cannot access my acct. One lady filed a case because she did not receive the book she bought from me. I had setup a new acct so I could access community help. Then I figured out that I could message her because her user name was on the notifications. I told her about what eBay did to me. She closed the case. This is all so unfair. I did nothing wrong. I have 100% and no bad reviews. Sales were picking up.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#269

Post by sbene970 »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #112
probably_wrong wrote: post #21

I don't have a great opinion of marketing in general and therefore I'm often unconvinced with arguments like "marketing is about fulfilling a customer's needs" or "adding efficiency to the market". Therefore I feel vindicated when a moderately-upvoted post says the quiet part out loud, namely, "Yeah, we made a fake post and just lied to everyone on the internet. I'm not sorry, because not only was it popular - it bec…

>I'm often unconvinced with arguments like "marketing is about fulfilling a customer's needs" or "adding efficiency to the market". This product is actually an ideal case for marketing, because most people weren't aware that a product like this existed. The best ads notify you about something you genuinely want to buy. What you're really complaining about is astroturfing , not marketing. The more dubious sort of mark…

> It's very silly to invest $billions in brand awareness and building market share, if your product is junk and customers will eventually find out. Marketing spend could be seen as the "peacock's tail" of the business world -- a credible signal that the company stands by their product.

Interesting, never thought about it that way. I often find that obviously expensive advertising lowers my expectations in the product and especially in the price performance ratio, since I can't stop thinking about having to pay for the advertising too, not just the actual product/service I want. Which I don't want to.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#270

Post by jcpham2 »

acer4666 wrote: post #30
jcpham2 wrote: post #13

I feel like the origin of this joke is a Louis CK stand up routine IIRC but I’m unable to locate the source.

The routine is here https://youtu.be/jgcGEIfE9kE but I don't think that's the origin of the phrase and doesn't mention mailing candy ones to people

I see. Thank you for this I couldn’t remember the first time I heard this but I’m pretty sure this is what I saw and am referring to.
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