posted on December 20, 2000 07:48:11 PM new
I saw this free listing info this evening and thought well why not list one or two fabrics just to get your name back out there over at that place...
Haven't uploaded pictures to a secondary site in so long, that I said this is more work than it's worth.
And then trying to figure out the games that ebay plays to list something.
I gave up it's not worth the stress of it.
And I am laughing their ANNOUNCEMENT board isn't working...
HO HO HO I do YAHOHOHOHOHO
Joan
posted on December 20, 2000 11:19:49 PM new
dimview- books have always been a slow sell on Yahoo in my experience, but at least you don't have to compete with direct links to half.com in the search listings when you list your books on Yahoo.
posted on December 21, 2000 05:51:14 AM new
And albums. And stock and bond certificates (scripophily). And VHS tapes.
Has nothing at all to do with the listing of quality items; it has everything to do with an absense of QUALITY users. And noticeably so since listings in every category are a disorganized mess.
Why is Yahoo! even in the auction business? I moved just about everything from Yahoo!Auctions to eBay for the GoTo.com free listing day. The results were astonishing.
posted on December 21, 2000 07:23:14 AM new
I had to control myself not to list on eBay yesterday considering it was "FREE." But I made it through the day without succumbing. We don't like to post this time of year, but that "FREE" is always tempting to me.
BUT as a whole, since I switched last year in January, to Yahoo from eBay we have double and in some cases almost tripled our sales - I LOVE YAHOO!
We still use eBay from time to time, but nothing like in the past - we still have PowerSeller Status on eBay (based on performance in the past) which I don't understand how, as now we hardly do $1,000 on eBay a month - guess they are just hard up for PowerSellers!
posted on December 21, 2000 07:55:07 AM new
The disorganized listings are what's hurting Yahoo!Auctions the most right now. Yes, I know there's a "time left" button that someone could click, but the folks that would have to do the clicking are the ones that send an online payment at 9 AM and then e-mail at 10 AM with the question "When was my item shipped?".
My sales were at satisfactory levels until the change from ordered to disordered listings.
And by the way, just checked my counters/sales. Already got a bid on yet another item on eBay that sat dormant on Yahoo!Auctions for more than a month.
posted on December 21, 2000 12:32:49 PM new
YES!!! disordered listings are killing us.
DV-- you've got understand Yahoo users are
very different from feebay users.
1. They don't seem to read. books or listings.
2. Tend to be or act younger.
3, Most of the sellers tend to be more honest. I've seen so much blatant shill and
shield bidding on ebay, I can't believe that it is allowed to continue.
posted on December 21, 2000 01:54:07 PM new
chasd7
YES!!! disordered listings are killing us.
You're right!
> People are bidding to feature $2 items.
> People are giving their stuff away to improve their sell through.($1 - $3) A serious seller can't compete with that.
> Certain people are always on to of the listing order and their sell through sucks (I wonder why).
Yahoo started this crazy listing order so people would list Quality Items.
Now people are just giving stuff away to get to the top of the order. Seems to have backfired on them (and us).
The Yahoooo chearleaders (I would like to be one if I could find something to cheer about) can't seem to see the big picture..
posted on December 21, 2000 03:49:54 PM new
I agree that the listing order is ridiculous. It has hurt me quite a bit as well. I HATE ITE. But it is a reality and so I have done my best to think of ways to work around it.
My sales are doing all right. I think it has a lot to do with my merchandise though. The stuff I sell on Yahoo is just an easier sale I guess. I do about equally well on Yahoo & Ebay, but I pay a lot more when I list on Ebay. I do pay Yahoo now too. I feature in order to turn things over fast and also to get more visibility for my auctions in general.
I don't give things away. I am a serious seller. But I have noticed that a good strategy to use is picking two or three really hot items, featuring the heck out of them, and starting the bidding at $1.00. It has been my experience that those items get multiple bids and end up with high visibility and then towards the end someone will come along and bid the buy price. So I've sold my item at my price and also had the benefit of the bids & visibility.
Quite a few of my customers are grandparents. They buy presents for their grandkids from me. Quite a few more of my customers are international. I really think that the kind of customer you may be looking for is out there bidding. The trick is to get them to look at YOUR auctions.
posted on December 21, 2000 05:26:59 PM new
Yahoo!Auctions can't attract users and seems to think that the problem is that sellers are posting low-quality items.
Well, thanks to the eBay free listing day, I moved 46 "junk" items to eBay from Yahoo!Auctions where not one item received a bid for more than a month.
posted on December 21, 2000 09:23:08 PM new
dimview- I disagree with what you posted that "Yahoo! auctions can't attract users"- I recently featured an item that attracted more than 2,000 page views.
A lack of users is not the real problem here. It is true that Ebay has MORE users. But Yahoo has plenty too. I think the major problem is really the visibility of the items for sale at Yahoo. Time ending sequence would be infinitely superior to the mess we have right now.
I do think there are lots of junk items for sale on Yahoo. I remember back to June or July when I was a Yahoo newbie. I was trying my darndest to shop for stuff to build up my feedback rating, and I waded through PAGES & PAGES of ABSOLUTE JUNK before I found a few things I wanted to bid on.
posted on December 22, 2000 06:19:29 AM new
I guess sometimes ignorance is bliss!
I have never checked to see where our items are in a search - as long as I see sales at the level I want them, I just post and let things go as they may.
I recently started my step-daughter selling on Yahoo, and you know with no feedback and such she must have been at the bottom of the search list, but she was out selling us by the time we closed our auctions for Christmas!
I agree that the order you say Yahoo lists the times in the search is not good, but since there is little I can do about that, I enjoy my ignorant bliss, by just ignoring the whole thing. I don't try to get to the top of the listings - heck I might be there for all I know - I just watch sales, and make educated adjustments to auctions if I see they aren't attracting the action I know they should be.
posted on December 22, 2000 06:53:42 AM new
Yahoo!Auctions users are younger than eBay users. Checked this premise by a search on paintball gun.
Yahoo!Auctions has 42 bids on 222 items, or 18.9%; eBay has 301 bids on 1,268 items, or 23.7%.
I'd say they're somewhat comparable.
If so, perhaps the reason there's a noticeable lack of older users is because they generally have less computer savy, try to search for an item and are greeted with disorganized listings, say to themselves "to heck with this!" and head on over to eBay.
What's your take on this?
[ edited by dimview on Dec 22, 2000 07:01 AM ]
posted on December 22, 2000 07:23:38 AM new
DM: You're most correct, the listings and the
search engine do confuse us oold fartrs.
I can't find my own listings w/search eng.
Was searching for sea shells and got a
thousand Pearl Jam records.
1937 model customized, hardly any original
parts, that still work.
posted on December 22, 2000 08:10:23 AM new
I am going to disagree partly on this one.
YES I agree the jumbled listings is a real mess as far as getting bids.
BUT I feel the lack of CATAGORIES is a BIG reason for the mess to.
You mentioned WADING thru tons of Junk, now lets remember one person's junk is another persons treasure.
I wouldn't mind wading thru, if there was a proper catagory for what I'm looking for.
The doll catagory I have moaned about before.
OTHER is about the only place to put things now gee I am forced to wade thru 100000000 of items to see something.
OLD versus NEW, hum I think there are a lot older people who are very savy on the computer, than any of you really realize.
ALSO one other hurdle that has slowed sales down, was the CC verification, it took out all the deabeats really and a lot of people who are paranoid about giving any info to anybody on the internet.
I LOVE the CC verification, I know now that
99% of my sales are just that.
Yahoo is working at things, I see changes slowly.
I LOVE my YAHOO, it's made a much less stressed old bitty out of me...
Joan
posted on December 22, 2000 07:09:28 PM new
I agree 100% with Joan's post.
dimview, I also have to say, I'd estimate that MORE than 50% of my customers are grandparents. They shop my auctions for cost-effective goodies to buy their grandkids. I know, because I get chatty emails from lots of them. (I encourage that kind of contact with customers because it often makes for great repeat business.)
I occasionally sell crochet, knitting, and cross stitch patterns on Yahoo also, and when I list the really good ones they take all of 2 hours to sell. Please don't tell me that the teenagers are buying those, because that just ISN'T the case.
posted on December 22, 2000 07:18:50 PM new
perhaps the reason there's a noticeable lack of older users is because they generally have less computer savy, try to search for an item and are greeted with disorganized listings, say to themselves "to heck with this!" and head on over to eBay.
What's your take on this?
there's a noticeable lack of older users
my take: there isn't!
they generally have less computer savy
I disagree wholeheartedly!!!!!!! I think the older folks collectively have a LOT of computer savvy. Many are shut ins and shop exclusively online. Many more are retired and have plenty of time to spend figuring out the internet. I think it's my generation (I'm 27) who have the least computer savvy. Kids of today (Gen Y & younger) are practically born with a remote control in one hand a mouse in the other. My generation's first real exposure to anything computer related was along the lines of pacman. And I feel really OLD when I look at the new video games...
try to search for an item and are greeted with disorganized listings, say to themselves "to heck with this!"
I agree 100%. The disorganized listings are a nightmare, and as Joan pointed out, so are the categories in lots of areas.
What's your take on this?
Sorry, couldn't resist letting you know "my take" in minute detail!
posted on December 22, 2000 07:29:25 PM new
CAgrrl I'm with you....You point out a lot of what I see all the time.
I find being friendly with my customers, that they just open up and become very friendly. Have made a lot of friends this way and again a LOT of repeat business.
A LOT of repeat business.
I do beleive the limit in categories(spelled it right this time) has a lot to do with people finding your stuff.
Search,hum, if I'm just looking for some items of a certain vintage, but no special search criteria, then search is useless.
Now lets just go look thru the items.
Oh crimeny I have to look thru 10,000 items to maybe find that item that's out there.
I tried looking at figurines last nite, and was just looking for something older and catch my eye. It was tons of new stuff and the same over and over. I gave up after page 5...
Give us Categories and I can bet bidding would go up...or buys would.
Joan
posted on December 23, 2000 05:59:29 AM new
Well I'll take exception on "older people," depending on what one calls "older." Of course the older I get, the higher the age ranger of "older" gets to me. When I was in my teens 30+ was older; but when I turned 30, 40+ was older, but when I turned 40, 60+ was older - and so on - no, I'm not going to tell you how old I am! LOL
BUT, remember some of we more mature users, have been using computers for more years than some of you have been alive! Some of us caught the vision decades ago, and are now teaching the youth how to actively use a computer. Age is relative and merely a state of mind.
BUT I will agree, that many of the more mature are confused and frustrated by the listing arrangement -
AND regarding categories - this is one of the major problems on Yahoo - often I have to really STRETCHHHHHHHH my imagination to find a category that an item might fit in, and THEN risk the stupid Neighborhood Watch trying to cancel my auction for being in the wrong category.
posted on December 24, 2000 01:40:47 PM new
There is only one correct way for auctions to be listed-shown on any auction,
by date and time sequence, from beginning to end. Any other way is a fools game.
Trying to correct the error of their ways now
Yahoo has gone from a 60% approved auction site to 80% in just the last 3 months.
Don't knock them as tremendous improvements have surfaced.
posted on December 24, 2000 02:33:26 PM new
Hi gem! I'm just trying to make sense of your post, I'm not sure exactly what you're saying.
There is only one correct way for auctions to be listed-shown on any auction, by date and time sequence, from beginning to end. Any other way is a fools game.
I got that part (I think!) and I agree.
Trying to correct the error of their ways now
they are? I'd be really excited if you're right about this!
Yahoo has gone from a 60% approved auction site to 80% in just the last 3 months.
huh?
Don't knock them as tremendous improvements have surfaced.
huh? again...
please elucidate, because I'd really like to know what you're talking about!!
