posted on December 20, 2000 08:14:37 PM new
No that is not a typo - I mean Buy It Not - my new name for eBay.
(By the way, this is a venting post in case anyone was wondering;(
I am so sick of clicking on a listing only to find it sold. Why can't eBay remove the listing as soon as it is sold with "Buy It Now" the same as Yahoo does? With all the endless listings you now have to sift through to find something of interest, when you finally do click on something it's VERY frustrating to find that the item is already sold!
posted on December 20, 2000 08:22:48 PM new
I agree, I have started looking at newly listed items 1st. Then, after I sift through all the BIN newbies, I look at everything else.
posted on December 21, 2000 04:33:18 AM new
"I am so sick of clicking on a listing only to find it sold. Why can't eBay remove the listing as soon as it is sold with "Buy It Now" the same as Yahoo does?"
Because it is GOOD ADVERTISING for the BIN feature ... that's why.
posted on December 21, 2000 05:52:31 AM new
What can I say - write eBay and complain - although that will probably do no good. I can sort of see eBay's point, since it is such a large site with so many, many people it takes time for people to learn a new feature. Most of my BIN buyers, didn't understand it - one even though he had paid for it when it ask for his credit card.
SO, I presume till eBay believes MOST buyers understand the BIN, and learn to view/search NEW auctions first - then they will leave all of them up.
BUT, if you find an item you like, you might write the seller and ask if they have another of the item - or will be posting another soon - I have had a number of such e-mails, and normally if I run a BIN item, I do have a back up.
posted on December 21, 2000 07:16:08 AM new
Goldensands: I couldn't agree with you more. This irritating feature is making shopping on Ebay a big-time exercise in futility.
Abacaxi: I see your point, but I don't agree that this is good advertising for Ebay. I think it is a way of driving buyers away. Who has hours and hours to sit poking through Ebay's already vastly overloaded listings only to find the item they want already sold.
jwpc: I don't think Yahoo had much of a problem with this feature. What I like on Yahoo is that the closed auction disappears immediately from the search engines and you don't have to waste your time looking at closed listings.
As a seller, it really annoys me to think buyers have to wade through all these closed listings before they find an active auction. Something isn't right here!
posted on December 21, 2000 07:58:12 AM new
I wonder if some buyers are adjusting by shopping the "just listed" [or whatever it is] categories, rather than last day. I got BIN purchases yesterday so quickly, I can't imagine how else they could have done it.
Oddly, I almost immediately sold at least two books as re-lists which have also been hanging around on half.com or Amazon for so many weeks, this was "last chance, then you're gone" time.
I also got some quickie bids on other items, making me wonder if other buyers are putting in initial bids to make sure their item does NOT get taken by BIN.
Either way, I like it better than watching auctions drag out to the very end with no bids. I hope ebay decides not to charge for BIN.
posted on December 21, 2000 08:08:38 AM new
I have not used BIN because I have only ran across a few items that were sold when looking through listings. I think I will give it a try if it is working that good.
posted on December 21, 2000 08:48:21 AM new
I, too, have run up against BIN auctions for items already sold, and it's very frustrating. As a buyer, I know that listing something on eBay (or any other auction site) is a gamble, but quite often I would have been willing to pay more for an item than it sold for via BIN had I been allowed to bid on it. So can any sellers out there tell me what the advantage is to BIN vs a "normal" auction? Is it the quick cash? If so, and again recognizing the gamble of listing normally with the possibility of no bids at all, I think this "advantage" is short-sighted in the long run.
I could accept this juggernaut if eBay could eliminate the closed BIN auctions from the search mechanism. What I don't know can't hurt me! But I'm really fed up with doing a seach and finding that item after item has been sold.
posted on December 21, 2000 08:49:29 AM new
I, too, have run up against BIN auctions for items already sold, and it's very frustrating. As a buyer, I know that listing something on eBay (or any other auction site) is a gamble, but quite often I would have been willing to pay more for an item than it sold for via BIN had I been allowed to bid on it. So can any sellers out there tell me what the advantage is to BIN vs a "normal" auction? Is it the quick cash? If so, and again recognizing the gamble of listing normally with the possibility of no bids at all, I think this "advantage" is short-sighted in the long run.
I could accept this juggernaut if eBay could eliminate the closed BIN auctions from the search mechanism. What I don't know can't hurt me! But I'm really fed up with doing a seach and finding that item after item has been sold.
posted on December 21, 2000 09:42:55 AM new
Buy It Now from a seller's perspective cuts the baloney out of selling non-unique items. Buying online is all about speed and convenience and that's exactly what BIN does.
No watching and no waiting. I posted an item the other day and it sold in about two hours and shipped the next morning.
BIN also can have a very positive influence on people who rely on the Watch feature. It might just get them to start bidding if they want something.
I wonder what sort of fee they are going to attach to this feature when the honeymoon ends. If it isn't inexpensive, it will die.
posted on December 21, 2000 09:52:34 AM new
I don't think many here dispute the fact that BIN is a great feature.
As a buyer, I love it when I stumble across a BIN auction for something I really want at a price I can afford. I don't waste much time zapping in my bid.
However, what is causing a lot of irritation is the BIN auctions that are closed, yet still showing up in the search results.
How long would you continue to patronize a shop that had a sold ticket on most items before you even walked through the door?
As an example, last night I finally had a few minutes to relax and decided to do some serious browsing on Ebay. Hit 5 closed auctions in a row. Did I continue to browse. You can bet I didn't. I have better things to do with my time than to waste it looking at closed auctions! Got out a good book and had a wonderful, restful evening. My apologies to all the sellers who still had active listings, but my patience does have its limits!
BIN is a popular feature, and well it should be. As a buyer and seller I really like this option. What I don't like is wasting my time looking at closed auctions. Kudos to Ebay for finding a great way to frustrate buyers!
posted on December 21, 2000 10:02:30 AM new
I love the BIN, even though I have yet not bought anything with it. I am finding that most of the antique sellers (at least in the fields I hunt) have pretty well established what they want (via reserve), so why not add BIN option? At least it also gives a clue as to what their thinking is about value - I have grown very tired of bidding to probe for the reserve. If you are going to set a reserve at retail level, why not BIN - since the reserves make a lot of people feel like they are being jerked around.
Is there a way you can search or display BIN auctions only?
posted on December 21, 2000 10:12:23 AM new
BIN is working so well that many bidders are frustrated and quit looking? I supppose then, if BIN wasn't working quite so well, these bidders would be less likely to be frustrated and would be bidding more. Which would mean that BIN was working well, and therefore frustrating more bidders.
posted on December 21, 2000 10:15:04 AM new
Add my voice to those who are irritated by the BIN auctions still showing up in the current auction searches. If something sells via BIN, fine, no problem, but please get out of the active search and into the closed search! I was so annoyed the other night that I considered no longer searching for any the items on my want list - ever. Who has time to waste looking at closed items?
posted on December 21, 2000 10:17:19 AM new
wisegirl said: "So can any sellers out there tell me what the advantage is to BIN vs a "normal" auction? Is it the quick cash? If so, and again recognizing the gamble of listing normally with the possibility of no bids at all, I think this "advantage" is short-sighted in the long run. "
I am pretty comfortable with it because I also use fixed-price venues like half.com. If you are going to have seller's remorse because you got what you asked for, it will be a hard mental game to play.
Not everything goes for the BIN price, but when it does, it's nicer than ending up selling for a low opening bid. It also usually gets the goods out of the house faster.
posted on December 21, 2000 10:40:23 AM new
abacaxi hit in on the head. It's a great way to promote the feature, plus it creates more of a desire amongst buyers. Bidding allows a buyer to say, "well, I can always go back and place a bid if I decide I want it." With BIN, the buyers don't have that luxury. When they see items being snapped up wih BIN, they are forced to act more quickly. But I agree it has its annoying setbacks definitely for buyers, but it's fantasic for sellers that the item isn't taking down immediately. One plus for buyers is it allows them to see the demand for an item, so you know not to delay buying it. Another plus is for those buyers who are watching "Ending Today." Imagine suddenly the items you're watching are vaporized.
Perhaps ebay needs to add a click on for closed BINS. That'd solve everything, and wouldn't effect the positives.
posted on December 21, 2000 11:15:49 AM new
I suspect that the main issue is that eBay doesn't have the server capacity to do updates as easily as Yahoo generally does. I've noticed this dichotomy from the start, Yahoo hit the path running with massive portal capacity and know-how relating to programming and hardware, but very little savvy about auctions and customer service. Ebay has been clueless on the technical end, plus has shifted away from whatever community responsiveness it might have had at one time.
I have this image of eBay as a brontosaurus sedately munching away on aquatic weeds (user fees) utterly oblivious that its main brain out in the tip of its tail just got stomped into oblivion by 3 or 4 passing critters not to mention its own clumsy hind foot.. (Yahoo, stock market tanking, etc.)
posted on December 21, 2000 11:22:18 AM new
I was completely against BIN ever rolling out in any form. I thought it would cause regular auctions to suffer.
I've since changed my mind. I've actually used BIN on RELISTED items that have run once on a regular auction unsuccessfully. BIN appears to have slightly increased my sales over the holidays because interested parties can count on obtaining the items offered with a BIN price - often quicker than waiting for a regular listing to finish it's 3, 5, 7 or 10 day run.
If bidders continue to SEE items that they desire already SOLD within their search results and the listings... perhaps they will learn to visit the site more frequently, search more frequently and either BID EARLY or PURCHASE at the BIN price, rather than WATCHING or waiting until the final moments to SNIPE stuff that (until BIN) may have lingered on auction without bids.
With all of this said... I doubt that I would ever PAY for Buy It Now. For one reason.... I think that part of BIN's appeal for this 60 day trial period has been that HOLIDAY LISTINGS could be made available right up until the week before Christmas. Any other time of year, QUICK SALES would not be as important of a factor... certainly (as a SELLER) not something important enough to motivate me to PAY for it.
I hope that eBay will be happy enough with BIN bringing more traffic to the site and offering buyers & sellers the convenience of quicker deals (faster turn-arounds) - which should increase revenue for eBay, all on it's own WITHOUT attempting to rake sellers over with added fees. Besides, any fees Sellers incur toward getting their items up for auction/sale will most certainly be passed on to the BUYERS via setting higher opening bids, reserves and Buy It Now prices.
posted on December 21, 2000 12:31:50 PM new
Goldensands
It reall doesn't matter. After the holidays BIN is going to either be gone or we will have to pay for it and most people will not pay for (yet one more semi-useful feature).
posted on December 21, 2000 12:42:20 PM new
The only time BIN icons/items show up after the auction has closed is if you are doing a title w/description search. Lists that you pull up from any other method will show closed BIN items for roughly a couple of hours after they've ended, until the next update is posted.
(Of course, if you use description search almost exclusively, like I do, you're going to hit up against closed BINs all the time.)
I imagine that they will eventually put in a "patch" that will allow the description search database to be updated for BIN items, like they have for featured and gallery items. (If it's a regular item, description search results are never updated after the initial indexing.)
posted on December 21, 2000 02:12:44 PM new
It seems that a lot of people are looking at the newly listed items first these days. I think I'm even seeing a sort of reverse sniping trend.
Many of the BIN items I click, only to discover they've been sold, appear to have ended at a price lower than might be anticipated for such an item. In some cases I know I would have bid above the BIN price.
This BIN result does not seem advantageous
to certain sellers.
Those BIN listings that are still active are often priced well beyond the range anyone would reasonably pay. These seem to proceed as a normal auction.
The most effective BIN auctions, IMO, are those that price the item just a hair above the best price to be expected. The urge to bid, before someone enters a low spoiler bid, is strong. One of those is going to get me real soon.
As a frequent buyer, I don't care much for the feature. It's much too time consuming to properly exploit.
Most seller's will eventually come to learn when it is advantageous to use BIN and how to "work" the feature to best effect. I think the BIN is here to stay. I don't think we'll see too much of it, though.
