posted on August 15, 2000 11:51:57 AM new
Please, don't list on YAHOO, in the identical manner you did on eBay and expect similar results.
It's a different venue with it's own dynamics. While I don't pretend to know what will work for anybody/everybody, I do know it's not exactly the same as eBay.
My initial identical listings here meet with much poorer results when I first started. I then looked, listened, read and learned. And have much more to learn.
I have found a niche with 1st Bid Wins and will continue to expand into other approaches, the Booth and Classifieds.
I feel there is less oportunity for low starting bids and numerous bidders to achieve fair prices here than at e.
But there are so many opportunities that it is fast becoming my first choice(read most profitable) site.
Please don't list 2 or 20 items just like you did at E and become discouraged with lessor results. That would be a disservice to yourself, YAHOO and the customers.
Much like farming may be similar but with differences between Canada and say, Flordia, YAHOO has has it's own rythems.
It's less like NYC and more like the "Big Easy". eBay was driving me crazy (crazier?) Now with time shared between both sites I'm better able to enjoy what eBay does have to offer and find some profitable, peace and quite at YAHOO.
Shared use lets me have the best of two sites and have someplace else to go whenever eBay gets uncomfortable.
Please give yourself the chance to profit from and enjoy what is here.
posted on August 18, 2000 09:00:13 AM new
Here are a few of my tips, use them or ignore them as you please.
1) Dont post several identical items at the same time. First, it's against Yahoo's rules, while perfectly legal on ebay. Second, there are fewer bidders on Yahoo. If you have more than one, you won't get people bidding against each other as each will simply bid on another item.
2) If you want people bidding against each other, dont list dutch. I posted an hard to find item on Yahoo and another on ebay. I got one bid on Yahoo at the starting price and that's it. On ebay I ended with three bids all well above the starting price.
3) I personally do not use the buy price. THere are too many wackos on Yahoo who "win" auctions because they enjoy disturbing other people. I put in my auctions that new bidders must email me or I cancel their bid. I also put in "this auction has a buy-it-now price of $x. Bid $x, email me and it's yours." When I used the actual buy price, jerks used to bid it just to close the auction down and then deadbeat. My new approach keeps the auction open until I verify that the bidder is indeed serious.
4) You can set a minimum bidder rating but I recommend setting it at 0. Some of my best customers have been newbies. Some have complained that though they won several auctions, the seller never posted feedback and they're still zero. In any case, setting the rating higher does not protect you against deadbeats. All it means is that someone with a lower rating enters a credit card number. It doesnt even have to be their number. It proves nothing. I had deadbeats with negative ratings still bid. So dont bother with it.
5) make your auction No Reserve and put that in the title. Lots of people hate reserve auctions and wont even waste their time bidding. Would you shop in a store that had no prices and you had to guess how much they wanted?
6) Start your price at enough to cover your costs. At worst, you will get a new customer and a rating point. At best, you will get a few bids and make a good profit. Yahoo is free. No fees to cover.
7) If you have good feedback from other sites, go to www.feedbacksite.com and create your own table. It will pull in your feedback from other sites. I'll try to give an example, if this works:
http://www.feedbacksite.com/fullprofile.asp?id=yisgood
posted on August 18, 2000 11:47:11 AM new
Good points Ray, but maybe as the exception that proves the rule, there is a seller on Yahoo and ebaY who does product closeouts. They have great stuff and a very eclectic mix, from computer parts to underwear, starts everything at $1. no reserve and seems to be doing even better on Yahoo than they are on ebaY. I sure book marked their pages, and have already bought stuff from them - so if they develop a following, it does not matter where they sell - folks are going to seek them out. So maybe the $1. no reserve format will work well on Yahoo also! -Rosalinda
TAGnotes - daily email synopsis about the Online Auction Industry
http://www.egroups.com/group/TheAuctionGuildnotes
posted on August 18, 2000 02:55:53 PM new
SMW - At the top right of auction pages is a link - YAHOO! - click on that and it will take you to the YAHOO front page. Once there look at the line just below the search box. It starts SHOP and is followed by auction and then classified. Click on classified and it will take you to the front page of that section. Free as most everything.
I fully understand being lost on the site. I'm wandering around dropping bread crumbs and think I have some birds following me.
I'm starting to realize why they have 150 million users. I really believe that as auctions expand there is a huge audience already in house at the site that will benefit sellers.
posted on August 18, 2000 06:07:26 PM new
Ray: Thank you. I found it.
I finally thought I figured out how to get a bulk listing form and got a reply from Yahoo.uk. I don't know how I managed it.
The birds do eat the breadcrumbs. I clear out my history file before I go foraging on Yahoo and then save the file. This gives me a page by page route that I can reconstruct.
PS: I think there is a huge potential too, if you can find anything.
[ edited by smw on Aug 18, 2000 06:21 PM ]
posted on August 18, 2000 06:50:00 PM new
yisgood
I agree with most of what you say but for one point and that is this Frist bid win auctions work best on yahoo.
Frist rule for selling On yahoo start prices are higher. 90% wil end with one bid.
Use a buy price that is 10 to 20% higher then your start bid I have been on yahoo for over a year now you can list and have sold an Item on yahoo as fast as 10 mins with a buy price infact I listed a antique doll house piano old from the 20s listed with a buy price and 5 mins later was sold got the paypays payment and the item packed and in the mail all in the morning mail the same day.
another key to getting bids on yahoo is volume some one with 100 or 200 items listed will get bids faster then some one with a few.
sell in lots a lot of 3 to 10 books will sell 20x faster then one by one.
if your gona pay to feature an Item on yahoo bid high even and try to resist featureing till you have at least one bid the top 5 hot items featured makes it to the front catagory page hot items are the featured items with bids so holding off on featureing till you have a bid or two even though you pay a bit more to get your item on top you will pay for less days 10 cents a day for 10 days or 50 cents for two days no different but your on top of the list and get show on the front page the frist area all buyer see .
3 and 5 day auctions work better then 7 or 10 day autions yahoo buyer are hit and run that is why one bid wins works so well No time to forget they bid your auction and no chance of bidding on more then they can pay for at the time.
lastly if you have a lot of money tide up in items and your not the type of person who dont like to wait yahoo might not be for you it runs in cycles one week you might make $200 or $2000 the next two or three you might get $0 . people love the question the buyer and the auction alert feature on yahoo save the email address of your buyer and email then when your listing the item they seem to buy on yahoo they use the feed back of buyers for more then seeing good or negitive feed back we use it to make note on what our custumers are buying.
posted on August 18, 2000 06:55:47 PM new
I don't know...
I tend to be very cautious, but with Yahoo, I stayed with the format I use on ebay (no reserves, low starting bids, high end items), and it is really panning out so far. Granted, I have only tried this with a few items, but the page hits are there.
One item that closed yesterday (someone took it for the buy price) had over 400 page hits, and 27 bids. Another item of mine that is currently running has over 200 page hits and 26 bids so far, and this is a seven day auction, with five days LEFT. I have the same item running on ebay right now, a seven day auction with 2 days left, and the bid price, # of bids, and page hits are lower. Explain that one to me! You would think that 5 days of exposure on ebay would be worth way more than 2 days of exposure on Yahoo, but that is not what I am seeing.
Who knows, maybe this is all a fluke for me. I am still not ready to move the bulk of my inventory to Yahoo. But I am really digging the results so far. AND IT IS FREE, except for optional stuff.
posted on August 20, 2000 11:16:07 PM new
I've tried a lot of listing variations on Yahoo and the only auctions that work for me is "First bid wins". I do get more deadbeats but I also get more legitimate buyers who actually send payment. Deadbeats can be frustating, but if you don't waste a lot of time with them, it's not a big problem. If I don't receive an email response within 2 or 3 days, I relist the item and sell to the next buyer. It takes 20 to 30 seconds to relist and in most cases you will sell the item faster to a serious buyer.
posted on August 22, 2000 05:38:17 AM new
I just sold a vase last night on Yahoo, first time listing it there, that I had listed on ebay quite a few times over the past few months, and did not sell on ebay. I'm very happy with Yahoo.
thank you to all above for sharing the great ideas. I moved part of my auctions to yahoo and the first bid wins idea, which I learned here at auctionwatch, has been a big help. thanks again.
posted on August 23, 2000 02:05:46 PM new
Thanks much, reston ray and visgoth (sorry about the spelling if incorrect) for the excellent ideas. Now all we need are more bidders. i have to admit that I am a very disgruntled seller from ebay, having been chastised and had auctions closed by their overzealous and paranoid staff. I did some work and came up with accurate auction counts for both sites and am pleased to announce that Yahoo is finally making some headway.
