But you have to understand I've been paying horrible fees to "Arts & Crafts" Show promoters for 20 years this is no more than the standard fee for mediocre "Arts & Crafts" Show in someone's old barn. But, I guess, everything is relative. I think most sellers,( magik, of course, being the exception) in this auction business haven't a clue that you have to spend money to make money. (But most likely,it's not a business to them only a hobby that they can pick up a few bucks with, which of course isn't all bad.)

magik87-it kind of depends how serious you are at the auction business. When I spend money for something I tend to want to make it pay for itself, when I get something for free I really don't give a damn about it. It's kind of a head game. Many artisans are able to put up 100/300 items a week, depending and what they Craft, since we manufacture most of what we sell we are in an enviable position to be able to forecast our production needs over a long period of time. It would not be much of a problem for me to produce and post 25/50 auctions per day.

Now the big question which goes to your original comment, does AuctionUniverse have a customer base to support that type of production. The next question is if you get enough people selling on AuctionUniverse will that create the customer base to sustain continued production through the summer and then reap the huge benefits of our profession in the fall.

It's all matter of confidence and with any business that confidence is shown by way of their advertising budget and advertising programs. I hear & see eBay, Amazon & Yahoo! everyday. Maybe that's a question that can be addressed to AuctionUniverse. Convince us, by your advertising programs, that you are serious about bringing more customers to your auction.

Kindly overlook contextual errors, I use speech recognition software.
 

You asked:
{quote]Maybe that's a question that can be addressed to AuctionUniverse. Convince us, by your advertising programs, that you are serious about bringing more customers to your auction.[/quote]

That's a good question. Let me assure you we are very serious about bringing customers to our auction.

Still, the question is a tough one to answer in a public forum A detailed list of advertising/marketing expenditures also contains a wealth of proprietary information potentially valuable to competitors.

But I think I can give you a satisfactory answer that will broadly establish our committment to bring new members to our site via advertising.

Remember when you sign up at sites they'll often ask how you heard about them?

You can generally infer from the list presented that a company has, plans to, or is advertising on the listed sites.

In our case, you'll find that list on our registration page. There you'll find magazines, newspapers, television programs and online venues and even trade shows.

This is not a complete list but it is indicative of our commitment to advertising. It's primary beauty in this context is that my pointing you to it discloses nothing that has not already been disclosed.

I did a count from today's new member referral report and there were over 140 individual sources. Some delivered only a handful of new members and others over 50.

Not all appear on the list you see on the registration page. Buys we make to support a particular event, like the current retro event, Star Wars promotion or NASCAR event and others are tracked only by referral codes that automatically insert the site name.

I'll also direct you www.aun.com for a listing of our affiliated sites. Expect this list to grow in some dramatic ways in the coming months. Affiliates promote their own auctions with independent ad budgets including links from their own sites. An auction on AU is an auction on most of those sites too.

You also mentioned that you hear about eBay, Amazon and Yahoo almost daily. I understand that but think about what you're really hearing or seeing.

In the case of Amazon, it is probably an affiliate banner linking to a set of books recommended by an independent site owner who earns a commission on each sale. Or it may be that what you heard was a news story about their moving into the online pet store business... or some other business besides auctions.

Personally I thought the Yahoo! commercials about the gothic guy finding his soul mates among cross-stitching grandmas was a hoot ... but is that an ad about their auction? Hardly. They also make the news because their publicly traded stock price is reported as part of the hot Internet sector.

Frankly, the last "ad" I saw about eBay, wasn't about eBay at all. Instead it was a Sun Systems ad in the technology section of the NYTimes saying that eBay uses their system. Of course I do recall that last Friday eBay also made the national news; third lead, but I think both eBay and Sun would have gladly paid not to be there

My point is that while you may see an Amazon or Yahoo! ad, it probably isn't about their auction. And, unless you're on AOL where eBay outbid everyone else to gain an exclusive, you probably won't see too many paid eBay advertisements floating around either.

From what I know of the "off-site" ad expenditures dedicated to the online auction business, we would not be embarrassed at all in a dollar-to-dollar comparison with any of these three major competitors. My gut is we would also rank closer to the top of that list than the bottom in online auction related ad expenditures.

Finally, you asked:

quote:

---

. . . does AuctionUniverse have a customer base to support that type of production. The next question is if you get enough people selling on AuctionUniverse will that create the customer base to sustain continued production through the summer and then reap the huge benefits of our profession in the fall.

---

In terms of our customer base today, if I may translate grossly into city-type markets, we'd be an Austin, Texas or maybe a Memphis or Nashville, Tennessee while eBay would easily be an Atlanta, Georgia. Both Amazon and Yahoo! would probably "overall" be a NYC but I wonder if their subset of auction users would even fill Brooklyn.

But unlike travel between cities, travel on the net is a matter of a mouse moving and clicking. It may take me six hours to drive from Atlanta to Memphis, but millions can move from eBay to AU in a matter of moments.

Finally, when you get beyond us and the other auctions mentioned, you're no longer really dealing in city-sized markets, but towns.

That's not to say that a specialized auction with 2-5,000 members might not be a great way to move some merchandise, but when you're looking at this coming fall -- the fourth quarter -- you've got to look to the larger markets.

You also wondered if people listing in certain categories would be enough to build a base that would be ready for the fall?

When Amazon went live in April I was impressed by number of items available on day one. My recollection from news stories was that they had something like 110 charter members who provided the bulk of these initial listings.

I can easily imagine 20, 50 or even 110 artisans coming to us, each wanting to do the merchant package and populating some specific categories with nice merchandise.

I see us backing that kind of effort in a variety of ways including PR and special promotions.

We're relatively bright. We know that things will be initially slow when a new category is first populated but we also know that a strong advertising will have a payback if there is a good selection of good items to sell. Finally, we know we have no chance of ever making money unless you make money and do so consistently.

As you pointed out in your post, our merchant package includes your own AU staff contact. I know all of them. We talk. They know my email and phone. You do too.

Pat

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Neomax
[email protected]

It was an eBay radio advertisiment on this station in Nov '98 that got me started on Auctions. Before that time I've never heard of them. Now I sell several thousand $$$ each month on eBay and soon hope to make selling via on-line auctions my primary income.

I just recently started selling on Amazon with pretty good results (not as good as eBay yet).

Now, I have sold in the past on Auction Universe, but have had mixed results. I'm thinking of giving AU a more agressive try in the next few weeks.

George
www.licensed4fun.com <-- My Web Site!
[email protected] <-- My Auction Id's

Anyways, rosejewelry, I am painfully aware, as you said, that in business you spend money to make money. I think that is why I haven't gotten my business license here in AZ yet ("hmmm, need to clean the grout. Nope, can't go to city hall today!") so I can goof off and not really commit myself. I know that if I get the license I will have to start acting like I am in business and spend most of my free time building that business.

What really attracts me to AU is that they have geared themselves to the collectibles market. I deal in comics, trading cards and such and AU has a relationship with Wizard Entertainment, a major magazine publisher in those fields. But I know that wandering the AU landscape and looking at all those 0 bid items is a bit discouraging to sellers and bidders. And while eBay may have a ton of people, I object to the unstable system and what I feel is gouging on the fee structure.

I think the Merchant Program is a good move on AU's part, assuming they can attract people and companies that understand that an auction is not a retail store and there is a different way of doing business. Most of Amazon's charter sellers were a real disappointment, with minimum bids at retail prices or outrageous shipping charges. I would hate to see that happen to AU.
 

Has AU considered offering some sort of chat boards? I know that there are the live chats, but it seems that one thing that attracts buyers is the ability to interact with others who have similar interests. AU has a lot of support for the sellers, expecially with the new Merchant Program, but I think the perception is that AU is all sellers no bidders. Perhaps offering some sense of community would lure the eBay, Amazon and Yahoo bidding crowd...?
 

Welcome to the discussion. I've heard that eBay spends a lot of their advertising on spot radio. I really don't listen to much radio, not having to spend much time in a daily commute, so I don't think I've ever heard an eBay radio spot although I've heard they run some here in Atlanta.

Twenty years ago I was a media director for an ad agency so I'm not going to say that radio as a medium is a bad media buy -- it reaches a good audience and, because of the various programming formats, is particularly effective in reaching particular demographic or even psychographic subsets with good frequency. Unfortunately, though you're only buying 3-7 percent reach with a one-station buy on a big station.

So you're in Philly, huh?

Have you checked out the "auction" links from www.philly.com? (right under the weather at the top right and also on the bottom).

No, you won't find Auction Universe but you will find the look of the auction on the other end familiar -- "Phillyauctions.com" From buming round the site, that link appears on every page. Oh, your AU userID and password will work fine.

Pat

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Neomax
[email protected]

I'll tell you why I haven't done much on auctionuniverse. Main reason was speed, from my location the reponce time to retrieve pages from auctionuniverse seemed very slow compaired to other auctionsites I'm using. Now, the reponce from phillyauctions seems to be much faster (I'm getting happy again )) So if they really are the same I just might do more posting on phillyauctions.

Next question, when paying $100 for a Showcase Auction, is your item ALWAYS on the homepage or is it randomly placed on the homepage as it is on eBay.

Thanks
George
www.licensed4fun.com
[email protected]
 

An on-site message forum is currently under serious consideration.

When AU launched, we had one and one of the points of confusion was that you had to "re-register" for the board. This was long before the days of the UBB and the board was a bit cluncky. For instance, not only did you have to register, but you had to register to even read the board.

In any case, I would predict that a message board is going to happen sooner or later.

We too are concerned about all the zero bid items. On one level, I think your analogy to the charter seller offerings on Amazon is correct. Some sellers have an unrealistic idea of the value of their goods. Others couldn't write a description if their life depended on it.

Amazingly enough, good sellers on eBay typically do well on AU. The people we bring to market are different people and the sales are in addition to what they sell elsewhere.

BTW: I've listed items such as digital cameras with a $.99 cent opening bid and received fair market value for them. (I bought them at auction and made a profit, what can I say)

If you offer a good product at a killer opening bid, the bids will come. I done really well on a few although I've just broken even on a couple of things.

In any case, I can't imagine anyone condoning us setting the opening bid price for sellers or forcing them to write a complete description. That's their business.

Another thing that a lot of folks miss when they form their expectations is that on eBay, a fair number of the items with bids are actually auctions with reserves.

Unannounced reserve auctions help sites look good but in every study I've done, only about half of the auctions put in at reserve ever result in a sale. I looked at this aspect going back to my AuctionLand ONLINE Report days and its pretty constant on eBay, AU and elsewhere.

eBay even acknowledges this. The no-sell reserve system got so bad in the automobile and real estate areas eBay had to make a change in their fee structure.

Why? I looked at closed auctions in auto's one day before they made the change and while all the auctions I looked at had bids -- more than 50 -- less than one in 20 had met reserve. That's why eBay had to start their $25 listing fee for vechiles. Fifty items with bids; two sales?

Said another way, looks can sometimes be deceiving.

Pat

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Neomax
[email protected]

Philly auctions pulls its listings from the same database as AU. List something there and it will appear in the AU database and visa-versa.

BidSafe, My Universe, First Bid Wins, etc. are all there and fully operational.

The only difference in listings at this point is that on AU, we do have import classified ads from selected affiliates.

Integrateed classifieds have not migrated to the phillyauctions.com site at present and because of that, the search tool there is not the latest version. (I.e. it doesn't give you the option of searching classifieds or just auction headings alone.)

Still, phillyauctions.com has its own dedicated Internet access and front-end sever. Heck, you can start with Philly.com and see the latest local news with your first cup of coffee and then mosey over and check your auctions with a convenient click.

Oh, the front page showcase auction does not rotate on and off the front page. It will also appear on the Phillyauctions.com site as well as on many of other affiliated sites. www.aun.com

Pat

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Neomax
[email protected]

quote:

---

Another thing that a lot of folks miss when they form their expectations is that on eBay, a fair number of the items with bids are actually auctions with reserves.

Unannounced reserve auctions help sites look good but in every study I've done, only about half of the auctions put in at reserve ever result in a sale. I looked at this aspect going back to my AuctionLand ONLINE Report days and its pretty constant on eBay, AU and elsewhere.

---

Personally, I don't like reserve auctions and won't bid on them when I find them. At least on AU you can't hide the reserve status from someone browsing the listings. On eBay, you don't know it is a reserve auction until you get into the page for that item. Nothing is more annoying than a .01-.99 starting bid on an auction with a reserve.

Me, I start items with a min. bid I could live with and if I get more, YAY! Hasn't happened yet. I don't have the guts to put an item out with a low, low starting bid and then cross my fingers that I don't lose money. But perhaps I should try it with some stuff I have very little money into.

Regarding the affiliated sites, my "local" one is www.azauctions.com, and I have found that they do run a bit faster than AU at times. Plus the other day I was trying to leave feedback at AU and kept getting ASP error pages. So I went to AZAuctions and everything came up fine.
 

Sellers who start their bidding low on items that they have little investment in are an online auction's best friend

The reason is those super-attractive offers, like an advertising loss-leader, excite bidders and give them the expectation that great deals can be found on a site.

In short, if it is a good deal, they'll bid and if they win, it will bring them back. That's what we're all after

In general, I'd also be more comfortable doing the low opening bid thing on sites with the "going, going, gone bidding formats" (Sites where the auctions extend until bidding ceases -- typically five minutes) instead of auctions with a fixed closing time that invites the solitary snipe bid.

Magik87 that was also a good tip about AZauctions.com as well. That's something you can't do on any other site.

Pat

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Neomax
[email protected]

I have been watching the postings on here for the last six months and kept my opinion to myself. Tonight I may ruffle a few of your feathers but you are use to me putting my foot in my mouth. I have been a Auction Universe member for over a year and a seller for 9 months. I really wanted to see Auction Universe become a Powerful Auction Site. I use to list over 100 auctions a week but I have trickled down to about 5 per week. I just can't get exicted about listing anymore.
The reason NO BIDS! I list the same items and the same prices at eBay, Amazon, Boxlot, Auction Addict, Green Auctions, and Auction Universe. On Amazon and eBay I keep about 50-75 auctions running at any one time. The other 4 I keep 5-10 items running. Amazon represents 60% of my business, ebay 35% and the others 5%. Bids are falling off at eBay but growing at Amazon. I also get higher bids at Amazon. I am one of the Charter Amazon dealers.

My Auction Universe auctions on the same items that sell on the other sites just do not sell on Auction Universe. I use to do good there but it has been slowly fading. I have had some luck with the first bid wins items but that defeats the auction format and I end up selling the item for less than I could have. I have been a Bidsafe Gold member since it began and a bidsafe member since Dec 17th when you talked me into joining. I LOVE the bidsafe concept. Overall I love everything about Auction Universe. You have the BEST Customer Service of any of the Auction Sites. You Yourself have given me a great deal of guidence and help through club99 and on your own. I Love the listing format and the Auction Management site. However NO BIDS are keeping me from getting exited about listing anymore. Listing is very time consuming and to keep listing without selling anything is not my idea of fun. I think you have done a wonderful Job of Advertising. I see AU ads all the time. What I think is hurting you is the amount of time your site is either running slow or unassessable Period. This happens ALOT! I know all the backdoors but what good does that do when the customer can't come in through the front door. I know for a fact that it has been a big turn off to prospective customers and a big turnoff to me when I go to list and can't. All the advertising in the World is not going to counteract that. I still want to see Auction Universe succeed I have the Auction Universe Link on my "me" page on eBay, and my homepage on Auction Addict to bring customers to AU. I just wanted to give you my 2 cents and see if anything comes of it. I have not given up and when I see the business picking back up on AU I will be back listing 100 Auctions per week. I really hope to see that happen and I wish you sucess but you are going to have to get your servers working right and with speed if you want to keep customers and sellers on AU. Thanks for listening. Thanks for being so understanding over the last 9 months and Thanks for helping!

Wes
 

It has been a little while since we visited. It's good to hear from you. I kind of wondered where you'd gone

I take heart in a lot of what you say regarding our product and find it generally accurate, particularly in the area's you commend us

I do take a little exception with your analysis of the reliability of our system today.

I won't quibble that we've had some problems earlier this year and frankly I've been red-faced about reliability more than once. I know while we have top rated service -- I saw where we respond to customer service requests in less than 20 minutes on average -- we don't get much in the way of credit for doing those essentials well.

It seems like it was late March when we last corresponded. I know you were on the road making your move in April and frankly I didn't see you around at the Club99 event in May.

I mention that only because the reports I get regarding our site's reliability show our system to be much more stable than it has been since last August and September. Now I'm not claiming perfection but I've seen reports of at most a hiccup from users who post me (or report things like that at other places) but I've not caught us out-of-order personally.

Regardless, the addition of functionality -- and I think what we're bringing on line is much more important to the industry than bells and whistles -- brings with it the seemingly inevitable bugs. But the last real issue I recall was in March with the intro of First Bid Wins. We did have a little slowness surrounding the intro of classifieds and the expanded search around the first of June and I can only surmise that is your source of concern. But from what I see, that is behind us as well.

I understand the remark "slowly fading" in regard to sales but again, from what I've read, sales and final values also declined on other auction sites during the spring; which they did last year as well.

Still, the May period, in particular, is one that's been tough for us, with the arrival of Amazon and their $10 off bonus to bidders. Our 10 percent rebate in bidbucks, even though someone could get up to $200 back (max) just didn't seem to have the resonance we thought it would.

About Amazone, let me say I'm proud of them folks. They pulled off an almost flawless introduction and ought to be commended.

That intro was so good it meant we went from being the promising number two to an instant number three. Yep, eBay's jauggernaught has been like the blitzkrieg (Was June 11 their Stalingrad?) and Amazon, well they hit us like the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor.

Hey, it's a marketing war out there and things don't always look good for the home team ... isn't that right Mr. Roosevelt

Still Wes, I'd advise you keep an eye on us.

While I'm restrained in what I can say regarding what is in the pot and cooking, I know you know that things on the Net can change in what we southerners call a "New York minute."

As far as I'm concerned, what happened this spring is history.

I am just as confident of what we're doing and where we're going as I ever was.

And there is one overwhelming reason for my confidence. I'll set the stage by referring to some recent press reports such as eBay buying Krause International and Butterfield and Butterfield and who knows who else and Bookseller Amazon going into the online grocery store and Pet store business.

I don't know about them folks but I can say unequivocally, we're in the online auction business and we're going to stay focused on the online auction business.

Finally, don't be shy about posting me personally, with your ideas on what we need to do. Wes, I think you know I value your opinion.

Pat

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Neomax
[email protected]

As for club99 I have quit listing on both sites. When club99 was started it was to list items which we bought in auction lots. We sold the main items on our auction sites and took the excess and auctioned it at a begining price of .99 cents. There use to be alot of bargains and some real finds. It has turned into a place to list unsellable junk that would probably bring a quarter at the flea market. Half the items are dollar store merchandise that was made to sell for a dollar and who want's to pay shipping on a $1.00 item. I am guilty of getting caught up in listing some of those items as well and I have just said no more. It became commercialized and lost it's personal appeal. That's my opinion. Jim and Crystal have done a wonderful job and none of this is their fault. They just attracted the wrong type of seller. There are still a few good bargains but the idea of club99 was to bring attention to our other higher priced auctions. Seller after seller are just listing the .99 cent items and no other items. It was never suppose to be like that. That's my opinion for what it is worth. Your wife was one of the few sellers who listed the right type of merchandise using nicer items starting at .99 cents and putting up the camping package and the Digital camera's.

I guess that's enough complaining for now.
 

I thought I'd answered this one but the record shows that I didn't. Here goes.

On the corporate newspaper backing that we have, I am actually quite pleased with the support we have. (My pleasure comes not only from things past, but from some of the things I know are in the "pot" cooking "

The feeling you express are in large part, I feel, based on expectations and, probably even more, timing.

We've only been owned by Classified Ventures since last November. This group is a partnership of several major newspaper groups and each of them has its own style and culture. And a decision, such as to signup and become an AU affiliate is made by a different group of decision makers than the ones' directing CV. The reality is that you'd hurt the eventual success if you tried to shove it down some folks throats.

Then, reallize that we're just now six months into the process -- while that may seem an eternity on the web -- is a mere flash of a camera in terms of the history of newspapers.

You mentioned City Auctions. I'd been by there last over a year ago and they've made some progress since then. The most notable thing I saw, though, strikes me as both slick and misleading. It is their practice of showing bids ... Us an a host of other sites show the opening bid amount in one column and the actual bids in another. That way you can see how bidding has progressed from the opening.

City Auction shows only the opening bid amount or the bid amount and unless you're slick, you wouldn't notice that most of their offerings do not have bids.

For most every auction site in cyberspace, this appears refreshing as you don't see all the zeros' ... although you do see a lot of non-bold opening bids.

Because it doesn't fit the industry convention, it is mildly misleading.

As a believer in share of mind = share of market, I simply observe they're not receiving much buzz and therefore are not, at this moment, much of a threat.

Regarding Crystal and Jim and the fortunes of Club 99; I think your right as far as some of the goods being offered in the subsequent months, both on AU and eBay.

I really do like the idea of good, high value items -- digital cameras, camping gear, computers, etc. -- being offered for opening bids of 99 cents with no reserve. That is what I wanted to see but the selection of goods did devolve, as you said, so that the overwhelming consumer value wasn't there.

I've not given up on Club99, though and have high hopes for Jim and Crystal's OTWA.com effort.

Pat

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Neomax
[email protected]