The only times I have seen Auctions.com referred to in offline print has been when eBay has crashed and they interview someone from Auctions.com, as a result, or if it is included in a magazine article about online auctioneering.
Does Auctions.com have skeletons in the closet, newswise?
I'm sorry if this question is *weird*, but I do not even wanna read any of the instructions pages until I research this out on the web.
I do NOT like reading & hearing about all the constant fraud at eBay, and after Amazon's recent court case in which their attorneys grilled a bookstore owner, "Are YOU a lesbian?" I cannot regard them as a venue I'd ever list on, as I do want to be associated with anything with what I perceive to be INAPPROPRIATE.
So Neomax, does Auctions.com have a closet filled with skeletons of misdeeds?
In fact, in the realm of issues such as freedom of speech and what is appropriate and inappropriate to advertise, we've got a pretty long background in the business.
Some of our affiliates have been selling advertising since 1733 or so (Hartford Courant ... the longest continously published newspaper in the United States.)
I'd consider our general attitude toward the business one of our real strengths. Our understanding that we are on one level an "advertising" vehicle quite akin to traditional classifieds.
I've often described online auctions as a classified advertisement that because it is interactive AND also because it lets you provide pictures and a complete description, gives life to that classic classified ad:
posted on November 8, 1999 03:13:48 PM new
neomax,
I gotta say all that historical newspaper stuff doesn't mean a hill of beans to me.
What is impressive about Auctions.com is the Bidsafe thing (members guarantee payment on the credit card or its no dice); and the fact that they have a no porn, no guns, etc. policy. They call themselves a family friendly site.
SO to answer the question, I think they do not have any skeletons or anything at all--what they need is a better marketing effort to go get some buyers.
Thanks for your quick replies! I really appreciate it, although I will continue to conduct research.
I do not know if others feel like me, but many many months ago there were already so many negative stories about eBay=fraud in the mass media, that that alone was a discomforting element in being associated with even listing there. I mean like, really, their PR efforts have been embarressingly grim, and their inability to do ANYTHING re: the fraud until lately when they instituted the cc requirement on new sellers, instead protesting they were "just a venue", simply doesn't "cut it" for me.
I didn't realize when I first discovered online auctions almost four years ago, that such concerns would ever arise, nor that they'd comprise such a distasteful shudder.
