posted on January 22, 2002 09:11:19 PM
I know this is the ebay thread, but in light of the new and unfair prices that ebay has decided to charge inlight of there record breaking quarterly earnings, everyone should take advantage of Yahoo's free listing day this Thursday (Jan 24th). All items listed on that day have the listing fees waived and you also will get entered into a contest for a cruise.
Let's stand up to ebay and tell them that it is not about them, but it is the sellers and buyers that make them. With enough pressure and loss of revenue because people are moving their auctions, they just might take a second look. If not, we at least give people a viable second option to show and sell their items.
posted on January 22, 2002 11:09:07 PM
Well, I am not sure that will get even with them. Many people would not go along with this (myself included) and might be tempted to run more auctions.
The way to get sellers away from ebay is for a place to make a run for their position. They need to lure BUYERS to the site, the sellers will follow. Lots of places start up and sellers go and the buyers don't.
posted on January 23, 2002 06:10:31 AM
I don't see any new or existing auction site with the flash or the huge marketing budget necessary to make a run at eBay.
If you want to get even with eBay, do as many off-eBay deals as you can. They hate that.
posted on January 23, 2002 07:15:51 AM
MrBusinessMan has a very good point. Last year I moved away from ebay and began using my own ecommerce site. I'm now spending about $10 a month for the website, and $30 a month for my advertising budget, and generating around $2000 a month in sales. When I increase my advertising, my sales increase too. It started out slower, but I'm getting better at targeting the advertising, adjusting pricing, offering new items on the site. Actually, it's as much an issue of containing my website's growth now, or directing it. I have some items that were really hot sellers so I have to raise the prices so I won't sell more than I can handle. Being a one man operation, it's easy to get swamped.
At the same time, I've decreased my ebay sales. I know that for the past two or three months I have not made enough sales to meet the qualifications of Powerseller. I wonder when they'll notify me I have to sell more or 'risk' losing my status as Powerseller. Like being a Powerseller has helped me do better, HA!
I'd recommend anyone to check out the ecommerce service provider I use to set up their website. (can be found at the top of the list on my site http://newenglandcoinco.com/links_page.html here) I like this service because it doesn't take much time to set up the site, and I get to spend more time promoting, advertising, and packaging orders.
posted on January 23, 2002 03:39:09 PM
ahc,
You have a good point with an exception. Yahoo is not a recent start up auction site. It is quite well known and most sellers and buyers already now of its existance. By listing items at Yahoo you would normally list at ebay, it will effect ebay in the pocket book and in this case, buyers will follow. It is not a question of will they follow, it is how many.
Now if we were talking about the new upstart GRUVO for example, I would agree because many of the upstarts are simply too hard to find and the buyers are going to be at the sites that are easy to find and most fimiliar. Now I am not saying to quit using ebay all together. That would not make business sense unless you are big enough to survive on your own. But ebay needs to be shown that they are not the only player in the online auction business. And if many sellers don't do this, ebay will raise rates again as they are increasingly becoming a monopoly. As a prediction, I will say it will be in less than a year.
posted on January 23, 2002 03:52:50 PM
ebay is the brand name. When people think online auctions, they think ebay. Period.
As for running your own webspace, it's not that simple if you're a small seller. You have to be able to get people to your site and most of us don't have that kind of money.
posted on January 23, 2002 03:59:16 PM
Ebay is the only AUCTION site. I've been listing with Yahoo for some time now. The difference between Ebay and Yahoo (and any of the other sites) is I can start an item at a low price on Ebay, and generally see it raised to a high level, sometimes a very high level. On Yahoo and the other sites, I generally have to set my minimum bid price to the price I want to sell the item for, and use the buy it now feature. I've had good success on Yahoo since they changed again recently and lowered their costs, but it is NOT an auction site for me, and I would guess for most. It's a good place to sell items, but not auction them.
That being said, the types of items I list on Yahoo are things that I have lots of, and want to sell. The things I list on Ebay are more unique, and I can generally get a decent price.
I would LOVE choice, but another thing you said that I don't agree with is that most buyers to NOT know about Yahoo. It doesn't really matter where the sellers are, it is where the buyers are, and I am afraid that Ebay is to auctions as Kleenix is to tissues, or band aid is to adhesive bandages, etc. It's a brand name that has become so known that people start calling the item by the brand name. You can probably tell most people you know that you are going to Ebay for a while, and they will probably know what you are talking about....
posted on January 23, 2002 05:33:53 PM
Yahoo deserves the credit for eBay changing its checkout policy as well. The following things MUST happen in order to really hurt eBay.
1. eBay must do something the upsets users like checkout.
2. Sellers and buyers protest in mass and the media picks it up.
3. Sellers move to other sites, and with media coverage so do buyers.
Yahoo also knows this and lowered their fee structure when the height of the checkout protest was in effect. eBay seeing what was happening knew once the media began mentioning yahoo they had trouble, and quickly backed down from checkout. Now in a very clever way ebay raises both insertion fees(in the form of BIN),and EOA fees. The biggest thing that may help yahoo is the higher postal rates this summer.
posted on January 23, 2002 08:30:54 PM
Keep in mind that you are selling and the auction is just one way to sell. The self constructed "classified ad" approach on Yauctions works when you can list for free.
Consider this: How many items on eBay really are best suited for the auction format? Most buyers would like to buy it now for a reasonable price. So you have a Nintendo system and they are fetching $50 on average. Millions are out there. Why not just sell it for $50 and to heck with the auction?
The reason is that eBay was the 1st site where individuals could easily sell their stuff on the internet and where buyers would come to buy. The auction format happened because Pierre started an auction site. If he had started a classified site for Pez dispensers, the world would be a better place, but he didn't.
Then eBay bought Half.com. They must have some vision over there.Now you can list your stuff one time and it competes on the same page with all the other similar items, and when you make a sale, Half.com tells you to ship and collects the money for you. They do all that for 15% which is quite a bit more than eBay charges so you may have steered clear.
Well, I was stuck with many common items that I used to sell on Yahoo Auctions when it was free and which were not selling at auction. Like Video tapes. Try listing TITANIC on eBay for $7.50 and see what happens. Then check out Half.com and you'll see why: Get it there for $2.50. The world is changing. Did you know there are over 100,000,000 listings on Half.com? Think you are going to get lots of good stuff at the garage sales this spring, now that every kid in town knows he can sell the household junk on half.com? There must be a lot of kids selling there. Many Cd's and movies are $.75 each.
Am I complaining? Not really. I sold 219 items there in the past 2 months. No deadbeats, no relisting, no trading emails with 2nd and final notices, no non-paying bidder complaints. When I leave town i click on the vacation button and forget about it.
Is this worth 15%? Yes it is. Try it. Try Yahoo Warehouse too, if you don't want to sell much. The only sales I made were last week when I was out of town and couldn't confirm (Yahoo has no vacation button, which usually doesn't matter anyways).
Got books that aren't selling on eBay or Yahoo? Amazon is the place for books. They have a marketplace like Half.com and it's the ONLY place I've been able to move books. it's expensive: 15% PLUS $1 and they charge the customer more for shipping than they give you which is $2.33 no matter how much the book weighs.
Which reminds me of something i wanted to say about the title of this thread: There are 2 nickel and dime tactics that I'm reminded of constantly in this business. One is eBay's refusal to refund listing fees on deadbeat auctions and the other is Amazon keeping part of the money they charge the buyers for shipping.
I wonder how much MORE they loose than they make from these unjustified money grabs, to sellers who find a way to GET EVEN from time to time.
[ edited by zzyzx000 on Jan 23, 2002 09:27 PM ]
posted on January 23, 2002 08:45:28 PM
zzyzx000, I hope you don't use the same name as your eBay account. There are a lot of lookouts here working free for eBay Safehabor.
Any way, what's the point of changing your auction to a different item? Your chances of getting bids increases closer to the end of the auction. There might be a buyer waiting to place a winning bid in the last hour on your $250 camera.
posted on January 24, 2002 06:31:24 AM
You know I have been selling on feebay for almost 4 years and I have been selling on Yahoo for a little over 2 years.
My rating on Yahoo is twice the number as feebay, I get less NPB's on Yahoo than ebay.
I've listed on every free site out there and maybe I have sold 3 items over the last year.
When ever a new site opens I will stick something on it just to test the waters and advertise myself for free.
http://members.home.net/camdengranny/granny.htm
That's a list of sites and I have something on almost every site. The 2nd site listed has surprised me with the number of hits and sells.
My point is you should NEVER have all your eggs in one basket, always look for different venues to sell your products on.
Just like AFA Meg has opened her mouth and promised something that's not going to come true, 200 gazillion bucks by 2005. The big difference is that the stockholders will take action when they see the light at the end of the tunnel and she knows it. This last fee increase is the first of a string that is sure to follow and I'm not going to help her bail out the boat anymore.
posted on January 24, 2002 09:54:40 AM
Okay, so how about a buyer's point of view?! I came to eBay several months ago to check it out. Really liked the concept! Then discovered Half.com just in time for Christmas shopping. Did lots of business over there too. Then, after investing a TON of hours browsing, getting familiar with eBay, I started finding some things very irritating. Then, I'm not sure when or why, but my attention was diverted from eBay & I sampled Yahoo. (I think I just wanted to compare product and prices with eBay, so I just ventured out on my own.) I found a ton of things I wanted on Yahoo, and started shopping there! I really liked the Yahoo feature of looking at one seller's listings by photo only. I like the visual--instead of clicking on every god-forsaken description like in eBay. And as a buyer, I feel like I'm still getting a deal at Yahoo. Then, as I started thinking about the selling aspect, I figured: I may as well go to Yahoo, start there to learn the ropes (on a site that was presumably slower), then maybe graduate to eBay. WELL! I've now made friends with several sellers on Yahoo, and even with the slightly lower ending price, they still net the same as they would at eBay with all of their fees. And EVERY seller I've talked to at Yahoo has had a 100% pay (or 0% Non-paying bidders). They all have also said that traffic (and sales) has picked up a lot in the last couple of months. So! I will continue to list at Yahoo because eventually enough folks will follow the same path I led as a buyer. And today, as a free listing day at Yahoo, I WILL take advantage of that. And I would bet that many sellers (and most also do their share of buying!), because of all the hub-bub of the free listing day, will wander over to Yahoo just to browse at the sales--maybe thinking they can get a deal on something--and guess what?? The sales will end up in Yahoo--and still in my pocket! Fine by me. A little less than on eBay? Maybe...But I hate the feeling that eBay has power over me, so I rebel because I can. I won't give them all my money. If I sell at Yahoo, that is that much less than eBay gets from me, and that's what makes me feel better. I hate monopolies. I'll sell at Yahoo just to spite.
posted on January 24, 2002 10:22:05 AM
I have done most of my selling on Yahoo as compared to eBay and it cover 3 years. My blacklist file on Yahoo numbers about 300.
It all depends what you sell, but i will make this generalization: The Yahoo crowd is not baby boomers. They are Yuppies and generation X. They will buy the latest trendy things. They will buy Cd's, movies, but they will not buy a book. Ever. They may not know how to read. They certainly don't read my ad descriptions.
I'm all for competition and I have always wished Yahoo would make a move on eBay. I have kept up to date with their progress (regress actually) and I can tell you that as much as I dislike eBay, Yahoo is worse. With Yahoo you are dealing with machines which are poorly programmed. If you have a problem, you are S... out of luck. There is nobody there to help you and there is nobody there who has a clue about this business.
So keep using them (I still do for some things) and learn for yourself.
posted on January 24, 2002 02:33:43 PM
I don't think you have to worry about the mighty E-Bay Power Sellers, they are to busy posting on E-Bay making their 25 cent profit and building their feedbacks and status to post on Yahoo and make real money.I really wonder sometimes why these people never have a clue.
posted on January 24, 2002 03:38:48 PM
The free listing day may be a success. I haven't been able to get onto the YaHoo auction servers- timing out since about 5:30 EST.
posted on January 24, 2002 05:18:28 PM
most eBay powersellers don't make money off their final price. They make it with "shipping & handling".
I saw one seller's dutch auction for 3000 / $0.01 pieces of cell phone antenna boosters. They are little flat pieces of metal you can mail with a 34 cent stamp.
posted on January 26, 2002 12:37:19 PM
What do you sell ?
I have high end designer clothes and
Shoes and there are NONE
On yahoo, the only big names on Yahoo
Are fake Gucci and Louis Vuitton.
I'm not planing to start selling counterfit
Items anytime soon so ebay is
The only place for me, I tried a website,
I had more hits on my 5 day auction
Then I had in a month on the website.....
posted on January 26, 2002 01:07:20 PM
Yahoo Auctions is not for everyone. If you are successful on eBay you should stay on eBay. If there are none of the high end items you sell on Yahoo you can spend a few cents and try it ooy or stay on eBay.
Yahoo Auctions is a bit of an enigma. Items that sell for $2 on ebay often sell for $5 on Yahoo. Why? Non savvy bidders perhaps? Lots of newbie auction users? Lots of auction users unable to master the 500 pages of frickin' ebay rules and regulations? Meg Whitman haters? ( her photo is on more than one dartboard you know ).
Etcetera, etcetera ...
posted on January 27, 2002 07:28:49 AM
I was doing the math on a DVD I was looking at that started at a penny and the shipping was $2.50. I pay $2.50 wholesale for the same DVD,and probably the same company.E-Bay and Paypal do still charge fees don't they?
posted on January 27, 2002 08:26:44 AM
As of 23Jan02 Yahoo Auctions had 313,102 listings on their site
As of 25Jan02 Yahoo Auctions had 620,132 listings on their site
It looks like others are tired of ebay too. Yahoo doubled their listings on FLD. Keep having them yahoo!
posted on January 27, 2002 10:07:31 AM
Yahoo doubled their listings, but how many of those listings were posted by regular Yahoo sellers as opposed to ebay defectors? How many ebay sellers even knew about the FLD? I wouldn't have known if not for reading these boards, and my guess is the majority of ebay sellers don't read any of the various ebay forums on the net.
I suppose the real proof of success of the FLD will be how many auctions are posted after the FLD auctions run their course (including the relist period). If it's significantly above 313,000, then Yahoo may have snagged some auctions from ebay.
If you are successful on eBay you should stay on eBay. If there are none of the high end items you sell on Yahoo you can spend a few cents and try it ooy or stay on eBay.
