posted on May 16, 2001 12:46:27 PM new
Okay, here's the story.
I acquired about fifty LP record albums, handpicked for being in mint or excellent condition, and the choices for listing them are either Bidville or eBay.
I'm favoring Bidville and here's why.
The albums could be listed on eBay with opening bids of $2, $3 or $4 each; or, reducing them for the fees that would be incurred, on Bidville with opening bids of $1.60, $2.55, or $3.50. Nothing like passing along those cost savings to bidders, right?
Anyway, a little research seemed to be in order.
Bidville currently has 1,786 LPs listed, so let's look five largest categories for bids on "current" auctions:
Rock - ZERO bids on 663 auctions
Country - ZERO bids on 226 auctions
Pop - ZERO bids on 222 auctions
Heavy Metal - ZERO bids on 144 auctions
Jazz - ONE bid on 90 auctions
TOTAL - ONE BID ON 1,345 AUCTIONS, or 0.07%
UGH! Well, maybe, perhaps, folks are using the "Take It Now" feature, so let's look at "closed" auctions for those same categories:
Rock - 7 sales on 276 auctions
Country - 2 sales on 26 auctions
Pop - 1 sale on 42 auctions
Heavy Metal - ZERO sales on 36 auctions
Jazz - ZERO sales on 15 auctions
TOTAL - TEN SALES ON 395 "CLOSED" AUCTIONS, or 2.5%
But wait a minute. How can an auction site with 1,345 "current" listings only have 395 "closed" auctions? Looks like an auction that's relisted ad nauseum isn't counted as a "closed" auction, so the sell-through rate is probably closer to being
TOTAL - TEN SALES ON 1,345 CLOSED AUCTIONS, or 0.7%
It sure would be nice to support Bidville, if for no other reason than help its development as competition to eBay, but really, bidders are few and far between.
posted on May 16, 2001 12:51:29 PM new
LOL! Someone recently ran a contest on Bidville telling other members that if they listed auction #6007 they would win a gift certificate. Then no one could figure out how they could possibly win. The answer from Bidville was confusing to me. They said that when a certain number of auctions are listed, a certain number close in the same few minutes therefore, the number would remain the same?!?!?! I didn't get it. Why not just count the numbers like ebay does, #1 is #1, #9 million is #9 million and not worry how many opened and closed in the same few minutes. Are you confused yet? I never went back to the site after that.
posted on May 16, 2001 12:52:26 PM new
The Gorilla, sorry, until these second tier sites grow, which they can, and might; given a little time and money, nothing you can do, but help them grow a little when you can, but for the bucks, sadly, there's still only the big Gorilla, whose up to what 1200 pounds now.
A little marketing strategy is in order.
Post an auction at ebay that you know will more than likely sell. Place like items at Bidville.
When it comes time for your winning bidder notice, make sure that you have a link to your Bidville auctions with something like "Be sure to check out my auctions on Bidville and save money on shipping!".
Sellers that list at more than one site really need to help market the smaller sites in order for them to grow.
The small sites are in a catch22 situation. They need sellers to list so there are items for bidders and they need buyers so sellers will list their items.
It's a vicious cycle that we all must help to break.
posted on May 16, 2001 01:16:12 PM new
I know that waiting for a site to attract bidders and grow is tough. I did it with Yahoo.
I have just decided for now, that anything I have more than one of I will list one on eBay for the income, and the other on one of the free or FVF auction sites.
This helps in two ways my auctions are not competing with each other and eBay is not getting it all.
It is also a great way to have ads written and ready to post and not taking up room on your hard drive. Who knows you might even sell a few things. I usually have so much stuff to list that one week more or less isn't going to make much difference.
I can always list it on eBay later, after all, the ad is already written and cut and paste is easy if you use the view - source and word wrap, in your browser. I do have my pictures on my own web space and that may make a difference to some of you.
It can't be MY "fault", I've NEVER owned a "fault"!
