posted on September 8, 2000 08:01:47 AM
I was reading the AW newsletter last night,an interesting article in there about the closure of a number fo auction sites.
Its worth reading as it makes some interesting points.It does appear that these cannot compete with the big three,ebaY,Amazon and Yahoo.
However I think ebaY is the one they have the hardest with the most.I think Yahoo is next behind ebaY.Not much action on Amazon.
What makes ebaY different from the other 2 though this is debatable is that ebaY makes a profit where the others do not.
Therefore we really need ebaY to contine to thrive with it being profitable.Although I agree with the Million auction march I would still sooner list with a company that does make a profit that one that does not.
Is this putting your eggs in one basket,I think not,which would you sooner take a ride on the Titanic or the Carpathia.I think I know which one.
Though a lot of people seem to detest items like Billpoint anything that can help ebaY to stay and make more profit helps us all in the long run.
I do not like paying 15,000 a year in listing fees but it does happen to be where the action is and I will continue to support the one that does make the profit.
I do list on the other sites and have not sold much there and oddly enough they are my same customers.
posted on September 8, 2000 08:13:57 AM
Yahoo is pretty good for some. I know of a couple power sellers that were on eBay and about a year ago started listing on Yahoo and found that they were making as much money or equal to what they were on eBay and having to list only about a quarter of the same items on Yahoo to get the same amount of money it took them to make on eBay in a week so they switched and are now full time to yahoo and paying no listing fees. I've been monitoring Yahoo for a few months now and it's true that they seem to get more dollars on yahoo for the same items on eBay so don't know why folks seem to not mind paying more at yahoo while at eBay most seem to go for paying less.
As I mentioned in an earlier email I've been writing ads and holding on to them for the end of September. What I'm going to do is list them first on eBay; than if it doesn't sell put them on Yahoo and let it relist twice (free); and if it still doesn't sell than I'm going to put them in my store that I'm creating on my web and leave it there. But I don't expect to much to go to the web page because at least 96% of my items usually sell on eBay the first time I list it. Amazon! I'm signed up with them also but haven't listed yet haven't really monitored it but have heard sellers that sell on eBay say they do as equally well there also so before going to my web with my items I may decide to do it eBay,Yahoo,Amazon,than the store. It'll give me time to monitor Amazon and see how things go.
And than I've also been thinking from October going ahead in October and November and December listing on all three about the same amount of auctions each week and like items to see where it seems to sell better and what I get for it. Now that I'm mentioning it I think I may try that first and see what happens.
About Amazon, were you aware that they no longer have a button for auctions on their front page? Unless it shows up in "featured", the buyer has to click on Directory to even find the right area.
I've been doing just a few listings and my sales have been for items that people paid the "take it" price for. They've all used Amazon Payments, so I am still waiting for my electronic deposit into my account (they say to allow 5 days, which is interesting, since even PayPal says 3!).
I haven't seen any "real" auction action at all, in the sense of multiple bids.
posted on September 8, 2000 09:40:26 AM
IMABBIT - I fully agree that for most sellers using eBay for part or all of their listings is the only pratical choice.
What I don't understand is the apparent disconnect between valid concerns the sellers have and eBays solutions.
EOA's are late and nearly useless. With PayPal and Priority Mail I've had items delivered and customers leave positive feedback before the EOA's were even received. Yesterdays eBay solution - add more information to the EOA's including our phone numbers.
Automotive market expanding - great - start eBay Motors and nearly destroy the individual sellers business.
Have site stability problems causing loss of bidders - fine - put in reserve fees.
Need to increase buyer base - OK - Start selling banner ads that take customers off site.
Have some amount of fraud causing concern - no problem - suggest buyers pull sellers personal information and give them a call BEFORE bidding.
eBay was, is and will be the greatest site for most sellers but there is such an unexplainable disconnect between sellers and their real and valid needs and the eBay management, as reflected in their response to legitimate concerns, that one has to ask" Is there someone competent in charge of these aspects of the eBay corporation?"
eBay could spend money to help sellers and possibly profit by the additional fees they collect.
eBay could choose not to spend money in helping sellers because the additional expenses would not provide sufficient increased revenues to justify the expenditures.
But spending money that hurts the sellers and thus their own income from fees defies any logic that I can understand.
Ny request to eBay is simple.
Please help the seller. It is in your own best interest.
If you can't figure out how to do that or don't want to do that, OK.
posted on September 9, 2000 08:10:13 AM
I don't know....with all I have been reading on their chat boards and seeing their obvious lack of bidders....I wouldn't worry too much about that ever happening
posted on September 9, 2000 08:52:53 AM
You should give goldsauction a try. They now have 11k listing. A jump og 1k listing from the previous 2 month. Besides that, that site is being used by 3-4 users who list by the thousands. So if you do join, they now probably officially have 9 sellers.
You can probably get instant attention from customer support. Also MAM supports them so lets join the union & fight for the small fishes.
posted on September 9, 2000 10:06:48 AM
The strength of any market is no stronger than its weakest members. Amazon, being #3, is extremely weak.Yahoo, being #2 is very weak (some good categories but overrall too many dead ones). That shows the softness of the auction market.
Ebay being the best is the last one to feel the effects, and that is happening right now. They are advertising in regular mainstream outlets for the first time because growth has tappered off.
I'm not betting my money on ebay's future when the competition is nearly non-existant. If the market was so good there would be enough share to spread around, and that is just not the case here.
"If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again, it was probably worth it."
posted on September 9, 2000 12:18:23 PM
adrian: when you come online to AW, and are finally reading my words, please check out the two messagethreads I initiated today, both of them have big ol' LOLs in them:
posted on September 9, 2000 04:30:59 PM
Look face facts Ebay is changeing like it or not.
They want rid of the flea market and garage sales look, They want higher class Item high class buyer and sellers and they are going to make every change they can till they discourage every small second hand seller and collectable antique dealer off there auction site
they are not going to spend another penny helping types of sellers they dont see as there feature they are courting loads of big business they have moved from makeing money from fees to makeing money from MLM partners Disney go.com and the like I expect to here an announcement from them telling all they have partnered with alladvatage so they can make money on all there employees surf time dureing work hours.
posted on September 9, 2000 06:40:10 PM
dman3, what's wrong with having good, large & reputable sellers or business selling on eBay. From a buyer persperctive, all we want is the best prices & service. I am not interested in having personaly relationship with my sellers. No need to know if your poddle is as cute as you think it is.
I sell on eBay & I run a business & so do many of us. I have no problems if Wal-Mart starts selling in eBay. Its free competition.
Also what penny do you want eBay to spend on you?. You list, you sell, you get paid & you pay...that's that. If you don't want to pay, use Yahoo Auctions. If we all pretend for a moment that we actually run a business, then there will be fees to pay. You don't expect everyone to provide free service for your profit indefinitely right.
posted on September 10, 2000 01:05:28 AM
Yes, Amazon has been committing slow suicide for the last six months. I hope they can get back on the right track...
posted on September 10, 2000 08:13:01 AM
Yahoo made that kinda revenue offa all the advertising they were able to make from being a premier Internet PORTAL.
eBay is NOT an Internet Portal -- eBay is the world's Number 1 premier ecommerce site.
posted on September 10, 2000 08:23:49 AM
Reston_ray-Great post- you made great points. My jaundiced view of the disconnect between Ebay and users can boiled down to their attitude toward sellers.
Ebay management looks on us as uneducated white trash (while this sentiment is expressed publically by a few Ebay functionaries no one in higher gmt (Hi Meg) has never stepped forward to correct it.)
Because we're all a bunch of rubes nothing we say really has an impact because all these college educated bozos, (who obviously never use the site- if they did the problems would probably be fixed) think they know what's good for us- because we're not smart enough to figure out what the problems are.
My view- take it for what it's worth.
BTW Radh-arms tired from waving those ebay pompoms yet?
posted on September 10, 2000 08:44:50 AM
Adrian wrote, "anything that can help ebaY to stay and make more profit helps us all in the long run." That is not necessarily true, not at all. It would be true if eBay reinvested its money back where it comes from, that is, the mom and pop sellers, but they are using our sales to lure in big corporations and that will change the face of eBay. I'm sure it will discourage bidders in the long run. I doubt Disney will be auctioning many valuable items starting at one dollar.
comic123 wrote, "I have no problems if Wal-Mart starts selling in eBay. Its free competition." I don't have a problem with competition per se, but if eBay is overrun with Walmart-type items, it will discourage bidders from logging on to the site. There are already many, many retail-type sites on the Web. None of them have achieved the success of eBay. eBay is about auctions. Browsing interesting items, finding hard-to-find collectibles, bidding, and occasionally finding that miracle deal. Just because customers are buying there now doesn't mean customers will continue to buy any kind of crap eBay decides to dish out.
posted on September 10, 2000 09:19:21 AM
Why do people come to ebaY to hopefully find either items they collect and cannot find anywhere else.Or to find a cheaper source for something they want.
Places like Walmart,Disney and Officemax are not likely to put items up for sale on ebaY for less than they can be bought at their sites.
I am sure that the various managers of the brick and mortar stores would not be very happy.Plus look at the volumes sales they do each day they could never achieve that on ebaY.
Plus even if they have a link to thier site why would I want browse and buy online when I can be at one of their stores within minutes and have the item right then.
Even if I do not live close to their stores there are others close by that offer similar items.
Yahoo and Amazon may take in a lot more than ebaY.But if your costs of running business are higher than revenue you will not able to stay in business.
If I tell you I have sales of 1 Billion dollars a year you might go wow,1 Billion how do you do it etc etc.But I tell them by business expenses are 1.2 Billion dollars and I am loosing money.Then it does not sound very impressive at all.
Better is the guy who says I have sale of 100,000 a year and my expenses are 20,000.
posted on September 10, 2000 09:29:37 AM
celebrityskin
It was not a complaint just a statement of fact.Any business would like to see its cost of doing business lower than it is.I never yet of a business owner who was happy to pay all the expenses they do to run that business.
Yes sales are over 100,000 I have been as high as 250,000.Not sure if I will do that this year as I have changed some of my stratergy.
I am not selling quite so expensive items as I used too.Due to ebaY market change.If ebaY si trying to attract a higher grade of customer that is willing to pay more per item.
Then thats fine by me too as I can then go back to the more higher priced items that net me a higher return cash wise on the money invested in the item.
I think International is one of the most important areas to develope,ebaY seems to recognise this fact too.
I hope that Paypal does offer international visa payments as this will help this season as well.I am dealing with more and more international bidders and I like that too.
There does appear to be costs involved that will be passed onto the seller if you use Paypal for international sales.I wonder if this will maybe stop people from using it.
Seems like as long as it is free lets use it as soon as their is a cost associated with it we pass.
I wonder if Paypal will require us to convert over to their premium services to take international payments.
If they do not get it rolled out soon they Billpoint works well for me.
posted on September 10, 2000 10:15:05 AM
twinsoft.
We seem to forget that there are all kinds of sellers on ebaY.Some make us look like childs play.Ebay has to try and do its best catering to all these different levels.
No matter what they do someone is going to feel left out.As the saying goes you cannot please all the people all the time,but you please some of the people most of the time.
I think ebaY has to look at what areas generate the most money for them.Then once they have done that cater to their needs first then the others.
In any business you take care of your best customers first.I have no idea on ebaY whether it is us the mom and pop or the bigger players.
in them: