posted on August 22, 2000 10:57:36 AM new
I've been visiting The Seller's Zone on YAHOO, an area where sellers share much like the eBAY Q&A board.
I asked what new listers can do to help the site and what are somethings we should be aware of to help our selling.
I believe the following answer is worth sharing.
"Hi reston_ray: What you can do for yourselves and for this site, good ?'s and I'll try to briefly point out a few:
Make yourself as a seller accessible. Don't count on Yahoo's ? and answer to do the trick.
If a ? is asked near the end of an auction you may not have time to get to it and once the auction ends it is gone, poofed into cyberspace.
Include your email address or have one just for auctions @yahoo.com if you don't want to give out your other email address. Have this posted in your auctions descriptions as well as your profile and about me page.
If you see illegal type auctions which bring the whole area down in the publics eyes report them by either using the neighborhood watch feature or feedback forms to yahoo.
Ask here if you have auction or selling related questions and offer advice when others do and you feel you have something to give back.
Have patience, right now bidding is slow all over or so it seems. Once fall arrives things should pick up and unlike pay sites on yahoo if you list and relist and wait, sooner or later you will find a buyer if you are fair and honest.
oh one more thing. Stay onto of your auctions closings yourself. Don't depend on yahoo notices to alert you if you have a winner. While you might find these notices helpful, just like ebay, they may be slow, and you do not have to wait to get your EOA notices on the way and impress your bidders with quick service.
Use your closed auctions area to check for any sold items and right from the item page you can retrive the bidders email address and payment info.
Hope this helps and welcome to Yahoo!
(name removed)"
posted on August 23, 2000 08:56:58 AM new
Here are some more ideas.
"I will give you some of my suggestions, for what they are worth, in my attempt to familiarize you with options that may help you, and others, coming here to Yahoo! Auctions.
I always select the "Seller can close auction early" option. One reason being, if the auction closes but does not appear to be closed when viewed. You can click on "Manage" and close it yourself, usually, not always. That way you generate the notice from Y! to the winner, and get the winners addy. Also, if you find a buyer off line, you can close the auction, and make the sale. Provided, there are no bids on the item. I won't close it then, even though I could. Because showing respect for the bidder is more important to me, than making the off line sale. You never know when you may need to close the auction for some other reason, it doesn't hurt anything to choose that option and have it available.
Another tactic I use, is to edit the auction of an item I have for sale, if I have more than one to sell. I don't have dutch auctions, to many people don't know what they are, and how to bid on them. When I have an item reach the price it will be considered "sold" at, I will click on the "Manage" link and edit the auction to add one more of the same item. This way, another bidder can come in and bid on one also. When you do it this way, it will show the original bidder as a (winner). It kind of eliminates the dutch auction problem. Another benefit is, the original winner is not upset that he won the item, maybe in a bidding duel, only to see it relisted at the lower starting price. Then the person who lost to him, could get his cheaper, and benefit from having lost the bidding duel. You would make him happy, but irritate the first winner. The idea being to make them both happy, even though you may make more money doing it the other way. I always put my reputation, credibility, and fairness to my buyers at the top. In the long run you will make more sales, and enjoy being a seller too.
I will put more tips up sometime, what little I have, if you find any value in these. I don't want to put such long posts up at one time, (a bad habit I have). Welcome to the club! I hope more, such responsible contributing sellers as you, come here. We need you all."
posted on August 23, 2000 09:05:24 PM new
reston-ray, Since you are giving info may I ask why my Reserve price shows up for all to see on Yahoo auction. I started auction at 5.00 and assumed
the Reserve w/b hidden until reached. I'm new to Yahoo. Dana71
Goingslow
posted on August 23, 2000 09:27:59 PM new
"Giving information?" Sorry, you have me confused with someone who may have some to spare.
What I do have is enough talent to select, cut and paste from The Seller Zone in YAHOO Clubs.
Hopefully someone here will see and answer your question or if you ask it at TSZ experienced users will provide the answers.
I have often submitted listings, seen they were not what I expected or wanted, cancelled them, made changes, resubmitted and repeat until they are correct. No charges, you keep the same number and in time something works.
posted on August 24, 2000 05:42:15 AM new
mint4you...Thank you for answering my question about viewing the Reserve price. Can you tell me what TSZ refers to? I am keeping a list of ACRONYMS used in posts and don't have this one used by reston-ray. Thank you...Dana71
Goingslow
I believe it was a referance to The Seller's Zone, the seller club on Yahoo!, of which I am a member. You can go there and read the message board, you do not have to be a member to read it. I am new to here, just trying to help new people who may come to Yahoo! auctions. To see the SZ board, go to the Yahoo! clubs board and put "thesellerzone" into the search box and it will take you there. I hope this has helped you.
posted on August 28, 2000 07:03:42 AM new
reston_ray
"I asked what new listers can do to help the site and what are somethings we should be aware of to help our selling."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Next month you will have been selling on Yahoo for a year? Why are you asking for help as a "new" Yahoo seller? I would appreciate it if you were more open and honest when asking for help.
posted on August 28, 2000 07:17:19 AM new
REGARDING the RESERVE price, I have noticed in the last month that when I "resubmit" my auctions, that a reserve price automatically appears, and this may be the problem mentioned above. I just delete the reserve price, and as someone else said I ALWAYS use "Early Close," as there are a multitude of reasons to have this option available to you the seller.
posted on August 28, 2000 02:00:18 PM new
Mint4you - While I have been regisrered at YAHOO for sometime, it resulted from an attempt to broaden out from eBay about a year ago and I tried both Y and Amazon.
I settled on Amazon and only used Y for a few listings each month. They were mostly products I had in duplicate and I cut and pasted ads to Y and used the the standard format as I used on eBay.
Only in the last few months have I tried to increase my Y listings, explore options like 1st Bid Wins, short auctions with relists, Featured auctions, Paydirect, a Y wallet, more than one picture, the uses of the close early option, how to secure information from customer service and the "how to" live at Y rather than being , what I considered, an occasional visitor.
So, you are correct, I have had an ID registered at YAHOO for sometime but only recently tried to learn and use any of the substancial features and options. Didn't intend to mislead anyone and still consider myself on the early part of the learning curve.
I have a great deal to learn from sellers who have used the site as a major venue for their business and that was the intent and history behind my starting this thread.
I hope I and others who have come , whether new or to expand usage, will benefit from the information provided.
posted on August 29, 2000 05:00:15 PM new
Please click on joining again. Sometimes the e-mail does not get sent? Just a computer glitch, I guess. You should receive it within 5 minutes normally. You can have it send as many times as necessary. If they all eventually get there, just use one, and delete the rest.
posted on August 29, 2000 05:53:20 PM new
whether you're "new" or not is pretty relative, isn't it? I've been selling on Yahoo for approx 3 months now & still consider myself "new". After I have a year under my belt I still don't think I'd consider myself an "old-timer".
When I started my old RL job the last salesman who had been hired was "considered the "new" guy & he'd been with the company for 3 years! But he WAS new to the other guys, who'd been selling there for 8 years, 10 years, 25 years.
Anyway, I think no matter how "new" or not a seller is to the biz or a to particular site, (s)he can always benefit from the experiences and expertise of other sellers. And also (s)he has many valuable contributions to make as well. I think the original poster of this thread was trying to do just that- encourage sharing for the benefit of all involved. I for one sincerely appreciate it and thank everyone for their contributions to this forum as they have greatly helped me with my business!
Now my tips. (They are not Yahoo specific as I haven't developed many of those yet.)
#1 best tip is "Don't Sweat the small stuff!" Bring your walkman to the post office with you so you're not bored & impatient while you're waiting in line- or your knitting- or a book that you want to read real fast before you list it. Have patience with your customers; they're only human. (And it's not always, but usually true that you need them more than they need you!) My #2 best tip is Enjoy what you're doing, because life's too short not to!
posted on August 30, 2000 06:42:06 AM new
When anyone claims to be "new" to anything, when they are not. A lot of things truly new persons would need to know are given out as new information. A person, or persons, caliming they are "new" have just wasted a great deal of time by those trying to help this "new" person.
Whatever happened to being respectful of the people who are trying to help you? Is deception needed to get help now days? NO, it isn't. You make the persons attempting to help you look like fools, as they give you all of the basic info a TRULY new person would need. Are people getting so disrepectful and selfish, thay don't care about wasting other peoples time???
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Anyway, I think no matter how "new" or not a seller is to the biz or a to particular site, (s)he can always benefit from the experiences and expertise of other sellers."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~At least give us an idea of what point you need help. I, for one, don't have a lot of time to spend going over items someone with a years experiance already knows. it all comes down to SIMPLE manners, and respect of those who are attempting to help a "new" person. Next time your request will fall on deaf ears.
posted on August 30, 2000 10:01:00 AM new
Good ideas everyone. Reston_ray thanks for getting this topic started - I don't care if you've been on Yahoo for 1 day or 1 year, other people are new and can always use the info given on this board.
posted on August 30, 2000 11:50:54 AM new
I've been selling on Yahoo for almost a year now. I love this area though. In the past few days of reading it, I've learned several helpful hints. Even better, I tried some and have gotten sales already. *S* THANKS! I do have one question. I read somebodys feedback once, and they were penalized a minus feedback for closing their auction. Is this only if you don't use the "close early" option?
posted on August 30, 2000 01:00:20 PM new
What do you mean by "penalized"? If you mean by Yahoo!, (they used to give administrative negatives, but since have stopped). The penalties they imposed, when doing so, were for canceling your bid.
You can close the auction two ways, not just one. You can 'close early' if you choose that option when first listing the item. And you can also 'cancel' the auction. Provided, there are no bids on it. If there are bids on it, you can not cancel it. If you close your auction by either of these methods, you can receive a 'negative' only one way. You closed an auction which had a winning bid on it, and you did not honor that bid. In absense of a winning bid, there is no way you could be neged by anyone. As there was no high enough bid to get to be able to rate the closing of the auction. And then, you are not entitled, fairly, to receive a neg if you honored the winning bid.
I close auctions all the time for repeat buyers, who are steady cutomers, as I know they will pay with no problem. Unless there is heavy bidding going on the auction, then I leave the auction alone, to be fair to everyone. I always choose the 'close auction early' option. Sometimes you may need it, and it will save you in the end, if there is a problem.
posted on August 30, 2000 01:09:15 PM new
Thank you. It was the Administrative negative that had me concerned. Every so often, I have a friend want an item I have up for bid. it took me all year to get to a 122 rating, and I sure don't want to ruin that. I've just started using the close early feature, since reading all the advantages.
Thanks,
Carol
posted on September 3, 2000 04:49:11 PM new
demetech
I had to send the receive E-mail about ten times per other folks advice before I received a confirmation! So do not dispair!
