outoftheblue
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posted on May 4, 2002 09:06:03 PM new
With all of the cheap sellers, in the categories I sell in, I almost have to give stuff away to make a sale. I do get an occasional sale at a decent price but lately they are few and far between...
This is just frustrating, so what's the point in listing on Yahoo..
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bidsbids
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posted on May 4, 2002 09:24:21 PM new
I went from no deadbeats at all to a very large percentage of them, especially new & unrated ones. The sales have greatly slowed and only the regular repeat buyers that buy often seem to make it even halfway worthwhile. I do use Yahoo for items that didn't get a bid on eBay and items that I got at a very low cost or free. I list them once then they sit waiting for the next FLD.
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caffeitalia
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posted on May 4, 2002 09:57:53 PM new
Sounds like you need to find a cheaper supplier or got a different product to sell. This is not a Yahoo problem either, it is worse at the big site and the down fall of that loser site bidville.
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bidsbids
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posted on May 5, 2002 03:14:57 AM new
The days of getting cheaper sources or different items to sell are almost over. Everything is at rockbottom prices. Now the deadbeats are not making it worth the hassle of selling. It's not just Yahoo, it's all of the online auctions. At least the fixed price venues do away with the deadbeats.
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sulyn1950
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posted on May 5, 2002 07:41:00 AM new
I agree with both outoftheblue and bidsbids and have observed the same things. Decreased sales, decreased prices and an increase in non-payers!
I have agonized over giving up on Y!Auctions for the past several months.
The "unrated" buyers swarmed my auctions for awhile and I was actually surprised there were so many "new" users and it gave me hope, until the auctions closed at such low prices and the payments never came....I decided that these "newbies" were probably pranksters.
I have moved my auctions to another site. Yes, they more than likely will just sit there but I can keep in practice and I can keep a thumb on Y!'s pulse and if I see an improvement in sales/price, I can jump back over pretty easily.
I can't find a cheaper source as suggested by caffeitalia and really have no expertise in other categories. I would like to know what category/categories that he/she sells in that is doing so well. Not in order to "copy" but in order to study why it is doing so well.
I have met some wonderful people on Y! and have actually reached a point where I can email my regulars and send them pictures and they just buy from me directly. I have learned what styles they like and when I buy, I keep them in mind. I did that when I had my B&M too. I won't get rich, but I really never expected to. The auctions are really "busy" work for me more than anything else. Of course, the key word is "busy". Doesn't help much to have "busy" work if your not busy and you have to pay to not be busy! 
[ edited by sulyn1950 on May 5, 2002 09:48 AM ]
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outoftheblue
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posted on May 5, 2002 11:43:07 AM new
caffeitalia
It amazes me how you make statements like this when you don't have any facts to go on.
We purchase most of the items we sell at around 5% of original retail. That would be less than people would pay for sales tax in here in Washington State. If by chance you have cheaper sources than this, by all means share them with us....
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sulyn1950
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posted on May 5, 2002 01:08:11 PM new
I also suspect that the really big, cheap sellers, aren't paying the same thing as us small-fries to list or feature on Yahoo.
I know that Yahoo (just like eBay) actively recruit large merchant type sellers. Yes, I am sure they focus on the Yahoo Stores/Shopping, but I imagine they also look for potential merchants for their auction venue too.
I think I read somewhere they actually go to shows to do that.
When a brand new seller shows up with 6,000 items listed and a pretty pink ribbon icon behind their brand-new seller ID and they list week after week and feature week after week for a sell-through of less than 5% and a price that wouldn't even pay their feature fees, I can't help but feel they cannot possibly be paying the same thing per auction that I am. Not in actually "cash" anyway...
I wasn't at the top of my Bus 101 class, but I have been in the real world long enough to know that you can't sell without a profit indefinitely. Eventually you have to move to something else if you intend to stay afloat.
Actually, there are some corporations that seem to be "reorganizing" indefinitely but I don't consider them very "real world" 
[ edited by sulyn1950 on May 5, 2002 01:20 PM ]
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outoftheblue
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posted on May 5, 2002 01:49:54 PM new
sulyn1950
One of the sellers I'm referring to sells "NEW" clothing. She starts all of her listings for $1. As many as 50% of her items sell for less than $2, and only a few ever make it over $5. Checking closed sold listings roughly 1/2 were featured. She had 50 pages of closed auctions last time I looked.
I cannot compete with that. Having hundreds of these items listed all of the time has pretty much run prices into the ground. Several other sellers I've been following have stopped listing. I'm getting to the point where I'm considering it myself.
[ edited by outoftheblue on May 5, 2002 02:01 PM ]
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sulyn1950
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posted on May 5, 2002 02:11:03 PM new
outoftheblue-I certainly understand your feelings. There were two other sellers who sold the same line as me and we were all 3 pretty close to same price and just enough difference in the styles we offerred to keep it from being "overkill". One of the sellers started about the same time as me and actually had done better than me. Never could figure out why either and I must confess it did miff me a bit...
I was the last one to give up...the other two gave up a couple of months ago. None of us could continue to sell because in just a little over 4 months, we watched the market go from ending prices that made us a bit of a profit to closing prices that just broke us even to having our auctions close without any takers which of course lost us money. So that is 3 sellers lost from the "pool". 
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bidsbids
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posted on May 5, 2002 07:14:38 PM new
The book market dried up and the all-but-the-rarest collectibles market dried up as well. It has to be the old supply-and-demand at work. Everybody and their dog has gotten into the online auction selling game. There are far too many sellers for the number of buyers. That is why I almost wish that eBay would double or triple their fees to force a large number of sellers out of the marketplace and allow some decent selling prices again. If a seller sold on eBay four years ago they know that those were the true good old days.
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timetravelers
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posted on May 6, 2002 12:47:34 AM new
Hi guys me 2 not happy about it. just let all my expire. may post a few now & then & use the free listing days. I had such high hopes been with them for years as a 2nd site. they have not done a good job on the auctions,i wasted a lot of money & time there.without featuring forget it,& even then many get a lot of new people just playing around.too bad,the good bidders there are such nice people.
I think you hit on it! there must be subsidized sellers..you are right or they could not afford to do it.a shame i have found another site also,tiny niche site just getting off the ground but we have our freedom there compared to ebay,also no putting up with fraud etc..good plans for advertising..so i try again LOL how many times have we tried little sites but if it works out i will let you guys know about it.
good luck everyone & yes...OMG those were the good ole' days one ebay..if we had known how hard it would get i would have listed everything i have 4 YEARS AGO LOL
Ebay has had tons of site problems check the tech board..so it is not fair to compare it to yahoo right now,really with the size difference i think of them as two competely different sales outlets..yahoo used to at least make us some income,now it is costing us to list there..take care
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konyakukid2
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posted on May 6, 2002 11:56:03 AM new
what items were you selling?
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bidsbids
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posted on May 6, 2002 03:20:05 PM new
About half of the items I sell are books. When I started selling online in late '97/early '98 books were great sellers on eBay and latter on Yahoo. Now, the books that frequently realized $6 final prices and sold in a few listings, only realize about $2 and take forever to sell. Many times a book seller would get $20, $30, or $40 for an occasional book but that is a very rare occurence these days. Half.com took away much of the book selling from online auctions.
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bluroks
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posted on May 6, 2002 04:19:02 PM new
Our weekly auctions have recently died too. Used to do very well on the site for cheaper merchandise. Now after a month of reposts, we will just let them run out and just put on some stuff that does not sell for us on Ebay. Actually to be honest, our Ebay sales have picked up the last three weeks. We still will use Yahoo but no like the past. And like everyone says on here, usually real low prices so price what you want for it.
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RB
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posted on May 8, 2002 09:16:58 AM new
bids ... you hit the nail right on the head ... the novelty of on-line auctions has died.
The "problem" I am having at eBay as a buyer only is not related to the price of items being low due to the high number of sellers, but rather the good stuff just doesn't get listed there anymore. I believe the quality sellers (i.e. sellers of quality items) have simply given up trying to compete with the nickel/dimers. I don't mind paying a fair price if I can find what I want.
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bidsbids
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posted on May 8, 2002 08:01:29 PM new
There is an occassional thread on the eBay Outlook forum about flea market sellers buying items at eBay for resale at their flea markets. Things are coming full circle now.
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jake
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posted on May 10, 2002 07:19:46 AM new
There must be a lot of Yahoo sellers that still have the free credits left. I still have just under $3,000 in credit (from when they did the Ebay feedback thing), but I still don't list a whole lot. I see sellers listing at $1 or $2 and even some at .25, that's not even worth my time to sell for so little. Every couple of weeks or so I'll list 100 items, some weeks I sell 10 items, some weeks I sell only 1 item.
But it ain't just Yahoo, my Ebay sell thru is just as bad. Way too many sellers and not enough buyers to go around.
[ edited by jake on May 10, 2002 07:21 AM ]
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bidsbids
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posted on May 10, 2002 08:32:48 AM new
I went through all of my $1,000 plus free credits a while ago on Yahoo. If sellers can spend a measly nickel to list for 10 to 14 days ( with Yahoo bulk loader ) then their items probably belong on free listing fee sites.
You will see MANY $1 items on eBay as well as Yahoo because it is very easy to add 5 cents to 30 cents to the s/h costs passed onto the bidders. If I had $3000 in free listing credits at Yahoo I would use them up beause one of these days there will come an announcement that those credits will no longer be accepted.
Yahoo isn't any eBay but it is many, many times better for selling items than at the free or almost free third tier sites. It should be everyone's second selling site behind either eBay or a niche/specialty site.
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blairwitch
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posted on May 10, 2002 10:29:59 AM new
Bidsbids you are correct. Yahoo has a very high sell rate compared to sites like bidville. I continue to do well on yahoo, and hell its so darn cheap I cant go wrong. Using the uploader I can list an item for 2 weeks at a nickel each. The sell thru rate and profits on ebay are slowly going down, and the postal hikes are not going to help.
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JWPC
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posted on May 13, 2002 01:32:49 AM new
I have to admit that I started testing Yahoo again a couple of weeks ago, and I am actually pleased with the sales - nothing to write home about, and no eBay, but enough to keep me posting on Yahoo, at least for a while, BUT I don't find I move much unless I feature it, but that is fine, as even featuring an item, it comes out less than on eBay, so I'll keep e-bay #1, and use Yahoo and my niche auctions as second and third.
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bidsbids
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posted on May 13, 2002 08:10:03 AM new
It's definitely worth listing items at Yahoo at least once in a while. Everything that I have that doesn't make it at eBay goes on Yahoo. Sometimes I'll raise the minimum $1 or two at Yahoo since one bid is probably all it will ever get at Yahoo while at eBay the item had a good chance at multiple bids.
The FLDs make it really worth it as the whole inventory can be listed at no cost whatsoever other than the small FVF when an item sells.
One of the things that makes eBay the best online auction site is the thing that sellers hate the most. The listing/relisting fee. But that fee keeps all of the stuff from the junk drawer out of eBay and the prices that items are set at have to be well thought out or a seller could be throwing the listing fee away if the price is too high.
The relisting fee in 30 days if the item does not sell is a very clever way to have sellers lower their prices or else face a double-or-nothing situation in regards to the listing fee. The bidders often see a relisted item at a reduced price from its first listing price. This helps make eBay the best place for bidders to get the best price and the large amount of bidders draws more and more sellers.
How the third tier auction sites can ever hope to fight such a competitive selling situation ( many times brought into place because of the steep listing price structure ) is hard to imagine.
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afallenangel
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posted on May 15, 2002 11:22:21 AM new
I've sold one thing on Yahoo, but have bought a lot of things.
I think I'm through with them for a while. The last two sellers failed to ship what I'd bought and never returned my e-mails asking them to contact me regarding the auction. That's like a red flag for me.
Most of what I'm interested in buying has rockbottom prices, but the S&H is so exaggerated I can buy it cheaper retail.
We have signs from God because some of us are too stupid to figure things out for ourselves.
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