amelias898
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posted on June 23, 2002 04:57:23 PM new
I started selling on Yahoo a long time ago (or so it seems) My last auctions are running out right now. I won't be back. I can't afford to stay. Identical items get 10-30% more on Ebay. Even with Ebays higher fees.
I always loved Yahoo auctions, shopped them, meet really nice people on it. In 286 auctions I've only had 2 Deadbeats.
I've noticed Yahoo declining even more in the last 3 months. Less auctions ( in my category) less bidders, more of the same people bidding on the same item over and over.
Good bye Yahoo, I WILL miss you.
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sulyn1950
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posted on June 23, 2002 06:41:00 PM new
I was where you are about 2 months ago. I know the feeling... I did love my Yahoo, but like you I just couldn't continue to fund my auctions. 
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bidsbids
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posted on June 23, 2002 08:22:31 PM new
My eBay rejects get one listing on Yahoo and that's it. If there are no more Free Listing Days then I'll just warehouse the unlisted items there till Yahoo Auction either dies or changes for the better. My regular buyers have left Yahoo and I can not see why sellers are staying there.
If Yahoo dropped the the listing fee they might get the necessary influx of new items to draw some bidders back. They could hike the FVF fee a little and still get a lot of listings.
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RB
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posted on June 24, 2002 12:08:04 PM new
bids ... do you really think offering zero listing fees is a draw to new sellers these days on any auction venue?
I am not a seller, but it seems to me that if sellers aren't homesteading on venues like Yahoo, it has to be more than just fees that are preventing this.
It also seems to me that many of the so-called 3rd tier venus that started with a "no-fees" promise didn't grow. I am wondering if the mass migration from Yahoo to BV was totally fee related or if other things were happening that turned off members (total lack of customer service, proliferation of illegal items being offered for sale, unwarranted suspensions, etc.).
If eBay relaxes their Policy about non-US residents (who cannot be "verified) not being able to register as a seller, I don't think I would have a problem giving them a piece of the profit I would make --- it's really not that much!
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bidsbids
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posted on June 24, 2002 12:16:48 PM new
Yahoo does spend millions of dollars advertising ( Do you Yahoo? ). If Yahoo offered free listing fees it would be at 3 million auctions mark within 6 months and the buyers would return. Sites like BV and Carnaby and the others would see a huge dip in listings.
Yahoo could make money on featuring fees and PayDirect and other ways from the increased traffic.
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blairwitch
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posted on June 24, 2002 05:13:20 PM new
bidsbids I think its only a matter of time until yahoo goes with a flat FVF. The problem is keeping the junk on bidville and other sites off. It would take several staff members to browse the site and keep it in check. There is not much money to make on nickel and dime sports cards. I think this is the hold up at yahoo. Maybe they could charge a nickel listing fee and if the item sells they could refund it and charge a fvf. Its going to be tricky.
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JWPC
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posted on June 24, 2002 06:24:26 PM new
As a eBay Power Seller, 3 years ago, I tested Yahoo, began to use it, and entirely left eBay for a year – and what a great year it was – THEN Yahoo, in their infinite wisdom, decided to change! Within a month or so, all was down the tubes, and I was back at eBay, but not before all of the sudden having regular auctions canceled for some unknown TOS violation; having our account canceled, which also totally screwed up our PayDirect which we lost money in, and on and on. I KNOW I wasn’t the only one who had such happen to. Overnight, it was like we were in enemy territory! We had “thought” eBay could be difficult, but all of the sudden eBay looked like heaven with open arms, and I was happy to run back and pay eBay to be back on their block.
If Yahoo just went back to the way it was, or with just FVF, I think it could return to an eBay rival - but it has been 2 years, and one would think that by now, someone at Yahoo would realize that all their great "ideas" on the auction business haven't worked - that they were near rivaling eBay 2 years ago - just go back to the same position and in put reasonable FVF, and I'd be glad to go to 5% - just do it and then leave the sellers the heck alone....don't tie any other qualifications in - like having to use their PayDirect, which many of us got royally burned on - and put the "neighborhood watch" back in the hole it crawled out of, and the unascertained TOS violations, with no explanations, and no refunds for the canceled auction – ridiculous!
Personally, I don’t care about support, or such, I have hardly ever used it on either Yahoo, eBay or any other auction. I want reasonable FVF, bidders, and then leave me alone to do what I came for SELL!
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bidsbids
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posted on June 24, 2002 09:39:26 PM new
Yahoo could control the junk auctions with a minimum start bid of $1 and a minimum FVF of 10 cents. As to the sign post auctions that do not care about minimum start bids or minimum FVFs, the neighborhood watch thing could help rein them in. Now that Yahoo has credit card verification they can toss the violators and not have them back in 20 minutes like before. Some will try many different credit cards but eventually they will run out of luck.
So if Yahoo would change to a $1 min and 10 cent min FVF with a FVF set up similar to Yahoo and no listing fees they should make a lot of money on FVFs and extras and bolster their PayDirect and cut into eBay's Half.com and pick up the orphaned lower value item sellers from eBay again. It's worth a shot and better than dying their current slow death.
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justmypostingid
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posted on June 25, 2002 07:37:07 AM new
When I started selling on Yahoo I was bringing in $700 to $1000 a week! Then they deleted my category and sells fell like a rock! Then they started the $.20 listing fees and sales fell even more. After they changed the listing fees from $.20 to $.10 my sales died. Now I'm lucky to make $5 a week.
I tried Bidville, Bidbay and Epier and all I did was just waste my time. Now I list on feebay and the old ladies site. The old ladies site is starting to pick up steam and sellers getting feedback for sales.
The day Yahoo closes thier auctions I will throw a party. I hope that the ones who think they knew how to run a auction site find themselves in a bread line one day!
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bidsbids
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posted on June 25, 2002 08:32:42 AM new
Would you return to Yahoo with free listing fees and a FVF similar to eBay's?
I've found that much more than 50% of bidders find their items with the search engine on auction sites. To only shop via categories is not wise as many sellers place items in the wrong category ( and eBay has 1,800 categories ). A major fault of Yahoo Auctions was placing the search engine box only on the 'Auctions Home' page while eBay has the search box on almost every page. How can they be so dense?
I'm glad that the niche site http://www.threeoldladies.com/ is doing well for you and others. The niche sites should be the last auctions standing.
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blairwitch
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posted on June 25, 2002 09:45:20 AM new
Bidsbids you gave some good ideas, but I would have to go with the flat FVF to keep junk off the site. Even if you require a $1.00 minimum bid the sellers would list the nickel and dime stuff at $1.00. When yahoo was free sellers were listing at retail hoping a sucker would come along and bid. A minimum $.10 FVF would be better. And I agree sellers would really need to stick together and help eliminate illegal and junk listings.
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bidsbids
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posted on June 25, 2002 11:40:15 AM new
If Yahoo sellers only sold 5% of everything listed for an entire month and there was a minimum 10 cent FVF it could add up fast with a large amount of listings. If the listings hit the three million mark with a monthly 5% sell thru that's 150,000 sold items. That's close to how many items are currently listed.
To help rid the site of extreme warehousing the could make it like it was just before fees started, a maximum of 2 relists for ten days each ( 14 days w/ bulk loader ). A seller would have to physically relist his/her items every 30 or 42 days. Yahoo could even make an extra two automatic relists available at a penny an auction. That way for a $10 optional fee a seller could leave 1,000 items on Yahoo for 50 or 70 days without having to relist. ( 30 days free plus the optional 20 days )
If the 'very common items sellers' still want to sell their items at the $1 min start price let 'em and let them pay the 10 cent min FVF.
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zzyzx000
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posted on June 25, 2002 03:00:44 PM new
JWPC has it right. The rest of you should apply for jobs at Yahoo. You fit the mold of taking a simple concept and making it hoplessly complicated and unworkable.
I was a regular on Free Yahoo and all the junk listed never bothered me one bit. Nor did it bother my customers. In fact I was unaware of it. Learn to use a search engine.
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bidsbids
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posted on June 25, 2002 03:22:39 PM new
zztop or whatever, the times have changed on the internet. The promise of making money someday no longer cuts it these days. To have 500,000 nickel and dime sportscards on an auction site that gives you 3 three high-quality photos is expensive.
It's not very complicated when compared to eBay where a lawyer can't figure out half of the stupid rules.
Another thing that Yahoo might want to try is what AuxPal or Bidville almost did and have a PayDirect only payment option. ( of course it was PayPal not PayDirect )
I don't care what Yahoo tries as long as it tries something besides the current auction model. 
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deichen
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posted on June 25, 2002 04:18:42 PM new
Bidsbids says:
[b]Would you return to Yahoo with free listing fees and a FVF similar to eBay's?
[/b]
In a heartbeat!
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zzyzx000
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posted on June 25, 2002 04:27:14 PM new
Once you have the computer resources available and the code written, the cost of using those resources is nil.
Yahoo did support 3 million auctions in the fall of 2000. Do you think they hocked some hard drives since to save a few bucks?
Nonsense. Henry Blodgett and Yahoo management predicted they were going to rake in big $ with their new fees, despite established sellers who did the math telling them that they could not make any money paying listing fees because of the low sell-thru rates.
We were right and Henry Blodgett and Tom Churchill are gone. Unfortunately they found other morons to take their places.
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bidsbids
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posted on June 25, 2002 05:16:57 PM new
Well Bidville said the image hosting costs were high and that's why they started limiting the number of images for free and charging for the premium memberships.
Yahoo can make money on the FVFs. Not many sellers begrudge a fair FVF when they actually sell something. Sellers have put up 100 million items on Half.com and pay a 15% Fee and Amazon is usually more.
No one could ever expect Yahoo to go back to the no listing fee and no FVF setup. Is Yahoo a charitable foundation? Companies have to charge something to make something. The other day my kid said that Sony's "The Station" website was now charging $5/month to play the online games. The web is shifting from a free to revenue-producing model.
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zzyzx000
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posted on June 25, 2002 05:25:21 PM new
In case you are the next in line to run Yahoo Auctions here is what I told them long ago:
With just a FV fee of 5%, in December of 2000 Yahoo would have made $500 from me. I had 2000 item listed and sold about 15 a day with First Bid Wins. With FV fees plys the listing fees, they made nothing because it was easy for me to do the math on the listing fees and see there was no profit for me.
$500 a month to let me do all the work and all they do is let me use a speck of hard drive space and a little CPU.
But noooooo, all the big brains at yahoo did was read Henry Blodget's reports.
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bidsbids
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posted on June 25, 2002 05:50:21 PM new
Good. You're on our side. Sooner or later they will have to make at least one smart move at Yahoo.
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zzyzx000
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posted on June 25, 2002 05:57:56 PM new
Their next move will be to sell it (ie, shut it down) to eBay.
Maybe they will wait until after X-mas. I still have several hundred $ worth of credits to use.
Yahoo does get lookers. They are the most looked at site on the net. I actually have 700 items listed in their warehouse which sell a couple a week..... and at prices 3 times higher than the same thing on Half.com.
Still, these are low priced items like common recent movies. If there are already 30 of them listed for $1 on Half.com, I list mine on Yahoo for $3.50. I don't sell many but it's better than giving them away.
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parkman
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posted on June 25, 2002 06:17:10 PM new
You know...if the buyers would just come to yahoo I would be okay even with the listing fees they have now (would rather have the fvf instead but..). I used to sell a lot on there but not lately. I wish it would happen since ebay doesn't seem to want the small sellers anymore looks like yahoo would take this opportunity to get them. Just IMO if ebay succeeds in running off the small sellers it won't last many years as I buy things on there that are good deals from small sellers not high dollar items so for myself I would look elsewhere for the bargains. Also..I would think since ebay doesn't seem to be going to give a fld for US sellers that yahoo would take advantage of that and do it to build their listings up.
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zzyzx000
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posted on June 25, 2002 06:38:40 PM new
Sure. If all my items sold the 1st time around you can call the fees whatever you want to. The facts are, that I was one of those sellers who had 2000 obscure items. Not nickel and dime trading cards, but many quality items that might be of interest to only ha handful of people in th world. Sometimes I would wait a year to sell some item.
Only by listing 2000 items could I keep busy and make decent money. Some buyers called my stuff junk and complained to Yahoo that it was relisted over and over. They and yahoo did not see the big picture: They had a niche that would not work on eBay or anyplace with listing fees. And the auction format wasn't suited for this stuff either. I wasn't going to list for $1 and look for competitor bidders. I set my price and waited for someone who was glad to see it listed.
Now I list on Half.com, Amazon Marketplace and Yahoo Warehouse. I pay as much as $1 PLUS 15% on Amazon and 15% on Half.com. I can still make money that way. But if they were to charge me ANY listing fee I would drop them like a hot potatoe.
Yahoo Warehouse has the lowest fees, but the big problem there is they only sell media stuff that's in their database. My obscure items are not allowed. On Half.com, I can create a new listing and let it run until sold. It's really worth the 15% to not have to list, relist, and notify the deadbeat buyers. They collect the money and pay me bi-weekly.
The simple solution for Yahoo would be to charge a FV fee and let me create the ads in their auction place. You need not call them all auctions anymore. eBay is now enhanceing their BUY IT NOW features (it still sucks however) to combine auctions with fixed price sales.
If Yahoo would let me create an ad and host the pix and have it not expire, and have it hit their marketplace search engine, I'd pay 15% and list like crazy because they DO have lookers.
Don't tell them I'd pay that much. They never read this board, that much is easy to deduce.
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bidsbids
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posted on June 25, 2002 07:28:22 PM new
Two great posts! I agree 100%.
I have 800 items on the Yahoo Warehouse/Used Goods sites. It's slowly picking up but still very slow. I just got $4.59 for a book that is .75 on Half.
With eBay shedding it's low value sellers they could come to Yahoo and prosper under a no listing fee and FVF setup. Yahoo won't make a lot in FVFs on low value items but can make up for it on volume.
Yahoo should shake it up and make all auctions have a BIN price or First Bid Wins. The auction format is old and worn out on common goods. Or do something very bold like PayDirect only or no auction fees if PayDirect is used. It's like them owning a Corvette and they won't open it up a little on the straightaways or take a few risks with it. Race it or sell it!
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timetravelers
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posted on June 25, 2002 08:03:12 PM new
good ideas here,apparently yahoo is not listening.I ranted for months on the boards there till they finally put that microscopic seller search link on auctions home page..before that there was no way for bidders to find us!! big basic flaw.
they finally put a large box ad for auctions on Yahoo home page for a few days i went from 2 hits to 100 hits..whooppee then they removed it..
they have treated auctions like a step child,a few ads on thier own stuff (yahoo mail would have been super to get new people over) would have cost close to nothing..no way
they are clueless & have blown one of the biggest money making operations on the net. also have hurt a lot of sellers that expected more from them..they should all be fired,we cared more about the site than they do edited to inc OPS forgot most important what dummy decided to put the SEARCH BOX at the bottom of the page,& stuck in the category you are in,you must use pull down menu.many people never saw it....i begged them to put it at the top I MEAN CLUELESS!!
[ edited by timetravelers on Jun 25, 2002 08:05 PM ]
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bidsbids
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posted on June 25, 2002 10:02:48 PM new
The management at Yahoo definitely deserve a 'group b!tchslap'.
It's not too late to grow brains. Repent! Give up your stupid ways! [ Dancing in tent with rattlesnake ] Heal!!
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feistyone
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posted on June 26, 2002 01:03:38 AM new
I would love to see Yahoo make some major move to lure sellers and buyers back to the site. Maybe they could eliminate the listing fees for starting bids under $10 and leave the rest as is. It would also be better for buyers if sellers lowered their starting bids on some items to eliminate the fees.
Ebay needs the competition and Yahoo is the only serious competition there is.
Finer Fashions on Ebay, top designers, latest styles.
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/feistyone/
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bidsbids
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posted on June 26, 2002 01:36:57 AM new
There has to be some kind of a minimum starting bid and minimum FVF at Yahoo. Out the the 1.1 million items on Bidville.com there are a lot of items under a dollar start price that would surely land up on Yahoo and Yahoo could never make a cent on those items without a decent minimum FVF. In 6 months time there could be three million items on Yahoo and one million of them could be 2 cents to 20 cent sportscards. Yahoo would then make no money off a third of its items and look like fools. At least with a minimum FVF of 10 cents and a minimum start bid of $1 Yahoo could profit at least somewhat from the low value items. The 2 cent to 20 cent sportscards would have to stay where they're at now.
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RB
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posted on June 26, 2002 05:58:05 AM new
I don't care what Yahoo tries as long as it tries something besides the current auction mode
Why not just realize that they can no longer compete in this market and concentrate on doing what they do best. As a minimum, this would eliminate the number of links on their entertainment pages that point to ILLEGAL BOOTLEGS being listed on their auction venue ... would make for a much less cluttered page.
bidsbids -- have you become a Yahoo cheerleader now???
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deichen
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posted on June 26, 2002 07:21:18 AM new
I doubt anyone wants to say they cheerlead any site. Yahoo made some major mistakes and it appears they are still not listening. I would love to know that listen, but I have not seen proof of that. I believe they would rather have the auction end of Yahoo die than to overhaul the system.
FVF works for me as well as a minimum listing amount or a minimum FVF + a %.
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bidsbids
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posted on June 26, 2002 07:28:15 AM new
RB, you were never a seller on Yahoo BF ( Before Fees )? It was an incredible place where there were lots of bidders and sellers could warehouse their stuff until it sold. Sellers could place the rare items on eBay and wait until the right buyer showed up to buy the more common items at a fair price on Yahoo. Now sellers are either forced to warehouse their common items on very low traffic auction sites or give them away on Half or eBay. Anything that can bring back those glory days of Yahoo is very welcomed by most former Yahoo sellers. Yahoo still has the capibility to be a major player in the online auction scene.
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