goWholesale

Hi,

l wish you luck with your new venture. For sure l think we can now place Ebay in the category of greedy auction houses! and I am looking around for a viable alternative to sell my goods, as l'm sure many other people are on this forum.

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! When l think of Ebay now, l think of the scene from the first jaws movie when the shark is on the back of the boat as its sinking, and it has the guy 3/4 way inside its mouth!! ( the sellers! ) jeeze!

Obviously to attract buyers to your website you'll first have to attract the sellers, so at first l guess you'll have to either charge no or very low fees, or maybe just a low fee if an item sells.

l would try and stick close to the ebay model ... because everybody knows that and is comfortable with it .... and eventually charge yahoo type fees, hopefully you'll do good, and we'll all have a viable alterative to Ebay.


Good luck

Andy

http://www.tonchionline.com for Competitively priced Video Games & Consumer Electronics

I am glad to hear about your project you wish to set up. It sounds very exciting and something to shoot for. However the chance of it thriving are minimal in my opinion.

In any invention you have to be the first to come up with it. Ebay was the first (or one of the first) to come up with online auctions and as the years pasted it kept adding to its growing user base with new features and what not.

We all see many things wrong with auction sites and talk negative about it, but in the end we will be still clicking the List My Auction button. Yes the fee's have gone up, and eBay is taking a bite of our profit, but they are the ones who bring the buyers to us, they advertise our products. All you really do is just submit your auctions and wait for users to bid on it, a very simple and easy process.

The fee's are a killer, but if you want to complain go use other auction sites where the fee's are much lower (yahoo auctions for example). I dont see anyone doing this... for the simple fact because ebay brings the customers to you and your making more money then if you were to list on yahoo. Ebay is more popular and has been a recognized name all over the world.

Now going back to your auction idea. Trying to replicate or be similar to the ebay concept is the wrong path in my opinion. You cannot possibly compete with this giant. No matter what "ideas" you have to make the auction expereince better, or how much dollars you invest in advertising.

The approach I suggest to you is come out with something totally unique. I have no ideas on what you can possibly come up with thats different, but as said earlier, times change and new trends arise. Sorry to have wrote so much about the whole auction concept but I dont see much success if you plan on creating just "another" auction site. No matter what kind of little changes and ideas you have to bring to the game.

VanillaFashion wrote:You MUST come up with a better feedback system!!!! THERE ARE FAR TO MANY RIP OFF MERCHANTS ON EBAY, and they are getting away with it!!!

Wow! Do you think that offering lower fees is going to curb the amount of fraudulent sellers. NOt on your life. It will only increase.

As for feedback, it is sellers who benefit most from feedback, not buyers. There is no reason for a seller to leave feedback before feedback is left for him/her.

Buyers are just as guilty of not leaving feedback. My experience is that only 20% of buyers leave feedback without you asking for it and only 5% leave feedback when asked for it. However, the feedback rate goes up for disgruntled buyers. Unsatisfied buyers are more likely to leave a negitive feedback before contacting the seller about the problem.

VanillaFashion wrote:

cxm322 wrote:

VanillaFashion wrote:You MUST come up with a better feedback system!!!! THERE ARE FAR TO MANY RIP OFF MERCHANTS ON EBAY, and they are getting away with it!!!

Wow! Do you think that offering lower fees is going to curb the amount of fraudulent sellers. NOt on your life. It will only increase.

As for feedback, it is sellers who benefit most from feedback, not buyers. There is no reason for a seller to leave feedback before feedback is left for him/her.

Buyers are just as guilty of not leaving feedback. My experience is that only 20% of buyers leave feedback without you asking for it and only 5% leave feedback when asked for it. However, the feedback rate goes up for disgruntled buyers. Unsatisfied buyers are more likely to leave a negitive feedback before contacting the seller about the problem.

So what does that mean, you disagree with what I have said? Why should a buyer be unsatisfied with a seller? If the seller is totally honest and gives a good description of the product the only problems that should arise should be to do with postage related problems. I have my own Ebay Shop (the name of which shall remain anonymous so you don’t think this is a plug) and I have 100% positive feedback from over 200 buyers. That is because I am honest and sell genuine items! There should be a feedback system that makes it impossible to leave retaliatory feedback. I know this is easier said than done.

Confused now.

But about your 200 positive feedbacks. That is great, but all I am trying to say is that my experience is that only 20% of my buyers bother to leave feedback. ANd all that leave a negative are just unsatisfiable because I state axactly the truth and I ship exactly as stated. I get negatives ro wonderful stuff like it took 7 days to get here or arrived damaged. of course it took seven days to get there, I told them is shiped vioa ground and would take 7-10 business days to arrive. I ship immediately, but I cannot get UPS or FedEx to ship faster than they do without upgrading to air shipping. Or how about when you get a negative for something like a book where the buyer simply did not like the book. I did not write the book and the buyer has no problem with the condition or anything like that, he just did not like the book, so he givesd me a negative feedback like I had something to do with the contents of the damn book.

So tell me, you have 200 positive feedbacks, but how many sales have you made total?

NO retaliatory feedback. Are you saying that sellers should not be allowed to leave a negative for buys. I had many people send me bad checks. THey bounce, I get a fee, and the buyer does not respond to any requests to at least reimburse me for the bank fees. When a check bounces and I cannot even recover the bank fees, you bet I'm gonna leave a negative feedback for that buyer. Jus tthe same, if I get an unjust negative from a buyer and they do not have any intention to work with me to resolve any isssues I can resolve, I will leave retaliatory feedback...FOR SURE.

YOu make it seem as though all the crooks on ebay are sellers. I can assure you that for ever crooked seller there are at least 5 crooked buyers.

cxm322 wrote:

VanillaFashion wrote:

cxm322 wrote:

VanillaFashion wrote:You MUST come up with a better feedback system!!!! THERE ARE FAR TO MANY RIP OFF MERCHANTS ON EBAY, and they are getting away with it!!!

Wow! Do you think that offering lower fees is going to curb the amount of fraudulent sellers. NOt on your life. It will only increase.

As for feedback, it is sellers who benefit most from feedback, not buyers. There is no reason for a seller to leave feedback before feedback is left for him/her.

Buyers are just as guilty of not leaving feedback. My experience is that only 20% of buyers leave feedback without you asking for it and only 5% leave feedback when asked for it. However, the feedback rate goes up for disgruntled buyers. Unsatisfied buyers are more likely to leave a negitive feedback before contacting the seller about the problem.

So what does that mean, you disagree with what I have said? Why should a buyer be unsatisfied with a seller? If the seller is totally honest and gives a good description of the product the only problems that should arise should be to do with postage related problems. I have my own Ebay Shop (the name of which shall remain anonymous so you don’t think this is a plug) and I have 100% positive feedback from over 200 buyers. That is because I am honest and sell genuine items! There should be a feedback system that makes it impossible to leave retaliatory feedback. I know this is easier said than done.

Confused now.

But about your 200 positive feedbacks. That is great, but all I am trying to say is that my experience is that only 20% of my buyers bother to leave feedback. ANd all that leave a negative are just unsatisfiable because I state axactly the truth and I ship exactly as stated. I get negatives ro wonderful stuff like it took 7 days to get here or arrived damaged. of course it took seven days to get there, I told them is shiped vioa ground and would take 7-10 business days to arrive. I ship immediately, but I cannot get UPS or FedEx to ship faster than they do without upgrading to air shipping. Or how about when you get a negative for something like a book where the buyer simply did not like the book. I did not write the book and the buyer has no problem with the condition or anything like that, he just did not like the book, so he givesd me a negative feedback like I had something to do with the contents of the damn book.

So tell me, you have 200 positive feedbacks, but how many sales have you made total?

NO retaliatory feedback. Are you saying that sellers should not be allowed to leave a negative for buys. I had many people send me bad checks. THey bounce, I get a fee, and the buyer does not respond to any requests to at least reimburse me for the bank fees. When a check bounces and I cannot even recover the bank fees, you bet I'm gonna leave a negative feedback for that buyer. Jus tthe same, if I get an unjust negative from a buyer and they do not have any intention to work with me to resolve any isssues I can resolve, I will leave retaliatory feedback...FOR SURE.

YOu make it seem as though all the crooks on ebay are sellers. I can assure you that for ever crooked seller there are at least 5 crooked buyers.

I am defiantly not saying that sellers should not be able to leave negative feedback about buyers!!!! My very point is that both parties should be able to leave negative feedback without the fear of getting retaliatory feedback! My problem is SOME PEOPLE LEAVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK PURLY BECAUSE THEY WERE GIVEN NEGATIVE FEEDBACK. The end result is a large about of people (myself included) will NOT leave negative feedback for fear of getting “retaliatory” feedback. THIS IS THE PROBLEM I SEE WITH EBAY. Further more I think it should be an obligation to leave feedback, not just an option. With reply to your question, I have sold to 233 people, 23 people have not left me feedback. After every sale once the buyer has received there items I ask them to leave feedback. Then I beg them to leave feedback, then I remind them again and then beg some more. So I spend a large amount of time asking people to leave me feedback. AND as soon as their payment CLEARS I leave them feedback.

Anyway, we might me diverting a little from the first post. And the point I was trying to make was the Ebay feedback system leaves a lot to be desired. There is room for much improvement.

Regards,