Home | Registration | Become a Seller | Appraisals | Sell an Item | Help & Info
Search | Forum | Find a FFL | My Auctions | My Bids | Contact Us | Log In
| (Forum Home)--->(Ideas and Suggestions)--->(drop the reserve charge to seller) |
|
| (Start a Thread) (Forum Rules) |
| Former Seller: ralphe(1707-3-7) | Post#1 - Posted: 08/31/2009 at 10:24:31 |
| (no avatar) | hi kenny i think you are right ...i have sold a lot of guns on aa ...most all thru reserve auctions ...and i always get the emails from so called "buyers" that they don't do reserve auctions because i should just put a price that i want on it ..with a buy it now option and they will bid / buy ..if you notice my auctions i have 2 items that are reserve ...the rest are buy it now ...which ones have bids? ...just the buy it now ....so my current method is to put an item on for 1 week ...if it doen't sell at reserve auction ...i list it with buy it now ...and no extra features ...not even thumb nail photos ...years ago i used to do the gun show circuit up here in new england ...at a couple shows the guy putting on the show ..started to get real cheap with advertising ...and a bunch of little stuff that basically killed those shows ...i think aa policies are doing the same thing on line ...little things like keeping negative feedbacks from buyers who bought 1 item here years ago and never did business again ...even ebay has wised up at to how to show only current [ within a year ] negative and neutral ....and i have emailed bob a number of times ...not even an answer ...so i've started putting stuff on gunbroker ...so far no problems ...[ i was nickle and dimed into the change ] ralph |
| Seller: Bubba J(79-0-0) | Post#2 - Posted: 08/31/2009 at 14:49:32 |
|
Kenny the Remington Man; ralphe: OK, I understand your points, however, they sorta wash out when you look at such things as pictures and final value fees. Gun Broker allows you 4 for free. AA alows you up to 20+ (I think) for free. GA & GI charge around $2.00 for up to 12 pictures beyond the one that is free. Also I have found the final value fees to be less than on GB, GA. GI is an exception to this. There are some AA policies and T&C's that I do not care for, but this is also true of several other sites that I currently list on, including GB. Also true, AA is quite a bit smaller than GB, but I feel that the friendlyness of most members here is far greater than GB. Also true is the fact that AA Staff does not respond to any and all issues presented to them and drag their feet on others. I also have found this to be the case on other sites as well, including GB. As far as a reserve is concerned, why have one anyway? In most, but not all cases, I simply start my auctions off at the lowest price that I am willing to accept with no reserve. If they don't sell then I move on to another site using the same ad and starting price. If after doing this the item(s) don't generate much interest and/or fail to sell, I figure that I must have the starting price a bit high and thus correct it as much as I can without going in the red. If they don't sell then I simply wholesale them out at what I paid for them to a couple businesses that will normally take them. While AA is far from perfect, I feel that it ain't bad. Of course all this is JMVHO> FR&G |
| Former Seller: ralphe(1707-3-7) | Post#3 - Posted: 09/01/2009 at 07:33:49 |
| (no avatar) | fr&g i think the thing i see is that the honchos in charge have kind of given up trying to grow the site ...with the way internet selling of guns is growing aa should try to get more market share ...the trade off being do you want to get what you can now or get more later after it has reached as many dealers as possible ....i've done my part ..i've sold on aa for about 9 years ...and set up many of the area dealers here in maine to sell on aa ...i would like to see them do a few speedos [ named after working pow s in japanese labor camps ] try a couple months of no reserve fees ...next a few months of no thumb nail photo fees ...maybe a deal where after having listed 10 guns ..get 1 featured listing free for the one of your choice ...many people have heard the line [you don't know what you're missing ] true but then you don't use it they don't miss it ...even if they don't want to do this they should tell us why ...we dealers are part of their business ...ebay forgot that ..they had the first quarter loss ever a while back ...maybe there should be a forum just for dealers [ one they would need a password for to give us insight into why the current policies are used ...ralph |
| Seller: Sportsmanssupply(6198-0-4) | Post#4 - Posted: 09/01/2009 at 13:40:33 |
| (no avatar) | Ralphe, I'm not speaking for AA but only on my behalf. I've been active on the forums since 2003. Not so much of late but for obvious reasons,tending the counters. AA received tons of requests from buyers that the same old tired merchandise was on the reserved auction listings. Guys trying to receive 200% of the value for the merchandise and no hope of ever selling it. Because of this waste of space and the complaints from buyers they changed the reserve to a small listing fee auction. The result is obvious,less listings. I don't use reserves as a rule. 3 of my auctions are, because they are on consignment. The seller doesn't want to risk the penny route and feels he won't get any bids with the basic auction. Because they are his guns we'll do it his way. One has been relisted 3 times but 6 did sell last month for above his reserve. As for AA growing their business I couldn't agree more. Other sites do more advertising. However 6 months ago the principle's (Manny)wife called me personally to thank me for my business. It was a nice touch.I too would prefer a storefront forum but in a sense some of us do chat. If time permits perhaps we'll chat. Best Regards,Grant Williams-President-SPORTSMANSSUPPLY,Sportsmanssupply2 and SportShack. |
| Seller: AA-bob(3-0-0) | Post#5 - Posted: 09/01/2009 at 14:46:34 |
|
Kenny the Remington Man, I'm not sure you know this, but you are never charged a "Reserve Fee" if the item sells. If it does not sell, then we do charge a small fee of $.50.
We did this, not to raise revenue, but rather to remove auctions that were nothing more than attempts to get free appraisals (apparently) by the listers and caused considerable consternation on the part of users who were bidding in good faith. Since we implemented this fee, our Reserve Auctions have returned to about the same percentage of sales overall as our basic style auctions. I frankly see little benefit in using reserve style auctions, except for the occasional opportunity to Haggle if the item did not meet your Reserve. I would suggest trying a Basic Style auction and start it at the lowest price you are willing to take. If the item is started right, you will get bids and sell for about market price. If not started right perhaps you are in the item too much and are "underwater" on it's true value. Either way, no fees for a Basic Style Auction that doesn't sell. |
| Seller: Bubba J(79-0-0) | Post#6 - Posted: 09/01/2009 at 21:08:02 |
|
|
AA-bob: If the item is listed for automatic relisting, is the Reserve Fee charged at the end of the first listing or when it actually sells regardless of the number of times that it is relisted?
Thanks, |
| Former Seller: ralphe(1707-3-7) | Post#7 - Posted: 09/02/2009 at 09:37:12 |
| (no avatar) | aa bob ..i use the reserve auction just to make sure that i don't get caught when the site crashes [ i had that happen a while back sold a $3500 gun for just over $2100.00 ..the system crashed during the last 3 hours of the auction ] ..and some very scarce items that might get noticed on a bigger site but get very few views at auction arms ...i have run some penny auctions which seem to produce well but i never list first rate stuff in those ...remember my first level of loyalty is to my family ...i do not expect anyone to do anything that works against their best interests .. ...loyalty to aa only comes as a level somewhat below that ...and when the sellers are the ones presenting items to sell ...which is where aa gets it's money from ...the boss at aa should pay more attention to what the sellers needs are ...ebay as successful as they are have forgotten who got them there ...please see to it that aa doesn't follow their lead ...to sum up ...there should be more contact between aa and the good folks who bring them their income ...ralph |
| Seller: RobW(113-0-0) | Post#8 - Posted: 09/02/2009 at 21:33:33 |
| (no avatar) | Ralphe, without buyers, sellers would be up a stump. The real income comes from people who plunk down their cash. Sellers provide merchandise, buyers provide MONEY! |
| Seller: Nevada Fatboy(93-0-0) | Post#9 - Posted: 09/02/2009 at 22:10:18 |
|
I ABSOLUTELY agree Rob, what good is a store stocked FULL of merchandise if there are no customers/buyers?? It ends up having a Going Out Of Business Sale!! Ponder that for a minute Ralphe...! Yes we need sellers but it's the buyers as Rob pointed out, that are spending the $$$! .... N F |
| Buyer: brainaxe(10-0-0) | Post#10 - Posted: 09/03/2009 at 06:19:39 |
|
Sometimes big sellers need to be reminded that the "customer" is not an endless resource. |