Question:
Hi guys,
New to this forum and hope someone could help me. I'm a regular ebayer and it seems like there ever rising prices are killing everyone. Some times I pay fees that equal my profits. So, recently I thought about launching a new low-cost auction site myself which would have absolutely mere costs for selling items. I'm wondering if this site would work and if there would be any guidance. Is there a market for such a website? How do i get people to join and promote their offers?
I'm a good developer and could surely do a good job with the site. I could also spend some money monthly, but just need directions, advice and some help with it.
Thanks
Terry
Answers:
think you've been beaten to it fairness any new auctinwebsite is going to have a horrendous job to even gain any sort of footing, whilst it would be nice it'll be a mammoth task for even a reasonably established company let alone indivudals
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worth looking at the ebay board, i think you would struggle, the major issues would be stopping people using it as a free advert source, if successful the ammount of rubbish/spam/links etc that would be posted would spiral...it has on ebay and they have to pay to list them!! just my 2p
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I'm going to move this post to the Ebay board where Ebay users can give you a response.
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It's late and I owe dozens of people emails so this is brief and might be more negative than I Intend, sorry.
There is an 'alternative' auction site lauched at least once a month if not more, most struggle for a few months and then die leaving the person who set it up with debts and disgruntled users. Some stagger on for a while but dwindle away to be non profitable.
There was a high profile one lauched recently, lasted for a good couple of months and a many people from the dedicated ebay board signed up, but it collapsed suddenly owing people money. It actually caused a lot of ill will as well.
Other auction sites that were big, like Freeserve auctions one of the originals, have actually been taken over by Ebay.
Unless you have support in writing from several thousand users, a backer and money don't waste your valuable time.
Check out those smaller auctions, see how little money they actually make and do something else instead.
Soo
Answers:
There is an 'alternative' auction site lauched at least once a month if not more, most struggle for a few months and then die leaving the person who set it up with debts and disgruntled users. Some stagger on for a while but dwindle away to be non profitable.
Soo
And thats just the ones that get off the ground!!
Take Soo's advice.... Find another way to make your Millions.
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Other auction sites that were big, like Freeserve auctions one of the originals, have actually been taken over by Ebay.
If that is the case then it's proof that you can set up a successful Ebay rival. Maybe looking at Ebay's recent auction site acquisitions will tell you how to make something that Ebay is so worried about that they want to buy it out.
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If that is the case then it's proof that you can set up a successful Ebay rival. Maybe looking at Ebay's recent auction site acquisitions will tell you how to make something that Ebay is so worried about that they want to buy it out.
I'm not sure that ebay are going to be bothered by an auction site with a few thousand users. I'm not convinced that any money was involved in the freeserve take over anyway, I think they just offered Freeserve auction members an automatic account when Freeserve auctions closed.
I think that the number of users on ebay is almost incalculable, several million people at the last count and even well over a million in the UK alone.
Soo
Answers:
Sorry, I'd put the OP's question in the same category as
'I'm sick of Sky Tv's prices, I'm thinking of launching my own satellite TV company; does anyone think it willl succeed'.
No infrastructure, no content, no market presence, no hope.
Sorry to be brutal, but you ain't got a hope. Focus your energies on something else.
BFG
ps I work for eBay and it's my job to stop people starting up new web-sites in competition to Ebay because we think it could be a big threat.
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I've setup some of the big sites in the past few years alone and I've been able to push them upto a good level of success and I actually own them even now. So I'm not in any kind of a financial situation and wouldn't borrow money to set this up. I'm technically sound and have know how about advert. I just need some solid concepts which will put my spirits high enough to launch this thing.
PS: I can actually spend upto £10,000 or more on setting this up every month.
Any advice now?
Thanks
Terry
Answers:
terrymats, I think it can be done but you'd have to have a pretty large pot behind it to market the thing right, you'd have to really hit ebay where it hurts and that is gonna cost a fair penny, are you talking about this sort of scale push... I think you are doing the right thing by asking people what they think and maybe a bit more in depth market analysis will show you what you need to know... Without doing any research I would say that there is a market, it has been monopolised by ebay and there is a way in but you would have to be careful in how to get there....
If you are really keen to go ahead with this then do your market analysis first and find the slot, for example maybe you would want to go UK wide rather than world wide at first or maybe you want a slightly different concept than ebay or maybe you just want to start a price war?? lol! whatever it is you need to be clear of your goal and go for it! Can't hurt to find out more ey!!
PM me if you want any more help on the marketing stuff.... I may be of some use for brain picking??
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I still can't see what a new auction site can do any differently to ebay to give them the edge.
Freeserve auctions were massive and they still went under.
As Rachie says have you thought about UK or worldwide launching? There are tons of little UK only auction sites that turn over barely nothing, look for instance at :
They've been going for years and are declining rapidly rather than expanding.
If you do go worldwide what about payments? Are you also going to set up an alternative to paypal because if so your £10,000 pm will not be enough to cover indemnities and other financial requirements to register yourself. You can of course still offer paypal, it is not an ebay only thing but will that give you enough control and enough difference to make you stand out?
I suppose really my question remains, what will you offer that ebay doesn't? Setting up another ebay is not viable, you need to set up something entirely different to have any chance.
Soo
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I suppose really my question remains, what will you offer that ebay doesn't? Setting up another ebay is not viable, you need to set up something entirely different to have any chance.
Soo
If you dont know the answer to this question, dont guess, find out what the gap in the market is by doing some independent research into ebay/online auctions and what people like about it, what they dont and what they would like to see improved... you can either do this yourself or pay an independent company a couple of hundred quid to do it (forgive me if i'm telling you something you already know) - based on the results it is then that you decide what your product is, if anything, for example you could offer free listings and the revenue could come from advertising or maybe you just offer a whole new schebang like Soo says but you need to know what people WANT rather than what you are assuming they NEED if you know what I mean??
If you are going to go ahead and want a partner in crime on this I know someone who has always liked these sort of projects in the past and could put you in touch??
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I've setup some of the big sites in the past few years.
Perhaps a little name dropping would go a long way to convince any sceptics?
I've been able to push them up to a good level of success.
Perhaps a little name dropping would go a long way to convince any sceptics?
I actually own them.
Perhaps a little name dropping would go a long way to convince any sceptics?
I'm not in any kind of a financial situation.
Perhaps a little name dropping would go a long way to convince any sceptics?
I have know how about advert. I just need some solid concepts which will put my spirits high enough to launch this thing.
Spirits? ........... This one has Shirley Ghostman written all over it.
Yet
Another
Bulletin
Board
And there was me struggling for an apt description.
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Yet
Another
Bulletin
Board
And there was me struggling for an apt description.
YABB is a commercial software package and the one MSE used to use for its forums before it moved over to Vbulletin...
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Maybe we should wait to hear what Terry has to say and you are right but Tojo you are right, a bit of name dropping wouldn't hurt??
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YABB is a commercial software package and the one MSE used to use for its forums before it moved over to Vbulletin.
I was aware, when posting, that YABB was a free software package ..... In this case however, I just felt the acronym was rather apt.
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I was aware, when posting, that YABB was a free software package ..... In this case however, I just felt the acronym was rather apt.
Ah - i see sorry Tojo, its early and brain not functioning just yet
Spose we'd better wait to hear from terrymats???
p.s this site is also registered to terry which to me says that he does have a developing background, but also some tie in with exam 'revision tools'
looking forward to hearing from you terry!
Answers:
Thanks rachie & soo. Your replies are encouraging. I've got money to put behind this project. With some finance, I could put up enough money to launch this and I think i'll start by doing this research myself. BTW rachie; i would love to get in touch with the person you are talking about. I'm quite keen about making money about it. But moreover, I'm keen on breaking the ebay monopoly and offering all people an alternative solution. Also rachie, free listings are an invitation to spam as mentioned by someone here. And i believe its correct. Charging anything like 5p per listing and a small 2% completion fee would be ideal. I was thinking of offering a £10 signup voucher for a month. I know people could signup multiple times, but that would atleast send off the number of members and the number of auctions by various members. Another idea would be offer a 40p credit to a member account for buying from this website. Guess research is basically the first step to this.
Now that its getting deeper, i launched a dating website last year and spent around £10,000 on marketing it. But at that time, my resources were limited and could not continue with it. I still have the complete site and the database with me. Just in case anyone is interested. There are around 6000 members who joined the community in just 15 days. But I had sevre personal problems and could not do much about continuing this project and just left it to die.
Thanks
Terry
Answers:
Now that its getting deeper, i launched a dating website last year and spent around £10,000 on marketing it. But at that time, my resources were limited and could not continue with it. I still have the complete site and the database with me. Just in case anyone is interested. There are around 6000 members who joined the community in just 15 days. But I had sevre personal problems and could not do much about continuing this project and just left it to die.
Thanks
Terry[/quote]
I must be missing something here. Firstly, if there is so much money to be made in a dating website why bother with ebay at all. If there were 6000 members in 15 days then it must have been free and if you can attract that sort of response then why do you need to do research? If these were paid up members then I hope you offered a refund when you "just jeft it to die". Since you now apparently have new wealth then why not relaunch?
I’m sorry, but this doesn’t make any financial sense at all – there are too many inconsistencies and the only known fact is an apparent ability to obtain examination certificates by fraud – hardly a sound basis for running an auction site based on trust!