BR and Market Forces
Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2020 9:00 pm
Ya know, I get the commentary about the sky high starting bid prices on Bond Roberts. Eventually they may have to institute some kind of policy or fee, otherwise buyers will have to wade through thousands of "sucker" listings to find actual product available at market prices.
eBay figured this out many years ago, and the insertion fee has been around ever since. (A front-end fee they charge just for listing an item, regardless if it sells.) It came about not because eBay was trying to squeeze sellers for fees, but because they didn't want their site to turn into the local telephone pole that gets papered over with everyone's junk.
Maybe the dead weight listings will clean themselves up. But let the BR admins figure out what works best for them. It's their site, they have the ownership interest that will guide them into making sure sellers and buyers have a equitable market.
As for me, all my auctions will start at $1.00 with no reserve. Because I'm not looking for a sucker. Let good ol' supply and demand work its magic.
And don't message me bad mouthing anyone who is a winning bidder on one of my auctions. That's rude. I don't care if the buyer lucked into a box at $1.00 because the BR site had an outage or the final price was driven up by a wild last second bidding war. Both buyers will get free shipping from me, with the same care to packaging correctly, and prompt shipment. Because the free market can cut both ways, just the way it should.
eBay figured this out many years ago, and the insertion fee has been around ever since. (A front-end fee they charge just for listing an item, regardless if it sells.) It came about not because eBay was trying to squeeze sellers for fees, but because they didn't want their site to turn into the local telephone pole that gets papered over with everyone's junk.
Maybe the dead weight listings will clean themselves up. But let the BR admins figure out what works best for them. It's their site, they have the ownership interest that will guide them into making sure sellers and buyers have a equitable market.
As for me, all my auctions will start at $1.00 with no reserve. Because I'm not looking for a sucker. Let good ol' supply and demand work its magic.
And don't message me bad mouthing anyone who is a winning bidder on one of my auctions. That's rude. I don't care if the buyer lucked into a box at $1.00 because the BR site had an outage or the final price was driven up by a wild last second bidding war. Both buyers will get free shipping from me, with the same care to packaging correctly, and prompt shipment. Because the free market can cut both ways, just the way it should.