posted on January 31, 2001 05:38:24 AM new
RB
No, I am sorry, I had you confused with someone else. So I was not aware. However, the offer still stands. If you sign up with BIDVILLE and I get the referral, I will pay S&H on the first of my auctions you win on BIDVILLE.
My main categories are glass and china. with a prejudice towards depression and elegant glassware.
posted on January 31, 2001 05:58:43 AM new
Had some auctions last night go off of fee-bay. In my EOA I told my customers about the new Bidville site and that I had additioanl items up for sale. The great news is that 4 of 7 signed up as I got the credit. I also sold 6 items and another large lister in the same catergory sold 4 items. So we are slowly getting there.
The four customers that signed up on Bidville loved the site and one said it was so enjoyable looking at a page of items with 40 offerings then the E-bay site with 1000s. She also browsed some other catergories that she has not looked at in the last 1 1/2 and bid on 2 things.
I remeber when E-bay was very small since I have been a memeber since 4/96. It took one customer & seller at a time to build the site.
Glad to hear they are also interested in getting rid of the scams on their site.
posted on January 31, 2001 07:29:10 AM new
Bidville has my vote. They are "moving on up". Great service, easy to use and working at promoting the site. That's the way things get going. Whoever heard of eBay in the beginning. Seventeen of my first 19 items sold. Yes it will be slow for awhile but I'm willing to wait for the growth to have a dependable site that values my participation and doesn't charge me for waiting.
posted on January 31, 2001 07:41:09 AM new
You all need to remember that BidVille is only about 90 days old now. They have been plannning the ad campaign to attract sellers for a while as they were just starting up. You need sellers if you are going to attract buyers.
Then Yahoo pulls their little stunt and BidVille got hit hard and fast. So they now have the sellers as the rapidly climbing numbers show. But the ad campaign is ready as-is. They have made change after change on their site at the request of sellers - expanding catagories, fixing things we find bothersome, etc. I know because I emailed them at least once a day when I first started listing. I am just glad they are willing to advertise.
As a seller I am also a buyer on the site I list. And I have done my part to let my customers know where I have gone. My sales have been as good, if not better than ever on Yahoo. I don't sell a lot as I do this for a hobby. However, if I can move and do as well as Yahoo ever did for me -- imagine what I might be doing in 2 years (that's how long I sold on Yahoo.)
posted on February 1, 2001 12:58:49 AM new
This site appears to be evolving. Not long ago I checked the book categories and was disgusted by the lumping of all "non fiction" into one heading. At least now they have broken out cookbooks and crafts...hope to see much more. I found items with bids in both open and closed categories.
I also saw stuff with too-high opening bids from my experience...possibly the Yahoo effect that the seller can expect only a single bid?
My main question: why would any site be free? How can they make any money? I would almost be more comfortable if a site had a modest FVF. After all, I cheerfully list lots of books on half.com and Amazon for "free" and then pay the closing fees because I SELL stuff.
posted on February 1, 2001 01:59:40 PM new
well i've been watching the posts in these threads and am not to excited by what i keep reading about BidVille.yes CS is important but sales are most important........
thousands of listings do not make a sale.i've seen very little posters saying they are selling.there can be many reasons for not selling.and if a site has 150,000 listings i'd expect to see more happy sellers posting that they are makeing sales but i see the oppisite.i'm listing at a site that was only at about 1000 listings 2 weeks ago and is up to around 5000 listings today,i started selling as soon as i listed and continue selling today.sales are in the 5.00 to 50.00 range for me.which is mostly my price range.and steady selling.i see more growth in this small site with only 5000 listings then i see at a site with 150,000 listings and no bids.the site i'm refering to is.......SNAPRAT.COM
posted on February 1, 2001 02:33:15 PM new
jumpup, good observation. This site opened its doors with 80 or 90 thousand auctions already running. I think three or four sellers are the bulk of that. Either work for the company or paid to list prior to the opening.
150,000 items and fifteen bids doesn't sound too attractive to me. Like jumpup said, I too see more growth in a site that has 5,000 sellers and only 6 or 7,000 items than I do on a site with a only a few hundred sellers but 150,000 items.
posted on February 1, 2001 02:44:40 PM new
I disagree.
Buyers visting an auction site expect to have a large selection of items. Nothing is more frustrating than to click on a category and see a handful of listings.
The perfect example is Yahoo!Auctions. In those categories from which I make my "buys", everyday there's fewer items to browse through. Soon it will be hardly worth clicking on the auction site itself.
So AuXPal, now BidVille, was smart in making sure there were lots of listings, albeit in only a few categories, from the getgo. Of course, its great having other sellers come on board.
posted on February 1, 2001 02:55:57 PM new
Well Jumpup let me tell you about my experience with site you like SnapRat. Name fits in my opinion. I won a bid, received canned notice for snaprat and heard nothing from the seller. On the 2nd day I went to the site. There was nothing there but a CLOSED sign. No seller identified, no item number nothing. So I wrote the SnapRat folks. Explained the problem and expressed my concerns that this seller was less than honorable. That was 3 days ago. I haven't heard a word from the snaprat people. Will I buy or sell on SnapRat again?? I DON'T THINK SO!!!!! My experience with bidville has been great. Sold 17 of my first 19 items I placed. Now that was definetly a case of the right buyer finding the right seller, but I do expect the site to continue to attract bidders and buyers because we are developing it into a site with a lot of variety and a friendly environment. That growth will take time but it will be sure in my opinion.
posted on February 1, 2001 02:58:43 PM new
dimview ...
I agree with you about the dwindling things to look at on Yahooooo - it's become a very boring place to visit.
But, the reverse is also true. It's just as boring to visit BidVille and see pages and pages of overpriced items with no looks and no bids. It's even worse when I look at my own carefully crafted listings for items that go immediately on eBay and see that they haven't been looked at by ANYONE in the 7 days since I listed them.
I don't know what the future of on-line auctions holds, but my gut tells me from reading the various forums here, that this whole business has just about run it's course.
Like the Hula Hoop, the Pet Rock, and Ribik's Cube, the novelty eventually wears off ...
No way has the online auction business run its course! In my opinion it is still just getting started. Think about it, how many people have always wanted to go into business but didn't have the business know how?
Online auctions allow ordinary people to go into business for themselves without the hassle of actually "running" the business. Heck, they can even easily hide their wages from good ol' Uncle Sam. I can't think of many other oppertunities that have the benefits of online auctioning (be they legal or not).
I believe that the best is yet to come. Even the U.S. government is selling their surplus on online auction sites!
posted on February 1, 2001 03:13:44 PM new
As a business, you could be right. For the casual buyer/seller (the person who visits the odd garage sale on a Sunday afternoon), I think it's on the way out. Eventually, it will only be one business dealing with another business - no more fun for us little folks who got into it way back then as a hobby.
posted on February 1, 2001 03:53:23 PM new
Regarding the apparant slow down in the on-line auction business I think it has to do with a lot of things including the economy. But it also has to do with the fact that people like to shop on line to save time and money. With all the charges that have to be considered for ebay use the seller of small items can't hope to profit at that site. Buyers are not going to pay inflated prices so we can use eBay as a selling site. On top of that the Post Office greed fest has increased the cost of on-line selling also. So we have to find a place to sell our goods that won't add to buyer cost. The answer has been and could have stayed Yahoo. But Yahoo got into the Greed/Feed so to preserve lost cost sales, we had to move. Now it's going to take time to develope another site. But the more people involved as sellers and buyers the faster it will be come the site of choice for the best value for your dollar. Stay tuned. Anything new and growing can be fun to watch and even participate in. After all, it's FREE.
posted on February 2, 2001 07:52:20 AM new
Wow, so much talk over bidville. I placed six auctions up while they were still auxpal.
I don't know if the counters are working but if they are the hits are pretty grim.
As for bids, I didn't really expect any at this stage.
I think lots of folks are parking their auctions there because it's free and I think bidville is counting on the fact that most sellers are bidders too.
Unfortunately they will have to do something to let bidders know that they exist.
The problem with sellers who buy is that they generally buy to resell so items that sell will have to be really low priced.
Of all the for profit sites though I do appreciate the efforts they've made to make a nice site. My main concern is that when they do become successful the IPO will come down the line and then of course the bigger the site gets the more revenues they will need to support it and without fees they will choke.
posted on February 2, 2001 07:48:44 PM new
I had 69 auctions remaining on Yahoo. Last night I sent BIDVILLE (aka AUXPAL) an email requesting them to import my auctions from yahoo to BIDVILLE. When I awoke this morning all 69 auctions were listed with them and I never lifted a finger.
I listed one item with BIDVILLE about a week ago to test the water and it sold within one day. ( A $10.00 item) There aren't alot of items in my category as of yet so I am going to try to fill it with my items and hope it takes off.(womens-clothing-formal and wedding)
I think this site is going to get better and better and I already like the format. They are making improvements daily.
