posted on January 10, 2001 12:26:27 PM new
I noticed that there were alot of sellers looking for additional sites to list on. Epier.com is a nice site, that does not charge any fees.
Per Epier:
There are absolutely:
No listing fee.
No insertion fee.
and No percentage of your sale.
Selling is completely free.
And since we are not collecting any charge or percentage of your sales, we do not ask for your credit card number.
As a free auction, we really leave it to you the market to quickly weed out the good from the bad.
***** Good Luck with whatever auction site you choose *****
posted on January 10, 2001 01:12:00 PM new
IMO ePier http://www.epier.com has an excellent format, and I've only found two things that are bothersome:
First, when you fill out the listing form, you'd better make sure that your HTML and options are correct, because there's no preview. Goes directly into the listings.
Second, I'd like to put a URL on my own website that would take my visitors to ePier to see my own listings, but ePier's seller search do not return a unique URL.
I think I'll e-mail these comments to ePier to see if they can work on them.
posted on January 10, 2001 01:47:25 PM new
In my few experiences contacting Epier with suggestions, they seem willing to listen and consider suggestions.
posted on January 10, 2001 02:12:14 PM new
I too found epier to be a friendly place --- its a bit 'klunky' to navigate, but I think that will get better...
What counts is sales, my sence of it is that I have done almost as well on epier as yahoo over the last several months.
I'd recomend a look at epier myself, ya might like it.
posted on January 10, 2001 02:33:09 PM new
Hadn't heard of Epier til now-- but doncha think we're all a little gun shy by now?
What a smart auction site would do, is contract "sponser advertisers" LONG before they even open their doors. They seem to all have the "bait n switch" mentality - once we get used to the site - they think we'll be sooo happy to pay.
Actually, I think all sellers would happily pay a FVF from the get-go-- to assure a strong and supportive relationship with the "venue" providor.
Sellers will soon tire of dragging their auctions off to the "new place" - that can get reallly old!!
JMHO
posted on January 10, 2001 02:41:25 PM new
whyizzit >
What a smart auction site would do, is contract "sponser advertisers" LONG before they even open their doors. They seem to all have the "bait n switch" mentality - once we get used to the site - they think we'll be sooo happy to pay.
That is why I am posting auctions on several alternative auction sites, all with links to them from my personal website. If one should happen to decide to implement a fee structure when they have failed to deliver the traffic needed for that fee structure to make economic sense, its only a matter of deleting a couple lines of source code from my own website and ... poof ... they're gone.
posted on January 10, 2001 03:40:02 PM new
I was all set to register for epier - had the form filled out and ready to submit it to register. Low and behold it's a Javascript form and I do not keep Javascript active for security reasons. Too bad, I was going to list items there today. I absolutely LOATHE sites that require Javascript or Java
posted on January 10, 2001 03:55:18 PM new
basssmmm:
There are many "nice" auction sites that do not require Javascript. Even eGREED and YaGREED don't require it. If they force people to keep Javascript active, I don't see that they will survive. Many people, like myself, will not use sites that require Javascript (I use it as optional items on some of my pages - I never design pages that force people to use it)
Yes, it is too bad- I thought it may be an option for me until the Javascript form changed my mind.
posted on January 11, 2001 12:13:44 AM new
pegasus777
This is just an observation so don't take offense, but you seem to have such high expectations that every site has something wrong with it. Kind of limits your options don't you think?
There's only one or two of these other auction sites that will ever turn out to be anything but a listing black hole. If you eliminate them because of some little glitch or because they use JavaScript it's your loss...
posted on January 11, 2001 12:23:41 AM new
outoftheblue:
I am now ignoring your posts. It's obvious from another thread you have something against me because I am boycotting yaGREED and eGREED sellers. I will find another site and I will be succesful because I sell items people actually want and pay good $$$ for. Many bidders will not bid on sites that are Javascript infested- and so I won't even list there.
What is it to you that I am finding legitimate problems with sites??? If they want to succeed, they will not alienate potential bidders before the bidders even signed up at the site. If they don't want my $200. items listed- I'll take them somewhere that wants them (I love potteryauction.com but they only list art pottery- so I still need to find a site for my other items) Most sites fail because they are not well designed, have too many bugs, and some of them the people don't have a clue about auctions. I won't land on another bum site (like golds) again- I won't deal with incompetence - I need to eat and won't let a bad site destroy my business.
posted on January 11, 2001 12:58:23 AM new
I really like the looks of epier.com It kind of looks like an ebay clone! I tried to set up my first auction and there is no way to upload your fotos to that site. You need to use HTML. RATS! I was going to set up an auction to see what happens. Oh well, I guess I will have to check it out later
posted on January 11, 2001 05:34:49 AM new
"Sellers will soon tire of dragging their auctions off to the "new place" - that can get reallly old!!" - I guess we all realize that if worse comes to worse, there's always eBah...
posted on January 11, 2001 06:00:56 AM new
I wasn't aware of epier either. Just looked at it and it looks good, but doesn't function very well. I just emailed epier support and will see what they say. In the mean time, I'm searching and thinking along with everyone else.
posted on January 11, 2001 06:07:43 AM new
For lack of a better battle plan at the moment, looks like I'm going to base myself back on eBah for awhile, but also do some serious posting on Pootah.com and whatamibid.com
to see what they're about.
Epier looks decent but then, how decent can they be if they can't even come up with an original site design.
posted on January 11, 2001 06:40:11 AM new
Rebel
I agree. You are right about that, "Sellers will soon tire of dragging their auctions from one site to another."
That is after the auction site becomes successful and the sellers need the auction site more than the auction site need the sellers. What I mean is that the site can afford to lose a whole group of sellers and still stay in business.
If Yahoo knew, that every seller they had, would pull their auctions when they started charging fees, do you think they would have started charging fees? I don't.
I think that their site would still be free, or if it was costing them too much money to operate it, they would have simply closed it.
I looked at epier site briefly, and so far, I have liked what I saw.
I like the fact that there is no fees, and they don't even ask you for a credit card to register to sell.
I wonder, though-if they would be willing to put a letter up on their web site, stating that if, say for the next thirty days or so, every seller that signs up to sell on their site, will never be charged a fee of any kind. No listing fee, no final value fee and no reserve fee.
If they put up something like that, I would be much more inclined to list on their site.
For their site to be free today, really doesn't mean that much to me. Just a few days ago, it was free to list on Yahoo.
And all the sellers, the ones who had put a lot of their time and effort into helping make Yahoo auctions successful, what happens to them now? If they still continue to list on Yahoo, they are going to be charged a fee, just like the new person, who has never listed on Yahoo before, is going to be charged a fee.
It took a lot of sellers, putting a lot of their time and energy onto Yahoo auctions to bring Yahoo auctions to a point where they could tell the sellers they were going to start charging a fee.
Think about it for a minute, people. Why put your time and effort into listing on a site to help them become successful and then have them, once they are successful to start charging the people, who made them successful in the first place, a fee?
Yahoo, right now, doesn't need any one seller, or any group of sellers. But they are auction sites out there, right now, that does desperately need sellers.
For the sites that are free today, that's fine, but it doesn't mean too much to me. Because it is going to take a lot of sellers, listing a lot of items on a site to bring in a pool of bidders. It is also going to take time to do that.
What would mean something to me is a guarantee from the site, that if you sign up to sell on their site, if they ever did start charging fees, that the sellers who were already signed up would never be charged a fee.
I don't know if epier would be willing to make an offer like that or not. If they were, I would be willing to list on their site. Because, I wouldn't feel like I was wasting my time. In other words, I would be using my time and energy to help them become successful, by listing good items at decent prices, which over a period of time which would start bringing in bidders to their site.
AND IF, they were successful, and started charging fees, well, they could charge the new sellers fees, but not the sellers who's hard work, put them in that position in the first place.
