Would a VG specialized Auction site be of interest to you?

[howdoin]

Seeing eBay's rising fees and the growing numbers of non-paying bidders ans scam artists I am thinking of opening a small auction/sell site dedicated to video games collectors.

Would you be interested in such a thing or are you satisfied with eBay anyway?

Site would feature:
- Video Games only (from vintage to present).
- Low fees (small listing, less than 5% ending, bulk discount)
- Store capabilities
- Dedicated layout listing including : box, manual, cart/cd condition.
- Auction flag (to easily report scams, illegal auctions)
- Feedback rating.
- Volunteers admin.


Feel free to post other FEATURES you would like to see.


Before I start any such project I need to really gather impressions from the community because costs could easily rise >$1000 and the primary goal would be to serve the VG collectors, not to make a living out of it (but not paying too much out of my pocket either).

[thehistorian]

Well there was http://www.Bidiots.com but it seems to have dropped. In the end it was free to post new auctions...

There is also http://www.videogameauctions.com which is pretty much dead. 1 auction at the moment and it's Free for everything...

IMHO unless there is a massive ground movement of game buyers and sellers, there is little chance that this could work...

[howdoin]

Well that is the kind of answer I am looking for and these sites certainly tell me that it might be a difficult task. eBay is still the reference in online auctions and I guess you will always have a larger audience there.

The goal is really to offer a website aimed at and catered for videogame collectors with templates that do take this into account (accuracy of descriptions...). It would function as a community, much like DP is doing, and probably rely on moderators. Think of it as DP with a focus on sales/auctions instead of discussion boards.

Fees would be used to cover costs of running the site and also to make sure that people don't 100s of fake auctions.

[Kepone]

Bidiots failed.

We'll have to face it, that EBay is such a juggernaut, that it will take someone with tons of money and dedication to go head to head. It's just not feasible for a VG only auction site.

[Felixthegamer]

I'd certainly be interested, but as others have said, I am not sure it would work

[Flack]

I found these statistics on a website talking about eBay:

1. $7 to $8 billion runs through the eBay platform every quarter.
2. Every hour eBay registers 3,000 to 4,000 new users.
3. Every day about a terabyte of data courses through eBay’s data centers.

That's the problem with any start up auction site. How can you compete with those numbers? I realize that a videogame only auction site will have a more focused audience, but still ... what's a dozen people when your eBay auction might have a thousand people see it?

I would probably try it but if things didn't go well I'd be back to eBay.

[skoldpadda]

One option is to have higher opening bids to protect sellers, but not penalize them with correspondingly higher listing fees. That might get people to post stuff.

[calthaer]

The only way such a venture would succeed would be if a) it worked just as well or better than eBay (in terms of prices, availability of items, and functionality), and b) had massive support from the community and / or selective advertising. I say selective because you really don't want all "teh l33t kiddies" swamping your site; you want serious or mature collectors. Otherwise it will become a joke quickly. Starting up, you will not have the clout to enforce auction payment; you'll have to rely on the willingness of your crew to do what you can't make them do.

[Richter Belmount]

I wouldnt want a seperate video game auction site makes it to easy for masses to get most of everything and the overall exposure to get people to sign up would fail since you can compare ebays exposure to coca cola.

[squirrelnut]

The problem is. if it's mostly collectors they know the prices of what there selling. So you can't get it for cheap like you can hope for on ebay.

[Emily]

You guys should make a Digital Press auction area, we could have our own auctions here.

[christianscott27]

ohh you kids, always trying to reinvent the wheel.

now lemme tell you about the ol' days before ebay came along and made things so fancy-schmancy. video game talkin was done with "newsgroups", which is like digital press but in black and white not technicolor. so rec.this.and.that would be all you needed. just start a thread saying "hey i got this list of stuff, heres my minimum selling price for each thing". then others would come along and post their bids. the thread would go rolling along til a week or so had passed and then emails and packages would go out.

sometimes people would cheese it up with group mailing lists or what not but it was a simple, peer regulated, no fee thing that by design reached only classic gamers. just as easy as starting this thread you could start an auction...

[sisko]

The problem is. if it's mostly collectors they know the prices of what there selling. So you can't get it for cheap like you can hope for on ebay.

DING! I agree 100%.

From a sellers point of view, a VG only sight would attract little casual gamers and zero non gamers. I hate eBay, should another similar auction site open up with a massive user base, I'd jump over in a split second.

[Keir]

ohh you kids, always trying to reinvent the wheel.

now lemme tell you about the ol' days before ebay came along and made things so fancy-schmancy. video game talkin was done with "newsgroups", which is like digital press but in black and white not technicolor. so rec.this.and.that would be all you needed. just start a thread saying "hey i got this list of stuff, heres my minimum selling price for each thing". then others would come along and post their bids. the thread would go rolling along til a week or so had passed and then emails and packages would go out.

sometimes people would cheese it up with group mailing lists or what not but it was a simple, peer regulated, no fee thing that by design reached only classic gamers. just as easy as starting this thread you could start an auction...
Yup. I don't get why more people don't auction their stuff right here on DP in the Buy & Sell forum.

[ClubNinja]

Yup. I don't get why more people don't auction their stuff right here on DP in the Buy & Sell forum.

Because they can list it on eBay, post the eBay link here to catch the DP crowd, and still attract all of the non-DP bidders with deep pockets. If you sell on eBay, then you'll probably receive greater bids, and that's pretty much all anyone cares about when selling these days.

I remember selling stuff for cheap on newsgroups long ago just for the sake of seeing nice items go to "good and loving homes". Ahh... *fuzzy sigh*...

[howdoin]

Yup. I don't get why more people don't auction their stuff right here on DP in the Buy & Sell forum.

Because they can list it on eBay, post the eBay link here to catch the DP crowd, and still attract all of the non-DP bidders with deep pockets. If you sell on eBay, then you'll probably receive greater bids, and that's pretty much all anyone cares about when selling these days.

I remember selling stuff for cheap on newsgroups long ago just for the sake of seeing nice items go to "good and loving homes". Ahh... *fuzzy sigh*...

Do you mean I should have autionnedmy Egret Cab. off on eBay instead of finding a nice loving home for him (I hope he behaves well) :)

[Sniderman]

ohh you kids, always trying to reinvent the wheel.

now lemme tell you about the ol' days before ebay came along and made things so fancy-schmancy. video game talkin was done with "newsgroups", which is like digital press but in black and white not technicolor. so rec.this.and.that would be all you needed. just start a thread saying "hey i got this list of stuff, heres my minimum selling price for each thing". then others would come along and post their bids. the thread would go rolling along til a week or so had passed and then emails and packages would go out.

sometimes people would cheese it up with group mailing lists or what not but it was a simple, peer regulated, no fee thing that by design reached only classic gamers. just as easy as starting this thread you could start an auction...
I'm with christian on this. Newsgroup auctions were the shiznit long before eBay came along. Ran several myself on RGVC. Made many dollars doing so. What did it cost? Nuthin.'

Hell, does anyone even run Newsgroup auctions anymore?

/strokes chin thoughtfully....

[Cleatis]

http://www.playerauctions.com/
Theyve been aound for a few years. Unlike eBay you can sell whatever you want. (i.e. characters, bots...etc.)
Add some game hardware to their auctions and I think you have a winner!

[ClubNinja]

Yup. I don't get why more people don't auction their stuff right here on DP in the Buy & Sell forum.

Because they can list it on eBay, post the eBay link here to catch the DP crowd, and still attract all of the non-DP bidders with deep pockets. If you sell on eBay, then you'll probably receive greater bids, and that's pretty much all anyone cares about when selling these days.

I remember selling stuff for cheap on newsgroups long ago just for the sake of seeing nice items go to "good and loving homes". Ahh... *fuzzy sigh*...

Do you mean I should have autionnedmy Egret Cab. off on eBay instead of finding a nice loving home for him (I hope he behaves well) :)

You're a fine exception to the rule - and "Egrie", as my girlfriend affectionately calls the Egret, is doing wonderfullly! Thank you :)

[Sniderman]

Yup. I don't get why more people don't auction their stuff right here on DP in the Buy & Sell forum.
An auction would be too "involved" to run here. On the newsgroups, a daily update was enough. Here, folks would expect hourly - if not more often - updates on high bidders.

But lots of folks have had success with "DP Tradebox/Garage Sales" in the BS forum. Those are kinda fun too, as you get to look over the lots and "pick out" what you're interested in.

/looks at his tradebox

I just may have to do one m'self once Joe's has ended.

[Captain Wrong]

Moving this to "On Topic" because it is.

<boot>

[Keir]

Yup. I don't get why more people don't auction their stuff right here on DP in the Buy & Sell forum.
An auction would be too "involved" to run here. On the newsgroups, a daily update was enough. Here, folks would expect hourly - if not more often - updates on high bidders.
You think? boatofcar just auctioned off a bunch of NES games and it seemed to go rather well:
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=50889
There have been others in the past, but the search function doesn't seem to be working. Anyone know anything about that? ;)

[squidblatt]

I'd love an alternative to Ebay. I just got scammed twice in quick succession, and delivered (and received in retaliation) my first negative feedback since I joined in 2001. I don't feel like Ebay is trustworthy anymore. Sellers market their stuff as collectibles without having any inkling about the 2nd hand video game market or what mint condition means and everything is automatically rare. I recently bought an sms game that was touted as mint condition (which I never thought would actually be the case), but when I got it, it was missing the manual, covered in glue goo, had a torn label, and was written on in silver marker. All the seller had to say was that he/she never said it had a manual and that my other complaints were "pure libel." So yeah, I'd like an auction site where enthusiasts can sell and buy from other enthusiasts.

[v1rich]

I have not read the whole thread, but I have been thinking about this for a while.

My idea is to do the ebay developer thing, and download their api to make better searches, associate searches with games in the DP database, keep track of prices etc. Maybe also interface with the Amazon and half.com api and keep track of what is listed there as well. Sort of like shopping.com or something. I have programming skills to do something like this but I don't have the hardware, internet domain, or time to do it right now. I want to work on it but I have other things I am busy with now. That seems like something that DP might want to sponsor possibly or make some kind of agreement with if it will possibly interface with the DP database. A nice internet app. I plan to work on this once I get into a better financial position and after I sell out all my games if there seems to be a market for it. I thought about the payment options, and paypal donation from happy customers seems like a good option and a good motivation to make the product good.