posted on August 7, 2002 06:13:55 PM new
DATE 08-07
TOTAL LISTINGS 1,152,304
SPORTS ITEMS 640,800 (55.6%)
BOOKS 330,453 (28.7%)
OTHER ITEMS 181,051 (15.7%)
posted on August 7, 2002 06:35:49 PM new
A couple of you card dealers should try to buy out the idiot that owns this venue, get rid of all the non-sports card stuff, tune it up a bit, and turn it into a sports card niche auction venue. I'll bet it would be much more successful
posted on August 7, 2002 06:46:56 PM new
RB the sad thing is the site has some nice features, but no brains to run it. If I owned the site I would have a FVF only setup, rid the nickel and dime cards, and use the revenue to advertise. Right now the site is a dumping ground of items sellers wont pay to list on the other sites. Oh well maybe someday things will change.
posted on August 7, 2002 07:19:48 PM new
BW, if that's all it is, then just where do you presume all that revenue for advertising is going to come from?
RB I think you have a great idea. Sure wish I had the funds or knew someone who did.
posted on August 7, 2002 08:39:53 PM new
I agree with Buzz on this one. At the very least tell the other than sports cards seller that Bidville is not the site for them. No sense in trying to do something you are not successful in.
posted on August 8, 2002 02:28:29 PM new
Well RB has a good point there I overlooked. Turning the site into a sports site is a good idea because according to Dimviews past stats the book catagory is dead, and the other items have been going down over time. The site has over 600,000 sports items, but alot are nickel and dime common cards. So in order to advertise they would need fees in either a FVF, or a monthly fee. The money could be used to advertise in price guides, and other sport magazines.
posted on August 8, 2002 07:15:51 PM new
Accounting costs add up too. To hit your credit card with a bill fees add up too and so do Paypal fees, etc. There is no way any site can survive trying extract a FVF out of super low value auction items. The only way to make money is would be with a mandatory membership plan and that wouldn't sit well with most sellers of nickel & dime cards.
posted on August 13, 2002 08:58:52 AM new
I agree with the rising amount of nickel and dime cards a membership plan would be the only way for the site to survive. There is an excellent post on the mootropolis bidville board that shows pictures of Bidville's operation. I would imagine the Pennsylvania based operation is the same.
posted on August 13, 2002 11:30:18 AM new
Actually, auction accounting ONLINE doesn't cost that much. The system is pretty much automated, and you could set it to bill a MINIMUM amount before invoicing a seller. If you have a merchant account with 2.29% let's say, that is still profitable at the levels of listings that Bidville has.
The accounting system just batches it through. Very little human interaction is needed.
There is nothing you can do to FORCE people not to list things for a penny or a nickel. Why can't people list for a penny?
You know there is ONE way to prevent fee circumvention. Half.com does it. They force the seller to either go by their charts, and/or input their shipping cost. Half.com then takes out their 15% on BOTH shipping and the cost of the item. While not an auction site, it would be a practical way to avoid fee circumvention.
I also see quite a few higher dollar items. If only a few hundred thousand higher dollar items are listing and only perhaps 20,000 sell, that is still MORE income.
I still see that the FVF is the single best way for a site to bring in income. However, it still takes money to get it started.
posted on August 13, 2002 12:28:50 PM newThere is nothing you can do to FORCE people not to list things for a penny or a nickel. Why can't people list for a penny?
Why not place a $1 minimum start bid?
If Seller "A" sells 35 sportscards in a one month period and the total sale amount is $1.65 then how do you bill him a 2% FVF? You mail him a bill for 3 cents? What if he paypals BV 3 cents and BV gets hit for a minimum transaction fee? Credit card fee?
There are a few high ticket items on BV. Most are very over-priced and are just there waiting for a miracle.
Bidville could say on FVFs payable on items under 75 cents but that would make many sellers mad and jealous of the low value sportscard sellers.
All of this discussion is a farce anyway as the only bids on BV now are for auction items that are very low priced or bids on reserve auctions. Even the featured auctions are doing nothing. Go to the BV homepage and hit "see all featured auctions" and see the very low amount of bids and when there are bids look to see if it is a reserve auction.
posted on August 13, 2002 01:13:22 PM new
YourDesigns thanks for the information. I always knew bidville was a shoestring operation, and the post on the moo confirmed that. I would say the site is being run from an apartment.
robertsmithson the more I think about it the worse it gets. Making a minimum starting bid sounds good in theory, BUT many sellers would raise the price from a nickel to a dollar and your left with a site of unsellable goods. And your right the sell-thru rate is very small, and being featured on the main page does nothing to help.
posted on August 14, 2002 11:25:49 AM new
DATE 08-07
TOTAL LISTINGS 1,152,304
SPORTS ITEMS 640,800 (55.6%)
BOOKS 330,453 (28.7%)
OTHER ITEMS 181,051 (15.7%)
DATE 08-14
TOTAL LISTINGS 1,153,124
SPORTS ITEMS 644,593 (55.9%)
BOOKS 329,773 (28.6%)
OTHER ITEMS 178,758 (15.5%)
posted on August 21, 2002 10:06:08 AM new
DATE 08-07
TOTAL LISTINGS 1,152,304
SPORTS ITEMS 640,800 (55.6%)
BOOKS 330,453 (28.7%)
OTHER ITEMS 181,051 (15.7%)
DATE 08-14
TOTAL LISTINGS 1,153,124
SPORTS ITEMS 644,593 (55.9%)
BOOKS 329,773 (28.6%)
OTHER ITEMS 178,758 (15.5%)
DATE 08-21
TOTAL LISTINGS 1,153,976
SPORTS ITEMS 650,853 (56.4%)
BOOKS 330,102 (28.6%)
OTHER ITEMS 173,021 (15%)
posted on August 28, 2002 02:31:11 PM new
DATE 08-07
TOTAL LISTINGS 1,152,304
SPORTS ITEMS 640,800 (55.6%)
BOOKS 330,453 (28.7%)
OTHER ITEMS 181,051 (15.7%)
DATE 08-14
TOTAL LISTINGS 1,153,124
SPORTS ITEMS 644,593 (55.9%)
BOOKS 329,773 (28.6%)
OTHER ITEMS 178,758 (15.5%)
DATE 08-21
TOTAL LISTINGS 1,153,976
SPORTS ITEMS 650,853 (56.4%)
BOOKS 330,102 (28.6%)
OTHER ITEMS 173,021 (15%)
DATE 08-28
TOTAL LISTINGS 1,156,351
SPORTS ITEMS 652,184 (56.4%)
BOOKS 329,834 (28.5%)
OTHER ITEMS 174,333 (15.1%)
