notjustbooks001
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posted on September 17, 2000 10:12:22 AM new
This is my second set of books (cookbooks) I have uploaded without a single person even looking at one of my auctions, what am I doing wrong? They are in the correct section, priced very well and must be of some interest to someone out there. The same books whcih DO NOT get any viewing on Yahoo are put on e-bay and receive all types of (hits) viewing. Is there no people on Yahoo who cook?
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auctionee
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posted on September 17, 2000 10:33:04 AM new
Don't know for sure, but have you browsed the category to see what page your item is listed on? I had an item yesterday that I only had 15 hits on and shoulda been a lot more 1 hr before closing. I browsed to see what page it was on and finally found it on page 33. I don't know about you, but if I'm browsing to buy something, I'm not going to go through 33 pages to find what I'm looking for. Sales have died off tremendously since Yahoo jumbled the listings. 
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VeryModern
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posted on September 17, 2000 10:39:04 AM new
Sales are way off for us too. As slow as I have seen as a matter of fact.
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treizedogs
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posted on September 17, 2000 11:01:22 AM new
My sales are down too. I looked around and it's the same for several other sellers, the bids are few and far between. Could be the CC thing driving the buyers away, I don't know.
Helen
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dman3
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posted on September 17, 2000 11:08:21 AM new
sales and veiws have been way offthis week on yahoo for me to I think its due to the credit card verification issue to bid that went into effect on the 13th of september.
but also I noticed that yahoo counter are mess up this week too and at one point all my couters were set bad to 0 and at another I had some couters claiming I had 16,848 veiws in a day  so dont beleve what they say always either
it must be tough on many buyer too who found they could look but not bid after that date.
and if it was me I wouldnt even bother looking if I couldnt buy more then one time.
as a seller I beleve it will all pick back up over time.one thing we all have due to free listing is time but we all need these sales to keep us selling and I have started moveing my surer selling items little by little to ebay to makethese sales I need till it all works out one way or the other.
if sales stay this slow on yahoo for afew weeks or a month seller will start complaining in mass and it will have to be fixed some how.
WWW.dman-n-company.com
[ edited by dman3 on Sep 17, 2000 11:13 AM ]
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reston_ray
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posted on September 17, 2000 11:11:12 AM new
The out-of-order closing times certainly impeds browsing and YAHOO is far down the list of where to look for books, with Half.com, Amazon, eBay and others being earlier choices for most customers.
I'm posting books and other items on eBay and if there is no sale I then park them at YAHOO. Some are good buys and I've experienced no bidders on eBay for two or more listings with later postings resulting in a bidding war. That shows me that some items just have to wait to be seen and, of course, not every customer is looking every week.
I am trying to feature one book and one LP as well as starting one of each at one cent. Hopefully this will get attention and in my description is the explains that I have many more of each item and suggests the customer review my other listings.
I'm also using First Bid Wins for most listings, 10 day listings with 2 resubmits, reduce prices on items that do not sell after 30 days and sometimes list at both Half.com and YAHOO. (Have to stay on top of sales and close alternate offering immediatly following a sale)
Even a few listing fees and a FVF cuts into the small profit margain on low dollar items.
I'm going to hang in and make YAHOO work for me. I may have to change some inventory categories and accept that for some items eBay is still the best site.
For a number of reasons, including my annoyance with eBay and belief that competation is good for the industary, I just plug along trying to find what works for me.
Wider use of Universal Search functions will help in time. Somethings may never change. I just do my part by attempting to make an ever widening selections of offerings to the YAHOO customers.
And yes, you are correct. At least some of us YAHOOs' don't cook.
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VeryModern
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posted on September 17, 2000 11:22:49 AM new
I see that the listings do "order" if you click the catagory at the top, but I imagine many don't think to do that.
Our sales are off by about 75% this last 8-9 days, it is impossible not to notice. We closed (buy price) more than 25 auctions last Fri and Sat and since have sold 5 or 6 items all week into Sunday. I have been introducing new items daily, so stale is not the problem. I am giving up on Yahoo anytime soon, but I do think the site has taken a hit. Lots of changes all at once and people are so fickle you can really do some damage.
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zzyzx000
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posted on September 17, 2000 11:44:49 AM new
I had so many questions asked by wannabe buyers that they couldn't bid, why not?
I figured they couldn't read and missed the message that they must get CC verified. So I asked one today and he insists that there was no reason given...it just said he was not allowed to bid. In fact he asked me if I had blacklisted him.
So I created a new ID and started through the process as I wanted to try to bid as an unverified user. I couldn't complete this test because new user's must be CC verified as they sign up. I also noticed that the Yahoobots now do email verification when signing up. They actually send you a code to the email you give and you have to enter it to proceed.
This is the 1st thing they have done right all year. Of course it's not going to solve the problems because they allow any email address (hot mail, Iname, Yahoo mail etc.) rather than a true ISP only.
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figmente
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posted on September 17, 2000 03:36:10 PM new
I think it's mostly the non-sort order thing. If item is not featured no-one ever sees it anymore. A lot of categories seemed to lead non-featured listings with pages of UK sellers.
yahoo auctions offer so many nice features but diplay great talent at shooting own feet.
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heygrape
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posted on September 17, 2000 05:03:28 PM new
Doncha just hate it when something ain't broke and they fix it anyway? Argggh!
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figmente
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posted on September 17, 2000 05:23:35 PM new
Well I do cook, but I don't buy cookbooks.
Can't help there.
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amalgamated2000
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posted on September 18, 2000 12:34:55 AM new
I use Ruby Lane counters on my Yahoo auctions, and I just checked the numbers. I have several auctions that show no hits on the Yahoo counters but have up to 10 hits on the Ruby Lane counters. Sounds like Yahoo may be having problems with their counters.
By the way, I'm a big fan of Yahoo's featured auctions. Why not try featuring a few of your auctions? You can do this for as low as 20 cents (2 day auction, 10 cent feature) and you get half back if it sells. You can also feature while the auction is going on, even paying for the last day only.
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zzyzx000
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posted on September 18, 2000 01:05:52 AM new
I guess my eyes are widening to how important browsing is here on Yahoo. My own experience as a buyer is that it is interesting and fun but not at all important to browse. I always use the search engine to get me the possibilities. It's hard to believe people come here to spend money without a clue what they are looking for.
ePay still charges to put your pix in the photo gallery for browsing, don't they? That hasn't been a big success. Here it is free and fun, but I never thought essential.
The search engine works for me even when I am looking for nothing specific. For example there are a few computer games from the 80's that are already very valuable. Some are from the defunct publisher INFOCOM. So I search for Infocom. I also search for the titles I know are rare. But I know many others are doing this so I search for some of the keywords to the platform of the computer that they were issued for. For example: Atari, Commodore 64, Apple II.
Early this year I was checking ePay for Atari 800 (there are a zillion Atari game carts) and I found somebody who was selling his old system plus software. This chap was also a seller on ePay of some other stuff. He was cleaning out the attic with this auction. Since he knew about selling, he took about 5 pix of the stuff. There was so much he didn't try to describe everything. Well about the 4th pix was what looked like the treasured Big Folio box for Suspended with the mask still intact. Not only that but it turns out he had Ultima 2 as well in mint shape. These 2 items collectively are worth $500 and up. And the current bid was $20.
To make a short story long, only one other collector...a past customer of mine... noticed all this and we sniped it out at the last 5 minutes with him winning the whole lot for about $700.
So what I'm trying to say is, all this was done with the search engine. I wouldn't even think of looking through 1000 atari 2600 carts to try to fine a gem like this.
And it's hard for me to understand that featured auctions and the position of the auction in it's category makes any difference???
Maybe it just depends on what you are selling. I know Yisgood and his cameras are in competition with a LOT of other sellers. He has new stuff and multiple items. When somebody comes to yahoo for a new camera, yes I would like them to see my camera 1st.
But isn't that type of merchandise a very small %age of the type of goods offered here? I always thought of Yahoo as more of a flea marker or giant garage sale. that's what my stuff is and before the kicked about 1/2 my past customers off the system, I sold 200 items a month...and I used the maxim # of days to list.
Perhaps the real key here is people don't want to wait 5 or 10 days when they are hot to trot. I now have almost all my auctions '1st Bid WINS' and before I copied this great idea I used the Buy price at or near the minimum bid. I suspect this auction thingy is a fad for most sales and the reason people don't bid on your 10 day to go items is because they don't want to wait, not because they couldn't find it.
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VeryModern
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posted on September 18, 2000 05:10:40 AM new
zzyzx000 - I use a search and *then* click "show only pictures". Many things are shopped this way - by sight because people are looking for something with a specific "look" and you can rule out 50 items in a page in a manner of seconds. It is the click, wait, close, click, wait, close on Ebay that kills shopping via boredom.
Granted, I am not shopping computer games, but for me, and people like me, if there is not a thumbnail, the auction does not even exist. I have fast access as more people do each day. The pages load in 10 seconds and there is simply no other way to fly.
This also means that you need a GOOD picture. I rarely list only one picture anymore. I specifically take one CLOSE UP for the thumbnail that will grab the buyer's eye.
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auctionee
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posted on September 18, 2000 10:32:24 AM new
"And it's hard for me to understand that featured auctions and the position of the auction in it's category makes any difference???"
Unless you are looking for something specific and you know exactly what it is, the search doesn't do a lot of good in most cases. Also, the search engine on Yahoo leaves a lot to be desired. From my experience, in most cases when you search for something, many of the items that should come up don't. Also, many times when you search for something, it often brings back listings that are in no way related to what you told it to look for. There are also a lot of new users, I believe, who accidentally run across Yahoo auctions and have nothing in mind to purchase. But when they happen upon the site, many will browse out of curiosity and something that they had no intention of buying will catch their eye...but not if it's on page 33!
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CAgrrl
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posted on September 18, 2000 10:41:55 AM new
RE: cookbooks:
I've had the same experiences- my cook books have been collecting dust while listed on Yahoo. Out of about 15 cookbooks I've listed I sold 2, and those 2 were in a lot together. Glad to hear it's not just me.
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moonmem-07
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posted on September 18, 2000 12:09:32 PM new
My sales have been way off too. I usually browse the pictures in a category. So I have to agree. If there is no picture, I probably will never know about it.
"If man were to be crossed with a cat, it would greatly improve the man, but deteriorate the cat." Mark Twain
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zzyzx000
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posted on September 18, 2000 12:22:47 PM new
RE: the search engine on Yahoo leaves a lot to be desired.
Isn't it incredible that Yahoo was the first search engine and yet their search engine in Yahoo auctions sucks?
It used to be I could not find many of my own auctions. That is why I begged the late TC to present the SELLING page not in pieces of 50 but as one whole list, so I could search my items with Windows (control F). He evidently think that was important as it's never been done.
Since I converted to the bulk loader I really don't have any way to be sure if my item is there or not without searching about 30 pages individually of that Selling page or else loading Excel and searching each of my Bulk lists (about 15 of them) individually.
I have figured out this: if you search ePay with more than 2 key words it respects your wishes and limits the search to items hitting all the words. If you search Yahoo for 1 or 2 keywords it does the same. But if you search Yahoo for more than 2 key words, you likely get about 10,000 items that contain just one of those key words.
I've tried putting phrases in quotes on Yahoo but that doesn't seem to work.
I guess what puzzles me the most is I've never seen any explaination of Yahoo search engine rules. Are there any?
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kneepain
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posted on September 18, 2000 04:14:35 PM new
zzyzx000,
re: explanation of Yahoo! search rules
You're right, Yahoo!'s search function is a bit cryptic. There is a 'Search Syntax' explanation though. If you click on 'Advanced Search', then go to the 'By Keyword' tab, there is a link to 'Search Syntax'. I also think you are correct in your evaluation of how Yahoo! treats keywords. If you search 3 words or more, it returns all listings with the 2 most common words, not listings with all 3 words as you'd expect.
Hope this helps.
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VeryModern
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posted on September 18, 2000 05:04:52 PM new
OKAY! On the way to having my faith restored.
I just listed a widget.
I checked ebay solds for a price and found 16 ended auctions - prices ranging from $16.68 to a high $21.50.
I thought this way too low and so put mine up for $28 - 1st Bid wins. It is a Christmas item, so plenty of time to back down if I had to, and the value is there, of that I am confident.
2 hours later and it is sold.
This is why I DO YAHOOOOOO!!!!
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zzyzx000
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posted on September 18, 2000 05:12:22 PM new
I just searched closed auctions for widget and found 13 of them. They sold from $.12 up to $12.50.
What's so special about your widget?
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VeryModern
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posted on September 18, 2000 05:23:21 PM new
zzy - nothing is special about my widget. It is in perfect condition like every other piece that was listed and sold on ebay for less (way less) money. That is my point.
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CAgrrl
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posted on September 18, 2000 07:14:01 PM new
you guys should use AW's universal search feature. It works really well, plus you can search all the auction sites at once. It saves a lot of time- I'm fully hooked on it!
I only wish that AW would add an option for searching closed auctions. That would be the bomb!!!
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VeryModern
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posted on September 18, 2000 07:25:49 PM new
CAgrrl - try antiquecast.com it lets you search ended (ebay) auctions besides the universal search and is very very fast.
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zzyzx000
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posted on September 18, 2000 09:36:19 PM new
50% of my sales the last few days have been by cancelling auctions for people who were not allowed to bid because of the CC rules and the new new way to interpret the Minimum Bidder Rating. Until my current auctions expire I am stuck now with bidders who are BOTH CC verified AND have a +2 rating as that was the threshold I chose under the old system which meant the buyer must EITHER be CC verified OR have a +2 feedback.
Which leads to this bit of speculation on my part:
Since I used to require CC verification anyways, I still had over 10% deadbeats. Almost all of them had no feedback (new). So there is the answer to whether this new system will improve anything. I already had the facts. I can expect to keep getting 10% deadbeats while losing all my non-credit card bidders who had a proven track record of worthyness.
All this brought to you by the most accurately named company the world has ever seen : Yahoo
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chococake
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posted on September 18, 2000 10:02:48 PM new
amalgamated
I'm having just the opposite problem with the page view and my AW counters. Yahoo page views have double the number than my counters. No bids on anything!
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auctionee
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posted on September 19, 2000 09:40:24 AM new
"you guys should use AW's universal search feature"
I agree. The problem is that many, many bidders don't even know about AW and Yahoo doesn't tell them...and it's the bidders that we are concerned about not seeing the auctions.
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CAgrrl
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posted on September 19, 2000 05:42:07 PM new
auctionee- I'm a bidder.
I tell most of my Ebay customers about AW's universal search because I want them to be able to find Yahoo auctions. I've never told any Yahoo customers about AW because I don't want them to start buying all their stuff on Ebay. But maybe I'll start telling them after all because if AW is the only way they can search & actually find what they're looking for on Yahoo, so be it.
VeryModern- thanks for the tip! I'd never heard about that site but will definitely check it out!
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