posted on May 17, 2001 07:48:54 AM new
Heres an interesting little story...
I have several of these items, a minor collectible, interesting to some folks, but not to others I suppose.
I started one on ebay for $5.00, it got 108 page views, ended up selling (8 bids total) for over $22.00.
Same item on Yahoo, same photos, starting price, same everything - 33 views no bids.
Are bidders just too lazy to check any other auction sites... or perhaps they just "set in their" ways when it comes to shopping on ebay?
Have they found prices to be unreasonable at other sites (as I have from time to time)?
Do serious ebay buyers feel that they will find only junk and ebay rejects on other sites?
Have they found other sites (yahoo and others) akward and hard to use?
Is there a preception that other sites are full of fraud and ebay NARUd sellers?
Or maybe its ONLY the advertising of a site, and its ablilty to pull in surfers?
These questions have bothered me for some time now... Why will folks pay $22.00 for something on ebay, when the same item, just a few clicks away, can be had for $5.00?
posted on May 17, 2001 08:21:31 AM new
rustybore >
Why will folks pay $22.00 for something on ebay, when the same item, just a few clicks away, can be had for $5.00?
That's been my experience, exactly.
I have several copies of a book that regularly sells with multiple bids at eBay, yet the same copies sit with few pageviews and ZERO bids at BidBay, Bidville, and ePier.
I list the opening bid at $9.95; most recent listing just two weeks ago went for $15.50. Previous listings went into the mid-$20's.
Yet the same book, same description, same everything, just sits on these alternative auction sites.
I think it comes down to the fact that "buyers" are just plain stupid, they were just lucky in stumbling onto eBay and are unable to find their way to other auction sites.
On the other hand, "sellers" must have a bit of computer savy in them, after all, many create their own HTML-listings.
Perhaps that's why so many "sellers" have found their way to Bidville, which has surged with more than 600,000 listings, while the "buyers" are essentially non-existent.
On one type of merchandise I sell still on Yahoo, I could turn the question around to "Why don't Yahoo'ers research Ebay prices?"
In the general case I've found still worth listing on Yahoo, and in fact have been paying real cash to feature for several months, I've looked up Closed Auctions History for a number of comparable model numbers on Ebay. In many cases my Yahoo final sales have been on the upper range of Ebay results, or even well above the "expected Ebay maximums." I've actually found myself asking "Don't these bidders know about Ebay and how to search its results??"
I'm often playing the "start low below cost" game so I can figure featuring cost at half what it is if the item didn't sell; factoring that in, I find my Yahoo overall fees are equal to, or less than, what I'd wind up paying on Ebay, too. Some of my buyers continue to be zero-feedback newbies, some are repeats over several months, and I have very little trouble with deadbeats. With the lowish starts, I generally have a range of competing bids and have had no trouble just picking up the next bidder down at an only slightly lower bid in the rare case of a non-pay.
I've been quite angry about Yahoo Auction's methods and policies in the past but now with some real data on results and enough time to look at them I felt I should share that experience. Now, the downsides:
1) If any real extra number of effective listings hit my subcategories... like a 50% increase... without a LOT more buyers these results would be toast.
2) If others appeared with lots of featuring "funny-money" credits to bid the daily prices up, OR if Yahoo stopped the 50%-rebate-if-sold policy, the costs would rise to more than those of Ebay.
3)If numbers of buyers fell off much at all from here my results might collapse, too.
4) Most relevantly, I know damned well that many categories, especially those with an extreme range of identifications and qualities and no easy "book value" or "street value" information available, have become hopeless on Yahoo. I was doing fairly well in several of these "now-hopeless" areas before the fee policy listing "buy it now" classifieds with a turnover every 6 or 8 listings perhaps. I tried doing the same sort of "very low start" to stimulate bidding, plus featuring, in several categories other than my presently-OK ones.... I even remember the day I looked at the main Auctions page and was stunned to see one of my items sitting on it, as a nice picture, right under the Dale Earnhard thingy (poster?) that was running there at the very top. It got over a thousand page views before it expired, too. It sold for simple "normal retail" eventually and I saw several similar items I had listed in the same time span sell for very-low price, high-quantity wholesale, final prices, so low it was a total waste to list them.
Those items, I've stopped listing completely. I'll try again soon, I guess, but they were a total bummer, but did fine as "classified ads" last year, and would be do-able again as fvf listings.
So, that's as calm and rational an assessment
I can give now of Yahoo Auctions. I love the interface and image hosting there, and hate the poor communications and lack of live customer service and refusal to interact with users who have complaints and suggestions. Where's an interactive "Community Message Board" like Ebay has dozens of? Where's just a company ombudsman flack identity right here like "Paypaldamon"? Oh well.
posted on May 17, 2001 08:55:58 AM new
pyth00n -- I too have had items that didn't even get a bid on Ebay (due to the 119 other items like it listed) sell on Yahoo.
I have had items that didn't meet a reasonable reserve on Ebay go beyond the reserve on Yahoo as well.
I suppose the item itself as well as the general catagory has alot to do with these sales flucuations.
Internet is so easy to use, no site is more than a few clicks away from any other site... doesn't everyone know that by now?
Guess not...
BTW, I am happy that my item sold on ebay for $22.00. But think I would have been just as happy if two of them had sold on two sites for $11.00 each, as this speeks to the "all your eggs in one basket" issue.
posted on May 17, 2001 11:30:23 AM new
What I think is even stranger is why don't eBay shoppers browse eBay for same thing? LOL, over and over I see exact common items end at a broad price range there within hours of each other. Most of the time the sellers have comparable feedback & shipping rates yet end prices vary greatly. Several close with no bids while exacts close with anywhere from 1-20. Some of the unsold are only $5.00 while many with multi bids close from $10 - $25. All I can guess is many people pick 1 item, bid their maximum proxy and that's that. With so many exacts available I've never understood why else that scenario would occur so often.
Me, I never bid more than the minimum after checking all sites. Then I never increase my bid before rechecking all sites. I'm determined to get the best deal and don't care what site I have to buy from.
I have been using an email sig line with my Bidville and ePier links and bidders still write me daily stating they had never heard of those places. I'm sure credit card verification scares many bidders away from trying Yahoo. I think the BV & ePier search engines that only search title may not be turning up the items buyers seek. I think many of the opening prices at the free sites are unreasonable too. eBay is the king of ads, I guess. I sure see theirs everywhere, lots of banners exclaiming '450,000 new items daily, why shop elsewhere'. As if all the ads aren't enough, celebs on talk shows often mention buying on eBay.
posted on May 17, 2001 07:07:23 PM new
I mainly sell books and sometimes sell in lots. Used to sell on amazon till amazon killed their auctions. I sold books in lots on ebay that went for really low prices so I am going to try reserves but some individual books did much better than I expected . I am going to try yahoo with some bigger lots of romance books ( on ebay I can't sell these as I am giving them away) and see if I can sell them on yahoo. TRied bidville but never got a bid on any of my books. Ever!
posted on May 18, 2001 05:52:15 PM new
Yes, but there's nothing but DUMB LUCK involved in "getting the timing right", and even if you're able to buy for $25.00 (plus shipping), there's absolutely no guarantee you'll get $51+ when you try to sell it.
posted on May 18, 2001 10:50:18 PM new
I do shop at other auction sites, but very rarely at Yahoo!. Basically the reason I quit was that rarely could I find anything I was looking for and if I did the price was extremely high (like $8.00 for an action figure I could get for $4.00 on another site).
Another reason was partly their category break-downs. I don't have a problem with categories that are different from eBay's (in fact prefer a different set-up) but Yahoo's categories were confusing and their search feature is a mess.
Additionally it was hard at that time to find reputable sellers in certain categories. I know there are reputable sellers there--have purchased from a few, but those selling items I was interested in didn't have the type of feedback I felt good about.
posted on May 19, 2001 08:27:19 AM new
I was starting to like Yahoo ... a lot. I had built up a pretty good feedback.
Then I bid on a set of videotapes including episodes from an older teevee series. I had asked a question using their wonky Q&A process: "are these studio released tapes?". I didn't get an answer, so assuming the Yahoo system failed, I placed a bid and won the tapes.
When I got the seller's EOA notice, I asked her to confirm that the tapes were official studio releases, where I should send the money, etc. She came back and told me that the tapes were something she had taped off air and that the quality was about a 6 out of 10.
I politely told her I wasn't interested and wished her luck with her auctions, she got nasty, I reported her to Yahoo as a bootleger, and guess what?
I am now suspended from Yahoo!
She, on the other hand, continues to list and sell her bootlegs making money for both herself and Yahoo by illegal means.
Go figure eh!
IMHO, my experience with Yahoo, coupled with all of their other recent blunders, leads me to believe that they are really no longer interested in the auction business. I just wish they would have come out and been honest about it, instead of playing the dirty game and embarassing their ex-members.
posted on May 19, 2001 09:17:53 AM new
On the other hand sellers and buyers couild be saveing thousands of dollars a month or year selling and buying on yahoo and they could be selling there item faster.
yes ebay has the buyer right no but they are huge and slow it takes up words of two day or more for a sellers item to get in there search data base and that if and when its working.
some one who pays ebay $200 monthly to list and sell item on ebay could do the same sales on yahoo for just about $20.
people who pay auction manager services for photo hosting can have pictures hosted on yahoo free
people paying .25 for ebays gallery feature get the veiw photo only feature for every auction free.
people pay ebay $19.95 for a feature item on yahoo you bid your price and can feature an Item for a week as little as .70
and there is no FVF and before everyone started bad monthing yahoo I was on good days able to get bid on some of my listing as fast as 2 to 4 mins after they were listed which say a lot for smaller site and the spped at which it can update its data base.
Sellers have alower over head there prices can be a bit lower buyer can save money on there bids in many cases.
not sure why people think or do what they do but I do know this it can cost $30 for one month of listing on ebay for a 15% to 25% turn over same listings on yahoo $11 or less even if there is a 4% to 8% turn over I still would make more profit.
posted on May 19, 2001 09:20:40 AM new
RB: Similar bootleggers are continuing to sell on ebay also. My wife reported a seller selling photocopies of copyrighted booklets and they wouldn't do anything about it since the copyright owner hasn't complained! The seller even states in the listing that they are photocopies!
posted on May 19, 2001 09:29:22 AM new
dman3 >
sellers and buyers couild be saveing thousands of dollars a month or year selling and buying on yahoo and they could be selling there item faster.
I clicked on the link to your website, then saw a link marked "SALES: Check out our online auctions", and clicked it.
It took me to auctions listed on eBay, not Yahoo!Auctions.
posted on May 19, 2001 10:15:29 AM new
"some one who pays ebay $200 monthly to list and sell item on ebay could do the same sales on yahoo for just about $20"
Problem is, fewer and fewer buyers are visiting Yahoo. I would sooner spend $200.00 to make the sales on eBay then spend $20.00 for nothing at Yahoo.
"Similar bootleggers are continuing to sell on ebay also."
For a while, eBay was ingoring these and Yahoo was taking action. The tables seem to have reversed now. eBay is starting to listen (especially when the bootleggers are reported to the MPAA and the applicable owners of the Trademarks and Copyrights), and Yahoo just doesn't give a s**t anymore.
posted on May 20, 2001 04:55:13 PM new
wallypog
I agree with you on this and have in over two years written to Yahoo about this problem!
If they even had sub categories instead of hiding them as they have done!
The only Items that got categorized were "Beanie Babies" I think they gave everyone its own category!
Look for diecast vehicles and see the hoops a collector has to jump through to find a hotwheel or matchbox!
Books, dolls and many others are really sorry!
I brought many of my customers to Yahoo over two years ago and most left after browsing thousands of adds that were "RELISTED EVERY TWO DAYS" at above suggested book prices with reserves just to use the space for advertising to direct folks to "WEB SITES" for buying!
All these folks can do the same now at NBCI, Bidville and several other free sites! I am glad they are all doing exceptionally well at using these sites for free advertising!
I am sure many "Brick and Mortar stores are using this method for "FREE Advertising on the Free sites!
My Yahoo sales have been better, since many of them left, but not quite as well as E-bay!
An auction should have items priced to bid on whether they are "JUNK or Expensive ITEMS!
The start price should be such that someone will bid on the item on any auction site! There are "wanna haves and gotta haves" in the collectible market place and when it is a gotta have for some buyers you can throw the book away!
Yahoo needs to do better with categories and prices for featuring along with relist fee and they will be fine!
One of the reasons I went back to eBay when Yahoo started charging, is not the charge, but the fact that at the same time Yahoo went totally crazy with TOS violation cancellations, with no explanation, and no refund on the auctions they cancelled.
One never knows from day to day whether Yahoo will decide to cancel your auction for some unknown reason - and I don't like to deal with a company I can't trust and who cares so little they offer no explanation for what they do, nor do they have any customer support to answer any type of questions.
A company which does nothing about dead beats, and doesn't refund when they don't pay.....and Yahoo certainly has their share of deadbeats. When Yahoo was free I could live with the deadbeats, but not when they are charging and still do nothing about their deadbeats.
I'd rather pay more and KNOW the rules and in my 6 years on eBay I have not had anything cancelled without warning, and/or complete explanation and refund. When I have a eBay deadbeat (which is rare for us) I do get my auction fees refunded.
posted on May 21, 2001 09:14:44 AM new
jwpc ... my sentiments exactly.
I really feel sorry for those folks who invested a lot of time and energy getting Yahoo off the ground. First they hit you with fees, and now they are doing all kinds of bizarre things to alienate you even more, including the unwarranted suspensions of loyal buyers (like me) and the stealing of money from sellers whose auctions get ended with no explanation or refund of fees.
Anyone care to guess how much longer Yahoo auctions will be around?
posted on May 21, 2001 09:42:47 AM new
RB >
I really feel sorry for those folks who invested a lot of time and energy getting Yahoo off the ground.
Agreed.
But rather than repeat the effort with a bunch of other sites, I think its makes more sense for sellers to develop their own websites from which they also sell items.
Auction sites use sellers over again to build their userbase, so why not use the auction sites to develop your own userbase by listing items on the auction sites and point successful bidders to your website.
I signed up for 100 MB web space at one of the many sites offering them; they only put a banner advertisement on the top of each page which is certainly workable.
Have had it for a month or so, I just need to get cracking on writing some HTML.
posted on May 21, 2001 08:07:58 PM new
RB, you asked about having your own website,"...but I wonder how the "main site" would be funded?"
You can buy a domain name now for $8.95/year or less (from godaddy.com); your ISP might give you free webspace with your account, which you can use to host your site (just tell your ISP to direct your domain traffic to the space), or website hosts are plentiful all over the web, free with their placement of banner ads on your homepage or nominal in cost ($7-$15/month) without ads; and there are numerous website design programs available if you can't write your own HTML. Having a small business website is MUCH LESS EXPENSIVE than it used to be.
The biggest hurdle is GETTING YOUR SITE SEEN by the public, which can be accomplished by submissions to search engines, joining web-rings or link exchanges, and advertising your site in your listings on auctions and fixed-price sites (when allowed).
Seller unhappiness with Amazon, Yahoo and eBay is nudging more and more of us into finally designing and launching that website we've been **talking** about doing for several years, but never seemed to get around to DOING.
posted on May 25, 2001 06:36:01 AM new
I check out Yahoo all the time and find that I can get a better bargain alot of the time because they dont have the traffic Ebay has. Recently I got 3 dollhouse playsets that were brand new and discontinued by a major toy manufacturer for $5.00. On ebay Ive seen the same playsets selling seperatly for $10-$15 EACH. I got me a bargain WOOHOO!
posted on May 25, 2001 08:34:16 AM new
katmommy --- GREAT, good for you! maybe smart bidders who take the time wade out of the ebay swamp and look around really CAN be rewarded!
posted on June 14, 2001 07:49:21 AM new
i noticed some of the pictures on yahoo auction are pretty poor-cheap camera and poor photography techniques.
plus high starting bid and poor description which lead me to conclude these could be new sellers.
then one started to wonder how good is the item he/she is selling if you can see the kitchen tablecloth,living room carpet or window drapes etc in the background.
then one cant help to speculate if the item may not be as described? will this seller disappear after taking your money,will he ship promptly etc etc.
there is also psychology here-the more people bid,the more you think people know something you dont know,so lets not miss the boat,lets bid on it,that happens on ebay more as there are more players.
ebay also has more large dealers with good merchandise so even if you cannot afford a tiffany lamp,a lalique vase or faberge egg,it costs nothing to look,looking is free.
so it is more entertaining on ebay,kind of like going to the best amusement park!!
some folks like the fast pace of bidding,outbidded,sniping etc (on another board under ebay,some one said cussing turned him on sexually and he does not mind being cussed at by buyers),all these fast interactive game sure turn the adrenaline gland fired up,so action begets more action,thats why night after night,folks go to ebay for that particular shot of high.
call it ebay addiction,ever try to get an addict away from the substance??
posted on June 14, 2001 10:39:25 AM new
I am trying to develop a new mentality where it comes to the free sites...basically, look at them more the way I do Amazon and half.com, less than like ebay.
When I list on the fixed prices sites, I don't make an emotional investment. If they sell at some time, great! If not, I'll relist or dump them. No heartache.
On ebay, when I don't get the bids, I'm more likely to whine "they don't like me!" which is not terribly productive.
I have a small batch on BV now but it's just too boring to check and see not even a hit on most of them. I expect to give that up soon.
I decided to give Yahoo a real shot...while the funny money lasts...and basically need to wean myself from checking all the time. I think if I become more dispassionate, I will be willing to invest the time to put up nice auctions [I purposefully listed some items that would definitely sell on ebay].
As for the buyers...Yahoo seems to have a customer base already, though how active they are, I can't tell. Still, seems lots better than BV...
