In my experience at BidBay, I have run into a lot of first time auction buyers who have subsequently ended up making multiple repeat purchases. Most of my BidBay buyers are people who choose the "BuyItNow" option.
I think success at BidBay (and many sites) really depends on what you sell, how you price things, how you personally market to past customers and how you present your wares. I'd love to see bidding activity there pick up and I, as well as others, try to constructively suggest proven marketing techniques to bring in more targeted buyers.
I do auctioning, website sales, business to business sales and mail order full-time, so naturally BidBay is not the only venue I use but I have made quite a bit of profit there in the past year and have had many positive experiences. I had about 35 cash bids in the period of 3 weeks and although it's slowed down again, every sale is money and I certainly welcome the new business. Things run in cycles there for me. I can't speak for others but a lot of success depends on what you sell and how marketable it is to begin with.
There are those that would post that the "only" bidding at the site is in their BidBayBuck section. That's just not true. Granted, the majority of the bidding of the chat cafe's regulars takes place there, but the majority of the SITE's bidding is on cash items.
There is a link on the site where you can see the names of the bidders for the entire month. Can I post it here? If I can't someone can please edit it out.
http://www.bidbay.com/contest/monthly/bidders.cfm
Please note that BuyItNow bidding is NOT reflected on this list and from the people I've spoken with, many of their cash bids are with the BuyItNow option.
Some people will say that these bidders are just bidding to win a contest. I hardly think that people who bid 1-6 times are there to play games. Most of the bids on this list are from people who have never visited the chat cafe, obviously don't have bidbay bucks to spend and are bidding on cash items. Sure, it is a minute amount of bidding compare to other sites but it is activity and it's a start. The site admits it is in it's infancy stage and we all have to learn to crawl sometime.
Like many sellers there, I would love to see the bidding activity pick up. I'd love to see more targeted advertising to buyers and sellers who read trade/collectibles publications. I'd love to see less complaining on the chat board and more constructive ideas. However for a site that doesn't cost me money to list at, it's produced more sales for me so far than any of the other free listings sites. (not including Yahoo which changed to pay this year)
If you can get past the melodrama which regularly takes place in the chat, it is a viable venue if you sell certain items. It's a great buyer's market for certain things too. I've spent quite a bit of cash there on supplies and unique gifts.
Most buyers don't ever frequent a chat room. When I ask my new BidBay buyers how they heard about me, it was generally either through search, a link in from another auction site, a referral or a link from my website. Now granted, these new buyers are much more likely to shop and not use the feedback system as much but they are there.
I know this is lengthy and I apologize but I did want to present my experiences.
Good luck to you in your sales/bidding.
Karen
http://www.countyourbeans.com
[ edited by countyourbeans on Apr 25, 2001 04:11 PM ]
