posted on January 8, 2001 11:12:02 PM new
joedice; >> "Was staying now going" << Is that a Sioux or Apache name?? Anyway...Most likely I'll be moving 90% of my items off Yahoo onto Lycos. With the exception of eBay, I've never made any firm decisions as to where I will and will not sell. Things change. I don't believe the listing fees will stick. I believe Yahoo will either lower the listing fees or switch to final value fees. The reason being that the majority of sellers willing to pay .20 to $1.50 to list will go with eBay.
posted on January 9, 2001 01:01:17 AM new
whynot- it wasn't a playstation, it was a featured lot of Barbie doll accessories. Actually my record number of pageviews for one Yahoo auction is 7,280. That was for a vintage Barbie doll. But I've had good pageviews on all my toys. In my experience books get the fewest pageviews and toys get the most.
Anyway, I don't put visible counters in my auctions. One of the things I've always liked about Yahoo is that they give the seller a counter that no one else has access to. cool!
Just wanted to let you know...
posted on January 9, 2001 02:27:06 AM new
My radios generally get over 200 page views on Yahoo (some over 1000 depending on the rarity of the radio) - and the same radio that gets 200 views on Yahoo (I've sold many of the same models) sometimes only gets 14-30 page views on eGREED (unless I bold and/or feature it)
My record page view on Yahoo is over 3,000
The most bids I've had on a Yahoo auction (that I remember) is 55. On eGREED, I've had 60 bids on one item. On Yahoo, I often have 20+ bids on some items. The only auction I have on Yahoo right now has 240 page views and 2 bids (it's currently at $100.) and should make the reserve even though it isn't even at half of reserve yet.
posted on January 9, 2001 06:11:09 AM new
Cmon yahoo sellers. Look at the alternative. Ebay charges for listing fees, reserves, and final value fees. On top of the paypal or billpoint gets there cut. When all is said and done, most of your profits are gone. Yahoo is a more flexible, user-friendly site. On top of that, ebay has been down a whole lot recently. This minimal fee program Yahoo is introducting yahoo should even cause serious sellers to blink. I'm stayin!
posted on January 9, 2001 10:25:00 AM new
I think we can all agree we are tired of giving so much money to eBay. I wish there was something new! I tried Yahoo once and posted hundreds of auctions at fair prices and only like 3 auctions were bid on and none of the users actually paid for their item! I get (well, got) the best sales on eBay, though everything seems to be slowing down do the the abundance of sellers or something. Anyway, I stopped using Yahoo long ago; their descision to charge fees will just isolate me more and keep me farther away from listing on their site.
I actually liked somethings better on Yahoo's Auction site, but no one bids there!
posted on January 9, 2001 01:23:25 PM new
Ebay has a much larger customer base, why pay fees to Yahoo when my chances of selling are drastically reduced? Ebay here!
posted on January 9, 2001 01:54:12 PM new
The items i sell are low cost and low profit and require just the right buyer to sell. Paying listing fees for items that usually take a while to sell is not realistic. For the most part I'll be gone after the 10th. Although I will miss it. Sorry you did this Yahoo but I think it is sort of representative of Yahoo's viewpoint on how to care for it's community.
You are still long winded and I am still short minded - I bet the moderator had a hard time trying to determine if you said anything you shouldn't.
You took up almost all of the page 7.
You could probably hide anything in the long discussions and the moderator would not know. Maybe folks who want to escape the moderator can pay you for letting them ride with you.
Try short and sweet - I think you have a lot of interesting and positive things for sellers to listen to, but SAY IT SHORTER so even I can understand!!!
posted on January 9, 2001 11:10:24 PM new
Well......looks like I'll be opening a website for puposes of selling my wares.
The individuals that previously stated that items may sit for months before selling are correct. We've been with Yahoo auctions since the onset, and know this first hand.
It is NOT that we sell junk or crap, we have a 99.99 % successful feedback rating. We have weathered the storm through weak Yahoo customer service, deadbeat bidders, seasonal lulls and sometimes cut-throat spammers.
Why did we stay with Yahoo you may ask.......? Not solely for the money. Believe it or not, it can be entertaining sometimes to say the least, not to mention the good friends and fine customers and sellers we have encountered along the way.
After having listed over 300 to 400 items weekly, our profit margins cannot survive listing fees in excess of $100.00.
Thus, reduce submissions....???
Find a different product ?
Hey I know.....lets all leave Yahoo and further flood Ebay, and really drive the prices down with the onslaught of aproximately an additional 1.2 million items monthly.
No thanks sir....I need not require your assistance in shooting myself in the foot.
posted on January 9, 2001 11:26:51 PM new
bargaineer76:
Where do you get Yahoo is charging "minimal fees"???
My items on Yahoo would cost me $2.75 each to list them ($2.25 list + .75 reserve - which is "only" .25 less than eGREED) + ~$2.00 in feature fees. You must be selling low end items if you are going to pay "minimal fees"
If I would pay that much- it would be on eGREED (although I won't even use a site that charges reserve fees)
I will never use paypal under any circumstance and I won't use billpoint - I accept credit cards and I see no reason to pay an auction site more $$$ for the "priveledge" of letting them collecting my $$$ for me (I've had buyers pay with bidpay.com and have no problem with them - I get my money orders quickly from them)
I cancelled all my Yahoo auction alerts and as soon as my lone auction ends tomorrow, I'm out of Yahoo. They lied, they cheat, they steal. I have already listed items on edeal and will be listing on other sites this week.
posted on January 10, 2001 03:52:19 PM new
Yahoo has clearly shown they care VERY, VERY LITTLE about everyone on their Auction site by announcing the fees with devastatingly SHORT NOTICE. I'd also like to add that they have CANCELLED AUCTIONS of sellers who will be leaving and announce anything in their auctions. SO, 1st Yahoo inflicts the damage and then they try to ruin a person's chance to retain their client base??? I know Yahooo, why don't you cancel ALL AUCTIONS??? You can use your same auto-bot emails to deliver the bad news or answer sellers you further damage...THEN YOU CAN CHARGE FEES FOR ALL THE NEW LISTINGS!!! Hurry now, before all the still-free lists/relists have a chance to sell...COWARDS!
COWARDS!!! You intentionally damage so many people's livelihoods with impunity? A lot of homebound people have barely gotten by before, but will now be in dire straights because of your insensitive, cowardly acts.
Your fees are NOT reasonable, they're illogical!! They are ~90% of eBay's fees for 10-15% relative-chance of sale. Do the math! Fix your screwups and failures to implement accountability between seller/buyer and buyers will come. The fees will just drive off the variety and good prices that has attracted most people in the 1st place...
LOL...Get a clue, it wasn't your fantastic advertizing that did it!
Their corporate heads are SO FAR up their bean-counting-backsides...they think they're looking AHEAD!
posted on January 11, 2001 04:36:32 AM new
Hi, I'm a yahoo seller in the UK and even though fees have not been introduced over here yet I am already beginning to feel the impact. Previously all my auctions could be viewed on the US yahoo site and found through their search engine, now, unless I pay the fees, they can only be viewed on the UK site (and the tiny Australian, Canadian sites). I used to have 5 - 10 new US customers every week - this week I have none. Most of the British sellers are very angry about the fees, and fully expect them to be introduced in to the UK soon. At least we should have slightly more time to prepare alternatives.
By the way, whilst I am here, the universal search engine on auctionwatch only searches US auction sites, if it could be a truly universal search engine it would be a boost to non-US sellers.
posted on January 11, 2001 07:18:24 AM new
I've already left and won't be back even if they drop the fee's. With the stock down another $6.00 today, well this may be a real blow to Yahoo! You might be staying but you'll be one of the few that does. I get 25 hits on eBay to 1 hit on Yahoo, I have had only one eBay non pay in over 1000 sold auctions, I have had 3 to 4 out of 10 non pays on Yahoo. I only sell on yahoo because it a good place to sell small $1.00 items and make a profit. Now the $1.00 items are going to SnapRat.Com and a few others. SEE YA
YAHOO!
posted on January 11, 2001 08:26:58 PM new
Hi All...
Watafind, ok I shall try and be more concise.
Keeping a ton of information short is not easy.
On the web as a seller your a business or private seller. State's generally define a sales business as buying goods w/ intent for resale for profit. If one is buying books in garage sales with intent for resale for profit they are by nature in business. Not a bad thing. Business has an advantage on the net.
1. More Opportunities for points of sale, partnerships, purchase of goods and then some.
2. Your Web access, commissions, listing fee's and then some become tax deductible.
3. Yes its more work.
Private sellers are at a HUGE disadvantage to businesses in points of sale and consumer confidence as well as options. You could for example to promote business offer free shipping and not have it be an expense you fully "eat" like a private seller would. You can have a shop, multiple shops, backing of banks and much more. Its a MUCH more exciting "game" than a private seller will ever have.
Still with me? Its an advantage to be a business and its as simple as calling your county clerk and getting a DBA. Keep your paperwork and learn the ropes, do the accounting etc.
----
Yahoo: Will self-destruct the site in charging fee's. Does the stock care? Why would it? Its a liability. It DOESNT make money, it can therefore only LOOSE money.
Still with me? Most sellers use the site as it was free. So do spammers because its free. Charge a fee the "free" people go see ya.
If they wanted to do it "right" they would start with perhaps .05 or .10 and a closing fee. Take care of problems on the site like deadbeat seller/buyers. That all takes work, work is money, a bigger loss. I dont see any reason for Yahoo to be in person to person auctions.
eBay: eBay specializes in nothing but person to person sales. Its why they ARE the best. Does Yahoo focus on auction? Is it mainstay revenue engine? No. Does Amazon focus ONLY on auctions or zShops? No. These as well are not BIG revenue engines for these entities. Yahoo's sure has never been profitable for Yahoo and I doubt Amazon's has for them.
eBay specializes in person to person sales, if thats what your into, thats the only game in town.
Amazon: They've done alot right and could still "live" if they changed the tabs back to what they were and perhaps attracted some of the Yahoo exodus.
I would suggest to these sellers to setup at Amazon, .10 a listing is cheap, $40 a month for 4000 is even better. They have a great payment system now and in our case 95% of bidders pay, almost immiediately in fact. It doesnt make what eBay makes or uBid makes for example.
I would suggest they set up a nice zShop and promote it.
Then perhaps use revenues from Amazon to fund a campaign on eBay.
posted on January 12, 2001 01:09:36 PM new
Hi! Instead of complainting about the situation on Yahoo.....Why not do what I did, look for an alternative solution...and that is to find another FREE Auction site and make it your own. That's what I am doing.....REMEMBER: THE BUYERS GO WHERE THE SELLERS ARE...AND IF YOU MAINTAIN A GOOD MAILING LIST FROM PAST SALES, YOU CAN LET YOUR BUYERS KNOW WHERE YOU HAVE MOVED YOUR AUCTIONS TO AND THEY WILL FOLLOW IF YOU HAVE GOOD PRODUCT & IT'S WHAT THEY WANT. That's what I did when I first moved from Ebay to Yahoo and it will work again.
posted on January 12, 2001 01:11:01 PM new
Going. Why not only charge if the item sells??? This way how could there be complaints. Yahoo would than make some income. Don't create holes in the sinking ship, try to stay afloat. The way Yahoo has the auction now it is either going to sink real quick or slowly sink. With no sellers there can't be any buyers. I will miss the super people.
I mainly sell on eBay, but I also ran some ads on Yahoo! My response on Yahoo! was about 5% of my response on eBay for the same products.
Now, for the same ads, Yahoo! now wants 7 times my net profit for fees! Obviously, my sales on Yahoo! are over!
They are crazy!
I had a long talk with someone supposedly at higher level management at Yahoo! who shall remain nameless, about the fee hike.
This person frankly acted as if they were retarded. Over and over and over and over again, I tried explaining that I could not post items if they were charging more in fees than the profit I was making; but as far as I could tell, they just couldn't seem to understand this point.
I pointed out to this person, that for me to even consider posting on Yahoo! with the current fee rate, that instead of the 5% of eBay rate that I was closing on Yahoo!, my Yahoo! sales would have to go up to 50% of the rate I was closing at eBay for me to even consider it.
I told him that this seemed unreasonable to me, and unlikely to happen; certainly NOT in the short term. They obviously did not understand these points, either.
If this is any indication of Yahoo! management; if you have any Yahoo! stock, I would sell it!
If Yahoo! had put their fees at say, 5% of eBay's, to reflect the fact that their sales for items posted is 5% of eBay's, that would have been OK.
However, charging more in fees than you can make in profit is insane!
I expect auction listings on Yahoo! to drop by 95% in the next 2 months.
I expect sales per posting to increase some on Yahoo! (number of ads plummeting, but the buyers remaining the same), but certainly NOT the 10 times increase that would have to happen for me to make an adequate profit.
I think that this was a desperation move on Yahoo!'s part to prop up their stock price, as the analysts have been dumping on them recently.
A few months down the road, Yahoo! is really going to regret doing this.
Oh, and other ways Yahoo! has torqued off sellers:
1. First they just implemented the new fees without any notice whatsoever a couple of weeks ago. They then recinded it the next day, after, I assume, being flooded with hundreds of angry e-mails.
2. They then said the new fees would take effect on the 20th of January.
3. They then said, on the 9th of January, that the fees would take effect just the next day, on the 10th, ignoring their earlier announcement of the 20th.
I would guess at this point, Yahoo! has just about EVERY professional seller they had angry at them.
Have fun sinking, Yahoo!
Karl Kristianson
[email protected]
[ edited by karlkrist on Jan 12, 2001 02:07 PM ]
posted on January 12, 2001 02:17:54 PM new
Won't be moving much, that's for sure. I've got a lot of credits for my eBay rating (1857 with NO negatives) which I'll use when my service finishes setting up for Yahoo!! (if they ever do now that they're charging) but the visible results of others and my experimental results show that it wasn't worth my time to do a double venue unless it was as little time consuming as just point and click to add auctions at Yahoo!! as well as eBay. Yahoo!! just doesn't sell anywhere near what the same items do on eBay so it's not worth the extra time.
posted on January 12, 2001 02:48:30 PM new
I am finding there are too many auction sites. I had just started at Yahoo, but with fees I'll go back to the free auctions or run an ad in a newspaper. So I'll be leaving Yahoo unless I have something I know will be a big seller.
Art Glass, Wood Keepsake Boxes lined with velvet
and antiques
posted on January 12, 2001 02:52:57 PM new
I have pulled all my auctions off yahoo, and went back to E-Bay. I didnt sell enough to stay on at yahoo and pay the price. Since ive been on E-bay for the past 3 days i have sold 18 items.I will miss Yahoo but Buisness is Buisness...
posted on January 12, 2001 02:57:40 PM new
I had been with Yahoo for 3 years listing my auctions and I started my own small business with liscense. I can't afford all the fees, it would put me out of business in one month. I am starting to list my antiques on auctionaddict. There are NO fees there. Maybe if enough of us sellers go, Yahoo will re-look things over. I would go back to Yahoo if there weren't any fees. Or even if there was a sale ending fee, that would be ok. I'm leaving!!!!!
We are in business to make money. We pay attention to the hits we receive and the percentage of auctions we sell. On Ebay in a weeks time we average 40-50 hits per item. On Yahoo we averaged 5-10 hits per item per week. On Ebay we sell approximately 25-35% of our auctions per week. On Yahoo we average .001%.
posted on January 12, 2001 03:03:47 PM new
Staying. Yahoo will still be less expensive than eBay which charges a final value fee on top of the listing fee (not to mention an ADDITIONAL gallery fee, which Yahoo does not charge for). Maybe now the Yahoo website will clear up of all the junky stuff people try to sell and list 50 times for the same thing, and in turn ... a better buyer market may be attracted.
posted on January 12, 2001 03:03:57 PM new
I have enjoyed selling on Yahoo but don't think listing fees are the way to go since there is not that much bidding traffic. I would be willing to pay a final value fee if an item successfully sold, but there are just too many deadbeat bidders. I did want to mention one problem with the Yahoo Auction site was that when you automatically relisted an item, you were unable to change the category it was listed in, without typing the whole thing all over again and reloading your pictures. They still have a lot of little bugs to work out before they can justify charging listing fees. Perhaps they could charge a flat rate monthly fee for the priviledge of listing on Yahoo, like renting an internet shop space to each seller...between $5-10.00 a month, till sales picked up. That way we could continue to showcase our merchandise, a nice Yahoo feature that Ebay doesn't have. I would pay for that! Happy New Year everyone! I'll see you on Ebay!
posted on January 12, 2001 03:30:38 PM new
See you later Yahoo!! It was fun while it lasted!! I have a rating over 500 and I am leaving. The free listings were great for both buying and selling. You were able to buy stuff that sellers couldn't afford to list on other sites and likewise. The decision....Pure Greed!! There stock takes a hit so they come after us!! I am leaving Yahoo! altogether!!
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