posted on March 13, 2002 11:16:46 AM new
Last night I had an auction end without any bids. I decided to resubmit it while FLD was still going. Normally I don't resubmit an item for at least 1 month.
I was given the option of listing it in the newest showcase "Biggest Sale In Internet History". It has it's own homepage with sidebar links to Yahoo shopping. There is a link at the top of the Auctions homepage and on Yahoo's main homepage. Last night it wasn't there. I paniced after I listed it and then couldn't find anyway to get to the auctions except by clicking on this little sale tag icon behind my title. I found that by accident. I emailed Yahoo last night asking how anyone was going to find these auctions but haven't gotten a response. About an hour ago, I noticed the links on the homepages.
This sale will run for 3 days and it cost me 25cents per day. I miss-read it and thought I could only run the auction for 3 days so that's what I did, but I have noticed auctions that aren't due to close for 10. Last night when I listed there were only 49 items. Today at NOON CST there were 212. I was concerned because starting at 1$ NR and only 3 days is scarey. I have never used a showcase because there are no categories and my items are "browsers".
Already today I have 743 views and 11 BIDS!!!!
I can't believe this. The price is already close to where my start was on the original auction that closed with no bids.
I can't tell that it has helped out on getting me views on any of my other auctions, which is a bit disappointing, but maybe that will improve tonight. I still have auctions posted yesterday that have 0 page views and I simply cannot afford to feature them all.
I'll hold my breath for a couple of days....
Anyone else using this showcase? What about past showcases? Did they seem to be successful?
[ edited by sulyn1950 on Mar 13, 2002 12:01 PM ]
posted on March 13, 2002 01:11:40 PM new
It's a great feature, glad you're having such great fortune. The may extend the $1 showcase, if they do you'll get a free ride in the showcase.
dendude
posted on March 13, 2002 02:53:21 PM new
Thanks walhalla! I now have almost 1000 views just since posting this! I have 13 bids from 7 unique bidders. They don't seem to be using proxy bidding. I can't believe with that many views the bids aren't any higher. Of course, this item sat for 10 days with about 30 views only and NO BIDS so I'll take what I can get!
I also had one of my FLD auctions close this AM with a BUY NOW and was doing a happy dance until the buyer emailed me that she has no idea how she did that, she sure didn't mean to, and could I please cancel her bid because she can't afford it. She said she was being honest so that I can sell it to someone else and not "lose any money". Apparently she does not understand that the BUY NOW ended this auction and to get my money back from Yahoo I'll have to wait for the link to appear and then wait some more for the "acceleration" and then wait some more before I get this auction freed up!
I sure wish there was a way to simply cancel this bid, have the auction reinstated and not lose anything. It was suppose to run 10 days for FREE, I got about 12 hours only!
posted on March 13, 2002 03:18:42 PM new
I just noticed (I can be a bit sloooow) that there is a drop down box at the top that lets you choose the category you want to look at and it brings up all the showcase items in that category!!!!
Is this something new or do all showcases do that? I have never listed in a showcase because I thought my item would just get lost in the ocean of "this-and-that".
posted on March 13, 2002 04:09:15 PM newkatmommy-To be honest, I'm not sure how it is usually done...this time I was doing a re-submit and on the page where you edit the info, change the price or whatever, there was an "xtra" box that said I could showcase the item in this sale for $.25 a day. The sale would run 3 days and I thought that meant I had to run my auction for only 3 days! Since last night, I have discovered that I could have listed it for my usual 10 and even it the sale ends 3/15/02 (I guess that means their extra links and advertising ends) the item would still run my full 10 days. The difference being it would just appear in it's regular category and not have the special attention.
I had to check a box indicating I wanted to do that.
I think that you have to launch from Yahoo to have the showcase option show up at listing time. I normally use the Seller's Manager and it does not have showcase as an option. From my SM program I can choose to highlight, feature or use a gift icon, but when you use the "gift icon" menue, showcase is not there. Maybe it'll be added sometime in the near future???
I don't know if you can "add" an auction to the showcase after it's launched or not.
I also know that just starting it at a $1.00 does not get you in the showcase. I currently have several more $1NRs going and they are NOT in the showcase.Sure wish they were.....
posted on March 13, 2002 05:57:06 PM new
I've never noticed the drop down box until this showcase and I like it. The last 99¢ showcase yahoo did went very well & this one is probably doing better for me.
Once before they extended the 99¢ showcase and everyone that paid for say 3 days but ran it for 10 got the benefit of 7 extra days in the showcase. The last time I thought they'd do the same thing but they did not. So it's anyones guess.
It's still not too late to run a few more and since the listing only costs 5¢ plus showcase the listing fee is not the expensive part.
dendude
posted on March 15, 2002 08:50:39 AM new
My showcase item is due to close in about 12 hours. It has received an unbelievable 1972 views so far! It is on 12 watchlists and has 21bids. The current price is nothing to brag about.
I had hoped when I saw how many views it was receiving within the hour of listing that it would help my other auctions. It has not.
I am running yet another "experiment" where I listed some $1NR and featured them, put one in this showcase and then didn't feature any of my regular priced items. I have included a link inside my ads so that all my auctions could be viewed quickly in "photo only" mode with a little self-serving promo about my $1NR auctions. I even tried a little humor which maybe has come off sounding tacky not humorous. I guess I'm not ready for "Comedy Central".
I am most disappointed in the results so far. On the showcased auction I have that unbelievable total of views but only a "so-so" current price. On my other $1NR auctions (which I paid a premium to feature) I have views in the 50-60 range with bids on all of them, but verrrrry low prices. On the majority of my auctions which I did not feature I have an average of only 8 views per auction, only a couple are on watchlists and none have bids.
What to make of all of this????? I need to find a new "hobby"....this 'ain't working!
posted on March 15, 2002 10:58:45 AM new
No matter what, Yahoo has only a tiny percentage of the traffic and bidding activity of ebay. There is money to be made there but not mountains of money. Sellers have to adjust to Yahoo and the low traffic. Personally, I'd never spend a cent featuring items.
