My main point to posting here, was to let you know I find your prices just too expensive. If you click on the link I just posted, you will see I'm not the only one.
I have used AuctionWatch several times before. I used them when they were FREE and left them to go PAY for a different service because of all the problems I was having at the time with AuctionWatch. I also just tried AuctionWatch again about a month ago, to see if they had changed any for the better. But, when I compared the prices and how much it would cost me in the long run, it was just TOO expensive and not worth the switch.
By going with the other service I'm saving myself hundreds of dollars. If your prices were reasonable, it's possible I would have used AuctionWatch again. It's also very possible a huge percentage of ebay sellers would have tried out AuctionWatch, or switched from a different service. I'm not saying you have to charge $120 like the other service. But at least try to compete with them for your customers!
But, it's apparent you only want the comments that support your current pricing structures, so I'm sure this is falling on deaf ears, unfortunately.
posted on October 24, 2001 10:26:52 AM new
Mike - I dont know how you do it - The message boards are a nice freebie that probably isnt free for you to run, There are many people who use it as an entertainment giving your people a hard time; contribute zero to your income and take resources away from your paying customers.Mabe making Message boards available to paying customers will freeup resources that could be focused on site services.
Best of Luck
Ed
posted on October 24, 2001 10:41:37 AM newcontribute zero to your income and take resources away from your paying customers
It's funny that you would blame the posters. AuctionWatch is making possible customers run away because of their high prices. If they lowered their prices to a reasonable price then there would be a lot of PAYING customers who would be gladly contributing to their income.
posted on October 24, 2001 11:23:19 AM new
I was not trying to promote a competitor! Just a simple comparison between your price and product/service and others.
AW does not believe there are choices.
The price doesn't bother me as much as the lack of product: Dutch Auctions, Sales Tax Line, Combination Orders, Repeat Listing, and, Shopping Cart. Do I need to continue?
Your competitor has done this is 3 YEARS!
Please price your product at what is worth or increase the value.
Edited for spelling.
AW management please respond.
posted on October 24, 2001 11:26:08 AM new
ok4leather,
We debate it a lot, but I've always felt the MC is important to auction sellers. Less than 3% of the sellers who use and pay for our services actually post on this message center every month. That definitely supports your point. But the feedback we get is valuable to our prioritization of new services for our current and potential customers. Probably less valuable feedback to competing companies that can probably not or at best can barely cover basic operations, let alone resources required to expand services.
It also helps me understand why ExecutiveGirl has a skewed perspective of our success at supporting sellers. For every negative post I read here, we have literally more than 1,000 sellers launching auctions and 10,000 or so auctions launched each day using our services. And we continue to grow. We are clearly doing something right and pricing our services fairly for a vast majority of sellers. The pricing does not work for ExecutiveGirl. I got it. But most people find it reasonable. They vote with their choice of services, votes impossible to count from the confines of the message center, but votes most important to our success.
Thanks for taking the time to write. I appreciate you understanding the difficult choices we face. Take care.
posted on October 24, 2001 11:35:33 AM new
pcbueg,
Having recently participated in an ongoing product prioritization, I was happy to read your list. Can you send me an e-mail with your wish list in priority order or post it here for others to comment and add to/reprioritize? I'll take the combined input into the next meeting. We continue to add functionality as always and your help prioritizing that would be great. Thanks.
Thank you for pointing out my flaw in my calculations. It is interesting that your chart doesn't include that variable either, though! You really should at least state in the chart what average sell-through rate your calculations are based on.
I have studied your pricing plans closer, and have come to the following conclusions. The total monthly fee charged to customers is determined by three variables and three constants. Your three variables are items listed per month (x), average sell through rate, in decimal form (y), and average selling price(z). Note that if you multiply these three constants together you will get your total monthly sales. Your three constants are the monthly charge (i), listing fee (j) and Final Value fee (k).
You have four different plans, yet each use the same formula, with different constants. The formula is calculated where the total monthly charge equals i+(j*x)+(k*(x*y*z)). Your four plans are Premium Plan Variable Rate (a), Premium Plan Flat-Rate (b), Power-Plan Variable Rate (c) and Power-Plan Flat-Rate (d). The specific formulas for each plan are as follows:
a = $12.95 + .05x +.01xyz
b = $12.95 + .2x
c = $29.95 + .0125xyz
d = $39.95 + .1x
Breaking the plans down into these formulas make them easier to understand (in my opinion). You can start to see some absolute truths (as opposed to the misleading information on the chart). For example. Plan B will always be cheaper than Plan D IF you are listing 270 or less items a month (an average of 9 items per day). Plus... you will notice that NEITHER of those plans depend on how much the item sells for OR the sell through rate! Therefore, in your chart you should change the information for Plan B to:
Typical Sales Volume = 9 or less items per day
Typical Average Selling Price = Not Applicable
For Plan D, you should change your information to:
Typical Sales Volume = Greater than 9 items per day
Typical Average Selling Price = Not Applicable
I would give other examples comparing the other plans to each other... but frankly, I don't have the time. This is something that your company should have analyzed in greater depth before finalizing plans and releasing misleading information.
Again... I will ask you to PLEASE modify your information on the chart to acurately reflect what the numbers + formulas so clearly indicate. I am sure you are not intentionally misleading your clients... but your information is nonetheless confusing, misrepresenting, and WRONG! Auctionwatch should either fix the plan pricing, change their recommondations, or simply eliminate the recommendation suggestions. I am not trying to be difficult about this, and I hope my formulas do help others determine which plan (if any) they should choose.
edited to fix error in Plan A and Plan C calculations
[ edited by eauctionmgnt on Oct 24, 2001 04:00 PM ]
posted on October 24, 2001 03:03:30 PM new
eauctionmgnt,
As a math aficiando, I'm certain providing the algebra works much better for you. I'm not certain the math approach works as well for everyone. I used to get lost trying to figure out which train left which station when.
You are correct, we need to qualify that these estimates assume ~50% sell-through. I will make that change.
~9 items/day is correct, though it's more in February and less in October (28 vs 31 days/month). 9 indicates a level of precision above the general guidance I was trying to provide and isn't always accurate, so I just <10 when I did this. I can totally see how the imprecision offends the sensibilities of a math person, since one of my best friends and former roommate happens to be a mathmatician and thinks very similarly. This isn't Ron, is it?
I do disagree, however, with your statement that ASP isn't important for the flat rate plans. Since each choice is for a plan IN LIEU OF other plans, understanding how each breaks down compared to others generally is important, so we put the >< information in all the boxes.
I'll make the change above and include a disclaimer that this is general guidance and is variant upon several factors, and your valuable advice here should help others optimize by building spreadsheets as well. If you'll allow me, I may take the algebra portion your post and annotate the chart to help each seller choose wisely.
Thank you for your response. I am glad to be able to help. Feel free to post my equations wherever they will be helpful to other sellers.
As for the ASP, I do understand that you are using that only for comparitive purposes between your different plans. Unfortunately, because some of your plans are dependent on variables that the others are not.... it does not make a very accurate comparitive factor.
I think that your calculations are off on the ASP as well, however. For example, if you compare Plan A to Plan B. Let me do the math for you: (using .5 for the sell-through rate)
A is less than B IF .01xyz < .15x
reduces to .06667yz < 1
(insert value for y)
.033333 z< 1
z < 30
Therefore your ASP To compare A and B should use $30.00 for the turning point.
Another example is comparing Plan C to Plan D. Here is the math for that:
C is less than D IF .0125xyz < 10 +.1x
reduces to .125yz < (10/.1x) + 1
reduces to .0625z < (100/x) +1
Now... here comes the confusing part. Because the ASP is directly connected to the number of items listed, there is actually a range for the ASP. We already know that the lowest number x should be in this case should be 270. Therefore, when we plug that in the equations reads as this:
.0625z < (100/270) + 1
z < 5.93 + 16
Z < $21.93
However.... as X approaches infinity, the fraction becomes smaller and smaller. Therefore the range is between $16.00 and $21.93. Obviously this is hard to express easily in a chart. However, your $20.00 quote is probably too high. This number is only accurate if a seller is selling 400 items a month. If they sell more, than the ASP decreases. Your best bet is to take the median of these two numbers, which would be $18.97. Granted... not a huge difference... but the extra dollar might make a considerable influence on the choice of some sellers. Hope this helps! (and thanks for the opportunity to brush up on my math proofs!) Who says math doesn't come in handy in the "real" world!
posted on October 25, 2001 02:57:19 PM new
Mike, I apreciate the direct email about dutch auction support. I cant wait till the new features roll out - Thankyou for handling our Price and support concerns in such a pleasant way. My business is in your hands. Thanks again
Ed
Thank you for adding the disclaimer and sell-through rate to your chart. I'm sure you are also planning on adding it to the main pricing page as well. It is important for the information to be consistent throughout your AuctionWatch site.
I can only assume you were too busy yesterday to take care of the mathematical errors in your ASP that I posted. However, I ask you again to take a CLOSE look at your math. Your recommendations are off by as much as 25% in some cases. This is a big concern. You are posting this information to help your clients determine what Plan is best for them. It is simply irresponsible for your corporation to provide ANY misleading information. You should provide your clients with the closest degree of accuracy as possible. It is also important that you take care of this as soon as possible. How many clients have already signed up for a new plan? How many of them COULD be basing their choice of plan on mis-information provided by AuctionWatch? Thank you again, Mike, for taking care of this. I am sure you understand the importance of making these corrections.
posted on October 26, 2001 09:47:49 AM new
When auctionwatch started charging for services I reluctently bought the year subscription. I am glad I did now because after it ends I am going to get hosed. I ran the numbers through on all those plans you have and my monthly cost will double. Forget it! Paying you $60 a month is one thing but I am not going to start handing you over $100 a month. You have a good service but lets face it your approaching a quarter of the cost e-bay charges to sell the item. No way. Come the end of my contract I'm gone.
posted on October 29, 2001 08:40:14 AM new
Mike???? Are you here???? I am still waiting for a response to my post from Oct. 24th. Your ASP figures are still incorrect and you still haven't posted your disclaimer on the main pricing plan page. These are issues that MUST be addressed. Please take care of them.
posted on October 29, 2001 08:56:06 AM new
eauctionmgnt,
Sorry for the delayed response. I was out of town at a wedding, and felt that if I ever want one of my own, it was best not to monitor this thread at the same time. I apologize and hope you understand.
You are correct. The $40 turn point is flat out wrong. Let me just say that it was right until we made some changes, but it is clearly no longer correct. I'll change that to $30 as you correctly suggested. I also haven't reviewed your math in great detail, but I'd prefer to leave the other turn point at $20. Since your math demonstrates the ambiguity around that number, I fear $18.97 would imply precision that simply doesn't exist. Can we just compromise a bit, and I'll change the $40 to $30 and include the formula information for each seller to calculate more accurately the various plan costs? Again, sorry for the delay.
Thanks for the reply! I figured it was something like that. I hope you had a wonderful time at the wedding. It's a great time of year for one. I certainly understand you not monitoring the tread while you're away. I just wanted to make sure my post hadn't been over-looked.
Your suggested changes sound good. I really do appreciate you working with me on this to clear up some of the errors and assumptions contained in the chart. I think it will help the entire AuctionWatch community choose a plan that best suits their needs. Your efforts are part of what makes AuctionWatch customer service outstanding! Thanks again for all your hard work!
posted on October 30, 2001 07:20:00 AM new
MIKE. WOULD YOU BE GOOD ENOUGH TO SEND ME YOUR E MAIL ADDRESS PLEASE. I CANNOT SEEM TO FIND IT. I HAVE SOME THINGS TO ASK YOU. THANKS.
posted on October 31, 2001 12:51:14 PM new
Mike and eauctionmgt I could use your help. I am trying to figure out which option to pick. Right now I am on the standard plan which I chose when I was running a lot less on-line business than I am now.
Right now I sell (actually sell, so I list a bit more) about 800-850 items per month (sell-through is around 95% now, it was 100% during the Summer). My average price is around $22 to $27.
What is the best option for me? I am so confused and math was never my strong point (not that kind anyway!). Thanks!
I realy want to stay with AW but I have to do some comparing and figure out what my costs will be in the future. I wish I had chose the powerseller plan when it was offered but I guess that's moot now!
posted on October 31, 2001 01:13:58 PM new
touchofeurope,
I reviewed your August selling history, assuming it was a rough approximation of your selling style. The Power Plan Flat Rate appears to be the clear winner at your volume and selling price/sell-through. Had that plan been available in August, it would have saved you about 5% off your fees paid under Standard Plan in that month.
posted on October 31, 2001 02:20:38 PM new
touchofeurope,
I agree with Mike. The Power Plan flat-rate seems like your best bet. If you have 800 items a month, with a 95% sell-through rate and an average selling price of $22.00 the plans come out like this:
A) $220.15 per month
B) $172.95 per month
C) $238.95 per month
D) $119.95 per month
and the Standard plan) $209.70 per month
Plan D (the power plan flat-rate) is your hands-down winner! By the way... congratulations! That's an EXCELLENT sell-through rate for such a large number of items each month! Hope this info helps you continue in your success!
posted on October 31, 2001 05:00:39 PM new
Thanks a bunch to both of you - I had done the calculations and pretty much had the same figures, the difference was so big I thought I had to be wrong! I just got lucky since August and hit on a good line of products - it's been great and I keep my fingers crossed!
Mike, when is the plan going to be accessible and do I have to download anything? I assume I do since I use Pro right now?
eauctionmgt: thanks for the math, I cannot get my brain around that, it was very nice of you to do that for me - just ran a sales report on Vrane and we are at about 810 sales per month - so it was about right on.
I hate to see so many people leaving tomorrow since these boards have been the most fantastic resource and the best learning tool I could have ever hoped for, I hope both of you will be around still!
posted on October 31, 2001 05:25:03 PM new
touchofeurope,
We're testing the plan sign-up pages right now and expect to launch on schedule tomorrow, probably later in the day. To change, simply click on the My Account tab and then Your Payment Plan. The resulting page will provide the various plan options and enable you to switch.
Once you switch, the new plan is effective for you immediately, including if you continue to use Auction Manager Pro. The Power Plan Flat Rate also provides access to our latest software, Sales Manager Business Edition, which has a lot of new features you may want to use. So no, you don't have to change anything in the way you are using the service, but you do have expanded services available to you if you want to use them. And we have some great new stuff coming for Business Edition in the next couple of months, so now is a good time to review the software and continue to keep tabs on its development.
I wish you continued fortune in your online selling and a Happy and Safe Halloween.
posted on October 31, 2001 05:32:58 PM new
Thanks Mike - no trick or treating tonight, back to listing!!!
I appreciate the help and good info - somehow you've been more responsive than anyone I've come across under the AW services boards, much appreciated!
posted on November 6, 2001 07:03:47 AM new
Mike, first of all I would like to thank you and AuctionWatch for the work you do. Just like any other business you are a providing a service with competitors. If someone doesn't like your service go to a competitor is how I see it. Don't keep complaining. With that said, I personally love AuctionWatch. Not being an organized person (I'm working on it), AuctionWatch helps keep my head on straight and my customers happy. Second, am I on the right plan? Can you look at my sales from last month and tell me? I would appreciate it. Thanks! Barbara
posted on November 6, 2001 09:43:14 AM new
barbkeith,
Thank you very much for your kind words. I reviewed your August selling history and just glanced at your current auctions. By my review you have certainly chosen the correct plan. If your selling volume increases significantly in the future, or you begin selling expensive items, I can make some suggestions. For your current selling, however, you are spot on. Thanks again.
- no trick or treating tonight, back to listing!!!