Aside from search (which I just brought back to the top after two months) my biggest problem with AU is the paucity of items I am interested in.

Obviously, AU is not going to do anything specific by way of promoting auctions for a single collector or even a niche collectables area such as cryptology.

I don't know what the answer is but I hope that AU is working on bringing more sellers and more auctions to AU for collectors such as myself.

 

Thanks for stopping by AU.

Your statement was that it is obvious that AU is not going to do anything specific by way of promoting auctions for a single collector or even a niche collectables area such as cryptology.

I think you're dead wrong on that.

We've been doing single collector auctions including co-promotions for some time. I would simply point to the continuing Mightie-Mike sports and collectible auctions we host. Mike is a known dealer and retailer and advertises his auctions in collectible and sports memorabilia magazines. He typically puts up items worth $100,000 in retail value. These auctions appear in our database as well as on a special page for him.

We also do a simliar type auction for PCConnection, the nationally known retailer and will soon be doing this for others.

I even organized one for a seller of original comic art who went out and got original editorial cartoons from the current impeachment.

Club99 is another promotion we're up to our necks in.

Code, if it will help us win, we're for it.

neomax

I don't know what to say. The types of auctions you mention are not in my estimation aimed at a niche area such as cryptology. They all seem fairly mainstream in comparison. Sports collectibles, computers, comic art probably have interested bidders on several orders of magnitude greater than something like cryptology.

Having been on eBay for nearly a year, searching on keywords nearly every day and bidding on or at least monitoring every auction of interest I can tell you that there probably aren't more than a dozen users who have an interest in cryptology per se. So unless you happen across a collector who is selling their collection a cryptology promotion would be futile.

Even if you could educate the sellers as to what our interests were and get everyone with an item or items to participate, in the end you are talking about a lot of work for a very small market.

Let me suggest this. How about attempting to design promotions for a larger market that includes many smaller markets. Here is what I'm thinking...

I'm after cryptologic materials and devices.

Telegraphic code books, coded telegrams, cipher machines, decoders, enciphered postcards.

None of these are categories or even subcategories on eBay "the mother of all categories".

How about AU promotions geared to a particular industry, invention, idea.

If AU were to promote a "communications" month and give any seller a break on their AU fees and commissions for items that fall under "communications" you might find that folks would place auctions with AU and bidders would be attracted to AU due to the buildup in volume of AU auctions relating to their specific interests.

Telegraphic code books? Communications.
Telegrams? Communications.
Antique telephones? Cmmunications.
Biography of Morse? Communications.
Navaho Code Talkers material? Communications.
Cipher devices? Communications.
Anything related to the Signal Corps? Comunications.
Boy Scout Signalling merit Badge book? Communications.
Canadian Tombac nickel with Morse code? Communications.
Radios? Communication.

As an auctioneer, you or other AU staffers could make the ruling on whether something qualified for the build the AU volume discount.

I imagine that a lot of items could legitimately fall under the umbrella of
"communications".

AU would need to advertise heavily about what falls into the promotional category. How about full page ads that show the immensely diverse objects that fall under the category?

The ads would point out the important fact that although the promotion is organized around "communication" virtually every object would have appeal to other interests.
Just look at my tiny list above. Books, Scouting, Militaria, Coins, Ephemera...

If you have the volume, then you will have a preponderance of interested folks looking at the auctions. They'll bid and it will be just as competitive as it is over on eBay because they'll all be on AU due to the prospect of finding and acquiring something they want.

Then as folks see the innate advantages of AU over eBay such as complete auctions history; complete bid history; Bid$afe; mutiple categories and whatever else AU comes up with, they will begin to see the reasons to stay.

And you will build volume across the board...

[This message has been edited by codebuster (edited 01-21-99).]
 

Thanks for your very detailed post.

Let me say we've also been doing things along those lines... at least to a degree.

For instance, last August, we did a NASCAR promotion which brought together a whole host of items from die cast to automobilia associated with NASCAR.

We've also done "computers" in general and a "Halloween" promotion (comic books, Sci-Fi, etc.) and some others.

I do however, appreciate your particular angle and will pass it along to the "events person" we have on staff.

This is a direction we're going and I hope we get better at doing it and also promoting it.

Fact is, promoting these events is really one of our greatest challenges. I expect that within the month, I may be posting some of our "planned events" here.

neomax