posted on January 12, 2001 06:03:45 PM new
First of all, I would like to say that I am a seller on eBay, where I have done reasonably well. I was considering registering for Yahoo! Auctions, but when I heard they were going to start charging listing fees, I immediatly signed up and listed as many auctions as I could while it was still free.
From what I hear, there will be fewer sellers, it seems many cheapskate amateur sellers are forgetting that it takes money to make money and are leaving Yahoo! Auctions. Now, for us realistic, open minded sellers that are staying, we should see more traffic, now that there's less competition.
Now, to Yahoo's delight I'm sure, there should be only quality items worth paying listing fee for. I'm sure they wouldn't have done this if they didn't think it would help, and no doubt, a lot of thought went into this descision.
I'm not sure if I'll do well on Yahoo! or not. I'll continue selling on eBay, because true enough, there is more traffic, but Yahoo is still cheaper. On some listings, I'm seeing almost as much traffic as I do on eBay, which is good, considering there are fewer users on Yahoo! Unfortunatly, there are fewer bids than I would see on eBay, but part of it is probably due to the fact that I have no feedback rating yet, and as I found on eBay, it makes a difference, and you also develop a loyal following.
Bassically then, my incentive for staying with Yahoo! is the promoise of less competition and cheaper fees than eBay. As long as I make a small profit, it's better than nothing. I'm hoping to see a trend in items that sell better on Yahoo! than on eBay and vice-versa. I also like many of the seller's features better on Yahoo, each venue has something better than the other.
So my fellow Yahoo! sellers, those are my reasons for staying, what are yours?
posted on January 12, 2001 06:11:25 PM new
This is true. The ratio of buyes to sellers is more important than total traffic on a site. I would have preferred that Yahoo not allow the free relists. I'm anxious to see how well the site does when items are priced to move.
posted on January 12, 2001 06:14:45 PM new
I'm leaving. When you see how many times you have to relist on Yahoo to get a sale and see how much less it goes for than you can get on eGREED- you will change your mind. For a new Yahoo seller (as you claim to be) it's funny you have such a high opinion and high hopes for a dead site that is going to get worse.
I think you calling sellers "cheapskates" is uncalled for- and it is also an Auction Watch violation. I was paying Yahoo $100. - $200. every month for featuring my items - and I sell mostly $100. - $1,500. items. Yahoo has made it clear they do not want them listed anymore.
Post back in three months and tell us how well you "love" Yahoo auctions then. For a new Yahoo seller, you have nothing to go by and your opions are not based on any performance or fact. I have sold on Yahoo for over a year- and I was selling on eGREED before most people ever even heard of it.
There is a big difference in "paying money to make money" and "flushing money down the toilet" Maybe when you get a little oler, you will learn the difference.
posted on January 12, 2001 06:19:26 PM new
If buy price to move you mean Your thinking bid priceing will be lower I beleave your wrong bid price will rise.
I been selling on yahoo for over a year most item must be listed 3 to 5 times before they may get a bid if sellers will be paying from .60 to $700 to list an item to sell there starting prices will need to incress not go down.
I happen to agree you have to spend money to make money but anyone investing money in things with little to no return will lose there money fast.
I still have things on yahoo listed in the hopes that as the numbers drop bidding on my item will go up but so far since the 9th yahoo has lost over a half million listing and I havent yaet got one bid. http://www.Dman-N-Company.com
posted on January 12, 2001 06:23:52 PM new
Give them what they want for a good price and they will follow! We have to do it where they can do it to! Most of us are not in the Clinton realm of life! What work is what works and time tells all.....
posted on January 12, 2001 06:25:55 PM new
In response to pegasus777, I do have a rather high hopes for selling on Yahoo, becuase if you think about it, there should be fewer ads for bidders to look through, so with less competion, I have a better chance of making a sale.
When I was refering to cheapskate amateur sellers, I was refering to just that, those that want something for nothing. They want to make lots of money listing for free, items they don't feel are worth paying 25 cents to list. You, obviously, don't fit into this catagory since you spend money for extra features, and realise that it takes money to make money.
Like I said, I'll give it some time, at leat three months, then I'll see how I feel about staying with Yahoo! Auctions. It will, no doubt, be different than it is now, who knows what it will be like. It could get a lot better, or a lot worse. We'll just have to wait and see.
Then, if we don't like it, we can leave, but I think it's worth giving it chance.
posted on January 12, 2001 06:46:33 PM new
I agree with pegasus777 - and remember, motive8, those departing Sellers you delight in castigating are also Buyers - they will surely migrate to other sites, and take others with them. Many items do sell on Yahoo - after multiple relists -charging a relist fee for all those relists is not cost effective. Yahoo's greatest appeal was its ability to offer both high and low end items - a great customer draw. That is precisely what brought the customers to Yahoo...and the lack of inexpensive items is what will send them to other sites. Good luck on Yahoo- I will continue to watch the site, with great interest.
posted on January 12, 2001 07:02:16 PM new
That's exactly what we need to do-watch the site. We can't base our opinions on what Yahoo used to be like. This may sound cliché, but it's like comparing apples and oranges.
It's almost like a new auction venue with an unproven track record. Maybe now sellers won't need to relist items numerous times to finally make a sale. Obviously if we have to pay a listing fee each time, especially on low dollar items, it's not worth it.
The name Yahoo! Auctions is a well recognized name, and from what I gather, is (or at least was?) one of the biggest on-line auctions, second only to eBay (and that was a distant second).
I don't think Yahoo! auctions will be the same any more, possibly for the better, or possibly for the worse.
posted on January 12, 2001 07:36:43 PM new
I'll still be selling on both sites. But i will have to trim down my listings quite a bit.
Each 6 day round of auctions and a constant 130 items and selling 6-7 will slowly kill me.
But I sell in a category that actually have VERY FEW sellers......and they all have bulk loaded listings. So the guy with 1200 listings and the 2 with 600-800 each in a category of 5k listings just might give me a competative edge if they bail out. *crosses fingers*
Add a little flavor to your love life with "Love Potions"
posted on January 12, 2001 08:36:30 PM new
There are many great great minds out there. Pierre ain't the only one. Auctions are losing their luster in cyberspace.
I've been doing some researching for the past couple months and I think I've come upon a couple things that might have some possibilities. Private websites are just islands onto themselves. That's why I never put much effort into mine. It's nothing more than a big jpg. LOL!
Someone mentioned on another site how important portals are and I agree. I think we should all be out there searching for that next opportunity on the net. There are great minds out there with new ideas. Don't sit around waiting for someone else to find it for you. They might not choose to post about it on any board.
posted on January 12, 2001 09:09:52 PM new
motive8 - I agree emphatically with almost everything you stated.
However, Yahoo is looking to shore up its stocks (via earnings generated through means other than through advertising sales and what few other cash services it offers).
I don't know how much time they have to accomplish this, but they have done significant damage to their auction site, in my opinion, and whether or not it can recoup what they have sacrificed in this effort in time to save themselves remains to be seen.
Establishing fees is one risky thing, but they have mated this with unreasonable prohibitions and radical enforcement of "das rules," Yahoo's equivalent of "My New Order."
They have gone out on a thin limb in the name of saving the worth of their stock. It should be an interesting gamble worth watching, but I will be watching it from afar.
posted on January 13, 2001 08:53:06 PM new
Well folks, I just wanted to let you know that I checked my auctions on Yahoo! I listed 29 auctions, which will end on Tuesday. So far three have bids, one item has received 4 bids.
So, my new, and remaining fellow Yahoo! sellers, you may recall I just signed up with Yahoo! the day last week, and listed as many auctions as I could before the insertion fees came into effect.
I've never had such a slow week with eBay, but perhaps I was assuming it would work the same way on both sites. I'll still keep re-listing, because it's really like a new auction site with an unproven track record, with the new fees just implemented. We really can't base anything on past experience.
Maybe there are better days to list and end auctions. On eBay I have good luck running 7 day auctions that start and end on Sunday afternoons.
Like I mentioned before, there will be less competion with fewer sellers. Maybe once I get some feedback built up, I'll get more sales, that seemed to help me on eBay.
Slightly off topic, but does anyone ever notice a LARGE differece in the counter count on Yahoo! (viewable as the seller, top right corner of the screen on each listing) and the count on AuctionWatch's control panel? I'm not sure how often they're updated, but bids from the last 12-18 hours are not reflected on my AW control panel, and the counter shows about half to ¾ what the Yahoo! counter shows.
posted on January 14, 2001 12:20:42 AM new
motive:
my incentives for staying:
1) I want a place to list my items that is NOT Ebay- in case Ebay is down, in case some wacko starts messing with my auctions there, in case Ebay sticks a large banner ad in my favorite categories that makes it hard for me to sell anything, in case...in case...Ebay will do things to make me mad that I haven't even thought of yet. This is a given. I want viable alternatives when that happens! Diversity is good.
2) I am actually happy that they chose the combo of fixing the listing order and implementing fees. It is less expensive for me to pay a listing fee of 20¢ then it is for me to pay a feature fee of $1.00 or more (which is what I had been paying Yahoo while listings were scrambled up.). YES I'd rather have free, but I realize that Yahoo needs to make money too- I'm not a "fair weather friend" or a "freeloader" by nature. I do like a good bargain though. In my favorite categories I generally get ending prices equal to what I would get on Ebay, so when things sell here on Yahoo I've still made more money overall.
3) I have a customer base here.
motive8: you will learn pretty quickly what items are "Yahoo-able". Not everything is, unfortunately, but LOTS of things are. Are you using a buy price? It really really really helps if you do. To quote VeryModern- Yahoo has BUYERS more than bidders. Accepting PayDirect helps increase sales too.
posted on January 14, 2001 12:36:20 AM new
CAgrrl, Thanks for the input. That's a good idea to have Yahoo! as a back-up auction. I decided to expand to Yahoo! just to be able to have more items out there, for more people to see. I think there are many people who look only at Yahoo! or only at eBay auctions.
Also, the fees aren't so bad. I'll have to learn what sells on Yahoo! and what doesn't. Hopefully the items that don't do well on eBay will do well on Yahoo!
I didn't use a buy price, becuase as I found on eBay, some things sold for four or five times what I ever dreamed possible, so I didn't want to loose out.
Also, I had a bad experience with the "Buy it now" feature on eBay (a new eBayer went out of control and bought a whole bunch of items that and, realizing he couldn't afford them, immediatly posted negative feedback to almost all sellers, myself included).
I should give it a try on Yahoo! I see lots of sellers use it. I put all my auctions up for 7 days with the auto extend feature. Oh well, live and learn!
posted on January 14, 2001 02:09:36 AM new
Motive 8 may well be a nice guy but I get his type as a buyer about once a month: A newbie buys something and I go through all my procedures that are time tested, well thought out, and designed to make the process run smoothly while avoiding all the potential problems waiting to happen.
So the newbie objects to just about everything I say, and tells me how to run my business. I boggles my mind how some people have opinions about everything with out any knowledge or experience.
As for intelligent people, it's always a temptation to think people in a powerful position must be smart but it ain't always so. Let's face it, by definition, half of the world's population are below average. And average isn't very smart. Others have been mentioning stock Analyst Henry Blogett who threw out some numbers as to how much Yahoo would collect in listing fees this year, then after getting laughed at reduced them several drastically. 2 years ago he used to make statements soon after ePay went public. He set a "target price" one day of $100 a share when the stock was about 50 so the next day the stock doubled to 100. So what did he do? He raised the target to 150. He had no new information. To him, stock market analysis is like a pole vaulting competition.
It may turn out that Yahoo makes more money in the short term with their listing fees than with FV fees. The reason is because there are so many newbies comming to the internet who must learn the hard way. It's been going on for a long time on ePay...where people list a videotape for $.25 and it doesn't sell so they relist it and it sells for $3.50. They pay ePay $.43 total so for $3.07 they get to spend about an hour or more with the listing, emails, packageing and trip to the post office.
Why these people didn't all come over to Yahoo last year to list for free with First Bid WINS and for a profitable price, is proof enough that there are plenty of dummies out there. I think I have enough listings (2000) in enough different categories to call my results typical of what one can expect on Yahoo. And from what I've been reading lately here in this message board, it confirms my story. Most things sell slowly but they do sell. My 2000 items are 1/1500th the total # of about 3 million auctions which was about the number before listing fees started. If Yahoo had charged me listing fees in December I would have paid $6000 to them for sales of $10,000. Since I don't get my inventory for free and since I worked about 300 hours in December, I wouldn't consider paying anywhere near that amount to list my auctions. And since many items take months to a year to sell, I wouldn't gamble with any listing fees for most of my items. And the rest would move much faster on ePay. So Yahoo looses me with the Listing fee. Yet myself and others have stated we would pay a 5% FV fee if we could have free listings. Yahoo would have made $500 from me with FV fees in December and if you multiply that by 1500 you get $750,000 a month times 12 months or 9 million dollars.
I know that is a gross simplification, but I guarantee it is many times more accurate than any analysis Blodgett has ever done (crystal ball). So if all Yahoo stood to get off FV fees in 2001, assuming listings did not grow, was $9 mil, they may well do better milking the newbies and the dummies with their listing fees until the newbies and dummies tire of making less than minimum wage at the auctions game, and return to giving their junk to the Goodwill.
I'll even go so far as to predict Yahoo management figured this out ahead of time, at least the part about how much they could expect to make off FV fees, because they have the exact amount of sales and if they can accurately reduce that by the # of deadbeat sales, they can figure it exactly. Of course, they cannot but guess how much in Listing fees they will take in, and I think that's what we sellers are all very curious about as well. Personally the only type of item I would consider paying to list on Yahoo would be a very expensive item which, if it sold on eBay would generate a huge FV fee. I just listed a $3000 banjo with my free credits here on Yahoo but even if I had had to pay for it, I think I would rather pay the $1.50 for 10 days exposure to Yahoo than $2.00 on ePay plus $55.62 in FV fees when and if it sells for $3000.
But that item is not something I usually deal in. I'm more of the $5.50 to $50 item seller of items hard to find and hard to sell. The auctions process makes no sense for most of my stuff as does listing fees. I think there are a lot of my kind of seller on Yahoo who now have no place to sell that makes any sense financially and gets enough buyers to generate an income. If there is a site out there who wants my business for 5% of the gross, try this: Classifieds only, and make a bulk loader that will convert Yahoo .CSV files into whatever you need to creats an ad on your site. I have 2000 items in about 20 Excel .csv files that can be loaded in munites if your computer will glean the info from the Yahoo ads. If they don't sell fast, that's ok, so long as I don't have to spend countless hours reformatting my ad copy.
posted on January 14, 2001 02:40:03 AM new
Motive: wishing you good luck on your Yahoo sales. I would recommend, though, that you listen closely to what the Yahoo veterans here have to say. Notice when they report sales in the double-digits on listings in the hundreds. Or selling after automatic relisting 2, 3, or 4 times. From now on, all those listings will cost 20 cents, which add up.
I've been a minor presence on Yahoo for several months. I never had time to put up enough listings to generate many sales, but I did sell fairly steadily, here and there.
I do not understand WHY, but the buyers on Yahoo are just different. My selling approach that works well on ebay doesn't work here. I sell secondhand books, which have a reputation of being a tougher sell on Yahoo, but again, I don't know why. Because of the one-bid culture here, I've had to list at somewhat higher prices since I know I won't get bidding action. Do the prices then squelch sales? Beats me.
It doesn't add up to a great risk for spending money on listing fees. I have no idea whether fewer listings overall will change the Yahoo BUYER'S habits.
posted on January 14, 2001 03:26:58 AM new
zzyzx000, thanks for the insight.
First of all, I may be a newbie to Yahoo, but not on-line auctions.
And "my type" doesn'talways object to everything you say and tell you how to run your business.
I said that we can't compare to past sales experience any more, because everything is not the same, it would not be a fair assessment.
That is why I said I'll give it a try for a few months. Then I can fine tune my approach, that's how I did it on eBay.
I appreciate all the input from experienced Yahoo sellers, and I don't, never did, and never will tell someone more experienced than me how to run their business. (Before you jump to conclusions, please read what I have written instead of assuming I'm saying something else, which is what you did, refereing to "my type" & newbie, etc...)
posted on January 14, 2001 06:29:15 PM new
"The ratio of buyers to sellers is more important than total traffic on a site."
Based on your generalization, you're assuming all the buyers are looking at your items daily/weekly/monthly; you're assuming they have interest in what you are offering; that they are barred from going to another site to buy; and that they will give up options just to have the item you have. Those are pretty strong assumptions. It might work in a niche auction site, but a multi-category site like Yahoo it is not practical.
Total traffic offers you a better chance to sell that odd ball item. It also keeps many more fresh eyes on your auctions.
I can't imagine a mass audience site like Yahoo can offer auctions that are now extremely limited in items available. It won't work. I think they were inspired by Amazon who is still hanging in there despite that sites total ineptitude.
posted on January 14, 2001 08:35:18 PM new
well we have been working yahoo for the last year with ranges of 3.50 up to 500.00 and everything inbetween.and hardly anything worked.for the most part it took over 3 relists.and even if the listings go way down the bidding still stinks! at yahoo.and paying for it is even worse.i wish you luck with your efforts at yahoo but being a newbie as you stated you will learn the hard way what us old timers have learned in our expirences working yahoo.we sell mainly at ebay but as another allready stated its incredibly slow for some reason this week on ebay.we have been getting all kinds of weird emails and requests from bidders at ebay it feels like the summer crowd has allready begun at ebay lol.but yahoo has done an did themselves in by chargeing a fee for a site without bidders.i sure hope you dont expect much more then your opening bid cause thats mostly all you can get from listing at yahoo.anyway good luck listing at yahoo i dont think less sellers is the answer for yahoo.but maybe another year or so of free listings might have helped but we will never know as we believe that yahoo will become a ghost town in listings by this time next year.
posted on January 14, 2001 09:11:46 PM new
motive- I have to say that before I buy anything to re-sell, I know what price I can expect to get for it. That is why I feel 100% comfortable using "1st bid wins". I do occasionally list something wacky on Ebay where I get an unexpectedly high price, but that is the exception more than the rule. And when I price my stuff on Yahoo, I take into account what I would get for it on Ebay.
To me, knowing both your market and your merchandise thoroughly is crucial to success on Yahoo. (It helps on Ebay, too, but is not as important) I have made quite a few expensive mistakes after having bought things that I had NO IDEA how well they would sell on either site. I have learned quite simply that it is not worth it to me- I stick to what I am knowledgeable about.
posted on January 14, 2001 09:12:29 PM new
One of the items I have listed, for the first time, has 4 bids on it already.
Based on some of the suggestions I've heard, I'll start using "buy it" prices.
Like I said before, we can't compare Yahoo to days gone by. Too many things have changed, so I would say we can make generalizations after about three months, even more so after a year.
Since the time I list I have to pay, I'll list only a few items, with buy prices, and see how it goes. If, after 3 months, I see that it is still necessary to keep relisting three to four times to make a sale, I won't keep selling on Yahoo! Auctions.
I was hoping that some of the items that don't sell well on eBay would do well on Yahoo! That was my main objective in registering with Yahoo!
posted on January 15, 2001 01:18:19 AM new
Thanks to pegasus for telling the new guy the facts what is it about the niternet that makes people so quick to determine they know everything without any facts
posted on January 15, 2001 02:17:01 AM newmotive8,
The truth FINALLY came out in your last post when you said, "I was hoping that some of the items that don't sell well on eBay would do well on Yahoo! That was my main objective in registering with Yahoo!"
You're just another one of those who come to Yahoo to DUMP YOUR EBAY REJECTS. That's been one of the problems we've had to contend with on Yahoo, and one of the reasons Yahoo thinks the listing fees will "improve" the "quality" of their listings.
You know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about Yahoo Auction, yet you lecture us that "this" and "that" will improve on the site, that the "old" Yahoo and "new" Yahoo are like comparing apples and oranges, and we don't know what we're talking about.
You call previous Yahoo sellers "cheapskate amateur sellers" for complaining about the new listing fees, yet YOU HURRY TO CRAM IN ALL THE FREE LISTINGS YOU CAN before Yahoo begins charging for it. Hypocrite!
You call us your "fellow Yahoo sellers", yet you've NEVER even sold ONE SINGLE THING on Yahoo Auction. Give me a break. You think "we can make generalizations after about three months, even more so after a year."? REALLY?????
I'll tell you what I think. I think you'll be GONE from Yahoo Auction long before three months has passed, and I think there won't BE a Yahoo Auction in another year.
That's what I think. So go impart your vast wisdom to the sellers over on the eBay boards, and spare us your pep talks and lectures on e-commerce.
posted on January 15, 2001 04:35:29 AM new
I'd like to thank everyone for their input, Some of you have taken things out of context to make it sound as bad as possible. I never meant to attack anyone, yet some of you are very quick to make personal attacks.
Those "eBay rejects" may not necessarily be junk, they just happen to be items that appeal to Yahoo buyers and not eBay buyers.
I still stand by my statement that Yahoo will be different due to all the radical changes, whether it be for the better or the worse.
What really cracked me up were that some people want to run a business without any expenses. It was nice to have Yahoo for free, but what else do some of these people want, free postage too? I never said every single person on Yahoo was a cheapskate amateur seller, I said many of those people will be the ones that leave, now that they have to pay to list.
When I hurried to list my items before the fees came into effect, I did so to avoid the fees, yes, can you blame me for trying to save a few bucks? But I plan on staying! All the "cheapskate amateur sellers" are leaving as I'm coming, so I disagree that I was hypocitical.
Even thoough you don't know me, you wouldn't even know who I was if you saw me walking down the street, I'm sure nothing would make you happier than to see me leave Yahoo auctions. I was trying to friendly, be refering to all of you as my "fellow Yahoo sellers" since the ones that left (the ones you are defending), are not Yahoo sellers any more.
I think it's time some of you learned to cool down a bit and be a little more mature when you write your messages with personal attacks on me, but I suppose that's pointless to hope for with some people.
When I started this thread I was hoping to hear from people who were staying with Yahoo and shared my point of view, not people leaving Yahoo that are hell bent on slamming it and anyone who still wants to be a part of it.
But, it's a free country, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
posted on January 15, 2001 04:37:03 AM new
BTW: To the moderator, do you not think some of these people are discussing the individual and not the topic?
posted on January 15, 2001 05:58:00 AM new
To get back to the original question, "...those are my reasons for staying, what are yours?", even though I'm a Bronze PowerSeller on ebay I'm also staying with Yahoo Auctions for now for two reasons: first, Yahoo Auctions allows me to sell certain items that are not allowed to be sold on ebay (NOT porn and nothing illegal) and I've done EXTREMELY well in the past selling these items on Yahoo Auctions. Secondly in my opinion I think as a general rule Yahoo Auction buyers are not as savvy as ebay buyers. Case in point, I quit selling a certain item on ebay (an item that is allowable on ebay) that at any given time on ebay there are about 75 listed and the going ebay price is about $150, but on Yahoo Auctions I ALWAYS get my Buy Price of $185. Almost all of my Yahoo buyers are new users, i.e. have no feedbacks and they probably don't have any idea that they can get the exact same item from reputable sellers on ebay for less money.
I'm not one of these sellers that sells $5 laser pointers (I don't see how anyone can justify selling cheap items online, to me it doesn't seem worth my time to fool with listing, sending emails, shipping etc for only a few bucks) as my average auction closing price on both ebay and yahoo is about $200. Although I wasn't pleased when I was notified that Yahoo was going to start charging for its auctions I didn't see it as the end of the world either because PERHAPS some good will come of it - maybe it will get rid of the reams of junk ads that were only there because listings were free, thus reducing the clutter and making it easier for potential buyers to find my items.
posted on January 15, 2001 11:13:29 AM new
"I was hoping that some of the items that don't sell well on eBay would do well on Yahoo! That was my main objective in registering with Yahoo!"
When I read that I was thinking the same thing as Granee said. This was one of the reasons Yahoo had to do something to clean up the site. So many people dumped their ebay rejects on Yahoo.
posted on January 15, 2001 11:52:53 AM new
Yahoo threw out the baby with the bath water. Here are some improvements the should have made instead:
Improve the search engine. If you can find your item with the search engine it makes absolutely no difference how much garbage is on the site because you never have to see it. I still don't understand how Yahoo's search works. All I know is if I use more than 2 keywords, I get all sorts of crap I didn't ask for. And quotation marks don't seem to make any difference. Since this is the company that invented the search engine, there is no excuse for 2nd rate.
Improve the listing tree for those who like to browse. In the last few months the changes they made proves to me they don't have a clue. Take video tapes. They took that category which was ok as it had several subcategories, ie. Drama, action and adventure, hollywood classics, etc. and subdivided them into about 20 or 30 subcategories each. Here is one example under Action and Adventure:
Now do I have to explain that a seller will probably have no clue where to put the video, and the buyer...well how many buyers come to Yahoo thinking., "I'd sure like to find a good Blaxploitation Action & Adventure Movie to watch?"
See how many videos got dumped into OTHERS? all of mine did. There was no need for the subcategories here.
Yet where they were sorely needed, nothing was ever done. Books is an example. If one knows a title or an author they want, they use the search engine and all is fine. But books cover everything and there are so many books that to browse and find something of interest, you need to put some thought into the category tree. Yahoo was told repeatedely to simply go to a large used book store in San Jose and get some ideas there. But no. Here is the tree with almost no changes from day 1. Subcategories are included:
Antique and Rare (11,052)
Art & Photography (681)
Audio (837)
Fiction (531)
Non-Fiction (306)
Banned (110)
Bestsellers (8,908)
Business (980)
Canadiana (46)
Children's (10,416)
Disney (1,242)
Other (9,174)
Classic Titles (1,624)
Coin Collecting (252)
Comic Books (82,317)
Newspaper Comics (150)
2000 AD (149)
Anime (11,643)
By Character (19,016)
By Era (21,306)
Comics Trading Cards (3,970)
Figurines (4,921)
Other (21,162)
Computers & Internet (950)
Cookbooks (2,728)
Drama (1,353)
Encyclopedias (138)
Essays (85)
Foreign Language (180)
Humor (733)
Journals (447)
Large Print (128)
Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual (149)
Manuscripts (15)
Maps & Atlases (745)
Africa (3)
Antique Maps (415)
Asia & Middle East (19)
Atlantic & Indian Ocean (3)
Australasia & Pacific (11)
Europe (27)
North America (32)
South America (3)
United States (103)
World & Hemispheres (54)
Other (75)
Movies & TV (2,064)
Music (798)
Mystery (4,500)
Mythology & Folklore (191)
Poetry (257)
Reference (1,957)
Religion & Spirituality (2,334)
Romance (8,378)
Science & Technical (1,082)
Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror (6,224)
Scripts (188)
Plays (164)
Screenplays (10)
Teleplays (14)
Self Help (2,100)
Sports (4,475)
Australian Football (6)
Baseball (1,962)
Basketball (568)
Cricket (1)
Football (886)
Golf (162)
Hockey (272)
Racing (71)
Rugby League (0)
Rugby Union (0)
Soccer (22)
Tennis (58)
World Wrestling Federation (WWF) (127)
Other (340)
Textbooks (2,072)
Travel (614)
Other (8,323)
===================================
Say you felt like getting a novel to read and wanted to browse for one. Where would you start? There isn't even a Fiction or non- fiction subcategory which is the 1st thing any book store does to start (except under audio books. This is the only change Yahoo made that I'm aware of to books in the past 2 years.) So where are the novels? Most get dumped into "best sellers" whether they were or not, and "other".
Let's say you wanted to read a biography but didn't have one in mind. That's a classic category in every library and book store in the world, but not on Yahoo. Browse through OTHER and the buyer soon tires out and heads for abebooks.com, a real used book store on the internet.
On the other hand, if you are gay, lesbian, or bisexual, or Canadian, or want a book on Australian Football, yahoo is the place for you. They all get their own categories.
So it should be clear that Yahoo auctions is not well managed. What they need to do is replace management with somebody with a bit more talent and maybe they will quit shooting themselves in the foot.
posted on January 15, 2001 12:55:14 PM new
haoleboy, thank you for your post. I enjoyed reading your reply to my original question.
I too, was hoping there would be a market for some of my quality items on Yahoo that weren't popular on eBay.
I've had quite a few hits on my items, but only a few have bids, one item has received 4 bids. I think I will list items with a buy price, but as mentioned, I need to find out what methods, and items, work on Yahoo.
I'll be back late tonight, and look forward to hearing from any other Yahoo sellers who are staying.
