Question
06/06/05 Changes to Yahoo! Auctions
Yahoo! Auctions has changed its pricing to create a model that is free for all consumers listing items on our Auctions platform.
Many users have been asking for this type of structure, and we are happy to provide it as a way to strengthen our partnership with the seller community and clearly demonstrate our commitment to our sellers' success. The new pricing model will go into effect Monday, June 6, 2005.
This move to free listings was designed with the consumer in mind, as we are continually looking to offer the most relevant and useful products and services to our users. Over the years, we've achieved our objective of improving the quality of the site, making it easier for buyer and sellers to connect. This most recent move will make auctions more cost effective for both large and small sellers who wish to list items on Yahoo!, ultimately improving their margins.
Thank you for your support of Yahoo! Auctions!
Over the last couple days I've had an occasional relisting mysteriously show a message saying Y Auctions was a free service, then in fact not charge a listing fee. I wondered if some how a policy like this was in the works but didn't want to comment. Actually just saw it announced as a news blerb on CNN just now, went to my closed-and-unsold list and relisted a fairly expensive item in fact with no listing fees. They've been mucking around changing the format to more text-oriented with less display of images and more ads to see before scrolling to categories' listings, but, well, I'm happy, really happy, with this change. May let me drop my eBay store eventually and go back to having all my more expensive stuff on Yahoo.
Edit: Just checked some more, and their Featuring function is also disabled. No way to throw money at them for an advantageous placement for the listing. Looks like buyers simply have to do searches, but can still look over individual sellers' listings if that's where stuff they like seems to be concentrated.
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Python, I'm happy about it too! Not shout-from-the-rooftops happy, but pleased that something is available to try. The timing is great for me. I had redone my Ebay store to all 120-day listings and they have been expiring over the past few days. I haven't had any enthusiasm to relist them, since they will now incur higher fvf's and I don't see that Ebay has done a thing to help me sell them. All of the promised new benefits have not helped me at all.
I don't have high hopes for Yahoo, but I have a little hope--so I think I'll relist my more expensive stuff there and let it sit for as long as it seems worth it, and just relist the cheaper stuff in my Ebay stores.
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I seem to remember that when they were free before, everyone
complained because the site was glutted with "crap" listings.
I bought 2 things there LONG ago, and never even heard from the
sellers.
haven't been there since.
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I grossed $25K annually and rising as I added variety when the place was free and cluttered.
My sales and suitable areas have spiralled downwards since then to under $10K gross annually. I'm sure I'll collect some more negs, some deadbeats, some frustrations as I expand back into the types of items and price ranges I abandoned over the last five years, but I bet I'll do something like double my sales and triple my profits by the end of the year, for starters.
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I'm willing to give it a try.
Seems Overstock is a bust, so this gives me a shot at another venue.
Maybe one with paying buyers, this time.
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Hmmm... I'm still on there, or my wife is, that is. Our last feedbacks are dated Jan. 2002, over 3 years ago. Only a mere 14 rating, but at least it's all positive and we wouldn't have to start from total scratch. I may be giving it a try again.
I remember though, they had a .10 cent bid incremement? Terribly small. They need to change that if they haven't already.
Accepting Paypal would almost be a pleasure over there, if there were no other fees to be paid.
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Busker--I am up to 10 listings on Yahoo--30 cents not paid to Ebay stores lol.
My bid increment on those listings is 50 cents. I'm not sure if that is adjustable or not--I list through Auction Tamer and that's what it came up!
I have a whopping 16 positive feedbacks on Yahoo, last one from early 2003.
I also like that you can set up for automatic relists. I'm just going to put some stuff up as I have a spare moment or two, and let them sit and relist. I expect they wouldn't be moving like gangbusters over the summer in my Ebay store, either, so what the heck, it's worth a try.
Good luck!
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Well I have been wondering about trying out yahoo as a seller..never tried them before...maybe this is the incentive I need to get off the fence....
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I was happy & curious at the same time ,..
we mainly sell on yahoo and have had pretty good sales several repeat buyers ..we deal mostly in comics ,
happy : because it save a few hundred a month in fees ( we list frequently )
and summer usually a a slight slow down so it helps to have no fees
curious : because I hope it doesnt ruin things I'd rather pay the $0.5 list & relisting then to die with a slow site,
I too also sell on overstock & it seems to be kinda slow there also
I think they may of ran too many free listings seems to be a lot of sellers not enough buyers or maybe cause of summer I know on ebay it got a little slow during certain mths ? but it does depend on what you sell ?
maybe the thing thats good I guess is if you have repate buyers every month maybe things wont change because you have some established buyers that look for your new stuff every few days ?
or ?
once the word gets out it will get so clogged maybe it will hurt sales ?
or then again ,... maybe it will bring more buyers ?
who knows guess its a wait & see?
maybe if your a new seller on yahoo you can add the feedback tool from
www.feedbacksite.com on your about me page ,.. or I have seen some with it in their auctions ...to give buyers an idea you've been around ?
Dori
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I wonder if alot of the other auction sites will drop fees completely now because of Yahoo!?
I see alot of people defecting from Overstock.com because of this...Why list on any of the other ebay competitors and pay FVFs(and sometimes listing fees), when you can list at Yahoo! for free?
I even see the big E doing a FLD/10 soon as a fallout of this. Agree? Disagree?