Tell me why I shouldn't start the screwbay revolution

[brianp-beme]

I posted on another thread (one of an endless series) about ebay problems, and I thought this deserved its own thread. My post:

Isn't it about time all of us vintage bb card collectors decided, en masse, to move away from Ebay? Everyone is complaining about their regulations and fees and service. Stop complaining and do something. There is a viable and horribly underutilized option that was presented to us last year...Grand Slam Bids. Currently it has devolved into an exclusively fixed price outlet for cards, but all it needs is our collective decision to stop perpetuating the Ebay madness and switch our focus to their site.

So lets get this thing started. I am a lower condition collector who has hundreds of cards that I plan on listing on Grand Slam for auction at reasonable (at least I think so) opening bids. I plan to start in about a month, when I have scanning and listing time available. Come on everyone, let's screwbay!


Give me reasons why we shouldn't collectively consider using their site as an auction platform for our precious little cards. If we can get enough momentum, both with people listing and checking out their site for cool auctions, we can knock that evilbay out of the loop. Come join me on my crusade!


Brian (the motivator)

[iwantitiwinit]

Ok I just registered.

[egbeachley]

Love the idea. Works from a buyer standpoint. But what about folks who receive vintage cards for the first time (inheritance, antique dealers, flea market finds, etc.) who want to sell and have only heard of Ebay?

[Jcfowler6]

Let's give it a whirl.

[Bambino]

Why don't you create an eBay clone exclusive to baseball cards? For collectors, by collectors.

[buckyball1]

Haven't looked at GS Bids for awhile -saw 7402 cards, ALL BINs and no auctions(perhaps i am missing something?) --in many ways now just another "storefront" albeit with sellers you can probably trust--site surely needs true auctions to be wothwhile for most buyers

Not optimistic, but hope you "succeed"

Jim

[Leon]

Originally Posted by buckyball1

Haven't looked at GS Bids for awhile -saw 7402 cards, ALL BINs and no auctions(perhpas i am missing something?) --in many ways now just another "storefront" albeit with sellers you can probably trust--site surely needs true auctions to be wothwhile for most buyers

Not optimistic, but hope you "succeed"

Jim

Absolutely true, right now there are only fixed price items. I am not sure it has the traffic to justify true auctions. They work fine but there just isn't enough traffic to get the prices needed. That being said, as I mentioned previously, there are huge marketing and system changes coming in the future which will hopefully fix the traffic issue. I am cautiously optimistic.....

[glchen]

Frankly, I think the issue with GSB is traffic. There just needs to be more traffic to make it work since just about everything else is great. A few months ago, I put up for auction ~10 Exhibit cards on GSB with what I thought was a reasonable start price. After a 10 day auction, none of them sold. However, it wasn't the fact that none of them sold that bothered me, it was that there were barely any page views on the listings. Other than when I viewed the listings, it looked like no one else did. When I put the same cards on ebay, half of the cards sold, and typically above the start price.

In fact, if GSB could just get the same traffic that BST on net54 gets, I think that would probably be enough. There are often 50-100 views for each BST listing, and when I've put listings on BST, they've typically gotten really good responses. Obviously, when I price too high, the cards won't sell. However, when it's reasonable, it does.

And of course, if you are able to "get" a listing on the main board for net54, things go through the roof. There was a duplicate Rick Simmons thread here a while back, where the OP put a link to my incomplete ebay listing. After I corrected the listing, I think I got a personal record 150 page views for my auction! The card sold for a fair price, also.

Maybe there just needs to be a new forum on Net54 BST called GSB listings, and where a bot can automatically create listings and links to new auction listings on GSB or something. That might be able to increase the page views and traffic on the site.

[brianp-beme]

Thanks Leon for pointing out a variety of advantages that Grand Slam Bid site offers...there will probably always be a reason to continue ebaying, but I think all of us cool kids can play a lot nicer in our own little field.

Just trying to push the world in the right direction...now if nasty little things like work and vacation wouldn't get in the way, I'd already be posting auction listings at GSB.

Brian

[Leon]

Thanks guys.....I just approved several people. GrandSlamBids has had a slow start but there are almost 500 registered users today. We just don't have the marketing dollars or the momentum of ebay or a few other sites. I am biased, but truthfully, the functionality with GSB is absolutely phenomenal. Think of almost everything you don't like about ebay, and we fixed it on GSB.

There is:
Sniping (internally set, works great, and is free)
ALL bidders are seen after an auction is over but not before.
Sellers can see how many snipes are set but not how much they are...
There is 2-3 click import from ebay and when something sells on either site, it automatically comes off of the other site. JustCollect imported around 10,000 listings in under an hour.....100's will only take a few minutes.

The list goes on and on.....and the fees, as of now, are 0 to list something (without any bells and whistles.) Winning bidders only pay about 2% or less.

There is some huge marketing and changes coming in the future which should propel the site to the next level. The negotiations are completed but it's going to take some months to launch.....but the site is 100% functional as we speak. I have personally sold around 35 cards and all transactions have been very smooth. And lastly, if you registered, you have to send back an email with some account info before you can be approved. That is to ensure we have you getting emails, which is very important, and that we can also get a hold of you if there are any issues. thanks again