posted on June 12, 1999 11:52:00 AM new
After six months of intensive study and experimentation a reasonable person can only conclude that AuctionUniverse understands the axiom "If You Build It...They Will Come".
Every other auction site uses the philosophy "Let's Start out with Just a Few Categories and, As They Fill, Bring in New Ones". This is one of the most sophomoric economic attitudes to have. AuctionUniverse has provided a multitude of categories for those of us, sellers, to place our products, think of it this way, you could own your "own" category on AuctionUniverse-A totally fantastic concept!
I think the reason most sellers haven't a clue is because they follow the heard and seldom think with a progressive economic attitude. Create your own customer base!
I can only hope that I convince enough Folks in the artistan community to REALLY look at this auction philosophy and jump in with both feet. The venue has been created, now it's our turn to exploit it.
The only question I asked AuctionUniverse is how are you going to conjure up the necessary "Critical Mass" to create an *External* customer base. Of course, I mean off Internet advertising, come on guys if we're going to get this auction into the big leagues we have to act like a big league player.
What's the plan?
Talk to you later, Howard http://www.rosejewelry.com "See you on eBay" The Rose Store, eBay user ID... rosejewelry Kindly overlook contextual errors, I use speech recognition software.
What's the plan. I'm sure you've heard the adage, "If I told you, I'd have to kill you. "
Certainly, there is a plan but this is a very competitive business.
You suggested that if you went with us, you'd be poised for a great fourth quarter. I would definitely encourage that belief.
I can point to some of the things we've done and are doing that will also illustrate why we are reluctant to play our cards publicly at this time.
eBay recently started a Los Angeles area only auction. AU, has an auction site called LAauctions.com that is affiliated with the Los Angeles Times Newspaper. It has been in operation since early 1998.
AU started AUUK last summer. eBay is also seeking to answer that international challenge.
AU introduced the ability of buyers who are members of BidSafe to accept credit cards. eBay just recently went out and bought a company that does credit cards acceptance, presumably with the idea that they will eventually be able to provide a similar service.
AU, through bidsafe, uses a buyer or sellers' credit card to verify the individual, going so far as to vette sellers' identities and record in regard to insurance fraud through an insurance company that covers shipping insurance, as well as other risks associated with collectibles. eBay responded with highly limited fraud insurance (Lloyds of London) and a pay-for-it user verification effort (not instituted) some four months after our Bidsafe product was introduced.
AU, through bidsafe, acts as an intermediary providing escrow-like services on items at all prices ranges as an intergral part of that package ... and at a reasonable cost to the seller.
Fixed price auctions: AU introduced its first bid wins auction format, tied to bidsafe guarantees, on March 1. eBay got wind of this and Meg Whitman first expressed interest in this concept in January. eBay has announced plans to institute a fixed price sales format.
You brought up the "build it and they will come" aspect of our category tree. Certainly we will be refining it but we took the big leap last September, based on the knowledge and belief that a breadth of tightly defined categories is the future of online auctions.
See, we saw that eBay had to expand their categories every three-six months and every time they did so, they irritated their customers, not to mention various technical problems and issues.
Frankly, our introduction resulted in some complaints over "site complexity" ... but now users are becoming accustomed to that.
Bottom line, in terms of categories, we are generally where we expect to be in 2002 while other sites will be expanding their categories, with the whole gamut of associated disruptions that causes, through that time, angst among users.
Howard, you're right. We built it so folks would come and pioneer and literally dominate one, two or even five or ten of the 6000 "categories-- i.e. specialty stores" in our marketplace.
Because of our backing, we knew we had the staying power to make this work.
As far as what the future holds, I will point you to one location. It is www.aun.com and it where we note all our affiliated, including merchant affiliate, sites. You should also know, if you don't already, that an auction listing on AU is also listed on LAauctions.com, CTauctions.com, etc.
I can guarantee you that list of affiliated sites will grow and expand, sometimes even dramatically. As the future rolls on, those sites, and new ones added to that list, will all be more heavily promoted as we do bring new buyers to our marketplace.
Its happening. Personally, I think AU is a better bet than even you suppose.
posted on June 12, 1999 09:06:00 PM new
Rose - we will see you on Ebay if and when Ebay can ever stay on line long enough to get any bids! If you think Ebay bidders are happy campers check out the Ebay board here...get a life, what are you a Pinkliner?
posted on June 12, 1999 09:13:00 PM new
Neomax - I have seen you on Ron McCoy's board......I'll be honest I tried Auction Universe - I read their financial backing and had GREAT hopes for you to unseat Ebay....but, I am not sure why but you are attracting the most pathetic group of bidders....I did a comparison test of the same item on the 3 main auctions including yours...on an item that Ebay and Amazon was offering me $150 to $200, I had one bid of $20 on AU, and a very upset customer because i wouldn't sell at that price to her on AU.....this wasn't a one time trial....I simply could not get quality bids on AU, and it is sad, I like your format, etc., much like Yahoo....I truly like posting anytime and setting a closing....but without a customer base...well what can I say?I wish I had the answers, you would think with your backers you could attract more bidders, and therefore more qualified sellers....Best of Luck....with all of Ebay's problems now is the time to make yourself known.....right now my hope is in AMAZON to unseat or at least compete with Ebay, who is presently VERY ILL!
posted on June 12, 1999 09:58:00 PM new
Recon2000:
First, let me say that I don't doubt your story. I do trust that you offered your item as a reserve auction, or the lady whom you refused to sell to would have ample reason to complain.
Second, I've run across deals on eBay that were just about as good as your $150 item for $20. Actually, I won one, a new (at least never used) specialized Miro video board (interfaced with the Miro DC 30+) that included three-d viewing glasses -- an item that couldn't be found at retail less than $165 at places like shopper.com. My winning bid was $35.00 and it wasn't a luckly eBay was down winner. There were just no "realistic" bids for the item other than mine. (I had bid $60)
Apparently I was the only person that wanted it (for the DC 30+ vidcapture equipment). I ended up sending the seller $60 bucks for it because it was "worth it."
In any case, it is not that we don't have bidders, and eager bidders at that.
The reality is that all the general online auctions each have areas of strength and weakness, typically based on the efforts of those who list to build a vibrant marketplace.
It was the pioneers who built eBay ... stealing time from their families and work to list more and more to maximize the selection. Of course most of the folks there now don't know about ... don't know that there were categories where fewer than 20 percent of the items/services listed ever got a bid -- even reserves. (I know, I was there, I documented it.)
Right now, though, from what I read (Ross's posts), books sold better on Amazon from the get go than they ever did on eBay (I wonder why?) However, I also understand from reading others that there are some things that you can hardly give away on Amazon.
Recon, we have affiliates such as BB auctions and The Sporting News and others, that do bring us a specialized market. For instance, we've got good markets going in beanies and baseball cards, Comic books, action figures and several collectibles categories.
Now I don't know what kind of merchandise you were selling on AU, but I suspect that it was not something in one of more established markets.
In otherwords, if I had a tricked out 64 Chevy SS with air suspension and dingo ball headliner to sell I wouldn't search out a bevy of redneck Ford truck guys with guns on the window whose only interest in GM made vehicles is to diss their owners
What I will say is that neither eBay or Amazon is making it as financiall attractive to sellers to participate in building a marketplace as AU.
posted on June 13, 1999 11:11:00 AM new recon2000 wrote: Rose - we will see you on Ebay if and when Ebay can ever stay on line long enough to get any bids! If you think Ebay bidders are happy campers check out the Ebay board here
Howard replied: I don't intend to leave eBay just wean myself from its total dependence. I certainly will do 50% of my online auctions on eBay. But since I make 90% of my entire living online I have to make good business decisions and it's never a good business decision to have one product, one venue, one customer & one plan. 99% of what I sell online I make, currently, online auctions are not set up for this type of business. I'm doing what I can to create a marketing niche within the online auction venue.
recon2000 added: ...get a life, what are you a Pinkliner?
I have the most fantastic life of the world, have had for 58 years. 90% of the entire world dreams of doing what I do everyday.
I guess "pinkliner" is something I should be offended at, sorry, I don't know what it means.
Talk to you later, Howard "See you on eBay" The Rose Store, eBay user ID... rosejewelry Kindly overlook contextual errors, I use speech recognition software.
posted on June 13, 1999 10:20:00 PM new
Howard, I beg to differ on the Build-It-And-They-Will-Come strategy. There are hundreds of auction sites on the web. The vast majority of them have fewer than 200 items for sale at any one time; many have fewer than 10. Clearly, building it is not enough. (Having spent about 24 hours of every day on this for the past eighteen months of my life, this is something I happen to know!)
As for creating a multitude of categories, I think that until you have enough items for sale it is pointless, like using a hammer to crack a nut. Often on these thinly populated sites you see categories with only one or two items offered. IMO, it's silly to have to click to a whole separate page to see the one item listed in a category.
eBay's growth illustrates this. I forget how many categories they had when I first found them a couple of years ago; but it was a fraction of what it is now. They expanded the categories as the range of items expanded, so that browsers could have a reasonable -- not too big and not too small -- range of offerings to look over.
Arguably, eBay has become so large now that nobody can really scan even one category adequately. Hence the likely fragmentation of auction sites into specialized niches. It is from this fragmentation, I predict, that you will ultimately find the auction that caters to your artisan-jewelry category.
------------------ Oliver www.popula.com ("Where'd You Get That?")
posted on June 14, 1999 12:36:00 AM new
Oliver, thank you for your comments. The fact that AuctionUniverse is, in fact, taking another road is commendable. How do you know something is going to work or not until you try it? If everyone in the auction business follows like a heard of sheep, which most do, where will be the diversity in the market? The biggest burden on AuctionUniverse is to let the sellers who can populate their categories know that they even exist. This should probably be done with economic incentives on a long-term basis. Have a "Call for Artist" for many of the appropriate categories this can be done utilizing newsgroups, mailing lists and professional journals.
A quick comment, on popula.com. I think it is one of the most progressive auction sites on the Internet I would like to establish a small presence and continued posting there, unfortunately trying to post an auction is one of the biggest struggles & frustration I've ever seen. And I post a lot of auctions! Talk about slow , excruciating. I understand there's a bulk loader but to use it I have to purchase Microsoft Access, when I do purchase it I will definitely give that WebSite another try. Your customer base is small but very together, cosmopolitan- very much the people who I wish to showcase my product. I think your site is an excellent example of a niche market.
When requesting artistan categories I was told that I should post wherever appropriate and categories MAY come later. I understand that philosophy you can't put up a new category for everyone who writes an email, you would like to have them show you that they are serious and willing to fill the category to justify the necessary programming &etc. However, if your site is so unfriendly to posting how can I then prove that I'm the serious seller worthy of additional consideration? You can see my dilemma.
Talk to you later, Howard "See you on eBay" The Rose Store, eBay user ID... rosejewelry Kindly overlook contextual errors, I use speech recognition software.
posted on June 15, 1999 11:06:00 AM new
Thanks, Howard, for your kind remarks about Popula. We certainly have managed to attract a very loyal and enthusiastic crowd on both the buying and selling side. And we're proud of how we've contrived not to be like every other auction site on the web. We haven't had any other complaints about the site being slow for listers. There are slow patches, just like anywhere on the web I suppose, but most of the time it's pretty nifty. Maybe you picked a bad day for it? Anyway, I hope you'll be back soon!
Note to administrator: I know this looks like self-promotion, but it is in direct response to a comment about our site. This, surely, can be allowed?
------------------ Oliver www.popula.com ("Where'd You Get That?")
posted on June 15, 1999 05:47:00 AM new
Ahhhhh...I am waiting for the stampede when artisans and production craftspersons realize that the categories are THERE! The variety of notable merchandise being handcrafted from one end of this country to the other by tiny, isolated crafts businesses is truly staggering -- and with a place to SELL, they will show up in droves, followed by bidders who are eager for variety and a chance to purchase something unique!
posted on June 15, 1999 08:52:00 AM new
Oliver, I posted an inquiry on the "GENERAL AUCTION BOARD" requesting a discussion of the secondary auction sites, by the way 'secondary' is not meant to be pejoritive. I would love to have every auction site represented & have a spirited discussion about its pros and cons and why it was founded and direction it would like to go. (As usual, most people just want to piss and moan about what they perceive to be problems.) I guess that's too much to ask but if you ever find a Forum like that I was very much like to participate.
posted on July 1, 1999 06:10:00 PM new
Oliver mentioned fragmentation and specialization of auction sites. Neomax said "Right now, though, from what I read (Ross's posts), books sold better on Amazon from the get go than they ever did on eBay (I wonder why?) However, I also understand from reading others that there are some things that you can hardly give away on Amazon."
Now if Amazon would only dump all categories except for books (which they logically should have specialized in from the beginning), they'd own the category!
Why does every site try to be all things to all sellers?
I agree with your thoughts about Amazon. Amazon's claim to fame is as an online book store. It is logical they'd auction books.
There are a lot of sites out there trying to be the Gun auction or the Glass auction or what have you.
Not everybody is trying to be all things to all sellers.
However, you are right. We are. You can see the reason why when you look at who we are.
We're a media company owned by media companies. While most of our owners are known for being newspaper companies they really are "media" companies with interests in radio, television, magazines, etc. The NYTimes owns TV Stations as does the Chicago Tribune and Washington Post. Times-Mirror is big into magazines and so on.
When we saw the online auction industry we see it as a wonderful new form of classified advertising. We sell advertising.
It doesn't make any difference if you sell collectible glass, sports cards, automobiles, Beanie Babies or musical instruments, we want to sell you advertising.
Also know that we know that unless you make money, we don't make money. That truth is even more apparent in this format.
That's why we've worked very hard to develop a site that has features such as BidSafe, transactional feedback, editable feedback, multiple category listing capability, flexible auction start and stop dates and times and superior customer service.
We are committed to the general online auction format . . . naturally . . . because it is what we do.
I've seen AU evolve. What we didn't do well in January, we do much better now. What we don't do as well right now, we'll do better in August.
The challenge facing Geo. Washington in 1777 and 1778 was not to defeat the British head-on, but to keep an army in the field. We've already had our Valley Forge.
