posted on October 31, 2002 09:52:22 PM new
I list items at least three days a week using Auctionwatch. I didn't know anything about FIXED prices listing......and, so, put on about 70 items thinking it was for ALL regular auctions. See, since I didn't know about Fixed Price Auctions.......I was just thinking that must mean the regular ones as I wasn't doing Buy-It-Now or Dutch. So, I got DUPED out of my FREE list day and Ebay made more than their usual share on me! Wonder how many others hurried to use this and missed KNOWING it wasn't for the usual auction listing??? Maybe that was Ebay's intention. I just hope I sell SOMETHING.....sales have been so slow.....just hope I make enough profit to pay all these fees I just racked up! I DID read the thing twice but still didn't understand that THIS was something NEW (AGAIN!......too many changes for the ordinary part-time seller to keep up) Maybe Ebay is going to just be for BIG BUSINESS before long.
posted on October 31, 2002 10:09:35 PM new
The Fixed Price auctions are not like the regular ebay auctions. They are similar to Dutch Auctions where more than one item of the same exact type are offered. With the Fixed Price auction the bidders can simply buy one or as many of the exactly the same items as they wish and the grand total number of items offered on that fixed Price auction is merely reduced by that number and the auction continues until either the grand total number of items reaches zero or the time limit runs out.
It is very similar to having a store item but with only a 10 day maximum duration.
I'm certain ebay's intention in running the free listing day for this type of auction is similar to their past few 1 cent gallery days, to get sellers to try that manner of listing and hopefully making it a regular part of their ebay listing methods.
Like free samples in the mail of toothpaste or instant coffee.
posted on October 31, 2002 10:17:18 PM new
I just visited an auction site that had many fixed priced auctions listed today and this is what they said.
"Description and photos coming"
There was nothing listed only the auction title and the terms of service. Isn't this against eBays rules to put auctions on with no discriptions to be filled in later? If I can remember correctly eBay had a problem like this on the last free listing day where sellers put auctions on and then the next day filled in the description.
posted on October 31, 2002 10:50:12 PM new
I knew that would happen. Greed is so universal that some can not resist it.
Ebay always boasts of its members policing themselves so you can turn them in or look the other way. It is an unfair tactic to setup the free auctions and then work on them later. By the time ebay gets around to looking at the auctions they will probably be running with photos and descriptions though.
posted on October 31, 2002 11:25:53 PM new
How were you duped? The instructions I read for the Free Listing were very clear.
Also, it's irrelevenat if ebay makes more off you. Yes, you pay the listing fee but you can also get higher bids than the fixed price you would have set, and may get more sales if you're starting the price lower. And you say they made "more than their usual share." Sounds like they made the same share becasue you list three days a week anyways.
I'm wondering, you said you list three days a week, yet you stated you hope to make enough profit to pay all these fees. Is this any different than any other week?
I'm just not following your logic. You're really fishing for excuses.
posted on November 1, 2002 12:52:05 PM new
If someone turns them in it will take a while for ebay to get around to complaint. I imagine there are a lot of these dummy auctions set up. These listings can be very expensive if the qantity is high and the dollar value of each item is high. They are beating ebay out of a lot of fees and ebay can do very little to stop it short of stoping all FLDs. I bet ebay knew this type of activity was going to happen but deemed it acceptable collateral damage.
posted on November 1, 2002 06:38:15 PM new
I have a feeling that the reason we didn't get a FLD this summer was because it happened the last time they had one. Since I don't use Fixed pricing it doesn't bother me, but if I did it would. Well lets see if eBay has another FFP day.
