posted on August 25, 2001 12:11:39 PM
I don't know if they found a magic formula or not, but speaking strictly for myself, my sales are in the double digits, and of the five sites I sell on, Carnaby has quickly locked the second place spot for sales.
Support told me that in order for me to use Netscape as a browser with the Carnaby site, I would have to change my display settings to 256 colors from 32 bit color (drastic change here- no greens or blues) or upgrade my browser in hopes that Netscape has changed their files. To do this, I would have to buy more memory.
If I use IE, I don't have active-x on that browser because it makes it go too slow.
posted on August 25, 2001 01:07:10 PM
JMHO2, how much memory do you currently have? I may have read but I can't remember for sure.
Depending on what type your machine takes memory could be one of the most inexpensive and long-lasting investments you could make in your computer.
Last fall we started putting 256 megs in our bigger machines (they started out with 64). Right now a stick of 64-meg ram (can't remember which configuration) is selling for around $35. A year ago at this time it was $120.
When I had my 200mhz on-line (32 megs of ram in that poor little thing) everything was crazy. I couldn't be on-line and run my image editing software at the same time, LOL. I was sure glad to be able to upgrade to something bigger.
And if nothing else I would use the 256-color setting. Hopefully Carnaby's colors are using the 256-color palette. If they are you'll be able to see all the colors as they should be. It's really pretty simple to switch colors on your screen. I always thought I'd have to re-start my computer when I did it, but don't even have to do that. I keep the display icon on my task bar so I can switch whenever I need to in a hurry. (I have a couple of games that don't work in 16-million colors, LOL.)
-----------------------------------
I have the icon on my status bar too. I just switched and everything was so BRIGHT on the home page there LOL .. too much for my eyes.
I think I have 32MEGS. I thought it was 64, but may have been mistaken. I have room for an upgrade, but right now I can't afford anything extra. Yes, they were expensive last year and this year, in my town, they still are expensive.
Off the computer for a few hours. Have a great afternoon!
posted on August 25, 2001 01:23:52 PM
We thought it would be appropriate to post our findings here, as it may relate to problems other users may be having on Carnaby as well as on other sites.
There is one particular component of the Netscape 4.x browsers called AWT3240.DLL. Unfortunately, this component is known not to behave properly in certain video modes. We are currently researching various knowledgebases to see if we can find a replacement or patch for this file.
We'd also like to thank JMHO2 for her patience in helping us troubleshoot this particularly nagging issue.
posted on August 25, 2001 01:47:01 PM
Robnzak, I know you are a very sucessfully seller on the site. You are a silver-tongue devil of sorts and have a way with words. I've also just checked your feedback there and most of those sales were to fellow sellers there. Sellers are buyers but this same exact thing happened ( and still does ) at BV at its' onset. The sellers were all there and their buying habits were still there and they felt loyalty to the site and shopped there. Same thing is happening again. A seller can not boast of great sales when these sales are mostly made by non true bidder-only site users. It's almost like false advertising saying you have great sales and forgeting the part about the majority bein made by site seller poineers like yourself. Auction sites need more than sellers that buy from fellow sellers, they need traffic with bidders that are not sellers.
Given the history and present state of the marketplace I've come to believe that establishing a successful general merchandise auction venue is nearly impossible at this time.
That's not meant to discredit all the sites, the success some sellers have achieved elsewhere than eBay or the extensive effort that has been made by sellers to support sites.
It's just the way I presently see things.
The short list of sites I believe have potential over the next year is:
YAHOO - They have all the parts necessary to build a strong site. They were well on their way once to having a major site. With a change in attitude and some positive new leadership they might be able to get the job done.
Carnaby - They seem to have the attitude, will and leadership to build a successful site. They have built the most complete, although complex, and user friendly site of all the alternative venues.(Complete and user friendly meaning features, options, service, attitude etc. I too have experienced some computer problems with the site and there is a long learning curve getting to understand everything.)
They have few sellers and even fewer customers. I don't know how many of each they will ever attract. I think, based upon their efforts to-date, that they have the best chance of all the independent site to succeed. I'm willing to put some of my effort into their venue.
I expect it will take months before they have a significant number of sellers with a large inventory listed. It will take even longer to develop a large buyer base if, in fact, it's even possible or ever happens.
No "Streets paved with Gold at Carnaby" and maybe nothing more than a chance to put a lot of time and effort into working with a promising site and a good staff in trying to build something that may beat the odds and be the successful alternative site so many of us are looking for.
The most I'm willing to suggest is that everyone should at least watch the site and seller's willing to help out, without any great expectations of immediate productivity, should consider joining in the building effort.
posted on August 25, 2001 02:54:45 PM
Okey dokey ya'll
[Blatant Texas Native drawl prevalent]
Since I started this one........
I've peddled my wares online since early
'97. Started when Meg still answered her
own emails. I've also proudly been onboard
the start of 11 other auction sites when
they first started. Under the names of
presto, obsidian2000, happytrails, and
for the last 3 yrs as towards2112.
I did it all to MAKE MONEY. Nothing ventured,
nothing gained. I've made money, I've
wasted my time. I'll keep making money,
I'll keep wasting my time. If I had more
brains, I wouldn't do the online auctions
at all, I'd be a doctor, cpa, attorney, etc.
I'm proud to do what I do. It's the best
alternative left to this old blue hair.
I enjoy it. I could waste my time also at
a bar watching football, spending money on
a 'toy' car, gambling, or doing a thousand
other counter productive things. BUT, I
have fun doing auctions. It's a game.
Sometimes profitable, sometime's not.
Post an item, see if someone will give me
more money for it than I spent acquiring it.
A GAME. More fun that way. And I sleep better
at night, knowing it's not life or death
for me. For the folks making their sole
income from it, I have the best of wishes
for them, and will not begrudge them a dime
of bad feelings if their item gets the bid
and mine doesn't.
An awful lot of the 'negative' postings on
most of the forums seem to come from folks
that don't see the opportunities. There are
no guarantees, only opportunities.
Keep that firmly in mind. If you do not try,
no one will throw success at you.
Keep trying.
Not cheerleading, just that I've seen the
results of not trying. That's how I've
acquired this white hair.
Now.......Mike, time to play with this cd.
posted on August 25, 2001 04:52:36 PM
I agree Towards2112. Almost everybody is doing the auction sellings as a quasi hobby.
Everybody wants to make some money and hopefully at least break even for their efforts.
The pont I like'd to make is the need avoid wasting too much trying on the sites that are doomed to fail. The free sites seem to come off a conveyer belt with a new twist here and a new twist there. But they are all the same in the end. The only thing missing from the equation is an advertising budget. Some claim to have a large advertising budget but want to "wait" till their numbers are substantial. The want the sellers to invest mucho time and effort to make the unknown site on the promise of a possible large advertising budget they are suppose to have. That's called wasting your time. If they are successful then join the site after the advertising brings in some traffic.
posted on August 25, 2001 06:38:45 PM
bidsbids...my head is swelling. You flatter me to the point that the Carnaby cap I won barely fits, but I wasn't boasting. I was merely pointing out that thus far, Carnaby has been good as another selling venue for me and I'm optimistic for the future. Not mentioning that most of my sales came from other sellers is "almost like false advertising?" HUH???
Okay, I know what you were trying to say, but in my mind a sale is a sale whether it be from a strictly buyer only or a fellow seller, and I'll take em any way I can. (for the record though, I do have a couple repeat "buyer only buyers"
Ebay still makes the mortgage payment, feeds two Great Danes, and probably always will. But an alternative site can provide a nice supplemental income, and perhaps one day future sellers will be grateful that a handful of "seller pioneers" had enough faith in a new site to take a chance and help build another viable selling venue.
Bidville's problem is another post altogether.(silver tongue firmly in cheek)
posted on August 25, 2001 07:29:09 PM
Yay they fixed it! Whatever it was, the support staff at Carnaby.com fixed the problem without my having to do anything.
Thank you for all your help!
Hmmmmmm, now this is interesting (to me at least):
I've peddled my wares online since early '97. Started when Meg still answered her own emails.
Meg joined ebay in May of 98. Here's part of the press release:
San Jose, Calif. May 7, 1998
eBay, the world's leading personal trading community ( www.ebay.com ), today announced the appointment of Meg Whitman as president and chief executive officer. Pierre Omidyar, eBay's founder and former CEO, has been named chairman of the board.
Most recently, Whitman served as general manager of Hasbro Inc.'s Preschool Division, where she was responsible for global management and marketing of two of the world's best known children's ..."
Whitman will direct eBay's corporate strategy as the company's growth rate continues to accelerate exponentially."
She's only been with ebay since May of 98 and has never to my knowledge been in a position lower than a CEO. Now, Pierre used to answer his e-mails prior to that. ebay's been around since 1995. I've been there since late 1995.
Have a great night!
[ edited by JMHO2 on Aug 25, 2001 08:35 PM ]
posted on August 26, 2001 08:39:31 AM
You are correct on the time line.
I'm not in possesion of the finest memory
around. And apologies if I've offended
or misled you into thinking I was an
Ebay founder or something along that line.
Wasn't my intention. Just a reference to
a time when live folks answered silly
questions on the same day, and didn't
have to rely on mass software FAQ pages.
Nope, I'm just a little fish in a big pond.
My point.... if there truly was one....
was that I'll keep trying. Hopefully,
wishfully, maybe, possibly, one of the
new sights will succeed. And hopefully,
wishfully, maybe, possibly, so will I.
One more kid to get through college, then
I can watch an entire game without thinking
of the computer.....
posted on August 26, 2001 11:22:23 AM
No you didn't imply you were one of the founders, you implied Meg was.
At any rate, I think Carnaby will be a successful site in the future if they don't lose track of their excellent customer service.
Too many start-ups promise to continue with personalized customer service, etc and none do.
The only other site that may show some promise is SYI, but that's because they have a few of old Golds cheerleaders there. Eventually, the excitement of old Golds/new SYI will die off and the site will go the way of all the other dotcoms. Then they'll flock to other free sites, only to start their campaigns over and over again.
The only thing that will kill Carnaby off sooner is their fees, the MLM techinque they use to get new registrations (Amway anyone?) and the lack of advertising. I think they need fees, but not when they have no bidders. As a seller I won't list there and pay a fee until I see a rise in sales. As a bidder, if I browse the auctions and see items totally out of line price-wise (higher) because of fees, then I'm gone in a flash.
Why not give this site a try? I don't work for them and don't want referral fees. I think they're 100% more "ebay-like" than any of the other sites.
posted on August 26, 2001 11:40:21 AM
We just want to confirm that all listing fees are free for all our sellers until we can warrant them through both increased traffic and an effective sell through ratio.
Participants in our bulk listing test drive get free listings, free enhancements and their closing fees are waived through the end of the program.
We recently announced that the Test Drive has been extended through October 31st.
posted on August 27, 2001 05:20:45 AM
Any new auction site.. if they have not shown solid progress in its first 60 days,
then the odds are against them Big Time. If you want to stretch it out.. to read their first 90 Days.. thats a big chance you are giving them and 95% fail !!!
Bells and whistles have No place in/on public online auction sites !! anything that complicates matters just will not help an auction site. Ego?? Private playgroud?? Immatureity?? Thinks they are smarter than the user/s?? Lack of funds?? Lack of real effort?? Takes things for granted?? Does not spell out-explain things?? Has practically no foresight?? /////////
There they are folks.. the Failures of and in Public Online Auction Sites... Oh, and forget about customer service, as it is NOT what it is hyped up to be!! In other words.. ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz, big deal about really nothing.
Sounds like you need to set up an auction site without all those things, but with great personalized customer service (phone calls are wonderful) and a spell check so you don't appear like one other site on which no one can spell (Immatureity = immaturity). The use of proper capitalization is important as well.
I'd be willing to give you 60 days to build your business, attract cash bidders (for real money, not play money), hold no contests, no MLM referral plans, etc. and no fees until it's established. If you can do that, I'll list on your site forever.
Hopefully Carnaby staff will stop in and give a specific answer to your question.
I understand, from information shared in several posts, that the time period refers back to when they first copyrighted the name and began planning the site.
I also read that they opened the site briefly about a year ago and quickly closed it down to make changes.
It only recently opened again and they are still in a "test drive" period for their listing program.
I'm taking the position that they can't expect many sellers and resulting inventory until the listing program is fully in place and that there is no sense for them to make any major effort to attract customers until the shelves are stocked.
Given the number of sites that were "overnight" successes and longer term disappointments I'm willing to give them a chance and see if the slow but steady progress approach will work.
posted on August 27, 2001 02:27:37 PM
Oops, looks like the jig's up. Best come clean here. I admit, I bid on four of Robnzak's auctions on Carnaby. I really couldn't help myself, though. Firstly he had an Erma Bombeck book. Well, I've loved her since I was a little girl and really wanted that book. Then the next time I was cruising through some auctions and happened across some more books that looked interesting. As luck would have it, they were listed by one of my favorite sellers, so of course I had to bid on them.
Yep, I'm a seller/buyer. I sell to support my buying habits and often times make back more money than I spend. It's great!
Yes, when a site is first starting out you'll see a lot of the sellers buying from each other. Basically the reason is those sellers are buyers as well. The seller-only kind of folks are the ones who just can't waste their precious time listing on these other sites because something might not sell quite as quick as it would somewhere else.
Of course these sites need more bidders. We seller/buyers can't support everyone. However, I've made some pretty interesting (at least to my mind) observations in the past few months that have come near to wiping the memory of e-Hem clear out of my brain. There are strictly buyers out there using these sites. Some of them have never even heard of eBay and others use the smaller sites because they don't like sorting through 5,000 listings when they search for something.
I never in my wildest dreams imagined when I started listing on other sites just what would happen. I figured I'd do good to sell one in 10 auction from the way people were carrying on about sell-through rates, etc. Considering I consistently maintained 75% on e-Hem 10% would've been a significant drop and I doubt I would've wanted to live with it. However, when I saw my own sell-thru rate often times reaching as high as 50% on these little bitty sites with 'absolutely no bidding activity' (and no, I don't give most of my stuff away) it was surely enough to make me take notice.
The thing of it is it doesn't matter whether you're selling your wares to strictly buyers or buyer/sellers. The point is you're selling your stuff and that's really all that matters (well, making a profit is helpful).
Back in the olden days when I used the e-Hem site did it matter to anyone when I was bidding on stuff that I'm a seller, too? Shoot, they didn't even know it. On e-Hem everyone's basically anonymous. We don't have that at the other sites with fewer users. Even if there's 100 or 200 unique users, those IDs are still pretty familiar to just about everyone. It's kind of like a small town that way.
Goodness knows I'm hoping for more bidders on Carnaby. I doubt seriously anyone's going to last the winter there unless the sell-thru increases for them, but what have we all got to lose by trying? Maybe some time.
'It is better to have tried and failed than to never try at all.'
-----------------------------------
posted on August 27, 2001 04:27:39 PM
I hear a lot about sellers with 50-75% selling rates yet almost everytime I look at these sellers auctions I only see a few bids so I'm very leery of these brash statements.
When Half.com started they had 2 million items to view. I don't know how thay did it but there must have been a lot of 'sweetheart' deals to bigime sellers. Couldn't Carnaby offer a few sweetheart deals to sellers to get the 'shelves stocked' there? The no listing fees or FVF for use of the bulkloader is not enough of an incentive for sellers on an unknown site. The free trip to DisneyWorld and weekly DVD players is not enough to draw any serious traffic either. If they truly have a multi-million dollar advertising budget just waiting in the wings and unavailable to use due to a lack of items then can't a LITTLE of that budget be used to lure sellers to the site to get the darn ball rolling?
posted on August 27, 2001 06:04:28 PM
Aren't they free for sellers right now?
Didn't they just post that above?
Do you want the sweetheart deals that Golds set forth when they opened? Listathons for credits? Promises of trips? Stocks? You name it, they'll do it? Look what happened to them.
I'd rather have them just as they are for right now.
Plus, you know, when people have incentives for listing (like contests, etc) a lot of garbage gets listed. It cheapens the site.
posted on August 27, 2001 07:05:19 PM
I have read this entire thread with interest and understand where most of you are coming from. Sellers need buyers! We are in this game to make money. The only problem with Carnaby at this time is lack of buyers.
But the buyers will come because the sellers will come. Especially the quality sellers! It is the quality sellers who will be far sighted enough to take the time to learn the ropes and slowly, but surely, build up a sustainable customer base on this site. The quality sellers are rarely after the fast buck. They understand the effort and time required to expand their customer base as well as the perils of putting all their eggs in one basket.
Quality sellers are also looking for quality tools. Carnaby more than goes the extra mile in providing sellers with quality tools. Among other things, Carnaby has by far the best seller support and incentive programs of any site out there today! I know that it has certainly been well worth my time to deal there even at this early stage of the game.
As for the contests - some people really like them; for others they are a complete turnoff. Bells and whistles do not "a good site, make" but they certainly do add to the fun! Great for those who like them; easy to ignore for those who don't!
However, what I'm not hearing in this thread is anything new. The issues that are being raised are the same old concerns that all new online auction venues or internet commerce sites face.
Carnaby is not attempting to become another eBay. Not by a long stretch of the imagination. They have their own approach to doing business online and it's one class act all the way!
Carnaby is in this business for the long haul and are prepared to go the distance slowly rather than building a run-away elephant that they can't sustain.
Presently, they are in beta testing for their bulk loader program. They have a small group of excellent sellers really making an effort to learn the ins and outs of the system. I'm actually quite surprised that they have as many listings and sales as they do at this early stage of the game. (And as posted on their own chat boards, most of the sales are buy-it-nows, so the listing is gone as soon as the purchase is made.)
Carnaby's Max Loader program is one of the best in the business. Max's built in image editing and Carnaby's free image hosting services are fantastic. Their technical support is tops! It just doesn't get much better than this! Except that it does!
There is a fairly major learning curve on this site. Although the programs such as Max Loader and Auction Ticker are exceptionally user friendly and a great asset to buyers and sellers alike, they are still new and require a lot of attention to detail before they become truly time-saving tools. The Auction Ticker is truly amazing. This is a tool anyone can use with several of the other major sites besides Carnaby.
I see this site eventually revolutionizing the way business is done online. If you take the time to take a close look at all this site has to offer, (and I am including the bidding and sell through rates in this assessment) I think you would be very hard-pressed to find a site that can come close to holding a candle to this one over the long haul.
As for the buyers - they will come. They are coming. And so are the sellers. Slowly. And that is the way Carnaby wants it right now until they get the system fine-tuned and running full steam ahead!
I, for one, am thankful that the Carnaby Team has taken into consideration the fact that Rome wasn't built in a day. (Or 60 days, for that matter.) And neither was eBay.
And I am also VERY satisfied with my dealings on that site to date. If that makes me a cheerleader for this site then so be it. At least Carnaby gives me something worthwhile to cheer about.
Thanks for sticking with me and reading through to the end of this lengthy post. This is an excellent thread and everyone has made some very valid points!
Come visit me at Carnaby. I answer to Snowbird there
posted on August 27, 2001 07:55:17 PM
Ummmmmm... I bought two books from Robnzak's Carnaby auctions, too! (Nice ones, but that's not the point.)
Yes, there's some sellers-selling-to-sellers on Carnaby, and some struggles in obtaining site recognition. eBay had the same problem back in the 1996 timeframe... along with a whole bunch of listing restrictions that bring howls of protests if they happened nowadays!
Let's patiently work with Carnaby to promote the site, fix any shortcomings, and provide some healthy competition. All that it takes is for some "niche" market to discover Carnaby... such as collectable Pez dispensers (no, wait-a-minnit, that's been done already).
(Mind you, all this coming from a guy who liked Gold's Auction, and tried to promote DutchBid. Take the above with a grain of salt.)
Right now there's too many alternatives. Not all of these can possibly survive:
posted on August 28, 2001 12:32:41 AM
Kenzy, you are so right--not all of them can possibly survive. It's very unfortunate, too. If I could I'd list on 100 auction sites, LOL. Unfortunately I know I don't have the time or the energy to do that. I have to choose a handful for where to put my listings. Occasionally those choices change--I may try one for a while and give up on it and move along to another.
In my above post I said that I had about a 50% sell-thru rate during the past months. That sell-thru wasn't gained on Carnaby, it was on another site that I use--sorry for the confusion on that one.
I do believe this market is big enough to support more than one site. People are all the time complaining about how there are no bidders on these other sites and how they have to list on e-Hem because that's where the bidders are. Well, there's a sure-fire cure to that one. If enough auction sellers moved their merchandise to more user-friendly auction sites the bidders would surely have to follow now wouldn't they?
I wonder how many sellers maintain an opt-in mailing list of their customers. I know many who do--have names of anywhere from 200 to in the thousands. I also know of quite a few B&M stores that have had to move down the street and managed to keep their customers.
I remember when I was very small telling my mother that I couldn't do something. She bought me a 'The Little Engine That Could' and read it to me who knows how many times. I learned not to say 'I can't' very shortly.
-----------------------------------
posted on August 28, 2001 07:06:31 AM
It's always nice to see the cheerleading squad trot out and take the field and do their thing. Let's watch the numbers of items listed and the sell-thru rate and see what happens. The critical Christmas shopping period is fast approaching and there is a need to try to catch that wave of spending. Unless you've been at it for several years like Carnaby and then you can always say "we promise that big ad campaign for next Christmas, really."
posted on August 28, 2001 08:46:42 AM
What's all the hubbub about Carnaby? They just opened up for business. Give them time. Meanwhile focus on sites that are generating sales NOW and showing real momentum, like BargainandHaggle. Come back to Carnaby when it's ripe for business. Maybe early next year. I hope!
posted on August 28, 2001 08:59:34 AM
Besides the fact that the # of items up for auction on Carnaby doesn't warrant a major Ad campaign, is it really a good idea to launch a major Ad campaign in August?
