posted on August 25, 2000 09:52:15 PM new
Sellers rewards page has been updated
This is new "Auctions which you resubmit will count as another auction listed."
This program goes into effect at 3pm ET on Monday, August 28, 2000.
**this is new too "Your auction submission counter will be reset on September 1, 2000."
It still doesn't clarify our prior questions. Has anyone gotten a response yet from ?? sent to Yahoo?
If we submitted 1000 5 days ads 8/28 and they auto-resubbed would we be done for our allowable Sept. listings?
Still no word on how sales + positives= # of extra submits allowed.
posted on August 25, 2000 11:23:20 PM new
We're still left in the dark here, other than now knowing that relists also count (also meaning that auctions listed with mistakes, closed for corrections, then relisted will count as 2 listings).
Why start the program at 3 p.m. August 28th if they're going to reset the counters 3-1/2 days later at 12 a.m. September 1st? Wouldn't it be less confusing to just start the program on September 1st???
Will we be allowed to list 1,000 NEW auctions between September 1st and September 30th, IN ADDITION to the auctions we already have running, or will our TOTAL LISTINGS NUMBER never be allowed to go above 1,000 at any time??
"As you make sales, the number of auctions you can submit increases incrementally based on your performance score. This score considers both your sell-through (the percentage of items you sell in relation to the total number of auctions that you list) and your Yahoo! Auctions rating."
How much listing "credit" will sellers receive for completed auctions--"so many auctions" EACH, or "so many auctions" each DIVIDED BY total listings (i.e. the performance score)?? And if we cancel a deadbeat's bid to relist, do we LOSE the credit for that auction "sell-through"??
"The more items you sell, while maintaining a positive rating, the more auctions you'll be able to list."
Do we ONLY have to have total "positive" feedback (as opposed to "going in the hole" with negs) to earn increased listing numbers, or will we "earn" credit for each positive feedback we have (in which case, sellers will be PRESSURING their buyers to place feedback, something I abhore)??
"If you've earned increased listing limits as a reward for performance, your new submission maximum will roll over at the end of the month into the next calendar month. Your listing limit can increase incrementally throughout the month."
OK, but does that "increased listing limits" GO DOWN after a BAD month (or a non-listing "vacation" month) for a seller, or does the seller know that once it goes up, it STAYS up??
"Any time one of your auctions closes successfully with a sale, your listing limit increases.
This means that great sell-through and customer service can earn you an unlimited number of auction submissions."
Just how many "successful auctions" out of how many listings (i.e.sell-through) with how great "customer service" (JUST positive overall, or TOTAL positives, or TOTAL positives DIVIDED BY total sales) will it take to EARN this "unlimited number of auction submissions"???
These details may not matter much to lower-volume sellers, but they WILL matter to sellers who deal in low-dollar items (like trading cards) who depend upon a VOLUME of listings on Yahoo for their sales.
And what's to keep an unscrupulous seller from bidding on his OWN auctions under numerous IDs to increase his "sell-through" rate and "earn" higher listing limits?
I sure hope Yahoo has answers for all these questions when they implement this on August 28th, or they'll be bombarded with emails.
P.S. What IS the average "sell-through" rate on Yahoo, anyway??
If the last couple months are used to judge a seller's "success" rate in terms of sales-per-total-listings, then I'm in trouble. The "First Bid Wins" and "Buy Price" are the only reason I've HAD any sales lately.
posted on August 26, 2000 02:19:35 AM new
Granee, great questions! That's what I mean, they update the page supposedly to answer the ? coming in & think they only need 2 sentences????
You said "(also meaning that auctions listed with mistakes, closed for corrections, then relisted will count as 2 listings)"
YIKES, there go half my listings if that's the case.
If we want to keep stuff out there all month looks like we'll be limited to 333 10 day ads with 2 auto resubs for starters. Of course I'm so confused I have no idea if that's accurate.
posted on August 26, 2000 07:09:07 AM new
THe answer to your question is Yes if you list 1000 items to yahoo 5 days each once they end if there is no sales you can list no more that month according to there plain.
If you 1000 Items had some winners then you receive additional space to list
so yes this means even small time sellers are listed to about 300 ads in a month if they want auction list 24/7.
this is either the most Exciteing program a auction site has come up with to reduced listings and inventory.
Or it the fastest way yahoo could think of to become know as a charitys and electronic auction place in 90 days or less.
In all honesty this will help give the smaller guys and new people more visability and incourage fast friendly sales.
WWW.dman-n-company.com
posted on August 26, 2000 09:17:45 AM new
I usually have more than 1,000 auctions running at once (no spam either), so I'm very distressed that they haven't been more forthcoming with details. I can see a benefit to what they're doing by eliminating spammers, but it's very difficult to plan when I don't actually know what's going to happen.
posted on August 26, 2000 10:36:28 AM new
If I list an item for 10 days with 2 auto relists but it sells the first day, am I charged for 1 listing or 3???
posted on August 26, 2000 06:22:03 PM new
If you put 1 item up for 10 day and set it to auto relist 2 more times if it sells on the frist listing the resubmits wont count there counter is only counting listed auctions.
each time it ends and resubmits its counted again.
this means 325 listing up on yahoo with zero bid for 4 weeks would bring you to the 1000 limit.
each item that sells with a winner in the frist weeks gains you two more listings for the month
at the end of the month your give a bounus of additional listings for sucessfull sales if this goes like most yahoo deals I have been in this would mean for each completed sale you get one extra listing.
the thing im not sure of but I would think there only way of telling a successfull listing is if the bid wasnt canceled if they go by feed back were all in trouble I have had hundereds of sucessfull sales on yahoo and maybe 1 in 30 to 50 add feed back on the sale at all .
in what I read it says your added listings are carried over to the next month which means saved there is no mention at all about loseing listing for negitive feed back at all which is prolly on there part a good thing.
what we really need to see is a buyer program that is the same
with reduceing abilty to buy number for each bad purchase.
we will see how this works in short time since this program started my sales have been good even Items I thought would never sell after months of being listed have been sold and bid on .
posted on August 26, 2000 06:56:25 PM new
I just hope they have the auction order back to the way it was or some sort of logical order. I go to buy a book what I usually do is go into some non-fiction section look at what is ending in the next 24 hours now that time is sprawled out all over the place it says 7 days, then 3, then maybe 30 minutes. A very good way to drive away any traffic they are trying to bring over.
I was just going to do my resubmitts tomorrow to get them in before the new program starts but now if they are changing the counters until the 30th guess it really doesn't matter as I am going to look for some where for the over flow. One thing about this business is you need to keep on your toes.
I haven't tried Half.com yet (I do, do Ebay) has anyone here tried half.com seems like the commission is steep and that the sell prices are very low? Anyone try gold auctions yet?
posted on August 26, 2000 07:32:07 PM new
Now that Yahoo's featured auctions are as low as 10 cents per day (with a rebate if it sells), I would think that Yahoo would take this as an opportunity to promote them -- i.e., if an auction is featured, it shouldn't count against your 1,000 listings.
Makes sense doesn't it? I can understand limiting free listings, but are they actually going to limit the number of auctions I can pay them for?
Maybe it's already this way, but I don't see it in any of the info.
posted on August 26, 2000 07:41:11 PM new
Good point amalgamated2000.
Or maybe they plan to charge to list anything over the 1000, period - which gets adjusted if you have sales.
This would penalize / deter sellers listing items at ridiculously high prices or just plain junk, two things that degrade the site
overall, make it harder to find what is really "buyable".
Like everyone else I wish it were clearly defined, but this is no "reserve fee" or the like. Something that cripples many thousands of sellers to feed the greed of a few.
[ edited by VeryModern on Aug 26, 2000 07:41 PM ]
posted on August 27, 2000 05:52:28 AM new
Just noticed that I still have my feedback rating, but no comments appear. Is this a glitch or the start of new "reward"? I have a bad feeling about this...
posted on August 27, 2000 06:00:04 AM new
Over in the seller's zone, we have at least one report that makes it look as though feedback is going to be reset to zero-may be a glitch, but it bears watching.
posted on August 27, 2000 06:00:17 AM new
I noticed that earlier with another seller. I just checked mine right now and I don't have any comments either!
(If I had negs I wouldn't mind....)
edited to point out viaastra posted at the same time I did.
[ edited by dmercer on Aug 27, 2000 06:02 AM ]
posted on August 27, 2000 01:29:29 PM new
Actually, if everybody features some/most/all of their auctions, I really don't think it defeats the purpose of featuring.
I think of Yahoo's method of featuring as a whole new model for pricing auction listings -- pay what you think it's worth, and then items are presented by the amount paid for the ad.
It really makes so much sense. I suspect that Yahoo will eventually lower the starting cost for featuring to 1 cent, and "featured" auctions will be the standard listing for professional sellers.
As a side note, it would be really nice if someone came up with software for managing Yahoo featured auctions, showing where your item is ranked and facilitating maintaining listing status.
posted on August 27, 2000 01:51:25 PM new
Great points amalgamated2000. Good ideas too.
Regarding auction software for Yahoo, I am hurtin' for some. Does anyone know of any managment tool that can be used where pics are still uploaded to Yahoo to get the thumbnail? EOA notices, mass feedback, features like that..
posted on August 27, 2000 02:39:16 PM new
VeryModern, have you tried AuctionTamer? You can't post with it, but it does a pretty good job at EOA notices and standard emails, feedback, etc.
posted on August 27, 2000 02:44:43 PM new
I've tried nothing outside of the Rover site and when I found out I lost the thumbnail I was out of there in 2 seconds.
Thanks for the tip - auctiontamer.com I take it? I will check them out. I'll tell you what. I hope Yahoo creates an intergrated tool. What the heck? They do everything else.
Thanks again.
posted on August 27, 2000 09:31:16 PM new
My feedback rating AND comments are all intact, so I think y'all just experienced a glitch this morning when yours was gone.
It would make NO SENSE for Yahoo to reset feedback ratings to zero OR to leave the ratings intact but wipe out the comments. What would be the POINT in doing that???? Every seller on Yahoo would then become a "shot in the dark", and bidders wouldn't trust ANYBODY with their money.
The "Seller Performance Rewards Program" will supposedly be based upon SELL-THROUGH RATE (number of completed auctions per number of listings) "while maintaining a positive rating", NOT upon just the new comments a seller gets.
OR IS IT???????
We won't know until Yahoo spells it all out. And when is THAT going to be?????????????
posted on August 28, 2000 07:01:15 AM new
"...until Yahoo spells it all out. And when is THAT going to be?"
- per typical procedures that will probably be a few days to a a few months after taking effect.
)
