The future of SWAPnSELL

[naja naja]

Find the message board once you've sold sumthing. The info comes up there.

[penguin]

Just signed up tort and lookin keen at that yohimbe!

[Green Osiris]

I don't get it. Dutiful Green Osiris hit the Swap n Sell to stimulate some auction action...There was a bidding 'war' (ok not really a WAR, but a few bidders nonetheless) on, and the auction time ended with my bid on top. I was advised it was 'under the reserve', so technically I didnt win the auction (no-one did).

Why is there a reserve in place where people can keep bidding UNDER that set value ? Stoopid. On Ebay, my understanding is that sellers set the reserve when they post an item, and that's effectively the lowest starting bid. Not so with SnS it seems.

[Dirty Old Man]

I don't get it. Dutiful Green Osiris hit the Swap n Sell to stimulate some auction action...There was a bidding 'war' (ok not really a WAR, but a few bidders nonetheless) on, and the auction time ended with my bid on top. I was advised it was 'under the reserve', so technically I didnt win the auction (no-one did).

Why is there a reserve in place where people can keep bidding UNDER that set value ? Stoopid. On Ebay, my understanding is that sellers set the reserve when they post an item, and that's effectively the lowest starting bid. Not so with SnS it seems.

I had the same problem.

I would have bid the reserve amount the reserve amount wasn't even listed

[Torsten]

There is no reserve unless it is provided during the listing process. A valid sale must be honoured!!! If the seller forgot to put a reserve on the item when he posted it then that is his problem.

what's the item?

[Green Osiris]

I'll PM you the link to the auction in question - as I have traded with the seller before (and will do so again, I find him a good guy to deal with in the past, no need to start pointing fingers!) - perhaps Im missing something with Swap n Sell, but I was sent a msg:

The following auction, on which you were the high bidder, was closed.

That would suggest I should have won the auction.

Check your inbox in 5.

EDIT: Maybe there WAS a reserve, and theres a bug in the software that lets buyers bid below it. Hmmm?

Edited September 27, 2006 by Green Osiris

[Torsten]

It is possible to bid below the reserve. I think it depends on the settings selected by the seller whether this is possible or not. However, as far as I know, at any time it will state on the listing whether the reserve has been met or not.

In this case there was a reserve set from the beginning. No bids have reached this so the seller is not obliged to sell at the final bid value.

I can't remember how ebay works in this regard, but I am pretty sure you can bid below the reserve on ebay. It is certainly a normal thing to do in standard auctions.

sorry, darcy did everything right here.

[naja naja]

Yeah, I had an Auction, which I'd put a reseve on, but people bid several times below this amount. It just never reached reserve. It gives an option to offer the highest bidder a sale at a chosen price or just relist. I personally chose to relist because the auction ended at 1:20 am WST/3:20 EST. Because of the late end, I thought it would be fairer to re-list the item to end at a more resonable time of day. ie; 7:30pmEST.

Just gotta bid until the reserve is met I guess, but it gives ppl an idea of wat they are willing to pay if it's below the reserve. I dunno really, took me a few minutes to figure it out.

[occidentalis]

EDIT: Maybe there WAS a reserve, and theres a bug in the software that lets buyers bid below it. Hmmm?

I bid on an item being sold by Torsten, which had a reserve, and it kept telling me that my bid was under the reserve until I bid high enough. I think my low bids were actually placed though.

[Torsten]

I bid on an item being sold by Torsten, which had a reserve, and it kept telling me that my bid was under the reserve until I bid high enough. I think my low bids were actually placed though.

ahh, that's what must have happened to me with a book I just bid on. I just kept going up until I hit reserve, but didn't check if the lower bids had entered. Confused me a bit especially in view of this discussion.

[Green Osiris]

On Ebay, the reserve price and the starting price are two of the same, I believe. Ive made (literally) hundreds of bids on Ebay. and Ive never came across a situation where there's a chance for the auction to be 'passed in' as with traditional non-electronic auctions.

This is where Swap and Sell differs, and will probably cause frustration to many who are used to the new millennium virtual auction system of Ebay.

Would you consider doing away with the 'reserve' feature, Torsten (if you can), and having sellers set their reserve as a starting price instead ?

[PD.]

Sellers could just mention the reserve price in the item description.

[Torsten]

Just had a look through old ebay emails and found thT I sued to get rejected for below reserve bids all the time. So reserve prices were common on ebay. But that is a few years ago now. Apparently reserve is only permitted in vehicle sales now.

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/sell/reserve.html

If I cancel the reserve feature it will stop many sellers from offering their goods at this stage. There are just not enough buyers yet to provide sellers with reliable sales.

Ebay is not the only action site. I buy a lot of stuff at Grays online and at real auctions and they have no problem with the reserve system.

[naja naja]

Sooo, just wondering if the future of swapnSell is looking up, aslong as we can keep up and increase from this level of trading?

[Torsten]

Looking very good at the moment

See, I don't mind putting in the time and energy as long as everyone else does their bit.

[Green Osiris]

Ok, thanks for that clarity on the reserve. Personally I have only ever used E-Bay, in the last 12 months, and never bid for a vehicle, so Ive not come across it.

Can I prostitute myself on Swap & Sell ?

[Torsten]

Can I prostitute myself on Swap & Sell ?

LOL, if it's legal in NSW then yeah, why not

[sobriquet]

On Ebay, the reserve price and the starting price are two of the same, I believe. Ive made (literally) hundreds of bids on Ebay. and Ive never came across a situation where there's a chance for the auction to be 'passed in' as with traditional non-electronic auctions.

This is where Swap and Sell differs, and will probably cause frustration to many who are used to the new millennium virtual auction system of Ebay.

Would you consider doing away with the 'reserve' feature, Torsten (if you can), and having sellers set their reserve as a starting price instead ?

Reserve prices were de-rigeur on eBay when I used to be active on it many years ago and I have still seen auctions on eBay where reserves have been set. You have the option to set a reserve.

Like you say though most people now set a lowest bid that they're happy to accept as a sale. Effectively that's a 'vendor's bid'. The seller bids the lowest amount they'd accept and it's blue sky from there.

I like reserve auctions better. If the item is passed in ie does not reach reserve, then the seller has to evaluate what it's really worth and might come down with the reserve to ensure a sale next time. There's plusses and minusses for each system though.

[Green Osiris]

Reserve prices were de-rigeur on eBay

But why bother ? It just seems a waste of many peoples time to get into a bidding war, regularly checking the progress on the upscaling of value as dictated by the immediate market (ie the interested bidders) when it' only going to be passed in due to an unknown reserve.

I think the opening price, as set by a seller, should be the minimum he/she wants/needs to obtain from a transaction. Any more after that is a bonus. For the other players (the bidders), I feel that a defined end-point* makes for a better experience. Knowing that that goods have been transferred from one person to another person is cool, all bidders were a part of that transaction in some way.

The point should be made that I speak of an on-line auction such as E-Bay+. I don’t comment on real estate auctions, they are another game entirely.

I have quite literally bid on hundreds of items in the past year , (thank fuck I didn’t win most of them) and none one of them were passed in to a pre-set reserve. We’re talking a wide enough range of items to warrant a credible observation on the current trends of the medium that E-Bay is. Whether it be old-school hi-fi components, SLR cameras, guitars, pressure cookers, hydrometers, 1950’s stone kitchenware, soldering irons, ‘blacklight’ posters, fitness equipment, PC’s & peripherals, small furniture items, power tools, hand-made oddities, original artworks and more - That said, I’ve tossed my chips into many, and ended up with very few.

And I am certain enough to suggest that people (as bidders) with other auction item genre interests would note that the system of E-Bay appears to typically operate without a reserve for most items.

So as much as we may love or hate the faceless multinational antichrist that E-Bay represents, I would hazard a guess that it’s the most accepted form of e-auctioning amongst the most amount of people in an online global society. As such, to offer a similar theme with Swap n Sell, one must surely consider closely mirroring the commonly-accepted zeitgeist if there is a chance for it to be a viable, long term project that most users feel comfortable with.

*By defined end-point I mean item sold to the bastard that beat you by a dollar-fifty.

+It should be stated that E-Bay is my only auction exposure, so Grays and others are not to be inclusive of my aforementioned comments. But to look at the number of ‘hits’, I would think that E-bay are the kings of the statistics by far.

[Torsten]

Green Osiris, ebay might be your only auction experience, but it is far from being the only one around. I've probably bought just as many things on other australian and overseas auctions sites and ALL of them have reserves. If ebay's competitors choose to also do away with reserves then maybe there is merit in conforming, but just because the monopoliser does it this way doesn't mean everyone else needs to do it too.

Some time in the future reserve listing will attract a small fee and this will probably eliminate them (that's what ebay did). For the moment they serve a good purpose as it allows seller to see what their items are worth to others, how many people are interested in the item, and just how close the highest bid is to their acceptable value.

I am sure that if I had a high bid of maybe 10% under my reserve I would probably select that last bid as acceptable. That does not mean I am prepared to lower my reserve at time of listing though.

[Green Osiris]

Yes, I think I made it quite clear that E-Bay is my only experience with online auctions. The point to consider is that the majority of people’s experiences are also E-Bay-centric. Therefore to succeed as a new (and admittedly underground) variation to the theme, that one must consider mimicking the business model that most people are familiar with, so they may act in a way that is conducive to their understanding of the system. .

Can anyone provide stats on online auction portal popularity ? I would think it may be 80% E-Bay, 20% (shared) other.

[Moses]

Can anyone provide stats on online auction portal popularity ? I would think it may be 80% E-Bay, 20% (shared) other.

have'nt got stats but if you listen to some of the forums there is a large anti-eBay sentiment brewing in australian business and they are leaving it in thousands(check enrollment rate at Oztion)

sold harley parts we made on eBay till recently but their fees have become restrictive and not always as transparent as they would like you to think,have left ebay and started to moved to Oztion but it's a bit hard to move out of the 'C.B.D' and get everyone to follow.

As for swapnsell I cant wait to get my seedlings(over1300 started) bigger so i can start trading cereusly

All my life i've wanted to find a way to make my hobby of growing things work for me(legally that is )

and this forum has inspired me to dive right in,set up 3 small green houses,

bought heat mats,

fired up the hydro lites to help speed things on

mate it's all go here.

personally I'd like the idea of swapnsell becoming a mainly botanical auction site where all plant minded people go first to find that hard to find specimen/book/accessory

kinda a one-stop-bot-shop

[nil]

ok ok i'll list some things tonight i promise!! once i have things listed it won't be so difficult for me, it's just a bugger 'starting up' again. i will try to make my swap and sell as big as my ebay (which ain't so big these days). ;)

[gomaos]

hi everybody,

I know this will look stupid but I feel I have to post it...

I'm having some probs with the software, sorry, just look at me as a bit older than most, I wasn't "born with a modem hanging out of my navel cord," like all you youngsters...

my problem:

Locating messages...

it's been 2 weeks since i won some saffron off naja, I'm willing and able to pay, and finally have found out that his postal address is right up there on the board, sorry, naja, letter with cash gets posted tomorrow morning...

also I know that someone has bid and won one lot of hbwr seeds, yet don't know how to find the auction and the name...

please be patient everyone, in a couple of months I can probably do it all while half asleep...

twas the same at ebay, it took a while to get used

patience please

also I really miss one feature desperately:

Like "my messages" at ebay...

that's how I keep track of everything there, otherwise there was no way I could keep track...

would it be at all possible to have "my messages" where ALL your messages(from any auction you have done with anyone) are at one place?

my only excuse: I'm old...

[naja naja]

Lol, down the bottom of ur selling page, there's " View sold item details: Click that and then u will see written in green " MESSAGE BOARD" Click that and ur home free.

Hope that helps

Naja

P.S. I would like to be able to input diff postage options, with diff prices, so ppl could still pay instantly with Paypal and not just have the one postage option. Also a "Combine shipping" button if possible.