posted on June 30, 2001 06:22:02 PM new
Would it hurt any of you to take a certain percentage of your items and list them somewhere other than e bay. We need to try and have alternative to ebay?? I don't work for anyone but myself and feel if there were a concentrated effort of a lot of you, not just a few there maybe well be an alternative to e bay someday.
Yahoo was the junk yard of non sellable items, a parking place for item previously listed items on e bay.
If we all promoted another site (let buyers know via EOAs, ect.) and actually put some decent items up for sale elsewhere it might just work.
If we listed two days on another site and still used e bay also, maybe, just maybe e bay would wise up a bit themselves. They know they have you by the =-=-=-. There's no real alternative at the present, why don't we have an organized effort to actually do something????
Remember Ebay didn't build itself we did it, remember the old days???????
posted on June 30, 2001 06:34:39 PM new
And, Espammer004, the reason this site is going to be able to do what Amazon, Yahoo, and countless others whose names are now forgotten, have been unable to do is....?
posted on June 30, 2001 06:59:52 PM new
If I am reading jumpinjacko right gegy is looking to get bought out buy ebay. I live in Florida and a while back some guys that worked for Home Depot left and opened about ten stores in prime locations, they knew that Builders Square was looking to grow and compete with HD. They made a killing selling to Builders Square.
This could be what the developers of gegy are doing, hoping to sound big enough to compete. They are saying the right things that we the seller want to hear and seem to be offering the world. Sounds to good to be true. Check out the back ground of the founders, I have. I hope that I am wrong and it takes off like a rocket, I won't minded getting flamed. Ebay is making it hard for everyone I wish they would wake up and listen. Ebay has been and could be again a great place to do business.
posted on June 30, 2001 07:04:18 PM new
selecto ...
Take your pins out of the little green
mojo doll and join the team..OR some day you will
be paying 5.00 an item for listing fee...and a 25%
FVF.... to the big E..
posted on July 1, 2001 07:28:02 AM new
Hey, I ain't no stinkin Espammer! I call em as I see em! I have no allegiance to eBay. I just sell there and I'll continue to do so until they raise their fees to where I can no longer salvage any profits. Haven't gotten there yet, but when they raise minimum listing fees to 50 cents sometime next year, and every other fee 25% or more, it might be time to say sayonara! eBay as a PUBLIC COMPANY has to continue to grow profits and revenues in order to cater to shareholders, therefore further rate increases are inevitable. In fact it has to continue FOREVER! That's why I believe they're going to price many sellers out at some point and make the job of PRIVATE entities like Gegy that much easier. If an entity can match eBay's marketing prowess to attract buyers and offer significantly lower fees to sellers, there has to be a plateauing of eBay's dominance and deterioration in eBay's #s. Yahoo and Amazon never advertised their auction venues as they should have, or at all. I can't ever remember seeing a Yahoo or Amazon TV commercial promoting their auction venues. You don't even see banner ads, email ads, or any of the other marketing tricks eBay/Half offer relentlessly, from Amazon or Yahoo. It isn't too late for them since they have access to millions in potential advertising $$$s, but I'm afraid they don't know what the hell they're doing when it comes to promoting their auction venues! It isn't rocket science to market effectively, heck just steal eBay's marketing tactics for crying out loud!!!
You use every venue that's out there and favor those that offer the best profit potential. In the end it's all about the PROFIT!
posted on July 1, 2001 07:38:22 AM newIf I am reading jumpinjacko right gegy is looking to get bought out buy ebay.
Gegy's CEO Troy MacDonald says no, that being privately owned is part of their strategic plan. In fact, and I rather liked this thought, he said if there's any buying to be done, it'll be Gegy buying ebay.
You can bet if Gegy makes a really big splash, there'll be very attractive offers. But personally I sense far too much animus toward ebay on Troy's part for that to happen. I could be wrong, of course. But time will tell.
However, ebay hasn't seen fit to buy Yahoo or Amazon, which are probably the closet thing to competition they currently have, so why worry about Gegy "selling out" (literally and figuratively) this early in the game?
posted on July 1, 2001 07:54:41 AM new
revvassago,
I'm appalled that you'd even think that of me! Heck no! I haven't even signed up as a Beta tester for Gegy. I swear!! They claim to have 300 beta testers already so what the heck do they need posters on AuctionWatch for??? Besides I don't use the eSeller004 ID anywhere except on AuctionWatch.
posted on July 1, 2001 07:58:21 AM new
The big question is what is Gegy going to offer buyers? With no listing fees and automatic relist it looks like it is going to offer an inventory warehouse of stale merchandize priced at retail. What buyers are interested in this?
posted on July 1, 2001 08:01:15 AM new
CleverGirl,
You seem to know alot about Gegy and have some contact with the higher ups. If you do, how about suggesting they devote a few people to identifying and analyzing all of eBay/Half's marketing tactics and replicating all/many of them for Gegy?? Why reinvent the wheel and waste money on efforts that won't work when eBay markets as well as anyone on the planet?? Leverage eBay's knowledge and STEAL THEIR IDEAS!!! JMHO
posted on July 1, 2001 08:55:50 AM new
I don't like the name of the site (What is a Gegy?) or the green masot, but I'm glad to see someone offer a site that is totaly different from the rest plus will be marketing the site. Gegy is not anything like epier, bidville, bidbay and the other copycats.
I get the impression Gegy is targeting the younger buyers, the group of buyers that companies love to capture the most. Gegy won't do good in the vintage collectibles and antique categories I am sure, but electronics, books, videos, CD's, baseball cards, comics, dolls and so forth will be hot. That's my take. Can Gegy come across more cool to shop than ebay (in the minds of the younger set), that is the real question?
posted on July 1, 2001 09:07:36 AM new
For those who are trying to discredit eSeller, you are wrong in your accusations. Go back and read all eSellers posts in various threads, (s)he appears to me to be someone who is just looking for a better site than ebay, or at least a viable alternative. Gegy is not the only site eSeller has shown favor for.
posted on July 1, 2001 09:37:49 AM new
Well, when I first looked at gegy- as someone interested in site design and visuals I was impressed.The green guy and their colors were bold and memorable.
Then I went to look at the site core. About Us is no link. Their TOS link results in an error message and looking at the privacy statement this is a co-branded site and all members get your information.Do any of you Beta testers know what financial service is getting your information? Or who any of the co-brand businesses are? This secrecy is scary.I may have just overlooked this info somewhere-but if not...
If you think that the site is being built on what the posters at AW have been saying all along- maybe your right and maybe it is a group from right here at AW that has put this together in the first place. Not a bad idea. They at least have a feel for what the seller wants. And there really is a need for an alternative general auction.
As for advertising-well compared to eBay's humongous budget- a seven figure ad budget is a drop in the bucket. But it is more than any of the competition has!!! It will be interesting to follow their ad plans. eSeller004, sort of like 007?-- has done a super marketing survey in the last 5 weeks here on AW as well.There is a lot of grist for the marketing mill here at AW!
Hopefully with all of the eBay alternatives that are popping up we all can find a site that will be successful for each of us. It is the individual seller's success that counts in the end.
posted on July 1, 2001 09:41:50 AM new
eSeller004: I apologize then for assuming that. When I saw that they were having a "contest", I assumed that was a driving factor in praising the site. Personally it seemed very hard to navigate, and even harder to find an open live auction. I eventually gave up.
posted on July 1, 2001 09:54:29 AM new
its no secert that some day When most least exspect it They will look and find a site that not only has Items listing growing but bids and item sold just as fast 50% or more of the ebay comunity will miss The fast moveing site and still just be listing on ebay and posting there complaints about slow sales.
The likely hood is that the fast moveing auction site will not be a new guy thats not to say it cant be its more likely it will be a auction site thats been out there for a while working on there site and there marketing for a while that will find the method that grabs the attention nessary.
posted on July 1, 2001 02:52:11 PM new
Good afternoon AW threaders
I agree with dman.. That it probably wont be a new auction house
that topples the Big E...but when someone new moves into the
neighborhood the bully on the block is sure to walk by and peek
in the window....There were millions of people who voted for Ralph Nader
knowing that their wasn’t a snow ball chance he was going to win..
So why did they vote?..for change...that’s why...
Please don’t get me wrong I love eBay.. They have reinvented the phrase
“ Fishing in a Barrel ” but if we don’t have options ...you can guess what will happen....
Thank God for Burger King, Jack in the Box and Wendy’s
other wise we would be paying 8 bucks for a Big Mac...
posted on July 1, 2001 03:15:34 PM new
Gegy won't do good in the vintage collectibles and antique categories I am sure, but electronics, books, videos, CD's, baseball cards, comics, dolls and so forth will be hot.
I agree with you 100%. eBay has made it clear they dont make money on antiques and collectables anymore. I also like the kids section at gegy. If you want to topple the big E you MUST listen to the needs of the small sellers, and advertise. I think a special celebrity chat on the site would bring in visitors too.
posted on July 1, 2001 07:28:41 PM new
From what I see and read about Gegy, it does look like it has a different approach than most of the other wannabe sites. From what I can see this site should have a lot to offer. Time will tell, as it always does.
I don't think it's exactly unwise to have eggs in more than eBay's basket at this point in time. If Gegy can come up with a way to attract buyers, then more power to them. It not, they're probably dead in the water before they even have their official launch. I like what I see so far and will certainly give them a fair chance.
posted on July 2, 2001 07:52:24 AM new
It's more likely it will be a new company, with new and innovative ideas which is extremely aggressive and willing to take calculated risks that will eat into the 800 lb gorilla's marketshare. Nobody will topple eBay, but another company could come along and stunt eBay's torrid growth when they least expect it. eBay's left the door wide open and it's widening!
Microsoft did it to IBM. AOL did it to Microsoft. DELL did it to IBM/CPQ/HP. Cisco did it to AT&T/Lucent and Nortel. JDSU did it to Lucent and Corning. EMC did it to IBM. Juniper did it to Cisco. WCOM did it to AT&T. Qualcomm did it to Motorola and Ericsson. Amazon did it to Walmart and BarnesandNoble. New companies emerge all the time that show explosive growth and soon become unexpected and viable contenders for industry leaders. It's only a matter of time before one emerges for eBay.
If you're thinking Amazon or Yahoo will get their butts in gear and topple eBay, it ain't gonna happen IMHO! They're stuck in their old ways and seem to have lost the ability to innovate in the auction arena. They've also lost their aggressiveness. They appear to be growing into large bureacracies that aren't receptive to fresh ideas. Amazon or Yahoo with a NEW marketing genius at the helm and millions of ad dollars at their disposal and a few changes to their sites/policies could easily rip a hole in eBay's dominance, but don't expect that to happen in our lifetimes! They also have existing traffic (Yahoo over 100 million users and Amazon over 20 million) which they won't target. That tells us they're unwilling or unable to adapt and there's no reason to believe the current regimes will change anything. Mediocrity shouldn't be tolerated in any line of business, but it appears that's what's happening at Amazon and Yahoo!
Will one of the new ones we're talking about be the one to pull it off? Who the heck knows??? We'll have to wait and see! But it has to be one that's well funded and very aggressive. That eliminates a bunch of them, doesn't it?
posted on July 2, 2001 08:12:04 AM new
Happiebaby -
"What are you employed by gegy.com or what? You have to be sniffing glue to think gegy.com can even remotely compete with Ebay...
Have you actually taken a serious look at the gegy website.?"
_____________________________________________
True, most auction upstarts have come up short, but at least some are trying. Gegy may or may not be the answer, but they look at least as good as anything to date.
Gegy Auctions Beta (as opposed to GegyLive Auctions Beta which started on 6-30, same date as your registration with AW) doesn't even start for two weeks! If it hasn't even started, how could you possibly arrive at a meaningful evaluation. So, who's been sniffing glue here?
posted on July 3, 2001 10:28:13 PM new
Auction Eagle, the site that started all this has been shut down by it's ISP for spamming.
You can read the ISP's note at: http://www.auctioneagle.com
posted on July 3, 2001 10:49:20 PM new
Yes, the front page is ugly. Yes, the name is hard to pronounce. Need we even mention someone attempting to spell it correctly on the first shot to take a look?
I can't for the life of me understand why everyone avoids Popula like the plague. Attractive site. Easy to spell.
Last time I looked, if you listed 100 items, the listing was free.
posted on July 3, 2001 11:27:29 PM new
Where does this guy come from?
First: Learn what your talking about. For a site to take a "run" at eBay it better have BIGTIME bucks and I mean hundreds of millions of dollars for advertising alone. Even with that the odds are VERY slim as unFair Market learned (whatta bunch of kitty liners), YooHoo and Amazon.
To have a successful point of sale one needs the core vendor groups, same thing that makes up most of eBays volume sellers. In order to attract core vendors you best be able to expend ALOT of money to drive traffic. There have been thousands of sites spring up who say "We are going to win!" and when it comes to expending real money to make it happen they dont. Its that simple or PAY sellers to come, which, they wont do.
eSpammer are you under like 21? Pretty clear here that you have no clue what your talking about. Microsoft did what to IBM? To be exact MSDOS MADE the IBM PC a viable product for business and the masses.
Dell did what? Provide exceptional consumer support and build PC's a "Zillion clones" did what to IBM? IBM is nice and healthy thank you and if they locked technology as proprietary they'd been deemed a monopoly for sure, which, back then they to some extent were though Data General and others would argue that. IBM's doing just fine thanks.
Cisco did ZERO to Lucent, Motorola or Nortel. I happen to have a neighboor whos corporate Nortel. They make their own mistakes thank you and if anything Cisco is screwing itself up now just like Lucent and Nortel have done.
Dont talk about technology that you know zero about you'll do us all a favor.
Amazon did what to Walmart? Walmart could buy and sell Amazon three times over and if ANYTHING the trend of web sales has caused retailers to do BETTER for customers in all regards. Lords knows online support is at best hockey for horsies. Barnes and Noble does just fine thanks, read, its fundamental.
All these HIGHLY profitable online retailers are in debt up to their noses and the perceived values of themn are GONE hence the stock dumping. Big difference. Walmart has REAL assets, online businesses biggest assets are their customer lists!!! LOL.
So.... eSpammer... In the future please try using the BRAIN a bit more before making zippity-do-dah-day statements as the use of your brain in this fashion is giving me and apparently many others a headache....
And please, dont forget what the wide spread use of insectisides did to apple's worm drives. Gads.
Signed: WhyNot!
posted on July 4, 2001 12:18:37 AM new
They should do what Paypal did - remember those early days when everything was great with Paypal. They gave everyone $25( i think) then $10, then $5 for sighing up and the referrals too. So they should do the same - give $10 credit to the winner of his 1st auction and $10 credit for each seller that refers a bidder who signs up, bids and wins. That's how Paypal did it and we all know how that worked out.
posted on July 4, 2001 03:54:32 AM new
I'm still not sure I think it will be ONE site to knock off eBay. One of eBay's biggest PROBLEMS is it's size -- impossible to browse, difficult to search, too slow, too politically correct, etc. All the things that come with big companies... (BTW, eBay IMHO is doing a good job of knocking THEMSELVES out -- may not need anyone else to do it -- LOL)
I think the market will "specialize" (especially for collectibles). Individual auction sites for coins, sportscards, Beannies, whatever. These new auction sites will have SPECIFIC (searchable) FIELDS relative to the area. I doubt that "only a venue" will be the eventual winner for format (we all see how that's abused on both sides). They WILL have experts on staff to weed out the obvious problematic material (fakes, forgeries, etc). If you want high quality stuff & serious buyers, you NEED THIS.
The success of on-line auctions right now is largely a "fad" IMHO. I doubt they'll remain this popular 5 years from now (listings & bids are already dropping off on eBay -- is the honeymoon over?) FWIW there will ALWAYS be a place for auctions on a "generic, only a venue" site like eBay, but I doubt there will be a $20 billion company behind them -- on-line or anywhere else for that matter.
For the (coming) competition:
1) The time has to be right (it isn't now)
2) They will have to be superior technology-wise (not available yet but only a matter of time)
3) They WILL utilize experts to keep quality high & attract serious bidders ("only a venue" is out)
I have no allegiance to eBay. I just sell there and I'll continue to do so until they raise their fees to where I can no longer salvage any profits. Haven't gotten there yet, but when they raise minimum listing fees to 50 cents sometime next year, and every other fee 25% or more, it might be time to say sayonara! 
That's why I believe they're going to price many sellers out at some point and make the job of PRIVATE entities like Gegy that much easier. If an entity can match eBay's marketing prowess to attract buyers and offer significantly lower fees to sellers, there has to be a plateauing of eBay's dominance and deterioration in eBay's #s. Yahoo and Amazon never advertised their auction venues as they should have, or at all. I can't ever remember seeing a Yahoo or Amazon TV commercial promoting their auction venues. You don't even see banner ads, email ads, or any of the other marketing tricks eBay/Half offer relentlessly, from Amazon or Yahoo. It isn't too late for them since they have access to millions in potential advertising $$$s, but I'm afraid they don't know what the hell they're doing when it comes to promoting their auction venues! It isn't rocket science to market effectively, heck just steal eBay's marketing tactics for crying out loud!!! 
Mediocrity shouldn't be tolerated in any line of business, but it appears that's what's happening at Amazon and Yahoo!