pj79
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:06:58 PM new
 March 14th....a day that will live in infamy...or not? I'm just a part timer like most of the others. I always wanted to host my own darn images anyway. Peace I'm out
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julie920
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:07:11 PM new
I love AW's services and would have no problem paying .05. I would never let a picture host take 1% of my auction! No way no how! AW, I think you should reconsider the 1%!
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vargas
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:07:47 PM new
Two weeks' notice is a little short!
I'd pay the nickel or the 1% -- but not both. Sorry fellas, I'm outta here.
I've built myself a template and learned how to upload my pics to my own web space.
AW doesn't really give me anything I can't get for what basically amounts to free (resources I already control).
It's been nice. But nice rarely lasts forever.
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magazine_guy
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:08:19 PM new
toke:
You're right- for the occasional seller, these services aren't essential.
But for the full time seller, they are. There's no way someone could list hundreds of auctions weekly (or thousands, as some do) without auction management service or software.
I list and process only about 250 auctions a month- and I couldn't do it without auction management software.
And it's the volume seller that these businesses want-- all of them. They aren't targeting the occasional seller, although AW's basic plan does accomodate the occasional seller, in my view.
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Empires
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:10:44 PM new
I like AW for it's community, but, I'm not sure I like AW auction services enough to allow them to jump on the coporate welfare program yet! No offense meant or sent! Just my opinion.
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sylswa
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:12:15 PM new
Well, like most here we don't have a problem with the .05 listing or a reasonable listing fee, but the FVF we don't thinks so. There are too many NPB's right now on ebay and we are going to be charged a FVF (from our hosting service) for items that may not even end up as a sale, along with the many other good points everyone here is bringing up. We will have to give this some long hard thought.
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jlwelling
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:15:17 PM new
1% of final value - bummer! I am very small scale and buy at retail (on sale) and hope to make a little money & have a little fun. My profits can't take any more "little bites" - the .05 I'd swallow for the convenience of pic hosting and scheduling my auctions in advance (the only features I use), but not a portion of sales for the privilege. I haven't found an increase in buyers since using this service...and bids and prices are down...and other fees are up...no good for the little guy or folks who sell items with small prices - 98% of my auctions end with prices under $10 - including shipping! I can't do anything about the postal increase, I can't do anything about the Ebay fee increase, I could drop paypal (which has increased sales and lessened turnaround time), but I have to say "goodbye to AW...can't afford it"!
[ edited by jlwelling on Feb 28, 2001 03:47 PM ]
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sharkbaby
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:15:37 PM new
I'll give ya .10 per listing and NO FVF !
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dianacxxx
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:16:45 PM new
I will be gone when fees kick in!
So long!!!!!!!!!!!!11
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cmbtboots
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:18:49 PM new
punkinhed
I started a new thread with your idea, I hope you don't mind.
http://www.auctionwatch.com/mesg/read.html?num=2&thread=339139&id=339139
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awnetdude
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:20:50 PM new
See Ya!
it's been real.
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tapatti
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:20:58 PM new
Why is it that when the Mafia collects protection policy percentages from Deli's and Pizza Joints it's called organized crime?
Yet so many software providers et al think it's all right to get a piece of the gross?
5 cents, OK. ANY percentage...NOT!
What ticks me off is that I didn't even start using the service yet. Downloaded the Pro version and spent the past two weekends learning how to use it all and never ONCE did I see any mention of coming fees.
Needless to say I won't be using AW.
And for some reason my mouse cursor just won't go anywhere near those purdy advertiser's banners at the top. Wonder why?
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priscilla
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:23:31 PM new
Guess, I'll be leaving too. I've been with AW for over 2 years. I've seen lots of changes most of them good. This is not one of them. While I totally understand why a company needs to make $$. That is the exact same reason, I will need to go elsewhere, or just go back to using my ISP, or Ebays service. Epier has free image hosting if you place your auctions with them, and they have preferences for some of your repeat text etc; Still free for now. It's not bad at all. I can't afford to use this service anymore to bad!! I kind of had a feeling when the latest new feaures were rolled out that a fee was not far behind. We don't really need all these storefronts, and post sale tools etc; Sellers will have to cut somewhere too, and guess where they will cut?? AW, you will be the first thing to go. We did our auctions before without you, so can do again. It is a bit more work, but not really that much. Half of my customers wont fill out the invoices anyway, and some can't get the link to work with their email programs anyway. I still have free image hosting with www.bay-town, but not sure for how long. There is no way a seller selling low end items can eat this added cost. Ebay raised their fees, Yahoo the same, Pay-Pal and all the rest. It really adds up. I agree with the others about the FVF. I don't think AW has a right to any of my auction profits. A fee for listing is one thing, but the FVF goes to far IMO. Sorry to lose a good friend. I will only stay until March 14th. This all makes me very sad. Goodbye AW!!!
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cmbtboots
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:23:44 PM new
Nevermind they locked me up. That was fast.
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CRAZYJAN
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:23:44 PM new
I can understand the .05 fee- but the percentage of my final auction sale---NO WAY!!!!!!! BYE AUCTIONWATCH!!!!!!!!
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mark
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:31:25 PM new
Hi everyone;
I'd like to address some of your concerns and speak to this topic as a whole.
punkinhead, you state:
"Right now ol Mark is snickering away thinking that as long as he keeps the message board free we'll all keep coming here and he'll keep getting whatever advertisers are giving him per hit.
Snickering is the last thing I'm doing. It's my goal to keep our rates as reasonable as possible and keep the business viable. We're a business- as such, we need to derive a reasonable source of revenue. Frankly speaking the advertising we have on our site subsidizes only a small portion of what we do.
Meya, you state:
"AuctionWatch sellers also experience increased sales using our services. On average, AuctionWatch sellers sell a higher percentage of their listed items than competing sellers using other listing services or listing items directly for sale on individual auction sites.
Nonsense."
Actually AW sellers do realize higher sell through. As you're probably aware we have access to all closed auctions on the big three sites. As such we can run some simple analysis on the records to see which ones closed successfully with a high bid / made reserve. On average this data clearly shows AW sellers have higher sellthrough. We wouldn't make such a claim if it were untrue.
elecdata1, you state:
"I would expect that Mark et. al. had to think long and hard about this and that the time has come to make the hard decisions."
Indeed. A great deal of thought, pain and analysis went into our decision, and it wasn't taken lightly.
Every day I come to work and see all of our employees hard at work trying to drive value to you, our customer. I see hundreds of servers and millions of dollars of hardware being maintained to deliver this value to you. We've served nearly 100 million auctions, billions of image impressions and made people's auctioning experience a better, more convenient one.
At the end of the day we cannot continue to foot the bill without passing some of our costs onto you- it's simple economics. Running a big web site costs money. Lots of it.
To those that choose to leave, I respect your decision, and appreciate your participation on our site.
To those that understand our decision to charge, know that we're committed to your auctions and will continue to provide services that add value to your auction businesses.
Regards,
Mark
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lovepotions
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:32:58 PM new
So is your auction software going to be smoother running from now on??
Holiday and themed templates promptly offered?
I was gearing up to use AW for a massive wave of Valentine themed Auctions in my genre of merchandise V-Day is my christmas rush
Yet in mid-January I load AW and synched it and find no V-day Templates yet I find stale old THANKSGIVING AND HALLOWEEN Templates
So I asked about it and January 31st they announce V-Day templates available
How Quaint and way too friggin late to effectively use them.
Do you have the spring holiday ones ready??
I'd bet the farm you don't.
Yet of that entire program creating or changing templates is the easiest thing to do.
As far as the $.05 to list that is reasonable. No problems on that aspect.
But how are you going to handle the wave of sellers with dead beats coming in for credit requests??
1% means little credits not cost effective enough to have the staff even process them. How are you going to handle potentially 1,000's of itsy bitsy fee refund requests of $.10 each?
Or is it going to be so difficult to do that you hope that by letting enough time pass on these dead beats those sellers will no longer bother with the fee refund attempts like Ebay does?
http://www.lovepotions.net
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egabbe
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:36:10 PM new
***Sigh*** I list a fair amount on ebay.. roughly 300 auctions a month. I love using Auction Watch. But just like the rest of you I'm not willing to offer a percentage for the convenience. I do think 5 cents is a fair fee.
ATTN: AUCTIONWATCH
I will be more than happy to stay for a 5 cents per auction fee.... if the Final Value Fee isn't dropped I'll have to say goodbye.
Please take the next 13 days to rethink your pricing structures! I'll be waiting with my fingers crossed!
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reddeer
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:36:50 PM new
Mark
I have no problem with the 5 cents, but why the 1%?
IMO it would have been better to go with 10 cents per auction, and leave the FVF off.
I hope this joint stays up for another year, or more. I use & like the services offered, but the 1% is a hard pill to swallow.
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digitalmaster
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:39:52 PM new
Auction Amigo from Auction Invenna is great it does all the same things and its $39.99!!!
You must pay by March 5th. NOTE THIS POST HAS BEEN DELETED. 3 Attempt...
Great. I knew that was coming. Once again a company only gives 2 weeks notice. They could have offered 30 day notice which is standard business practice. Oh, I better be careful. Moderators don't like when you say anything wrong about their company... Censored many times before just for disagreeing with moderators!
Well, I would suggest that all you wait, especially PowerSellers becasue Seller Assistant from eBay is going to possibly be cheaper, plus, they are (possibly) offering discounts to PowerSellers. Even still, if your not a PowerSeller, its $15.99 and that is cheaper in the long run. Who wants to commit to a service in a new industry like this for a whole year?
Not me thank you...
[ edited by digitalmaster on Feb 28, 2001 03:40 PM ]
[ edited by digitalmaster on Feb 28, 2001 03:42 PM ]
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mark
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:41:44 PM new
digitalmaster, it violates our user agreement. Call me silly but I'm not going to sponsor a thread that's promoting a competing product.
Regards,
Mark
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digitalmaster
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:43:17 PM new
How is that showing respect to your users if you delete their posts???
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digitalmaster
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:45:13 PM new
I thought these threads were seperate from the program itself. I always respected AW for that because I thought it was a place for sellers to share ideas and help eachother. I did not know promoting other companies would get the posts deleted.
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pickersangel
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:48:40 PM new
Hmmmm...interesting how some things come together with almost miraculous timing. Having made a decision to return to work full-time, I'd pretty much decided to stop listing on Ebay anyway, except when I have a "sure thing" to sell. For those items, I can handle the $.05 listing fee (since that's all I use AW for at this point, anyway), but I agree that the 1% FVF is overkill. Since I won't be doing a LOT of listing, I'll probably list things manually and keep that extra cash myself. The rest of my stuff will be listed to DutchBid and Lycos, where it can sit indefinitely at no cost to me. 
always pickersangel everywhere
http://homepage.netspaceonline.com/~twobar/pickers.htm
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doninpa
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:49:17 PM new
AW served 100 million auctions. At $0.05 an auction, that would be 5 million dollars. Is that not enough for AW? they also need to eat away at the profits?
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digitalmaster
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:52:14 PM new
I don't mind paying for a service, but the only problem I have (besides the percentage) is the fact that you are giving us only 2 week notice.
Just as your moderators like to point us to the fact that we have to have good etiquette, its standard business practice to offer your customers 30 day notice. That is STANDARD in the business world.
Lets hope they don't censor this. It seems anyone giving sellers other alternatives are getting deleted
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margaretmillsap
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posted on February 28, 2001 03:54:22 PM new
Could you please let me know about if the fee applys to relists?
It will make a difference since I do relist some items several times.
If the 5 cent fee applys to relists, perhaps it would then be advantageous to relist with another source.
Then to follow that logic, would the 1% fee not apply since the relist is not through AW?
Thanks,
Maargaret
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pcalton
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posted on February 28, 2001 04:01:13 PM new
My guess is AW listings will immediately drop by at least 80% due to the charge.
leaving 20 million at 5 cents for $1 million in listing fees not taking in consideration any relist fees and the 1% final sales fee.
I would think that is more than what banner advertising will bring in. But will the new model work? or any model offering these serives for that matter.
again, even 5 cents is too much without AW providing traffic. forget the 1%
pcalton
Perry Calton
[email protected]
http://www.pcalton.com
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smw
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posted on February 28, 2001 04:01:17 PM new
I don't use AW services but if I did I would go the nickel per auction. That is fair, but I wouldn't go for the 1% either.
Has anyone at AW looked into the possibility that by taking a commission on the goods or services sold AW could be making itself a party to the sale and there could be some liability to AW for what ever is sold?
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ewora
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posted on February 28, 2001 04:03:20 PM new
I will have to agree with everyone that the 1% fee is asking to much of us small listers. I list 5-20 items a week and most sell for under $10.00. I am a single mom with 3 kids. I need all the extra money I make. What a disappointment.
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