posted on January 9, 2001 07:23:40 AM new
jwpc >
I have posted a number of auctions on other sites in the last week, but have yet to see any movement in them.
Glad you mentioned it because this topic deserves its own thread.
The problem is that Yahoo!Auctions has demonstrated that it is unable to provide sellers with pageviewers, bidders and ultimately buyers to the extent that it would make economic sense to post auctions there.
Since there are not a whole lot of buyers at Yahoo!Auctions in the first place, when sellers signup at AuXPal, BidBay, ePier, Lycos, Pootah or any of the others, just where are these buyers supposed to come from?
fixed UBB.
[ edited by dimview on Jan 9, 2001 07:25 AM ]
This is an issue I have raised before - certainly there are a multitude of alternate sites, the problem is BUYERS!
Realize we are a small group here, and perhaps OUR buyers do know what is happening, BUT most buyers on Yahoo don't - and beyond that they don't care, they just want whatever product they are seeking - AND most don't want to be bothered about signing up at another auction site - herein lays the problem to alternative auction sites, with the exception of eBay!
Without Media publicity about the issue, most buyers are unaware of where the sellers have gone, and even if everyone posting on this board notified all of their buyers, it would be a drop in the bucket to the preponderance of buyers on Yahoo who have no clue as to what is happening.
Actually, the same holds true for many sellers. I had someone contact me this week complaining about the Yahoo listing fee, and saying that he would have to hang it up as there wasn't anywhere else to post. This person has been selling on Yahoo for years, yet was almost totally unaware of any auction sites beyond eBay and Yahoo!
The bottom line is:
1. The bulk of buyers have no idea what is happening
2. The bulk of buyers could care less as long as they can still find what they are seeing on Yahoo
3. Most buyers won't move and register at a new site without a major incentive, which at the moment there is no incentive to get them to move.
Realize, we fight learning new sites for only one reason WE ARE FORCED TO because of problems in whatever site we are currently using. The buyer is no more inclined to move than a seller, and has no need or desire to learn a new auction site as long as the product is available at the site they are accustom to.
I know you don't want to hear this, but it will take a long time to see a major movement of buyers - because many sellers will not move, unless they are selling products so low in price that the listing fee is cost prohibitive. Look at Amazon, it took over a year for them to totally destroy themselves.
Just some thoughts to ponder as you make decisions on what to do about your auctions.
posted on January 9, 2001 07:56:30 AM new
I will still be buying from Yahoo. First because I usually get a better deal then Ebay or Amazon. Second because for over 1 year I have been selling on Yahoo for nothing zip zero and making a profit at it. I mean I am not ready to take donald trump to dinner (nor would I want to) but I made a profit. that was a nice thing to do. It wasn't my right Yahoo didn't have to do it. They did it for their reasons business ones and now what they are doing they are doing for whatever reason, but it is their right to do.
I have also noted that a lot of my friends who don't shop on Yahoo auctions now because of all the "junk" and they got frustrated looking through tones of "junk" or common things to get to the good stuff say they will and I am sure they will come and check it out again.
Yahoo is also one of the number one search engines on the net. Traffic will come from there.
Yahoo only started to pay attention to the auctions. Just with the little they have done I know business picked up for me in the lasy 8-12 weeks (more then just being retial season) Now that they are paying attention they have many ways to bring traffic in. Before they were just there the actions just a small part of yahoo over all. Now I think since they are paying attention to the auctions they will make a good effort to get people into the Auctions. Take the time to look around Yahoo they are a lot more then auctions.
It will take time I think this is only the begining of the plans. I wasn't really happy at first about the fee charges. I am not sure have change all that much as far as that. However, it will motivate me to find a place where my stuff mostly books is better suited. In the mean time I will keep shoping at Yahoo. In fact my shopping there is picking up.
posted on January 9, 2001 07:58:30 AM new
I expect that for a quite a while listing on these sites will constitute spending time for extremely little return (or even views). Eventually one (most likely fairmarket / lycos) will start to resemble what yahoo has been.
posted on January 9, 2001 09:10:03 AM new
figmente - agreed.
Assumming we do not say to heck all of the this as the margin continues to shrink, that is.
posted on January 9, 2001 10:12:10 AM new
Click on the News and Information tab on this site. There you will see the following figures for unique visitors in November:
eBay: 12,286,999
Yahoo: 2,709,000
So while eBay has 5 times as many visitors as Yahoo, almost 3 million visitors for Yahoo is still an awfully lot of people.
posted on January 9, 2001 10:38:19 AM new
grob >
eBay: 12,286,999 Yahoo: 2,709,000
Interesting stats.
Couple them with their respective number of registered users, 15.8 million at eBay and 166 million at Yahoo!, you come up with the sad fact that eBay generates 0.78 hits/registered user/month while Yahoo!Auctions generates 0.02 hits/registered user/month.
That would suggest rather than a twenty cents ($0.20) listing fee, something on the order of a half-cent ($0.005) would be more in line with what Yahoo!Auctions is able to generate in terms of traffic to their auction website.
corrected typos.
[ edited by dimview on Jan 9, 2001 10:40 AM ]
posted on January 9, 2001 10:49:17 AM new
Had I been asked for a price by YAHOO for its auctions as value to me, I would have recommended $.10 with 1 relist as reasonable (2 relists as gracious).
That is the top side.
I would have also been willing for a 5% FVF instead.
I too have made money on YAHOO for the past year and always felt I owed them something for the neat gallery & success rate that I have had there.
$.20 per auction (plus $.10 per day for features) is too high for my things for very long. I don't deal in money, or gold or silver or even stamps that get higher bids.
posted on January 9, 2001 10:56:53 AM new
I agree with jwpc and dimview. I visited several sites over the last few days. Here's what I found.
AuxPal: After visiting many categories I saw about a dozen bids give or take.
Pootah: I didn't spend much time on this site but I could not find any bids.
Auction Addict: I spent quite a bit of time on this site. I saw no bids although there was a lot of instant buy auctions. There was no closed auctions to browse to see the sell through rate, although every seller I looked at had 0 feedback.
Lowest Bids: I saw few if any bids and the site drove me crazy with flashing icons and scrolling text.
Lycos: Has some bids. I didn't spend much time there.
Bidbay: Has some bids but I hated the look and feel of the site.
I still wonder why more sellers aren't bidding if they want these sites to succeed? I have noticed on Yahoo that other sellers are a good portion of our business. On these other sites, it seems that, everyone is listing but nobody is buying.
posted on January 9, 2001 11:09:53 AM new
I know that pootah and lowestbids are still fairly new, so those need to be given a little bit of a chance. to be, bidbay looked too much like ebay. auctionaddict always looked dead to me. i put some stuff on their and it sat for a few months before i pulled it. i don't know much about the other ones.
posted on January 9, 2001 11:25:59 AM new
I am listing on AuXpal and PoOTaH for the time being. I had a few items on AuXpal and got one bid within the first 2 days. PoOTaH is a brand new site and seems that with the heavy traffic looking for a new home is having trouble. I hold out hope for it and will continue to list there when I can. I agree with lowestbids being hard on the eyes. I wouldn't want to work in a carnival everyday. The front page was too loud and too busy. Distracts from the reason you are there.
posted on January 9, 2001 11:30:48 AM new
i dont have this problem with it. although i admit that flashing live icon is a little much, but the carnival reference? i saw someone else use the same term and i guess i dont see it that way.
posted on January 9, 2001 12:05:50 PM new
Lycos/MSN/NBCi (Fair Market) already have more listings and buyers than Yahoo did when I first started listing with Yahoo. I'm sure a lot of Yahoo sellers will splinter off to list on all these isolated sites but I'm also sure its just a matter of time before The Fair Market sites are the next Yahoo. And probably not as long as some might think. Less than 18 months back when Yahoo auctions were nothing, I was catching flak because I stated that Yahoo would be the next eBay. Not exactly true, but close enough for those looking for an alternative to eBay.
posted on January 9, 2001 12:19:53 PM new
Lycos is still an option for me when and if they get their registration fixed. I went to sign up and am trying to use the same user ID on all the sites (or two variations thereof) and when I got part way done it told me my email address belonged to someone else and then I couldn't get back in. I wrote them telling them I would wait until they got my User ID released from their mess. I would like to give them a try. Might have to break down and use the same id as I have on eBay. YUCK
posted on January 9, 2001 01:05:39 PM new
I use the same user name on every site. Makes more sense if you are refering people to your eBay or Yahoo feedback. I was wondering if it might cause problems if I tried registing on multiple Fair Market sites (Lycos - MSN). Already registered with Lycos, so when I was registering with MSN I expected an error message that would say my user name was already taken. Not the case. Judging by your problem, I assume its set up so you can register your name with a second Fair Market site but the user name and mailing address is already in the system and has to match.
posted on January 9, 2001 01:08:24 PM new
Fair Market sites may have a good shot, eventually.
Sellers will have to change the way they do business, if they leave Yahoo and don't head to Ebay. Aggressively market your auctions. Don't just passively list stuff and expect it to sell. Have a website of your own or maybe a co-op. And, in my oppinion, sellers need to get the bids rolling themselves. As a buyer, if I go to a site and see no bids, and mostly sellers with 0 feedback, I will probably leave without bidding. Give buyers incentive to bid (Great Bargains on good useful items).
I made good money on my own web page before starting in with the auctions, so I know it can be done.
posted on January 9, 2001 01:09:50 PM new
Speaking about insulators...?
Sometime in the past a long stretch of railroad was abandoned near here. During this period of time, the phone or railroad company went down the line and cutoff all phone poles at the base, causing them to topple over, where they remain to this day.
Most of the poles through town have been stripped of their insulators, ecept for those that might have some damage.
I'm wondering if it would be worth my while to work my way down the line into the wilderness more. I have a feeling people just hit the obvious ones.
posted on January 10, 2001 02:47:07 AM new
I agree with jwpc. We need to tell our buyers where we're moving too. I've been putting it in my e-mails, and I have otehr sites at my auctions homepage.
The funny thing for me is, I had placed on my site that I was going to leave Yahoo this month last November. It had nothing to do with the fees, but the scammers and their fake bids.
There's also a few clubs at Yahoo (and other sites) that talk about auctions. I know I started a club a couple of months ago jsut to complain about Yahoo auctions. After reading some of these posts, I'm surprised no one ever joined.
I also agree with the others talking about a closing fee. I have been doing this full-time for like two years now (along with my web site), and I used to really enjoy it. If Yahoo announced tomorrow that it was changing from a posting fee to a closing fee, AND would at least credit you when a scammer hit you (preferably remove them as well).
Until then, its off to eDeal, AuxPal, and maybe Lycos for me.
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