Conducting auctions on the B/S/T

[sgbernard]

Frank, not riled at all, I think auctions are a good thing, I just still think they need a new category. Here's why: you're right that your auction is only one bump and doesn't move sales all the way down the page, but that is the same with EVERY auction that benefits from constant bumping. So, examine the BST page right now, and you'll see Auctions up top, then sales below. And that's how it's going to be with auctions in the sales page, and if there are more auctions, it will be like cream floating to the top, and though every auction is one thread, they will collectively displace the sales. That's the problem as I see it.

[FrankWakefield]

2 more thoughts....

1- the fellow selling screwdowns and toploaders on the BST thread... those aren't even cards!! Maybe we need a supplies catagory, too.

2- maybe folks selling on the BST should consider doing so by way of the auction format since they have such great advantages over the straight sale listings.

Still, Isbell will be the last auction I do here for the time being. He's reached a sufficient price for me to let the auction close. I'll bump it back to the top when I post the closing time (after I hear back from the high bidder), then I'll put auctions to rest.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by FrankWakefield

2 more thoughts....

1- the fellow selling screwdowns and toploaders on the BST thread... those aren't even cards!! Maybe we need a supplies catagory, too.
.

This thread just got moved to the "everything else" spot on the BST. It was in the wrong spot. I am still open for a solution to the auction/BST situation but as everyone will remember I sort of said I didn't want to hear about issues......(yeah, I know, good luck on that)

[D. Bergin]

A new "Net54 Auctions" Category seems like the simplest solution to me. Does the software for this forum not allow the expansion of categories?

[Leon]

I am going to get with Brian M. and see if we can combine the boxing and golf categories and then make a new Net54/BST/Auction category. I don't want there to be more cateogories as there are more than enough now but if we combine two and make another I don't think I have a problem with that. I think this will be a fairly easy fix.... but it could involve some more scraping of data so it could take a few days.....

[shammus]

Well, I think the "auctions" are sort of neat and I think they have a place here on Net 54. We might need to work out a couple small details. Just kind of like normal transactions, we'd expect people to communicate well, uphold their end of the transaction, etc...

One concern I have is that inevitably, someone who has their card up for auction will be very disappointed by the final price that has been earned. So how would we monitor this section so that people don't simply withdraw from the transaction if they're not happy with how their card performed?

I would recommend simply a new category in the BST index page. A "Net54Baseball.com Auctions" category could easily be added and would do well to keep those sort of auctions seperate from the actual buying/selling/trading requests.

For supplies, I think those are important too and really could stay where they are or go in the Everything Else catagory. They don't come up too often so I can see continuing to place them in the same section as the cards that they pertain too. They might be easier to find and get a little more notice that way.

For boxing and golf - dunno if combining is really necessary. It's no skin off our back to have them in two seperate categories and there's no advantage to combining. Especially given that these are two different sports with nothing really in common, I would just leave those the way they are. If we were to combine those however, I could just manually move the golf threads over to the boxing forum. There's only 67 of them so it wouldn't take too long.

Just my two cents...
Brian

[carrigansghost]

This doesn't seem like much of a huge deal to me, then again, I'm not bothered by much of anything. How about making all auction last one week from initial post, no snipe bids, good luck getting your last post in before the other bidder. If you put it up for bidding, my opinion would be to take the final hammer price, shipping included, and thank everyone for participating. Next we will probably have to hear about collusion to keep the price down, but I doubt that would happen here after my many dealings with the gentleman and ladies that are a part of this forum.

Rawn

[T206Collector]

I was going to post a thread this morning on why I really like all the new auctions in the BST thread. I think they're fun and they just about guarantee a card will sell quickly. That can only broaden the appeal of our community.

[Anthony S.]

Nobody thinks conducting auctions on Net54 is a bad idea. Quite the contrary, the individuals who first raised their concerns about the effect that auctions would have on sellers if they are all listed in the same category, all pointed out that they thought auctions were a positive development (myself included).

Nor is the problem that Frank took the initiative to see if auctions would work on the BST. His auction was successful. It seems obvious they'll work just fine.

The problem, for sellers, lies in the inevitable growing popularity of auctions on the BST. Frank proved they'll work. They're fun. Hell, I already have a card in mind that I want to auction. One person running an auction doesn't adversely effect sellers. Ten to fifteen people running auctions concurrently would have a profound effect on sellers.

I know from personal experience, ie the page view counter on my imageevent website, that when my sales listings are at the top of a BST forum I get a helluva lot more page views than I do when they get knocked down a few spots. When I'm selling several cards I often get 100 plus page views in the first day. By the 3rd or 4th day, when my post has meandered toward the bottom of the page, I might get 2-5 page views. And when I bump my post back up to the top a week later, I immediately get 30-40 views that day. And that translates to sales. So if someone is trying to sell several different cards and they keep getting knocked further down the forum by multiple auctions in which people are raising bids for a solitary card by a dollar or two at a time, I can see it becoming very frustrating for sellers. Because whereas right now the process of getting knocked down the page can take several days, adding a slew of popular auctions could shorten that period to a matter of hours.

Combining two of the less frequented BST categories in order to make room for a new separate auction category seems to me to be a great solution.

[tedzan]

What is all this bickering about ? I don't see anything deleterious, regarding anyone conducting a "mini-auction" on the B/S/T.
Give us a break....one little ungraded T206 (or two) that might sell for less than $20 each; and, a big controversy arises !

It reminds me of a similar experience I had (on a grander scale) at the Philly Show about a dozen years ago. I decided to part
with a 1915 Cracker Jack set (complete with all 176 cards). The condition of this set was all over the place; but, the Cobb,
Johnson, Matty and Joe Jackson were at least Vg. I really could not figure what to price it at. So, instead of selling it outright,
I decided to conduct an auction at my booth.

Of course, this set generated a huge amount of interest. And, several customers were ticked-off at me for doing this. Conversely,
many others participated in my auction. And, we had a lot of fun doing it. I was happy with the results. So was Terry Knouse (the
winner) happy with his purchase.

My point here is....I guess I'll never understand those who do not appreciate the benefits of "free market capitalism".....


T-Rex TED