posted on February 11, 2001 09:34:37 PM new
True, but I want a true representation of the site. Seems that most of the posting has been in a negative manner.
posted on February 11, 2001 10:01:30 PM new
A true representation of the site.
BidBay has good customer service. Their techs are very helpful. The CEO is open to speak to you even with pains in the a** like me.
There are some good decent sellers and buyers there.
Some of the faults I have noticed.
Poor search engine. Cash sales were just not happening. The site pumps it's numbers. Integrity issues abound. The same good and decent sellers there are quick to attack anyone and everyone with an opinion on BidBay that differs from theirs. Just check out the boards.
How do I rate them on a scale of 1-5.
1.
Why? They had some good things going for them. But I learned pretty quickly that they are over their head in trying to figure this all out.
posted on February 12, 2001 04:08:36 AM new
I do not care about prizes. I just want traffic and having listed the same items at BidBay and BidVille, I have had 1 win on BidBay and 8 on BidVille.
I do think the site is easy to use, at first I liked the chat rooms but then they seemed a little to phony. You know, like congrats to so and so for her feedback etc....
I do not like when you have to put your picture in the listing and have to go thru 150 pixs to find the correct one.
posted on February 12, 2001 04:41:01 AM new
Speaking as a bidder/buyer ONLY,I really like BidBay!I've been with them almost since their beginning.Out of my almost 500 transactions,there've been NO problems;the sellers are professional and friendly,George is easy to talk to on the phone and in emails,as are all the staff.I would like the search engine to be a little more finely tuned,but am confident that will happen eventually.I've also won $$,BBB's and seller sponsored contests!What a blast!!I've also made a few friends on the chat board,and participated in their Giving @ Home Charity(a little plug,Paula!).It's a nice place to visit,check it out!I've gotta get ready for work,ya all have a great day,Mary.
posted on February 12, 2001 05:48:26 AM new
My experience in testing all the new sites since the demize of Yahoo, has put BidBay, in my book on a scale of 1-10 about a 7. Easy to use, and I've gotten more sales through BidBay than any other new site.
posted on February 12, 2001 06:57:01 AM new
girls2 would your opinion be under this ID or the other one you sell on bidbay and post on AW with? Multiple posting id's here moderator!
posted on February 12, 2001 08:36:10 AM new
pro - nice looks
con - little traffic, false news, no bulk upload, and editing difficulty
[ edited by toomanycomics on Feb 12, 2001 08:42 AM ]
posted on February 12, 2001 09:14:18 AM new
Girls2, you'll find this ID as well as your other IDs are now suspended. Creating multiple identities in the message center is a violation of AW TOS.
posted on February 12, 2001 11:05:58 AM new
I'm betting only one free site will prevail and bidbay is my pick. It largely depends if bidbay's CEO is to believed that they will be promoting the site extensively. When they start promoting the site I'll feel inclined to list a few hundred listings, but right now only have two listed (no sales).
I don't like the copycat name and look of ebay, which suggests it is ran by amateurs, but the look is successful so I won't complain as long as the buyers come along.
\"They say the grass is greener on the other side. But have you flipped it over and looked?
\"
posted on February 12, 2001 11:16:41 AM new
Quickdraw.
The claim to advertise is the main problem with BidBay.
Their being able to advertise is dependent upon their IPO or raising more VC as they have no revenue and are over $3 mil in the hole right now.
Even then advertisement is not always the key. Out of all of the dot coms that advertised during the superbowl last year only 3-4 remain in business today with Pets.Com being the latest victim.
It all boils down to buyers on sites spending cash, and not bogus bucks.
posted on February 12, 2001 11:18:38 AM new
As long as BidBay as that BidBay Bucks category, people aren't going to want to spend cash. Which is fine if that's what they want to gear towards.
posted on February 12, 2001 11:30:33 AM new
VERY few bidders for real money
TOO many recipes and bogus junk items listed
Very slow to mail prizes won, some still waiting since October
TOO cliqueish (?)
POOR Customer service (unless you phone and nag)
VERY inconsistant monitoring on the chat boards
DO NOT stay with their own TOS
HAVE no real rules
DO NOT advertise
SPEND TOO much time with contests
ONLY sellers buy and not many of them
POOR personal relations and management
DO NOT follow what few rules they have
TOO hard to leave feedback
They remove neg feedback if the sellers whine
DO NOT deal with Deadbeats
DO NOT require verification of registered users
DO NOT treat their newbies well
TOO suspicious
That is all I can think of for now.
_________________
On the pro side
posted on February 12, 2001 11:53:39 AM new
The other dot.coms failed despite their advertising is due to various faults, such as buying a ten pound bag of dog food through the mail is not practical, or their sites weren't easy to navigate, or whatever it may be.
I feel bidbay is easy to navigate, the site is clean, there's enough listings to get a jump start on these other free sites, there seems to be enough experienced sellers who can draw in repeat business. Bidbay will have to do some promoting to make their stockholders happy.
You can tell who is the number 1, 2 and 3 auction sites just by how much those sites have been promoted. Ebay has been promoted more than Yahoo, Yahoo more than Amazon. It makes a huge difference as you can tell.
posted on February 12, 2001 12:00:16 PM new
well Im rating BidBay
On a scale from 1 to 10?
a 4
Why? Because not much buying going on
over there unless you have bidbay bucks
And the feedback is just a hair fuzzy,
I have almost 70 and should only have 20??
I have purchased from the same people time and time again, I think they should only have 1 feedback from the deals off the same person..And you get feedback from emails
of cookies and cakes?? The CEO seems ok,
And some of the people are ok,, But those numbers are so fuzzy...Becareful in the chat
because if you say something about a user(depending on who it is) you will get kicked out..JMHO
posted on February 12, 2001 12:40:44 PM new
I looked at the site, and frankly the software looked pretty decent. What turned me off was the number of items up for sale shown on their home page. I browsed around for about 10 minutes and saw that at least 700,000 of those items were by four sellers.
Doesn't give a great deal of confidence, so I'll pass on the site for the time being and see what happens.
posted on February 12, 2001 01:09:22 PM new
Quickdraw you say the site is easy to navigate. I disagree. Too many junk listings there i.e. recipes, $.02-.10 sports cards, avon samples. If it's not those then it's crap they could not sell at a garage sale in a quarter box. Get rid of the listing contests and you will see alot of that go away.
This makes for an impossibly tedious site to navigate because their search engine is a joke.
I for one shop via the search engine on eBay. Rarely do I browse the listings. I type in what I want and narrow it down from there.
Regarding advertising. I have seen 1 commercial about eBay. What I had heard about them in the past and how I learned about them was all word of mouth.
Yahoo...I've seen some of their commercials but nothing in regards to auctions...same goes for Amazon.
eBay's dominance lies more in the fact that they were first...as does Amazon's in book sales. But that is not always the qualifying factor for success as is evidenced by eToys demise.
eToys was the number 1 online toy retailer for the '99 Christmas season. But with Wal-Mart joining in the fracas and Toys 'r' Us tag teaming with Amazon, and not to mention the revenue their brick and mortars generate eToys couldn't compete.
A nationally advertised campaign is expensive. Advertising on local cable channels during midnight hour breaks on VH-1 and the Discovery channel are not going to cut it.
So with that in mind the point is almost moot unless BidBay can find the VC or their IPO is an success.
I am not saying that they shouldn't advertise nationally it can't hurt.
But what they should be focusing on is their onine reputation among the general online acution community which isn't too great. But because of the mindset of the PTB's there they will not change the things that are a turnoff to most people. i.e. the fluffed up listings, the nickel dime auctions, the recipe auctions, and so on.
Sure there is a lot of excitement over there right now about new yahoo users and there are going to be bids.
Why? Because Buyer A who has had only 10 other Sellers to buy from now finally has something and someone new to bid on.
And new seller B is excited because they got a couple of bids. Sure they are the new kid in town and everyone is tired of buying from the same pool of sellers.
But that too will die down as it has done so many times in the past.
All it takes is a little investigating. Click on one of BidBay's high feedback sellers and you will see a limited buyer pool. What you will see is the same names you see day in and day out on the chat board.
Example: One user has almost 2000 feedback.
Only 247 unique users included in that feedback.
Another user has over 3,000 feedback.
Only 102 unique users included in that feedback.
Another user has over 1,100 feedback.
69 Unique users.
Another user has over 1900 feedback.
65 Unique users.
If you want to know how many real users BidBay has that will sure tell you.
posted on February 12, 2001 01:16:45 PM new
Bidbay at this point has lost me for reasons I don't want to discuss on a public board. I will keep my eye on the site and see how things go because the site has potential. But for now, I am taking my business elsewhere.
http://ballsandstrikescollectibles.beckett.com/
Edited cause my two thumbs don't type well.
[ edited by ballsandstrikes on Feb 12, 2001 01:18 PM ]
I don't dispute alot of the things you post, but if you remember when Gold's first opened, for months all we did was bid on each other's auctions to build feedback and numbers.
They also held listathons offering users dollar amounts in credits for listings.
That worked fairly well, especially for the seller who listed over 4000 auctions at all times. I'm sure this seller sold some of the items listed, but I know not all were sold. If this wasn't to build the numbers, than nothing is! LOL!
I don't care for the bidbay bucks, I have too many and can't get rid of them, no matter how high I bid because I'm always sniped by someone who has time to sit by the computer at auction end.
BidBay would do well to charge for listings and features and get rid of the contests, from which many a deadbeat arises. When the issue of fees was brought up a few months ago, everyone shouted NO. They threatened to leave. Yet, these are the loyal supporters. Go figure.
Deadbeats are not handled at all. There isn't a place on the site to request the user's personal info. That is much needed over there.
People can't be expected to lose money on deadbeat sellers either and they do. They're supposed to handle this on their own, however no info is provided as to how to locate the deadbeat seller.
Easy to navigate? Yes
Easy to list? Not really, takes too long.
East to use bulkloader? I have no clue as it won't install on my computer.
Customer service is adequate. At least you get answers when you call. No other site makes its phone number known to the public.
I'm not a cheerleader, nor am I anti. I sit on the fence and watch what goes on and limit my auctions. What doesn't sell there today may sell tomorrow elsewhere.
posted on February 12, 2001 08:44:27 PM new
when one does not care about bidbay bucks, one should not list things for sale for bidbay bucks. I looked at your auctions and you have sold about $17.00 worth since Sept. of last year. why bother is my question. Never mind I dont want an answer
posted on February 12, 2001 08:52:42 PM new
mtnmama said:
I don't dispute alot of the things you post, but if you remember when Gold's first opened, for months all we did was bid on each other's auctions to build feedback and numbers.
posted on February 12, 2001 09:30:50 PM new
Before I even owned a computer, I saw an ad in a collector mag for ebay, I ripped it out, and when I got a computer a few months later guess which site I went to first? It's not that expensive for a full page ad for a company the size of bidbay. Maybe $4,000. Certainly they can afford that!
Yahoo and Amazon promote their auctions on their site. Yahoo on their front page, and Amazon through the site search. With millions of members, this is a cheap method of promoting their sites. While its not enough on their part, it's enough to make them the #2 and #3 auction sites. Imagine Bidbay doing more advertising how easy it would be for them to become #2. Of course what's going to happen to bidbay once they start charging fees they'll become another dotbomb unless they build the buyer member base large enough to compensate the sellers for the expense of fees.
\"They say the grass is greener on the other side. But have you flipped it over and looked?
\"
posted on February 12, 2001 10:49:48 PM newIf you want to know how many real users BidBay has that will sure tell you
It sure does doesn't it. Not bad for a auction site thats just over a year old. JMHO. Perhaps some expect more then that? Perhaps some expect a new online auction site to be a ebay overnight? Not going to happen. It takes more time then just a year to get 10,000 unique users to bid or sell on items and get that shooting star dontcha think?
Also those high feedback numbers are quite impressive, shows a great amount of activity on the Bidbay site doesn't it?
Experienced online auction buyers really don't care about high feedback numbers. They look for negative patterns if the seller has that. Experienced online auction sellers look at a buyers negative pattern as well if any.
~Vette~
Edited for typo.
[ edited by coolvette on Feb 12, 2001 10:56 PM ]
posted on February 12, 2001 11:07:31 PM newBidBay would do well to charge for listings and features and get rid of the contests, from which many a deadbeat arises. When the issue of fees was brought up a few months ago, everyone shouted NO. They threatened to leave. Yet, these are the loyal supporters. Go figure.
I seem to recall them shouting no to the listing fees only. I was one that did that. Bidbay has not developed enough to charge a listing fee as of yet but they are developed enough to charge a FVF along with the other fees.
If Bidbay charges a listing fee you will see another Yahoo crunch and George knows this so it's not going to happen right now. ~Vette~
posted on February 12, 2001 11:18:12 PM new
George may not have a choice here real soon. His SB-2 states that he's $3 million in debt, yet he runs contests for high-end prizes and cash. If he doesn't do something soon, he'll be lucky to see the IPO actually happen.
posted on February 13, 2001 12:04:35 AM new
Vette said:
Also those high feedback numbers are quite impressive, shows a great amount of activity on the Bidbay site doesn't it?
Actually Vette it doesn't. It shows a lot of trading nickels, dimes and bidbay bucks between a limited number of people.
Vette said:
Experienced online auction buyers really don't care about high feedback numbers. They look for negative patterns if the seller has that. Experienced online auction sellers look at a buyers negative pattern as well if any.
Yes Vette but "experienced" online auction sellers are also looking for a larger buying pool than a possible 300 buyers.
The point of that part of the post that was not even addressed is that BidBay claims to have 4 million registered users.
The feedback numbers show you how many real users there are participating on that site or rather lack of users.
I don't expect for the users I used as examples to have thousands of unique feedback however I do expect to see more than 1 breaking the 200 unique feedback barrier who have been there for 6 months or more especially since we know on that website you are almost guaranteed of feedback being left in order to get that additional bidaybuck.
The almighty blonde one has been there since the beginning with her first feedback on 3/5/2000 and she has only 114 unique not very impressive numbers for a site that claims 4 million users.
AG2
Edited for spelling again and again and again...shees...leaving it alone this time...LOL
[ edited by auctiongallery2 on Feb 13, 2001 12:06 AM ]
[ edited by auctiongallery2 on Feb 13, 2001 12:07 AM ]
[ edited by auctiongallery2 on Feb 13, 2001 12:08 AM ]
posted on February 13, 2001 12:51:02 AM newYes Vette but "experienced" online auction sellers are also looking for a larger buying pool than a possible 300 buyers.
Perhaps you should dig back into one of ebay's oldest powersellers and see how many unique feedbacks they received in 1995?
The point of that part of the post that was not even addressed is that BidBay claims to have 4 million registered users.
They well may have but this is not unique registered members and we both know that. Ebay claims to have 20 million registered users, do you see anyone close to 20 million feedbacks? Many people register their user ID as soon as they hear about a site. They do this to protect their user ID. I do this all the time and down the road I may even use some of these sites. Right now I'm happy where I am.
The feedback numbers show you how many real users there are participating on that site or rather lack of users.
The now under Gold's auction highest feedback member had about 3,200 total feedbacks. There was only about 100 unique users on the profile. Gold's was around about a year and a half, compare the 247 to the 100 with Bidbay being behind in online time for 6 months. There is a big difference.
[ edited by toomanycomics on Feb 12, 2001 08:42 AM ]
