Launching new Auction Site??

Flimber

Nothing is impossible but the odds are against a rival taking a sizeable chunk of ebay's business. In my time online (7yrs-ish), the biggest threat to ebay has been Yahoo Auctions - mostly because when Yahoo was running alongside it, ebay wasn't the behemoth it is now and Yahoo was also free. It just wasn't to be. eBay has branded itself into the dictionary and into everyday speech. How can you undo or better what they've done ? Because that's the task ahead, isn't it ? If you even grew to be 20% of what ebay is (a tall order in itself) and had a bit of momentum behind you, they could still steamroller you - and your money- into utter oblivion, should you ever blink.

The key thing is that to attract sellers you have to get buyers to your site. And if buyers are looking to peruse online auctions then essentially they only go to one place. So that's where the sellers go. That's the hard nut you have to crack.

I wonder if you could get some sort of Open Source thing going on for the backend, maybe ? If a few thousand people can feel like they've got 'ownership' of something then you might have a push-start. And Open Source people would love to take out a Big-Brand monster.

Or howabout free shares in your auction company for every user ? Give them an incentive to attract people to the site (?) ! If/when it floats they get a dividend and the more successful the site is, the more they get each year. DYSWIM ?

All the above ideas copyright me

Mike.

soolin

RACHIE77 wrote:

Josh if you were offered the ability to place free listings, the ability to place a reserve on your item even under £50 (for free) and maybe referal credit for you refer friends and buyers to the new site - would you give it a go??

I know you were asking Josh but can I also ask another question pretty please?

Nochex who are already well established have started a new form of selling site, how many of us have signed up on there?

How many of us are on Amazon or Friday auctions or any of the rest?

I am time limited so personally I would be unlikely to move away from ebay unless it was to an auction site that covered niche items I sell or want anyway. I can only handle one auction site and ebay is where the buyers are, I don't even list items on Amazon as I know some people do.

As for niche markets, I see on the previous page someone has suggested 'adult' sites. There is a lot of competition on adult auction sites already, quite a few sellers but unfortunately very few buyers. You would also be limited by the fact that you can't use paypal on adult sites.

Soo

JPS

RACHIE77 wrote:

Josh if you were offered the ability to place free listings, the ability to place a reserve on your item even under £50 (for free) and maybe referal credit for you refer friends and buyers to the new site - would you give it a go??

Honestly - I dont think I would! Like Soo said, the effort involved in learning a whole new system, having 0.00001% of the amount of buyers that eBay does, and just signing up to an unproved, new site would outweigh any of the good points for me - sorry! :rolleyes:

RACHIE77

Hmmm a tricky one, every point that everyone has made is pretty fair and valid - i think as far as i'm concerned its not something that i can see as being a easy catch and in all honesty probably have to agree with the fact that I too would stick with ebay for the most part - but.... it depends how tempting it was to move across.... If someone could make it tempting enough 'just to give it a go' then it might be worth a go, what they could do to tempt me i'm not sure but there is something that just isn't clicking with ebay sitting as world dominator of auctions so many people would rather not pay the fees and not have the nonsense that goes with it..... but.... like you say its where the customers are and the sellers won't move for that reason and vice versa....

I imagine a big field with lots of people in it buying and selling stuff (think festival) and up the road is a big empty field... people in the first field are getting cross that they are getting ripped off but no-one is doing anything about it - they just keep paying higher and higher premiums, wandering round and round and moaning the whole time...

Then one bloke wanders off to sell his product in the other field, day and night he sits there on his own until another bloke gets fed up and wanders off too - - he realises how much better it is in the second field but can't get everything he wants but has to go back, he buys the rest of his stuff but tells the seller about this place and the other seller goes to the new field and brings some mates along too....

Okay so its an ideal world and the chances of success aren't particularly high - but - it has to be worth a thought and some research - if only you could find the way to do it - then who would be laughing!!

think the bottom line is that my glass is just a little more than half full and i'm a habitual nutter!

Tojo_Ralph

[/QUOTE]

RACHIE77 wrote:

Josh if you were offered the ability to place free listings, the ability to place a reserve on your item even under £50 (for free) and maybe referal credit for you refer friends and buyers to the new site - would you give it a go??

I would only consider moving IF, The prices being achieved at auction for the goods I sell, were equal to, those being achieved on EBay.

Which is where the problem lies.

I can list items for free on a multitude of websites, but I don't, quite simply because, I wouldn't get the prices I get on EBay. I work on a limited number of sales a month, very healthy profit margins (sometimes silly), and work on 5% of auction price to be costs. (Listing, Gallery, FVF).

Even if an alternative site saw buyers paying the same prices as those on EBay, (never going to happen) with NO fees, I'd still only be 5% better off!!!

Tojo_Ralph

snaveuk wrote:

The obvious one that pops into my mind is 'adult' movies and the like.

If ever there was a market where supply outweighed demand, it would have to be the 'adult' movie industry.

snaveuk

Tojo_Ralph wrote:

If ever there was a market where supply outweighed demand, it would have to be the 'adult' movie industry.

Damm, thats my money making schemes out of the window then

Anyway another problem with ebay are the amount of fradulant sellers and buyers out there. Ebay gets bad press every so often because of a scam taking place, so maybe a rivals unique selling point could be strict user verification policy.

I do love selling on ebay, but I'm always worried when an auction ends and I'm left wandering...."Man, I hope this isn't a trouble maker". If you could make a site that is as perfectly near scam proof as possible, then I reckon it would do quite well.

JPS

snaveuk wrote:

If you could make a site that is as perfectly near scam proof as possible, then I reckon it would do quite well.

If being they key word - to start up something like that would cost sooo much money. You would need legal eagles and some way of checking everything is
legitimate. There is no way a new auction site would be scam proof unless something drastic was done, which would take time and money - I just cant see it happening. Nice thought though.

Tojo_Ralph

snaveuk wrote:

Damm, thats my money making schemes out of the window then

Anyway another problem with ebay are the amount of fradulant sellers and buyers out there. Ebay gets bad press every so often because of a scam taking place, so maybe a rivals unique selling point could be strict user verification policy.

I do love selling on ebay, but I'm always worried when an auction ends and I'm left wandering...."Man, I hope this isn't a trouble maker". If you could make a site that is as perfectly near scam proof as possible, then I reckon it would do quite well.

Strict Seller Verification..... YES

Buyer Verification..... :eek: No, No, No, No, No ....... Heaven forbid ....... User verification for buyers??? No, No, No, No, No .......

I want my buyers to browse, take a fancy, register (easily), get carried away bidding, and part with their cash.

The ability to register quickly and easily is a prerequisite for a plentiful sales.

terrymats

Alright guys,

Here's something I've done. I've put up a small site about this and would request you guys to get on my anti-ebay list if you wish to. I'll be putting up polls on this website in a few days to gather as much information I can for this research.

I've completely decided to go ahead with this. Just a matter of time and research to decide how much money i'm going to invest in markting it. Development is ofcourse free of cost thanks to me. :-)

You can subscribe to the newsletter at **Removed by BG**
Thank you,
Terry

PS: I'm a 100% supporter of privacy. If you are skeptical about spamming, please do not subscribe. I will also be updating this thread about my progress.