posted on October 30, 2000 02:48:50 PM
I just ran a featured category auction, with some extra bold and highlighting. It was a dutch auction for 50 pieces. Total listing fees were around $30. I made some money from this auction.
Of the seven bids that came in, five were on the last day. Six of the seven bids during the last 48 hours of this ten-day auction.
So if bidders only see the auction during the last day, what's the point of all the extra "optional listing features?" Why pay $20 extra to have the auction listed at the top of the category, if no one looks there?
With featured category auctions, half the profit goes back to eBay. For the price of this "super" auction, I could have run 120 regular auctions, with net profit much higher than $30. Listing "enhancements" do not work!
posted on October 30, 2000 03:06:08 PM
twinsoft: My experience indicates the sames thing. Bidders find items either by Search, or Ending Today listings, and the optional listing features do nothing for you when a bidder finds your item through Search.
The only possible exception to this might be the gallery - since eBay now includes the gallery thumbnails in the 'Ending Today' listings, it's probably not a bad buy for a quarter.
posted on October 30, 2000 03:43:19 PMtwinsoft: I don't know about featured, but it seems possible that your auction stood out among all the others on that last day because of the bold and highlighting.
posted on October 30, 2000 04:13:30 PM
Hi, Glenda. Yes, the highlight and bold elped on the last day. And gallery is probably worth a quarter! But Featured Category and Featured just don't seem to deliver the "bang" I'd expect from the huge listing fee.
Look at these two scenarios: (1) Dutch auction featured category, etc., and (2) 30 three-day auctions over a 10 day period. Just for the sake of argument, I'll say 25% of thses auctions closed with a bid.
By selling in "plain vanilla" auctions with no extra features, my profit increases by more than 50% (from $32 to $54.50).
