posted on March 1, 2001 04:02:41 AM new
Well I was just about to start up my small auction business again when this anouncement comes along. Glad I havent invested any time into AW's system yet, otherwise I might be a little pissed at only having 14 days to move all my info and images.
I'm going to add my voice to the chourus here... $.05 listing fee okay, 1% final value fee...ridiculous. Yeah, ya gotta make money, but it seems like you should have instituted a flat fee. Especially since your service has been buggy in the past, both the online manager, and AMPro(which seems VERY slow). Also $200 upfront? These are practically extortionist tactics because you know so many have time invested into your system. Is this $200 a way to raise quickly needed cash? Do you guys know someting we dont?
So anyways, again I feel fotunate that I don't have a lick of time invested here.
IF anybody knows of any alternate services, please pass them on to me - [email protected]
posted on March 1, 2001 04:06:19 AM new
I've never sold on ebay. I signed up with an account thinking I might, then learned of the fee and went back to yahoo. Yahoo started charging fees, so I've moved to bidville. I sale mostly ballcards, so fees would make it all really not worth it, maybe even take a loss. I enjoy dealing in ballcards.
posted on March 1, 2001 04:25:46 AM new
While I like to use Auction Watch, and wouldn't have a problem paying a reasonable fee. I find the FVF fee a bit too excessive. Since you are now trying to be a partner in my business, one that I don't really want or need, I would like to start charging you to advertise your services on my auctions. Fair is fair. You charge advertisers on this site. I have to make up the difference somehow. Please let me know what you think is a reasonable fee for my service to you, one we can both live with. This was deleted from the auction manager message page. You are right that AW is deleting messages. I had posted this around 4:30 AM EST The heading was "AW Fees for Advertising on My Auctions"
posted on March 1, 2001 05:00:05 AM new
Hmm...I'm really glad that the FVF tops out at $30.00. I'm sure that makes a lot of folks sleep easier.
To wit:
Item sells for $3.00 - AW gets $0.08
Item sells for $30.00 - AW gets $0.35
Item sells for $300.00 - AW gets $3.05
Item sells for $3,000.00 - AW gets $30.05
What exactly has AW done to assist this sale? Perhaps helped schedule it at an opportune time (if that feature manages to function properly), and perhaps hosting the photos for the listing. This, I would think, would be covered in the $0.05 up front. What stretch of the imagination could bring the parasites-that-be to believe that they should get a cut of the final profit on the item? They are not doing anything to contribute to that final value...they are not hosting the auction and providing the software for managing the bidding...they are not providing any advertising (other than for their own services) to bring in customers. I somewhat doubt that any but the very few have started at AW first and then moved to the auction sites.
I can understand wanting to bring in more money...MBAs are expensive to pay for, and venture/vulture capital will only go so far, but there needs to be a valid rationale for charging a fee, especially a percentage that is based on the performance of a sale.
We are not talking rocket science here, folks. All anyone needs to do the exact same thing that AW does is some very basic HTML knowledge or a word processor that will convert a document into html, some readily available FTP/on-line storage space for photos, and a spreadsheet program. If you are hooked up to the net, you more than likely already have all of these things on your own computer or through your ISP.
Train yourself on how to do it and quite wasting money on useless services.
posted on March 1, 2001 05:17:47 AM new
I feel bad for the big sellers. I have just started to use AW, so it will not be a big deal to me. I do not use them for images or launching. I was using them for email though. Too bad. I have so little on now it's no big deal. I will be using it like I did before for info. I will not pay for something I can do for myself.
posted on March 1, 2001 05:34:16 AM new
Two points:
First, don't feel sorry for powersellers. The fees are minimal - 5 cents per auction + $16.67 per month (no 1% FVF - READ the Terms. If sales are over $2000 per month, the annual fee is the way to go). 400 auctions at $50 each results in charge of $36.67 on sales of $20,000. Looks like total cost of less than 2/10's of 1 per cent.
Second, this is a very good thing. If it wasn't for AW instituting this charge we would still be reading threads started by trolls complaining about supposedly outrageous shipping charges.
posted on March 1, 2001 05:52:36 AM new
Thank you, AW, for providing this wonderful forum where I have learned so much.
<p>
May I propose this? I can see where the nickel and the FVF would be worth it to very high-volume sellers who need your full range of services, and to new sellers who haven’t yet learned html, FTP, etc. But could you please offer a bare-bones package for sellers like us who ONLY use the listing part of your services? I advise you to read this post, even though it’s long, because I’m sure there are lots of sellers like us, and offering a bare-bones option may just save you from losing all of us and going under because of it. (I love AW and I’d really hate to see that!)
<p>
We’re happy to pay the nickel, but the percentage??? No way. We only use AW for listing, nothing else. We can also list for free with eBay’s bulk listing programme. We just happen to like your listing programme better because we can keep an inventory from which to launch auctions, while on eBay’s programme, your listings are all lost when you launch them. Last night, we listed for the first time with eBay’s programme and found a way around that problem, by creating a “batch” which will work as an inventory because we’ll never launch it.
<p>
BTW, we don’t use AW’s pre-schedule or re-schedule feature. We just go in and launch when it’s time. But, I think it’s your Most Valued Feature for many sellers, and therefore advise you to include it in your “bare bones” package.
<p>
When we first started selling on ebay two years ago, I sat myself down, and with the help of Pongo and all the wonderful sellers on eBay boards (hadn’t discovered AW yet then), learned all the html I needed to know in only two hours. (Hope this inspires others out there who haven’t learned it yet!) I’m still using the same basic templates for our auctions I created then. I don’t need the AW templates, therefore. I like my own better, and they’re distinctly ours, anyway.
<p>
I also have my own programme for tracking auctions. It’s colour-coded and much easier for me to use than any auction-tracking programme I’ve seen. (Back when I wrote the programme, I didn’t realise there was any such thing available on the market.) It also makes tax time a snap. So we don’t use your tracking programme.
<p>
We prefer to pay the small fee ($2/month) to our ISP to host an unlimited number of images rather than use any of the free (or otherwise) hosting sites. Our images are crisp and load really fast (important in an auction!), and our ISP has gone down only once in two years, and then only for about one hour. Also, I can have as many pix as I like in our auctions. So we don’t use your image-hosting service.
<p>
I prefer to write personal EOA notices to our customers. This personal touch has earned us repeat customers and held our NPB rate way below normal (about one every two or three months). So, we don’t use your automatic EOA notification service.
<p>
We are Bronze PowerSellers (just barely!) who list 30 – 50 items per month with gross of around $2,000 - $3,000 per month. Sorry, we just can’t pay AW $20 - $30 per month on top of the nickels just because your bulk listing service is slightly more convenient to us than the one available for free on eBay. We would pay the nickels, though.
<p>
I do hope you’ll think about this proposal because I truly appreciate AW, especially the message boards, and we’re happy to support you with the nickels. We also can’t consider the FVF a justifiable expense, as we only use the listing part of the range of services you offer (and that is easily replaced, as we now know, with eBay’s free bulk lister).
<p>
I guess, when you get down to it, we’d be paying the nickels just because we want to support AW and having access to this wonderful community of helpful sellers on this message board. But, there’s still the DNF board on eBay, so we could live without it, if the FVF cannot be waived for bare-bones users like us!
posted on March 1, 2001 06:13:36 AM new
I started a thread a couple of years ago after some prolonged aw site problems. I asked then, if maybe AW should charge a monthly fee in exchange for site stability. I was told in many different ways that, that was not what AW was about. They didn't want our money.
I love AW services. It makes life so easy. I also love the way my auctions look. When I'm looking at listings, I like it when I run across a fellow AW lister. The auctions load faster and look better.
However, while I wouldn't mind the nickle, or even a dime, and I wouldn't mind a twenty dollar monthly fee, the FVF is crazy. I do this for a living. I can tolerate ebay's fees, and even paypal's fees, but enough is enough. It will cost AW the same if my auctions are for five dollars or five hundred dollars. I'm very sad about it, but I'll be looking for a different service.
By the way, I saw earlier in this thread that Hartcottagequilts was referred to as being sadly departed. I enjoyed her posts. Is she gone from AW or really gone?
posted on March 1, 2001 06:25:27 AM new
flamestitch:
Your question about HCQ really had me worried! But after checking another AW thread ("sad and depressed", it seems she's just gone from AW, not gone altogether.
Whew!!!
Although I, too, will miss her here. She also posts on the DNF board, if you want to see her again.
posted on March 1, 2001 06:41:58 AM new
From the sound of that last moderator post, it seems things are getting a bit snippy behind the scenes...hell, they're all probably tired out from all the thread locking going on.
I haven't seen this many threads locked at once since their assinine partnership debacle with Exchangepath. One would have thought AW would have learned its lesson. Or at least would have seen where Exchangepath is currently in the internet auction landscape.
I think AW will be joining them fairly soon. Too bad tomwii's pool post got deleted...I would've like to have gotten in on some of that action.
posted on March 1, 2001 06:46:44 AM new
Well, these new charges that AW have decided on have forced me to figure out the trouble I was having accessing my ISP space. I deleted my current page, and started over from scratch, and it works again.
So, AW actually did me a favor. Back to making my own templates, free hosting, and no company with their advertisements and banners on my auctions.
You can have 5 cents per image, but you can't have a cut of my sales.
Thank you my friend, greatly appreciated.
I dozed off last night after my last post.
I honestly hope AW doesn't end up going under, I'd miss you & all the other wonderful posters who volunteer their time & expertise for FREE on these boards.
For me, it's back to the basics, I'm just not willing to pay AW for something I can do myself for free.
posted on March 1, 2001 06:55:41 AM new
Guess I may as well jump in here ... seeing as how I am a "regular" on the Message Center.
One of the comments I keep reading on the Yahoooooooooo (hereinafter referred to as Y 'cause my o key is wearing out) fiasco was that the number of people who said they were leaving Y forever is not representative of the total number of Y members. In other words, not all Y members are aware of AW so we were only hearing from a select few - those people who we recognize as being regular contributors to the Message Boards.
In this case though, as I scan through these posts, I am seeing a lot of names that I have not seen before. I suspect this does represent a large percentage of sellers - those who use AW services for listing but do not participate in these discussions.
If these people do what they say they are going to do (leave), this could spell the end for AW.
I am not a seller, so listing and final value fees mean nothing to me. I do, however, agree that a listing fee is justified. I don't agree that AW "deserves" a percentage of the selling value unless they are also willing to accept a pecentage of the costs to collect money from slow payers, and issue credits for the deadbeats.
To me, this looks like it could be a logistical nightmare.
wrt to credits for deadbeats, I wonder how this will work? To use an analogy, if I have insurance from two different companies for the same thing, and I suffer a loss, do I get the full replacement value from each company, or 1/2 from each company? How do the two companies communicate and decide who pays what? Will a seller have to submit credit requests to the auction venue AND AW?
Anyway, Mark et al ... good luck with this. I hope I can keep talking with the remaining members here at AW
And digitalman ... get over it already ... pleeeeze
posted on March 1, 2001 07:02:55 AM new
If AW is going to charge for their services - such as launching auctions, what do they plan to do when they make a mistake launching your auctions.
I just found one of my $10.00 items was listed in a $100 Super Featured Category by AW.
I am expected to pay $100 for AW's mistake ?
Is this what the people who will start paying for these services expected to deal with ?
My post on this matter are being erased and locked. What is the deal with that ?
posted on March 1, 2001 07:06:01 AM new
Please add me to the list of people looking for a new listing/image hosting service that is free. I only care about listing and image. I chose AW over another service because it allowed me to set my auctions to list at a later time automatically, so that when I was up at some strange time and felt like doing a lot of auctions, I could create my auctions and set them to launch for the next 10 days or just later in the day. I really liked that service! If there is another free service or auction listing software that allows that, please let me know! Thanks all!
Just to clarify for you. It's not the same as having two insurance policies. Ebay only refunds your FVF if you have an NPB (aka "deadbeat" and only after a waiting period and jumping lots of hoops to prove this was, indeed an NPB. The seller is NOT reimbursed for the "sale price" or even the cost of the item -- so it's not like an insurance policy. Also, the seller is not reimbursed for the listing fees, and has to pay listing fees anew to relist the item!
In the new scheme, if a seller lists through AW and gets an NPB, then the seller is out all the ebay listing fees, plus the nickel AW listing fee. On top of that, the seller must wait and go through a lot of trouble to get the ebay FVF refund. And, until someone from AW answers this question, it appears the seller could also have to eat the 1% FVF charged by AW. Not nice.
To make it easier to understand, here's an example:
We currently have an item on ebay which is bid up to $775. To make it easy, let's say this item ends at $800. We have already paid only $0.25 to list this item, as we started it at only $1. As soon as the auction ends, ebay will charge us FVF of $20.63.
If the high bidder turns out to be a deadbeat, we go through a long process to get the $20.63 refunded to our account. If listed through AW, we'd have to eat the $0.30 it cost to list, no problem, and eventually recoup the $20.63 from ebay. Still, there's the question of what would happen to the $8 FVF AW would charge for this item. Will they refund the $8, and how?
posted on March 1, 2001 07:22:14 AM new
While reading these many pages of posts, several sellers have mentioned that they will just learn html and use their own ISP for picture hosting.
Have you checked with your ISP on their individual rules, TOS? Reason I ask is that when we changed ISPs and they informed us of the free web space, I told them I sold on ebay and asked if I could use this free space to host auction pictures. They said no. No commercial use for any reason, just personal use.
So maybe others might want to check with their ISP before assuming they can post pics there.
posted on March 1, 2001 07:28:26 AM new
Hi Josie ... I am aware of the fact that the seller is not reimbursed for the value of the item
When I look at the hoops you folks have to jump through to get a credit for your listing and selling fees, I think of that process as a guarantee (insurance) from eBay that if you get a deadbeat, these fees will be refunded. In other ways, they are "insuring" you for this loss.
With two separate listing and selling fees from two separate companies now involved, I can see all kinds of new hoops
get rid of your ISP then. Saying the storage of images is commercial use is really an unfair stretch. Besides, they would have a very difficult time proving the images were be used on ebay.
If your ISP sticks with that reasoning there are plenty of ISP who could care less if you stored images. My ISP just doesn't me doing business from my web site. Storing images is not doing business...
posted on March 1, 2001 07:29:50 AM new
AW..........if you are looking at these posts as a gauge to see the reaction of your users........you can add me to the folks that have no problem with your 5 cent charge.........your service is worth that, and has been good for me........and I would pay that no sweat...........but, i will leave if you do not change your "bad" idea of charging the 1%..........it is illegal, unethical, and just plain poor business tactics............have to agree with the all the folks that are going to miss you when you go under............you really should listen to the people who 'use' you........they make you who you are.........and if the majority of them leave.........guess that means you are out of here soon also.........and that is a shame, for you really had a great service......so, this is a vote for the nickel........(no one seems to begrudge you making money)......just leave my meager profits alone.
This topic is 21 pages long: 1new2new3new4new5new6new7new8new9new10new11new12new13new14new15new16new17new18new19new20new21new
, it seems she's just gone from AW, not gone altogether.
