posted on March 19, 2001 01:18:18 PM new
Let me see if I can ask this clearly. If you have product that you keep on a fixed-price site [Amazon, half.com, Bibliofind, etc], have you also tried listing simultaneously on Bidville with a first-bid-wins price?
I've already clued in that my category, books, is not happening on Bidville, but from looking at the Closed section, some items do get bought, mostly for 1 bid.
I'm not too enthusiastic about having an inventory sit on there exclusively, but I might try simultaneous listing. In the event I do get a winner, I would cancel my listings on half or wherever.
This works well for me, BTW, when I cross-list on half and Amazon. Books sell one place or the other but not both on any given day.
posted on March 19, 2001 01:31:12 PM new
I am starting to put books on Bidville;I think the only way they will sell is in the same First Bid Wins as Yahoo. Bidville desperately needs more traffic.
posted on March 19, 2001 04:05:26 PM new
I'd be a little afraid of posting one item on 2 sites myself.
But I think using BidVille as a fixed price site itself is a fine idea, but I've had little to no luck in the book category myself over there. I've had items listed since Jan. with barely a hit, and when I take it off there and relist at one of the paid sites, it sells within hours if not days. BidVille does need more traffic, which hopefully will come with time.
The only sales I made at BidVille were when I offered free shipping to my eBay customers. When I stopped that promo, the sales stopped too.
It would be nice to get more book buyers over there and not just to take advantage of a promo or gimmick, if you will. Gimmicks don't necessarily make for repeat buyers at the site.
Since BidVille offers an option to relist 99 times, it would seem to be about as maintenance-free as a fixed price site.
posted on March 19, 2001 04:14:18 PM new
Yes, it's true that it's easy to keep stuff on Bidville, but my personal business plan doesn't call for a lot of long-term inventory. I rather like being kicked off Amazon in 30 days, it reminds me to check my price, whether to try ebay, or dump the book entirely. I need more discipline to go back and check half.com listings that way.
I think the only challenge in maintaining the cross-listing approach is being online several times a day and being able to bop over to the other site to cancel a listing. I've had a couple of sales on Amazon today, for example, and cancelled the books on half. Vice-versa is just as easy.
