posted on June 30, 2001 08:11:58 PM
May I please ask why anyone would down any other site other than ebay?
I'm sorry I do not understand, if you do not like a particular site..do not visit it...you do not have to voice negative opinions about it, unless you have had a bad experience.
I list at ebay as well as Bidville. I sell much more at ebay, but I'm hoping that sales do pick up at Bidville.
Even if they do not and I leave Bidville, I will not come back here and bash the site.
posted on June 30, 2001 09:08:25 PM
I just don't understand dimview's agenda. he says he's being objective and fair, but you'd have to be blind, deaf, and mute not to see the negative slant he portrays Bidville in. The day of Bidville's $1-sale, he writes at 4:00 AM that he hasn't heard a word from Bidville nor any advertisments. Well just hours later, Bidville sends out a mass email and place a FRONT page Ad. Ouch on Dimview's superego.
Bidville is not eBay. But neither is ePier, Bidbay and all the rest. Tell me why ePier and Bidbay are better than Bidville and I'll think of 10 counter arguments.
So Bidville has a low sell thru rate, but Bidbay does too. And Epier would too if they had 600,000 items. Yahoo wasn't any better. Let's face it: All sellers place their best items on eBay. If I own a retail store, do I place me best products in the back? Of course not.
I enjoy dimview's numbers too... don't get me wrong. But let's not pretend that dimview is being "objective" here.
posted on July 1, 2001 05:23:58 AM
I have to admit it - I'm djay3, and I'm a warehouseaholic!
I do warehouse at Bidville - simply because I have numerous duplicate items, and a buyer for that particular item may not hit Bidville that particular week. So, I relist...and relist...and relist. Eventually, the right buyer comes along and finds the item they're looking for. After I ship the item, and if I have another of the same item, I list another one, and I relist...and relist...and relist. I had one buyer that was delighted to find a particular card I had listed that was up to relist # 23. Was it warehoused to that happy buyer? NO! The point is, until LOTS of people start visiting Bidville every day, I will relist...and relist...until the right buyer finds the site, and finds the item that I have that they've been looking for.
But, I also add items every single week. Some weeks, I add only 10-20. Other weeks, I add over 100. The amount totally depends on how much time I've had to scan and prepare. Inventory is being added to at Bidville, simply because 650,000+ listings don't happen with all relists.
At this point in Bidville's history, I'm not concerned with sell-through. I'm more interested in stocking the shelves there to give buyers more items to browse through. If everyone (and I'm guilty of it as well) would stop browsing and posting to message boards and use that time to post items to Bidville, or your other favorite alternative auction site, the listings would increase dramatically - and, perhaps, dim's sell-through rate would increase.
When Christmas time rolls around, I think that will be the "official" make or break time for Bidville. If my personal sell-through increases, Bidville will still receive lots of my items. If it doesn't, then I'll start looking at alternatvies to Bidville. The middle of July, with its built-in slow sales period, will never be a barometer for me. Christmas, however, will be.
posted on July 1, 2001 06:58:39 AM
You can call it warehouseing if you wish but today I got up to 13 new bid, 5 were buy it nows and I had two auctions close last night with bids at the last moment. Some were Dales race car cards some starting lineups some glass fish paperweights I could go on. The prices were from $3.00 to $10.00. Dont get me wrong there are days I have no bids put they are far and few between. So I for one am happy to sell on Bidville like I said before I am makeing money and not paying out the nose to list, relist and sell. It helps me keep my prices down so the customer can get a good deal and I can still make a profite. Like it or not with the fees on ebay & BooHoo you have one of two choices lower your profite to cover the charges or raise your price to the customer as time goes on the buyers will see if they want to save money they need to shop at sites other then ebay JMO. Have a nice buying/selling day.
Your numbers for BV cannot be validated because your collection method is flawed. You get the number of sold items by "checking some of the categories' closed items". There's a term called "selection bias" in statistics. I'm sure you've heard of it and it applies here. You could be off by at least a factor of ten (in either direction).
Also, eBay's numbers are provided by eBay. You did not use your standard formula which, in reality, only works for ePier. ePier is the only site that provides the data for your formula.
posted on July 1, 2001 07:12:32 AM
daredeveil2010 >
The day of Bidville's $1-sale, he writes at 4:00 AM that he hasn't heard a word from Bidville nor any advertisments.
Check your newspaper. You're likely to find a listing of where to go for fireworks on July 4. Might even find an article about the events.
Same thing with Bidville. Taking advantage of the opportunity, it seems to me, would have had an e-mail go out a week before alerting sellers to get their $1-SALE items ready, and alerting buyers (what few there are) that the $1-SALE was coming.
The fireworks aren't going to be a surprise when you're sitting in the living room and hear the "thunder" outside, but Bidville waited until the event was underway and then, SURPRISE, let folks know about it.
That, no doubt, is why there was so little participation.
posted on July 1, 2001 07:15:02 AMAnd, no doubt, there will be those upset when I report on the final results of the $1-SALE and the impact it had on the overall sell-through rate.
Must you? Upset no, just bored with your bashing --- uh, critical numbers!
posted on July 1, 2001 07:15:25 AM
djaythree >
Inventory is being added to at Bidville, simply because 650,000+ listings don't happen with all relists.
Ummmmm, yes its largely happening with relists. Lots of relists.
In fact, 93% of last weeks "listings" are this weeks "relistings".
posted on July 1, 2001 07:36:14 AM
gottaknow88 >
Your numbers for BV cannot be validated because your collection method is flawed. You get the number of sold items by "checking some of the categories' closed items". There's a term called "selection bias" in statistics. I'm sure you've heard of it and it applies here. You could be off by at least a factor of ten (in either direction).
AuctionWatch reported a survey based on 35,000 webusers to conclude that online auction spending is up 149%. Is that accurate since there's millions of buyers?
I say yes.
So when an auctionsite has 100 categories, what fraction are needed to represent them all. I would say between 10 and 20 is probably about right.
So if I find a 4% sell-through rate, a 50% error means the actual rate could be between 2% and 6%. Not too bad given the assumptions that are made.
Also, eBay's numbers are provided by eBay. You did not use your standard formula which, in reality, only works for ePier. ePier is the only site that provides the data for your formula.
ePier provides data from which an accurate sell-through rate can be determined, for Bidville it is necessary to look at representative categories to learn the number of closed auctions the past week and the number of live auctions for the current week.
That this provides a good measure is evidenced by the item numbers assigned to new listings, i.e., we know that last week Bidville only had some 45,000 really new listings.
If you doubt this approach I'd sure like to see your effort in quantifying sell-through rates at ePier and Bidville. Not an explanation of how you would do it, but actually reporting back with the numbers, your step-by-step calcuations, and then the sell-through rates.
posted on July 1, 2001 07:37:56 AM
Dimview is beginning to remind me of AG2. Perhaps BV should pay him to visit and provide "suggestions" for improvement.
LOL.
(Just kidding DV, I still enjoy most of your flawed stats.)
posted on July 1, 2001 07:40:31 AM
Are you saying that you sampled 10-20% of BV's 2000 categories? You looked at 200-400 categories distributed across all their main headings? If so, I'm impressed.
posted on July 1, 2001 07:53:31 AM
gottaknow88 >
Dimview is beginning to remind me of AG2. Perhaps BV should pay him to visit and provide "suggestions" for improvement.
LOL.
(Just kidding DV, I still enjoy most of your flawed stats.)
Are you saying that you sampled 10-20% of BV's 2000 categories? You looked at 200-400 categories distributed across all their main headings? If so, I'm impressed.
I take that to mean that your only input will be to discount my calcuations, while failing to "correct" them with your own.
posted on July 1, 2001 08:09:07 AM
I've checked the site and gathering the data borders on impossible. I didn't say I could to it any better than you. I am saying it is not possible to get the data. Period.
So, I emailed BV asking for the data. I've also invited them to come give us some input on the boards here.
posted on July 1, 2001 08:12:58 AMI take that to mean that your only input will be to discount my calcuations, while failing to "correct" them with your own.
IMO, it reads that you are losing respect and credibility. IMO
posted on July 1, 2001 08:23:32 AM
"So, I emailed BV asking for the data. I've also invited them to come give us some input on the boards here"
Don't hold your breath on this one. I have asked the same question on their forums and have been politely told it's none of my business.
IMH and honest O, I don't think BidVille has any idea of what's happening on their site, and further, I don't think the owners really care. When "The BidVille Prez" gets bored with this toy, he can always go back and finish his medical thing and become a doctor
posted on July 1, 2001 08:29:29 AM
"So, I emailed BV asking for the data. I've also invited them to come give us some input on the boards here"
Don't hold your breath on this one. I have asked the same question on their forums and have been politely told it's none of my business.
IMH and honest O, I don't think BidVille has any idea of what's happening on their site, and further, I don't think the owners really care. When "The BidVille Prez" gets bored with this toy, he can always go back and finish his medical thing and become a doctor
posted on July 1, 2001 08:30:29 AM
gottaknow88 >
I've checked the site and gathering the data borders on impossible. I didn't say I could to it any better than you. I am saying it is not possible to get the data. Period.
Interesting. I just clicked through all the top categories (excluding mature audience), selected the subcategory with the most listings in each, and then added them up.
posted on July 1, 2001 11:05:57 AM
I am the "bidville prez". I believe I'm allowed to respond without violating any AW TOS. If not, I apologize to the moderators.
Dimview, your evaluation of our sell through is way off. I've asked one of our techies to extract the percentages for me and will post it when I hear back. Of course, I have an idea of what the answer is but would rather post when I know for sure.
RB, I'm happy to know that you buzz oon and ooon and oooon at forums other than Bidville's. I really thought you just had beef with our members and liked to rile them up with your negativity. I'd be very interested to see the post on Bidville where you asked about sell through and were told it's none of your business (nicely). Whoever told you that will be reprimanded.
posted on July 1, 2001 11:50:02 AM
eddyodoc >
Dimview, your evaluation of our sell through is way off. I've asked one of our techies to extract the percentages for me and will post it when I hear back. Of course, I have an idea of what the answer is but would rather post when I know for sure.
I'll be looking for Bidville's reported sell-through rate, and hope there will be some raw data to go along with it.
posted on July 1, 2001 01:14:48 PM
Deichen, You are never alone lol. Prez it dont mather what you do it will still not make some people happy (If I was you I would not ever have wasted my time JMO) I no running Bidville keeps you on the go it cant be a easy job. Deichen some people will always be negative and cant be changed but you done your best to help them understand and the best is all you can do. I believe if you dont want burned then dont feed the fire. And a lost cause is just that a lost cause they dont want to understand why people sell and buy at Bidville so why bother. Have a nice buying/selling day.
posted on July 1, 2001 02:02:12 PM
telwil >
Prez it dont mather what you do it will still not make some people happy (If I was you I would not ever have wasted my time JMO)
Well, Prez, I'm trying to decide whether the Premier ($60 per year) or Premier Plus ($120 per year) memberships are worth it.
I have three concerns:
The sell-through rate. With a 0.8% sell-through rate, what good are these memberships if there's few pageviewers and even fewer bidders?
The relisting rate. With 93% of this week's listings being relisted from last week, perhaps there's little browsing through the categories because, well, the stuff there is old listings, relisted over and over again, and maybe that's why there's few pageviewers and even fewer bidders?
A webserver for inventory warehousing or an auctionserver for a dynamic auctionsite. eBay and Yahoo are running auctionservers and have new content weekly and a high sell-through rate; Bidville and the other free sites are running webservers with old content weekly and a low sell-through rate. Are there any plans to implement "speedbumps" to curtail the activities of inventory warehousers on your site and thus increase the exposure new listings would receive?
And right now, I'd have to say, that since Bidville is flooded with the continuous relistings of inventory warehousers the memberships are not worth it to auction sellers.
[ edited by dimview on Jul 1, 2001 02:03 PM ]
[ edited by dimview on Jul 1, 2001 02:08 PM ]
I'm sorry, but I must respectfully disagree with you on this issue.
I'm, quite frankly, amazed and quite happy to read the post by Bidvilleprez on this Board. In my opinion, it speaks to his integrity, credibility and _____ (if I use the expression, it will be deleted!).
Far too many less-than-accurate stats and facts are presented on all auction related Boards and who can truly correct the misrepresentations other than those with the true facts and knowledge, or their attorneys (forget that!)
You and I can argue until we are blue in the face, but, to what avail? Least we speak with factual knowledge and proof we shall be shot down by the nay-sayers, the troublemakers and those who are simply looking for status of some type. We end up identified as "cheerleaders".
posted on July 1, 2001 02:22:57 PM
I use ebay AND bidville. Bidville may not have much traffic but I would suggest using it as your "store" in the same manner ebay will begin charging $10.00 for on Sept 1st. Refer your auction winners to bidville and let them know you will combine shipping. As long as bidville is free what is to bash about it?
posted on July 1, 2001 02:31:37 PM
Nice to see you Janandpals, It dont bother me that you disagree like I said that is Just My Opinion (JMO). I have watched this debate and it is very clear to me that know mather what the Prez-Ed has to say some people are going to yell it is not true. That is why I say it is a wast of time. Ed has more patiences with some people then I would have! I am a Bidville Cheerie Leader always have been, because I like Bidville and the people their I also sell there and make money I buy there and get good deals. So Rah Rah lol. Have a nice buying/selling day.
