Grand Slam Bids self service auction - update
 

As you all have been helpful and enthusiastic in our endeavor, we want to provide an update on our progress with GrandSlamBids.com.

We are currently hard at work fixing bugs and adding dozens of feature enhancements, most of which were discovered/suggested during our alpha testing phase. Feature enhancements include support for bulk listing, support for searching using search operators (e.g. + - etc.) and streamlining the listing process. Additionally, we are working on business framework issues, including advertising and business filings that need to be taken care of before we open. It is our intent to have a beta testing phase by the end of March and to be fully open very shortly after that.

Thanks for your continued support and, as always, we welcome any feedback you have in making this a successful venture for all of us!

Leon & Matt

Way cool, guys. It's exciting to know that we'll soon have a very worthy eBay alternative for our niche! :)

will there be any buyer's protection against scammers?

edit: just read the T&C...under buyer protection all sellers must have a reimbursement method in file (i guess credit card?). will there be extra security if someone is listing a '32 US caramel Ruth in a PSA 6 that only accepts check/mo to make sure it's legit? anybody can buy a simon's giftcard and that acts like a credit card to register and run some scams.

Thanks for the update Leon. Looking forward to listing some more items!

Payment methods
 

"will there be extra security if someone is listing a '32 US caramel Ruth in a PSA 6 that only accepts check/mo to make sure it's legit?"

For the record, I'm planning to only accept cashiers/personal checks and money orders as payment and will also be providing free shipping for all items to the winning bidders.

Hey Quan
 

Hey Quan
I believe a credit card or bank account is how we will have it set up to have some safeguard. That being said I don't think there is anyway to be 100% safe on the internet. Our site will be "caveat emptor" and of course we will help with issues as much as is legally possible. There will be a few things that should help, such as an ebay feedback option on the about me page and the fact bidders will be seen after the auctions are over. I would hope we get to a point of being as safe as our BST has been (knock on wood) and we will do our best to have it be a safe place. Other than that I am not sure any self serve site can give a 100% guarantee, or be liable....or we would have a bad business plan. As I said, hopefully it will be as safe as our BST. I would be very happy if it were. We are always open to suggestions for making things better so if you have an idea let me/us know. :) ..take care

edited to add that after speaking with my partner we are not positive of what we will keep on file. Some forms of information will involve incription that we might or might not want to do right away. We will leave no stone unturned in the security matter and try our best to make the venue as safe as possible.

ic, i guess the key phrase is still caveat emptor. as someone who was ripped off on the bst because i had to send a $630 mo away with no recourse, any extra measure of security you guys can implement is good news for the buyer. at least with ebay you will always have paypal and your cc company standing behind the transaction to fall back on....which i don't think most of the sellers on GSB will accept. i don't mind sending any amount to long time members but would certainly hesitate sending $50 at someone new or unknown.

Quan - While we're going to try and do a good job of listening to those who report scams/fraud and responding swiftly and additionally, be on the lookout ourselves for potentially fraudulent situations, it's simply not feasible for us to make a 100% guarantee that no issues will occur. If you are concerned, you'll still have Paypal/CC protection if a seller accepts those as forms of payment, and if he doesn't you can chose not to bid. Additionally, as Leon mentioned, you will be able to see a seller's eBay account (if he had one) from his GSB profile, so you can see some history there. I'm confident we will be safer then eBay, which is a start.

Will Grand Slam Bids use the same hosting company that B&L Auctions does?

no.

hey matt,

yes with anything...due diligence. sometimes even that's not enough. i'm sure you guys will try ur best to make it a safe environment for all involved.

lol

That's actually unintentional humor (sort of). Though it's simple for B&L to extend an auction for a day when their host company throws a rod, if that happened on a self-service auction site sellers likely wouldn't have the same recourse. I remember in eBay's early days, sellers took hits all the time when the site was down and their auctions ended during that time frame. eBay's response: Sorry about your luck.

That point actually ties in nicely with Quan's earlier question; we can't make a 100% guarantee no one will be scammed (I suppose we could make such a statement, and even add a banner to each listing stating that fact and then when a buyer gets messed over, just side with the seller all the time...) and we can't guarantee 100% uptime (though we're paying quite a bit for a strong hosting environment where 100% uptime is expected).

The critical difference for both issues is that we will try as best we can to make things right.

Where
 

do I see Grand Slam Bids? Anyone got a web address? Thanks.

http://www.GrandSlamBids.com or http://www.GSBids.com

update
 

We want to let Net 54'ers know that we're still hard at work adding new features to GrandSlamBids and as such, aren't quite ready to have our beta test. We apologize for the delay and we are also itching to get off the ground. We expect to have out Beta in the middle of April, and very shortly thereafter open officially. We appreciate all the support and we're trying to get the best product out there that we can. Once again sorry for the slight delay. "Good" things take some time. :)

regards
Matt and Leon

Glad to hear an update & feel good about it that you are trying to make it work as well as possible!

trust me
 

Hey Fred
Trust me....this is a subject near and dear to my heart. Fortunately I have a partner that has more sense than I do. There are certain parts that just aren't quite ready. We could open now and it would be 3/4 baked and that is not acceptable. Thanks for the well wishes. We will get there and the product will be really good. best regards

Thanks for the update Leon.

I can't wait to see this website up and running.

And thanks Matt for all the hard work you've done.

Jantz Morey