blairwitch
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posted on January 8, 2003 07:18:52 PM new
Yahoo has added additional terms to the auctions TOS. A few points of interest are in the payment terms Those fees are subject to change, and Your Yahoo! Auctions account may be terminated if you do not use this service at least one time during a reasonable period of time (as determined by Yahoo) which will not be less than three months.
http://auctions.yahoo.com/phtml/auc/us/legal/additionaltos.html
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tooltimes
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posted on January 8, 2003 09:45:34 PM new
I won't ever use the auction site again anyway. Yahoo has been deleting images and auctions over three months old from dormant for some time now anyway but now they will close the entire account as well.
Doesn't this mess up some seasonal sellers that sell only at certain times during the year? It sounds like some form of coercion to compell sellers to list at least every three months.
What could be happening is that many sellers are having their credit card or bank account info go out of date and Yahoo is having to hound them to update the info and those costs may be too high. This move will definetely thin the ranks of onn and off sellers and occasional sellers. I suppose they will also close their mandatory Yahoo Wallets and PayDirect accounts.
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blairwitch
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posted on January 9, 2003 09:16:31 AM new
I think its a move in the right direction. What they should do is cancel all the dormant accounts and change the site to free listings with a flat FVF. When the sellers go back for their free listings charge them to reactivate their old account which has their old feedbacks. Many sellers that come back would pay to have their old account with feedback. I think they are going to change the fees in the future.
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tooltimes
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posted on January 9, 2003 12:09:06 PM new
That's what Yahoo has done with their free email accounts. It's $19.95 to re-activate an old account.
I think the free listings are the only thing that can possible save the Yahoo Auctions but the Yahoo management may be fearful of losing many Yahoo Store accounts as sellers use the auctions as their internet store instead.
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blairwitch
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posted on January 9, 2003 12:27:41 PM new
Another route they could take would be charging a small flat monthly membership fee, allow all the listings the seller wants, and charge a FVF as well. The monthly membership fee would keep the low demand/junk items at a minimum. $9.95-$14.95 would be a fair monthly fee for unlimited auctions. This would make revenue, and bump up the listings. Then they could charge a small FVF.
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tooltimes
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posted on January 9, 2003 01:40:35 PM new
It would still jeopardize the status of the Yahoo Store sellers though. If they eliminated the Yahoo Booth at the Yahoo Auctions it would be more difficult to use the Yahoo listings as a replacement for a $50/month Yahoo store.
Sooner or later someone in power at Yahoo will have to make a decision on the floundering Yahoo Auctions.
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blairwitch
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posted on January 9, 2003 02:01:02 PM new
I doubt they would lose many store accounts with the auction fees already being very low. The cost of a store is $49.95 monthly, plus $.10 for each item monthly, plus 0.5% transaction fee on all transactions. The auction portal is already much cheaper, and it has made no ill effects on the yahoo stores. There are thousands of yahoo stores and these big companys will never leave because of auctions. I agree sooner or later they must make a decision on the auction portal.
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lindajean
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posted on January 10, 2003 06:11:43 PM new
I'm glad you posted that info. I just went in and listed an item to keep my account active. I still have over $800 in my account from Ebay feedback transfer and I didn't want to lose that.
I'm thinking about tossing out a couple of hundred listings but not sure if it will be worth my trouble or not.
How are sales doing for others? Any better than usual (which for me is usually 0)
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replaymedia
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posted on January 11, 2003 07:39:28 AM new
blairwitch - I really don't see Yahoo going flat rate for such a small price. The billing costs would eat up much of such a low monthly fee.
How about $40 like Amazon charges? Granted, you get additional stuff with Amazon than just free auctions, but since we're discussing flat-fee numbers why not a higher one?
I currently don't do the sales volume on Yahoo to pay that much, but if I didn't have to worry about listing fees, I would be listing a lot more stuff. Also, the higher base cost would still keep out the riff-raff. Or they could make the monthly fee optional and charge a full $0.25 per auction liked they used to.
I'd certainly try a month or two at that price. I understand that Yahoo needs to charge for this service, but I don't like they way they currently do it.
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tooltimes
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posted on January 11, 2003 01:41:27 PM new
I think $40 per month is way too high and .25 cents an auction is unbelievable when even a nickel isn't worth it.
Yahoo Auctions has no selection to attract bidders. It is a total waste of time to even search there now. They are like the tale of the boy that cried wolf too often. No one will even bother listing there anymore and they might not even list there if the site were free again. Yahoo needs to copy ebay's "3 NPBs and you're out" rule to get rid of the deadbeat bidders too.
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blairwitch
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posted on January 11, 2003 02:36:34 PM new
lindajean I do very good on yahoo, but almost all my customers are from ebay. I include a link to my auction booth in the EOA notice I send ebay customers.
replaymedia I think yahoo is stuck between a rock and hard place. $40.00 is too high for a monthly fee, and $.25 listings would run off current sellers.
tooltimes if yahoo went back to free tomorrow in a week there would be over a million listings. Reality is setting in and the only way the site can succeed is with free listings. I would charge a FVF.
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tooltimes
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posted on January 11, 2003 05:51:18 PM new
If Yahoo is going to try free listings with a hefty FVF then they better do it soon before AOL starts it's auction.
Almost every seller needs a second site to sell their unlucky or slow-moving ebay items and Yahoo and AOL would both make very good candidates for that need.
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replaymedia
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posted on January 11, 2003 06:39:05 PM new
Do we know yet any details about AOL?
Like do you have to be a member?
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tooltimes
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posted on January 11, 2003 07:31:17 PM new
Here's a fresh web article on the new auction .... looks like a liquidation auction only. Oh well ...
http://www.detnews.com/2003/technology/0301/09/technology-55457.htm
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blairwitch
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posted on January 12, 2003 11:15:02 AM new
So the AOL auctions is a bust
The ball is back in yahoo's court.........
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stonecold613
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posted on January 13, 2003 01:28:23 PM new
I say cancel all dormant accounts and keep the fees exactly the way they are. Cancelling the dormant accounts will open up storage space for all active accounts. Keeping the very affordable small fee also keeps the crappy sports cards and recipe auctions off the system as well. This has increased legite sales and removed many of the deadbeats mainly sports card geeks.
Great job Yahoo. Keep it up.
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blairwitch
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posted on January 13, 2003 07:12:49 PM new
It will also cut out old deadbeat accounts, not to mention accounts that were suspended. Ever since yahoo required the 3 digit number from the card my deadbeat rate is very low.
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tooltimes
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posted on January 13, 2003 07:38:46 PM new
And multiple accounts that bidders can deadbeat with. A good housecleaning move. I wish ebay would do it too. The FLD will get some of the semi-dormant seller accounts to list so they won't be thrown out with the purge. 
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replaymedia
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posted on January 13, 2003 07:50:01 PM new
It will also clear out all those "Yahoo Warehouse" accounts that aren't in use any more.
I'd nearly forgotten about that already. Has it been so long since that went belly-up? It was really just a few months ago wasn't it? Time flies.
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tooltimes
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posted on January 13, 2003 09:06:14 PM new
I thought Yahoo cleaned out the Yahoo Warehouse accounts right away after the closing. The links disappeared in short order anyway.
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replaymedia
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posted on January 14, 2003 07:49:18 AM new
No, the INVENTORY has been deleted, but the ACCOUNTS are still there.
I had a seperate account for my auctions and Warehouse stuff (I know, you can't do that, but it's a long story, and it did work). Both accounts still exist.
I even accidentally got into the "Used goods" account pages last week. All the sales records are still there.
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blairwitch
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posted on January 14, 2003 03:29:21 PM new
I think the big clean out will occur after the FLD. If the accounts are not used by then they should cancel them.
They should also get rid of the message boards. Nothing but trouble.
[ edited by blairwitch on Jan 14, 2003 05:11 PM ]
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