I listed my first item for sale on BidBay a couple of days ago, and I plan to list many more.
As you may know, Yahoo has shot itself in both feet by charging listing fees for sellers in a vain attempt to generate revenue. It has chosen to ignore the fact that many of its sellers, including myself, sell low-priced items that would not be cost effective to list on most auction sites. Personally, I have a massive trading card collection that I'm attempting to sell off, and, as a result, I'm listing most cards individually to benefit those trading card collectors that build sets, or only want one particular card for their collection. Many of my listings begin at 10-25 cents, and are listed alongside cards with higher values.
At present, your listings are free. I plan to sing BidBay's praises far and wide to those Yahoo dealers that are disgusted with Yahoo, and would like another site to list lower-priced items. I feel that BidBay is it.
Along with my efforts, I would like to implore you: should BidBay ever need to generate revenue, please consider imposing Final Value Fees on sellers, and not a listing fee. Yahoo was asked to do this, and ignored the requests, even though most sellers would have happily gone along with this. It's fair to both the auction site and to the seller. After all, we're in it together.
Mr. Tannous, we'll stock your shelves for you, and bring as many of our customers with us as we can. We'll also treat you with respect, and gratitude, and ask only that you do the same.
Thanks much, and I hope that, together, our efforts are successful.
Sincerely,
Michael Bilderback
User name: djay3
I ask all of you to check out BidBay.com, and move as much of your inventory there as possible. These folks seem to be sincere, and I'll give 'em a good try.
posted on January 6, 2001 03:28:54 PM new
Because I saw the BidBay information provided in one of these threads, I visited.
I am glad I did - it reminds me of Ebay (without a gallery) - except, it is free.
One of the things I like about BidBay (www.bidbay.com) is the BIDBAY Bucks category - where folks buy from each other with Bidbay bucks. There are various ways to get them, including selling items to each other and getting their BidBay bucks...
This is a fun site that I think folks will want to try to buy & sell - at least some items.
Yes, I looked up closed categories for completed sales and they are there! About the same proportional number as show up in YAHOO. There are also sellers with lots of comments - and they appear to be REAL!
Where has this auction site been??? I've never heard of it before.
The downside is that in my rambling thru this neat site, I found a page that shows it is fully equipped to start charging for EVERYTHING...Whenever it decides the time has come.
So, if you want a free ride for now - jump on, but keep your running shoes handy if paying for ads and features (which are now free) is a priority.
For me - my auctions will be spread out all over - including at YAHOO - and as long as my income significantly exceeds my outgo - I will remain.
posted on January 6, 2001 03:32:19 PM new
Spare me Who cares about an email to another auction site, when this is
yahoo forum. Post it where it might belong , on other auction sites here.
Save those 5cent deposit bottles.
posted on January 6, 2001 03:36:27 PM new
Amalgamated, I'm not touting BidBay's numbers, nor am I recommending the site as the "be-all" for everyone.
Personally, I don't care WHERE any other dealers list, and I'm going to try to list at a couple of other sites, as well as continue my listings on eBay. I did okay before I started listing on Yahoo, and I'll do okay without them.
I just thought it would be nice to let some of the other auction sites know that we sellers have some intelligence, and that we need to be treated with respect. Without us, there is no auction site.
The posting wasn't an invitation to attack me personally, nor was it meant to "flame" anyone. It's only a posting letting folks know that some of us are taking action - by moving our listings elsewhere.
If you choose to list at BidBay, that's great. If you choose another site, that's great, too. Just TAKE ACTION, and show Yahoo how you feel. Your listings are your "vote" - and you have the right to "vote" as you see fit.
posted on January 6, 2001 04:43:01 PM new
To research closed - I went to listings - then to the selected categories that I sell in - and they offer many options - one is closed auctions...
Yahoo promised that auctions would always be free too. I no longer trust what any site promises. I will look into bidpay - sounds like it may be okay - but I will always be prepared to move on if the situation warrants it.
posted on January 6, 2001 11:03:40 PM new
When did Yahoo state their auction site would
"always be free"? I remember when they sent
an e-mail saying they were considering going
fee based, but instead they added banner ads
to our auctions shortly afterwards (about a
year or so ago). Of course now they are
adding fees. I've been using the site for
about 20 months now.
---
"Cannot say. Saying, I would know. Do not
know, so cannot say". -- Zathras (Babylon 5)
posted on January 7, 2001 02:12:27 AM new
pegasus777
Actually Yahoo didn't promise their auctions would always be free.
From the Yahoo Guidelines page:
Yahoo! Auctions Is Free.
Yahoo! Auctions is free to all users. You are responsible for all applicable taxes and for all costs that you incur by participating in Yahoo! Auctions. We may also, in our sole discretion, add fees associated with Yahoo! Auctions. If we do charge fees, we will tell you in advance.
I am not sure if this has been altered since they decided to charge or were considering charging fees.
Paydirect is next!
[ edited by outoftheblue on Jan 7, 2001 02:13 AM ]
[ edited by outoftheblue on Jan 7, 2001 02:14 AM ]
posted on January 7, 2001 02:22:38 AM newcoolvette
I have deleted your post because it violates the Community Guidelines. Discussing other sites and services in a non-promotional manner is acceptable, encouraging Users to post on other Message Boards is not.
posted on January 7, 2001 03:27:53 AM new
I just checked out BidBay and I am not impressed with them at all.
1) The numbers are bogus. I clicked on a category with supposedly 2700 listings. There was less than 50 items listed (0 with bids).
2) The clothing categories are useless. You can't have one catch-all category for Women's clothing or Men's clothing. I have the same complaint about Lowestbids... Obviously the people that set up the categories don't have a clue. The "Wedding Related" category is laughable.. These all should be broken down into subcategories like Yahoo and Ebay.
3) There seems to be more featured auctions then regular auctions. The way it is set up is confusing.
BidBay looks like a really bad ripoff of Ebay.
[ edited by outoftheblue on Jan 7, 2001 03:29 AM ]
posted on January 7, 2001 05:52:15 AM new
As I have commented before - I like the BidBay layout - BUT unless everyone takes their customers/buyers with them, a move to most sites is useless, since most just aren't generating the traffic to make it functional for anyone to sell much of anything, particularly if said site encounters a large influx of new sellers.
To me there are only 2 serious choices - stay put at Yahoo
OR
Notify enough buyers to see a move in the purchasing public to support another site -and in my viewing of the "other" sites at the moment I don't know how most are even existing with the lack of sales they are producing.
I'm out there testing like the rest of you, but with little faith in any pronounced results. BUT, I hope that I am pleasantly surprised by one of them.
posted on January 7, 2001 10:26:55 AM new
Ya, Bidbay looks great on the surface but the main categories I sell in (some of the hottest selling categories on Ebay and Yahoo) are stuck away under Miscellaneous and have 4 or 5 catch-all categories.
If this site were to catch on (which I doubt) there would be 10,000 listings or more in some of these categories. Buyers aren't going to page through thousands of mixed up listings in a single category when they could go to Ebay or Yahoo and go strait to the category containing the items they are looking for. (If a person is looking for an evening gown, they go to the evening wear category. If they are looking for a business suit, they go to the suits category. If they are looking for shoes, they go the shoes categorey, etc....) For a site to catch on it needs to be user friendly.. Subcategories are essential.
posted on January 7, 2001 04:57:24 PM new
Greetings,
Thanks for your inquiry about BidBay.com's listing fees. Currently we do
not charge any fees for listing and selling on this site. Sometime in the
future we plan to begin charging a nominal basic listing fee and fees for
enhancements to a basic listing, but we do not have any plans to charge a
final value fee or any other type of commission.
As per the BidBay User Agreement, notice of fees will be posted on the web
site at lease 30 days before the fees go into effect.
For future reference, you might want to copy this link to our fee schedule
since this is where we will post listing fees when (and if) we do start
charging:
http://www2.bidbay.com/help/fee_schedule-free.cfm
AOL users click
here
As always, if we can be of further assistance, don't hesitate to email us
or call our toll-free Customer Support line, 1-877-4BIDBAY.
Regards,
BidBay.com Customer Service
[email protected]
(877) 424-3229
(818) 951-2427
posted on January 7, 2001 05:20:29 PM new
Well, thanks for the warning. I had already planned to pass on Bidbay, mostly due to the deceptive listing numbers. Now I will for sure.
Who cares about an email to another auction site, when this is