posted on January 10, 2001 01:00:09 AM new
I have had about 2000 auctions running on Yahoo for the past several months. That makes me 1/10 of 1% of Yahoo figuring 2 million auctions. My method was to set the minimum bid at the buy price and call each item 1st Bid Wins (a classified ad really).
I am one of the thrift store shoppers who specializes in about a dozen areas where I know a little something. So I think I am a fairly accurate sampling of what Yahoo auctions is mostly about. Since I don't run true auctions I sell more than those who do. I sell about 15 items per day of my 2000 and not at give-away prices. If Yahoo had charged me 5% of my sales in December, they would have made about $500 from me. At that rate I would be worth $6000 a year to them on a 5% commission basis and since I am 1/1000th of Yahoo, that means they could project about $6 million per year in commissions for the whole site if it remained the same size.
So with listing fees they way they now are, assuming an average of $1 per auction every 10 days, I would have had to pay $6000 in December alone. So after my current auctions expire I will be forced to discontinue 90% of my items, those which sell slowly and are low priced, and the rest logically will go to eBay where the buyers seem to be several times greater in number, perhaps as much as 10 times higher. If you must pay to list, at least you want a good chance of paying it just one time.
The big question is whether Yahoo Auctions can generate more than $6 million this year in listing fees. If so, then I guess their decision is ok for them. But I suspect even if they do, that the site will decline steadily rather than grow. I think the stuff I mostly sell is only realistically and profitably sold on commission. And currently there's no place else to list it where buyers are looking. Yahoo could have dominated this niche but instead have walked away from it and what will be left here I really can't imagine.
It's so clear to me how faddish this whole auction thing is and the proof is in my sales and all the comments I have had from buyers thanking me for doing 1st Bid WINS....that I would agree to this: Charge me a $.50 listing fee per item for 1 year for a classified ad mixed in with the auctions, and another 5% when it sells. That would generate another $1250 in listing fees in addition to their $6000 in commissions per year from me, and i would not have to spend so much time relisting auctions.
