posted on December 31, 2001 02:23:28 PM new
I had seen Carnaby a while back when they did their initial launch, and haven't really spent a lot of time there (or anywhere else online for that matter!) much after that.
I just went back to take a look after I saw some of their ads, and was actually impressed with what they have done.
I found that a lot of their features are what quite a few of the people on these boards were asking for! It seems I missed some sort of a sweepstakes program as well, which sounded like it was a lot of fun.
Anyways, since I had been out of the loop for a while, I am trying to get back into the swing of things, and I thought I would give it a shot. Does anyone have any more info about the site I should know?
posted on December 31, 2001 02:56:29 PM new
Great site, great management, great tech support. Low traffic and very few items listed. Some banner ads are running.
posted on January 1, 2002 05:08:55 AM new
I stumbled across this site a couple of months ago and have had a couple of sales and nabbed a number of terrific bargains. Got to agree that what I have seen is pretty impressive - they actually seem to listen to their Users and anytime I've had a technical problem, their support people have been on the ball and incredibly helpful.
amazon2000, take a peek at their boards if you get the chance. You can tell a lot about a place by the people who post there and while I've witnessed a minor scuffle or 2, the majority of the posters are friendly and eager to help new arrivals.
I also found this in Carnaby's Announcements so it looks like another sweepstakes will be happening in the near future:
Thanks to your input and support, we have managed to develop a site that we can all be proud of, with all of the advanced features that you would expect from one of the top online auction sites on the web.
In the new year, you can expect to see a lot more of Carnaby on and off the web, as we unleash a brand new and exciting Cash Cow program and begin an aggressive promotional campaign created to attract many new buyers and sellers to our site.
posted on January 2, 2002 05:45:09 PM new
I can say without a doubt that carnaby will not be the answer. It simply is a complete waste of time to list there. I had only one person every bid on my items although she did buy six items, it was the only sales I ever had there. As far as use, it is somewhat easy to list items there, but if you need to make adjustments or close and auction, it is very difficult to do. First you must go to your open auctions and write down the auction number you wish to close, then navigate through its very slow loading pages to get to the section to close the auction, then once you finally get there, you have to type in the auction number that you wish to close. Another thing I hate about carnaby is you must have both numbers and letters in your password. That is a big downfall of the site as I have two passwords I use and they do not have numbers in them. That makes the site less than desirable to use. The system is not real user friendly and the potential bidders seem to have found it that way too. They look and then leave without bidding. I have let my auctions run out there just because it is way too much work to continue listing without sales.
bp
posted on January 2, 2002 07:03:08 PM new
I haven't listed anything there yet, so I can't tell you how easy or difficult it is to list. I just downloaded the Max Loader, and will be playing with it soon (I like bulk loaders, they make life a lot easier!)
palaco, I have been lurking at their boards, and can see what you mean about the environment - it seems friendly and that's a good thing. I left another site a while back because people just couldn't control themselves!
barparts, I can understand your concern since you've had some problems, but I'm not sure I understand what you're saying - the bidding process is the same there as just about every other site, and I see the same thing for the listing page! What is it that makes it so difficult?
And, forgive me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to do the same thing at eekBay to close an auction? What am I missing here?
posted on January 2, 2002 10:19:45 PM new
I respectfully disagree with barparts. I find Carnaby to be very user friendly and I've had many recent new bidders to the site, but as always I suppose it all depends on what category you sell in.
It is true that you can't revise an auction from the listing page itself, but it's still only 2 mouse clicks away to the revision page, and if you copy/paste the auction #, it's a breeze.
Amazon, if you haven't tried Max yet, I think you in for a pleasant surprise. It's a wonderful listing tool. You can use your own HTML templates or any of a couple dozen templates in the system. It has a photo editor that allows you to crop, rotate, resize and allows for the option of using a hosting site or Carnaby will host your photos for you. Then theres Maxime, she compliments Max by uploading your auctions from ebay, yahoo, or bidville and stores them in your Max inventory files. All and all it's pretty impressive.
posted on January 3, 2002 04:32:08 AM new
I have to agree with rob here. I have found Carnaby incredibly easy to use and while I don't make alot of sales there, it does drive alot of traffic to my website. I will be extra happy when the post auction management tools are made a bit better or when they decide to work things out with Auction Tamer.
http://www.ezinkjetstore.com
posted on January 3, 2002 07:43:09 AM new
Yes, Carnaby sales are slow right now... but they're slow everywhere. A lot of us are building up the Carnaby listings in preparation for the spring, when sales typically pick up (assuming that we're still climbing out of the recession).
Carnaby is not yet charging listing fees. Why not list a lot of stuff, and keep it listed until summer?
Hey, Rob of "robnzak" fame, aka R(OTS), welcome to the year 2002! Didja know that I accidentally entered the year backwards on every one of my Carnaby listings?
posted on January 3, 2002 07:58:56 AM new
I wish Carnaby good luck but I can never see them as a serious auction contender. There are far too many Carnabys out there and they all seem the same.
posted on January 3, 2002 09:08:13 AM new
LOL@Kenzy, you never fail to make me chuckle pal!
Bidbids: "but I can never see them as a serious auction contender."
To what? ebay? an auction site doesn't have to be as large as ebay to be successful.(although, I'm sure that's Carnaby's goal)
From my point of view, any venue that offers strong customer support, a stable site that's easy of use, and navigate, has quality seller's and promotes itself with consistant advertising is in fact a serious auction site.
"There are far too many Carnabys out there and they all seem the same"
True, but not all "Carnaby's" are created equal, and I sell (or attempt to) on several of them, and for me, Carnaby is my #2 selling venue after ebay and my feedback will bear this out. My storefront provides consistant weekly sales and traffic and I'm quite pleased with the results.
posted on January 3, 2002 01:50:43 PM new
Southern Rob, of course not to eBay. That would be like a company inventing an operating system that would replace Windows or getting any kind of a decent market share. I can not see Carnaby progressing much beyond where it is now. The banner ads are not making much of a difference. It's just not Carnaby but all of the little auction sites that dot the internet landscape. It all seems like an exercise in futility. I still contend that a narrow niche auction site is the only one that has any chance to make any money over an extended period of time.
posted on January 3, 2002 03:31:26 PM new
Bidsbids,
I agree with much of what you say. I am also of the opinion those starting a small auction site need to try to build a successful niche and then attempt to grow from there. Many collectors would be more willing to try a site that is catering to their area of collectibles rather than another general auction site. The site can target their advertising dollars into a more narrow area. Also if they provided additional services such as hobby news, etc., this might be more effective in attracting the casual collector.
It is a shame that Carnaby is not attracting more listings. It is a well-run, responsive site that should be attracting more interest. If it has the resources to remain viable until listings significantly increase, it appears to be one of the small sites that could survive long-term. In my opinion, the major drawback is their honesty over listing fees. The open-ended statement that they might charge listing fees one day is honest, but it is probably keeping many sellers from making a commitment to the site. I would recommend that they make a commitment to no listing fees for at least a minimum defined period (recommend 1-2 years), so that this uncertainty is removed.
posted on January 3, 2002 09:39:00 PM new
hey bids, your latest post made your point a little clearer, and I understand your views, and partially agree. I think niche market venues would or could be extrememly successful by having a narrower focus, but since that's not the avenue taken by Carnaby, I guess it will be up to the next auction house to spring up, but I still believe Carnaby can and will be a good mid-size auction community.
Steve, been a while, hope all is well with you...You have a valid point about the listing fees, it would be nice to have a concrete date for implementation, but again, Carnaby has stated many times, that they would give a full 30 day notice of such fees. I know a lot of seller's are leery of making a commimentment, but for the life of me I just don't understand why they wouldn't take advantage of the site while listing was still free and help to build a viable auction venue. Carnaby even offered incentives to waive all fees in exchange for regular and consistant listings to help them grow, so it just doesn't make a lot of sense not to try and expand your exposure to as many areas as possible.
posted on January 3, 2002 10:24:30 PM new
Ebay is far from perfect from the stand point of buyers. This allows room for sites like Carnaby to gain market share. Carnaby should make some bold moves to please buyers, although sellers may not like it, they would adapt if buyers are there.
Example, universal shipping and handling rates based on category; EOA emails automatically generated with total and payment options.
For sellers they could have templates for each category. Seller just fills in blanks, and HTML is automatically generated, and most of the buyers questions should be answered (still in box? Y/N; Used/New?)
Condition is on a numbered scale, just like the scale used for toys. Not like on ebay where a seller says good condition and no one knows what that really means.
Just make it more easy for buyers to buy and they will come, and sellers will be right behind.
posted on January 4, 2002 09:15:39 AM new
Windows Operating System is far from perfect too and many people use Linux. But not a big percentage or even a fair percentage of the total computer users. Windows has too big of an advantage to overcome or even make trying to overcome a valid goal. Not just overcome but trying to stake a 10% marketshare. ( Apple is a joke ) eBay is very much like Micro$oft.
Rob, I was an avid sports bets fans and even though one may dearly love the local hometeam ( might even be the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team godforbid) one quickly learns to let the mind decide the wager and not the heart. You may want the Clippers to kick ass on the Lakers but you know your only hope is pointspread betting and not straight up betting. I know you baddly want Carnably to be a contender but don't bet on it ( unless you can get fantastic odds ... still some better in me yet ).
How's that for a bunch of wacky analogies?
Good to see you around here again. Thought this place was about gone, but it seems we are getting some decent discussion going again.
I have to agree that I am also in the dark about the lack of growth at Carnaby. It shows the appearance of having a better chance to succeed than most of the other small sites, has done some advertising, but still no sellers. I don't know if it is a case of bad timing (starting about the time the economy went south), but it definitely is having a problem attracting listings. In my opinion, I think there are two major factors for this. The first is the uncertainty about fees. I believe if they would announce no listing fees for a significant period of time, at least 6 months to a year, they would get a lot more sellers willing to move significant number of listings. Most of the sellers on the small sites are part-time and moving a large number of listings is a major undertaking. The 30 day promise is probably too short of a time to entice them to move. The second factor is the lack of auto-relists. Most sellers on small sites know that they are not going to have a strong sell-through, so the time spent relisting is a major consideration. I think Carnaby is designed for a Ebay-like sell-through and not as a start-up site. Recognition that growth is going to be slow and making decisions accordingly would help significantly in my opinion.
You should start seeing more of me on Carnaby. I have made the decision to try to maintain at least a 150-200 listings on the site and rotate listings between Bidville and Carnaby. I think the rotation may help sales on both sites. I have always been amazed with my selling on Yahoo that an item will not sell for a month, leave it unlisted for a few days, and then it will sell almost immediately when I relist it. I just think giving the item the appearance of being new helps many times.
One question for you - is Carnaby charging listing fees for its stores now? Reading the TOS, it says that waiving of store listing fees expired on 1/2.
posted on January 4, 2002 08:26:23 PM new
That's a good plan. Rotate between Carnaby and BV. Throw SYI into the rotation as that site looks to be a contender also. A rolling auction stone gathers no moss. ( I don't think that just-born cliche pertains to anything but I hated to waste the inspiration ).
posted on January 5, 2002 10:11:32 AM new
Rotating inventory is the most effective method I've found for generating extra sales. Carnaby's Maxime allows for bulk exporting from ebay, yahoo and bidville. The listings settle into Max Loader and can be uploaded to the site with ease. SYI now has an import feature, only one auction at a time, but still a time saver.
Steve, although Carnaby doesn't have auto-relisting, with their last site upgrade,they added a relisting feature to the auction manager, and it's only 3 mouse clicks to relist all expired listings, it's pretty quick and painless. My thoughts for their doing it this way rather than offering the auto relisting is to try and avoid the bidville type of 'parking' and forgetting.
I'm sorry, I can't answer your question about the store fees, I was part of a test team before the release of the stores to the public, and I've taken advantage of the seller incentive offer, so I have all fees waived until August. Perhaps a quick note to support will find your answer.
posted on January 5, 2002 12:07:29 PM new
Wow! This turned into quite a discussion!
I have to say I am baffled as well as to why the site does not have as many listings as it "deserves." It seems well thought out, and I have been seeing a lot of features I haven't seen on a lot of other smaller sites, such as their Showcase, Pot Luck feature, Gift Center, full Auction Tools, Auction Ticker (this is cool!), and other stuff I haven't even gotten a chance to look at yet!
Maybe if all the sellers discuss the site at all the various news groups and chat boards out there, people will take notice?
I did notice, however, that on the listing form they have a re-list for up to three times for free. Isn't that what stavecards was asking about?
I haven't even looked at their stores much yet - I guess I know where I'll be spending some time this weekend!
posted on January 5, 2002 01:19:48 PM newI did notice, however, that on the listing form they have a re-list for up to three times for free. Isn't that what stavecards was asking about
Amazon, your absolutely correct, I just checked and you can have 3 auto relists. I wasn't aware of that because I use MAX and maybe I missed it, but I don't think there is auto relist options in Max (I'll go check to be sure)
posted on January 7, 2002 12:06:40 PM new
The Max Loader does not currently support the automatic relist feature. We are looking at incorporating this feature into its next release.
In the meantime, we are getting ready to provide an option in the Auction Manager's "preferences" menu. This option will allow our members to select one of the automatic relist functions as a default.
This option will then be applied to all auctions submitted through the Max Loader.
posted on January 7, 2002 02:37:36 PM new
Oops! I forgot to come back as promised with the relist answer for Max, Thanks to Carnaby support for the follow-up answer.
posted on January 8, 2002 01:09:54 PM new
Our programming team has responded to our members' requests, and has just announced that support for the relist function has been added for Max Loader users.
It is available during the confirmation process, after a batch has been submitted for processing.
posted on January 10, 2002 11:12:18 AM new
Hey - I just noticed they have a Pro Seller program, which I believe it is similar to eBay's Power Sellers, but it seems to have a few more "advantages".
Do any of you that are Power Sellers on eBay find that there are any benefits to it? What would some of the pluses and minuses be?
posted on January 17, 2002 07:38:24 PM new
I tried Carnaby, and found it easy to use, but that is minor. My first exasperated with the site was when I read through their “rules and regulations,” which seem as endless and particular as eBay’s but they are no eBay.
After reading all the “do’s and don’ts” I didn’t consider it at all user friendly, and unless they produce like eBay I wouldn’t bother with them. There are endless such sites, with their cutesy promotions like “Cash Cow,” etc., which I don’t find appealing. I want a friendly site, easy to use, and simple, without endless rules and regulations, silly promotions, just results – I get enough of rules via eBay BUT at least on eBay I get results.
posted on January 17, 2002 09:03:46 PM new
I agree with that assesment. There is way too much fine print to the site. If it were eBay it may be necessary but not for a very small site. The cutesy cow promotions should be abandoned too.
If any of the little known auctions sites ever took off and got a lot of traffic I hope it is Carnaby. The management and tech support are first class.
posted on January 17, 2002 09:29:32 PM new
JWPC - I'm really curious what in particular you find so stifling about Carnaby's "rules & regulations"? I just re-read the Community Guide again and I didn't find anything out of the ordinary - they seem to be fairly standard for that type of site and the Chat Board CGs are by far the shortest I've ever seen! Did I miss something really obvious or was there something specific about restrictions on the field you sell in?
Carnaby and other small sites have no chance of producing "like eBay" unless Sellers are willing to give them a chance. That means hanging in there for the long haul, encouraging existing clientele to venture over from other sites and publicizing your Carnaby listings.
Frankly with eBay's announcement of increased fees, NOW is the ideal time to be doing exactly that!
posted on January 17, 2002 09:51:44 PM new
You can "hang in there for the long haul" or make money on the only auction that has a sizeable number of buyers now. We all want the Carnabys to be successful but that is a very longshot at best.
posted on January 18, 2002 04:06:39 PM new
With the new fees coming up at Ebay, you gotta believe I'll be moving some auctions to Carnaby. At least Ebay gave us enough warning and I can just spend some spare time adding items to Max and upload whenever I want.
I'm in total agreement with Palaco. If you are going to make a move, now is the time.
