Ya-hooey
Written: Dec 11 '00
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I've been an avid user of eBay auctions since discovering the concept in March of this year. As is common, I began my descent into the world of online auctions by bidding on a small ticket item. I won with my bid, and the rest is history! After a couple of months of buying, and building up some positive feedback, I began selling in what I like to think of as my "online garage sale."
Ebay, however, is not the end-all of online auctions. There are several negatives that sent me looking for an alternative for selling some of my items. The aspects of Yahoo! Auctions that enticed me are:
It's FREE! When you're looking to make money, who wants to fritter away hard-earned dollars by paying fees? On eBay, you pay a listing fee. (It's only .25 for items that list under $10.00, but those quarters add up!)But, on Yahoo! your listings are completely FREE! And that's one of my favorite words :) Also, on eBay, you pay a "final value fee." On Yahoo, once again, you pay no such fee.
Automatic Relisting If your item doesn't sell the first time, you can set your preferences to have it relist automatically! On eBay, you can manually relist an item. However, since the relist on Yahoo! is FREE, why not set it to relist automatically? One less thing to remember!
Buy Price At that time, eBay had no way to offer an item for immediate sale, as they do offer now. Yahoo! offers a "buy price" option which allows you to sell your item immediately to a buyer for a set price. In many cases, a seller would want the market to set an item's value, but there are times when it is nice to offer this option.
Every once in a while, you come up with an item that you're not sure about. Will this thing sell? Will anyone even LOOK at it? Yahoo seemed like a viable alternative to eBay, since it was really risk free. I could list that hard to sell book or game, and someone would surely come along and bid, or take it immediately through the "buy price." Of course, there's theory, and then there's practice. Yahoo! Auctions fell short for me on one key point:
Where are the buyers? The items that I placed on Yahoo! auctions tallied no more than 1-5 LOOKS per item. NO item received even one bid! It would seem that, for my items at least, that there are not as many lookers and bidders on Yahoo! For all the great features, if people aren't even shopping, I couldn't hope to sell my stuff.
I recently went back to look at Yahoo! Auctions for some books that didn't seem to be selling on eBay. I thought, well, I'm not losing anything listing them on Yahoo! since it's free. The rules, though, had changed for sellers! It seems that now, for verification purposes, sellers must register with Yahoo! Wallet (which will verify a credit card.) While I understand the need to verify a person's identity, I don't WANT to sign up for Yahoo! wallet at this time, so I'm rethinking my participation in Yahoo! Auctions.
Yahoo! Auctions is a good alternative for many people. I've heard of people who are actually making a living this way, and I have won several auctions through Yahoo! For me, it just didn't work out. On the other hand, as long as you don't mind verifying a credit card, it's free to try-so why not see if it's right for you?
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
readnbead
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Reviews written: 70
Trusted by: 46 members
About Me:
Teacher, mother of 2, wife. Opinions on games, household, travel, restaurants, family, computers and more!
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