posted on January 18, 2001 09:58:07 AM new
I'm starting this thread so all ticked off sellers can diversify, so take a second and add an auction site here, I'll start with edeal.com a small freindly auction
posted on January 18, 2001 10:38:32 AM new
It's required that you state "alternatives to YAHOO!!" or the moderator will lock the thread. I took some time to check out the alternatives. They are all ghost towns with virtually no bidding activity. Bidbay, Auxpal, Auction Addict, Edeal, Collecting Nation, Casper's, SixthSense, Ghostbusters, etc. etc. None of these sites compare with YAHOO for ease of use from a buyers or sellers perspective but the Fair Market Sites (MSN/Lycos/NBCi/CitySearch) do have some bidding activity and are web portals that generate traffic.
posted on January 18, 2001 10:47:36 AM new
And let's not forget that Yahoo!Auctions itself was unable to generate traffic either, characterized by few pageviewers, fewer bidders and even fewer buyers.
And now, a little more than a week into listing fees, Yahoo!Auctions has about one-third fewer listings, so if my math is correct, they've lost 1,000,000 listings to date.
posted on January 18, 2001 02:28:30 PM new
Is the domain www.ghosttown.com taken? It would be a good name for an alternative auction site (or one Yahoo could use next month).
posted on January 18, 2001 02:54:42 PM new
my alternative to yahoo has been snaprat.com it is a very new site with about 1200 listings .in the first week i did sell 3 items in my second week i'm only going to sell 1 item so far.none are big ticket items but as all sites start out you must crawl before each step.and its an easy site to list at, i'm going to continue to list there.theres no listing fee but there is a fvf i think 5% .i also listed at edeal but so far am only getting lookers.as any site will be slow in the beginning it will take word of mouth and time to make a sight grow.the cs is supurb and very helpful at snaprat..remember even as old as yahoo is the bidding there was very slow.so dont condem a site before trying it for a while (1-6 months).if no one tries these new sites and only goes by what they see (few listings)and doesnt list but only looks without listing then the sites have little chance of gaining momentum.nothing was ever gained by not trying.......GOOD LUCK!
posted on January 18, 2001 03:57:58 PM new
Does anyone think of suggesting their OTHER auction sites when they are transacting a sale? I always put - "please watch my other auction sites at yahoo and ebay"
I will be adding to that list now!
If bidders get enough of these "suggestions" they will for sure spread out their item searching to include these other sites
They will feel as if they are missing out if they don't check em out - doncha think?
If 1 million sellers did this- we can pretty much bring bidders to other auctions......and who knows??
They need to know there is life "other than ebay!"
posted on January 18, 2001 05:12:28 PM new
Does anyone think of suggesting their OTHER auction sites when they are transacting a sale? from whyizit____yes we have been doing just that in our conformation letter from ebay for about a month now and for yahoo for about 3 weeks as well.it definatly has made a difference as i get yahoo people messege me to say they went to the site i mentioned, so this works and if they can get a deal from you now and then they will go back.in the beginning you may need to take a little less for some of your stuff but a steady coustmer is well worth it .just my opnion.
posted on January 18, 2001 06:59:24 PM new
>>Does anyone think of suggesting their OTHER auction sites when they are transacting a sale?<<
A more effective way to promote your items and the auction site you list with is through web communities/clubs and newsgroups. When YAHOO's auction was still relatively unkown I would place 25 to 50 posts per day in newsgroups and clubs promoting YAHOO and my listings. There are hundreds of clubs and newsgroups where you can promote your listings and the auction site. Yahoo Clubs, MSN Communities, Lycos Clubs, rec.collecting.newsgroups. If collectors see the names Epier, Auxpal, Bidbay, etc. in the headers 50 times a day, they will start checking them out and bookmarking the sites. "86 Jerry Rice RC $40 - Lycos Auctions" "Teenie Weenie Beanie Bear $5 - Epier Auctions" (Just samples: I don't have a Rice card or a Weenie Bear for sale).
posted on January 18, 2001 08:37:46 PM new
Glad you started this thread,was thinking of doing it myself.My wife had such a slow christmas due to many outages at ebay she decided to try some others too. ok at Yahoo but you have to pay to feature to get hits..we all need to be on a few sites,,Great idea on letting people know,we added that to our email signature linked to other sites,also to auctiva..that free showcase..very cool..
Anyway what a NICE SURPRISE AT E-HAMMER,,she is selling there,nice people more hits than ebay when they are not working right..so
guess we will do a bunch there.In fact
TUESDAY IS FREE LISTING DAY AT EHAMMER,if we all go & list some auctions,put it on all our emails maybe we can have a site where people care about us.
Good luck everyone,,worth a try..
ps news just said ebay stock profits UP 400%...& they had to raise fees.no way..!!!
posted on January 18, 2001 09:01:39 PM new
I guess actually anything over 250.00 is free listing everyday..but we aren't in that league..
i'm not kidding she listed stuff & got bids immediately.first 4 items bids within a day..so added more,,was getting like 12 hits a day with ebay,,in two days like 30-40 here..& winners are nice people,,really .more than you would think..give it a try..won't cost anything. nice surprise..she doesn't mind paying a fee if you ever make a sale & the site isn't down every day...stuff shows up in the listings immediately not 15-36 hours behind like ebay has been at times.
we takes that newsletter from www.auctionguild.com called tagnotes..found out about it here. on auctionwatch..we didn't know what was wrong with our auctions..then we compared ebay announcement board outages..with what tagnotes said.tagnotes showed MANY MORE OUTAGES & .tagnotes was right..no hits no bids during those exact times..i bet many people don't realize it's not just slow,or their stuff or prices..they are down...check out that auctionguild..VERY INTERESTING..
well good luck
