posted on January 7, 2001 08:18:32 AM new
Yesterday I called your attention to the success stories roulette that Yahoo!Auctions has going on their website http://list.auctions.yahoo.com/.
I thought it was comical that Yahoo!Auctions would see these results as success, but that's prompted me to take another look at them. So I played success stories roulette this morning and, from the first ten unique responses from the web server, tabulated the comments and results of these success stories that includes the number of bids on their live auctions, with percentage, the minimal charge it will cost if they were now being listed (20 cents each, most would be charged more), and the number of closed auctions since Yahoo!Auctions implemented this feature on October 10, 2000.
I've noted the userIDs of these folks on an index card and will take a look in another month or so to see if they are still at Yahoo!Auctions. Well, eight of the ten. Two have already thrown in the towel.
Anyway, as they say, on with the show.
Note to Moderator: These Yahoo!Auctions Success Stories are derived from the Yahoo!Auctions website; the participants have given permission for their comments to be made public. I have, nevertheless, provided excerpts of those comments here.
SUCCESS STORY #1 :
Yahoo Auctions is the best ... best buyers and sellers anywhere
Currently has four bids on 376 live auctions, or 1%; $75 listing fees; some 150 closed auctions.
SUCCESS STORY #2 :
wonderful in all my experiences as a seller ... become my auction home base ... never consider leaving
ZERO bids on 62 live auctions, 0%; $12 listing fees; 53 closed auctions.
SUCCESS STORY #3 :
many sales on Yahoo!Auctions
3 bids on 482 live auctions, <1%; $96 listing fees; some 150 closed auctions.
SUCCESS STORY #4 :
full-time auction vendors on three of the largest auction sites. Yahoo! Auctions has brought the biggest customers to our business
Has NO live auctions; some 300 closed auctions.
SUCCESS STORY #5 :
Yahoo Auctions is by far the best auction site
4 bids on 11 live auctions, 36%; $2 listing fees; 36 closed auctions.
SUCCESS STORY #6 :
Yahoo auctions is great
No listings and "no closed auctions found for user".
SUCCESS STORY # 7 :
A few months ago, I realized that I was making almost as much money selling on Yahoo! Auctions as I was at my full time job!!! It was not a tough decision to quit my job and work on my auctions full time. The potential is unlimited!
SUCCESS STORY #8 :
now I do more selling than buying ... you don't have to be a computer programmer or a rocket scientist to sell stuff
8 bids on 168 live auctions, 5%; $34 listing fees; some 200 closed auctions.
SUCCESS STORY #9 :
Yahoo! Auctions allows me to buy and sell items from all across the globe
2 bids on 286 live auctions, <1%; $57 listing fees; some 100 closed auctions.
SUCCESS STORY #10 :
I've been selling on Yahoo for well over a year now. What was once a hobby and done in fun is now a full time business. Not only have I had great sales... A big thumbs up to Yahoo Auctions!
2 bids on 401 live auctions, <1%; $80 listing fees; some 450 closed acutions.
edited for typos.
[ edited by dimview on Jan 7, 2001 08:22 AM ]
posted on January 7, 2001 08:41:21 PM new
I love playing Yahoo!Auctions success stories roulette. Had a few minutes and clicked a few times getting the ones I had earlier but then got this, another funny one.
I have quit my full time job and make my income selling on Yahoo. I love it, it's easy and it gets great response. Thanks for being there Yahoo. The mail just came with more payments YAHOO!!!!
NO live auctions; one closed auction since October 10, 2000.
posted on January 7, 2001 09:04:59 PM new
This is very interesting, but I think the numbers might be skewed. Personally, I NEVER have ANY bids on ANY of my live auctions, because I only use "First Bid Wins."
Moreover, even though I have a small sell-through percentage, my profit margin is very large.
posted on January 7, 2001 10:06:09 PM newI would just like for the numbers to be irrefutable.
I would like more information on these profiles myself, but cannot think of anything else that Yahoo!Auctions may have made available.
The "closed auction" tab is strange though because it only reflects auctions that closed successfully, but those than did not attract any bids are simply deleted from the database.
That was not an oversight because if that bit of data was available, we could all easily calculate the sellthrough rate of any seller.
As it is, we can only make guesstimates.
[ edited by dimview on Jan 7, 2001 10:07 PM ]
posted on January 8, 2001 12:43:28 AM new
The one thing you CAN do is add up their total sales in $$ dollars since October 10th. It won't tell you how much PROFIT they made on each sale, but it will give an idea of the gross Yahoo income of each seller.
I wonder if any of those are bogus, made up by employees. I also would like to see their listings numbers on February 10th, after free listings have rolled off the Auction, and again in March. (Since most of the 8 still listing appear to be amateurs, they shouldn't have much feedback credit to use up after Feb. 8th, and should be on a strictly "pay" basis by then.)
posted on January 8, 2001 01:26:30 AM new
You can't always go by sales since October 10th. I listed mostly on eGREED in October and November and then decided mid December that I would exclusively list on Yahoo again (and see where it got me - If I had known Yahoo was going to stab us in the back, I would have gone directly to another auction site)
posted on January 8, 2001 02:48:14 AM new
I ran the numbers on my own sales on Friday. My $1000 per month average gross Yahoo sales would have cost me almost $400 in listing fees. I than subtracted the cost of the goods and it is clear that I can no longer afford to list on Yahoo.
posted on January 8, 2001 07:08:00 AM new
Played Yahoo!Auctions success stories roulette this morning and managed to pick up three new "success stories."
buying and selling on Yahoo Auctions for over 2 years now ... you make it a joy to use your service
Four bids on 113 live auctions, 3%; $22 listing fees; 76 closed auctions.
Yahoo Auctions is simply fantastic
No listings; "No closed auctions for user."
You are the best!!
Three bids on 24 items, 12%; $5 listing fees; 46 closed auctions.
Remember folks, these "success stories" are being posted by Yahoo!Auctions as examples of the kind of SUCCESS you to can expect when you list your auctions there.
posted on January 8, 2001 05:15:42 PM new
I just had a hearty snicker !!!
Dimview, one of the first 10 'testimonials' was mine and I submiited it way back in June 2000. Everything that I wrote in that testimonial was PURE LIES !!!
The reason I submitted my 'testimonial' was just to see if they would ever actually post it, and they did !!! I also thought that it would perhaps increase sales to have my name out there a bit more.
The reason for my poor sell-through rate is because of the garbage that I post on Yahoo! Any of the good stuff that I have goes up on Ebay.
Just thought that I would clarify that to the guy who said that maybe Yahoo! employees wrote them up themselves. I was perfectly capable of making up my own dumb story!!
posted on January 8, 2001 05:36:21 PM new
I've written several success comments, and none of mine ever appeared - Now I'm glad!
I think the success comparisons should be based on $$ Amount of bids (open & closed) vs cost of placing ads...That would be assuming that the cost of goods was minimal...
posted on January 8, 2001 06:06:18 PM new
I saw a friends story there 2 weeks ago and emailed to tell him. His response was "WHAT!!! I submitted that like March I think when business was great. I've hardly sold anything since the bidder CC requirement and stupid end time order changed in Sept. I can't believe they are posting that story now, LOL, how ridiculous."
- If I had known Yahoo was going to stab us in the back, I would have gone directly to another auction site)