posted on February 23, 2001 03:23:49 PM new
Current terminations are still not being told why? Where he gets this from, is beyond comprehension. Maybe he is actually beginning to believe his own 'spin' on what is happening.
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"Words, like pieces of a puzzle, can be interesting to view. When assembled with forethought, in mind." ~Mint4You (c) 2001
posted on February 23, 2001 03:48:55 PM new
Brian Fitzgerald will be the 1st one shown the door when his boss wants to know why listing fees are only going to bring in $2 million this year and that includes all the funny money as well. After all Henry Blodgett said it would generate 50 or 80 mil.
posted on February 23, 2001 04:00:47 PM new
It will be interesting to see how they 'spin' their way out of the huge difference, between projection, and reality.
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"Words, like pieces of a puzzle, can be interesting to view. When assembled with forethought, in mind." ~Mint4You (c) 2001
posted on February 23, 2001 05:42:50 PM new"Testimonials: Sellers speak up on the new, improved Yahoo! Auctions."
This is the part that really 'rings my bell'. It reminds me of all the commercials on TV that make the same claim. If the new and improved version is so great, why the hell were they claiming the prior version was so good when they advertised it? They said it was great to begin with, now it sucks, and buy this, it's new and improved?
.
"Words, like pieces of a puzzle, can be interesting to view. When assembled with forethought, in mind." ~Mint4You (c) 2001
posted on February 23, 2001 07:56:12 PM new
deichen
I have had items sit listed for months and then BAM, it sells! I think that is also something Yahoo! is overlooking. Not every item is right for every person. It may take time for the item and person to hook up. And when they do, the buyers are very happy!
I have to agree with you because that has happened to me on several occasions. Unfortunately, now I have no place to sell those items. Letting them sit on Bidville or on other free sites seems pointless.
I am now very, very picky about the items I purchase. If I am unsure if they will sell, on first run, I won't buy them. I also pass on a lot of nice items because I'm not comfortable with the price (The opening bid has to be low to stimulate sales and I refuse to use a reserve price (too expensive now anyway)). I now have less items to sell by necessity.
I know that my approach will not work for everyone but it seems to be working for me.
posted on February 23, 2001 08:14:50 PM new
In looking at closed auctions I have seen a few strong categories where sales appear to be remaining about level with before, but sales in most categories seem down steeply (not as steeply as number of listings, but that is certainly not surprising). The claim that successful closings and dollar volume are steady are made with no supporting statistics, and are just hot air.
I checked the # of ads Sun night several hours after the news. There were about 1000 (most of them showing the "new" sticker). 440 already had bids. Obviously a 44% success ratio would not be near the norm had he not died. Neither would Yahoo have had so many sellers paying to list his items.
The closed auction total for the past 90 days is 4574. Let's look at that, 1574 successful sales in the past 4 days (avg. 394 per day). Yet only 3,000 in the prior 85 days (avg. 35 per day).
The total # of open ads right now is 5300. The bid ratio on open ads at any given time this week has been 32-44%. Prices went through the roof as expected. I think that's a big part of how Fitzgerald could claim yesterday that bids & gross dollar sales are steady. A number of closed ads for several hundred dollars getting 20-80 bids no doubt helps all their statistics. BUT it inflates overall success numbers grossly when those #'s are totally invalid as the norm. Would Yahoo admit that-no way! Some reporter could ask for a split of the success #'s between Earnhardt and everything else but what good would that do. They refuse to back their BS with factual stats regardless. They are so clueless about everything else they probably actually think the 5800 plus extra insertion fees they made this week are not unusual.
posted on February 24, 2001 05:59:25 AM new
Yahoo has discovered one of the maxims of the German propaganda machine of WWII: "Repeat a lie often enough and it will become the truth." In other words, keep saying it and people will believe it to be true simply because you have said it so many times and with such fervor. (Opps... can I mention German & WWII in the same sentence in a Yahoo discussion?? )
posted on February 24, 2001 07:16:02 AM new
I, personally, feel it says something about our society when some try to capitolize on a persons death. I know this happens all of the time, but it is sad to see it, everytime. When I heard the news, I immediately canceled all of my auctions containing Earnhardt items, (this is not my seller ID). I would not feel right attempting to make money in this situation. Out of respect to him, and his family I will not sell them during this time, if ever. I am also a big fan of the man, and his soft side, even though he was known as the 'Intimidator'. Those of you who think I am not looking at this matter correctly, I appreciate your right to your opinion. However, please do not respond on here how you feel 'I' should react to the news of his death. Thanks.
.
"Words, like pieces of a puzzle, can be interesting to view. When assembled with forethought, in mind." ~Mint4You (c) 2001
posted on February 24, 2001 08:17:42 AM new
zzyzx000, hate to break it to you, but even IF brian Ftzgerald will be the first to get axed, he will be laughing his way to the bank, for the "corporate mentality" is to pay this guy his next years salary, then after leaving Yahoo "in good faith" he will soon be snatched up by another net auction house for "he was the head of yahoo, he must be greatness" so auxpal, or amazon, or even Ebays will hire him as the head, thinking he can bring "success" to the site, and his "leadership". Name me one "corporate" type who singlehandedly destroyed a compnay, then disappear into oblivion? none, they always get bigger better jobs, and continue their success at wrecking their new company, then so on, to so on, just like stock guys like Blodgett.
posted on February 24, 2001 01:53:17 PM new
I've been a frequent buyer at Yahoo Auctions for two years. I like to browse around the site and look for interesting stuff to buy. I sometimes do keyword searches, but often I don't have a particular thing in mind. I have found that since Yahoo instituted listing fees, that I am spending more time on Yahoo Auctionis and finding more cool stuff. I am buying more than before (my bank account would say that isn't a good thing, oh well). My browsing experience is better. I used to have to browse a lot longer to find good stuff. Also, some keyword searches that used to turn up 6 pages of mostly junk, now turn up 2 pages of listing with a high concentration of good stuff.
I know that there are some items that won't get listed anymore and I will miss out on the possibility of buying them on Yahoo, but there is so much good stuff in this world, that sifting through it all is a big deal and Yahoo has made it easier and more fun.
If I want maximum selection, I can still always check Ebay, which I do occasionally.
posted on February 24, 2001 02:26:31 PM newquerty42,
And which YaWho department do you work in?????????
Isn't it AMAZING how these people suddenly register on AW (TODAY, no less) and give the corporate spin "through the mouth of a HAPPY YAHOO AUCTION BUYER"??????????????
I, too, have been browsing YaWho for purchases, and my experience has been that there's little left to buy. So unless you can site SPECIFICS to us, querty42, pardon me for calling you a #*%&$ YaWho troll.
posted on February 24, 2001 03:01:48 PM new
granee
The keyboard seems to be getting a little hot there women. But, you do have an interesting point. Have some ice tea, lots of ice, and come back. I enjoy your posts.
posted on February 25, 2001 06:28:36 AM new
Write me off as a shill for Yahoo if you want. (I'm not.) Believe it or not, there are auction buyers who like Yahoo. Reading these boards, one might get the impression that most people hate Paypal too. These board posts are mostly from sellers, so as a buyer, I thought I would post too for some balance.
Yes I have read the Yahoo news releases and interviews posted here at Auctionwatch. I don't know if the Yahoo bigwigs are telling the truth about sellthrough. I just know my experience is that I'm finding things I want to buy more easily and buying more because of it.
Some months ago, I put a couple of items on my watchlist that I was thinking of bidding on, but ultimately didn't. I then noticed that those auctions were relisted, and relisted, and relisted. Several months went by and they were still listed as active auctions, but with no bids. Then, they finally showed up as closed (but with no winning bids). Shortly thereafter I found out that Yahoo had started charging listing fees. If I were Yahoo, I would have made the fees less (like 5 or 10 cents), but I'm still pleased with the result.
posted on February 25, 2001 07:04:00 AM new
I'm noticing a bit of sniping bidding by buyers now on Yahoo, and I used to not see it at all. I associate sniping with more rational and serious buyers who are seeing items that they consider worth spending some time watching and thinking about.
posted on February 25, 2001 08:02:44 AM new
querty42 >
Some months ago, I put a couple of items on my watchlist that I was thinking of bidding on, but ultimately didn't. I then noticed that those auctions were relisted, and relisted, and relisted. Several months went by and they were still listed as active auctions, but with no bids.
Hmmmmm, interesting you observed items being relisted for several months without attracting any bids.
Let's see, three months is about 12 weeks, so for an item under $10, the seller would have paid $2.40 in listing fees waiting for a viewer to become a buyer.
Maybe you can help us understand why a company with 166 million registered users is unable to get anything more than a few of them to click on the Yahoo!Auctions link from the Yahoo! homepage?
posted on February 25, 2001 09:51:49 AM new
"Wow, my sales tripled. Oh boy do I love Yahoo more since they started with fees."
That's my sample testimonial for Yahoo. Yahoo could have used me as testimonial (sure, right). I was averaging 5% sales a month. When the fees were adapted it jumped to 10%. Now I just closed at 15%.
Does that sound like a glowing testimonial, that my sales tripled?
Ok, let's break that down further.
5% was during my weaker fall months, I was selling low demand items, and didn't use Buy Now Price.
At 10%, I used the Buy Now price, and I relisted items that didn't sell before but had high page views.
At 15%, I used Buy Now price sporadically. I sold a few OOPs that garnered heavy bidding, and a few items that demand was picking up on. Certainly the better sales had nothing to do with the instituting of fees.
No matter, 15% still sucks. Everything I listed has a recent history of fair to good bidding on Yahoo. Several of the items are good sellers for me on ebay and those got no bids on Yahoo. My ebay sales are an average 75% so I know it's not my fault for my Yahoo results.
posted on February 28, 2001 08:22:01 PM new
I just traced the selling history of another "homepage testimonial" ("I have sold on Yahoo! for 2 years and the new fee schedule was a little scary at first. When some sellers pulled out, I decided to stay because of the high volume of traffic on Yahoo! Auctions. I know now that it was the right decision! Sales have increased dramatically and I am as happy as ever with Yahoo!") YaWho seller who has had these results:
Since free listings rolled off February 8th, she has sold 3-1/2 items per day with an average bid price of $13.09 each, and if her total listings number has remained constant, her sell-through rate is now about 22.7%.
Her history BEFORE having to pay listing fees shows sales of 2 items per day with $14.08 each average. At her *current* listing volume, her sell-through would have been 12.7% before the fees started.
I guess "sales have increased dramatically" means selling 1-1/2 items per day MORE with another $18.00 per day to show for it (MINUS $4-$5.00 PER DAY IN LISTING FEES, of course) for a *net increase* of only about $14.00 per day and a couple extra sales to have to process (email, pack, ship, etc.).
I don't know about you, but 10% extra sales DOESN'T JUSTIFY PAYING YAWHO'S LISTING FEES. And when someone says Yahoo Auction has "high volume of traffic" I have to wonder if I've been selling on a DIFFERENT Yahoo Auction than she has???
The next testimonial seller ("I've bought and sold on Yahoo! Auctions for 2 years. I used to do flea markets and yard sales, but now I do all my shopping on Yahoo! Aucitons. It saves time and money. Thanks for being here.") is selling 6-1/2 items per day (out of 530+), up from 2-1/2 items per day before, but her CURRENT sell-through is STILL only 12.3%.
Sellers would have to have VERY HIGH PROFIT MARGINS (or extremely high profit on some of their sales) to cover all the listing fees for everything that DOESN'T sell on YaWho.
Charlie