posted on September 28, 2001 04:40:53 AM
I sent out EOA's for a few auctions yesterday.
This response made my day!
I wanted to share it with those of you who are "on the fence" about A4A.
Pessimists can flame away. But please read the e-mail first! I still don't see why so many of you detest A4A.
Hello XXX!
I was not only the winning bidder of this item but the XXX you had as an AUCTION for AMERICA. Coincidentally, I was just about to email you to say that it arrived today & it's beautiful! The picture didn't do it justice toldyouguysmypicsstink & I wish more clothing dealers on Ebay would take a few pointers from you concerning packaging, timely delivery (you must have set a record!), & fresh laundering! You wouldn't believe the condition of some clothes I have purchased! I'll be posting positive feedback for you as soon as Ebay gets back on line, it's presently off for their regular maintenance until 5:00 am.
I was so pleased with this top that I visited your auction page & found this XXX & I also have bids on or have marked on my watch page 8 or 9 other items. Would it be possible to hold off on payment until these other items reach auction end so we can combine shipping? According to my list, I believe the last one ends on 10/1, the XXX.
If this is okay with you, I'll email you then for total amount due & get a money order out to you at the mailing address you have provided. Thanks & I'll be waiting for your reply! R ;o)
Well...
Not only was that one of the nicest letters that I have gotten from a bidder, it was generated from an A4A item.
Silly as it sounds, A4A can be your friend
Your holiday selling season depends on you, not on A4A!
Good Luck!
I now have listed approximately 10 AFA Auctions, all 3 time list/relist losers for regular auctions, all which have about 100 other similiar (not identical but the same type of item) items on regular auctions. ALL of the AFA auctions have bids. Multiple, high bids, even though none had EVER been touched in a regular auction. Not one single auction of mine otherwise, all of the items the same general type of merchandise, has a bid on it. None!
posted on September 28, 2001 08:03:01 AM
Nope! Just a fluke...
But I do have a gut feeling that things are going to start to ease up for regular auctions within the next week or two. On the few auctions I still had running this week I noticed the hits started to increase again and, on the couple things that sold, I got more than one bid. Nothing major but, I'm hoping, a start!
posted on September 28, 2001 09:16:10 AM
thewholenineyards,
I had 47 auctions close last night. With ONE bid.
May I ask what you sell?
I'm fairly skeptical, especially given my own experiences, that A4A is having such an adverse effect. Of course, I don't know what category you're selling in, your pre-A4A sales levels, the desirability (or lack thereof) of your merchandise, etc., etc.
Without knowing the answers to those questions, my only comment is: If the market for what you sell is so tenuous that a poorly-planned charitable promotion can siphon off the *entire* market, then you'd better hustle up another product to sell.
posted on September 28, 2001 09:22:36 AM
I agree, if you had 47 auctions close with 1 bid, then you have to be doing something wrong! This program is simply not big enough to have such an adverse affect on any one person's sales. I would find it more believeable that this could affect your sales a little, but there is something else here that is causing these numbers. Unpopular product (like Beanies), too high a starting bid, too high shipping fees, etc.
posted on September 28, 2001 09:27:51 AM
My bids are down, but sales about the same. BUT my stuff is not stuff that is being donated. I do believe in some products, which are being donated in large qtys, sellers will be severely damaged. That is, if buyers find items they want in a4a, they are not going to search non-a4a. Just my thoughts.
posted on September 28, 2001 09:34:49 AM
A4A HAS caused a drop in my business by 80%...
Reasoning:...In any group of people(eBay bidders) there are only so many spendable dollars($$$) to be had by sellers...A4A has taken those $$$'s away...Period...!!!
I do not sell a variety of items, only Personalized Ribbons and Napkins so there is not a factor that is is the product/s.
Bids are down, product/page views are down, eBay store page views are down, etc...
posted on September 28, 2001 09:43:09 AM
Sorry, but I don't see where you come up with A4A reducing your sales by 80% - There are too many factors
1) The economy - With unemployment at a NINE year high, and going higher, there is less money to spend
2) The tragedy - A lot of people are altering their lifestyles and spending habits because of the terrorist attacks. Personzlied Ribbons and Napkins may not be as high on people's list of things to buy considering what is happening
3) Week to week fluctuations - I've sold many things on Ebay, sometimes an item will sell for $5, and sometimes the same thing will go for $20 - Strange, but that is how it goes.
4) A4A has had a TOTAL of $4 million in sales - How many of those are personalized ribbons and napkins? I can't imagine it would be that high, certainly not enough to cause 80% of your business to disappear!
5) Those buying A4A items may ONLY be there because they know the money is going to charity, they normally may not buy on Ebay, and they may never be back.
Can A4A affect your business? Yes, it could result in fewer sales and bids, but it could also bring in more people as well. The result being we don't really know (and won't ever know) the impact, positive or negative. There are just TOO many factors involved to make a blanket statement like you (and others) have made.
posted on September 28, 2001 10:06:14 AM
I have had several similar emails from AFA bidders. We have links in our AFA auctions that are very clearly marked so that people can look at our non-AFA auctions. 50% of our AFA winners have bought non-AFA items from us and our sales are up overall. We are in the process of listing several more items on AFA and will continue to do so if it continues to help us.
posted on September 28, 2001 12:00:08 PM
My A4A auctions are no-frills bare bone listings.
No html, no links.
The economy may be in a slump, but my hits are higher than they've been since before the summer....
posted on September 28, 2001 12:28:50 PM
A4A does adversely affect regular sales because eBay has made the interface to perpetually goad both sellers and bidders to use A4A. Unlike another charity auction such as Rosie, it's ALWAYS trying to lure you away. It doesn't matter if someone sells/buys A4A or not. I come to eBay to buy and sell, not to help a charity. That's the core business of eBay--right Meg?
In effect, it's much like an annoying popup. Every page seemingly shouts A4A. It's visual noise--like banner ads and such. Very distracting. If the eBay interface cannot be made cognizant of the fact that I have no real interest in participating, I will avoid A4A auctions and any seller that runs them.
posted on September 28, 2001 12:34:30 PM
I don't believe AFA is hurting our regular sales. Why? Because those that bid on AFA are doing it as a chairity donation. As an example: Recently our town held a fund raiser auction for a family that was having a lot of problems. Many of the churches donated items, including several beautiful hand-made quilts. These quilts were worth the $450-$500 they brought at the auction. But--go to any other auction and they would have brought $150-$200. Why? People felt like they were donating the $450--and getting a nice quilt (and tax write-off) to boot.
posted on September 28, 2001 01:14:22 PM
If you pay $450 and receive a quilt, you don't get to write off the $450. Wonder how many buyers are planning to write off their "donation" to AFA?
posted on September 28, 2001 01:18:47 PM
""4) A4A has had a TOTAL of $4 million in sales - How many of those are personalized ribbons and napkins? I can't imagine it would be that high, certainly not enough to cause 80% of your business to disappear! ""
It is not the fact that NONE of that 4 million $$$'s is personalized ribbons or napkins...The fact is, it is 4 million that wasn't spent on NON A4A auctions...!!!
posted on September 28, 2001 01:56:45 PM
And once again, this is NOT necessarily competition to you! Maybe most of these people logged onto ebay for the first time BECAUSE it was for charity. Maybe they are bidding $100 on an item that could not be sold for $10 BECAUSE it is for charity. Maybe they are regular ebay customers looking for a good deal, and the item just happened to be A4A!
I don't know how much is spent on ebay in the period of total A4A sales, but $4 million has to be a very, very small amount of that!
When 4 million dollars is spent on A4A auctions, it is NOT available for NON A4A auctions and therefore IS "Competition" for every seller not doing A4A auctions...Period..!!!
posted on September 28, 2001 03:50:11 PM
Good answer. Niches have made a lot of people a lot of money. And I believe they do suffer more in conditions like the present. Good Luck.
posted on September 28, 2001 04:30:17 PM
You have no way of knowing if the $4 million is from regular ebay buyers, or people who just came in to spend on the charity auctions and never had any intention of buying anything else and never will, etc. It's not $4 million from regular sales if $3 million of it would have never been spent on regular sales. The point is we will NEVER have any way of knowing how much was deflected. I think some of it was, but I also think (and others have pointed out) that the A4A promotion has increased sales because there are more people lurking on ebay.
posted on September 28, 2001 05:23:57 PM
So the best way for me to keep my sales up is for me to run items every week on A4A and use them to try to draw buyers away from the other sellers.Now thats what you call the American way.
Nope, not kidding...Thats all I sell and do quite well thanx...!!! It IS a "Niche" market that most people can't, or will not get into because...Just because it appears too complicated...
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
..."If you keep doing what you've been doing...
...you'll just keep getting what you've been getting"...
posted on September 28, 2001 07:03:16 PM
I'm sorry that the bottom has dropped out of the market for personalized ribbons or napkins. Still, blaming AFA seems silly.
posted on September 28, 2001 07:44:10 PM
My regular auctions are doing just fine and my AforA auctions are doing 2-3 times going price. No idea if there is a correlation, and no way to know for sure, but i kinda doubt it.
I just think that people, those who still have jobs, just want to get back into their normal patterns. Searching out a great item on eBay is a great diversion for a lot of collectors. I know that I have done it more than usual myself in the past few weeks.
I don't believe that A4A helps sales in general, but there's exceptions to every rule as you have pointed out. It does hurt sales however because of the way it is set up. If A4A listings were just part of the regular listings, with flag icons, and there wasn't an exclusive web site, it would have had no effect.
I don't believe that A4A is killing sales at this point. There is not enough good items listed to kill sales entirely. I was worried that if everyone jumped on the bandwagon and there were thousands of items in every category (as Ebay wanted), it would have killed our regular sales. At this point I'm breathing a sigh of relief. A4A is fading fast.
[ edited by outoftheblue on Sep 28, 2001 09:01 PM ]
posted on September 28, 2001 09:20:37 PM
It is definitely fading fast... a couple of days ago when I checked there were 40,500 A4A auctions active, right now there are 27,560.
posted on September 29, 2001 03:38:05 AM
I have one question.
How many sellers are going to keep giving for 100 days to AFA??? With the seller also paying the shipping, this could add up to a large chunk of change.
I don't believe all of the donating sellers were aware of how these shipping charges will add up.
The last 2 weeks were big selling weeks for me, but this week very few bids.
I am just going to slow down for a few weeks and see what happens.
posted on September 29, 2001 07:24:36 AMand use them to try to draw buyers away from the other sellers.Now thats what you call the American way
YES...it IS the American way...the way of the free marketplace.
Everytime you write up an auction title that has keywords to draw the buyer to your auction you are attempting to draw buyers AWAY FROM OTHER SELLERS.
Every time you use a clickable link to point the potential buyer to more of your items you are attempting to keep the buyer on your site and AWAY FROM OTHER SELLER'S merchandise.
Every time you write up an auction that is well written, has good pictures, has a reasonable TOS and reasonable shipping you are doing it to entice the buyer to buy from you and not the other sellers.
Every time you practice good customer service you are doing it to entice the buyer to come back to you to buy and not the other sellers...you are trying to draw the buyer AWAY FROM THE OTHER SELLERS.
In the real world merchants advertise to draw the buyer AWAY FROM OTHER SELLERS.
Businesses are always attempting to increase their market share...and increasing market share means the business is trying to get the customer to buy from them and NOT THE OTHER SELLER.
Its called competition and is not bad...not unAmerican.
