posted on June 4, 2000 11:16:39 PM new
I'm making a major move from eBay to Yahoo! but I've got about 6 items for bid and after nearly a week, not one bid. Most of the items have gotten about 30 page views, but no bids. Do Yahoo-ers generally wait until the last minute or....in reality, is eBay the only game in town? I'm beginning to think so.
posted on June 5, 2000 12:06:16 AM new
A lot of sellers understand Yahoo is more laid back so they don't panic at running their ads repeatedly. Because Yahoo is free most don't mind if it takes months to sell. I'm a bit too impatient so I tend to move items to eBay after 3 weeks, I find it worth the fees to move stuff faster.
I've heard a lot of success stories from using the "buy price" and noting in your title "1st bid wins". Set the miniumum you will take allowing your desired profit and use that for the opening AND buy price. You can change the opening & add the buy price when you resubmit, it can't hurt to try.
You could also check the competition to see if they are opening lower than you. If you have no feedback then invite bidders to check your eBay rating for trustworthiness. Try a gimmick like discount shipping or free gift with purchase. It's hard to say what might work, just try different things weekly. When you find what works best, come back here and share it
posted on June 7, 2000 12:29:03 AM new
I've been noticing good page-view numbers on Yahoo lately with little or no bidding. There is also a very, very high percentage of auctions closing on EBAY right now with little or no bidding.
Total bidding and buying has been going downhill for months on the auctions, and we're now in the yearly "summer slump" when no one buys much of anything (except vacations).
Because Yahoo has a "watchlist" feature for bidders to keep up with auctions that interest them, most bidding seems to come on the last day. You can pull up a seller's current listings, find no bids on anything, and wonder how they have 20 feedback for the last 7 days. It's because the bidding all came close to the end of the auctions, or the "buy price" ended their auctions as soon as someone bid.
Unfortunately, on Yahoo you can't do searches on anything completed, so you can't pull up a seller's history to see how well they've sold on the auction in the last month, or look up recent sales results for an item you're listing. You'll have to search on other auctions for that.
If you want to know how well certain items sell on Yahoo, you have to put them on your watchlist while the auctions are open, and look on your watchlist after they close to see the final prices.
If ebay keeps making sellers mad (which they have a true talent for), it will never be the only game in town. I just hope the rumors about Yahoo and ebay merging aren't true--if they are, we'll ALL have to find another auction.
posted on June 7, 2000 08:01:18 AM new
The bottom line is that you will not get as much traffic as eBay. Sure selected items might sell better in Yahoo because of less competition but generally you will hardly see multiple bids unless you start your auction at a really low price.
However, since Yahoo is free why not simply list your item at a price that you are happy with. That way, the 1st bid you get is all you need. That's what I do anyway. I have over 300+ auctions running repeatedly & since I am selling items that I have multiple copies, I simply relist an item as soon as it gets bought.
posted on June 23, 2000 12:22:43 AM new
This idea of waiting around patiently for items to sell on yahoo (relisting, relisting, relisting) is ok for someone who is just trying to make a buck or two, but for a career seller it's not going to work. I cant pay the bills if it takes months to sell my items. Ebay, unfortunately, IS the only game in town for serious sellers.
posted on June 23, 2000 10:16:30 PM new
It also depends on if what you're selling is in demand. I have had to relist stuff for months and months before it sells.
If you have quarters valued at $0.26 it might take awhile. If you have Conan or Vampirella #1s they MIGHT sell right away.
Sock Puppets might take awhile to sell and Beanie Babies might sell right away. It depends on what the lemmings want!
eGreed blows and Yahoo rules. Be patient relist relist relist. Got anything to lose doing this on Yahoo?
posted on June 24, 2000 12:08:03 AM new
Feistyone,
You stated, "This idea of waiting around patiently for items to sell on yahoo (relisting, relisting, relisting) is ok for someone who is just trying to make a buck or two, but for a career seller it's not going to work....Ebay, unfortunately, IS the only game in town for serious sellers."
There you go again, speaking for EVERYONE ELSE when you can ONLY speak for YOURSELF. (Another ebay "cheerleader".)
You don't KNOW that other Yahoo sellers are "just making a buck or two", or that they're NOT "career sellers" or "serious sellers". You ONLY know how YOUR items have sold on Yahoo in YOUR listings, and you have absolutely NO IDEA how well anyone else on Yahoo is selling their merchandise, both in quantity and price level. So quit making blanket statements about Yahoo sales "in general".
There are many of us who have listed on BOTH auctions, and many who left ebay altogether after finding a better "niche" and more profits on Yahoo. Don't try to tell THEM where to sell.
Since no one is FORCING you to list anything on "totally free" Yahoo, just quit listing there if you can't sell anything. It's your decision. But don't DO IT then complain about it.
If you're so enamored with ebay, go sing their praises on an ebay board, and quit bashing Yahoo over here.
posted on June 24, 2000 11:05:23 AM new
It seems that some people are taking this all too seriously.
We use ebay in the way that best benefits us.
We use yahoo and do get bids there, however, right now ebay does give us the better return and we cannot afford to sit on stuff. There are two of us in this operation and one sees my sister making only about $100. per month on yahoo and worries, so sticks with ebay. The other has faith in the long run and thinks yahoo may just work out. If you have been having great success on yahoo, let us know. I would like to see that someone is making a goodly amount of money on yahoo to prove it can work.
Just because someone hates ebay (yes, they are greedy), doesn't mean that they should slam someone who chooses to use it. There are several auction sites out there that have their good and bad points and each person needs to use one or many of them in the way that works best for them and the items they sell.
By the way, the buy price is a godsend. We don't use it as a first bid wins, but we do use it and about 40% of our yahoo auctions that sell are won by someone bidding the buy price.
And patience is good, I just sold something that has been cycling through yahoo for about 6 months now.
half of the feistyone
[ edited by feistyone on Jun 24, 2000 11:07 AM ]
posted on June 24, 2000 03:25:02 PM new
Is your Userid on Yahoo! also "petpost"? Over the past few months, pets.com put out about a dozen $15-off any order, exclusively of shipping. I only know of one of these coupon codes that was offered directly by Yahoo!, but yikes, alotta netizens used allota those $15 coupons, there was no limitations to the quantity any single individual could use.
So, uhmmmm, if perchance, you are selling pet-stuff, uhmmm, I think alotta netizens are very well stocked up with pet supplies for quite some long time...
