quickdraw29
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posted on February 2, 2002 01:15:04 PM new
Finished up with 16% sell through. The bidding just died out over the final two days. Most of the items of mine that sold were larger items over 5 pounds, smaller items were largely ignored. I'm real happy with that because those items have been sitting here for a while and taking up valuable space.
I have one bidder that may turn out to be a deadbeat. He has zero feedback and he said he thought this bigger item would only cost $1.50 shipping. I said, I can't even ship a paperback book for that amount, and asked why he thought it'd be only $1.50 s/h.
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barparts
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posted on February 2, 2002 01:41:41 PM new
Quickdraw,
Glad to see you had that many sales. Deadbeats will happen, but I must admit, since I went back to Yahoo, there have been many less deadbeats than before listing fees. I too will have about 15% sales from FLD. Again like you, most of those items were old lists that have been around for some time and were considered as weak auctions to start with. I am happy about the fact when many of the sellers left Yahoo before that most of the quality buyers stayed. Now that I have found them, I have renewed confidence in Yahoo as an auction venue.
bp
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sulyn1950
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posted on February 2, 2002 02:20:00 PM new
I am glad to see ya'll have done so well. You are way above average I think!
I have several seller's bookmarked and so far most of them would only be able to boast about a 6% sell-through.
Of course, maybe I'm not figuring it out right. It's been awhile since I have done any math other than adding/subtracting.
Don't you take the total number of items sold and divide that by the total number of items listed to get the sell-through percentage????
If that's not correct, I sure would appreciate someone giving me the correct formula.
Thanks!
Sulyn
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bidsbids
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posted on February 2, 2002 08:58:42 PM new
I think I'll finish with about a 6% success rate. eBay only boasts of a 40+% success rate overall so that isn't all that bad and it is a lot better than the third tier sites. I am amazed and encouraged at the high number of new users at Yahoo and how almost none of them are turning into deadbeats. There are now more deadbeats at eBay than Yahoo in my opinion.
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blairwitch
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posted on February 3, 2002 12:15:48 PM new
There are now more deadbeats at eBay than Yahoo in my opinion.
That is because yahoo requires a credit card to bid, and they are going to make it even stricter by requiring the 3 numbers on the back of the card. So the deadbeat teenagers, etc flock to ebay to do the damage. Yahoo seems to be getting slowly better. They need a free listing day every month and more advertising. If they keep it up they will do fine.
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replaymedia
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posted on February 3, 2002 12:45:51 PM new
My FLD listings don't end till Thursday (What? you didn't use the "secret" 14 day auction option?)
But I have had around 40 Buy-it-nows so far, with 42 bids currently.
This is out of 1600 auctions started on FLD. Percentagewise, that's only 5%, but its still 82+ sales I wouldn't have made otherwise. And as I said, I do still have 4 more days.
I'm happy with free listing day, and even at normal pricing, that 1600 auctions would have only cost me $80 to list, compared to $480 it would have cost on eBay. These are mostly under $10 items that even at a hypothetical 25-30% sell-through rate on eBay would not be worth listing after taking the fees into consideration.
I'm hooked!
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dev
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posted on February 3, 2002 07:45:05 PM new
Boy I'm jealous. I posted 72 and had 3 sell. For me it wasn't worth the effort but I will try again when they have another Free Listing day.
OK please share with us how you get 14 day auctions?
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harmonygrove
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posted on February 4, 2002 02:09:56 AM new
Listed 25 items - Lotsa Hits - Zero Bids - Back to Ebay.....
HarmonyGroveAntiques
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bidsbids
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posted on February 4, 2002 06:54:03 AM new
It all depends on what you sell. The under $10 items have the best chance. In my area there are several flea markets. Some are for classy antiques and others are for garage sale items. Yahoo is currently like a flea market for mostly common items.
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sulyn1950
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posted on February 4, 2002 07:05:33 AM new
Listed 25, gave 7 away....you'd think I would have learned by now, you can't start low on Yahoo hoping to generate interest in all your auctions. 
Wouldn't you know, the 7 that closed with winners were the ones I started low. None of my other auctions even got many looks.
There may be more sellers on Yahoo today than same time last year (some argue that means more buyers too)but my ending prices have gone steadily doooowwwwnnn! 
It's not how many of a thing I sell that matters, it's what I get to put in my pocket that counts. That has gotten worse for me over the past 6 months and it has really become unprofitable for me. As soon as I get rid of my current inventory (at a loss no doubt) I'll try something else. I guess I'm just not destined to be an Yahoo Premium Seller. 
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replaymedia
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posted on February 4, 2002 08:18:51 AM new
Concerning the 14 day Yahoo Auctions:
Dev- It's not really a secret, but there is a catch. To get the 14 day option, you have to use Yahoo's bulk loader to upload a formatted spreadsheet containing your listings.
Since all my stuff is in a database, it only took me about an hour once to make a script that exports all listings into the format they need. Next time, I can list everything I have and it'll only take a second to create formatted listings. I can also tinker with my script for a few minutes to allow bulk uploads to Amazon if I ever wanted to try it.
I'm REALLY hoping they have another FLD next month. I'm hoping to top 3000 auctions next time!
14 Day/Bulk Loader Auctions
---------------------------
Advantages:
1. You get an extra 4 days that you can't get any other way.
2. If your stuff is in a database, it's very easy to use.
3. The 'thumbnail' images work correctly. Auctionwatch and their competitors ALL seem to have problems with Yahoo thumbnails due to complications on Yahoo's end.
Disadvantages:
1. 14 days is kind of long. People who bid early on may actually forget about the item by the time they win.
2. Since you upload the spreadsheet into Yahoo yourself, you can't use a service like AW to launch your auctions. However, you CAN import listings into AW for post-sale emails and tracking.
3. Depending on your level of Excel/Access expertise, it's more complicated than some other methods. Especially if you have lots of html tags in your listings.
I've never understood why eBay doesn't allow simple spreadsheet uploads. A simple spreadsheet or tab-delimited file is MUCH easier to work with than the complicated Mister Lister formats.
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moonmem-07
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posted on February 4, 2002 09:06:35 AM new
I ended up with a seller thru rate of 3%. Pretty sad but the items I did sell were the some of the more expensive ones I had listed. Hopefully Yahoo will do another FLD this month. Much faster to do relists than to do new auctions.
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quickdraw29
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posted on February 4, 2002 09:42:52 AM new
Even if your sell through is in the 1-6% range, you've at least met the average sell through of mail order, and at a much lower cost. You just need to pick up the volume so you can pay your bills.
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bidsbids
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posted on February 4, 2002 12:17:46 PM new
To help counter the long 10 or 14 day auctions you can use the Take It Now option.I set many books at $5 with a $5.50 or $6.00 Buy Price. For an extra 50 cents to a buck they can forego the wait. It works well since I almost never get multiple bids on any items. I sold about 35 items with the FLD listings and that was nice.
I bet there'll be another free day in a month. 
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replaymedia
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posted on February 4, 2002 01:24:14 PM new
Bidsbids- What's your thought on making the buy it now price and the opening price the same, essentially avoiding the whole "auction concept"?
I currently have pre-set "for sale" prices for my retail store, and usually set my auction start amounts at around 60% of that, which I'm reasonably happy with. Works great on eBay, but things rarely get bid up on Yahoo.
As you said, most items only get one bid anyway. I'm thinking about this idea for next time. Purchase only = Quicker turnover and often quicker payment.
Dunno- might require some testing.
That's another thing I like about Yahoo. It's cheap enough to experiment and play around with different concepts until you find something that works.
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stavecards
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posted on February 4, 2002 03:46:33 PM new
Replaymedia,
I would recommend trying a 1st Bid Wins format. I run 99%+ of my auctions in that format and increased my sales significantly when I did that (plus starting realizing higher prices). One of the main reasons is many more multiple lot buyers (I sell sports cards).
I believe that Yahoo has more "shoppers" and less "auction bidders" than Ebay due to the link to the rest of the Yahoo sites. I believe that many of these people are looking for specific items to buy and prefer to buy immediately rather than waiting for an auction to close. I also believe that in general many people have tired of bidding in auctions for readily available items.
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replaymedia
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posted on February 4, 2002 05:09:31 PM new
Stavecards- I sell Comic Books on Yahoo, so you and I are probably very similar in our selling situations.
I'm liking the "1st bid Wins" concept more every time I think about it. And I'm definitely going to try it on my next batch.
Actually, I've seen the phrase "1st Bid Wins" on an auction site somewhere as one of the launch options. Amazon maybe?
Or is it just one of those common auction terms like "LQQK RARE"!
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LaneFamily
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posted on February 4, 2002 10:47:13 PM new
I got close enough. Of 330 auctions I just counted 32 sales. I ask for 10% and that is basically what I got.
I actually run a set of auctions again and paid the $5.00 listing fee for them this time.
Will see how it works when it is not free. Sure enough I do not have a hit yet on the ones I paid for.
Jim
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bidsbids
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posted on February 5, 2002 10:09:32 AM new
I used the First Bid Wins format exculsively on the old totally free Yahoo and Bidville before I left. Now I use a Buy It Price that is 10-20% above the minimum price on Yahoo. The only multiple bids I ever get are when someone bids the minimum and another bidder then bids the buy price. Yahoo's But It Now price does not disappear like on eBay. I always use the 10 day format so the bidders have the option of paying a little more to forego the long wait. A fairly large percentage of the bidders use the BIN price. The impatient buyers can get it instantly and even steal it away from another bidder.
eBay is a whole other ball game with the BIN strategies.
One good thing about Yahoo now is that if the item doesn't sell on the first try but does on the second try within 30 days you will get your listing fee back. It's only a nickel but adds up when you list a few hunded auctions twice.
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