JWPC
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posted on February 10, 2003 12:21:17 AM new
It seems the popularity of Yahoo Auctions is clearly reflected here by the lack of interest and post in the Yahoo section - when, oh when will Yahoo get the message?
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stonecold613
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posted on February 10, 2003 07:32:39 AM new
The only one not popular is you JWPC. Sales at Yahoo have never been better. Just when it comes to posts here, most of us don't feel the need to waste our time with worthless posts that you always leave.
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replaymedia
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posted on February 10, 2003 11:28:16 AM new
I'll have to admit that sales this past FLD day were the worst I've had in ages. There definitely does seem to be a lack of interested bidders, not to mention the sellers. I know I'm starting to lose interest in Yahoo. Just not enough action.
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blairwitch
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posted on February 10, 2003 07:13:48 PM new
Yahoo could not compete when they were free so it really doesnt matter. If they allow free listings again they would be no better off unless they had a high FVF, and charged for BIN, 10 day auctions, more than one picture, etc. Sellers refuse to stick together and ebay knows it which is why they remain so powerful.
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paloma91
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posted on February 17, 2003 10:37:17 PM new
OH Blairwitch, I disagree. I was doing very very well when Yahoo's auctions were free. I moved when they started charging. I went back a few times to list now and then. It just seems that items are not selling for me on Yahoo at all anymore.
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blairwitch
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posted on February 18, 2003 10:02:41 AM new
Well lets take a look at the fees for both ebay and yahoo for a $9.95 item which has 2 photos, 10 days, and BIN.
Yahoo listing fee- $0.5
Yahoo BIN fee- free
Yahoo 10 day listing- free
Yahoo pictures (2)- free
FVF- 2%
Total fees- $.25
eBay listing fee- $.30
eBay BIN fee- $0.5
eBay 10 day listing- $.10
eBay photos (2)- $.15
FVF- 5.25%
Total fees- $1.12
It costs us $50.00 to list 1,000 items for 10 days on yahoo. On ebay we would be paying $400.00!! Sellers are nuts paying ebay those high fees, but until they stick together ebay will continue to charge high fees. 
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bigcitycollectables
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posted on February 18, 2003 06:35:41 PM new
Very good point,but the problem is that sellers go where the money is and its not Yahoo!I can list items that sell on ebay almost always the first day,and on Yahoo! they can be listed for 20 days and NEVER be sold.
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blairwitch
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posted on February 18, 2003 07:15:13 PM new
The bidders will not go to yahoo until the sellers do. eBay has slapped their small sellers over the face time and time again knowing they wont do anything. eBay is scared to death of sellers sticking together, just look what got done with checkout once sellers united. eBay can be brought to their knees quickly, but it takes a team effort.
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bigcitycollectables
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posted on February 18, 2003 07:31:32 PM new
I hear you brother.Ebays been strokeing me
for a while now.I started selling only on Yahoo! for a month,but then I had to go hungry.It doesnt really matter anymore becouse I do most of my business through my website.Although whenever I do list some auctions I think I will list them on Yahoo!Im sick of Ebay sucking up so much of my profit.The listing fees are so high it makes sellers not want to list them for the price that they need to be listing them for.
Heres a good example..
Lets say I have an action figure with a retale price of 69.95.Ok if you list the item for more than 49.99 you end up paying quite a bit more for the listing.So instead of listing it for 69.95 your almost forced to list it for 49.99 and there goes 25% of your profit.
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pelorus
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posted on February 19, 2003 06:04:55 AM new
ebay hardly seems scared of sellers sticking together. Sellers are unorganized and have no other venue to reach such a huge audience. We are stuck with whatever ebay wants to do. When ebay changed checkout after the big uproar it was because they realized they checkout was horrible the way they had it set up.
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blairwitch
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posted on February 19, 2003 10:06:27 AM new
bigcitycollectables what works for us is listing on both ebay and yahoo. We direct all our ebay customers to check out the yahoo listings. We have a 25-30% STR on yahoo which is fantastic.
pelorus your attitude is why the rest of us suffer. Sellers do have another venue. And checkout was not removed because of the setup. I remember all the protest auctions that took place which led to media coverage. ebay doesnt back down easily. 
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justmypostingid
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posted on February 19, 2003 02:55:19 PM new
I also list on ebay but now I point my customers to a niche site for my other items, It's working well so far.
I think Yahoo should have added fees a bit more slowly and worked it's way up instead of just slamming fees from the get go and having to cut them later because the site was decimated.
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blairwitch
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posted on February 19, 2003 05:45:08 PM new
I agree they should have had the current fees when they began charging. I would like to see them waive the listing fees for a higher FVF. Once things got going again they could lower the FVF and charge the nickel insertion fee.
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justmypostingid
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posted on February 20, 2003 10:29:31 AM new
So how do they fix it, Go free for a year or two again to rebuild the user base? If they don't do something I think that in a few years Yahoo auctions will be nothing but a memory.
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bigcitycollectables
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posted on February 20, 2003 06:15:56 PM new
Ok 2 days have passed and 9 people have looked at 1 of my auctions at Yahoo! I have the same item listed on Ebay and 56 people have already looked at my auction.8 of the 21 listings on Ebay sold over night and 4 sold in 2 hrs....So..Yea ...
All sellers need to start just selling on Yahoo!It will be ruff at first but the longterm reward is well worth it.
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pelorus
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posted on February 21, 2003 06:56:16 AM new
blairwitch, maybe I will try Yahoo again. My previous experiences have been so bad, though. Few looks, few bids, very high NPB rate. Plus, they didn't seem to even have a category that fits one of my main areas (vintage advertising).
I hope that a more vital competitor for ebay comes along. However, IBM had an ebay-like stranglehold in its business for 30 years.
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replaymedia
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posted on February 21, 2003 09:35:10 AM new
Although I have a much lower sell-through ratio on Yahoo, I really don't have a higher percentage of NPBs.
It's probably one of those things that probably depends on the type of item you sell, no matter WHERE you list them.
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blairwitch
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posted on February 21, 2003 07:37:14 PM new
We use yahoo with eBay. Without that traffic we would sell very little. If the ebay buyer doesnt have a yahoo account we just end that auction. What I would like to see is each ebay seller listing 25% of their items on yahoo, or better yet 50% if they could. It would benefit both buyers and sellers. Could you imagine ebay competing for sellers? I guarantee things would change in ebay land.....at least we can dream! 
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pelorus
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posted on February 22, 2003 11:22:47 AM new
Here's another obstacle: AW doesn't have an easy way for the seller to take an ebay auction and convert it to Yahoo. You have to practically start from scratch.
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stonecold613
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posted on February 22, 2003 10:07:55 PM new
You all must be forgetting. Now before I reply, I must say that I am one of Yahoo's biggest supporters.
But I also now that ebay is king. And no one should forget that. That point I have always stated is to use Yahoo as a supplement to ebay. Using Yahoo as your main auction venue is foolish. Ebays traffic is way to busy to not list items there. But there is sufficient traffic and a very low deadbeat rate at Yahoo which makes it desirable to list items there as well. I put items on Yahoo that didn't sell on ebay just to keep them exposed and do quite well.
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blairwitch
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posted on February 23, 2003 04:03:02 PM new
Sadly many sellers are losing out on yahoo. For a nickel a listing its very cheap. All it takes to do well on yahoo is list some items, and when you send your EOA notice to your ebay bidders include a link to your yahoo auction booth, and presto instant traffic. Sellers always complain about no competition for ebay, but its always been there. I figured it out, but many have not.
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replaymedia
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posted on February 25, 2003 12:26:41 PM new
I'm with BW on this...
Yahoo is no eBay, but at a nickel a shot, it's excellent cheap advertising to draw in new customers.
All my winners, Yahoo, eBay or whatever get pointed to my website in my EOA mails, and again on my in-the-box receipt.
If they're happy with the item, they'll be back!
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blairwitch
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posted on February 26, 2003 11:15:02 AM new
replaymedia I dont know when sellers will wake up, but one things for sure if sellers stick together and list items at yahoo we can break the ebay monopoly fast. When I tell all my ebay customers to check out my yahoo listings not only does it help me, but they also check out other goods on yahoo.
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JWPC
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posted on March 3, 2003 07:40:15 AM new
Beyond few lookers, and low sales, one of the major problems, at least for us to use Yahoo on a part time basis, is that I have to TOTALLY reconstruct our auctions to fit the Yahoo format. THIS is a major hindrance, the TIME consumption, to transpose our auction format, to place on a site that there are so few lookers, and so few sales at this time isn’t worth the effort.
WHEN Yahoo was free, and there were buyers, it was worth the effort to reformat our auctions, but since Yahoo’s suicide, we have tried off and on to little post to little avail.
Blairwitch It isn’t the initial cost Yahoo vs eBay – as Yahoo would easily win out – it is the long term cost, as you sit and pay re-list after re-list, and the time, etc. TIME is also money, and if I can sell an item in a few days on eBay – it pays more than endless re-listing on Yahoo, in both TIME AND MONEY.
I TRULY believe with a FVF ONLY, Yahoo would see a MAJOR influx of sellers again, and buyers behind them – Yahoo isn’t eBay, and to sell most items require realists – we sold up a storm on the old Yahoo, but nada since then – Yahoo would profit in this scenario and the buyer and seller would also.
You know all of us have hashed, and rehashed, and rehashed this issue, and basically agree about Yahoo having a FVF and free listing fee – in fact we have discussed it till I am sure, some are blue in the face, and for what – Yahoo isn’t listening – and obviously they aren’t going to. It is sad, as one time we were outselling eBay on Yahoo – but not since the suicide move.
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clancey99
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posted on March 3, 2003 04:51:04 PM new
I have not listed on Yahoo for a long time because it was not good business to do so. I would not mind paying the fees if the results justified them. I don't understand Yahoo not making a bigger pitch to get buyers and sellers. EBAY has lost touch with it's sellers and the situation is ripe for someone to get into the game. Yahoo has to make buyers aware that they are out there. They are the best kept secret in town.They have to make both the buyers and sellers aware that they are better than EBAY.If they just concentrated on Antiques and Collectibles like EBAY did when they started I think they might have a fighting chance
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dbest
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posted on March 4, 2003 03:06:56 PM new
Yahoo colud give ebay a good run for their money if that stopped the listing fee. i for one would start listing again. But until then it keeps dieing.
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bigcitycollectables
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posted on March 5, 2003 01:07:35 PM new
I really hate the fact that Yahoo! auctions doesnt support templates.I think the listing fee has to go too.Whats the point of paying a fee when most of you're listings wont sell anyways.Its a waist.
[ edited by bigcitycollectables on Mar 5, 2003 01:08 PM ]
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replaymedia
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posted on March 5, 2003 02:47:49 PM new
That's not entirely true- it's as much of an AW limitation as a Yahoo problem. Yahoo supports limited templates just fine. It's just that Auctionwatch uses too many graphic images in their templates.
The auction service I use allows custom templates, and I use it with Yahoo all the time. You can do colors, tables, fonts etc- you just can't use more than a certain number of graphic images (I think it's 11, but could be wrong).
With AW templates, each curved corner is an image, the headers get a background image, and so forth. AW templates are just too complex for Yahoo.
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tomwiii
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posted on March 5, 2003 03:46:36 PM new
replay is correct -- although BooHoo is much better now than they used to be! Used to be limited only to THRE images!!
You CAN make a NICE template for BooHoo, just takes a bit more work!
Once you get it set-up, it is a PIECE-OF-CAKE to list on BooHoo, with DEADZOOM PLATES and BooHoo's FANTASTIC loader: SELLER'S MANAGER
Ralphie loves Mr Blonde:
"Are you gonna bark all day little doggie, or are you gonna bite?"
http://tinyurl.com/5duz
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blairwitch
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posted on March 5, 2003 07:51:48 PM new
Blairwitch It isn’t the initial cost Yahoo vs eBay – as Yahoo would easily win out – it is the long term cost, as you sit and pay re-list after re-list, and the time, etc. TIME is also money, and if I can sell an item in a few days on eBay – it pays more than endless re-listing on Yahoo, in both TIME AND MONEY.
Of course you cant put items on yahoo and expect bids without using ebay. I can list an item on yahoo 60 days for the cost of 7 on ebay. We put our best goods on ebay, place the seconds on yahoo and all our ebay winners get our seller booth link. We have an average STR of 20-30% on yahoo this time of year, higher during the holidays. We dont accept paypal or paydirect, and we add a $.50 handling fee on our shipping. If we sell 200 items on yahoo the fee pays our insertion fees. If your item isnt worth a nickel then pitch it.
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