Why on earth would you sell a $2 item on Ebay? Selling items for $5.00 or less on any site is a lot of work for very little return. Unless it's just a hobby, it's just not worth it.
posted on January 27, 2002 10:44:00 AM
Ebay is overrated. An average sell through of 50% and many new/unused type items selling below wholesale. Many ebay sellers view an auction site as all or nothing, they don't realze they could experiment and put some items on Yahoo.
You could invest $1.00 (ten days) in a featured auction (my sales increase when I use Yahoo Feauture even when I sell items that didn't sell on ebay), half is refunded if the item sells.
I've just sold several items this week from Yahoo FLD that were supposed to be relists on ebay.
"The Yahoo crowd is not baby boomers. They are Yuppies and generation X. They will buy the latest trendy things. They will buy Cd's, movies, but they will not buy a book. Ever. They may not know how to read."
I don't know how you developed this theory but it is terribly wrong. I just sold last week two old books on history. I don't know if they are Yuppies or gen x bidders but it shows Yahoo sells more than trendy items. I also sold a book to someone in Washington D.C on statistics of a special kind. Again, not a trendy topic. I sold many vintage toys from the 50's, most likely something a gen x wouldn't be interested in.
I have to add, last fall when I was looking on Yahoo for more info on a certain baseball player, there was a link to auction items related to him.
I decided to list an item related to him, and it sold within one day, and it may have been due to that link.
Yahoo is doing seller polls now. Last time they did a poll I made a suggestion and it was implemented within one week.
Ebay is definitely the dominant auction site, but keep in mind I've done sales to the same bidders on both sites. Last week I sent a combined shipment to a buyer who won my auction on ebay, and one on Yahoo. Yahoo also has millions of members who aren't the auction enthusiast type, they only buy when they have a need. Only Yahoo can cross promote within its sites to reach them, and they have started already to put links to auctions. Yahoo Fantasy sports pages have links to hot players collectible auctions. Ebay can't touch that.
posted on January 27, 2002 11:15:06 AM
I really envy the Japanese for showing eBay the door. Yahoo is SO much easier to use than eBay. I signed up 3 more friends and they really like yahoos fee structure. Who can complain when yahoo's listing fee is the same as BIN on eBay?
posted on January 27, 2002 12:07:39 PM
Reply to petertdavis......
I would not recommend Bizhosting to anyone.
They have the worst customer service I have ever encountered and I have had nothing but problems with every aspect of their service.
posted on January 27, 2002 12:11:31 PM"Who can complain when yahoo's listing fee is the same as BIN on eBay?"
Only if you start your prices at under $10 NR.
Even though the fees are overall less than eBay, I still see the majority of auctions closing UNSOLD. It also seems the final prices (on those that do close with a winner) are lower than what you see for similar items on eBay.
I hope it will improve because I do like the ease of Yahoo.
A bit off-topic (I'm compulsing on this) I can't get into Yahoo mail, classified, warehouse or even the help menues. I can't access the main page of Yahoo either. I can get to the auctions through my bookmark and once on the auctionsite everything works (except the links to the other parts of Yahoo) and was wondering if I am the only person having the problem?
posted on January 27, 2002 12:22:04 PM
sulyn, I'm having no problem at all accessing my Yahoo mail. You might want to try cleaning out your browser's cache and trying again.
posted on January 27, 2002 12:30:55 PM
Reply to outoftheblue...
I'd never try to sell anything on ebay for less than $6. But the competition is so intense on ebay that many quality items sell for that paltry sum of $2. Instead I'll sell the same item on Yahoo for $5. Most of these items only cost me only a dime to a buck so it is almost all profit ( and a hobby ). Every once in a while the dime to a buck items fetch $10 to $25 or more. Sometimes the inexpensive flea market/garage sale finds go for very large amounts. It's like fishing, you get lucky sometimes.
posted on January 27, 2002 02:51:29 PM
I sense that a lot of the posters on this thread weren't selling on Yahoo when listing was free. It was a year ago when fees began. Not much has changed there since in ways of improving the site. In fact the year 2000 was highlighted by UNimprovements to the site.
I see how the Auctions search engine on the main Yahoo home page will help a bit and the combined search engine for auctions/warehouse/classifieds/shops is a good idea.
But those of you who think comparing fees between the 2 sites is the bottom line, you are making a mistake. I know things haven't changed much because it was just a month ago that Yahoo had a free listing day and I listed hundreds of items. My minimums were set at what I wanted to get and the BUY NOW price was set to the minimum...just the way I used to do it....1st bid wins. The results were worse than before fees a year ago...a lot worse.
So is free listing day a waste of time? Certainly not. But paying Yahoo ANY listing fee just doesn't work out financially. Sales have always been so slow that the way I made out was to list 2000 items to sell 15 items per day. Yahoo could have made several hundred $ a month from me if they had let me continue to list for free and take 5% of the take. But even with current listing fees, I can't make money there. And if you start items worth much over $10 for $9.99 minimum to keep listing fee at 5 cents, you will start giving things away.
I think I'm speaking for the majority here as listings have seemed to double on free listing day, then return to under half a million when the free auctions expire.
Good luck to Yahoo. I would like them to know eBay off their high horse. But if you get on yahoo's bandwagon I suspect you will find out what many other's have: They are poorly run, they will delete your account in a heartbeat, they will answer your emails with form letters that don't match the question or comment, etc. In other words, you are enchanted by the lower fees, but they are every bit as bad or worse than eBay in all other respects. As for the guy who said they implemented his suggestion immediately, that was meerely a coincidence. They do nothing immediately. It takes them months to fix a simple obvious coding bug. And that was before they cut their staff.
posted on January 27, 2002 03:19:06 PM
"But paying Yahoo ANY listing fee just doesn't work out financially. Sales have always been so slow that the way I made out was to list 2000 items to sell 15 items per day."
Sounds like an all or nothing kind of seller. You need to be more selective and find what sells there. People say books don't sell on Yahoo, yet I've sold dozens of books there because I'm selective. Of course my sell through is less on Yahoo but I also list things that need several passes to get a buyer, and the ebay fees would eat it up.
Today I just sold an item on Yahoo that sells on average for 30% less on ebay, and it's not the only time that has happened. Experiment with Yahoo and you will likely increase your profits because you won't waste money on high ebay listing fees.
Coincidence that Yahoo implemented a suggestion right after making it? Considering most sellers didn't have the same problem, I don't think Yahoo was aware the problem existed because it was browser related.
posted on January 27, 2002 04:04:47 PM
"Sounds like an all or nothing kind of seller. You need to be more selective and find what sells there."
I think my 2000 different items gives me an insight that someone who is "more selective" wouldn't have. I have a feedback rating of over 1500. I never asked anybody for feedback, I don't get credit for repeat feedback from the same buyer, and I give BAD feeback to deadbeats which usually draws a "revenge" feedback and has led to 68 BADS.
So I'm not a newbie know-it-all.
If Yahoo was so efficient, How come I have 45 Warehouse sales and a rating of -1? Me and who knows how many others have told them that buyer's are not leaving feedback unless they are unhappy, yet Yahoo allows this bad picture to continue. Look at Warehouse seller ratings and 99% are either new or negative. And what about a vacation button for the Yahoo Warehouse? Very important. HalfDot has it. Amazon has it. Yahoo had been told for 3 months they better get one. They will eventually. I'll guess another 3 months is what it will take.
I'm real happy you sold a few books on Yahoo. So should all the sellers list their books on Yahoo and wait? Or should you listen to me:
For 2 years I had hundreds of books ("selective books" that I bought because I thought they would sell on the internet)listed on yahoo and I sold less than a dozen. Some of those books I listed on HalfDot without much more success (and because there were usually others of the same book listed there for pennies). Then I tried Amazon Marketplace. I hated the $1 plus 15% rake, but I've sold 67 books there in the past 90 days, and most at the prices I was trying to get on Yahoo and for speciality books with no competition, I've sometimes asked for much more and got it.
These are mostly the same books that never moved anywhere else
I don't really specialize in any type of book, and currently have 350 books listed there. So believe what you want to believe. What I've reported is my own experience.
posted on January 28, 2002 05:42:20 AM
Yahoo has improved in the last year. The new tight registration policies for both buyers and sellers is the strictest policy of any auction. That is why eBay now has more deadbeats that Yahoo. Yahoo was like a small town in the Wild West without a sheriff before the new rules.
I'd like to see the listing fee only attached to the post-sale FVF at Yahoo. To get rid of small-time items make it a 25 cent minimum listing fee payable only if the item sells. Then add the 3-5% FVF also. That's nothing compared to Amazon's $1 + 15% FVF. Wouldn't a setup like that knock the crap out of Half.com? Yahoo could make it's money on volume sales.
posted on January 28, 2002 06:13:43 AM
bidsbids, if Yahoo introduced a 25 cent listing fee payable only if the item sells, I foresee Yahoo getting flooded with low-end, constantly-relisted stuff like it had in the old days. If there is no up-front listing fee, or a relatively high FVF like (like on Amazon), then there's very little deterrent to listing stuff that never sells.
posted on January 28, 2002 07:54:33 AM
"it was just a month ago that Yahoo had a free listing day and I listed hundreds of items. My minimums were set at what I wanted to get and the BUY NOW price was set to the minimum...just the way I used to do it....1st bid wins. The results were worse than before fees a year ago...a lot worse."
Interesting, but totaly out of perspective. I had listings both on Yahoo and ebay, and I saw a major drop in bidding at the same time on ebay. Results are going to be worse during a recession than compared to last years peak of a boom.
"I think my 2000 different items gives me an insight that someone who is "more selective" wouldn't have."
Someone being more selective does more research to see what sells, that is intelligence gathering. So what insight advantage do you have?
"If Yahoo was so efficient, How come I have 45 Warehouse sales and a rating of -1?"
My half.com feedback is only +8 out of 60 sales. It may be just the type of customer who is gloating over the bargain they got and not interested in leaving postive feedback just to make you happy. Not necessarily yahoo's or half's fault.
"I'm real happy you sold a few books on Yahoo. So should all the sellers list their books on Yahoo and wait? Or should you listen to me."
Correction, a few dozen books. No sellers shouldn't list "ALL" their books on Yahoo, be selective and choose what sells. Same goes with ebay. I wouldn't listen to your method of listing everything and hoping for the best. That is unresourceful.
posted on January 28, 2002 08:01:11 AM
When stuff does sell that's a least a quarter for Yahoo. One could also consider Half.com as a place where there's a bunch of low end stuff that rarely sells too. No site can ever hope it be more that a tiny shadow of eBay but they can sure as hell attack and easily conquer the very vulnerable Half.com with it's 100 million listings. Does a seller want to pay no listing fee and a 15% FVF to Half or does a seller want to pay no listing fee and a mininum 25 cents plus 4% or 5% FVF to Yahoo? That minimum 25 cent fee knocks out all the really low end 10 cent baseball cards items. This would allow the auction format to merge with the Half format. A seller would still have to relist the items every once in a while or Yahoo could just adopt a list-until-it-sells setup like Half.
There will always only be one big auction and a bunch of little niche specialty auction sites site so why should Yahoo try to be eBay? Why not try to be Half.com?
posted on January 28, 2002 08:21:55 AM
bidsbids, you have a good idea there but there's one loophole that would still permit a flood of (literal) nickel and dime auctions - the always popular "handling" fee. All the low-end sellers need to do is add a quarter or thirty cents to their handling fee to negate the Yahoo fees entirely.
posted on January 28, 2002 08:28:02 AM
Food for thought.
What if Yahoo auctions is going for the sink or swim with auctions. If any auction site can't pay the bills then it will close. Didn't Yahoo come way short last year the profits? Didn't the CEO quit over it.
What's the fist thing new upper management does? If it loses money it's history.
posted on January 28, 2002 08:46:11 PM
" I'd like to see the listing fee only attached to the post-sale FVF at Yahoo. To get rid of small-time items make it a 25 cent minimum listing fee payable only if the item sells. Then add the 3-5% FVF also. That's nothing compared to Amazon's $1 + 15% FVF. Wouldn't a setup like that knock the crap out of Half.com? Yahoo could make it's money on volume sales. "
A "listing fee" that is payable only if the item sells is not a listing fee. But I get your point. If there is a minimum selling charge that would eliminate some nickel and dime items. It need not be so complex. have the minimum bid for all auctions be $1 for example.
However yahoo made a big mistake in listening to the doh doh buyers who complained about the same old stale merchandise cluttering up the site. The people who used the search engine well never saw much clutter in the first place. That's the beauty of the computer. The poor listing tree was responsible for not being able to browse in the subcategories one was interested in.
I had many items that I knew were quality items but would be wanted by just a few people in the whole world. Like okd 8 bit computer parts. By letting me post hundreds of these indefinately for free I would eventually sell nearly all of them, thought it might take a year or more. Again that is the beauty of the internet. If one of these items were sitting in a store in Hoboken, it might never find a new owner. This was a huge area collectively which yahoo had by the nuts and they cast it out with the bath water when they started listing fees..
What Yahoo may want to achieve is a buyers market with amateur sellers. It theoritically sounds great for business: You get households all over the world to list their discards rather than give them to charity or have a garage sale. The amateur seller pays a listing fee and lose out on what doesn't sell, and they make some money on what does sell. It doesn't matter that their widget has been selling for $50 and they only got $10. That week there were more widgets than buyers. Next week another widget might get $100. Some items moved out, money exchanged hands, the house got their cut, and more items got listed. The stuff that didn't sell still generated something for the house and it then got donated to charity or thrown in the trash.
That may be the model the auction sites are trying to achieve, but I think I proved with my 2000 listings that I could eventually sell nearly everything I had listed and for a substantial price if I didn't have to pay up front. The listing fee forces me to list only things that I think will sell quickly which to me is a bore. I suppose I could find a line of Digital Cameras to sell...they do sell well on Yahoo and feature them in front of a dozen of the same model camera sold by other dealers and also sell them for $1 less. It just doesn't interest me.
posted on January 28, 2002 09:10:14 PM
"Someone being more selective does more research to see what sells, that is intelligence gathering. So what insight advantage do you have?"
I have played tournament backgammon for 30 years. I've followed all the thinking and reasoning that the best players and authors came up with in finding the best plays for the game. And there have always been some VERY smart people involved with backgammon. But the biggest gains in improving one's success have come in the past 5 years when computers were finally trained to play at a level equal to the human masters. Once that was achieved the best way to solve a backgammon problem was to simply let the computer play the game starting from a given position, say 100,000 different times using each of several candidate moves, something a human could not do. After that many games, the best move nearly always became appearant, and it made any logical arguments for one move being better than another move...irrelevant.
posted on January 28, 2002 10:23:41 PM
I believe you're saying that you want to take the overall statistical findings to reach your conclusions rather than be subject to limiting yourself to a few limited statistics and improve on them. I agree that is normally the best way, problem is the market changes too fast for your overall statistics to be of much value.
posted on January 29, 2002 04:27:00 AM
I think the $1 minimum bid is a very good idea. Heck, for years now I've wanted a $5 minimum bid at eBay to get rid of the s/h gougers on very low end items. Let's say Yahoo makes all minimum bids either $1 or $2 and charge only a listing fee for the dreaded Reserve Auctions. With a minimum selling fee of 25 cents plus a FVF similar to eBay , Yahoo will be a steal when when compared to eBay. Items that can not be listed on eBay because they are not fast movers and the listing fees kill the sellers can be listed easily at Yahoo and can wait patiently for the right buyers to show up. Yahoo could even say screw the auction system altogether and say that every item must have a BUY IT NOW price only. That would make it competitive because it would mimic Half.com and a seller would have to place a competitive BIN price to have a shot at selling the item. The online marketplace is rapidly shifting away from auctions with few bidding wars towards fixed-price setups. I hope Yahoo can see the merits of making a lower cost Half.com .
posted on January 29, 2002 07:37:40 AM
Well.. still a few days to go and so far a 40% sell through.
I have 2 YaHoo auctions with over 110 hits each, and I expect the bidding to be fast and furrious at the closing minutes. I listed items on YaHoo that were hyper-competitive on eBay.
While I don't think that YaHoo is an alternative to eBay, it would appear that it is a viable addition for selling rather than just listing on eBay.
For online auctions, just having listings there is 90% of being successful.
posted on January 31, 2002 04:30:28 PM
The main idea with Yahoo is to have a good second to ebay. To say it is ebay or no way, applied when Yahoo was charging fees way too high for what was going to be their bread & butter. Now that they are reasonable, many of the good items will be back in higher numbers and still with the safegaurd that most of the junk will be kept out. This makes Yahoo a viable site to also help say to ebay that if you keep sticking it to your sellers, there is a place to go that you can sell your items.
Ebay is King, but Yahoo the Queen has come back to life.
bp
posted on January 31, 2002 07:31:46 PM
I have said all along yahoo is just waiting for ebay to screw up like checkout, and eBay knows it. ebay MUST continue to raise the fees to make their projections. The day will come when sellers will say enough is enough.
posted on February 1, 2002 07:24:37 AM
Outoftheblue - you said "YES! Run, don't walk, over to Yahoo. 3 or 4 sales per month will keep you fat and happy"
3 or 4 sales a months, what are you selling diamonds?
*****
Like a fool I posted on Yahoo's FREE day in late 2001. Took a day and posted about 60 auctions sold 1!
But I fell for it again, but at least controlled myself last week and only posted 17, and again have only sold 1!
While 1 particular item still sitting doing nothing on Yahoo, even though it is featured there, I have sold 6 of the same item on eBay!
*****
I am a eBay Power Seller, but I was a major Yahoo user for all of 2000 - but after that Yahoo in its infinite wisdom changed and died, and unfortunately it is still dead - even for free, it isn't worth my time, UNLESS Yahoo allowed FREE relists, which is required to sell most items on Yahoo....
I won't waste my time there, time is money, and eBay, although it has many problems, it does produce!
These "FREE" days on Yahoo; 2 such in about the last 2 months or less, are obvious gasps of a dying giant, one which could have competed with eBay if they had only left it as it was. As it is now, it is only a vague shadow of its former self – and sadly, a shadow with an attitude!
Read some of the horror stories on the Yahoo board from early 2001!
posted on February 1, 2002 07:48:35 AM
Hmmm Something tells me that some people who owned Enron stock said something like that when someone asked them why they didn't buy other stocks.
While I do agree with your points about Yahoo, I disagree with the way you just give up and take it.
Remember AFA when Meg told the world that they would raise 100 million in 100 days.
They came up what 93 million short?
She has also said that ebay will make 100 zillion dollars by 2005? Who do you think is going to pay all them fees? What new "Rules" are down the road? I look at half and see ebay looking just like it.
The new trend will be niche sites, The smaller the site the less it cost to operate. You might want to check out the other online auction boards every now and then, you might just find a niche site right up your alley.
