posted on November 1, 1999 06:20:08 AM new
I decided to give Auctions.com another try - I "thought" "First Bid" had been split from the Escrow program, but couldn't find any information on the site about "First Bid" at all.
If one is posting a standard auction, can you also use "First Bid", and if so how? OR is this what is now considered the "retail sale" auction?
The retail sale format means that when a buyers "bids" they just bought.
The listing page is different than the old First Bid Wins listing page because you may accept any other type of payment.
Simply select
1. Retail sale as the auction format. Single or multiple items are possible.
2. Select 30 days as the listing format and key in the number of items.
3. Select your payment types (anyone can now select retail sales and you no longer have to be a member of BidSafe.)
4. Continue with your listing.
It will be a live listing for 30 days and when an individual buys an item, your "inventory" count will deminish by the number bought.
The sale is closed at the time of the bid so, if you're using a payment method other than BidSafe, you will need to contact the buyer and make payment and delivery arrangements.
I hope this covers it. If you have any more questions, let me know.
posted on November 1, 1999 03:25:55 PM new
Oh, Okay - so it is like Amazon's Z-Shops - hope it works, have found that the "Take IT" price when used in conjunction with the auctions, like you can do on Amazon and Yahoo actually works better - folks seem to feel they have a choice, but if they don't "take it" the auction price may run it up, and I get more sales this way than using the Z-Shops which I am also using.
I'm familiar with the "take it" pricing approach and also Amazon's zShops.
The For Sale approach actually can be even more effective than the zshop approach and just as effective as the "Take it" pricing.
First we don't limit your listings. You can list an item as both a For Sale item and as an auction item. This is a good idea since there is no basic listing cost.
Also, as you've probably gathered, doing a second listing is really a pretty easy thing to do. So if you have two or three things to sell, it may make sense to offer them, not as a Dutch auction, but as a mixture of auction, reserve auction and For Sale format listings.
Another trick, and this is good for single or unique items, is to list the item as a for sale item for a one day only listing but click on the three free-relistings.
This means that for the three days the item is "live" it always appears near the top of the listing list, thus increasing its likelihood of being bought by a last minute bidder.
