posted on July 22, 2001 05:08:18 AM new
I've been looking at the auctions with interest and the apparent excitement at SYI over Club99. Although I'm not participating in the event and I'm not a member of Club99 I am a member of SYI.
Club99 seems to have quite abit of auctions running with a number of bids. I'm not going to bore anyone with stats, that's not my bag, however there are folks that know considerably more that I do about that.
What I'm actually interested in is that Club99 isn't exclusive to Ebay. I looked at the amount of participation by sellers at both sites and came to the conclusion that Ebay has lost it's luster with Club99. This fact alone seems to have brought quite abit of luster to SYI and the current Club99 event.
So my question to the masses is "Is SYI beginning to shine like a new car and will it continue?" You tell me.
This is not a promotional thread but rather a thread to discuss the idea that a given event can and does seem to hold promise for SYI. I would like all the respondents to please restrict their posts to this if at all possible.
posted on July 22, 2001 01:08:32 PM new
"Jury Is Still Out"! Reason being is that 95%+ of the bidding is between current Members to Members and that's not too promising in that New Buyers are needed for the Sellers. More power to the Sellers as they are in this to sell, but we've been down this road before.
Most of the buying before this was current Member to Member, so no changes, just a new little frenzy which will burn itself out fast.
New, never before Buyers are needed here making up at least 50% of the sales to make this Site grow.
Right now alot of the items up by the Sellers were up before this and not being bid on by the same buyers who could have bid before the event.
So let's not get to excited yet. I need to see a rush of New Buyer/Members Buying to get excited here. I don't need this event to sell, as I do great without it and I've invited 500 people here before this. But if it brings new Buyers/Members then that's great!
But until they get "ALL" "Quality" items on the Home Page in the Featured Section (Which is suppose to be a Sites "Showcase", alot are going to come and look at alot of the featured items and laugh, then leave. The reason at almost any Site that charges a Cash Dollar fee for Featured Items is that it Showcases their Site on it's Home Page with a solid list of quality items. Doesn't make good business sense to pay $20 to list a $1 item, so you don't see $1 items no one wants to look at on a Charging Sites Home Page. Degrades the Site and makes it look like a nickel & dime store. It almost insults ones intelligence to have to look at it! Give listing Bonuses for something else and make it to where credits used for Featured Auctions have to be items listed for more than & value more than $20.00.
Also, they need to add, as at Bidville for example, a link to your "Auctions Ended Unsold" so you can relist without a nightmare stituation occurring. If your one to list over 500+ items and all you have is a link to Auctions Ended which includes Auctions ended, relisted, unsold, relisted, sold, unsold - it's like a nightmare to figure out what needs relisted that hasn't sold and wasn't relisted. Does my explanation sound confusing? So now you can see what some of us with more than 500+ auctions are dealing with. This is a turnoff to big Sellers coming here. If a new site like Bidville, Bidbay and even eBay make relisting such an easy task, why doesn't SYI enact this link that several have now pleaded with them to do. Don't they want listings? Then don't punish those that list in bulk. Such an easy change! Just do it! Copy Bidville if you must.
JMHO
posted on July 22, 2001 01:47:49 PM new
Who Do The Sellers Sell To?
I don't know if that was directed to me, but an answer:
Sellers sell to Buyers ! At one Site I have 2,705 Unique Buyers ! Unique= Different Buyers !
At SYI & Golds I had barely over 100 unique Buyers in over 2 years as most have! In this case "Buyers"= Current Member to Members that have always been there for over two years in very limited numbers!
I didn't know that sellers couldn't be buyers too. A sale is a sale. And, maybe because of all the listings at ebay, these items would have been overlooked if they were listed there. I remember being able to look at all the listings at ebay in one sitting. I used to buy way more then because something used to catch my eye that I wouldn't even know I wanted until I saw the listing. Now, I barely go over there to bid. There is just too much to sift through.
I agree, 10 cent trading cards don't belong on the homepage as a featured item. But if users want to pay for a featured auction, be it from their credits, by hitting a magic number or out of their pocket, why would the site want to stop them? If I hit a magic number, I would hope it would be one of my items I would have wanted featured anyway.
I have used a few featureds and I definitely get more hits by doing so. If by listing an item there and it gets my other items looked at and possibly bid on, then it is money well spent.
Right now I have 3 items rotating on the homepage and I have received hits of 14, 17 and 25. That's a lot of looks. One item currently has a bid on it as well and I am hoping the others will too.
posted on July 22, 2001 05:16:22 PM new
"There is an ended unsold sort on the MySYI page"
Your Mistaken here. There is a "Ended Sold" and "Ended" on your MYSYI Page. There is no Ended Unsold. You must be thinking of Bidville. Even the Staff Tech admits it's a flaw but said they don't have the personnel or finances for change at this time. I didn't say this, SYI Staff said this, quote- unquote! Unless you know more than the Owners (or are an owner) and they can't direct me to where you say it is and I sure can't find it (ENDED UNSOLD). They told me I'd just have to weed thru it all of which I haven't the time.
Funny, but I never mentioned 10 cent sports cards. But the 10 cent sports cards I've seen listed in the regular sports section are actually worth between $2 and $80 book value. But even a Ken Griffey Jr Common would look better than a massive display of junky tools on a Home Page, don't you agree?
Let Golds and other small Sites be a lesson. No new Buyers, no lasting site except for the owners own wares.
As far as your hits, I can guarantee that 95% are from the current members who were always there even from Golds and the bidder on your auction is an oldster, not a newbie.
You should be careful not to Mislead the members here.
posted on July 22, 2001 05:47:20 PM new
I stand corrected. I thought the ended sort was for items without bids, since the next option was ended sold. Maybe the programmers could put the ended unsold there. I doubt the quote you made is accurate since I've seen some programming changes made. There has to somebody doing work on the site.
Since I just use my bulkloader and remove any items that have been sold, I already have all my unsold items in one place and don't use the MySYI page for keeping track.
Since I haven't seen any tools listed on the homepage yet, I wouldn't know if they were junky or not.
Haven't mislead anyone here. I have stated what I have found when using the home featured enhancement. I'm not the only one who has seen similar results.
AND, wouldn't you agree that a $2 book value sports card doesn't belong on the front page as a featured either? An $80 card, absolutely.
If it is an oldster that placed a bid, then I guess they have decided that they don't want anyone to know that they bid on my auction and are hiding that fact for some reason.
posted on July 22, 2001 05:54:40 PM new
Interesting topic, I hope more see it and respond. I am afraid that the luster that you speak of won't be long lived unless there is a lot more interest generated in the up coming ad weeks.
I too had thought and believed strongly that this one event could be a lauching pad for a lot of interest. I posted to the ebay club99 board telling folks why they might want to come join the syi99 event...could even import their auctions and change a few words...couldn't be simpler. I even talked about the $10 credit for new buyers.
I dunno if this did anything. I also posted on the soupgirl board. I even tried here, but made a booboo by posting a link and quickly got my message taken down.
But...this is just the first try at this. I think that this event has to happen several times for people to really look at it. It is also a bit confusing, cause some new people who are looking from ebay are searching for club99 instead of syi99.
On topic, hu? well ok...then yes, I think this can be a great push that syi needs given time, and also there are a lot of things to come to get the listing numbers up for the ad campaign happening the first week in Aug. oops, sorry that is a bit off topic.
I won't get into the discussion with cdrom and toollady, interesting though it is....maybe some other thread sometime.
posted on July 22, 2001 05:57:56 PM new
I'm sure the Techs will be working on it, as they've had a few complaints. But you seem to have a tremendous amount of knowledge here and maybe should offer your assistance. Sheila would probably welcome the offer. I'm sure you know her. She's a great help and seems to have authority there.
Again, I've only seen one Autographed Sports Card (they have value) and the Seller informed me he asked even that be removed and it was. But even the $2 Sports card is worth more than the .99 Cent stuff, don't you agree? It's a matter of add & subtract here. Very elementary to say the least.
Well, let's hope for the best for SYI and get them Ads out and notifications and let's bring some new Blood in the Ring.
Maybe they need a PR person who will contact members so that everyone gets to know the real Staff. I mean, they know who we really are. Just like the other Sites, it's great public relations. No hidden Identities or agendas is alway good business policy!
posted on July 22, 2001 06:16:56 PM new
Oh, one comment on the "Oldster" bidding. It is a fact that the party was a Tech with Golds if I'm not mistaken. His name is in the Domain Registry from there. That would make them an "Oldster". I guess it was just a coincidence your auction was chosen. Congratulations on the Bid !
Good luck and check with Sheila on that change. I'm sure she'll listen to you.
posted on July 22, 2001 08:42:46 PM new
I went to look at the listings and really didn't feel like sifting through pages and pages of romance books as well as other items that ended in .99. I was basically looking for items starting at .99 other than romance novels. They seem to have taken over the sports cards on the first two listing pages.
I liked the ebay format much better where you would just go to one home page and click on seller's ID's.
What I'm actually interested in is that Club99 isn't exclusive to Ebay. I looked at the amount of participation by sellers at both sites and came to the conclusion that Ebay has lost it's luster with Club99.
If I'm not mistaken hasn't Club99 ceased to exist at ebay due to the new link policy? I haven't received any mail from them which I normally do before the listing date.
posted on July 22, 2001 09:15:54 PM new
I'd like to thank all the folks that have participated in this thread.
JMHO2 ~~ You are mistaken do a search on Ebay on Completed items using Club99 and you will see that there were quite a few items listed and sold at ebay this month.
I hope this helps!
Folks this is a serious thread I hope this thread doesn't take a nose dive in to cards and personalities. Let's try to keep it on topic.
I'll keep tabs on this thread, but be forewarned that my email is down, so I may be a bit slow in responding.
posted on July 22, 2001 09:18:18 PM new
I have to agree on the pages and pages of Romance Novels. But I might add there are alot more auctions running than that trash!
There is a link to all the SYI99 sellers, but it is hard to find. You have to go to an auction that has the banner in it. (That' s another thing, many auctions don't link to the SYI99 auctions and some are still listing those SYI99 auctions now!) Would be much better if the link to the individual sellers was more visible for all to see.
Also I do believe Club99 at eBay did run this month. Correct me if I am wrong.
As for the other things stated here, it's all very interesting and some things make one go hhmmmm.
I for one will be keeping an eye out on SYI and see how things progress.
posted on July 22, 2001 10:11:42 PM new
elecdata1, I stand corrected. For some reason I thought they were done, but I see they only had 379 auctions listed. That's far less than in the past. Along with that I noticed there were no links to the Club99 homepage on those I viewed.
whyme2000, I couldn't get past the books. When I clicked on a category that interested me, I found only 3 or 4 items, and none of those were starting at .99. All were fairly high priced, but ended with .99. There are really no control factors there as there are with the original. At least when you participated in a Club99 99 cent event at ebay, you knew that everything would start at .99. There were special events that allowed the .99 to come at the end, but they weren't mixed in with the .99 ones. Does that make sense?
posted on July 23, 2001 03:12:13 AM new
This was the first Club99SYI offering, and items could be offered Other than the theme.. theme is Christmas in July. So you could offer @ .99 1.99 2.99 3.99 etc.
First time try at this and has proved to be very successful. It will build on itself, perhaps in the August on all the following Club99SYI's we could have the participating Sellers Listed-Linked on SYI's Homepage
A Big Thanks to Sheila Paula Serenity !!!
posted on July 23, 2001 03:19:07 AM new
To see all the Club99SYI offerings.. you do a Search.. By Title
you ONLY type in SYI99 and you will see 1000+ offerings. Do Not use the word Club in the search, hope this helps any of the confused.
posted on July 23, 2001 04:54:09 AM new
Just to add a couple of points of clarification to what has already been stated.
The clubsyi99 event is not exactly like the old club99. It combines many of the best features of the old club99 and has a few new ones. (It is similar to the old club99 theme events that were so succesful.) It is called syi99, so as has been stated, the search will only work for syi99. A minimum of 10 items must be listed. 5 items must start at .99 and 5 can start at any price ending in .99. There is also a contest for the item that starts with .99 and gets the highest bids and does not use the bin option to encourage more listings of more expensive items starting at .99. The listing time as with club99 is 12:00am est on the third sat of the month and ending at midnight the next sat. Any that you see that are outside those dates, are not official syi99 auctions. The same always happened with club99 there were always listings that did not belong there.
Again it was the first attempt and some who signed up to participate had computer trouble etc and were allowed to join for 5 day auctions etc.
Each auction had to have the link to the syi99 homepage in a large banner within their auctions. That homepage is exactly like the club99 homepage with the list of participants on the left hand side. Also, each participant always has the link to all of their other auctions within the listing form. Thus each individual person's auctins can be accessed from the home page.
Yes, there was a club99 on ebay this month, and will continue to be. The sign up thread is at OTWA in the club99 forum. The problem is that there cannot be any link to the banner. It has to be found by clicking on the person's about me page, then by clicking on the banner. Thre will probably not be a mass mailing about the event, since it is in such a controlled fashion now. But, it will be on each 2nd sat just as before and the sign up will be at the forum as i have said.
Oh, one other thing. I also listed some nice blue ridge not at .99 but at 2.00 less than what I list it on ebay for this event. I also listed what to me is a higher priced item for the .99 just to see how it goes.
As with club99, if you were there in the very beginning, it will take time for folks to take chances with their higher priced merchandice being listed at the .99. AS soon as it catches on, watch out!
Thanks once again for reading this long post. later, Paula
posted on July 23, 2001 05:06:53 AM new
I imagine what's confusing is the Club99 logo on the front page. I used that as my search tool, so I didn't have to put SYI99 in the search box.
If it's called SYI99, why use the Club99 logo? I finally found the home page for Club99SYI and this is exactly like the original Club99, so how can you say it's not the same or just "similar"?
BTW, I looked at one seller's auctions - a seller who is touting SYI99 as the best thing since sliced white bread and this seller has no linking logo on auctions.
posted on July 23, 2001 05:17:23 AM new
Thanks for that information, I will go back through all of them later this evening and try to get that corrected.
I can understand the confusion about the club99 syi99 usage. I have not clicked on the syi ad on the front. It should go to the list of participants. I also will have to look at that later.
Oh, I believe that it only goes to the homepage because the event only runs one week, but the ad will be up for a month. Thus, it would be even more confusing if it linked to the participatnt page and it was all over.
Again, it's the first try, and many things will run more smoothly each time it is done.
posted on July 23, 2001 05:20:09 AM new
All participating Club99SYI sellers are supposed to have SYI99 in the auction/s Tile line.. and have a logo and or link in the description.. surely no one would 4get 2 do that
posted on July 23, 2001 05:26:12 AM new
The Club99SYI logo on sellyouritem.com home page takes you directly to the list of all the participaing auctions in the current event, presently. That is perfect.. But their should also be a logo that says and when clicked will show you all the participating sellers-links.. then we have Bingo
posted on July 23, 2001 06:31:03 AM new
101% not intentional by the seller.. they will be fixed later tonight I am sure. Ya know there are many users who still have very hard time with links.. be it copy&paste or on there own. And some times there are I did it but I didn't get it to work.. and becomes a very frustrating time for person involved. I can live w/o bids.. no problem from my end. when collectors come i will have bids The event and the following events.. will bring out more bidders and real better bargains as bidders buid up.
Tis a great job done !
