posted on March 25, 2001 04:28:25 PM new
I notice that there are still thousands of listings there under General and Nonfiction, rather than using their specific categories. I assume this reflects a lot of automatic relisting. I think it would help the site if the sellers made the effort to pump up the categories more evenly. Does anyone have time to browse through thousands of "general" to find anything of interest??
posted on March 25, 2001 05:54:48 PM new
Yes, this is true. When Bidville transferred auctions for former Yahoo users, the catagories did not always fit. I edited nearly all of mine, and now find out that I am going to have to repost them all anyway because now Yahoo is blocking the pixs. I have resubmitting all weekend and I am tired! I have a couple of weeks of work ahead of me too!
P.S. It would really help the sellers out if you maybe emailed them and let them know of this. Some do not know.
posted on March 26, 2001 03:45:02 AM new
How are your book sales? I have about 200 listed right now, but only about 4 page views, and no bids. Are certain categories doing better than others? Or is it only me?
You can look up my stuff and comment. Username is heikejohn.
I'm a bookseller too, but instead of the mentioned categories, I find myself having to put alot of my books under "fiction". I emailed Bidville with category suggestions, but nothing has been done. For example: Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" and Grisham's "The Chamber" seem to only fit with "fiction" or "general". They should have "classics", "modern classics", "drama", best-sellers (which could be broken down into sub-categories, etc...). My hits and bids are low too, but Bidville has proven to be much better than Yahoo!, so I'll be patient.... Good-luck everyone!!!!!!
posted on March 27, 2001 08:40:54 AM new
I listed about 22 books of different categories ~ romance by favourite sellers ~a few nancy drew etc at reasonable prices but after a few visits no bids, I took them off, and I think having categories would help in the book section. I would like to keep trying bidville though and am thinking about listing small toys etc ( something I have never sold but is an easy item to pick up as garage season comes around)
posted on March 28, 2001 01:57:35 PM new
jazzenterprises: how is Bidville better than Yahoo? Do you mean in terms of sales? I've posted in the Yahoo section that I put up about 15 auctions in Yahoo over the past week and now I'm having steady sales. I am using my "funny" money, though - no risk to me right now. If this experience demonstrates that Yahoo will bring the buyers, I will stick with them.
posted on March 28, 2001 04:52:11 PM new
I hope Bidville understands the importance of the listing tree and will let the sellers help create it.
I sent them a suggestion pointing out there are 2 different categories for PC computer games which conflict with one another...not cool...but Have gotten no reply for several days.
Their listings continue to increase quickly while ePay treads water and YaWho sinks.
Since Bidville is fast approaching being 3 times larger than YaWho, isn't it time that Auction Watch includes them in their search engine?
Also you sellers who have a history on YaWho or ePay...email your past customers and tell them where you are now at.
posted on March 29, 2001 05:54:59 AM new
I started doing that, but lost interest in tying up inventory and promoting a site that, as far as I can tell, isn't promoting itself. People have heard of ebay and yahoo, Amazon, and even half.com. They are common names on the street. I have never heard or seen a thing about Bidville anywhere but here.
posted on March 29, 2001 06:06:54 AM new
I would guess that your personal recommendation of the site to 100 of your past customers would be more effective than a 30 second spot on Good Morning America.
posted on March 29, 2001 07:16:42 AM new
I've been listing on BidVille since January and emailing a link to my auctions there in my notices to my eBay and Yahoo customers. I'd have to say that they're just not interested in signing up with a new site or something. It's certainly hasn't been very effective for me anyway.
I can have something on BidVille for a couple of months and it maybe gets 1 or 2 hits in all that time. I pull it off and put it on eBay or Yahoo and it sells, sometimes within the first 24 hrs.
I'd have to agree with keziak. It's only partially the seller's responsibility to direct customers there. BidVille also has to take some responsibility.
Really, why would any of our current customers want to bother signing up at another site when they can get most any book they might want already at eBay, Yahoo, Amazon, etc.? Just more hassle for the buyer I'd say.
http://bjgrolle.auctioninsights.com/
posted on March 29, 2001 08:39:21 AM new
"Really, why would any of our current customers want to bother signing up at another site when they can get most any book they might want already at eBay, Yahoo, Amazon, etc?"
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True enough but Yahoo has lost 92% of their listings and they all are not duplicated on eBay or Amazon. A lot of them are. But it's easy to see the sellers ther are not making much profit on many....maybe most.. items. Eventually these sellers will tire of making peanuts.
In the meantime, what's wrong with starting a business with a small investment, working hard, and let it grow? That approached has worked for Apple, Atari, and even Yahoo to name a few. It worked for a lot of small sellers on Yahoo when they could afford to list there. The recent dot-com approach of taking an idea that has shown no history of success, bankrolling it with Wall Street money, and watching it fade away (Priceline) may save time if it works, but generally the success rate is low except for Wall Street and the ones who started the company.
Keziak: No, Yahoo was busier as far as hits and bids, but for the easy to use interface and the great customer service, I'm willing to give Bidville a try... Just the "99 resubmits" saves me an enormous amount of time compared to Yahoo. I found with Yahoo, they kept implementing things that would make me start from zero again...(auction cap, fees, 1 credit card per user name, etc...). Eventually, enough is enough... Later,
Jazz
BJGrolle: True, but a buyer on the "big three" has problems finding just one book at a good deal. It seems all that is offered are lots of books in order to justify the listing fee. What if I just want that one book to complete my collection...
[ edited by jazzenterprises on Mar 29, 2001 11:58 AM ]
posted on March 29, 2001 05:34:43 PM new
Hasn't there been a question about whether Bidville is included in AW's universal search function? I've never used that myself, but if the site isn't even included...noone would be "dumped" there.
Also, how does a website promote itself, gain name recognition? Not via Good Morning America, I'd say. Probably more like half.com's fairly effective spam offering free shipping or discounts on first orders. Taking out ads on major web sites that people visit for other reasons. Banner ads somewhere. I dunno. Get bought by ebay? oh, wait, we don't want that...
