posted on February 6, 2001 07:41:34 AM new
Amazing!!
And some of my auctions are showing up twice!! I'm not going to waste my energy to cancel the duplicates, there are no bids, and they will all expire tomorrow anyway.
I had no idea that some of them showed up twice, until somebody posted this in a Q&A. Sure enough, when I checked there were 15 auctions listed twice. Guess that's one way to keep the numbers higher than they realy are.
posted on February 6, 2001 01:11:34 PM new
Pink Box Barbie:
January 4 ~ 7715
Today ~ 2353
Great Job Yahoo! Soon (very soon) you won't have to send out so many closing down letters! All the sellers and buyers will be gone!
I think this manuever will go down in history as the dumbest move, they made! If they did not want to be in auctions anymore, why not sell to Ebay (when they were on top)? That is what Up4Sale did.
Also, I keep reading about how you can't get nothing for nothing, blah, blah, blah....
Well, Up4Sale auctions (a couple of years ago, built up a free auction site and then sold it to Ebay for a profit! So, maybe that is the game plan for some of these free auction sites, but I do not care, as long as they are free, right now.
To all of the Yahoo cheerleaders, I would like to point out that even though Yahoo started charging, their customer service is the same, and that is VERY BAD.... That is where some of the free sites will start to gain an advantage. They respond to your question with an answer, not a canned one. There are at least 2 free sites that have great customer service and as long as they continue on that path, they will draw the crowds. Yahoo will never ask the "little guy" what they think, nor do they care. Is that a business you would like to be a part of?
[ edited by deichen on Feb 6, 2001 01:14 PM ]
posted on February 6, 2001 01:25:49 PM new
should I get new glasses - or do I see "jumbled up" listings again? I thought they decided that wasn't a good idea... yet I just saw it. listings ending times were all over the place in one catagory I checked.
By the way, that catagory was Antiques, Art, & Collectibles > Advertising > Beverage Related > Soda > Coca-Cola.
On the morning of 01/10, that catagory contained 7781 items, now - it shows 1842 items. And as I mentioned above, they are "jumbled"
posted on February 6, 2001 01:30:49 PM new
One reason eBay may have bought Up4Sale is because they were losing a significant amount of potential revenue to them. I imagine that Beanie Baby sellers have paid eBay many times more than eBay paid for Up4Sale, because at the time, there was no large site alternative and BB's were a hot and profitable item - the eBay fees were not a big deal to the BB sellers.
A lot of the items on Yahoo are (were) low profit items. There is not much value in eBay buying Yahoo Auctions at its peak, because Yahoo's sellers will just move to another free site (as we are witnessing); these people can't afford to sell at eBay and would not have repaid eBay for Yahoo.
eBay may still buy Yahoo Auctions - who knows? The good thing for eBay is that all of the less profitable sellers will have moved off already, so eBay would be buying a Yahoo with 200K listings instead of 1.2M. Much better deal for eBay. The remaining (profitable) Yahoo sellers WOULD likely switch to eBay, while the less profitable sellers are off draining the personal savings of a few guys running a free site.
posted on February 6, 2001 01:43:47 PM new
Rubylane:
There would be no reason for eBay to ever consider buying Yahoo auctions, assuming that part of Yahoo was ever made into a separate company. EBay has many competitive advantages over Yahoo - Yahoo auctions only has one advantage - being part of Yahoo's main page.
I can see eBay being interested in Yahoo as a whole because it is a major internet portal and eBay is interested in diversifying. I can't see EBay willing to pay much if anything for the auction part without the portal connection.
Irene
[ edited by stockticker on Feb 6, 2001 01:44 PM ]
posted on February 6, 2001 03:16:52 PM new
rustybore,
Yahoo's listings aren't jumbled again---you're looking at the FEATURED Coke items, which are naturally jumbled by the amounts that sellers are paying for featuring. The rest of the UNfeatured items are in time-ending order.
rubylane,
With your attitude, you can be sure I'll never list my antiques on YOUR website. You have a disdain for ALL sellers with low-priced merchandise who can't afford substantial listing fees, though *much* of that merchandise IS of value to a small group of people who collect it or buy it for sentimental reasons. It is precisely BECAUSE only a small group would desire to purchase it that the sellers can't afford high listing fees.
You cannot POSSIBLY speak for the owners of the free auction sites on the web about their financial matters (unless you've contacted them and they disclosed 'all' to you???). A well-run free auction site CAN succeed in drawing "worthwhile" sellers AND bidders for the merchandise if they use the right strategies, and the majority of their sellers WILL be willing to pay *reasonable* fees when their sales justify it.....just as the majority of Yahoo's sellers WOULD HAVE paid fees that were in keeping with their level of sales.
posted on February 6, 2001 03:24:29 PM new
I will support any site that doesnt charge insertion fees. I have no problem paying a FVF, and if yahoo would have simply done that sellers would have stayed. People say that nothing is free, but I am sick of giving sites all my money for free just to list items.
posted on February 6, 2001 05:18:59 PM new
CategoriesTrack:
Antiques, Art, & Collectibles > Miscellaneous > Postcards - 18,406 | 2,954 | 2,896
Antiques, Art, & Collectibles > Miscellaneous > Maps - 473 | 96 | 94
Coins, Paper Money, & Stamps > Coins > United States - 50,602 | 23,639 WRONG! | 23,671 WRONG!
Coins, Paper Money, & Stamps > Stamps > United States - 26,678 | 6,124 | 5,914
Computers > Hardware > PC - 19,667 | 5,816 | 5,907
Computers > Software > PC - 14,467 | 5,391 | 5,287
Entertainment > Books > Antique and Rare - 16,541 | 3,171 | 3,045
Entertainment > Movies > DVD - 13,075 | 3,522 | 3,463
Entertainment > Movies > Video Tapes - 42,802 | 13,581 | 13,730
Entertainment > Music > CDs - 29,964 | 7,112 | 6,980
First number, in bold, is "listing fees day" 10-Jan-2001 10:00 AM ET; second is 06-Feb-2001 at 10:00 AM ET, third is at 8:15 PM ET.
[ edited by dimview on Feb 6, 2001 05:21 PM ]
posted on February 6, 2001 06:25:23 PM new
I can not believe that Yahoo! is getting killed like this! They had 500,000 SportsCards on Jan 10. By the end of this week, they'll probably have less than 50,000. Ouch!!!
posted on February 6, 2001 06:37:15 PM new
Yep their corporate greed has backfired on them. Just think how much money they could have made if they had only installed a simple FVF instead of insertion fees. With these companies its all or nothing.
posted on February 6, 2001 06:47:28 PM new
chum - I am with you. If YaWho had sent a notice that they were charging FVF of 5 to 10% of your closing sale I would never have batted an eye but resumed listing (I took a 2 week break at Christmas) as I had planned and paid them. If they needed the money to improve the auction site by advertising, customer service, etc I would have been happy to do my part.
However, I have been watching this "need to self-destruct" for a few months. I couldn't figure why they were following in eBay's footsteps - implementing rules and regulations that had proven not to work. Yet, they kept coming up with new and more stupid ideas. All I can figure is some idiot there really believes they can be as great as eBay by being eBay.
After watching this last month all I can say now is YaWho is not a company with which I would do business for any reason. Seen too many questionable practices. It's sad because I really liked Yahoo and stayed loyal for several years. But as they say "all good things must come to an end."
posted on February 6, 2001 07:42:24 PM new
This may be a stretch but I think Bidville will have almost as many listings as Yahoo by the end of the week.
There's a lot of sellers like myself that are still listing (with listing credits). I'm watching several that are listing hundreds of items. When the credits run out Yahoo is down for the count!
posted on February 6, 2001 07:43:18 PM new
Every time I see the handle "dimview," especially in this context of Yahoo auctions death spiral, snippets of these lyrics come to mind:
"There's no hot water
and the cold is running thin.
Well, what do you expect from
the kind of places you've been living in?
Don't drink from that cup,
it's all caked and cracked along the rim.
That's not the electric light, my friend,
that is your vision growing dim.
Cover up your face with soap, there,
now you're Santa Claus.
And you've got a gift for anyone
who will give you his applause."
posted on February 6, 2001 10:03:50 PM newdimview Very impressive postings. I just dropped into Yahoo again looking for a tool, after being long gone from Yahoo. Skimpy searches amazed me! Then, I look at your reports and it all becomes clearer! Down nearly 76% on average in some areas! That is truly amazing! Where'd they all go?
