olhickory
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posted on August 15, 2001 07:03:29 PM new
Just got this forwarded to me. A Yahoo Auctions user survey:
"Yahoo! Auctions wants to hear from you. As part of our ongoing commitment to
evaluate and improve our auctions platform, we’re conducting a user survey
to elicit feedback on our current performance and to help determine users’
needs. This is your chance to help shape the future development of Yahoo!
Auctions. The survey should take approximately 5 minutes to complete. Thank
you for your interest! Click here to participate:"
http://promo2.yahoo.com/sbin/Auctions/survey.cgi?source=a
olhickory
Ps. Sorry I didn't make it clickable.
[ edited by olhickory on Aug 15, 2001 07:06 PM ]
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stavecards
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posted on August 15, 2001 08:48:02 PM new
Just took the survey. I think all sellers need to answer this. Several questions about listing fees vs. FVF. Gives the appearance that Yahoo may be at least be giving serious consideration to some changes.
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bidsbids
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posted on August 15, 2001 09:06:43 PM new
I just did the survey. Here's what I put in the suggestion box at the end of the survey
"try a slightly higher FVF than ebay (7% maybe) with no listing fee or a nickel listing fee. Make minimum bid 99 cents to rid site of common sportscards if listing fee is reduced to 5 cents or eliminated"
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granee
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posted on August 15, 2001 09:30:23 PM new
http://promo2.yahoo.com/sbin/Auctions/survey.cgi?source=a
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sasoony
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posted on August 16, 2001 12:34:13 AM new
LOL....As if anyone at Yahoo actually reads their "surveys".
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eSeller004
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posted on August 16, 2001 05:08:44 AM new
No listing fees, adding a percentage based FVFee, minimum 99 cent listings, all sound like great ideas!
Some other ideas are:
- add a Half.com type Fixed Price section where items can be categorized by UPC/ISBN and listed indefinitely until the item sells. Yahoo could have the items automatically paid for via PayDirect and take a 15% cut like eBay does.
- if Yahoo really "needs" to generate revenues from auctions they might want to augment a FVFee with a small annual auction seller's registration fee. Institute a fee that would allow sellers to list an unlimited # of items per year for that nominal fee. It should be nominal or sellers will never go for it! We're used to paying one time annual fees for all sorts of real world services, from unlimited Internet access, to car insurance, to magazine and newspaper subscriptions, to annual dues, etc. Occasional sellers could be given the option of paying individual listing fees instead.
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eSeller004
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posted on August 16, 2001 05:30:37 AM new
Another way Yahoo could make immediate income is by charging for remote hosting of auction and store pics. How many auction/store pics are remote hosted each year? Billions???
Charge Geocities users a nominal annual fee to remote host as many auction/store pics as they want from Geocities to ANYWHERE they want including eBay (Yahoo might as well profit off of eBay's success!). Most of these picture hosting sites are going under while Yahoo is sitting there wasting the income potential in Geocities.
They could even charge a small fee per pic instead (5 cents or less!). If there are literally billions of pics each year that need to be remote hosted, even a penny per pic would amount to tens of millions in annual income. As an indirect benefit they'd also increase the # of PayDirect users since Yahoo would charge auction sellers via PayDirect.
There's a lot of simple and stupid ways Yahoo could monetize their assets and profit from auctions. 
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RB
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posted on August 16, 2001 06:42:00 AM new
I was going to fill one of these out. Just before I did that, I wanted to see if they had really taken any action to clean up their site. I did a search for "sopranos".
Looks like Yahoo is really enjoying their profit from illegal sales these days 
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atari2600
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posted on August 16, 2001 07:48:49 AM new
would .99 minimum keep all that "junk" that yahooo wanted off there?
I just filled out the survey. I hope they eliminate the listing fee. They won't, but it would be nice. Then I could go back to the auction site that I liked most.
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antiquequest
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posted on August 16, 2001 03:47:00 PM new
Personally I like yahoo just the way it is, but if they're going to start charging FVF's they need to stop the listing fee's, I won't pay both, I'll just put everything back over on ebay.
As it is now I think it pretty much even out in the long run.
Yahoo:
cheaper than ebay listing fees
no FVF
Free Gallery type listings
Free credit card processing with PayDirect
Faster to relist an item
Ebay:
High listing fees
High FVF's
Charges for Gallery listing
Charges for Billpoint
So I sell less on Yahoo, but I also pay less. When I crunch the numbers it pretty much is even.
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kcpick4u
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posted on August 16, 2001 11:28:16 PM new
I agree with antiquequest! I use the buy now
feature and I bulk load my listings which gives me 14 days as opposed to 10. In my particular category at this time no one else bulk loads listings in the category I sell. So my Buy it Now listings set alone on the last page for 4 days before they move up. Since people search the last page for Buy it Now bargains it has worked well for me.
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wedgyboy
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posted on August 17, 2001 04:07:58 PM new
Since we are sharing. I told them in the space provide to share ideas that they should:
1) Make yahoo pricing like the industry standard (not the defunct magazine - ebay) so people can compare easily, but become the low low price alternative.
2) Tap into your huge audience that is on Yahoo everyday.
3) Clarify your TOS. Make sellers want to make yahoo a success.
Am I alone in thinking that auction users will give them a fair shot if they make some big changes?
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fishinbiz
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posted on August 18, 2001 02:18:45 PM new
I just took the survey and am wondering why Yahoo is so concerned about sellers. There are so many sellers out there that sell every thing it is crazy.
Why don't they spend more time drawing in buyers. Perhaps some quality buyers. If there are buyers there will be sellers.
Who in the world wants a FVF. Their survey seemed to querry the idea. I know I like the fees right now. They are far less expensive than FeeBay. I wish Yahoo had the buyers, I would not go back to Ebay.
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bidsbids
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posted on August 18, 2001 03:57:57 PM new
Who wants a FVF? A FVF is a fee on a SOLD item. A listing fee is a fee on a listing. Half.com has 50 million items waiting to be bought and those sellers all eagerly pay a huge FVF. The only place in CyberSpace that gets away with a listing fee and a FVF is eBay because they have the traffic and advertising to pull it off. Everyone is is in the one or another boat.
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kafy4x4
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posted on August 18, 2001 04:25:44 PM new
I just took the survey. For me Yahoo is the last ditch effort for making a small profit on anything I sell, just the way it is. I don't pay a FVF, I don't pay fees for a buyer to use PayDirect, I don't pay picture hosting fees and unless I sell something very high end, I don't pay a large listing fee. All this adds up to a larger profit margin for me.
I would like to see a seperation between the sellers who specialize in a line of items, from those who sell a varity of different items. More like in the real world. If I want a $1 store item, I shop at a dollar store. If I want a rare or antique items, I shop at a second hand or antique store.
Most on line auction sites have the "watches" all mixed together. You search for a "watch" and you get all the watches from the $1 store type, right up to the antique Rolex.
I believe that it would bring back the buyers that were once the people who built this venue to what it is today. Yes, it was a yard sale in the beginning and I for one LOVED it!! Today, it is much different and more like a huge carnival of sellers nearly screaming out "come one come all!! You won't believe your eyes! It's a one of a kind! Never before seen and it's yours for only $1.00!!"
Ok, I'll stop now. Guess I'm just frustrated at the way this new medium is being so exploted by the big guys.
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justjoan
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posted on August 19, 2001 08:10:17 PM new
What good is any of there fees or changes if they don't have some catagories to list things in.
I have asked from the begining for something besides OTHER in my section. I can't get sales if people can't find me. Not about to list under other with 100000000 more others, and it's not a really big searchable item.
Catagories need to be fixed and then a fee could be reasonable.
Joan
http://www.geocities.com/justjoansetc/
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buckspage
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posted on August 21, 2001 04:54:26 PM new
I took the survey. In the "whine and gripe" section I wrote: Get rid of listing fees. Get rid of FVfees. Last year at this time you were second only to Ebay. (and catching them . Then you started charging. I suppose you noticed the sudden drop in "seller-users". Hmmm... charge fees - lose sellers.... There seems to be a connection there somewhere.. would you agree?
Why did y'all shoot yourselves in the foot?"
Any way...
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eSeller004
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posted on August 22, 2001 05:37:10 AM new
Wall Street is demanding that Yahoo and every other dotcom increase revenue and income. There's no way Yahoo is going to eliminate all fees for auctions as advertising revenue isn't going to cut it any more. However, Yahoo does have some of the best Ads on the Net (especially the vertical banners that you can't miss and the ads wrapped within news articles). You also can't scroll past Yahoo advertising any longer.
Yahoo either increases revenue and income from auctions or they're going to have to give it up like Amazon seems to be doing. Listing fees may remain, or they'll be replaced by FVFs, but no way they'll go back to being totally free. Free listings and FVFs seem to be working for Half.com and BargainandHaggle, so why not for Yahoo? Now, if Yahoo institutes both a listing and FVF, then that will be the death of the site!
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sulyn1950
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posted on August 23, 2001 08:59:28 AM new
I think it's important to note that the survey asked if you would prefer a "reduced" listing fee AND an added FVF! It really didn't infer it would be one or the other. My fear is they will drop the listing fees marginally, add a FVF and say that's what the community wanted based on their survey!
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eSeller004
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posted on August 23, 2001 09:18:32 AM new
A 10 cent fee for ALL listings and a 5% FVF like Amazon would work IMO. Unlike Amazon if they'd promote the site relentlessly, listings (need a massive selection to keep people coming back), sell-thru, revenues and profits (for both sellers and Yahoo) would rise. I'd have listed everything I have on Amazon if they promoted the site! For example it'd only be $10 to list 100 items. Compare that to how eBay gouges sellers! The 5% FVF doesn't matter as you'd pay that to eBay if your item sold, so why not pay that to Yahoo if it sells there instead, and with LESS upfront risk (10 cent to list the item).
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outoftheblue
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posted on August 23, 2001 10:04:35 AM new
>>"My fear is they will drop the listing fees marginally, add a FVF and say that's what the community wanted based on their survey!"<<
That's exactly what would happen, and if it does, I'm out of here for good!
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