posted on November 6, 2001 08:48:01 AM new
Awesome. Nice catch, Blairwitch. Reducing the fees to 5 cents and fvf starting at 2% - looks really good (better than most of the folks here expected).
By the way, I just had to register my cc to post this - my days are numbered here.
Did you see the new community page too? http://auctions.yahoo.com/html/community/
posted on November 6, 2001 09:08:42 AM new
Yahoo tinkers policy on auction fees
By Troy Wolverton
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
November 6, 2001, 6:20 a.m. PT
update Yahoo is changing the way it charges for its auctions, introducing a transaction fee for the first time.
In a statement Tuesday, Yahoo executives said the change was made after consulting with the company's auction users. As part of the change, which will go into effect Nov. 20, the portal giant said it will also reduce its listing fees.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo saw its listings plunge after it began charging listing fees for its auctions in January. Many sellers complained at the time that while they were willing to share in their success on Yahoo by paying a transaction fee, the close rates on their auction did not justify the company's listing fees.
Similar to what eBay does, Yahoo will charge sellers a tiered transaction fee depending on the closing price of the item. The company will charge 2 percent of the purchase price on items that sell for up to $25.
For items that sell up to $1,000, Yahoo will charge sellers 2 percent on the first $25 and 1 percent on any amount over $25. Yahoo will charge similar fees for items more than a $1,000, adding a 0.5 percent fee for any amount over the $1,000.
Meanwhile, Yahoo is decreasing its listing fees. Currently, the company charges 20 cents to $1.50 cents per item depending on its starting price. Under the new policy, Yahoo's listing fees will range from 5 cents to 75 cents per item.
In both cases, Yahoo's fees are considerably lower than online auction leader eBay. eBay's listing fees range from 30 cents to $3.30 depending on the price of the item. And the company charges a closing value fee of up to 5 percent of the final price of an item.
posted on November 6, 2001 09:24:51 AM new
YEAH!!!!! Expect to see a lot of former eBay sellers over at the Hoo. After the CHECKOUT fiasco, this little enticement may be all they need to encourage them to make the move!
posted on November 6, 2001 09:45:01 AM new
I will list there for sure when the new fee structure kicks in. Finally they woke up and smelled the coffee! eBay fees were eating me alive and 5 cents is much better than 30 cents! I also checked out the new community and they have the right idea to begin competition with ebay. Now the biggest thing is to advertise so sellers go there. With so many people upset over checkout and AFA now was perfect timing for yahoo to do this. I can list 100 items for $5.00 instead of $30.00! YAHOOOOOOOOOOOO
posted on November 6, 2001 10:10:07 AM new
Definitely a great development in the online auction world! Why in the world didn't they listen to all of the Yahoo sellers last January and make this move then.
may be an opprotunistic shot at AW's credit card verification for message board use. In any case a message board at Yahoo Auctions is long overdo.
[ edited by bidsbids on Nov 6, 2001 10:14 AM ]
posted on November 6, 2001 10:58:21 AM new
Been to Yahoo.com today? Theyre finally advertising for Yahoo.... Oh yeah I think I too will make the move from Ebay to Yahoo...
posted on November 6, 2001 03:47:05 PM new
I never stopped listing on Yahoo ( I also list on eBay), but sales have been SOOO slow, it in not worth the listing fees, I think that a lot of buyers left because many of the sellers left, but hopefully there will now be a return to buying and selling on Yahoo. I am thrilled with the news, I have always liked Yahoo (apart from the lack of customer support)and I am looking forward to listing a lot more there after the 20th.
posted on November 6, 2001 11:17:40 PM new
The nickel is cheap if you sell items under $10, but what if you sell more expensive stuff? Stuff that takes time to find a buyer?
What is becomming more apparent to everybody is the auction format isn't the best way to sell 99% of the world's goods. For items $25 to $50 the listing fee is $.35.
Any listing fee eliminates hundreds of items I used to list on Yahoo Auctions.
What it will do is clutter the site with much stuff that is on Half.com. Prices are so low there and commissions so high (15%) that if you have a common item that sells cheap (Like a movie tape...say A FEW GOOD MEN staring Tom Cruise and Demi Moore), list it on Yahoo Auctions for $1.00 and you'll likely get $1.50 or $2.00, just like on Half.com. It will cost you $.09 total while on Half.com it will cost you $.30.
Plus you get to set your own shipping so you can gouge a few more pennies that way.
Actually, I'm all for an auction site being for auctions only...no more "buy it now" but only if there is an alternative fixed price venue for all other stuff. Warehouse Marketplace and Half.com are limited to what is in their data base (Half.com lets you create new areas, but it's too much work).
Classifieds is primitive with too few categories. And it's not well supported. What Yahoo needs to do now is redo classifieds to be a fixed price site where you list just like with Auctions, but which has no listing fee, no ending date and a FV fee. And then they need to put on the ear muffs when somebody complains about "stale merchandise". To them I say, learn to use the search engine...
posted on November 7, 2001 11:09:04 AM new
I just got to understand how Yahoo Clasified's works. Now I understand why there are Garage Sale classifications, etc.
Yahoo looks at your cookie and sees where you live. It only shows you ads for the area where you live. If you sign out are a guest, that's the only way to see them all.
Unless you go directly to classifieds and use the search engine. The search engine will return all ads that hit, but if you search all of Yahoo shopping (Auctions, Stores, Warehouse and Classifieds) , again you will only get regional hits.
At least that's the way I think it works. I stumbled on thei helping a friend in California who just placed a classified.
Anybody know anything else about this? there is still no place to park obscure items where people look (they don't look at Bidville) for free until the sell.
And from what I hear about sales on eBay, etc. the term "obscure item" is applying to most everything.
posted on November 7, 2001 07:56:55 PM new
So Auctions will be full of stuff under $10.00.
What about higher priced stuff? Say you have a widget that you need to get $40 for.
Are you going to start it at $9.99 and hope you don't have to give it away? No way...you didn't do it last year when there were buyers.
Are you going to pay $.35 to list it for $40 and do a 1st bid wins? That was the play last year with no listing fee. But you balked with the rest of us at $.35 listing fees, because you knew it likely didn't sell the 1st time around, or the 2nd, or the 3rd.
So nothing much has changed really, unless you have a video tape of Madonna you want to list for $1.00 and take what you can get for it, or risk a nickel for 10 days to see if you can get a fiver for it.
If you want to move something eBay is still the place. If yahoo ever hires somebody that can figure this out, they will increase FV fees, kill the listing fee and let all the junk back on. Then they can do a search engine tutorial so buyers don't have to wade through all the stuff they don't want to see
posted on November 7, 2001 08:40:15 PM new
auctioneers cannot dictate to seller how they should sell and at what price??
supply and demand equation determine market price and since there are so much supply,price drops.
auctioneer can subtly and indirectly affect price by influencing supply-raise listing fee to discourage low priced items.
but it does not seem to be working on ebay,a listing fee of 30 cents have not deter sellers from selling postcards for 2.95 or 1,95.
it seems to work on yahoo when it went from FREE to FEE and most of the sellers took off to epier and bidville .
so now with a nickel,yahoo does not want these sellers back,they want the ebay sellers to come ,a whopping saving of 25 cents and 3 % saving in final value fee,
WOW,ebay sellers stare at their cc statement every month and are ready to list on yahoo.
if more ebay sellers do that,yahoo will get some traffic from ebay bidders.
all the problems which plaque ebay will soon be yahoo's as well-fraud,squabbles.
posted on November 8, 2001 05:24:57 AM new
I will be increasing my items at Yahoo, i have picked up some great bidders there.
I am happy. I feel many will go ahead & do the .15 listings in mass too not just the 9.99 & under..I was surprised to see they will now refund 2nd listing fee if it sells on the relist..that is new..
also i had forgotten about this,they will refund 1/2 of enhancement fees if it sells..that could really add up..
We can link to our website there too..Plus use the auctiva showcase automatically too..lots of pluses..
good luck everyone!Thanks Yahoo glad you listened to the survey..
with the checkout fiasco there should be quite an exodus from the big place..this will be interesting to watch..
