posted on July 13, 2001 08:19:30 AM new
Over the past week or so I've noticed the that Sports Stuff category at Bidville has experienced a substantial listings increase.
There's currently 687,171 listings, of which 345,692 listings, or 50.3%, are sportscards, and a much higher percentage of all the "other online auctions" that I follow.
posted on July 13, 2001 08:22:43 AM new
I agree...Bidville is a great place to shop for sportscards with all the variety. Very reasonable prices too since there's no listing fees.
posted on July 13, 2001 08:24:25 AM new
Bidville has always been somewhat "topheavy" with sports cards.
While I consider sports cards a genuine and legitamte collectible, I personally would like to see more dirvisity myself...and think it would go a long way toward bringing more sales to the site.
posted on July 13, 2001 08:29:40 AM new
This is a natural time for sportscards to increase. baseball in full swing, new football product coming out etc. one of the busier times in the year for cards.
http://ballsandstrikescollectibles.beckett.com/
posted on July 13, 2001 09:15:17 AM new
I'm trying to get a handle on all this. I gather sportscards are a brisk market then? Lots of sales? Does this apply to just the rarer items, or does it include what might be termed fillers as well?
posted on July 13, 2001 09:20:57 AM new
In the days of brick and mortar shops, a "filler" may never get sold. Thanks to the internet, you reach a far greater audience, so really there is no such thing as a filler, in my opinion. Even low demand cards eventually find buyers. Thanks to great stories in baseball recently, I think interest in sports cards has risen dramatically.
posted on July 13, 2001 09:30:48 AM new
Bidville would serve it's members--and sports card collectors-- much better if it were to have an offshoot auction site specifically aimed at sportscards & sports related items, easier for collectors to find & search, and 300,000+ items right off the bat would be the envy of *any* new auction startup!
posted on July 13, 2001 09:56:47 AM new
A Bidville sports shop? One stop shopping for your sportscard needs. The guys head to the shop and the gals look at clothes and jewelery in the other section of BV .... just like at a mall. Great idea but never seems to get any support for some reason. Half.com has started to see the potential of sportscards and is trying to find a way to coral some buyers/sellers.
Remember ... 'Think Bidville - Think Fun"
posted on July 13, 2001 10:01:54 AM new
Why is this a problem or even an issue? Sportscards are always a big % of the listings on any non-specialized auction site due to the vast number of different cards. Many of them are lower cost and do not make sense to post on a fee site which accounts for a large quantity on a free site. Also many sportscard sellers moved many of their auctions to Bidville when Yahoo started charging fees. I know I received many e-mails about the site from my customers.
There is no need to have a special Bidville site for sportscards. Would just be another expense for Bidville and would have no benefits.
Also this is nothing new. Bidville has been about 50% or better sportscards from the beginning. Also you probably see a spike at this time in listings due to the number of products that are issued during the late spring and summer.
posted on July 13, 2001 10:06:57 AM new
Oh, I don't think anybody has a problem with it. I think it's great that you can go somewhere like Bidville where you can get such a great selection.
posted on July 13, 2001 10:30:25 AM new
I certainly have no problem with Bidville, I've checked it out quite thoroughly and it's just not my cup of tea, that doesn't mean I don't wish the site success....but I do think it's somewhat misleading to advertise "680,000 items!" when in fact fully _half_ of those items are sportscards.
posted on July 13, 2001 10:55:03 AM new
One of my interests in philately and there are alot of high-demand, high-priced postage stamps, along with fillers, so I assume that sportscards are pretty much the same.
I'm just wondering about the implications of having lots and lots of fillers, because it seems to me that results in a quasi-auctionsite -- a combination auctionsite (for the high-demand, high-priced sportscards) and a fixed-price site (for the low-demand, low-priced sportscards) similar to half.com.
What kind of impact does that have on an auctionsite seeking growth in its site statistics?
posted on July 13, 2001 11:09:11 AM new
Well, if you have a large variety of products you will tend to attract more customers because you will be able to fill more of their needs, correct?
posted on July 13, 2001 11:43:38 AM new
posted on July 13, 2001 10:30:25 AM new
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I certainly have no problem with Bidville, I've checked it out quite thoroughly and it's just not my cup of tea, that doesn't mean I don't wish the site success....but I do think it's somewhat misleading to advertise "680,000 items!" when in fact fully _half_ of those items are sportscards.
----------------
How is it misleading? There ARE 680,000 items. a quick check will give anyone a breakdown of where those items can be found.
http://ballsandstrikescollectibles.beckett.com/
posted on July 13, 2001 11:44:44 AM new
It's cool that sportscard people have such a place...but I have found it annoying at times. For example, when I've done searches for Pez items, it would (for some inexplicable reason) bring up lots of Lopez sports cards. Similar things have happened with other searches I've performed so I have to be really careful with my search strings.
Not that it matters, the prices for the Pez were pretty outrageous. Overall, I really don't like the site much. It's obviously a great place for folks into sports cards or quilting (loads of scraps of cloth are available) but for those with different interests, it's not too hot.
posted on July 13, 2001 11:52:58 AM new
yankeejoe >
Well, if you have a large variety of products you will tend to attract more customers because you will be able to fill more of their needs, correct?
One would think so in theory, but have noticed that doesn't seem to be happening in practice.
I wonder how many old buyers are no longer browsing through categories because of relistings at the same time auction sellers are hoping that one new buyer will appear, "eventually" (that's the word you used), to buy a card or two.
ballsandstrikes >
How is it misleading? There ARE 680,000 items. a quick check will give anyone a breakdown of where those items can be found.
I don't find anything misleading about the homepage statistics. Bidville has 680,000 listings and that is exactly the standard accepted by all but one auctionsite.
posted on July 13, 2001 12:05:47 PM new
I'd appreciate you quoting the whole sentence so people can understand the context. I said that even low demand cards will eventually find their buyer. I did not make that statement in regard to bidville. It was in response to a question you asked that also was not bidville specific. Answers to questions, much like statistics, must be taken in context.
[ edited by yankeejoe on Jul 13, 2001 12:07 PM ]
posted on July 13, 2001 12:17:12 PM new
Since I collect sportscards I find three sites to be really good: ebay, Bidville, and Beckett.com. I used to find some good ones on Yahoo, but no longer.
The sportscard industry is a huge one and Bidville should be very happy that they seem to dominate this field after eBay. Sometimes I find the searched to be annoying, but that happens on eBay as well. Just go into the more specific category to do your search. Pretty easy.
There are no such things as "fillers". Sometimes the hardest cards to find are the "common" cards. No one bother listing them... certaintly not on eBay.
posted on July 13, 2001 12:24:07 PM new
yankeejoe >
Even low demand cards eventually find buyers.
Wouldn't you agree that "even low-demand card will eventually find buyers" whether on Bidville, another auctionsite, or anywhere else for that matter?
I'm talking about the Bidville marketplace for these low-demand sportscards.
daredevil2010 >
There are no such things as "fillers". Sometimes the hardest cards to find are the "common" cards. No one bother listing them... certaintly not on eBay.
Okay, common cards works for me.
So Bidville has lots of closed-auctions-with-bids for common cards?
posted on July 13, 2001 12:29:44 PM new
I wouldn't be surprised if Bidville has more successful closed auctions for common cards than epier, yahoo, and ebay combined.
posted on July 13, 2001 12:39:43 PM new
What do common cards go for on Bidville? 5 cents? If yes, is it worth the trouble setting up an auction for a nickel card?
posted on July 13, 2001 12:50:33 PM new
You haven't see the average nickle auction on Bv yet ? They look like you could set up 100 of them in 2 minutes. Rarely is a photo seen in them. So it's no problem to set them up. Maybe the sellers make a quarter or two on s/h fees?
posted on July 13, 2001 12:54:05 PM new
yankeejoe
I wouldn't be surprised if Bidville has more successful closed auctions for common cards than epier, yahoo, and ebay combined.
Well, there's currently about 380,000 sportscards listings. Let's be really conservative and say that half, or 190,000 listings, are common cards. Now *if* ALL of Bidville's reported sales last week were for sportscards the sell-through rate would have been around 8,500 / 190,000 = 4.4%.
I think its pretty clear that common cards aren't selling all that quickly.
posted on July 13, 2001 12:57:48 PM new
What are you comparing it to? What is the mean time for a common card sale at epier, ebay, etc? How do you judge what "quickly" is? Are you an authority on sports card selling?
[ edited by yankeejoe on Jul 13, 2001 01:00 PM ]
posted on July 13, 2001 01:15:03 PM new
yankeejoe >
What are you comparing it to? What is the mean time for a common card sale at epier, ebay, etc? How do you judge what "quickly" is? Are you an authority on sports card selling?
I don't care what the item is or what category is. If items must be relisted over and over again they are not selling quickly. We are talking about an auctionsite which has finite auction durations, not what is essentially a storefront for as-long-as-it-takes sales.
This is a charactistic of free sites. At eBay items are listed once, only a small percentage of those not sold are relisted one more time.
posted on July 13, 2001 01:48:53 PM new
Is there a point to this thread? It appears to be a backdoor way to bash again. It is obvious that the originator of the thread knows little about the sports card market. Yes, many cards will be listed on a free site that will not be listed on a fee-based site because of the values. Now why is that a problem? Collector's are looking for the "common" cards as well as the high $ cards. Many times it is harder to find the common cards in auctions because a lot of sellers don't want to be bothered with them. However, those that do list them do so because there usually is a higher % profit in them because they can be bought cheaply and in bulk. Yes, they do not sell as quick as the higher demand cards. However, if there were no free sites, you could not find these cards in auctions and therefore a portion of the market would not be satisfied.
