posted on September 22, 2000 10:35:47 PM new
This totally bites.
I just re-listed my weekly category featured auction and was not at all happy with my discovery of the increased price. It may have been announced in those links that Glenda provided, but I certainly never saw it, nor heard a hint from any other source.
The least those eBay bloodsuckers could have done is to publicize it a little better. An email to sellers like me that use it constantly would have been nice.
If it hadn't taken me by surprise, I probably wouldn't have run it featured. I did raise the minimum bid enough to cover the increase, but I don't know if my bidders will be willing to "cough up the extra dough".
I think that eBay just lost the additional $777.40 I pay them every year for featured auction fees, rather than gain the additional $260.00 that they expected. The value (additional profit) of running featured auctions has been declining for me the last few months, to the point that it just barely paid for itself anyway.
posted on September 22, 2000 11:07:53 PM new
These "optional services" do not benefit the user base as a whole. They only serve to redistribute the existing pool of bidders among sellers, while extracting more fees for eBay. For every seller that benefits by "highlighting" his auctions in yellow for $5 (if indeed there IS a benefit), there is some other seller that is damaged.
If eBay wanted to do something of value to sellers, they should spend some of their record profits to attract new bidders, not redistribute the old ones for a fee.
posted on September 23, 2000 12:15:40 AM new
For every seller who is benefited by a well written ad another seller is damaged. For every seller who is benefited by offering low shipping costs another seller is damaged.
These "add ons" have been available for at least the last 2 1/2 years. Sellers were able to feature their auctions, category feature their auctions, and bold their auctions when I started in march 1998.
Yahoo offers similar, for pay, auction enhancements as does Amazon.
Life isn't fair or equal. Neither is business equal. Some people write better copy than others and get more sales because of it, others are better at finding the bargains and can sell their items for less than the competition and therefore get more sales. Some people have the knowledge to spot a rare item that others have overlooked and therefore make more money than other sellers. Some sellers have great people skills and therefore have many repeat customers.
And for all those sellers listed above, other sellers get less sales because the buyers are going to the sellers listed above.
Business is competition! There is no "level playing field". Customers can't be divided eequally amoung the sellers.
There is nothing wrong with one business trying to make their merchandise stand above the rest of the pack. And nothing wrong with ebay offering the means for those businesses to stand out.
posted on September 23, 2000 12:27:07 AM new
I agree with Amy. She makes a good point. And "Featured" auctions are now "Super Featured" because they are listed at the top of search results. Pretty lame excuse for a fee increase, but I stopped using optional listing features a while ago, so I don't care. Watch for "Super-Duper Featured" auctions coming soon: For $50, eBay will "promise" not to put competitive banner ads on your auction page.
posted on September 23, 2000 07:40:11 AM new
Cheeses...if today you revamped your business plan and decided by this time next year you were going to double your ebay income, were would your increased income come from? Why your customers of course!
Strange, isn't it, that's where ebay's increased income will come from too. You certainly didn't think they were going to go out and print the money did you? Or maybe their fairy godmother was going to wave her magic wand and the money would just appear?
posted on September 23, 2000 09:54:38 AM new
"There is nothing wrong with one business trying to make their merchandise stand above the rest of the pack. And nothing wrong with ebay offering the means for those businesses to stand out."
Fair enough.
But isn't there a difference between having your merchandise stand above the rest based on real value to the bidder, or quality of product, or thoroughness of description (in other words, based on the item's merit), and having your product stand above the rest based on flashing lights, clanging bells, and screaming whistles? Where would it end?
If 60% of eBay sellers were convinced that they needed to pay the extra $5 for highlighting in order to stay competitive- the "ehnancement" would no longer have any effect- it would become the norm. So then if eBay added "flashing" highlighted items (and don't think for a minute they don't have plans ready for this) for another $5, is that just great? What about listings that talk to your as you drag your mouse across them for another $5? Fine? How about listings in a larger font for $5? That's OK too?
It's one thing when there is real competition between the landlords, and tenants are free to move their wares elsewhere with reasonable liklihood that they can find bidders. It's quite another when the landlord holds a virtual monopoly on the market, and insists on turning the world's biggest and most efficient online marketplace into a garish strip mall complete with flashing neon signs, barkers at the doors to entice passersby, and hookers hanging their wares from the windows.
posted on September 23, 2000 01:53:54 PM new
I would NEVER pay for a featured listing even if I was selling the Hope Diamond. Most everyone I know just searches for stuff they are looking for. I can count on one finger the times I bid on something that was featured. A complete waste of money IMHO.
posted on September 23, 2000 02:39:55 PM new
magazine guy: But isn't there a difference between having your merchandise stand above the rest based on real value to the bidder, or quality of product, or thoroughness of description (in other words, based on the item's merit), and having your product stand above the rest based on flashing lights, clanging bells, and screaming whistles? Where would it end?
posted on September 23, 2000 03:33:04 PM new
Well instead of the normal charge of approximatly $20 this weeks Featured Category auction cost me $28.00
To boot the $5.00 bucks extra to highlite the auction was a total waste of time. Every other mother's son is doing it so no highlight is apparent.
To add insult to injury my dutch auctions have averaged between 20/1 and 25/1 hit bid ratios all summer long. This weeks "new and improved" version is running at over 50/1, the worse ever and the most expensive. I have no clue what eBay has done with the search functions but it has sure hurt.
Between the poor performance, extra charges on eBay and PayPal, this is not incouraging for a new seller.
posted on September 23, 2000 04:11:23 PM new
Course if you wanted to get notice of all the latest changes in the OAI emailed to you - you could subscribe to TAGnotes....sheesh think one of my goombas here would suggest this instead of makin' me come along and do it.... -Rosalinda
TAGnotes - daily email synopsis about the Online Auction Industry http://www.topica.com/lists/tagnotes
posted on September 23, 2000 04:26:26 PM new
Course if you wanted to get notice of all the latest changes in the OAI emailed to you - you could subscribe to TAGnotes:
posted on September 23, 2000 05:58:04 PM new
Steve, the point of advertising is NOT to give value to the buyer. The point of advertising is to get the buyer's attention so he will listen to your sales pitch!
Once a seller/merchant has gotten a potential customer's attention THEN he let's the buyer know WHY his item is better than the other guys.
So what is YOUR solution? Ebay should get more bidders? But they are already trying to do that (and the constantly increasing number of users seems to indicate thay are succeeding). Unfortunately for those of us who are already here...new bidders means there also will be new sellers..and more competition for the bidder pool. I'm not sure how ebay can get new users and make sure they will ONLY buy so the bidder pool can be increased without increasing the seller pool.
No matter how big the bidder pool is..whether it is 5 bidders to every 1 seller or 100 bidders to every 1 seller, there will be competion for the bidder's attention and dollars between sellers. Every seller is going to want the bidders to buy from him and not the other sellers. And every seller will employ tactics they think will get the attention of the buyer BEFORE the buyer sees the other seller's merchandise. If ebay doesn't supply advertising tools, the seller will invent his own (look at all the ads that use L@@K, RARE, *****item*****, etc.).
The reality is the seller WANTS the buyer to buy from him and not the other guy...the seller does not want to SHARE the buyers with anyone else...no matter how big the buyer pool is!
As for turning this into a garish strip mall..what a laugh. It has ALWAYS been a garish strip mall. The first time I looked at Ebay, in the fall of 1997, I scrolled through pages upon pages upon endless (at least it SEEMED endless) pages of featured auctions that had all the look and feel of a quack medicine sideshow. The ads reminded me of a hucksters heaven...seemed like all ebay was was a long list of ads that resembled the "newest method to make the "male member" big enough to make the ladies swoon in anticipation"...or ads for "stop being a 90 pound weakling"..you know, the kind of ads at the back of 4th rate pulp magazines.
It took me months to even look at ebay again!
The utopia you are seeking is not going to happen.
posted on September 23, 2000 08:09:55 PM new
Garish -- and for a long time? Yes, probably, but good search terms cuts much of this down. Do an initial search for the main terms of interest, then immediately exclude the barely relevant or otherwise not desired items through negative search terms.
As to bold, I find my eyes tend to "naturally" avoid the bold items, but maybe that's just me. I'd chalk that up to my being good at blocking anything resembling hype. The more something is hyped, the more I ignore it or try reading between the lines, because I feel that in general, there is an inverse relationship between the level of hype and the level of quality.
Same for "LQQK" or its variants, or "rare," or the like. As a consumer, I do not appreciate attempts to manipulate my opinion. Let my opinion of the product and/or service itself stand. If my first impression is hype, my first impression will already be starting out as a negative.
Sort of along the lines of yankee's statements, I'll find the items I really want, and will just "naturally" tend to avoid the ones with all the bells and whistiles, either because of loading time, getting startled by sound, suspicions about the hype, or my eyes simply jumping over hype or considering it a possible negative factor.
eBay search is the most powerful mechanism in the world for finding uncommon items of interest, in my opinion, and I loved the generally flat, level playing field it has presented in the past, and tend to distrust those items that try hyping themselves anyway.
-Rosalinda