You Can Now Haggle For Certain Items On Amazon | ||
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Amazon just introduced a new feature called "Make An Offer" that will let customers negotiate with sellers on the price of products. As of now, customers will be able to haggle with sellers on more than 15,000 items, all in the collectibles or fine art category When you're browsing an eligable item, you'll now see a "Make an Offer" button above the usual buy option on select products:
Click it, and Amazon will prompt you to enter a new, lower price, which the seller will receive through email. The seller can then accept, reject, or counter your offer, with the rest of the process continuing through email until the negotiation is complete. If the seller accepts any of your offers, you'll get an email and the item will be placed into your shopping cart at the agreed upon lower price. The main differentiator between Make An Offer and the auction format on a site like eBay, is that all negotiations will happen privately via email. Amazon's rationale is that Make an Offer will help sellers imitate their interactions with customers in a physical store where haggling for expensive, collectible items is often part of the process. They'll also be able to gauge whether they're pricing too high based on customer interest and offers. Customers, meanwhile, will be able to potentially score lower prices. Sellers will have a choice whether or not to offer the Make an Offer button on the their product, but the company says it sees the feature expanding to "hundreds of thousands of items from sellers in 2015." SEE ALSO: Amazon Has A Plan To Deliver Your Packages In Only One Hour If You Live In New York City Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Finally! Brooklyn Is Getting Its Own Apple Store (AAPL) | ||
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Apple is finally coming to Brooklyn. Steve Cuozzo at the New York Post reports Apple will open a store in Williamsburg in the first half of 2015. It will be at 247 Bedford Ave., which is 3rd St. and Bedford Ave. "The two-story brick structure, a few blocks from the Bedford Avenue L station, is getting a whole new look, featuring dramatic, arched windows, to be completed in April 2015," says Cuozzo. Apple has long been rumored to be coming to Brooklyn, but this time it seems like it's really going to happen. For those not in the New York area, Williamsburg is a straight shot from Manhattan on the L train. It used to be a hipster area, but lately it's turned. It's not as hip or edgy. Still! It's popular with the kids, so this is a good location for Apple. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Photographers Are Angry That Yahoo Is Selling Their Flickr Photos And Not Giving Them Any Money | ||
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Photographers are really annoyed because Yahoo! is selling their "commons" Flickr pictures — intended for free distribution — for profit. Even Flickr's founder has called the move "shortsighted". Yahoo! owns the photo sharing platform and announced its plans last week. The Wall Street Journal reports the company will start selling prints of 50 million "Creative Commons-licensed" (CC) images on canvas for around $49 each — and no payments will go to the people who actually took the shots. Only a "small sticker bearing the name of the artist" will feature on the canvasses. There will also be some handpicked images, which don't have the CC license. Of those, 51% of sales revenue will go to the photographers in these cases. Photographers who label photos on Flickr's with the CC category make those images free for commercial use. Anyone can have them. You can take them and sell them if you want, too. Photographers generally offer their work for free like this because it's a good way to get your name out there in a market saturated with cheap/free photos. The problem is that photographers generally don't expect CC images to be used in a way that makes any money. Yahoo, however, has the power to create a massive market in these images but it is creaming off the CC images (for which no payment is required) and not focusing on the "rights reserved" images which legally require payment. The effect of this, some photographers believe, will be that artists stop offering their work for free. That would stop Yahoo from selling their images, but it would also stop the free exposure and credit they get when their pictures appear on blogs and news sites (like Business Insider). Yahoo seems not to have taken a more obvious route: to sell CC photos but offer the originators a cut of the sale, the same way Google and Apple offer app developers a cut of sales from apps that are distributed in their apps stores. (Of course, it's much more difficult to verify the original owner of an image than an app.) One photographer, Jeffrey Zeldman, has written an enraged blog post about the situation, where he calls Yahoo! "cheesy" and "desperate". "As a photographer, I now have to choose whether to prevent people from using my photos, or prevent Yahoo from selling them. I can’t have both," he says. "I want people to use my photos. That’s why I take them. I want that usage to be unencumbered. But Yahoo selling the stuff? Cheesy, desperate, and not at all fine with me. I pay for a Flickr Pro account, and am happy to do so. That’s how Yahoo is supposed to make money from my hobby." "It's like helplessly watching a cocaine-addicted friend snort up their kid’s college fund. Come on, Yahoo," Zeldman says. He explains he's used Flickr for years and loves it. But adds that it's now falling on its knees. "It's like helplessly watching a cocaine-addicted friend snort up their kid’s college fund. Come on, Yahoo," Zeldman says. Others align with him on the issue. Phil Wolff says Yahoo!, through Flickr, is a "custodian" of photographers' art, and the new relationship is a conflict of interests that "muddies waters that should be clean and transparent." And Glenn Fleishman adds: "I honestly cannot get behind this. I never wanted my images to be sold or used for non-editorial purposes without permission or licensing fees." There are seven different license options on Flickr. Here they are:
And here's a helpful key, which explains them: | ||
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What Are Traders Chatting About Right Now? Angst... (DIA, SPY, SPX, QQQ) | ||
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JonesTrading's Dave Lutz has a roundup of what traders are chatting about right now: Good Morning, US Futures are looking off 30-40bp, with the S&P taking out yesterday’s lows. Angst reigns as Oil drops – and a trio of headlines (Greek Elections, China clamping down on Leverage in Credit, “considerable Time” removal from Fed) all weigh. London is off 1.2% in heavy volume (1.5x normal) as every major sector of the FTSE is off at least 1%. The DAX is off 1% as energy companies retreat – but the Athens stock exchange is off over 11% and Greek yields are out 50bp as political uncertainty mounts – So the EU banks are getting hit for 1.7%. With the Oil drop, Gulf Exchanges under good pressure – Dubai lost 6.6%, Saudi lost 2.5%, Qatar 3.5%, and Abu Dhabi 3.7%. Over in Asia, Shanghai had its biggest drop in 5years on record volumes as China's securities clearing house had tightened the use of corporate bonds as collateral for short-term financing, the Miners knocked Aussie for 1.7% as the price of Iron ore gapped lower again overnight (JPM cut forecasts). Despite the wild move in the Yen in the last 24hours, The Nikkei was off only 70bp. The 10YY is coming in, as “Flattener” flows continue to pressure longer-term yields in the USA despite Bunds being flat. The $/Y has broken south of 120 – a key level for it to retake, but the Euro has a bid, pressuring the DXY this AM. With this tailwind for commodities, we have Brent/WTI Crude up 1% (Brent was off 1.5% earlier). Silver is up 1%, and Gold is holding yesterday’s late day surge, adding 20bp and over $1200. Natty has been beaten up of late, we are seeing some covering this AM. Grains and Beans are under pressure this AM. Scheduled Catalysts today include NFIB Small Business Optimism at 7:30, UK GDP, US JOLTS Job Openings, Wholesale Inventories and ISM Semiannual Report On Business at 10, and a 3Y auction at 1. We will get SIFI headlines for the Fins today, and API data tonight. Some Trends I’m watching: · Despite the weakness yesterday, “Growth” stocks only underperformed Value by 17bp. We have a slew of China data tonight (CPI, PPI, New Yuan Loans, Money Supply) – be interesting to see if the “growth” trade outperforms again. (IWO > IWN) · Watch the “Gundlach Floor” of 2.2% in the 10YY as “Flattener” trades continue to sell short-term (SHY) to buy 10’s (TLT). · Despite Rates yesterday, Banks had a great day – An allocator may have been at work, big prints of financial ETFs hit the tape late in the day. In total it looked like about $750mm of financials buying FXO (Alphadex) and IYF. SIFI announcement from the Fed on Bank Capital Requirements today may be a “Buy the News” as a uncertainty is removed. MS and GS your highest levered. · Watch the Commodity Rich Exporters - Canada (EWC), Russia (RSX) and Brazil (EWZ). Canada had it’s worst loss in 3 years on plunging Oil – Led by drops in Resource and Financial Shares
SEE ALSO: 10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Have A Look Inside The UK's First Breakfast Cereal Cafe | ||
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The UK's first cereal cafe opens on Wednesday. Inside are 120 colourful boxes of breakfast — from classics that the Brits like such as Cornflakes and Coco Pops, to American favourites such as Lucky Charms. They can be covered in 10 different types of milk, and topped with Malteasers, Oreos, or other things made of sugar and chocolate. Cereal Killer Cafe, in Shoreditch, London, is the idea of Gary and Alan McKeery. They're twins from Belfast who made waves when they launched a crowdfunding webpage to see their vision realised. Now it has been. And it's much more than a few bowls of Rice Krispies, Gary explains to Business Insider — but an entire brand. Gary says the cafe is a "breakfast experience" — yes, really. He and Alan have created an interior with vintage cereal paraphernalia and walls adorned with retro milk bottles and pictures of Tony the Tiger. The menu lists American and British products, as well as "cereal cocktails", Poptarts, and toast.
"We've created a whole experience," says Gary. "It's not just about breakfast, but a brand, really. The interest in it all has been amazing — much more than we expected. "We don't want to create a cereal empire, but we do think there might be options to grow. Places like Brighton or Bristol would probably work." Gary and Alan used to work in sales and retail so have experience in selling. They've sourced cereals that aren't always available here in the UK. There's also cereal-themed cake, and pieces of merchandise for people who really love the nostalgia; reliving their childhood breakfasts. Right now, the business has about 8 members of staff and is open all day until 10pm. A small bowl (30g) costs £2.50 and a large one (50g) £3.50 — toppings are an extra 20p but milk is included. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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You Can Now Haggle For Certain Items On Amazon | ||
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Amazon just introduced a new feature called "Make An Offer" that will let customers negotiate with sellers on the price of products. As of now, customers will be able to haggle with sellers on more than 15,000 items, all in the collectibles or fine art category When you're browsing an eligable item, you'll now see a "Make an Offer" button above the usual buy option on select products:
Click it, and Amazon will prompt you to enter a new, lower price, which the seller will receive through email. The seller can then accept, reject, or counter your offer, with the rest of the process continuing through email until the negotiation is complete. If the seller accepts any of your offers, you'll get an email and the item will be placed into your shopping cart at the agreed upon lower price. The main differentiator between Make An Offer and the auction format on a site like eBay, is that all negotiations will happen privately via email. Amazon's rationale is that Make an Offer will help sellers imitate their interactions with customers in a physical store where haggling for expensive, collectible items is often part of the process. They'll also be able to gauge whether they're pricing too high based on customer interest and offers. Customers, meanwhile, will be able to potentially score lower prices. Sellers will have a choice whether or not to offer the Make an Offer button on the their product, but the company says it sees the feature expanding to "hundreds of thousands of items from sellers in 2015." SEE ALSO: Amazon Has A Plan To Deliver Your Packages In Only One Hour If You Live In New York City Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Finally! Brooklyn Is Getting Its Own Apple Store (AAPL) | ||
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Apple is finally coming to Brooklyn. Steve Cuozzo at the New York Post reports Apple will open a store in Williamsburg in the first half of 2015. It will be at 247 Bedford Ave., which is 3rd St. and Bedford Ave. "The two-story brick structure, a few blocks from the Bedford Avenue L station, is getting a whole new look, featuring dramatic, arched windows, to be completed in April 2015," says Cuozzo. Apple has long been rumored to be coming to Brooklyn, but this time it seems like it's really going to happen. For those not in the New York area, Williamsburg is a straight shot from Manhattan on the L train. It used to be a hipster area, but lately it's turned. It's not as hip or edgy. Still! It's popular with the kids, so this is a good location for Apple. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell (DIA, SPY, SPX, QQQ) | ||
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Good morning! Here are the major stories in markets that you need to know about today. Greece Is Gearing Up For An Early Presidential Election. On Monday, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras announced that Greece's presidential elections will be held on December 17, two months earlier than scheduled. If Greece's legislators can't elect a president, parliamentary elections will be triggered, which could usher in Syriza, the radical anti-austerity leftists leading Greek polls. Athens Also Got A Two Month Bailout Extension From Eurozone Ministers. Eurozone ministers on Monday approved a request from Greece for a two-month extension to its bailout programme that was set to end December 31, amid an ongoing budget row between Athens and its EU-IMF creditors. Greece Crashes. The Greek stock market is down by 10% in the wake of all this news. China Tanks. The white-hot Chinese stock market finally pulled back a bit with a violent 5.43% plunge in the Shanghai Composite on Tuesday. Still, the index is up by 39% this year, fueled by the boom in mom-and-pop brokerage accounts. Markets Are Selling Everywhere. US futures are in the red with Dow futures down 58 points and S&P futures down 6.9 points. Europe is sliding with Britain's FTSE down 1.2%, France's CAC 40 down 1.3%, and Germany's DAX down 0.9%. Asia closed down with Japan's Nikkei down 0.6% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 2.3%. German Imports Sank In October. Imports dropped 3.1% from September, compared to a 0.5% drop in exports, leaving a trade surplus of €20.6 billion, second only to July's record figure. The Fed Might Drop Some Of Its Forward Guidance. Currently, the Federal Reserve states that rates will stay near zero for a "considerable time", language that the WSJ's Jon Hilsenrath believes may be dropped at their meeting next week, with the US economy recovering rapidly. This would be considered a hawkish move as inflation remains incredibly low. Russia Has Started Sending Ukraine Gas Again. Ukraine's gas transport monopoly, Ukrtransgaz, said Russia had resumed gas flows to Ukraine on Tuesday after a six-month gap during a dispute over prices and unpaid debts. The US Is Sueing Deutsche Bank. "The U.S. government filed a lawsuit on Monday accusing Deutsche Bank AG of tax fraud for engaging in a series of transactions designed to evade federal income taxes," Reuters' Jonathan Stempel reports. "The lawsuit seeks more than $190 million in taxes, penalties and interest, according to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan. Several other defendants were also named." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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African bid for Olympics will get support: Games chief | ||
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Monaco (AFP) - An African bid to stage the Olympic Games for the first time will get widespread sympathy in the IOC after its new reforms, Olympic chief Thomas Bach said Tuesday. With Durban in South Africa considering a run for the 2024 Games, Bach told AFP in an interview that it was up to Africa to make a "feasible" case. "This depends on Africa," Bach said when asked when the first Olympics would be held in Africa. Reforms passed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) such as making bidding easier and cheaper and allowing possible joint bids are intended to take the Games to "new regions", according to Bach. "We will see now," Bach said. "The next candidature phase is for the 2024 Olympic Games and we will see whether there will be a bid from Africa. "I can only say that I think a feasible bid from Africa would enjoy many sympathies from among the IOC members but the first step has to be done by Africa," the IOC president said. The IOC decided on Friday that the host for the 2024 Games will be decided at a meeting in the Peru capital Lima in mid-2017. The South African city of Durban is already bidding for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in what could be a launchpad for the Olympics. Media reports have also spoken of a possible bid by Johannesburg, which could team up with Pretoria now that the new reforms allow the Games to be staged in two cities. South Africa's veteran IOC member Sam Ramsamy said last month that "Africa is ready to host an Olympics," as he indicated that a South African bid is likely.
-- Strong Competition --
Any African bid for 2024 is likely to face strong European and US competition. The US Olympic Committee is expected to choose this month between Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC and Boston. The United States last held the summer Games in Atlanta in 1996. In Europe, Berlin and Hamburg in Germany have been given strong government support for a campaign. The Italian capital Rome is also studying a bid and Paris will announce in January whether it will join the race. French President Francois Hollande favours a bid but the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has doubts. France was badly disappointed at losing the 2012 Games to London and 2024 will be the 100th anniversary of the last time France staged the summer Games. IOC members have predicted that Paris will join the race and Bach said that the French capital would be a strong contender. "Yes Paris can believe in its chances because France is an Olympic country," the IOC president said. "Our founder, Pierre de Coubertin, was French. France likes sport, Paris is a fascinating city known the world over and has existing infrastructure. "So if Paris decides, if France decides to present a Paris candidacy, it would be a very strong candidate," Bach declared. Cities must make applications by September 15 next year and then have until January 8, 2016 to place guarantees. A final list of candidate cities will be chosen by the IOC in May 2016 leaving about 14 months campaigning before a final vote in Lima. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Photographers Are Angry That Yahoo Is Selling Their Flickr Photos And Not Giving Them Any Money | ||
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Photographers are really annoyed because Yahoo! is selling their "commons" Flickr pictures — intended for free distribution — for profit. Even Flickr's founder has called the move "shortsighted". Yahoo! owns the photo sharing platform and announced its plans last week. The Wall Street Journal reports the company will start selling prints of 50 million "Creative Commons-licensed" (CC) images on canvas for around $49 each — and no payments will go to the people who actually took the shots. Only a "small sticker bearing the name of the artist" will feature on the canvasses. There will also be some handpicked images, which don't have the CC license. Of those, 51% of sales revenue will go to the photographers in these cases. Photographers who label photos on Flickr's with the CC category make those images free for commercial use. Anyone can have them. You can take them and sell them if you want, too. Photographers generally offer their work for free like this because it's a good way to get your name out there in a market saturated with cheap/free photos. The problem is that photographers generally don't expect CC images to be used in a way that makes any money. Yahoo, however, has the power to create a massive market in these images but it is creaming off the CC images (for which no payment is required) and not focusing on the "rights reserved" images which legally require payment. The effect of this, some photographers believe, will be that artists stop offering their work for free. That would stop Yahoo from selling their images, but it would also stop the free exposure and credit they get when their pictures appear on blogs and news sites (like Business Insider). Yahoo seems not to have taken a more obvious route: to sell CC photos but offer the originators a cut of the sale, the same way Google and Apple offer app developers a cut of sales from apps that are distributed in their apps stores. (Of course, it's much more difficult to verify the original owner of an image than an app.) One photographer, Jeffrey Zeldman, has written an enraged blog post about the situation, where he calls Yahoo! "cheesy" and "desperate". "As a photographer, I now have to choose whether to prevent people from using my photos, or prevent Yahoo from selling them. I can’t have both," he says. "I want people to use my photos. That’s why I take them. I want that usage to be unencumbered. But Yahoo selling the stuff? Cheesy, desperate, and not at all fine with me. I pay for a Flickr Pro account, and am happy to do so. That’s how Yahoo is supposed to make money from my hobby." "It's like helplessly watching a cocaine-addicted friend snort up their kid’s college fund. Come on, Yahoo," Zeldman says. He explains he's used Flickr for years and loves it. But adds that it's now falling on its knees. "It's like helplessly watching a cocaine-addicted friend snort up their kid’s college fund. Come on, Yahoo," Zeldman says. Others align with him on the issue. Phil Wolff says Yahoo!, through Flickr, is a "custodian" of photographers' art, and the new relationship is a conflict of interests that "muddies waters that should be clean and transparent." And Glenn Fleishman adds: "I honestly cannot get behind this. I never wanted my images to be sold or used for non-editorial purposes without permission or licensing fees." There are seven different license options on Flickr. Here they are:
And here's a helpful key, which explains them: | ||
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World Bank: Russia's Economy Is In Deep Trouble Next Year | ||
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Moscow (AFP) - The World Bank on Tuesday predicted that Russia's economy would shrink by 0.7 percent in 2015, but warned that the contraction would be worse if oil prices were to keep sliding. The World Bank said its forecast is based on a scenario of crude prices averaging at $78 in 2015. But if oil prices fell to $70, Russia's output would shrink by 1.5 percent, it said. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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