posted on January 31, 2001 06:36:20 AM new
All in all fees are to be expected and are definitely worth it if value (i.e. bidders and hits and a stable site are received.)
I see that the grumbling about fees is really not the fees per se. It's a whole bunch of other things, principally downtime but other things like poor support, ebay not verifying bidders to decrease deadbeats and I could go on and on but you are all aware of what they are.
The recent letters to some power sellers talked about on another thread are an example and all these little things add up.
posted on January 31, 2001 11:55:56 AM new
How much does it cost to rent space at a Flea Market? What about Booth space in a Mall or Flea Market? Do they let you sit your stuff out for free?
I think it is more than the fee increase that has sellers upset. Maybe it was just the last straw?
posted on January 31, 2001 12:05:19 PM new
Unless you want banner ads on every page and a host of other distracting, annoying sales pitches, you had better plan to pay reasonable fees. How else is a site going to finance its operations? It will either charge users or find advertisers.
It's been a tough month or so, what with the postal rate increases and eBay's rate hike. I'm feeling it, and I know everybody else is, too. I think buyers are put off by the increase in shipping rates...to say nothing of the sellers who gouge buyers by artificially inflating "shipping and handling" to the point where you are sometimes paying more for that than you are for the item you won.
And I don't think it makes sense to try and shift much--if any--of the costs onto buyers by, say, charging a membership fee or a buyer's premium. That will just turn off even more buyers.
But for me, there is no reasonable alternative to eBay. I'm not going to "go retail" and hire a booth, and none of the other auction sites offer me anything near what eBay does. I'm interested in the co-op idea because I think "we" can manage it better than a giant conglomerate and because I think "we" can keep fees a bit lower because so much of the effort will be mostly volunteer--at least at the beginning.
posted on January 31, 2001 12:57:31 PM new
I am new to selling but let me say this..I can sell an item for $25.00 & my fees are $1.50, a lot cheaper than running an ad in the paper, or sitting an a booth for hours..There are a lot harder and more costly ways to sell than on e-bay......THanks
posted on January 31, 2001 01:11:59 PM new
I could stick a note on the bulletin board at the local grocery for free. A few hundred people could see that note.
I could pay for a listing in my newspaper's classified section for a little more. Several thousand could be able to see that listing.
I could list on eBay for a small fee. A few million could see that listing.
Clearly it is cheapest for me to offer the item for sale on the local grocery store bulletin board. Do you know why I don't do it that way?
posted on January 31, 2001 02:19:08 PM new
No body interested in this thinks it is going to be FREE. But if you don't have to worry about your auctions being ended by bored kids who don't know snot about the business or the rules it would be nice.
If you don't have to worry about logging on to find that all your actions have been dumped in a new category and the old ones are history, it would be nice.
If you have not been able to log on for 2 hours and want to know why it would be nice not to have some one lying to you saying all is well - nothing is wrong.
It would be nice not to have banner ads compeating for your customers.
It would be nice to have a voice in what categories are created for your items to be posted in.
It would be nice to be treated with some respect.
It would be nice not to be told you are the trailer trash and armpit of the online world if you are not selling high dollar items.
Fees are the least of it.
posted on January 31, 2001 03:35:10 PM new
Yes, I think you should pay to sell your items. But I don't think you should pay to list items won by deadbeats, or pay to put up with crap like this:
(copied from another thread)
Same buyer bid on 14 of my auctions -- 14!!!
and won 5 of them. I agreed to wait a few days for the others to finish in order to combine for shipping (proves that no good deed goes unrewarded!). Yesterday, I had even more bids from another bidder on many of the same auctions which were still running and some others. 18 bids, I think it was. I had a very scared feeling, because both had 0 feedback. Anyway, today came 18
bid retractions (says "Administrative Retractions". I assume e-bay cancelled them because they found something fishy going on. This is a lot of work wiped out and, of course, I'll never get paid for the 5 which closed, I guess. Should I pursue payment on those? How to handle this? Anybody had this happen to them? What a mess!!! Ebay is getting to be a lot of trouble. Had several bad checks recently, too.
posted on January 31, 2001 03:49:18 PM new
I have never set up a table or booth at a Flea Market, but I've shopped at many. Let's see if I can get this straight.
Pack up all the widgets and whatnots and carefully put them in boxes and storage containers.
Stuff the car/van/bus/truck/trailer with said widgets and the 4 wobbly folding tables and chairs.
Drive to the Flea Market, could be 20 minutes away, or 2 hours. Careful to not shift your load.
Find your spot, and drag out your tables and wares, being careful to not drop stuff in the huge puddle from the rainstorm the night before.
Here comes the crowds...there's the lady with 5 kids in tow. Oops, you didn't really like that Hall bowl did you?
Sit in the hot sun, and explain for the 20th time that "no, I can't sell that Watt bowl for $4"
Try to watch the group of teens that is picking up every piece you have displayed. They don't buy anything, but they drop 2 items.
Wolf down the Italian Sausage sandwich that tastes like it was made last week, wash it down with lukewarm watered down Coke. Dash to the restroom/portapotty while the vendor next to you tries to keep an eye on your stuff. Note to self...next time, remember toilet paper.
Time to close up shop. Wrap up 99% of the widgets you came with, not counting the broken stuff. Cram it all back in your car/van/bus/truck/trailer and head for home, jiggling the $4.34 clear profit you made today.
Or, list the stuff on eBay, avoid the crowds, kids, puddles, portapottys, gas cost, etc.
posted on January 31, 2001 04:12:28 PM new
I personally do not have a problem with ebaY's fees or the increase.I am not happy about it but its a fact of life that things go up.
We all have a choice and its an easy one if you do not like what ebaY is doing then simply do not sell there.
EbaY makes it all very easy and sometimes I think we can forget how difficult it is as has been mentioned here to sell such items at other places.
I have been selling online for over 3 years seen many sites come and go,I listed on them and some I really liked too and I was getting good bids but they are no longer in business.
Yet ebaY survives and thats where the bidding and so I will stay.Plus if an item is no longer profitable then I do not sell it.
An easy business decision no profit then do not sell.
I have been selling antique Bibles on ebaY for the last few years but in the last 6 months its been hard to sell them at a profit.
So what do I do,I no longer buy them unless I can get them at a price that makes it worth selling on ebaY.
I went after such today at an auction in England and it went for more than it sells on ebaY so I did not bid.
There are ways to cut down on fees and I was able to cut my average of 12% down to just under 9% last month and still do well.
posted on January 31, 2001 05:35:48 PM new
I have no objection to the fees I pay ebay or there incress as long as they keep doing there part and we keep getting the sale we need to justify listing.
the Coop talk is not about listing auction items for free at all its about seller and buyers haveing an alternative where all have a voice in the matter of changes that effect them basically.
Right now it just talk a discussion like where all haveing here everyone tossing in there thoughts on the subject of online selling buyering and online auctions in genral.
in the end if any Coop is developed I think it will come down to the fact that it wont matter where sellers or buyers list auctions a cooperative effort could have different benifits for each different sellers or buyers needs. http://www.Dman-N-Company.com
posted on January 31, 2001 11:21:23 PM new
4 rickety tables? I wish.
It takes me 30 to 45 minutes to set up my tarps, tables, 2 baker's racks and pegboards.
Another 2-1/2 hours to set out my merchandise.
I have been to one market where I set up, sat down for 1/2 hour, and then started packing. Although I did make sales while setting up and tearing down.
A few weeks ago I set up at the San Jose International Auto Show. I sold a bit over $3500 for the weekend; expenses were about $800, not including cost fo merchadise sold.
Still, I find selling at flea markets to be quite enjoyable and have no plans to stop.
However, while I don't find eBay's recent 5 cent increase particularly onerous, the new fee for 10 day auctions really grates on me for some reason. The line they fed us about 10 day auctions being so much more expensive would have been more believable if they had offered a 5 cent discount for 3 day auctions.
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Don't take life so serious, it ain't nohow permanent.
