Site needs improvement - couple suggestions

[burgyeb]

I have a suggestion for that, so be it if he wants a bucket of money for it, bottom line it will benefit each and everyone of us....so. how many of us are there registered on eBid? Enough to consider investing in "our" ebid and collectively buying the domain....easy way to do this is to state amount needed to purchase, have ebid and owner of the .com draw up a sale agreement and then send out email to each ebid member for a donation for example $1. $5. $10 $20 $50 $100. I for one would toss a 20.00 bill in as I know it would come back in sales tenfold......This same idea could be used for advertising......maybe I am dreaming but it is a thought that would work with enough forward looking members!

I would toss in at least a fiver if asked. Wonder who will approach G&M with this offer?

[Juliebabe25]

Another popular auction site tried this and they raised "promises" of $16,000.

And I don't think it would make much difference to sales on ebid.

Most people report their sales come from Google,

[FBNeNotes]

It would be a waste of money and time. This site is what it is... will Not get reality better till there is a BiD column..and that does not cost money Just truth and common sense auctioning if you do offer auctions and not just fixed price offerings which are totally different from real auction listings.
Real Auction listings do not offer a buy now option. With a Bid column ALL my listings here would be auction only.

[JaBek1]

It would be a waste of money and time. This site is what it is... will Not get reality better till there is a BiD column..and that does not cost money Just truth and common sense auctioning if you do offer auctions and not just fixed price offerings which are totally different from real auction listings.
Real Auction listings do not offer a buy now option. With a Bid column ALL my listings here would be auction only.

There's much talk about eBid needing a "bid column" but I'm not quite clear on what that would be. If you're talking about a column showing the current bids on an item in the search results, I would agree that it would be useful.

In all fairness to eBid, the use of BIN's in connection with auction listings is something that the major search engines like Google seem to require. Of course, once a bid is placed the BIN is no longer available. Until then the seller doesn't really know if he/she is selling at auction or fixed price.

[astral276]

[QUOTE=QuicksilverDiecast;1445947]

I have a suggestion for that, so be it if he wants a bucket of money for it, bottom line it will benefit each and everyone of us....so. how many of us are there registered on eBid? Enough to consider investing in "our" ebid and collectively buying the domain....

I'm sure that if the owners of eBid wanted outside investment that they have the requisite skills to find and obtain it. The impression I have gotten is that they don't want to take on outsiders and, thereby, lose any control of their business. Even people dripping in small amounts would, no doubt, include some that felt they had bought a small slice of the pie and a say in what happens.

Yes, it would be nice if eBid could obtain the .com domain, but that is a business decision for them. While we should be grateful they remain open to suggestions for the site, the actual running of eBid as a business should be left to them.

[astral276]

In all fairness to eBid, the use of BIN's in connection with auction listings is something that the major search engines like Google seem to require. Of course, once a bid is placed the BIN is no longer available. Until then the seller doesn't really know if he/she is selling at auction or fixed price.

Hadn't thought about that before... Do eBid remove items from Google Products once a bid has been placed (and the BuyNow is no longer valid)?

[FBNeNotes]

JaBek1 said:
In all fairness to eBid, the use of BIN's in connection with auction listings is something that the major search engines like Google seem to require. Of course, once a bid is placed the BIN is no longer available. Until then the seller doesn't really know if he/she is selling at auction or fixed price.
End.
I am not saying that there is anything wrong with.. Buy Now, Buy it now is very useful.. it is just not an auction.

[JaBek1]

JaBek1 said:
In all fairness to eBid, the use of BIN's in connection with auction listings is something that the major search engines like Google seem to require. Of course, once a bid is placed the BIN is no longer available. Until then the seller doesn't really know if he/she is selling at auction or fixed price.
End.
I am not saying that there is anything wrong with.. Buy Now, Buy it now is very useful.. it is just not an auction.

As an auctioneer I'm partial to a straight auction without the BIN option for the same reason I prefer not to divulge the amount of a reserve placed on an item. It tends to place a value figure in the mind of potential bidders. However, in the world of online auctions and search engine requirements for fixed price listings, the Buy It Now option is something of a compromise solution. Of course, until the listing either receives a bid or is ended by the use of the BIN button, it is neither auction or fixed price listing. It is the decision of the first person to buy or bid which is the determining factor.

I've often wondered about the bay's "sticky BIN" in some categories and how they've never been called on it, to my knowledge anyway, by a bidder that had placed a bid in good faith only to have the item purchased out from under him by someone using the BIN option to buy the thing.

[JaBek1]

Hadn't thought about that before... Do eBid remove items from Google Products once a bid has been placed (and the BuyNow is no longer valid)?

Actually, Mel, I'm not sure. I would think that once the initial Google Products feed was sent it would matter until the next feed went out. Of course, eBid might pull a listing with a bid, making it an auction, from any future feeds to Google Product Search. The listing would, after all, no longer fit Google's criteria. Whether or not Google would drop the listing from Google Product Search once it became aware that the listing had received a bid is also an interesting question. Up until the time of receiving a bid the listing would, as I understand it, be eligible for inclusion. Once it received a bid it would not be since it no longer had a set price at which the item could be purchased.

[Juliebabe25]

Somethings eg antiques etc suit auctions.,
Ebid is the only major alt site that offers auctions.
Sue Google may not show them.
But buyers can still browse ebid if they wish or if they knew more about ebid's auctions.