posted on November 5, 2000 04:06:13 PM new
I am a book seller and I have had it with Ebay. Theior technical problems are getting worse. Their customer service is more like customer disservice. They always give canned answers or blame me for their site not working.
Tonight I am trying to list and the stupid site is down again.
I have been watching Yahoo auctions, but it looks like most things pass with no bids or if they sell, they get very few bids. Are there any book sellers out here who can tell me they sell well?
I need to leave Ebay.
Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide.
posted on November 5, 2000 04:55:58 PM new
Well it doesn't hurt to give Yahoo a shot since its free. I don't sell books but I was looking for a set of Harry Potter books for a long time & there is a huge difference between eBay & Yahoo for books.
For example, eBay has over 7-9 pgs of Potter books & most sellers there are bold enough to start the auction at $1. It almost ends up over $50 for a set of Potter books. I know...I tried for weeks to get one cheap.
In Yahoo, there are about 50 Potter auctions & only 1 or 2 sellers selling a set of Potter books & the 2 auctions I saw started at $65. In short in Yahoo, bidding activity is rather low. Yes yes you will still sell in Yahoo Auctions & yes its free. You can very well relist till 2003 for free but if you want heavy activity & sale, eBay is the place for hot items.
As for deadbeats..well you get the same amount. I say give Yahoo a shot & then make a decision. If you expect to list 100 auctions to close 90% within a week, you won't get it in Yahoo. What you get are relists for free & no pressure to sell.
If you are selling comps system, don't bother...competition is really tough in both Yahoo & eBay....been there done that.
posted on November 5, 2000 04:59:43 PM new
Personal experience is that books are *the* hardest thing to move on Yahoo. That does not mean that it is going to stay that way. Someone just has to get determined.
posted on November 5, 2000 05:06:35 PM new
Yeah right now it is hard to sell bookls on yahoo but the moveing catagories change all the time.
this week no good next week the big seller you just never know, part of the reson is less buyer so it takes longer to get around to all the sales.
dont forget to apply for you free feature creit based on your ebay feed back as new sellers with no feed back stand little chase of selling anything without paying that .10 or more daily feature.
WWW.dman-n-company.com
posted on November 6, 2000 03:14:17 AM new
Faganbooks - You can't look at open auctions, you have to look at the closed ones to see what sells. Most go for 1 bid, due in part to the 1st-bid-wins feature.
I am a small-time book dealer and I've had small presence in Yahoo for 2 months. I just sold 2 items this weekend, after a long spell of nothing. I've read these boards closely and I understand more about how Yahoo works, but understanding doesn't always translate into success.
I am not particularly upset with ebay [I've learned not to have anything close Sunday night!] because I do well there. But I want to diversify. I now have a large inventory on half.com and plan to cross-list on Yahoo as time allows. Then let them sit.
I am also trying the new Amazon Marketplace, but since Friday it hasn't worked. If it comes back up, I'll list heavily there for the holidays.
posted on November 6, 2000 10:58:48 AM new
I've been selling books on Yahoo for the last three monts or so. It's not eBay and generally Yahoo is best for books that don't move on eBay for some reason.
However, I am fed up with listing on eBay and not getting any bids or bids for rather less than the same item sold for last year.
So now I put some things on Yahoo first. I use first bid wins only. You have to be patient with Yahoo, it can take awhile for a bidder to make a move. The more you list, the more you sell. Set all your auctions for 10 days and two relists.
It's worth it. I did more on Yahoo last week than eBay. Some of the items were on auction just a couple of days before they sold.
posted on November 6, 2000 11:27:46 AM new
I've been putting more and more listings on YAHOO and after a lull following the requirement for buyers to register with CC the past month has seen consistant sales.
Some of everything has sold except books. Since I'm taking a long term approach I will continue to list books and assume their time will come.
I will suggest you consider using Half.com, the new Amazon Marketplace and 1st Bid Wins on YAHOO all at the same time for common inventory.
You will have to monitor sales closely and cancel listings at the other two sites immediatly following a sale but this approach offers max. exposure. The possibility exists that a sale will happen at two sites at the same but the chances are small and if limited to common title an inventory purchase for completing the second sale should be easily accomplished.
The Amazon Marketplace seems to offer the best opportunity at this time because it is new, presents and compares preowned items to Amazons new book buyers, allows pricing up to 80% of the Amazon prices and has little listed inventory.
It does seem to be having some start-up problems and I expect it will soon be cluttered with inventory much like Half.com.
The YAHOO categories, in general, have left much to be desired but management seems to be improving them section by section as they are with the entire sites operations.
You will find many of us here who, if we have not fully escaped, are at least attempting to expand beyond the eBay asylum.
posted on November 6, 2000 12:26:58 PM new
After exhaustive research,(talked to one friend who sells on feebay) and searching both sites for comp prices. I conclude that
bidders on feebay are an very different animal from elctrohoo bidders. Yahoo bidders
don't seem to read and appear to be younger.
Also ebay bidders appear to be more dishonest
(shield bidding) I see bids on ebay that can't be for real.
They ebay bidders also appear to look down on yahoo--my friend ask some of her bidders if they would bid on her items if she moved to yahoo, 80% said "no way". Now there is a mind set for you.
posted on November 6, 2000 11:23:44 PM new
Some of my hottest sellers on Yahoo have been children's books.
Having said that, generally speaking books do move a little slowly on Yahoo, but they do sell. ESPECIALLY if you sell internationally. I've made several book sales to customers in the UK, Canada, & Australia that wouldn't have been profitable otherwise. The books in question were available on both Ebay & Yahoo & were unsold at prices well below mine- but none of the sellers except me sold internationally. Yahoo has a HUGE international client base, and the international customers I've encountered have deep pockets.
Please DONT list with opening bids of $1- unrealistic. Open the bidding with whatever price you need to get for your book. A buy price will really help jump-start your sales, and even better if you can make the auction a "first bid wins" sale.
It will get even worse on Ebay once half.com becomes linked. You have made the right decision in coming to Yahoo, IMHO. Hope it goes well for you.
posted on November 7, 2000 02:30:12 AM new
Hi!
All I sell are books, stamps, and stuff. My books are selling slow, but every month I have about 80 - 100 that do sell. I never know which ones. Most of my books sell as -1 Bid- It's easy to relist if it did not sell and it's not nerve wracking have a large amount of auctions going at the same time. (400 - 500) Do list for the price you are willing to take, change prices and descriptions when it's time to relist. I had books sell finally after moving it around into different categories. Bulk loading helps a lot, but you do need to have a thumbprint picture. Thats why I had to learn to use the yahoo bulk loader. It's faster than AMPro + uploading an image afterwards. Good luck!
posted on November 7, 2000 05:52:45 AM new
chasd7, be careful when buying a PC from Yahoo or for that matter eBay. I recently bought one & after a week, I found out it doesn't have the ATI Rage 3D 8M Video Chip so now I have to contact the seller which by the way either doesn't return my calls or calls back 2 weeks later.
If you ask me again, I should have paid more & bought a branded PC. Not saying that PC's from Dell or Compaq are always good but at least they don't try to scam you. BTW my CMOS battery died after 3 days & I had to change it myself.
Be careful because when you get a PC dirt cheap from these guys there are always something missing. Also don't buy an O/S from them because they usually give you the cheapbul version which has nothing & also back up your PC...there is no boot disk.
posted on November 7, 2000 08:08:07 AM new
I have had lots of books listed on Yahoo for over a year. They are VERY slow sellers. Part of the problem has to be the silly listing tree for books. Most of them don't have a home and wind up in either BESTSELLERS or OTHER, so browsing sales are nil.
But more important, I think, is the Yahoo buying crowd, which is on the young side. In case you haven't been awake the past few years, the youth of America don't (can't?) read much.
If you have a lot of books, learn to use the Bulk Loader, list them and wait. It's minimal work to relist unless the Yahoobots do mess with the categories and then you have to make some changes. Maybe some day word will get out to the book buyers of the world, who I would assume know how to use a search engine.
As for Amazon, I tried it earlier this year, and it's not much better plus the fees will kill you. The clincher there was the deal they had for merchant accounts. For a monthly fee they let you have as many as 5000 ads in Zshops. So the big book dealers use their bulk loader to post all their books in crappy abreviated ads with no pix. When you list your book, you usually have 20 of the same book competing with you from these dealers
