posted on October 18, 2001 11:35:02 AM new
We all wanted a FVF and no listing fees on the auction, not a Half.com clone.
Anyone want to wager the special storefront bookseller congolmerate on BV with almost 300,000 books will jump ship and move the entire inventory to the new Yahoo wharehouse?
posted on October 18, 2001 12:17:32 PM new
Actually, not all of us wanted to drop the listing fees and just go to a FVF. Although drastic, I am beginning to think that Yahoo may have made the right move in putting listing fees on auctions. It sure did clear out the clutter and a lot of lowball price sellers. I have been very satisfied with my own sales improvement since the implementation of fees.
If you really think about it, the Warehouse is probably what everyone is wanting once you can sell any item on it. No listing fees, FVF, and no need to relist. If you don't want to pay the $0.20 listing fee, it is usually because your item is low cost (mainly $1 and under) or you don't think your item will sell without several relists. In those cases, you really are just looking for one buyer which is the same thing as fixed price selling.
posted on October 18, 2001 01:15:12 PM new
How the $#@*$ can they call this an auction chat? This was just an announcement for a new program for certain types of sellers.
Very disappointed with this. Looks like the same people that did the January chat and implemented the listing fees are still in charge and still clueless as to what the auction sellers want.
posted on October 18, 2001 02:45:34 PM new
I agree Roy, they really could have posted the announcement with the details, but they haven't changed. The trouble with [email protected] opps...I mean warehouse is that it is a clone. No
"thinking outside the box" here. And as a result, the market share of Buyers are already using half.com
Don't get me wrong, I plan to place inventory at the warehouse when it opens. Of course, the incentive to Sellers is a better than 15% cut, though actual percentage still hasn't been given.
But getting Buyers there should be more than their portal theory! If they are in a "copy cat" mode of operating, they should also offer a first time $5.00 coupon to Buyers just like half.com
posted on October 18, 2001 03:41:12 PM new
Did people even bother to read what Yahoo said in the Chat transcript? How many ways do they have to say Warehouse isn't Yahoo auctions and they're still deciding how to change the fee structure at the SEPARATE auction venue??
[had to delete text from the Chat transcript per AuctionWatch rules, but if you'll just read the transcript, what Yahoo says about planning to make changes to their Auction pricing is clear. You can't expect them to overhaul everything in a day! ]
Yahoo says their main goals are:
1) Driving more traffic to Yahoo! Auctions
2) Creating new selling platforms - that's what Yahoo! Warehouse is, a NEW selling platform, TOTALLY SEPARATE from Auctions.
and
3) users want them to review their Auction fee structure and they're working hard on that priority as well...
posted on October 18, 2001 03:56:53 PM new
Yahoo plans to eventually allow other categories of items besides Books, Music, Computers and Electronics, possibly like Half.com has recently done with the Everything Else category.
Can't post the exact verbage from the Chat transcript per Auctionwatch rules, but if you read it you'll see what Yahoo says.
Amazon copied Half.com and now seems to have better sell-through than Half in Books, and Videos, and at much better prices. Yahoo will probably do the same and will have the advantage of arguably the most popular Shopping Search feature on the Web.
[edited to remove Chat transcript text]
[ edited by eSeller004 on Oct 19, 2001 04:50 AM ]
posted on October 18, 2001 07:28:21 PM new
stavecards,
I always enjoy reading your posts as they are always very insightful. If you wouldn't mind my asking, are they sell-through rates you've mentioned in prior posts striclty on items posted one time? I've followed your closed auctions and the % that close with bids doesn't seem to match. Just curious as someone starting out on Yahoo (and who likes your approach if you don't mind me saying).
Thanks for the compliment. When I have mentioned sell-through rates, I am always talking about a one time listing of each auction lot.
If you are looking at my recent sales, the sell-through is down signficantly. Like many, I have experienced a slowdown in sales since September 11th. But a greater effect is that I have listed a signficant number of cards of several players which I consider slow sellers. In the past several months, I have occasionally listed other cards and lots that I previously considered too slow to list on Yahoo. I was surprised at the success of several of these, so I decided to try a large amount of "slow" cards as a test since I have been reorganizing my auction lots on Bidville and decided to list a bunch of these cards once on Yahoo. Unfortunately these have not gone as well and I will not be relisting a lot of these. Also I need to pick up a good supply of 2001 inserts. I have noticed that the current year is the main demand during the season and the past years do better in the off-season.
If I can offer any advice starting out, I would say that you need to experiment with different type of items to find what does well for you. This may be a little expensive initially, but the knowledge that you gain should pay off.
[ edited by stavecards on Oct 18, 2001 08:29 PM ]
posted on October 18, 2001 09:40:38 PM new
nice work eseller004.
I'm seeing too much of people hearing what they want to hear, and not what people are saying. Good things are starting to happen here, finally. Let's see how it goes. I'm supportive and willing to see what they come up with.
wb
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