posted on November 20, 2001 03:16:12 PM new
Decided to list there, and finally sold something - cool! I hope it catches on, I like it more than Amazon or Half
posted on November 20, 2001 03:40:31 PM new
congratulations.lets hope warehouse,auction,shops and classified draw holiday traffic.
unlike ebay ,you cannot go from ebay auction to ebay stores easily
posted on November 21, 2001 05:12:41 AM new
GOOD FOR YOU, haven't tried warehouse yet..
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yes yahoo stores seem to be kind of separate but have you seen YAHOO SEARCH ENGINE? has links to auction stuff & their other outlets.then you go to one & there are links with pics wow..to yahoo stores, warehouse auctions etc..gee no wonder those stores do well..
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In fact the link to auctions even has a description match link ...this is really fantastic..
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I am not talking about the AUCTIONS SEARCH i mean the big yahoo search engine..
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try it type in an item..& click around..this is amazing.. this makes ebays new search look like a joke..good luck
[ edited by timetravelers on Nov 21, 2001 05:14 AM ]
posted on November 21, 2001 07:13:31 AM new
google search is good for yahoo merchants also.
when yahoo said they can challenge ebay big time,they mean it??
yahoo will be collecting 4% from yahoo shops for every order coming thru yahoo shopping network
posted on November 21, 2001 08:50:20 AM new
ahc3, what did you sell on Yahoo Warehouse?
I sold a couple books there.
A friend was over at our house the other night and casually mentioned the price of some computer software he found on Yahoo Warehouse! He didn't know I was selling there. I was encouraged to hear about buyers searching and buying there.
posted on November 21, 2001 09:38:29 AM new
I'm selling a cd or two every day for the past week. It's working great, and it needs more listings If you are selling on HALF, list on Warehouse too. The commissions are better for sellers on Yahoo! as it's only 10% on Warehouse. HALF takes 15%.
Yahoo! is getting very seller friendly with the changes in auctions, and now the warehouse site....Support them.
wb
posted on November 21, 2001 10:21:00 AM new
I've sold 4 items there now at prices much nicer than similar items sold in same condtion at Half.com. ( Has every book there worked it's way down to $1.29 or less? ) Geesh!
The other day I noticed that the abe bookseller that gone from a "new" feedback rating to a (0). I clicked on the (0) and there were 4 very bad negatives offset by 4 positives.
posted on November 22, 2001 10:20:38 PM new
I've got books, cd's and videos listed there. What sold was a law school book! Buyer wanted it priority mail, guess it was needed for this semester.
posted on November 23, 2001 07:15:05 AM new
on ebay board,someone was complaining there are more and more 75 cents books on half.com.
amzn has books listed at one penny.
posted on November 23, 2001 10:14:07 AM new
It's true, it has become pointless to post there. On half, there are many items listed UNDER 75 cents, it was not until things got to crazy levels that they instiuted a 75 cent minimum. There is a large amount of inventory that even if you were crazy enough to list for 75 cents, there is someone out there selling for 23 cents and you can not match them.
I don't get Amazon at all. Since they take $1 and a percentage, who in their right mind would list something for 75 cents. Do you have to give a credit card to sell so they can charge you for selling your own book?? (I am kidding, I know they credit you for the postage, but I still don't get it)
posted on November 24, 2001 06:44:58 AM new
there is a big discussion on amzn site message board on why people sell books for one penny,not 75 cents.
-if it is a print shop reject paperback picked up free.you can make money from shipping,1.00 on the average if you can find any enevelope to put it in.
one dollar is better than no dollar at all.
-lonely people who is selling own stock,craves email contact with outside world.
it is more exciting and cheaper than long distance phone call.
-some buy books on pellete or by the yard,claims every book sold is saving on storage,sold enough to make a profit.
it is really up to amzn,ebay ,yahoo to decide if they can pay their bills collecting commission on such books.
posted on November 24, 2001 07:09:28 AM new
I've heard two other reasons why sellers let the books ( or other items ) go a super low prices:
To build up their low feedback rating or to simply get rid of the item to regain the space it takes up in their home or wherever. Isn't giving the item to the Goodwill good enough on the later reason?
posted on November 24, 2001 08:34:55 AM new
I'm still a warehouse virgin, waiting patiently for that first sale.
I list on halfdot, and hate to see all those books going so cheap, but I don't let that deter me from using common sense in my pricing. The lowest priced book I have listed is .99 and that's because the condition of the book warrants it. I price mid-level, and have had brisk sales this month. Two of them were titles that had a dozen others listed at under .75 and mine sold for over three bucks, so I believe there are folks out there who still adhere to the 'you get what you pay for' mindset and will bypass the penny books and search for quality and value.
posted on November 24, 2001 01:46:18 PM new
i sell nice books on antiques and collectibles,i cannot afford to give them away and i see no reason to do so.
my competitor is not doing it either,if they do,we will buy them.
posted on November 26, 2001 11:54:26 PM new
I was out of town most of this year until 3 weeks ago. I parked all 2000 of my items on Bidville all year and made about a dozen sales.
3 weeks ago I started listing on Yahoo Warehouse. I was checking prices on Half.com and Amazon Marketplace while listing, to be competitive, and put some items at each of those 2 places as well. I slowly came to the conclusion, that if you want to sell books, Amazon is the place. With their 15% bite PLUS $1 a book, you can't afford to place cheap books there, but books move best on Amazon.
I also learned that generally speaking, the Yahoo crowd doesn't read. Put Video's & Music Cd's there. And Half.com, despite their 15% bite, is the best place for games. Plus you can put things there that are not in their data base. You simply make a new listing. Even old games like Nintendo, which are not allowed in the Video games listing (no new entries allowed that are not in that database), are flourishing in the Electronics/Vintage Video Game Machine section, where new item creation is allowed. Although they don't belong there, Halfdot allows it, as thousands are sold.
Of course it you can sell an item at auction for your price the 1st or 2nd time, that is the way to go as it's much cheaper. But with 100,000,000 listings, sellers have learned it's often best to park an item on Halfdot, wait for a sale, and pay the 15%.
So with 700 listings on Yahoo Warehouse in 3 weeks I've sold 20 items. On Halfdot, with 500 listings, I've sold 43 items the past 7 days (just got started there in a big way), and on Amazon Marketplace where I just list books over $15, I made 27 sales with 300 listings in the past 2 weeks.
I have about 40 items listed on ePay, and the sell thru rate is high, but I mostly choose things I know are going to get action for them. On Yahoo Auctions, I list a few items I know will sell at X-mas and sell them 1st bid wins. I also listed all the video tapes that were not in Halfdot's or Warehouse's database. I've made 13 sales there this month and have 140 listings. Sales seem to be slower than this time last year on Yahoo auctions. By the way, I still have free money credits I'm using on Yahoo Auctions. I would have much less listed if I was using real money.
Which brings up a point I've made since Yahoo started Listing fees last year: There is still a niche of goods, that do not sell well, but do have buyers, which are still not economically listed anywhere. These items need free listing fees and a FV fee and nobody seems to want this niche. Bidvill just isn't making it, though I'm still trying for them. I enclose a packing slip with all my shipments which points to my listings on Bidville. But the fact is, Bidville is dead. I intend to use it in the future for just one type of item that sells well with a group of regulars I have. It's easier for me than having a web site, and who knows, I may someday get a new customer thru them.
Another thing about Yahoo: I still get a cold feeling in my heart about that company. It's just so unfriendly. Today they cancelled a video tape I had listed and sent me a nasty letter. It was not NEIGHBORHOOD WATCHed. I guess it was something the computer picked up. It was a video tape of a rock & Roll band shot in South America. It had a professional Label on it with cover art, and it claimed the tape was not available in stores. I got it at a thrift store.
Fine. I didn't mind getting the item cancelled. But later when I listed a new auction, I was given a couple of new links before I could list. I was told if I made another TOS infraction, I could be expelled, and was forced to say I had read the TOS (link provided) to continue. Well, I did not re-read the TOS and neither have those people answering the feedback.
I have a 1500 rating on Yahoo auctions (and a NEW rating on Yahoo Warehouse, even though I've sold 20 items there as long ago as 3 weeks). I dare say I do a far better job at my end than Yahoo does at theirs, and I make far fewer mistakes. At this time last year I was pointing out how to find thousands of bootleg Playstation 2 listings with one search, so I guess Yahoo has come full circle on the piracy thing. I just can't understand why they are so threatening and so impersonal. I wrote them a letter and told them so, so who knows, I may lose my account in a few days (it still takes them that long to answer), but so be it. Like I told them (yea, I was talking to the wall), Yahoo is a very distant 3rd in the online sales business, and I really don't see them improving, so I don't care. And the new fee structure for auctions is worse than the old one, unless your item is under $10. (so you can do 1st bid wins for a nickel listing fee) All they have done is attract cheap common items. So what. Those items are mostly already parked on ePay and Half.com.
So rather than rag on me without checking my history why doesn't Yahoo improve the site? There are strict rules about how soon one must ship on the Warehouse, so where is the Vacation Button? When I leave town for X-mas, if there isn't a vacation button, I will not violate TOS and keep my listings active while I'm away. I swear I will delete all my 700 items (actually I moved 100 books away from there today...all 600 items) and I will NOT re-enter them in the system if I do.
posted on November 27, 2001 09:55:32 AM new
Update on Warehouse feedback. I had an idea this might happen. It seems Yahoo puts no pressure on buyers to leave feedback, so as of yesterday I had no feedback.
Today I got a negative from a diusgruntled buyer so I now have a -1, and another warning of expulsion from the Yahoo bots.
Excuse me, but shouldn't I get an automatic + for every sale completed without getting a negative? I should be a +19.
And I have no email addy for the displeased buyer, and they really aren't displeased enough to complain to Yahoo. It was a $5 Cdrom game in the jewel case. They claimed the package wad damaged (but evidently not the Cd...maybe the $.10 jewel case got cracked in transit?) and then announced they would never shop Yahoo Warehouse again, all because of me.
We've all had this type of buyer on the auctions side, but my point is to show how primitive the Yahoo Warehouse is, so far.
posted on November 27, 2001 10:11:38 AM new
Nice post xyz or whatever the name was. I learned a lot from it.
I think Yahoo is going after Half's near monopoly of low end items in a big way. There may not be big individual sales but 10% of a lot of small sales adds up quick. There was absolutely no alternative to Half either for sellers or buyers till now. God, I hated to see ebay steamroller along without anybody offering any form of resistance whatsoever. Nine months ago I begged on the Bidville forums for a seperate Half.com section to be set up to offer an alternative for sellers to use to sell their wharehouse items. The owner of that site has to be the biggest moron in the world and I can easily see why he dropped out of med school.
[ edited by jimtaxi on Nov 27, 2001 12:13 PM ]
posted on November 27, 2001 10:29:17 AM new
I think Yahoo is going after Half's near monopoly of low end items in a big way. --------------
What big way is that? So far it's a half-assed system with few buyers. There is only a 5% difference in commission, which doesn't mean anything if things don't move fast. Remember yahoo was a distant 2nd in auctions at this time lat year with much slower sell-thru...and they were free
====================
There was absolutely no alternative to Half either for sellers or buyers till now.
--------------
The whole concept of warehouse selling was being done in auctions with the '1st Bid WINS' approach. What makes it work is to set your minimum bid at the sale price, but that get's expensive the higher the price of the item is. That's why the new Yahoo Auction fees are worse than the old fees, if you're item is over $10. With a low sell-thru, it doesn't pay to pay a high listing fee and it is suicide to start a Yahoo auction at $9.99 for a item worth much more than that.
posted on November 27, 2001 12:17:37 PM new
It will take a while for Yahoo to get it's buyers back. We watched the Star Wars movie on Fox Sunday night and there was 2 Yahoo commercials during the movie. That must have been expensive.
posted on November 27, 2001 12:56:58 PM new
I don't know if anyone else has had this happen, but I have seen such a drastic reduction in views (how can anything sell if nobody is even looking) as to have me wondering what's going on???? I have 10 day auctions closing with as few as 3 views!!! To add insult to injury, that's with featuring!!! That has never happened to me before. I have never had trouble getting "views"...it's just the "selling" I have had a problem with!
Where are all the "holiday" shoppers????? Could they be leaving the auctions via the liniks at the top and bottom of each page directing them to "shopping" or "classified"? Warehouse isn't a problem for me (yet) because my category can't list in the warehouse.
I don't think I am being totally paranoid here, because several of the really large seller's in my categories have a noticeable drop in number of auctions with bids. The "high prices" showing on those with bids is sitting under $25 average. This is not good!!!!!
posted on November 27, 2001 10:35:41 PM new
When I got my -1 rating on Yahoo warehouse, followed by a warning from the Yahoo bots, I wrote this email to customer service, mainly to see if anything had changed at Yahoo since last year:
========================
>You have been rated Bad by (name-deleted)
>This lowers your rating to -1
>
> Warning: You now have a negative rating. A rating of (-3) negative
three may result in your account being cancelled.
>
>The comment was:
> Package came in dammaged, Product old and dammaged books and manual
dammaged. Poor packing , no pride. Will never shop Yahoo Warehouse
again!
=======================
My email to Yahoo said this:
"I have shipped 20 items so far on Yahoo Warehouse. Where are the 19
good ratings?
Also, how do I make things right with this buyer? I don't know who he
is, what he bought, or his email addy."
So here is Yahoo's answer for any newbies enjoyment who haven't yet received a form letter that addresses someone else's question:
"Hello,
Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Warehouse.
Yahoo! strives to ensure a positive experience for all Warehouse
participants. Buyers will not receive ratings from sellers on Yahoo!
Warehouse, only the sellers will be rated.
For more information regarding Yahoo! Warehouse Ratings, please visit:
ttp://help.yahoo.com/help/us/warehouse/buy/buy-03.html
Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.
But that is just the 1st part of the story. Last week, I sold something on Yahoo warehouse, and then "confirmed" the sale with a mouse click. I grabbed the box to wrap it and ship it, but looking inside, the Cdrom was missing. So I looked around, couldn't find it, then realized I could not contact the buyer other than send him a letter snail-mail. Looking on the Warehouse site for some way to undo the confirmation, there was nothing, and nothing in the help file about what to do next.
So I emailed customer service with the particulars of the item, and asked them what I should do about it? Later I began to think that it was going to be several days before I could expect an answer, and that the answer would no doubt be a form letter answering someone else's question, and that the buyer would be waiting for his game to arrive not realizing that it would be most likely a week before he learned he wasn;'t going to get it.
So I went to the Best Buy and bought a new one for $20 more than I sold my used one for on the Warehouse, and shipped it to the buyer.
So what do you think happened next? Right. I got a reply from Yahoo today, just about when I expected, but instead of a form letter, I got a pesonal reply that they had cancelled my sale for me.
Can you believe that? The 1st time ever somebody at Yahoo did their job simply and accurately, and now I've had to reply to please un-cancel my sale as it was on again.
Is this Murphy's Law at work, or some sinister plot at Yahoo to always act against the seller's best wishes?
posted on November 28, 2001 03:49:28 AM new
HEY zz just want to say i respect you very much for buying that cd & sending it to the person. i now go & physically check each item before i hit relist LOL freaked myself out i had a bid on something i thought i may have sold at my yard sale..not it was here but whew..
i just feel bad all that happened to you..many are complaining about exactly what you mentioned the robot email..i am kind of disappointed doesn't look like they did one thing at yahoo to prepare for the new sellers..
i have never seen it that slow there..& i do better than most i have checked..good luck
