posted on March 6, 2001 08:26:55 AM
Ok, I have looked around at all of the other sites that offer auction assistance.
I believe I will stay here...
These examples are for auctions that start under $10 (to get in the cheapest Ebay category)...If they start higher, then the fees go up for any site you use, so for simplicity, I will just use under $10 fee...
For auctions that start under $9.99...
Here's the numbers...
Let's look at the same number for Andale:
Final price (eBay and Andale fees)
$1 auction ($0.45 fee)
$5 auction ($0.70 fee)
$10 auction ($1.10 fee)
$25 auction ($2.29 fee)
$50 auction ($3.40 fee)
$100 auction ($5.63 fee)
$250 auction ($12.30 fee)
$500 auction ($23.43 fee)
$1000 auction ($44.43 fee)
Now I suppose if you sell thousands of items, then you may want to pay the $20 a month other places charge, but if you don't it's simply not worth it to go anywhere else...
posted on March 6, 2001 08:32:44 AM
There are MANY other sites besides Andale none of which charge any where near that much! All of the ones that I've checked into charge much less than AW is proposing and are highly regarded and comprehensive. (At least for my needs!)
posted on March 6, 2001 09:05:07 AM"Why Leave AW?"
a) Because they are weasels.
b) Because they are parasites, feeding off the wealth of information, data and usage of another business that is actually a player.
c) Because they doubted the intelligence of their users to find viable options to their services, thinking instead that their little flock of sheep would remain and pay a part of their own profits for services that are still available for nothing or comparatively little.
d) Because they feel the constant need to censor their users, unlike a strong, viable business that can take a few hits without the need for throwing the iron gauntlet down
e) Because they have a history of really stupid business decisions (i.e., Exchangepath).
f) Because they got rid of the people who really mattered in their own organization a LONG time ago because they wouldn't pony up a meager paycheck (at least for one of those folks).
g) Because they are no longer needed, as a good portion of AW users have taken it upon themselves to "talk the talk and walk the walk"...learn how to do things for themselves rather than rely on a company with a history of intermittent reliability and a fuzzy financial future.
h) ALL OF THE ABOVE
----
TRC
[ edited by TheRedCircle on Mar 6, 2001 09:10 AM ]
posted on March 6, 2001 10:49:44 AM
I guess if I really needed to schedule auctions to post later or used the post-auction services, I'd be shopping around right now. But for my needs, it's just as easy to schedule my life to sit down and list directly on ebay after about 3PM EST. I only list 3-6 items on any given day, though.
posted on March 6, 2001 10:54:08 AM
I don't like to pay fees anymore than anyone else, but I have no plans to leave AW. I started selling 2 years ago having no experience and through AW was able to build a business of $75K/yr in sales and growing. At the time and as far as I can tell, even today, there is not a easier site to host images and launch auctions. If I had to deal with my own web space, FTP'ing files and HTML I'd be sitting in front of the boob tube in my off time instead of planning my retirement at 50. For me, the $200 annual fee is worth it for the easy of use AW offers (I might feel differently if I had to pay the 1% though). At some point everyone is going to have to charge if they want to stay in business. The "FREE" business model just does not work.
I have deleted several posts in this thread that were promotional in nature.
As you know, we are asking that discussion of AW's fees be confined to the threads begun by Mark and Chris. Otherwise, the topic of fees will dominate the forum.
I'm locking this thread. If you have further comments, please post them in the proper threads.
