posted on February 17, 2002 06:37:14 PM new
Bargain and Haegle has free listing and noend of auction fees for awhile. I was doing alright, now am doing better there. Does anyone sell at Bookbybid?
posted on March 8, 2002 04:51:13 PM new
Six months ago, my only issue with Bargain and Haggle was the high percentage of deadbeats I was seeing. I was thrilled with both the quantity and the price of the offers I received. Then they got all cutesy and jacked their minimum fee to $1.25. That's about the same time that the offers I was receiving completely died. Now they are experimenting with no transaction fees and those horrible pop-up ads. And they aren't just a one-time pop-up the first time you go to the site. They are everywhere, and they are incredibly annoying.
I have a feeling that this experiment could officially kill off the site as it appears people have lost complete interest from what I can see. I'm not even getting page views anymore. It's really too bad because it had the potential before its owners got greedy of growing into a terrific site.
posted on March 9, 2002 07:41:51 AM new
Bargain and haggle is temporarily not using a listing nor fv fee. Everything is free. They raised the final value fee, as you say, to $1.25 minimum, to get rid of long term very junky listings. Right now they have no final value fee. listing low price items and getting feedback is aa good idea now for someone just coming on board. Actualy, I found it a plus when they raised the fee.
In the meantime, I think they are trying things. And I find them inovative, and my sales have increased there. do you think they should go on forever, not chargin anything for everything? How long would they stay in business? I like the way they operate and hope they are around for awhile.
posted on March 9, 2002 07:45:34 AM newALICE: HOWEVER, the site is so overwhelmed with pop-under & pop-over & pop-up and pop-eye ads that simple navigation is a chore!
I thought AW was bad -- THIS PLACE gets the stinko award!
"We have met the enemy and it is US!" -- Pogo
I just ADORE sig files!
posted on March 9, 2002 07:57:23 AM new
I, too, find pop-ups irritating. Nothing is free. If we complain about Ebay, and want a different venue and more compitition, we will have to put up with something. I, personally, would like to see alittle compition. To sit here and complain about this simple irritation, which is not as aggravating as the monopoly of ebay, is not worth my time. I am looking for a venue that will survive. And each one has to have some form of income or will die.
posted on March 9, 2002 04:55:41 PM new
Um, where did I ever say that I didn't want the site to make money? I'm fully aware that any Internet site needs sufficient revenues in order to survive. I also believe that the present banner ad setup is being tried at the same time as the no transaction fees to see if it is a way that the site can improve its revenue base. That makes we wonder how well the fee structure that was in place is working in terms of revenues.
While the higher fees may have rid the site of certain long-term 'junky' listings as you say, it still leaves all the other 'long-term' listings that are re-listed month after month because of the free listings. I guess I don't see what the difference is between a $7.50 item or a $50 item if it's the same ones listed over and over. I know when I'm looking to buy something I do a search and see only the items I care to see anyway.
I've kept a close eye on the list of top five sellers on the site. I don't see their transaction numbers growing at anywhere near the rate they were last summer. I also don't see anyone else moving up to take their places on the top five list. I've checked many different categories and seldom see more than five negotiations going on at a time in those categories. Maybe the negotiations are closed so quickly that I just miss them.
I don't mean to put the site down. As I mentioned, six months ago I thought things were going great. If they don't want $15 and under items on their site anymore that's fine with me as I've found several other places to sell. I think the fact that noone replied to this post for nearly a month speaks volumes as to the growth or lack thereof that B&H has been seeing and I think that's really unfortunate. I think the basic setup of their site is about as good as any I've seen.
