posted on March 24, 2000 04:38:28 PM
I see on here that many people think Yahoo is the only place to be. But after having a disagreement with eBay... we switched to see how Yahoo was. And I don't see anywhere near the "hits" or sales on Yahoo that there was on eBay.
What am I doing wrong? I am using AW to launch the auctions, as I can at least understand it. When I tried to go directly through Yahoo... my listings came out all gobble-D-goop. Also, it says that I can only put one picture... but I see a lot of people with 3 or 4 pics.
How do the good sellers get a bidder base built up? AND... wonder what is going to happen if Yahoo & eBay merge? Right now I don't mind the mistakes I am making on Yahoo, as it isn't costing ...
Would appreciate any advice, suggestions,... or pats on the shoulders, telling me it will be allright. *smile!
I wish I could tell that it will be alright, but alas, I have been posting on Yahoo for a quite awhile and to be quite frank about it, if it wasn't free I couldn't I list there at all!
As far as hits and bids go, it can't compare to Ebay, at least not for me, but I hang in there,,,,hey it isn't costing anything.... and I hope a lot everyday when I go check my auctions.
I wouldn't just quit Ebay, not if you want to sell something. Hits and bids are few and far between at Yahoo.
posted on March 24, 2000 05:54:48 PM
scarpfam2, we have had great success on Yahoo. We are about to hit 100 fb, and have all but abandoned ebay. We have not listed an auction there for 2 months +, and have left 488 fb behind.
If you are serious about selling on Yahoo, read some of the messages below, several seasoned Yahoo sellers have offered excellent advice.
As for a merge with Ebay, the notion is pretty much my worst nightmare.
posted on March 25, 2000 06:38:29 AM
Frist off you decribe auction you listed directly from yahoo as gooped up .
yahoo is simply the easyest auction sight to luanch from and they allow you 1 meg of space for each auction for picture there limit is two your frist picture uploaded directly to yahoo is used not only for the ad but also for the thumbnial that is seen at the tops of catogorys and in the coveted veiw photos only and feature auctions.
you get no thumbnail pic when you post from AW no thumb nail meanless veiws and a 80% chance of no sale
as far as how to build a rateing do it like everyone on ever sight does it be a buyer remember you get rateings for buying or selling check yahoo or ebay 50% or more rateing are buyer rateings the more rateings the more sales see seller yell about deabeat buyer but lets not forget there are as well dead beat sellers as well.
Fill out the about me page , make a web page with info about you and your auctions ans policys with pictures make it personnel and friendly ad some music.
how to get sales :
you open any storeor resturunt you getsales by advertizeing selling to family and friends if your good the word spreads from family to other friends and word gets out post a card about your auction and what you are selling on bulletin board at area stores with your yahoo booth URL .
a good bussiness isnt simple to start takes leg work and years of time and planing not just posting ad online for a week or a month.
you might have done well at ebay were sure but you didnt make millions even ebay isnt makeing million we all read the paper this is a company that still has to turn a profit it self .
when one opens a resterunt at frist they toss alot of goods in the trash and feed may neighbors for free cause of a lack of sales .
they dont open there door and a week later or a month later insult the town they sell in cause they had lettuce that wilted and milk that soured
posted on March 25, 2000 07:08:06 AM
Thank you all so much for all the helpful advice. Especially dman3 who spelled it out plainly for me (as that is what it takes for me to understand).
I am going to try and do the auction from Yahoo again, instead of AW (and maybe will get it to look right this time)! *fingers crossed!
OK... from what I have gathered in reading everything on these Yahoo boards. I need to list like a 100 items (and just don't look for the quick sale, and high bids that I got on eBay). When I get that all up... I should maybe send emails to my couple hundred customers who were with me on eBay and tell them to look for my auctions there? Will I get in trouble for spamming? I have already bid on several items, and won... and really... only 2 people have contacted me about my wins from Yahoo. Don't these people want their money????? I need the feedback. *grin!
I have really fine tuned all the terms and shipping (something I had not done with eBay... the sales were just easy to get). And finally... I am NOT going to watch the numbers or bids... but just be content with the business building slowly. Did I get everything right? Omigosh... so much to remember... did I miss anything? Oh yeah... fill in the "about me" page.
You have all been sooo great. Thank you very much for the words of encouragement.
posted on March 25, 2000 07:26:17 AM
Loretta, regarding the 100 items, selling on Yahoo is a different ball game same on Ebay. It is akin to putting everything you have to sell on display with a price tag and when someone sees it who wants it, they buy it. How much you put up depends on how much you want going out. How big a store do you want?
Example - we have other priorities for the moment and so maintain only about 50 items listed at one time. This gets us 15-20 sales a week plus whatever other deals arise when the contact is made with the buyer, and other sales we have from our existing customer base, things that never see auction. This is precisely what we want at this time. If we wanted twice the sales, we'd put up twice the listing, and so it goes.
This way of doing business is addictive. You put the thing(s) up and go on with your life. Your pager goes off if there is a sale or a question. No sweat and no stress.
posted on March 25, 2000 01:10:08 PM
hehehe wow glad I could help .
Though I just re read what I posted and I have to say either someone moved the keys on my keyboard around or I was One cup of coffee low for that time of the morning may have to change my user name here to AM_typo hahah
I think you can enjoy selling on yahoo though it is a bit of a different ball game you post items and wait for the right buyer .
I have found concert videos , CDs, and carnaval glass go really fast .
and genrally the features get the frist bids if you dont mind the 25 cent to $200 price for them it pays to feature .
though ever thing I read about online auction sales says that adding as much as you can in the discription gets more sales, on yahoo I see items selling just based on pictures even if the ad has only a four words in it and a starting price
I think this is because yahoo offer free uploads to there pic there gallery everyone lays back surf the thumnails and buys baseed on this . so as you might imagine it pays to put up a few new pictures now and then for older auction to keep thing new and freash .
posted on March 25, 2000 01:34:59 PM
First of all I use both Yahoo & eBay. Without going into the debate of who is betterthan who (because frankly it doesn't help your situation 1 bit), lets focus on getting the pics in right.
I've not used Auction Watch to load up my Yahoo Auctions. You can load 3 pics directly to Yahoo Auctions. Its tedious if you already have files in Auction Watch. Since Auction Watch doesn't have a direct link to Yahoo, what I've done in the past is click on the pics & then hit 'Other Auction Sites'. That way I simply copy the text & paste it in Yahoo. The Bulk Auction Watch loader doesn't work too well wtih Yahoo Auctions for reasons most obvious. Yahoo Auctions is pretty one of the few sites to offer free pics loader & its really simple. Most people simple load their pics direct to Yahoo Auction so there is really no motivation for us to use Auction Watch.
Now back to Yahoo vs eBay...who cares. You like vanilla & I like chocolate...bla bla bla.
posted on March 25, 2000 01:53:18 PM
WOW....
I have to say that you people are the best. Such great advice. I sat there frozen in front of the Yahoo listing screen for an hour, then it took me an hour to try and get what I thought was a decent looking page. But thanks to all of your help and pushing and prodding (grin)... I did it. I think that I am going to list all my smaller items on Yahoo, that it never seems to be worth listing on eBay, and take it easy for a while. I liked that saying that we should just relax and let the auction do the work, and enjoy life. "No Stress"!
Thank you so much everyone. All of what you wrote was encouraging and very helpful. Two completely different sites, and I need to get that mind set going.
posted on March 25, 2000 09:21:32 PM
Make sure you include your email address in your auction listings! Bidders like to contact you directly - especially when they are bidding on high end items.
I was a qualified eGREED (ebay) silver "power seller" and left them immediately after they announced the extortion (reserve) fees last August. I starved at Golds, I liked Amazon but the bidders were not there for my items. I have been selling on Yahoo since December and am now making as much in sales as I was on eGREED ***AND*** I am saving $1,000. a month that I was paying eGREED in listing / FV fees. I do not list that many items a month- the items I list are mostly $100. - $1,000. items and the sales at Yahoo are great for me and the items that I list.
What I dislike about many sellers is that they charge 200% (or more) shipping fees- and I have stopped bidding on Yahoo unless the seller will tell me how much their shipping fees are when I ask them. I include in my auction terms that I will refund shipping overcharges if I charge more than $2.00 too much (some of the items I sell costs $100. or more [exact cost] to ship in the U.S. and vary as much as $40. depending on where it is going in the U.S. - and that isn't even taking International shipping costs into consideration) I refused to go through with one purchase because the person was charging me 200% shipping rate (he gave the weight of the item and did not say he charged extra - I sell the same type of item and I *KNOW* how much it costs to ship it) I now refuse to bid unless the seller includes the shipping cost or states that it will be at cost, or states (like I do), that they will refund the shipping difference if they over charge the shipping.
I usually do not have more than 50 items listed at a time (cumalative) and almost never more than 75 at once - but it depends on what you are selling and how much you want to work and how much you want to make.
.
I sell on a number of sites, and I really think Yahoo is super!
First, you want to load your pictures directly onto Yahoo's site when you create your auction.
You can load 3, which is more than enough - people don't usually want to wait for them to load!
Second, you want to keep your descriptions brief. Don't omit necessary facts, dimensions, model number, etc., but bidders here don't seem to bite on long ads.
Third, price fairly close to what you want to get for an item. Bids on Yahoo go up only in dime increments on $9.99 and under items.
Relax! It is FREE, there are alot of bidders here if you have good stuff, there are no FVF hassles, and I have had alot less deadbeats and problem returns here.
I still think eBay is best for some things, but don't let anyone tell you Yahoo isn't great! I have met some of the nicest bidders and contacts here - give it a chance.
[ edited by azrae on Mar 25, 2000 09:34 PM ]
posted on March 26, 2000 10:11:09 AM
I temporarily switched to Yahoo last summer, and am back on ebay almost exclusively. My sale prices were down, but when you figure in ebay's fees there was very little difference in the net profits. What made me switch back to ebay? On Yahoo there's more rude people; more deadbeats; they annoyingly use the Feedback forum for basic communication instead of email, and some categories do not receive much action. I still use Yahoo in certain circumstances.
posted on March 27, 2000 03:03:19 PM
Some categories on Yahoo just don't get the same traffic than ebay. I used Yahoo in the past and got comparable results because of the Free listings/no commissions. I still use it sparingly.
posted on March 27, 2000 07:02:15 PM
This online auction thing is so very strange...
I have had items not sell twice on EBAY, No bids, or not meeting the reserve. Listed the same item on YAHOO, and BOOM! got bids right away and ended up selling.
I wish I would have known that before I spent the money over on ebay...
Sometimes the reverse happens, nice interesting collectable gets no bids or interest on Yahoo. Move it to ebay and BOOM.....its gone!
With Yahoo being free, it makes good sence to try a sale there first before spending those hard earned dollars on ebay!
posted on March 28, 2000 08:16:14 AM
believe me give yahoo time.. i have done well on yahoo and also changed from ebay..i've been on yahoo for three months now and have built a rating..that seems to be the trick. i do admit there are alot of dead beat buyers but if you rate them sooner or later they hang them selves and yahoo will not let them bid on yahoo auctions any more...and for every bad rating they get it knocks out a positive rating for them.. i did have problems loading directly to yahoo with out an auction manager. my pics would show up on wrong auctions but once i started using photo loft and auction manager and auction watch those problems ceased..if you put your own urls to your photo sites when you list your auction yahoo will let you list up to three pictures...it seems picture urls are the way to go...
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posted on March 30, 2000 05:50:47 AM
I use four different auction sites. Yes, sometimes I do auction an item that gets no bids or just one bid. I often do what I call competitive shopping at other auctions of the same type of item. I'm proud of my stuff but if I price it $25.00 more than all my competition it won't sell. Also, in any business where selling is the main objective, you have to locate the buyer. I've found that a good picture (which I sometimes have trouble with) and a good description, including your sales and customer service policies are great assists. You may say something in your policy that turns a customer away, but at least he will be turned away for the right reason. I'm talking about damage claims, return policies, etc. Feel free to email if I can help further.
posted on March 30, 2000 12:56:34 PM
Hey Peg, don't you just love those sellers who either don't tell you what the shipping cost will be or the ones that state an astronomically high shipping fee & then end up shipping them 4th class mail.
Buyer beware...when bidding always ask the seller how much he will charge for shipping. As a seller, with over 800 winning auctions in 6 months using Yahoo, my shipping fees are always there in every of my auction.
The most important point for a buyer when buying online is to always ask before bidding. That's doesn't always mean a happy transaction but it often eliminates all the nasty problems that occur after the auction ends. After the auction, the seller has every right (not often he is right) to start charging you ridicolous fees which you will promptly decide not to buy. In which case you will both end up here (meaning the eBay Outlook) and start an argument which will end up with 20 other so called auction experts poking & punching light jabs at either of you which leads to one of you being suspended from AW
posted on March 30, 2000 12:56:39 PM
Hey Peg, don't you just love those sellers who either don't tell you what the shipping cost will be or the ones that state an astronomically high shipping fee & then end up shipping them 4th class mail.
Buyer beware...when bidding always ask the seller how much he will charge for shipping. As a seller, with over 800 winning auctions in 6 months using Yahoo, my shipping fees are always there in every of my auction.
The most important point for a buyer when buying online is to always ask before bidding. That's doesn't always mean a happy transaction but it often eliminates all the nasty problems that occur after the auction ends. After the auction, the seller has every right (not often he is right) to start charging you ridicolous fees which you will promptly decide not to buy. In which case you will both end up here (meaning the eBay Outlook) and start an argument which will end up with 20 other so called auction experts poking & punching light jabs at either of you which leads to one of you being suspended from AW
posted on March 31, 2000 02:26:29 AM
COOLV!.....
Where have you been? Missed you. I am sitting here in my very 50's gown... with a bee-hive hair do (is that what they had in those days?), just waiting for my handsome date to pull up in that great car. ;^)
Everyone...
Thanks so much for all the helpful information. I think it has all been very good. Actually... I only listed 5 items and sold 2; so I guess I shouldn't wonder or complain, huh? *grin* But the slower pace has helped out our family life enormously. I spend maybe an hour a day on the PC, as compared to 10 when I was with eBay. Not the same income... but also; not the same slave to the auctions.
posted on March 31, 2000 11:04:55 AM
VETTE!...
There you are.... I thought I was "dumped". *grin! Is this like completely shameless to flirt with you so outrageously on here???
OK, I am going over to Gold's to check out what they have that you like. How am I ever going to find you among all those other people??? *laugh. *I stole your wizard in the above post for my pages. You do know how to charm a girl with graphics*
Yahoo is not bad, and to be honest; I sort of like the break in selling. (I really hate learning all the ins and outs of a new auction system).... but it's been great to kick back, and just let the auctions go. *Shhhhh... I still sell on eBay with my big items. (Hope Mr. B, hadn't counted on being smarter than me). But I sort of like the smaller auction places for my little things that didn't do as well.
