posted on November 20, 2000 04:08:29 PM
It's time consuming enough to sift through all the listings of items you want, but to now have to hope the item is still available when you go to the auction page is unbearable!
Countless times in the past couple of days, I have been inconvenienced by finally finding something I was looking for--only to see that it had been "bought now" by someone within hours of being listed!
This is a colosal waste of my time, and to be honest, I am really starting to sour on browsing around. It's just becoming too frustrating. I wish sellers wouldn't use this feature.
I realize Ebay is constantly tinkering with what isn't broken to try and "grow", but does a business really have to continually "grow" to remain profitable?
There are a lot of business that are successful, yet DO NOT continually press and pess until they ruin what was originally a great idea. Reminds me of the old fable about the dog with the bone looking at it's reflection in the water.
[ edited by shoreman on Nov 20, 2000 04:10 PM ]
posted on November 20, 2000 04:15:01 PM
i actually agree with you ...it should be taken off the board ...as soon as it is sold......makes for an easier time on the board looking for things.....i do love buy it now though
posted on November 20, 2000 04:16:37 PM
This is all the better reason to put a frist earily bid in on this type sale to end the buy it now if you think you can win for less the the buy it now price http://www.Dman-N-Company.com
What good is my intention to bid early if the item is already sold within hours of being listed? Also, the item will continue to show up as "active" in the listings for the entire length of the original auction dates.
posted on November 20, 2000 04:32:25 PM
Shoreman...well here is the "duh-child" inside of me coming out...I didn't know that was why the auctions were closed!!!
Aaaaaarrrrrggh!!!
Nothing worse than seeing an item closed.
I mean, if I don't see it, then I don't think "*&$(*&!!!"
It is a waste of search space. Why do I want to see closed auctions? There are several ways that I can do that if I so chose.
So far there haven't been any items that I want to "buy now" we'll see.....
posted on November 20, 2000 04:34:27 PMCountless times in the past couple of days, I have been inconvenienced by finally finding something I was looking for--only to see that it had been "bought now" by someone within hours of being listed!
This is a colosal waste of my time, and to be honest, I am really starting to sour on browsing around. It's just becoming too frustrating. I wish sellers wouldn't use this feature.
I predicted this exact sort of frustration in another thread a few days ago. Bidders are going to get pissed off because they no longer have a sufficient amount of time to compete for items they want. The only bidders -- wait, scratch that, they're not bidders, they're buyers -- who benefit from Buy It Now are those who have all day to sit at their computer and continually refresh the "New Today" page. Is it really worth rewarding this small percentage of people at the cost of creating frustration among the much, much larger majority? I don't think so.
ubb
[ edited by spazmodeus on Nov 20, 2000 04:36 PM ]
posted on November 20, 2000 05:26:23 PM
As a seller I’ve sold over 50% of my recurring items each day as buy it now. Its increased my sales! First come first served is the American way. Unless you’re a Liberal that is and you feel entitled.... I have 3 Playstation 2s to sell the week before Christmas.. are you entitled to one of those too? Stand in line like I did - do the work and maybe you will earn one.
posted on November 20, 2000 05:33:14 PMthey're buyers -- who benefit from Buy It Now are those who have all day to sit at their computer and continually refresh the "New Today" page
A situation like this wouldn't last long. If particular items are selling as soon as they are listed, sellers will increase the prices. Then those items won't sell quite so quickly. It all balances out, and in the end, won't affect price or avaibility for the vast majority of items that it's used on.
posted on November 20, 2000 06:39:58 PM
It's sellers like bubbahyide that will be the ultimate downfall of Ebay.
They are perverting the brand recognition that this site has become so famous with. It is an AUCTION site---not a retail site.
Yes, they will increase sales short term by catering to this mentality, HOWEVER, there are going to be more and more RETAIL sites popping up, and while Ebay had the AUCTION recognition on a worldwide level, they WILL NOT be thought of as the premiere RETAIL site. They will only diminish the true element that they were MOST associated with.
How do you like that, bubbahyide, your greed may be ultimatley destroying this once magnificent garage sale.
If the original business plan called for this to become a retail site, then it was very poorly conceived. A plan to move away from what you do best is only a plan for ultimate failure.
Oh, and bubbahyide, the way the Playstation market has been heading, you'll be lucky to break even on those little treasures you're holding.
posted on November 20, 2000 07:08:22 PM
So if there is an auction with the buy it now feature listed for 10 days and it was bought in the first 2 hours would it continue to show up for the entire 10 days?
Oddish~ The Odd One
posted on November 20, 2000 07:55:51 PM
If you want an example, title search: Parnelli Jones Roadster,
the third one, "Legends 1963 Parnelli Jones Watson Roadster" is mine.
It closed 12 hours into the auction on Nov. 17 and is still listed in the search results.
I was leaning towards using Buy It Now more, but this is, in the long term, bad. It is not a good thing to waste bidders time like this.
eBay should get to work to fix this, but I won't hold my breath.
--------------
Don't take life so serious, it ain't nohow permanent.
posted on November 20, 2000 08:05:58 PMIt's sellers like bubbahyide that will be the ultimate downfall of Ebay.
They are perverting the brand recognition that this site has become so famous with. It is an AUCTION site---not a retail site.
Ebay will be the ultimate downfall of Ebay.
If they wanted to encourage true auctions, they could.
For example, they could have special "absolute auctions" that start at 1 cent with no reserve. These could be featured in a special area in each category and there could be a check box on searches to only find absolute auctions.
It would be simple and inexpensive to implement, it would be fun, and it would end up bringing in more revenue for Ebay. So it will likely never happen.
And I'm sure there are much more effective ways to provide incentives. The point is that Ebay has tremendous power in controlling the scope and character of commerce that happens on their site. But instead of innovating, they attempt to squeeze every last dime out while doing nothing to benefit sellers.
posted on November 20, 2000 08:06:38 PM
It might actually HAVE a good side. As Bill says, if people get frustrated at running into the BIN items, maybe they'll get off their collective duffs & BID rather than risk it being bought out from under them. Who knows, BIN might be the answer to the dreaded watch feature.
posted on November 20, 2000 08:06:57 PM
I just ran across a potential problem that was posted on another board concerning the BUY It Now feature. Apparently, you can change the Buy It Now price after the auction has started by using the edit button for your auction listing which is really not a good thing. The poster DID confirm this with eBay and was told they were aware of it and planned to correct the problem.
Had the auction STARTED or was the seller just revising it prior to the first bid. I was revising a bunch of auctions last night that didn't have opening bids yet & it would have been easy to change the BIN price.
But I thought once the auction got a bid, the BIN disappeared.
posted on November 20, 2000 08:20:04 PMeventer, the auction had started and was already in the data base. This poster had seen the auction with the BUY IT NOW price, was interested in bidding on it at the BUY IT NOW price and emailed the seller to ask a question about the item. When she went back to view the listing the BUY IT NOW price had been increased.
There was no bid on the auction yet but I still don't think it's a good idea to be able to change that price once the auction has started.
posted on November 20, 2000 08:39:37 PM
I have to try to get used to using BIN instead of spelling the darn thing out.
We can't change the opening bid price or the reserve when we edit our auction description once the auction is officially listed because that wouldn't be fair to anyone who had already viewed the auction. It could also lead to some dishonest behavior on the seller's part. For the same reason, I don't think the seller should be able to revise the BIN price once the auction has been officially listed. It seems obvious to me that the conversation the poster that I mentioned earlier had with the seller caused the latter to increase the BIN price.
I decided to start a thread on this topic.
Blanche
[ edited by bhearsch on Nov 20, 2000 08:51 PM ]
posted on November 20, 2000 09:22:24 PM
It looks like ebay wants to get out of auctions, here's a quote from ZD Net News:
"...the company, by its own estimate, has less than 2 percent of the U.S. collectible market.
"So how deep can eBay penetrate?" she asks. "Is 10 percent, the right goal, or is it 20 percent? Further, these objectives hinge on eBay`s ability to transform its business model from an auction-based, collectible site to a diversified e-commerce portal. ... So far, we have seen little evidence that that the model can travel."
posted on November 20, 2000 09:22:32 PM
eBay says that BIN items that have sold are still showing in title search but shouldn't be. They said they'll fix it.
posted on November 20, 2000 09:27:42 PMIt's sellers like bubbahyide that will be the ultimate downfall of Ebay.
Ebay will be the ultimate downfall of Ebay.
I don't see that happening. As long as there are dealers selling hard to find and/or desirable items that people want, the bidders will be there. Where else are the buyers going to get some of these things offered up for bid?
That's a dealer's job--to track down things that buyers want, and buyers are willing to pay for it because they don't have the time or desire to look all over creation for what they want. They come to ebay. Over and over. And if that buyer drops out, there's one or two more coming in.
And the BIN thing? I like the regular auctions better for my business and that's what I'll continue to run. I said in another thread that it's likely to only work consistently when the BIN price is below normal market value or well below. I don't think I want to sell everything at lowball prices. That's what BIN will be with non-unique items, sellers trying to undercut the other guy by a buck or two or three until it's not worth it anymore.
[ edited by loosecannon on Nov 20, 2000 09:36 PM ]
