eSeller004
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posted on June 26, 2001 06:46:13 AM new
They could sell advertising subscriptions to auctioneers. No listing fee, add a small FVF, and augment revenue with value added advertising subscriptions. Whatdya say??? Think it might fly? This would work better for Yahoo but they don't seem like they're willing to try new ideas.
Obviously Bidville needs relentless advertising to achieve longterm success.
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bidsbids
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posted on June 26, 2001 06:56:39 AM new
How does an "advertizing subscription" for sellers work? Where does the advertizing occur? Sounds interesting.
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eSeller004
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posted on June 26, 2001 07:16:35 AM new
You pay say $100 to have as many featured listings as you want for a period of time. Say for 6 months or a year. That brings your listings out from left field somewhere, right up to homeplate where most of the action is!
Maybe, throw in a few Homepage listings as well to spice up the pot. You could have various tiers for pricing.
I've always found featured listings to have better sell-through and at the worst many more eyeballs. All of this is dependent on the site bringing in bidders with advertising, or the advertising subscription would be worthless --- kind of like having featured listings at the graveyard over on Amazon auctions. 
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eSeller004
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posted on June 26, 2001 07:25:22 AM new
Selling advertising subscriptions also incents people to list and list and list to make use of that money! A nominal advertising subscription would be nothing for a Power Seller who lists thousands of auctions a year, or even a few hundred.
When the selection at a site grows, so does the interest of bidders, and in turn a site's revenues. People say they can find almost anything on eBay and that's cause people list virtually everything under the sun on eBay AND pay a listing fee for the "privilege".
How many listings does Bidville have today? A million??? How many does eBay???
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wallypog
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posted on June 26, 2001 10:05:23 AM new
eSeller, either I'm really confused here or what you're talking about is the Premier membership BidVille already has in place.
For $5 a month you get $25 or for $10 a month you get $100 credit in your account to use for featured listings, gallery and so on. It's a great plan and a lot of sellers are signed up for it.
I do a few of my nicer auctions featured home page, feature within category once in a while and almost always use the Gallery. I started at the first of this month, paid my $10 and still have credit left over. And the credit that's left over stays in your account for future use.
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http://www.wallypogsbog.com The website built with auction users in mind.
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eSeller004
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posted on June 26, 2001 11:21:54 AM new
wallypog,
That's what I meant. Didn't realize Bidville already had something like that setup. Hopefully they use the revenue to advertise. I wish Yahoo would do it instead of charging per auction for featured listings.
So they work on a declining advertising balance? Nice idea that should become more intrigueing the "hotter" the site grows. They really give you homepage listings as part of this???
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jimhhow
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posted on June 26, 2001 04:03:19 PM new
Why don't you stop by and check it out. I do not say this to be promotuional, but things are happening so fast, there are always changes. We were surprised today with the sudden addition of the ability to CHANGE feedback that we have previously left. For example.
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wallypog
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posted on June 26, 2001 09:53:45 PM new
Yep, eSeller. You get home page featured for a fraction of the regular price with the Premier membership. As jimhhow suggested, drop on by and take a good look at the site (and no I'm not promoting either) and see what all is going there.
I think one of the things I find most interesting there is that I'll think something along the lines of if I was running this site I'd do this or that. Before I know it they've done it.
Later on this week I'm hoping to give Auctionweiser a try and see how they stack up. They're in dire need of sellers at the moment, LOL.
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http://www.wallypogsbog.com The website built with auction users in mind.
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eSeller004
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posted on June 27, 2001 05:14:53 AM new
Thanks for the invite, now how do I get there? Do you have a link?
Actually I have stuff listed there but still haven't sold a darn thing! But none of my stuff would qualify for the $1 sale.  Just haven't paid attention to the changes at the site except for quick glances.
Is Bidville going to leave that $1 Sale button on their homepage indefinitely? That was a real nice and easy way to find those types of auctions. I imagine you could do the same for $5 and $10 start auctions as well. It'd be like clicking on the less than $10 DVD button on one of those video sites --- usually one of the first places bargain hunters search and a reason to come back often and see what's new. You could have buttons for books less than $3, or CDS less than $5, or VHS less than $5, or DVDs less than $10, or video games less than $10, and so on. I'd steal all of Half.com's marketing ideas and use them for Bidville and play up the fact that listing and FVFs are FREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! 
Might encourage more people to list more expensive wares. JMHO, but I could be wrong!
It'd be nice if Bidville had an integrated payment mechanism like Half.com which would eliminate deadbeats completely and make buying and selling EASY. Another selling card --- Bidville, the only auction site without deadbeat bidders! It'd be a unique site.
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eSeller004
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posted on June 27, 2001 05:24:46 AM new
But Bidville needs revenue so a small FVF has to happen at some point. PLEASE NO LISTING FEE!!! And if they add an integrated payment feature to the site, then that could take the place of the FVF, where instead they collect a piece of every successful transaction. Say 5% which is less than eBay and much less than Half.com's 15%.
Half.com's integrated payment feature works well and it isn't very invasive for users. Almost as easy to use as Amazon's 1-Click shopping button. All I remember giving out to Half is a Credit Card # and my address, both of which I've given to more than 30 sites so no big deal. It's the bank account and SSN# that I have a big problem with!
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saxkid
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posted on June 27, 2001 06:40:08 AM new
Hi, I know that the Prez is working on some sort of integrated payment system, he has asked for several opinions and suggestions on it over the past couple of months.
Things are changing very quickly there. The premier memberships are an awesome cost effective way to do featured auctions.
eseller please stop by and read the community forums at bidville. There is alot going on there.
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eSeller004
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posted on June 27, 2001 08:59:46 AM new
So you guys think the site will survive? I'll check it out next time I make a sale there. Too many other sites to keep up with, especially this new Gegy venture that I've been snooping around at. The site's coming along nicely from what I've seen. You can actually peek in at the auction site and other venues like GegyPay to see the layout. Needs work but they're still throwing it together. They claim to have what Bidville needs --- major advertising bucks! Wonder how long it will take Gegy to eclipse the # of listings at Bidville???
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bidsbids
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posted on June 27, 2001 09:44:44 AM new
I see gegy.com as the great hope for alternative auction sites for sellers. The major advertizing campaign may not get that many buyers to the site though. It's sure to lure disenchanted sellers from all over but I hope the ads are geared towards getting buyers to the new site. The buyers at eBay have the world-on-a-string. No fees, very low prices due to cutthroat competition amony sellers, huge selection, etc. There is very little incentive for buyers to leave eBay or for that matter Bidville unless the ad campaigns are very effective at drawing permanent bidders and not just a one-time flock of lookey-loos.
Should be interesting to see what transpires ....
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wallypog
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posted on June 27, 2001 11:52:19 AM new
I sure hope BidVille stays going and keeps growing. I haven't taken an opportunity to look at Gegy yet but am sure hoping the best for them, too.
I think we all could use a few auction sites that were serious about bringing in buyers. I really don't feel that a site would necessarily need to have a huge advertising budget to do what it takes to get buyers to the site.
For a good (or is that bad?) example, look at ePier. They are just now getting themselves into search engines and trying to do a little more promotional stuff to bring the buyers in.
I really think 'resourceful' more than 'resources' could help out a lot of these smaller sites.
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http://www.wallypogsbog.com The website built with auction users in mind.
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