posted on January 31, 2008 06:07:35 AM new
Why does no other online auction step up when eBay sticks it to the sellers? It is prime time for an online auction to steal some of eBays sellers. No other auctions seem to have any drive to be competition to eBay. All seem be content with a tiny piece of the pie.
Even Google does not seem to want to challenge eBay. Maybe one of the other online auctions should hire Meg. LOL.
posted on January 31, 2008 07:01:57 AM new
Not auctions....but I did get a webstore promotion email from Amazon today. Multiple Online Stores. $59.99 per month & 7% commission. 30 Day free trial.
posted on January 31, 2008 08:48:43 AM new
I've not been able to find any other site - I'm surprised as well, that no one has taken this as an opportunity to launch something significant and in a big way as an alternative. They would need an all out media blitz for advertising and open for business on the day the new feedback changes take effect.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Caroline
posted on January 31, 2008 08:57:48 AM new
Well yahoo tried but nobody wanted to sell on there. Now they are out of business. I sold on Yahoo as I think there is another seller on this board that also did. I did fairly well on there with the auctions that I put on and it was free. Lots of adversiting on the pages but so does ebay advertise. I think ebay members are afraid to branch out. Can someone honestly say that they would move from eBay if another site started. I rather doubt it. Most are all talk and no action.
_________________
posted on January 31, 2008 09:01:56 AM new
I think it's possible another site is working feverishly on this right now. We can't expect it overnight--at least not if they want to do it right--AND IF THEY'RE LOOKING FOR ADULTS, NOT CHILDREN, TO HIRE.
_____________________
posted on January 31, 2008 09:49:23 AM new
Remember "Old and Sold" which was a bust although there were some great threads about their Van Gogh auction? Wasn't there something like "ePier" as well? What I would like to see if a site that was only vintage collectibles and art. No mass produced, clearance, etc. with a strict limit on number of identical auctions. Dream on....
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
posted on January 31, 2008 10:48:45 AM new
there are plenty sites, the problem is getting 150 million people to go there and shop.......
hence we still have ebay
posted on January 31, 2008 11:21:17 AM new
There are plenty of sites but none are doing anything to draw sellers or buyers. Look at PayPal for example. When PayPal started they gave you $10.00 to start an account. Look what it turned into.
Some online auction needs to give the sellers some free listings and give the buyers something to come to them. Doesn't have to be $10.00 each how about 50 or 100 gallons of gas given away every hour in the evenings. To be in the drawing you must be signed in to the auction site and claim the gas within 1 hour. That would draw a lot of people and be cheaper than $10.00 each and who doesn't want some free gas?
Once you have the sellers listing and the buyers bidding and coming to the site it becomes a habit to go every day and you have some competition for eBay. Any auction site that is not willing to do something like this should not even bother being in business. It costs some money to make money and one of these auctions needs to STEP UP.
posted on January 31, 2008 12:41:52 PM new
I just checked out the Bidville site.
I need to look at it more, but it seems the only things missing are buyers and sellers. But they have no listing fees and their final value fees are lower than Ebay.
I'm going to give it a try because there is nothing to loose. If we could get all the angry sellers signing the google petition to give it a try and spread the word, something could be made of this.
posted on January 31, 2008 02:07:50 PM new
There are some Ebay sellers parking their items on Bidville and some Ebay sellers shopping on Bidville.
But to sell on Bidville,your price has to be lower than Ebay so the Ebay seller can buy it and resell it on Ebay for a profit.
The photos are poor and description non existant,they dont even give you the measurement.
But listing is free .
Epier and Ioffer are like Bidville.
There are some boutique auction sites which seem to do well like Igavel,Aspire,Artelino etc.
*
Lets all stop whining !
posted on January 31, 2008 02:29:26 PM new
Another problem is if a seller has something nice to sell,she is going to try it on Ebay first,so what kind of stuff would you find on other auction sites?
The ones which did not sell on Ebay .
*
Lets all stop whining !
posted on January 31, 2008 02:45:30 PM new
what's next... ebay gonna start charging for Craigslist postings.... damn... they do that now too!!!!
the only way to beat ebay is to start a site... then sell it to ebay. it's like all the mom and pop video stores who sold to Blockbuster in the 1980's and 90's. Now look who is laughing!!!! Netflix. LOL.
posted on January 31, 2008 06:26:37 PM new
Someone mentioned 200 million dollars to start an Ebay auction site with all the trimmings-the data centers,the staff and all the bells and whistles.
No auction site which exists right now has that kind of money nor would it be able to borrow that kind of money.
posted on January 31, 2008 06:30:10 PM new
There have been several companies that have tried, but nobody has been successful because the resources needed are tremendous. It doesn't matter if there are sellers there, there needs to be buyers. It's just not as easy as it sounds. The other problem is that the auction format is not one with a bright future. I can see small niche sites making a comeback (they were bigger in the mid to late 90's before ebay became the monster that they became) - i.e. an auction site for collectibles. A lot of items, customers just want to buy, not bid. It would be crazy to take on ebay as a whole, finding a niche market, having a lot of money to burn might take away part of the market.
posted on February 1, 2008 03:44:53 PM new
There are a lot of "FREE" auction sites. But getting the buyers over to them is not easy. I have items listed on AuctionQuests, BidVille and PlunderHere. Try Googling "free auction site" and see what you get. Also checkout www.powersellersunite.com
posted on February 1, 2008 05:27:10 PM new
Bidville,Epier are wholesale sites for some Ebay sellers,if you are willing to sell your item for half of what you would ask on Ebay.
*
Lets all stop whining !
posted on February 2, 2008 02:17:55 AM new
With Microsoft probably buying Yahoo I wonder if they would revive the auction? There are some deep pockets there and they just might want to give it the old college try.
posted on February 2, 2008 07:14:13 AM new
The founder of Lotus who came up with the spreadsheet was forced out by a Mckinsey consultant.
When he left Lotus, someone asked him if he is going to come up with another spreadsheet to compete with Lotus,he said for Christs sake,if you want to come up with a new product,do not create another spreadsheet!
Come up with something new,that no one has ever come up with,like teaching his mother how to use a PC.
That was said in the late 80s,I am sure by now many mothers know how to whip that PC.
*
Lets all stop whining !
posted on February 2, 2008 07:44:08 AM new
Take a look at Yahoo Shopping,it is still the premier shopping portal in cyberspace,traffic gets really heavy around XMAS.
Yahoo cant seem to make up its mind how to milk its shopping site,first it was $100,$300 a month ,then it is flat fee plus 10 cents per item plus commish,then it becomes fixed rate plus commish plus optional pay per click .
Their search engine is not that great,but if you can drive your own traffic,it is not a bad site,the shop has a nice layout,neat features such as email marketing,electronic coupon,gift certficate.
Back office features are daily click trails to see how much traffic you get each day,set your own shipping rates by weight or by dollar amount plus giftwrapping for a fee,exclude countries you dont want to do business with,a choice of using your own merchant account to accept credit card or Paypal.
When someone places an order,it can be forwarded to you via email and/or fax,order contains information such as customer IP address,entry point and his phone number.
I find most customers courteous and better heeled than the Ebay crowd,many are mature folks who like to buy a gift for spouse/girlfriend,children in college or professionals come home from work and look for air conditioner,wall paper,kid stuff etc.
They dont haggle over shipping and they dont plan to resell your item on Ebay.
You get to make a respectable profit and charge enough shipping to compensate for packing it nicely and shipping it promptly (not recycling a used supermarket Del Monte carton).
There used to be hordes of Indonesian and Nigerian preying on newbie shops,I have not heard much lately on anyone being taken,but it does not mean they are not around.
My shop traffic and business have fallen since they introduce 'pay per click' , I dont use that feature as it has yield almost nothing for me,my traffic comes from Google.
But if you are driving traffic from Ebay to Yahoo,there will be a problem if the same item is sold for less on Ebay.
If the item is sold for the same amount on your site,then you wont get higher bid on Ebay,such is the Ebay dilemma!
Customer service is poor,support staff arrogant and inexperienced,high turnover is one reason.
Enough said,if interested,check out the site yourself.
Oh,one more point-if you are using AOL and the order is forwarded to your AOl email addr,you will more likely to find the order in your spam folder.
It seems AOL does not like Yahoo.But if you accept Paypal,then the second email on payment received comes from Paypal is okay with AOL,so this is how you know you have to find the order in your trash bin!
*
Lets all stop whining !
Caroline