posted on August 10, 2000 07:42:02 AM new
How do you go about setting up your auction with 1st bid wins? I am new with yahoo, been using greedybay and well just sick and tried of thier outages and policies, had to make the change for better or worse! Seems like the first bid wins thing works for alot of you, thanks for your help
YAHOOOOOOO !!
posted on August 10, 2000 08:40:47 AM new
When completing the listing form you will come to a box near the end of the form titled "buy price" (just above the starting time).
Enter an amount in this box equal to the amount of your opening bid.
Your posted listing will then show, highlighted in yellow, that there is a "buy price" in your offer for that amount.
Anyone bidding will automatically activate this YAHOO feature, the auction will close and emails will be sent just like with the close of any auction having a bid at or above opening/reserve price.
To see how others are featuring this approach enter, Bid Wins, in search and it will pull up the listings where 1st Bid, First Bid, One Bid etc. are being used.
I've choosen to add a paragraph at the beginning of each description, that explains how it works which ends with, YOU BID - YOU WIN - NO WAITING.
Others use different approaches. All my ideas are borrowed from other users and I keep reviewing the listings to find better ideas.
This is a work in progress. I'm averaging 8 page views before completed sales. I also have some stuff that has sat for weeks/months and even with lowered prices and dozens of hits has not sold.
Not a magic bullet. Just a good idea that has it's place. Better to be doing anything positive than spinning in the frustration of eBay's recent performance.
I'm planning on using this approach with new items during the holiday season. Many people seem to like the ability to complete the buying phase and move on rather than wait for auctions to end and possibly being outbid.
Coupled with PayPal etc, you can list in the morning, sell before lunch, be paid by 2:00 PM and include the item in a late day run to the Post Office. Not the usual experience but I have had it happen.
Clearly its not the best approach for items that might attract high bidding interest.
While I try to keep my price low and count on volume for profit, I been surprised how many times people have opted for my buy price on new items in the $100. plus range while identical items where being auctioned in the same category with $1. starting prices.
With my buy price at the low end of the average final price for these items, several people a week seem to prefer to just go ahead and complete the deal.
I've sold, resubmitted, sold, resubmitted, and sold again while identical items were going thru their ten day auction cycle.
Please come back and share any ideas and experiences. Most of us are still early in our learning curve and are just settling in after immigrating from you know where.
I would also encourage you to read the MAM goes to YAHOO thread. It holds promise that more good things are on the way.
posted on August 10, 2000 09:18:08 AM new
Thanks for the info , it's been very helpful. I am making the change over to Yahoo and informing my customers also, I can only hope they will follow. We built eBay and can do the same with Yahoo. I will contine to offer the same good quality and affordable merchandise and try my best to offer the service my customers deserve. It's kinda scarey starting over with no feedback and such, but been three before and I'm sure I'll survive as good sellers do!
posted on August 10, 2000 10:37:07 AM new
Just a warning: Yahoo does absolutely no bidder verification. Every kid too stupid to create a virus is out on Yahoo bidding on auctions just to "win" and post bad feedback. There are bozos with 80 IDs and feedback in the negative 100s still bidding. If you use a buy price, you stand the chance of one of these jokers closing down all your auctions just for fun. I put a message in my auctions "this auction has a buy-it-now price of $x. Bid $x, email us and its yours." That way the auction doesnt automatically close and I can cancel a bid if I believe it's not serious.
posted on August 10, 2000 12:42:37 PM new
Thanks for starting this thread. I just listed my first auctions over on Yahoo and I was wondering about this 1st bid wins.
Is it a good idea to put our Ebay ID's in the Yahoo ads when we have no Yahoo feedback so people can check that feedback? I couldn't use my standard labbie1 name. So I had to choose another name (not sure if I can put it on this message or not--if not, I will delete) but it is labbies_attic on Yahoo now.
posted on August 10, 2000 12:45:29 PM new
Here's good news for sellers on any other site except ebay. There is a site called feedbacksite.com. You can register there and create a banner that will show your feedback from several different auction sites. Then you can place this banner in your auctions as a link. Your bidders will see not just the 10 rating you have on Yahoo, but the 10 on ebay, the 10 on amazon, etc. Of course they will also see all the bad ratings too, if you have any. But I was told that ebay will not allow this link on their page and will shut down your auction if you try.
So I had to choose another name (not sure if I can put it on this message or not--if not, I will delete) but it is labbies_attic on Yahoo now.