[QUOTE=rjackson44;2290915]Bens makes makes a good point

Man, relax. Stop the bullying.

Not sure what this argument is about but I believe I bought an 89 fleer Ripken from Ben once, can't remember if we made that deal or not. But I've definitely seen him post cards for sale.

You know what bill is right love ya ben ive bought cards from him ,,i mean its just cards i was just trying to defend my friend fred golden age 50s hes old just trying to make a few dollars ,,anyway im going to walk my doggies on the beach they dont care about cards lol..love everyone best octavio

I know I seldom check the Live Auction threads because of the clutter and the number of items that are of little or less interest to me.

I have used it as a seller on a few occasions, once many years ago for a card that fetched more than $600. I would consider selling some pre-war commons by the auction method if the current format was changed so that my listing wasn't drowned out by the many other items that likely turn off the collectors I hope to attract.

Lots of sellers say they want changes that there offended by the posts,But i have yet to see them post anything ,i mean zero ..just complain like the stuff they have is priceless .ok post and make the bst better ..im all for it ..i see a lot of complaining but no posts ..i buy a lot here and im cash ready ,..happy selling guys

The decline of the Live Auctions section was gradual and any potential improvement would be gradual too. It won't magically become REA overnight.

I suspect that there are quite a few active members of the board who likely don't check it frequently anymore because the material offered there is not of any interest to them. This was mentioned several times in this thread alone. I think we'd all agree, this is primarily a prewar forum.

I think it would be fantastic if there were subsections within Live Auctions itself, prewar, postwar, modern, etc. If all listings were required to start at $1 minimum bid, I think that would elicit more activity as well.

The market is down in all areas folks are not going to list cards at a dollar min so they can be had for nothing.no one wants to sell a $30 for $5 dollars it makes no sense.

I may be oversimplifying it here, but I would think a simple segmentation of the auction section would help auction seller and buyers alike… if I am interested in lower cost, newer items, I’ll head to that section. If I want to sell vintage, more expensive items, I’ll click there instead.

It’s the same principe in the buying/non auction sections - the board has an easy way for me to navigate to cards and products that interest me (50’s, T-206, 19th century, etc)

Imagine if all selling posts didn’t have the segmentation as it does? It would be impossibly difficult to navigate (and my guess is, most wouldn’t after 1-2 frustrating experiences).

Wouldn’t a similar model help the auction experience as well, for both seller and buyer?

I agree with this one. I have bought lots of items off the current auction section but almost all pre 1980. At the risk of getting slammed (and I will) one idea (since this is primarily a baseball forum), is to, at least divide the auction section into Modern, pre-1980 and Everything not Baseball. This might help without having so many auction sections.

I would love to see a $1 min starting bid. If you look at the completed listings the ones with a low starting bid get bids.

5 of the top 6 listings are yours and your 5 are live auctions.:confused:

So would a sticky for Live Auctions, in each category, help with what most are saying? I don't see the 1 Live Auction section being made into separate categories. It doesn't make sense to me, when we already have them. Great discussion and feedback, both positive and negative. FYI, the first live auction was for a 50k+, N167 I sold there....it sold to another board member.
And those members whom have been here for a long time, should remember the whole BST being 1 thread on the front page :)

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ben makes a good point

Too many items in the auction section aren't auctions at all. Some people list things with minimum bids that are equal or close to EBay BINs. Those should just be listed in the appropriate B/S/T forums, that would get rid of some of the clutter. Also, people seem to be using 1 day auctions to get around the 2-3 auction rule, their listings are still on the front page while they are listing new stuff forcing others to top their auctions to be seen at all.

I am just pointing out what I think is the problem. I have attacked no one.

It is against the rules to have 5 active listings like you had when I made the post.

You have tried to bully and attack anyone in this thread that you don't like their answer. YOU are the only bully in this thread and it is baffling that you are claiming to be bullied.

if you notice i have three new listings the other three say pass and closed MY APOLOGIES IF IT OFFENDED ANYONE ..I LIKE BEN HES A GOOD GUY AND WE MADE A FEW DEALS ,,ITS JUST CARDS ANYWAY A LOT OF GOOD POINTS HERE AND IM SURE LEON WILL DO WHAT HE HAS TO DO ..BEN HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY I PMED YOU BEST OCTAVIO

If jingram058 is small potatoes, then I am probably somewhere down in the amoeba end of the ecosystem. Having said that, and having read this thread, let me offer a couple of alternatives:

1. Change the rules for the Auction section, so that anything offered there must start at a $0.99 opening bid. I don't sell on eBay, but I have heard that a low opening bid often results in more activity and higher selling prices.
2. If someone wants to run an auction with an opening bid above $0.99 (a quasi-BIN as someone suggested above,) have that done in the relevant BST section.

dont think its bad idea

One idea would be to ask sellers not to bump their own auctions.

I expect that would result in auctions that have more action/interest remaining at the top of the page, being more visible to members, and auctions that start with a relatively high price falling to the bottom of the page.

Josh

With the "bump, TTT, lower price" the regular sections are defacto reverse auctions. Instead of trying to extract the highest price possible (nothing wrong with that) through a bidding war, why not just post the price wanted in the regular sections?

Always wanted to ask... what the heck does "TTT" stand for?

To The Top

ben lol

I post an auction every few weeks (about once a month or so). I mostly post Baseball but have thrown some Hockey and Football out there over the years. I was just about to post one today when I saw this and figured I would chime in.

Just my $.02 on what has worked for me-
- List for at least 5 days- not everyone looks everyday
- List for a low price - Mine always start between $5 and $20 and often complete for nearly 5x that amount
- Only bump on the last day to avoid bumping someone else's auctions and to make sure people know it is the final day
- Love the recent suggestion of posting end date and time in the titles

I know the guys that are mostly listing there and they are decent fellows, and some of their stuff interests me at times. However it could use a refresh and as much as I know Leon has mentioned not wanting too many sections I think a good fix would be to divide the section into three: High end auctions. Pre 1980 Baseball, and Everything Else.

10-4, thanks... another mystery solved! (now, if someone can just explain the origin of "Net54" as a forum title!

Hope this helps a little. The post above was from 2010, so it has been a while..

Aha... thanks!

Speaking of Net54 mysteries, one I haven't been able to solve is why people bump their BST threads to the top only to say "sold"...

I rarely go to the Auctions section because there's usually non-vintage items for sale. One way to gauge "what sells" in that section is to go through each page and look at the number of bids on the different items. What you'll see are not many posts with > 10 "Replies". If there are > 10 "Replies, then there's a few bids and if you look at the description you will notice that most of those items are vintage.

If you see < 4 "Replies", then it's usually just the original post and the poster letting everyone know it's up for bid and pushing the item back to the top of the list.

Also, look at the number of "Views". If I see a lot of "Views" and not many "Replies", then it's usually something I probably wouldn't want. However, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Most of the items with a high number of "Replies" and "Views" are vintage and worth reviewing. But there aren't a lot of those.

I used to check this section out more frequently, but I rarely check it out now because of the number of non-vintage items.

Leon, I know you don't like the idea of adding more pages/listings, but could there be only two sections: VINTAGE and Not So Vintage? Set a rule that VINTAGE must be 50+ years old. The only sad part about that is there could be some interesting stuff missed because it's not 50 years old, but that would be the exception rather than the rule (IMHO).

auction
 

I just hear all this " bullying " stuff...I dont see any bully ..just opinions and comments on subject

Odd flex?

The "auction" place of BST has never been my thing. I'm guessing it's fun to occasionally sell items this way, as I see a lot of repeat sellers. To me it just too much work to be making bids on $1 or $2 increments and then be checking back, monitoring the close, etc. But to each his own. Personally I would rather just see it below in a categoy for $10 or $15 dollars or whatever seems like a fair price.

I figured it was just to tell people it's gone and don't bother me about it if you happen to see this in 6 months.

Perhaps this is a bit relevant...

547. “When I say bump, you say how many times!”
The seeming arrogance of members sending their threads to the top much too often for anyone’s liking.

Whatever happened to Bocabirdman and all those cool 1950s Topps and Bowman cards he auctioned every week? Not being inherently wealthy, stuff like that is what I find interesting in the live auction sub. I bought/won a number of 1953 Bowman color cards off of that. And yes, I have likewise bought things from GoldenAge50s too. I've said it over and over until I'm blue in the face, this isn't a business or investment brokerage to me, I'm not trying to get rich with "ooh" and "ah" Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle graded baseball cards, it's just a hobby.

It's very easy to edit a post to say the item is sold without bumping it.

This brought a smile to my face

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Maybe there is a way to lock the auction thread as soon as it ends so it can't be bumped to disrupt the current auctions. If there are bids we already know it's sold, if no bids let it fall off the page.

I look at the auction page all the time. Those saying that it is crowded with random stuff and dominated by a few people aren't looking very hard. There aren't that many active auctions going, and only three active auctions are allowed at any one time by one person, and everyone abides by that. The auction section is fine in that respect. It isn't disorganized or overrun. Subfolders would definitely make things worse.

One change that I believe would make it better for buyers and sellers would be to have a set weekly close time for all auctions (perhaps this was mentioned, I didn't read all the comments), You can add an auction anytime, but the close time would be the set time (perhaps also with a 5 minute after last bid extension policy to mitigate the snipe effect). This way, bidders could easily keep track of the auction end times, and, presumably, there would therefore be more active bidding each week. It would be a weekly event, and the event would attract greater participation. maybe.

And I might add, stuff that's affordable makes it fun!

Those are some pretty good thoughts (as well as many others)...
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