Well, I decided to start a little forum where people can sell full/partial bottles of things and for decanters to post links, etc. I always swore I wouldn’t have one of these, but… and it’s green! I can’t figure out how to make it another color. Wait, now it’s blue. I think I like the green better. I’ll put a link to that too over on the left.
Well, it was bound to happen, and we knew it was coming, but when it finally does, it’s just sorta sad. I had had my eBay store for close to two years, and I have loved all the people I met, it was truly a joyous experience for the most part, so closing it is sad, even though my other store is still open, will remain open, and will expand when three other decanters all put a bigger, better one together.
An assurance to all of you that ordered in the last week or so from any decanter on eBay, you’ll get a notice saying all sorts of scary things from eBay, but the decanter has your order and will be shipping it, that’s not a problem.
eBay starting ending random listings of decants this weekend, and then that activity picked up on Sunday. Their usual pattern is they will end things twice, then you may get suspended for seven days, and then they NARU you. Most of us elected to either close our ebay stores or end all listings. EBay, being the evil idiots they are started ending listings that had already been ended and suspended at least one or more sellers.
So…. the era of decant and sample sales on eBay is officially over. I’ve ended all of my listings except the empty sample vial sales I do, though I won’t have those up for a lot longer on eBay and will end those and close my store so I won’t have to ever pay eBay another dime. If you need decants/samples from me, I’ve had a webstore since last August (click the Fragrant Fripperies ad over there on the left, the one that has the pretty ballerina, who is my darling niece).
Updated in 2012 – Lisa Lawler and I are now offering perfume samples at Surrender to Chance
This has made things a little more complicated, but I think in the end, it will be much better. I hated eBay anyway, it was clunky and slow and inflexible, and it was time for a decanting service to move into the real world.
Love you guys. xoxoxoxoxox!
Hi: thank you for this wonderful site. My eBay store has been down for several months after encountering some of the problems i have seen here! I was afraid to list anything thing else as far as perfume decants. I have so much inventory, so I am trying to start my own site. I haven’t finished creating it yet, but I can be emailed to petiteperfumes@yahoo.com. my user name on eBay is daisydundeals.
Hey Patty! I am SO happy for you guys getting done with the Big Bad Wolf…and striking out on your own. I’ve bought from all of you at one time or another, most recently from Lisa, and have (as you probably know) quite a collection of just about everything I will NEVER ever get to use up.
The bottom line is this: In October, my former colleague told me I had 4 weeks to find another position because she was restructuring her firm and bringing in a New Jersey partner. She had known for a while that she was thinking about going in that direction — yet she avoided telling me. Not only was it unprofessional, but it was downright rude and disgusting. After spending two and more weeks calling every other lawyer I knew in the known universe for a job (the major problem being that I am specialized and senior…two strikes, you’re out), my SO said, hey, it’s time to start your own practice. And so, with the most trepidation I ever experienced in my life, I got myself an office (in the same building as my former colleague — hah! Now she has to see me in the lobby every now and then, and she looks like crap and I don’t!), got myself a huge Staples order and a computer and stationary and cards and announcements and 6 months later, my practice is (thank goodness and all the great powers that be) booming, my pipeline is working great, and hopefully will continue to do so, and I’m happy being my own boss. And not sharing my originations with other people, except, natch, Uncle Sam.
Sorry for the long post — but, when it came right down to it, yep, it was a major upheaval in my life, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
And so it will go for you gals. You’re all terrific, know your stuff, you have a dedicated clientele and word will spread.
Best of luck!!!!!!!!
Ilysa
Patty, kudos from the bottom of my heart for being on top of this eBay nightmare. And I’m so thankful to see former-eBay perfume lovers landing on their feet. I certainly am (well after an 8 day suspension nightmare that had me ranting and beside myself :)). I came to your blog immediately upon finding Diane was “no longer a registered user”. I’ve always enjoyed her decants and she recently purchased a bottle of Inoui from me.
I wanted to toss a bit more info into the discussion of eBay’s shameful recent behavior. I only offer a couple of decants, I mainly sell discontinued scents and random antique collectibles. My suspension (after 7 great years on eBay) and deletion of 175 active listings followed my listing of 2 mini colognes. Jules by Dior and Balafre by Lancome. To this day, eBay refuses to tell me WHY I was suspended….they state “trademark policy violations” and “fraud” as the reason. I have NEVER committed either EVER. Have never had one complaint against me. The only response I received from an actual person was from Customer Support to tell me not to take the suspension personally….as eBay was just performing random actions in an effort to reduce fraud??? Why Dior and Lancome?? Why when those scents continue to be sold?
Long story short: eBay is being sued by designers. Namely Dior, etc. http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m11/i29/s01
In an effort to appear to be complying with the suit, they are axing sellers at random. If any decanters were offering Dior scents, this may have been the main reason you were targeted. My main deep frustration with eBay’s sickening behavior remains that to this day they have NOT told anyone WHY they are killing us off.
eBay has a vast messaging system and to my knowledge they have yet to acknowledge what they are up to regarding axing fragrance sellers. http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200704.shtml Did any decant sellers receive notice of the new no-decant policy, or did eBay just start axing?
I’ve sent a registered letter to their CEO Meg Whitman informing her of these despicable recent practices and requesting that eBay immediately disclose what these new policies are. This silent destruction of reputable sellers has to be some form of fraud on their part, as their behavior forces us to play Russian roulette with future listings as we do not know what designers are not allowed to be listed. I’ve inquired of a class action lawsuit attorney, but I’m not sure if I will decide to exert the energy. The negativity from this mess is wearing on my soul…and I may just move ahead happily on my own instead.
Sorry for the length of my post. And also for not being a strictly decant seller…but as a fellow perfume lover, I wanted you guys to know that I feel your pain and I am so darn proud of you all for landing on your feet and leaving eBay in the dust !!! Their monopoly has to be nearing its end.
:)>-
It’s unfortunate not to be able to do a global eBay search on, say, “Apres l’Ondee.” OTOH I will not miss the clunkiness of the transaction process. I do hope the smaller decanting enterprises will be able to get their wares seen. Thank you, Patty, for giving them the opportunity.
It’s shocking that Diane would get suspended. Absolutely shocking!
This will all work out for the better. The demand for decants is not going to go away! But the transition period is rough and sad.
Perfumed kisses to our dear decanters. 😡
I know! I miss that as much as anyone, but it was clunky. I’ll still hunt down some things there.
Ebay doesn’t care how long you have been on there. Diane had been decanting for five years, and with one swoop, bam, 7-day suspension. Not that it really matters now, but it just really sucks.
smacks back atcha! 🙂
Really sorry to see the decants removed from E-Bay. I am new to this perfume browsing, and I have loved the brief time I had sampling from your store, Patty. Perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise after all–I don’t think I would have discovered your internet store, which now has me salivating over all the Caron urn scents…. I will surely be “nosing” around soon and will look forward to doing more business with you!!
Best Regards,
Deirdre Kanakis
My ebay experience (for what it’s worth): Over the years I’ve bought LOTS of drapery & upholstery fabric via ebay – and my experience is that ebay purchasing is a way of initially locating “good sources” for product.
Once I made a few purchases & established a relationship with a vendor (found the fabric to be good quality, shipped in a timely manner, receoved the quantity I paid for, etc), then my transactions go off-ebay. Ebay attempts to stop this by having buyers & sellers communicate only through “My Ebay” – but, fortunately for me, they simply do not have the resources to stifle all non-ebay communications.
Anyway, this is my too-long way of saying that I now use ebay mostly for the occasional impulse or junk purchase, or to make contact with a new seller, but prefer non-ebay webstores such as Patty’s “Fragrant Fripperies” – which I did not discover through ebay.
Looking forward to theperfumedcourt joint venture & hoping you four sellers come through the transition unscathed!
Thank you, Susan! You know, I do the exact same thing on eBay, find people I like, find their off-eBay store and then order from there. It was just nice to have everything in one place for decants, but hopefully in time, some semblance of that will come about again or at least a network of links.
Whatever, eBay…moving on…
Thank you, darling, for both of your public service announcements. Shame on eBay and all of those sellers out there who are duping the public!
Hugs!
Mwah! Heck with eBay … well, except some of those vintage scents… 🙂
Screw ’em. Frankly I’m happy that all of the money will be going to you guys anyway. I’ll continue to buy from Patty, and will be very happy to buy from the other ladies directly that I had previously bought from on that site.
eBay bites. >:/
You are definitely one of the good ones, Tom. :*
In my view, Ebay is cutting its own throat, getting rid of honest people (and lots of sales) and letting frauds continue. The person discussed below has existed under many names before this, and I have no doubt (unless he is actually prosecuted) that he will pop up again.
But the whole community owes you a tremendous debt of gratitude for all that you are doing–watching out not simply for yourself, but for many, many others! You are truly a fragrant angel!:x
Well, a lot of people put it together already about Mr. Dots, I just posted about it. 🙂
I can’t even verbalize how effing idiotic I think this whole thing w/ ebay is, but I am eternally grateful for Fragrant Fripperies and the future Perfumed Court. And you’re creating massive amounts of good karma for those links to other decanters. ((((((((P))))))))
I think, in the end, it will be for the best. I can imagine ebay’s traffic will slump dramatically over the next month as perfume nuts no longer go there to browse decants. Silly ebay.
Thanks, my friend! {{{{{{{{E}}}}}}}}}}}}
Well done Patty – I can see that it’s a wrench, but the days of eBay are numbered. (I’m a criminology student and doing my dissertation on eFraud and eFencing – if you don’t mind, from October onwards, I’d like to get talking to people here about their experiences of scams and frauds in the whorehouse.) Like you, I have enjoyed my time on eBay, but it is turning seedier and seedier. You really are making a good move and, from all the love that has been expressed here, I can see that plenty of people are going to follow wherever you lead. I’m on a no-buy at the moment, but as soon as that’s lifted you can be sure that I’ll be along to your store.
Butting in here — if you’d like to add an interesting piece to your eFraud dissertation, be sure to check the post prior to this one! The clever vintage bottle scam…
That would be fine with me. Make sure you check out my post below, there should be no end to willing persons that were taken in, even me at first. I’ve also bought a fake Chanel, which I did actually return adn get my money back. Other than that, my experience with ebay really was wonderful for the people I met.
My fear for ebay, if I worried about them, is that essentially by doing this, they are sending a message that they will cave on trademark for used goods. They don’t want to fight it. Half of ebay is used goods, that’s what people loved about ebay, getting a bargain on someone else’s junk.
Thanks, Jayne, an dbest of luck on your research! Whenever you want to do it, just let me know, and we are happy to do a post for you or put something up on our new message board.
SO sad. My collection has grown thanks to ebay decanters, and I’ll be sad not to be searching ebay for my latest obsession. The lovely thing is, you, Diana, Nancy, and Lisa will be at The Perfumed Court, right? You guys were my favorites…the ones I bought from the most. You’ll always have my business! I wonder if Terrie from Terrie’s Temptation will ever be around, she’s so wonderful and I miss her.
It will feel weird, won’t it? yes, those are the four that will start the Perfumed Court.
I don’t know Terrie, but I think it is her I’ve been told has an illness which stopped her from decanting, and while she continues to enjoy perfumes, I don’t think she’ll be back, at least for now, into the perfume decanting biz. I wish I had met her, she has always sounded like a great person, maybe she’ll drop by some day! 🙂
I hate this so much! I see Diane was in the way of the blow. What they are doing is so absurd and stupid and unfair.
I am in Slovakia (only most mainstream department store scents are available here) and even though I visit Switzerland quite often (BF lives there) and I can sniff a lot of things in stores there, Ebay was biggest source for niche decants and samples for me – lots of things would be very hard or impossible to reach for me without them. I had kinda love/hate relationship with Ebay.
I`m glad to know that we will be still able to buy from at least some of our trusted sellers. Looking forward to the opening of The Perfumed Court!
I browsed your store this week…would it be possible to add prices for all decant sizes to every scent?
Yeah, that really sucked. We were all taking down listings at the same time, and for whatever reason, they snagged one extra or something and she got the seven-day suspension. Doesn’t matter, she was taking down everything anyway. I know she’s just numb, as are some others. I still have an outlet to sell, so I’m lucky, but I hope so much that everyone clicks on that resource page and patronizes those lovely people while they are in the interim phase.
Oh, Patty. You have my unending gratitude for being so on top of things & helping all of us make this transition. You are just a lovely, lovely person and I hope you will be amply rewarded by the Perfume Fairy. –Ellen
Well, right now I’m actually an annoyed person at eBay for the really crappy way they handled this, but I love my fellow decanters and all the people who have bought from them and me or even who haven’t, but just liked the idea that we were there just in case.
It will all end better than this, it’s just kind of an icky place right now.
Sniff! Thee of the Decant sales has enabled me so well,
To test the sniffage of the scent
In case it came from hell.
And now at last it seems to me,
an era, it has ended
A new store shall rise and see
e-bay be up-ended!
Ok so it was quick and I’m sleepy but you get the point.
That was so lovely, thank you. Couldn’t tell you were sleepy at all.
\:d/
It’s great to see all the options opening up with the ebay/decant nonsense that has caused so much unnecessary inconvenience for decanters – many of whom obviously have a great passion for scents! I’m new to the idea of decant buying, but being able to try out scents before I commit to a full bottle is something I couldn’t be more thankful for. Which wouldn’t have been possible without all the wonderful decanters out there. If anything, trying out decants have made me more certain about what I’d love to purchase! Kudos for all the efforts and updates over this period and getting everything all organized. Ebay’s monopoly is getting way out of hand.
P/s: Loved the review on Tom Ford’s Black Violet and Noir de Noir! Beautifully written.
Thank you!
I always thought of it as the great democratization of scent. Diane (dragonfly00) has been out there doing this for FIVE years, and she’s introducted more people to the beautiful house of Caron than probably anyone I know. I would have never had the chance to even sample those if it were not for her.
But on to bigger and better things without ebay cruddiness.
I noticed this is a perfume website. I was wondering if anyone has purchased from http://www.worldSfragrances.com Someone online recommened me this website because they sell the perfume I was looking for. Does anyone know about this website?