posted on June 18, 2002 07:21:27 AM new
"Why pay for the same thing"
It's not the same. It now costs the same as auctions and is good for only up to 10 days. But it will be included in the global search results.
It's exactly what I said over a year ago. eBay stores would never amount to anything if they weren't included in the main search and as long as it only cost a nickel to list comared to 30 cents for an auction, that would never happen.
eBay would NEVER give you the "equal" value of a BIN sale for only a nickel. This new pricing scheme is going to allow them to make auction and BIN equal in their own eyes.
I think this, not the useless aBay stores, is the start of the big shift toward fixed price and away from auctions. From the day this is introduced, I predict auction counts will start their downward spiral.
posted on June 18, 2002 08:33:38 AM new
I believe the eBay bean counters and CPAs are telling Meg that the average number of auction bids are down as well as closing prices of similar items. I believe eBay has seen this trend coming for years and has slowly set in place more and more fixed price features, this one being the latest.
This new feature has many advantages. If a seller has a lot of exactly the same items and doesn't want to open a Bermuda Triangle eBay store he can avoid the wait of a Dutch Auction and sell many items over the 7 or 10 day duration. ( look for a 14 day duration at 5 cents extra soon ) I like the new offering and it gives the sellers and buyers more options and flexibilty. Some bidders are not too bright and I hope this doesn't confuse them too much. It's fairly simply.
The eBay stores are getting the brown end of the stick as they are still not in the eBay search and are still a confusing joke. I wouldn't mind seeing the stores phased out altogether.
posted on June 18, 2002 08:47:02 AM new
Basically, we can already do this with single items.
For instance, we can start an item at $25.00 and have a Buy-It-Now price of $25.00. This is the same thing, except now it can be done Dutch style (multiple items).
This is a nice addition. I probably won't use it. But, it seems reasonable.
Actuaaly, this way would result in a decrease for me. I would rather sell multiple items one-at-a-time to gain higher final prices. I don't want my customers to know I have another one to sell later.
However, if you have a zillion, or there are many of the same item on Ebay, this could be a good idea.
posted on June 18, 2002 09:18:22 AM new
I'm reading through the 'Fees' part http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/BuyItNow-fees.html now and can see this new offering will force more sellers to more raidly adopt the Sell Your Item 2.0 form ( I still use the old form ).
There is one thing that confuses me about the listing fees of the new offering for multiple items.
It states:
The listing fee is based upon the total value of the items you list for sale.** The total value is your Buy It Now price multiplied by the quantity of items in your listing. Learn more
Multplied by the quantity of items in your listing? If you list 10 items at $5 each do you pay $3 in listing fees and what happens if you sell only 1 item? Is there a gamble involved here or am I misreading that part of the new deal?
---------
I think I just found the answer on the Dutch Auction insertion fees section of the regualar fee section. 10 x $5 = $50 = a $2.20 listing fee with a maximum fee of $3.30 for a Dutch Auction. I assume the Dutch Auction regular rules apply to the new deal.
posted on June 18, 2002 10:24:43 PM new
What took Ebay so long.........
Yahoo auctions had buy it now for dutch auctions since DAY 1!!
Antiques, collectibles and one of a kind at a time sellers will stick to traditional auctions.
Sellers like me with an Established product line welcome this new format.
They do still need to rethink the fees part......they get enough in FVF already.
When I run dutch auctions I always feel bad for the early bidders.......
Do I let their bid sit for 6 days, 22 hours.......do I email them and let them know If they pay now they can recieve it before the auction officially ends....always a dilema in my Ebay dutch auctions.
On Yahoo even though the auction was still running each bidder was done on their side and we finished the transaction and moved on to payment and shipping.
posted on June 19, 2002 09:03:21 AM new
Personally, I LIKE the “FIXED PRICE” auction. I use the “Buy It Now,” almost exclusively, because I like fast, smooth turnovers, better than a little more money drug out over 5 to 7 days. The problem I have encountered with the “Buy It Now,” is some bidders are so uneducated at using the eBay system, that they forget to hit the “Buy It Now,” and just bid, and then the darn auction runs on and on for a week, where as, if it had been a “Fixed Price” auction, there would be no “choice,” and the auction would have ended, another posted, and so on and so on.
Regarding the eBay Stores, we opened one 2 months ago, and have nothing but good things to say about them – we have done well, and are quite pleased. I have the feeling that most folks are missing sales in their eBay Stores, because they are leaving their promotion of their eBay Store up to eBay, and that doesn’t work. We promote the heck out of our store, and it is definitely paying off. It is rather like a web site (which we have 5 of) many folks seem to believe “build it and they will come!” That may be true in baseball, but not in web sites (or eBay Stores); both take endless promotion, constantly, consistently, forever, and with that in mind, you’d best be doing the promotion yourself, or you’ll be paying a good deal for something you can easily buy a program to do for you.
For web site promotions, and other type of promotions I like the whole family of SubmitWolf products. They are highly rated, user friendly, updated weekly, have a strong customer support, AND really do the job of promoting a site, a page, a store, etc. http://www.trellian.com Specifically, I use their “Submit Wolf Pro,” and their “Classify98”.
posted on June 19, 2002 10:40:00 AM new
If you routinely have your start and your BIN set at the same price for a "first bid wins" you will now be able to do the "fixed price" and save yourself the BIN fee.
posted on June 19, 2002 05:46:05 PM new
I think BIN's and, now, Fixed Price listings are going to ruin the "auction" aspect of ebay.
The main thing I like(d) about auctions is that you never know how much you're going to get for an item. If my heart can stand it, I like to start my auctions off at $1.00 with no reserve. There have been a few (very few I might add) that I have lost a few bucks on, but there have been MANY that sold for prices I couldn't even have imagined!
With the BIN's now and especially with the upcoming Fixed Price listings, ebay will become nothing more than another online "store" as opposed to an auction site.
If I have an item to sell and the BIN's and Fixed Price listing for the same or simular items is $50, there's not a chance in hell that I'm gonna get $51 for mine.
Then if you have a seller or two needing some fast cash and selling a $50 item for $35, all the bidder's (buyer's?) will expect all the others to go for $35 also.
posted on June 19, 2002 05:53:53 PM new
The auction items and fixed price items can co-exist side by side on eBay. A few foolish sellers will still occassionally offer items at a fixed price well below what it might have fetch on the auction mode but that is part of the auction game.
