Let's change people's minds!

(I can't get no) Satisfaction

This Summer C-Net provided us with the list of the 10 greatest dot-com flops. It's really amazing reading about something that never should be forgotten. How could so much money be invested in so ultimately bad business? And how could senior business people take so dramatically bad decisions? Such as:

- Employing 2,000 and expanding to 26 cities in three years (Webvan)
- Designing content that barerly no one could see on their screeens (Boo.com)
- Paying instead of receiving for every item sold, because of undercharging of shipping costs (Pets.com)

But the greatest riddle of them all is:

How could so many companies get funding when they didn't offer their customers any improvement?  In most cases every venture capitalist could have surfed in on the web site and said: Sorry guys I can't get no satisfaction here.

Or isn't a life most ordinary something for a VC?

Selling for a reason

As you may know I am very interested in what the real reasons are for people to buy different products. But the reasons for selling stuff may be as interesting. Just have a look in this ad copy from E-bay:

This is a genuine Gucci bag. It retails in Gucci,Bond Street for £500.00. The bag is a gift from a famous ex and is causing a problem in my current relationship, so, unfortunately, I am selling it for that reason. The bag measures 14" high and 15" wide. The height measurements does not include the handles. It's trimmed with dark brown leather, has the "Gucci" stamp on the front buckle and on the leather strip on the inside pocket, it's stamped with "Gucci made in Italy" Has that real leather smell. A really great larger bag!

Final bid was £170. If only bags could talk.