posted on February 5, 2001 06:09:08 AM new
HI all - I noticed today that Bidville has been increasing its categories for fiction and NF books, which makes the overall site more attractive to me in terms of listing. Sell rate remains very much to be seen, but that will require actually listing some stuff. Anyone have plans to give the site a try?
posted on February 5, 2001 06:29:24 AM new
I've gone over there periodically to check out the site. I haven't listed anything yet, I thought I would do a little market research by looking for things that I like, or use and maybe buy a few see how it works from the bidder viewpoint. I have to confess I was disappointed. I looked in some of the categories that I sell in and found the same issues that I found at Yahoo. People selling things at prices as high as any antique store here in Connecticut (and things are pretty pricey here). The book category of fairly common contemporary fiction I found the starting bids at 3-4.00, if they started at 1.00 they had a RESERVE (on a romance novel?!?). There was one seller in particular who had a lot of books out there, each listing was exactly the same (description) with a phone number (long distance), no description as to condition, nothing about shipping, nothing about payment terms. Well it was a real turn-off (is that how you spell it). Anyway, although I have not totally written the site off, and will probably try to list, a lot of people will be and won't go back. I actually e-mailed the seller and pointed out the information lacking in their listing (in a very calm, professional way I think) and received no response.
I think most of us have a source of books for 1.00 or less, mostly .10 -.25 cents. If you're not paying fees it seems a bit greedy. Just my thoughts.
posted on February 5, 2001 09:05:12 AM new
It doesn't matter what sellers pay for something or whether there are fees...is the item a fair value or not. I think the problem with Bidville is the same as Yahoo:a general lack of bidders which means the prices will be forced down to generate bids if they can get them. It's worth using only for stuff that isn't moving elsewhere.
Yahoo has absolutely died in the last couple of weeks while my eBay sales have revived. The best thing to do is avoid slow movers and keep your prices modest--anything that you can sell with Buy It Now, do it.
posted on February 5, 2001 09:36:01 AM new
I have looked at the books on Bidville.
The majority of the books are listed by one seller, more than 4000 listings.
All of the listing have only the title and author of the book. No other information.
No date of publication, no edition, condtion, shipping, nothing...
posted on February 5, 2001 10:55:01 AM new
HI all - I agree, but this is my point. A few bulk sellers may be on there now, and they may or may not have anything worth looking at. Doubt it. But if WE have some nicer books and we list them for attractive prices, do you think we'll stand out? Or will it remain a better strategy to stick with ebay/half.com/Amazon where there is more competition, but also more buyers?
Just thinking aloud. Hope to find a block of time soon to go ahead and list 25-50 books and see how it goes. I am tempted to list things I already have on half.com...but don't want to risk selling in two places. Hmm, I should be so lucky, huh?
posted on February 5, 2001 11:55:37 AM new
keziak; I think it might be worth a shot of putting some stuff out there. At least some fair listings might balance out the rest, and I think you're right it would stand out. I looked specifically for other book sellers when I realized how the one operated.
I also think that when you're new to a site, if you can keep your prices down, but improve turnover and establish a following you win. I first went to e-bay for the books, because I was spending so much retail as I love to read. Now that I'm doing e-bay I don't have that much time to read anymore LOL, so it saved me money both ways.
Somebody mentioned if it's a fair price? Well as a seller a fair price might be 10.00 on a book that retails 20,00 but as a buyer I can get it from someone else for 5.00 or less. That's the problem. Is it worth having a house full of inventory because I want the higher price,and don't have to pay fees, so I can just let it ride for months. I guess for some folks it is, for me I'm too impatient I like things to move, I can always get more.. Just my opinion (keep in mind I just came in from shoveling the first six inches off my driveway, expecting 6 more before it's over)
posted on February 5, 2001 11:57:51 AM new
I currently have about 100 items up at BidVille, mostly books. No, I'm not the one with no payment terms and the like...
And I also feel that it will take more of us posting books over there to break up the monotony of that 1 person who is hogging all the categories and chasing people away because they think that person will always be the only one listing anything over there!
P.S. Made one sale last week and already received payment.
posted on February 5, 2001 12:29:26 PM new
I would LOVE to be able to look at the books listed by other sellers, but thus far the
search options on Bidville are limited.
I tried to do a Boolean search to exclude the 4000+ but it didn't work. Bidville doesn't
seem to have the option to search within a category either. No matter what I tried to
do I ended up with pages of listings from the 4000+.
A big reason I try to buy from smaller sites is because I am tired of plowing through
the crap on eBay. I am tired of the multiple auctions for every book known to man on
one cd, what seems like 100's of auctions of the same book listed in every category,
etc..
I can understand more and more why a site almost has to charge some sort of fee.
These big sellers can list 1000's of books and just let them sit there. I guess they
figure it isn't costing them anything, it is exposure and they may sell a few books now
and then.
I hope with the numbers of listings increasing on Bidville it does something to let buyers refine a search, or at least have the option to look at new listing first so you don't have to plow through the 1000's of books that the big sellers park there.
posted on February 5, 2001 02:02:41 PM new
I put a few books up there (low prices, no reserve) and even featured them using my $10 credit. However, none have sold yet. Page views are very low. I think the only person looking at them is me.
As my kids will tell you, I'm patient up to a point. I'll give it a bit more time.
