posted on October 29, 2001 12:46:23 PM new
How about someone building a site that is free to sellers and all bidders must subscribe... Say Free for first 5 purchases, then $10/year for bidders only. Free browsing until you wish to make a bid. Maybe a low volume seller pays $20/yr (less than 25 auctions per year).
Maybe $50-60/year or $5/month for bidder/seller with unlimited free posting.
Then charge extra for special features like ebay or Yahoo. My rationale is that if a site can get say 10 million users that's $100 mil income/year from bidders and say 5 million bidder/sellers that's $250 million more.
This way, the sellers are not squeezed and volume sellers are encourged to post lots of products.
Another business model could be a simple buyers premium... just like auction houses do... say a 3-10% premium... Again, this way, the seller is not squeezed.
There are many opportunities for online auctions to be successful and profitable without ticking off the volume sellers like ebay has been doing. Actually, they would be a good company to start an alternative site with alternative pricing models... This way, they will still make more money from us... i.e. 1/2.com
posted on October 29, 2001 10:09:16 PM new
In this industry new ideas are often times excellent ideas. In fact I'd like to see more site owners willing to change things from eBay's standard and see how well the format could be improved upon.
However, on the other hand I can't see the difference between charging fees to a seller or charging them to a buyer. As a seller I make sure that I have enough profit coming in to pay the Final Value and listing fees (if applicable). In essence the buyer is actually paying for those fees out of the price he/she paid me. When listing on sites with lower fees my prices are adjusted accordingly.
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posted on October 30, 2001 04:25:16 PM new
I think the idea is good. a charge of $10 per year is a readily affordable fee. I believe buyers have a ball doing auctions. It is addictive, like going to the casino. but the seller keeps paying and paying.
