posted on September 8, 2001 04:20:31 PM
Grababargain.com just hit 3 million listings after launching back in July 2001. Money Magazine just called Grababargain the best new online fleamarket. Anyone agree?
Clear out those Jackie Collins paperbacks and MC Hammer CDs. Or save 50 to 90 percent on new and used books, music, movies, and more. Either way, www.grababargain.com is the hottest online bazaar. Easy to navigate and with fixed prices, it's the most serious competitor to eBay and Half.com, averaging two new listings a second and carrying 3 million items at last count. There's no listing fee, although there is a 15 percent commission on sales. The site plans to begin selling video games, as well as computers and other electronics, in time for the holidays.
-- F.T.
Anybody having success with this site?
The site looks great, but where's the 7-figure advertising campaign they promised?
From a July 17th article:
http://www.grababargain.com/corp/releases/07_17_01.cfm
With over 2 million items, Grab A Bargain.com is already a popular stop for bargain hunters looking for a deal online. They will be introducing an aggressive seven figure marketing campaign with many incentive based giveaways supported by radio, billboard, and banner advertising to promote their site and increase traffic.
"We are confident that the combination of our state-of-the-art website and incentive based marketing program will challenge the competition and capture a substantial share of the market", said Kelly Weber, Vice-President of Marketing. "This will keep our listings growing and propel Grab A Bargain.com into a leadership position within the fixed-price market."
posted on September 8, 2001 04:37:42 PM
We have asked on a few occasions & not gotten a real answer. We have listed there for a few months & only had 2 sales so far. They have a few very large listers who seem to be listed on just about any book you bring up & none of them have more than 20 sales. I would love to see them put there act into drive. I wouls also love to find out when the ads will start so we can get some real inventory there.
It is the number of sales that is important, not the number of listings.
[ edited by spittingcamel on Sep 8, 2001 05:24 PM ]
posted on September 8, 2001 06:16:27 PM
I was enthusiastic when the first post about this site was posted here in AW a month or so ago.
But I am starting to suspect some gegy.com style promotion going on, especially the promised-but-not-sure-when-it-will-happen
milion dollar ad campaign.
My experiences with grababargain:
Have listed test items, no sales yet. (Sold $6,000+ on half.com so far so I know what I am doing.)
Have purchased one item, but the sale was cancelled without reason given.
I was able to locate lots of classical CD's in their search data base (a real unique marketing possibility that could open a whole new market on the web!) but found that they would not accept inventory in this area since they prefer not to do classical. Huh? Turning down business?
My report card would read: High potential. Low achiever. Could do much better.
posted on September 9, 2001 05:56:30 AM
Like [litlux] I was enthusiastic when the first post about grababargain.com appeared. I immediately went to the site, registered and listed a bunch of books. I am very disappointed. To this day I have made one sale there and that notice just came in last night. Last night, after all this time!
I sell books full time on the Internet. I list on Half.com, Amazon.com and occasionally on eBay. I make a VERY comfortable living between these sites. So I know what it takes to sell books. There really isn't any big secret. It takes buyers and a site that attracts buyers to it.
Frankly grababargain.com is a big disappointment and waste of my time. When I received my sell notification last night my first thought was I better log in and delete my listings since I totally forgot about them. Its sad because it is such an easy site to maneuver. It takes nothing to learn and listing is a breeze.
I certainly don’t feel they are a serious competitor to eBay and Half.com., not unless they draw buyers to their site that is. It doesn’t matter if they have 50 million books listed it’s the sales that count. I imagine there are several big book houses that have listed there to bring their current listing to 3 million but if the traffic isn’t there who cares.
