posted on June 26, 2001 08:52:40 AM new
cuff ... I just went to Bidville and used their s l o w search engine to look up the number of bids on 2 seperate random items ... 'ruby' and then 'elvis'. The word ruby had 772 results and 3 items were bid on. The word elvis had 1172 results and 1 item was bid on ( $1 sale license plate currently @ $1 ).
Is this your idea of a busy auction website?
posted on June 26, 2001 09:46:55 AM new
Try searching $1-Sale to see the bids. Many Sellers are experiencing bids on items NOT in the $1-Sale as well. I'm one of them.
I haven't experienced a problem with the search engine at all. Maybe your connection is not the best bidsbids, or it could be your own search syntax needs improvement?
I don't understand your animosity toward BidVille or any other small site. If you really believe that they are no threat, then why do you constantly make uninformed negative statements about them?
posted on June 26, 2001 10:04:25 AM new
I believe the search engine speed and search results are a matter of factual information not bashing. A simple word in a search engine hardly needs syntax tinkering and I have a cable modem.
A 14.8% of items with bids on the $1 sale is a lot better than the rest of the site but these are only $1 items that many sellers are losing money on. Also a lot of these sellers are using Premium Membership funds to feature their auctions so the sale is not totally free to all sellers.
posted on June 26, 2001 10:48:56 AM new
Irregardless of what is sold at what price, BidVille has brought in traffic with this sale. Some will return, some won't. Lot's of people who never heard of BidVille before now know it exists (Buyers and Sellers). How could that possibly be a bad thing?
How do you know who is losing what on the items sold? Did you use your cable and syntax to get that information as well?
I use Premium Services at BidVille. Twice a month I get $200 toward featuring, bold, banners etc... It costs me ten bucks and supports BidVille. I don't mind a bit. There are NO charges to Buyers or Sellers at BidVille unless you CHOOSE them. The Premium Membership is a great deal. That's why MANY Sellers use it at BidVille.
Have a great day everyone!
posted on June 26, 2001 03:44:51 PM new
Cuff, I do not disagre with anything you said. It is well known to many that I am as big a Bidville supporter as you. I am going to ask however that you step back and realize that the discussion between yourself and bidsbids, is totally off topic for this thread. I really did not start it to debate the pros and cons of Bidville. I address this post to you with no animosity because I have previously stated my thoughts on bidsbids attempts to take any thread that could be remotely connected with BV off topic.
My first contention is that any site that could quickly match the traffic of Ebay, would also have to have the fees and rules that Ebay has imposed.
My second contention is who would be willing to put out the expenditure needed to go into a battle like that with the prospects likely leaning to Ebay wiping them out?
BAD KEYBOARD!
[ edited by jimhhow on Jun 26, 2001 03:46 PM ]
posted on June 26, 2001 05:39:21 PM new
jimhow--"My first contention is that any site that could quickly match the traffic of Ebay, would also have to have the fees and rules that Ebay has imposed."
The truth of the matter is that NO site can quickly match the traffic of eBay-- but give an innovative site a chance today and in 6 years you may have another eBay. Or realistically, within a year you may have one that has an established user base that that can support the kind of advertising needed to further build and then expand that site.
The fee part by the way is a given. A site has to have money to stay open. Can anyone give me a guess on what a just out of college tech, whose job it would be to keep the computers running, would make as a starting salary?? If you guessed $70,000 you are right. So how many free listings does it take to keep that site online??
"My second contention is who would be willing to put out the expenditure needed to go into a battle like that with the prospects likely leaning to Ebay wiping them out?"
My answer to this is -any seller determined enough to have a better selling venue and willing enough to take a chance on it. By better I mean one he will have a voice in and actually own a part of -Self determined safety. If he owns a part of a site, that by it's legal structure makes it impossible to be sold, there is some security against take over.Working on the site through volunteerism is another way to build and keep a strong business that eBay may not be able to crush. But any investment is a matter of examining what is available and taking a chance on the future. Cooperatives work! There are over 46,000 of them in the US.
posted on June 26, 2001 07:01:13 PM new
Jello again Jim --- you said;
"My first contention is that any site that could quickly match the traffic of Ebay, would also have to have the fees and rules that Ebay has imposed.
My second contention is who would be willing to put out the expenditure needed to go into a battle like that with the prospects likely leaning to Ebay wiping them out?"
I find myself wondering if the excutives at Nissan or Toyota were pondering questions like that about the American/world auto marked... when would that have been? 35 years ago now?
After all, just a decade and a half earlier, Detroits big three combined to create a war machine that was unstopable. I'd be willing to bet there was not a country on earth where you couldn't find American Autos in surprising numbers. With the exception of some minor regional players, American automakers ruled the market.
Keeping that in mind I come back to the question - who is "WE"? If "WE are sellers, then I suggest again that sellers can only react to the fickle trends of the bidder.
If "WE" are however bidders, how and why one site finds favor over another becomes the real question. Someone said to me the other night in a chat room that bidding on ebay is "trendy" and carries with it some kind of special status and glamour that other sites do not have.
Kinda like cars I guess, in 1968 the toyota was a novelty - a few adventursome dealers took on the franchise, some brave - or frugal drivers bought the cars, but they remained a footnote in overall sales --- untill the gas crisis happened, and we all know what happened then.
Perhaps online auctions are like the Auto business was all those years ago. Perhaps the only thing any smaller site has to do is to keep their product fresh, tweek the site here and there, woo the occasional advertursome seller, and that brave or frugal bidder, sit back and wait for ebay to "get gas" so to speek.
[ edited by rustybore on Jun 26, 2001 07:02 PM ]
posted on June 26, 2001 07:26:19 PM new
some more thoughts related to my above comments...
I would suggest smaller sites do some advertising, I do not think however that they need to spend millions on it.
"slow and study wins the race" would be my advice.
The product offered by smaller sites needs to be kept fresh and inovative, true inovation, to my mind, is driven mostly by ideas rather than money.
Perhaps the most helpfull factor to smaller sites is ebay itself. Ebay being the "Queen Mary" of online auction sites is in no position to change corse quickly and efficiantly the way most smaller sites can. This puts ebay at a dissavantage when reacting to trends of the bidding public.
OK I'll stop now, as I think I'm in danger of over stating what started out to be a simple anology.
tyops? misspelllings?
[ edited by rustybore on Jun 26, 2001 07:58 PM ]
posted on June 27, 2001 02:52:48 AM new
canvid
Please don't misunderstand, I am not endorsing Gegy itself, I haven't seen their fees or rules. I brought them into this discussion because they raised a concept I thought sounded intriguing. I'm simply speculating about a site willing to try a big money media blitz for their opening rather than waiting on the 'word of mouth' that takes years to bring a site to widespread attention. If they have cheaper fees and less restrictive rules than ebay and bring the traffic they hope then they will be the only truly viable competitor capable of challenging ebay's monopoly. Everything hinges on the if's.
Ah cuff, so you found your way to the other auctions board huh? When you accused me of attacking you why didn't you post the thread so people could judge for themselves?
http://www.auctionwatch.com/mesg/read.html?num=6&thread=20324
I don't see 'please use the appropriate board for your post' as an "attack" but apparently you do. Oh well
Double standard? Let's see, I've mentioned ebay, Gegy, BV, epier and others as comparisons are PERTINENT to this discussion and on topic. I don't ignore the topic & spam every post with "list at ___ site, ___ site is great". Wouldn't it be irritating if I did, especially to people who haven't asked where to list?
Bidsbids
Thank you for understanding the points of my first 2 posts. They seem to have escaped others. At least you tried to get this thread back on topic after cuff's initial attempt to derail with another misinterpretation. I promote ebay??? I stated well known facts such as buyers flock to the site because it's the only one they ever hear of. I told no one to list there, in fact I stated they have oppressive rules, unreasonable fees and don't listen to their users.
posted on June 27, 2001 04:25:55 AM new
Hi Uptoolate: My reservation is that they are basically saying everything we all want to hear without backing it up at this time.
As someone that is working on creating a site I know what it takes to create just single elements of what they say they are going to do!
I don't believe in grandstanding personally. Heck, I hope they aren't just being boastful but come through with everything they are saying as it could be a boon for sellers.
However if they don't come through it only makes the jobs of folks like me even harder because everyone that feels foolish for openly believing them will be much more skeptical when dealing with other companies. I call it the "Yahoo effect"!
Any successful site will not be built overnight and will take six months to a year just to get established!
posted on June 27, 2001 11:08:23 AM new
Rustybore, I think we are pretty much saying the same things in a different jargon.
The Japanese auto mfrs did not get into the US market with the idea of knocking the big three down, right away anyhow. They started in limited numbers and areas. Also, They were already making and selling vehicles in Japan and other countries, so they were already in existance. But they had to crawl before they could walk or run also. Heck, most of them already had the industry base and experience in mfr during the war. So it was a substitution of product mostly.
posted on June 30, 2001 12:10:19 PM new
Hi Jim. No one greedybay I mean ebay is more then enof. We need something better. Have a nice buying/selling day.
