My Perspective On The State Of Online Auctions

This is an email I received the other day and I’ve given it some thought, and I’ll do my best to answer it….

Hi, Sparky.
Lots of us sellers are very interested in your perspective on the inter net auction outlook in general.Was wondering if you have the time to start a thread here on OLA about what you personally saw and heard at Ebay live and what you think will happen there and here at OLA. And why!
I guess I mean more like an informative editorial.

Just an idea. Thanks for your consideration

 

Internet auctions in general still have a place in the online maketplace. People have stuff to sell and people want to buy stuff, so internet auctions do have a place and there’s money to make. Where this is going to happen is the million dollar question. With social blogs and blogging becoming an increasing part of online marketing, they are an effective way to get your product message to a wide audience.  On the other hand, the research says more things are selling at a fixed price. The online consumer is tending to like the instant gratification of a quick transaction rather than the auction type format. 

One thing to keep in mind in todays green movemnet is that there is a distinct marketplace for serviceable used items, to help the environment and these are perfect items for an auction format. 

If you have a good supplier and want into the market place it looks good but you will need to be able to ramp up the business as it gets busier, quickly. You will need to work with company’s like Channeladvisor, Infopia, MerchantAdvantage and several other multi channel people as there are over literally thousands of different online sales platforms and they all are differently structured and these providers have an edge for the small seller because they have the knowledge of each and which best suits the items that your selling. But they cost and prices vary.

 

 

Now it seem like eBay is moving into the fixed, new items only and not own the inventory, and compete with Amazon. Yahoo might make sense with their Yahoo Stores platform. The small seller is now being disadvantaged by the large seller who has new stuff and lots of it and wants on the largest online site, can’t blame them they got stuff and people want stuff.

 

 eBay has gotten so large it’s tough to deal with all the little guys and the problems they bring.

Fights over shipping cost, listing fees, FV fees, feedback, and the list continues so why deal with it, the big guys money is good, he has deals with the shippers because of volume, they pay on time Hmmm…why other than it was built by dealing with all of this should eBay keep auctions? They have no loyalty to you the seller it was the eBay name that was used to find what people wanted and will continue to return to eBay so why keep the little guy around causing more problems, the large seller wants on the platform to sell there items.

So move on, start looking at what you have and where it might find more costumers like I said before there are thousands of selling venues on the internet.

Thats the main reason Dave and I started talking about doing the Radio show about 2 yrs ago in his office. We were looking for a product, supplier, shipper all the things that everyone who has the urge to sell on internet does and realized that the information was so widely scattered it was hard to keep track. No central place to look or listen to. Dave with his knowledge of internet marketing and his connections while working for eBay, started the show ebay & Beyond:Basics to Business after a few solo shows Dave asked me to join to add in some color and so here I am trying to be honest with you. But it’s still your choice as to what to use what works for one doesn’t always work for the other it seems. I only hope we have given people a better outlook as to what is available to them. If there was one magic answer I haven’t heard it

I think onlineauction.com is a very energetic crowd,  some of the things that have been promised do come but are slow, you feel left out, but again I’m told that will improve, we’ll see. As far as a place to list yes onlineauction.com is a smart choice but shouldn’t be your only place just one of your choices there are so many.

We are sponsored in part by them and thats says to me that they want to grow. Because I know we’re growing and they are trying to be apart of it, as are several other folks.

I dont know if that answered your questions but I tried.