posted on March 13, 2001 02:00:33 PM
I just checked it out and all the stuff on there looks like junk. It doesnt tell you how much it is to join until after you join.If you sell something and it doesnt work,who get the neg. feedback?....You do.
posted on March 13, 2001 02:05:25 PM
actually -- I dug a little deeper after I posted -- very clever business plan. You pay $1 per point -- 500 minimum buy-in for the year. You choose the items you want posted -- they design the pages under THEIR OWN ebay user ID -- they take the questions and the feeedback -- good or bad. Incidently they have over 5000 auctions going on right now...
Here's the rub...for 500 bucks a year -- you get to list 500 bucks worth of their product a week (translation = approx. $300 in listing fees per year -- they make $200 per head + they have a virtual selling force PAYING to work for them.
I'm going to pass on this -- but I'm curious what you other AW hawk-eyes think.
posted on March 13, 2001 02:21:50 PM
This was posted on another auction service site's message board:
Name: Support
Date/Time: 02/17/2001 12:35
To All This May Concern,
There is a company by name "TakeToAuction.com". Their business model works as follow: You pay them $100.00, and you will get 100 credit points in your account with them. You then use your credit points to purchase items from their inventory and launch the items to auction sites. If an item gets sold, you will get back your original credit points plus any profits (i.e., sale price - your purchase price). The profits are cashable, but the original credit points are not; and of course, you can re-use your credit points to purchase new items. The minimum amount of points you need to purchase in one year is $100.00, but you can purchase as many as you wish.
This business model sounds like an investment type: You put down some money, and then you help that company sell their merchandise and at the same time make some money.
Although the business concept may be sound and attractive, this particular company is not good at all -- because:
1. Most of their merchandise are high-priced items ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousands. That means you need to put down a large amount of money in order to purchase such items;
2. Many of their merchandise do not sell at all on auction sites;
3. They list a lot of items in their selection area, but when you click on an item you really wish to purchase and then re-sell on an auction site, many time you will get a message saying the item is not available.
Due to these reasons, we suggest that you stay away from them if you ever get attracted by their advertisement.
posted on March 13, 2001 06:49:26 PM
The following thread is six months old (and refers to an even older thread that apparently no longer exists). I don't know how up-to-date the thread is compared to any possible changes in TTA's business plan, but here it is:
http://www.auctionwatch.com/mesg/read.html?num=2&id=259155&thread=258758
----
What's being done in the name of direct marketing nowadays is crazy.
The above are all just my opinions, except where I cite facts as such.
Oh, I am not dc9a320 anywhere except AW. Any others are not me.
Is eBay is changing from a world bazaar into a bizarre world?
posted on March 13, 2001 07:01:21 PM
Whenever I do a search for something on eBay and one of the items is listed by a taketoauction seller, you can bet I hit the BACK button very quickly. Every TTA seller I've seen has multiple negative feedback.
posted on March 13, 2001 08:43:50 PM
i feel sorry for all the newbie sellers who get sold on this sorry excuse for a business. Their stuff is crap, and even if it weren't, dozens of people (all TakeToAuction sellers!) are selling identical items already, and the market is flooded with everything TakeToAuction has to sell. One item is in my categories. Ten different sellers are trying to sell this item and 99 percent of the time,none of them sell. The sellers have tried undercutting each other on the starting price to the point where I doubt they make even one cent on the sale. Then to make things worse, even if a few people are attracted by this glutted item, they read in the auctions "shipping may take 2 to 4 weeks"----the seller has no control, since Take To Auction sends out the merchandise. Bad, bad, BAD idea. Find your own stuff to sell. That way you keep ALL the money, as well as getting to SELL it, instead of just list it over and over and over.....
posted on March 13, 2001 08:51:57 PM
Stay away from TTA. I did a study on closed auctions from them, and very few items sold. The ones that did posted an average of $0-$1 profit for the seller. If you start with their minimum $500 there's no way you could sell the quality items that may get bigger profits. Even after lot's of listings, you have to make $500 just to break even (you lose the $500 at the end of the year). It's a great concept, but not a realistic business model. The good thing is they do all the work, you won't lose any money on a listing and you don't carry any product.
My recommendation, take your $500 and buy some good items wholesale and sell them yourself.
posted on March 14, 2001 08:30:21 AM
Furthermore, last I checked (a year ago), the only way for the member (not TTA itself) to gross some money on an item is for the high bid to be higher than the starting bid, which of course equates to there being two or more bids on the item. This is because TTA always gets the starting bid amount. So items that only get one bid make nothing for the member. The member has to count on bidding to be hot enough that over the course of the membership period, that the differences between high bids and starting bids accumulate to more than the membership fee.
For example, a member "takes" a $400 minimum camera "to auction." 0 bids, no one makes money. 1 bid of $400, TTA gets the money. 2 or more bids, high bid of say $410, TTA gets $400, seller gets $10 of what TTA calls "profit" (which for the member is the gross, in my opinion).
If the member paid $500 in membership fees, they have to "take to auction" 50 such cameras, at that rate of bidding, to make back the membership fee -- more to make profit (i.e. more than the membership fee was) with the TTA system.
Again, this is based on my interpretation of their webpages a year or so ago, and a quick peek at the site doesn't seem to show any change to the system.
----
What's being done in the name of direct marketing nowadays is crazy.
The above are all just my opinions, except where I cite facts as such.
Oh, I am not dc9a320 anywhere except AW. Any others are not me.
Is eBay is changing from a world bazaar into a bizarre world?
