To Have or Not To Have a Bid Column

[astral276]

Alas! This discussion has seemed to veer off its intended purpose and turned into a debate as to what the owners of the site want or do not want. I voiced my opinion and gave my underlying reasons for it. As has been said, it is up to those responsible for the well being of the site, namely management, to make the ultimate decision. However, I know that I would not be doing my business any favors if I failed at least to listen to my clients and I don't see any difference between my listening to mine and eBid management listening to theirs. Whether or not they choose to act is a decision they must make.

The fact is that eBid do listen to their customers (probably more than is good for them). Far more so than any other site I can think of. That does not mean they have to act on everything put forward - however good an idea some (even I) may think it is.

Some are being shouted down as being ANTI bid column. Most of those have never stated they are against a bid column - simply that they see continually going on about it as a futile (maybe even counter productive) exercise.

I'm pretty sure a statement was made (though I can't find it for a reference) when they withdrew the bid column that it would be kept under review and, when they felt the time was right, it would be brought back. I would guess the code to support a bid column is already written (would make no sense for them to have deleted it) and it is simply commented out of the code. So the reinstatement 'should' be easy enough once the decision is made.

Far better than yet another poll on the issue (which usually end up descending to a level that gets them deleted) would have been a private email to admin politely asking if the issue remained under review. Even if a response was not forthcoming, it would have brought the topic afresh to admin's mind.

[burgyeb]

I voted yes. I love auction style bidding & I love to see the bidding action. BIN is boring to me; except if it is something I need or want & can get it at wholesale pricing. That said, I am not loosing a bit of sleep over a bid column. I would prefer a bid column to MaO, but I am thrilled about that option being started.

Past failure is no indicator or justifier of refusal to try again. So what if a second attempt does not fully pan out. Of course the final decision of if or when belongs to eBid. But they have shown themselves open to the opinions and views of their users. So why not continue to put forward the request? A response from support would be greatly appreciated, one way or the other.

EBid was very quiet on the MaO request for a long time, and then break through occurred. This is simply another feature, another option. From the looks of the poll it seems very clear what the prevailing sentiment is on the feature. If the respondent numbers were much greater, I would venture to say that the results, percentage wise, would be similar.

The sight has seen significant growth in member numbers, listings, and sales over the few years that I have been here. Seems a good time to try again.

[kedo]

We're very rapidly getting to the point where I wish that eBid would try the bid column again - but just to get people to STFU about it.

Exactly how I feel!

I voted no!

[JanetB]

If we give the new members the chance to vote the majority will clearly want all the bells and whistles they were used to before they left Feebay - just without the cost. New members very rarely wait to see how this site works before properly evaluating whether features from over there would either work or are desirable. In addition it is often seen that only those who are in agreement with the object of a poll can be bothered to vote in that poll; many people who are not interested will not even read the thread. Therefore polls such as this give a skewed result which is fairly close to pointless.

Was that civil enough for you?

You make an excellent valid point and one which I can see where you are coming from - thank you

[JanetB]

Management showed their interest in whether users wanted MaO or not by adding a poll of their own to the site.
Management have not added their own poll on the question of a bid columm.
Clearly there is a big difference, but some users seem to have trouble accepting that.

Where did management add a poll for MaO?

[bykimbo]

The bid column failed last time because it simply demonstrated that there was very little bidding and was, therefore, counter-productive. Although the total number of sellers and listings has risen since then, there is not much evidence[1] that selling throughput or bidding as a percentage of volume has increased significantly. Anecdotal evidence of increased sales from forum users generally accompanies matching statements of increased listings, to the point where "list more to sell more" has become an accepted mantra of those frequently offering help.

With sales and bids representing a minor percentage of all listings the increase in site size that is put forward as a reason to retry the bid column is, in fact nothing of the sort. It will still be the case that viewers would find themselves paging through lists of "no activity" looking for the bids, it's just the number of pages that's gone up. Since this sort of negative activity caused a fall in sales last time, I can't see why people think it will magically improve sales if the exercise is repeated. Even less can I see why a tiny minority find it necessary to assert this opinion as if it were the One True Word and be quite so offensive to those of us who disagree. So let's be clear...

I do not believe that bidding activity on this site has been increased to a point where making the information public will enhance bidding, quite the opposite. Yes, I do understand how auctions work (both online and real world). No I am not an idiot. No, I am not anti-eBid. Yes, I believe others can hold different opinions. Yes, it is possible that I am wrong but generic "you don't get auctions" and personal attacks are not the way to convince me of this. No, I do not think "let's just try it anyway" is a reasonable business approach. I have voted no.

[1] and the only people who can see any real evidence are the ones not putting the bid column back.

[damian_steele]

Where did management add a poll for MaO?

It was a small box which showed on the left edge of the page, in the same place where we often see those annoying adverts. It linked to an offsite poll website.

[Juliebabe25]

Ebid is an auction site and auctions should show bidders.

I think it is worth another trial, as ebid probably has twice as many members as it did before.

Also people come on here saying they can't see any bids now !

So when there are some bids they will at least see some.

My products suit Buy It Now, but many others suit auctions.

[JaBek1]

If the site can't draw enough potential bidders to support competitive bidding the presence or absence of a bid column isn't really going to matter one way or the other. In that case, the site might be better off dropping the auction format altogether and re-invent itself as an online marketplace and not an auction site. The site has been around long enough for management to know if it is reaching enough potential bidders to be a viable auction sales entity or not.

There are quite a few sites that act as online sales platforms without any pretense of being an auction site. Even the bay appears to be trying to live down its reputation as being an auction site and re-invent itself more in the mold of an online retailer operation like Amazon. It would probably be much easier for eBid to do something of that nature since there are still many shoppers that haven't heard of eBid so have no preconceived notion that it is an auction site. Merely do away with the mention of auctions and bidding and go with fixed price listings.

Let's face it, there is no way to sell at auction if the sales room is empty. It takes more than one interested person to drive an auction. If the site doesn't draw enough interested bidders than there is no reason to open bidding. just set the asking price and be done with it.

[bykimbo]

Auction format is a useful additional option and an attractive USP over many other alternative sites. Removing it just because it doesn't quite match up to a) another site's selling throughput or b) match a few individual sellers specific requirements based on a narrow set of personal preferences doesn't make it a failure that must be removed.

A man walks into a pet shop and a says he'd like to buy an elephant.
I'm sorry Sir, says the owner, we only sell domestic pets. You can see our entire stock here, would you like to buy one of these from us?
Yes, says the man, I'd like to buy that - what's that?
That is a hamster, Sir.
Great, I'll buy that. But it needs to be much bigger, grey and have a trunk.
That would be an elephant Sir.
Yes, that's what I want.
We don't sell elephants, Sir, but we have this lovely hamster.
That's fine, I'll take it. With a trunk. And in grey. And a larger size.
Sir, I think you may have come to the wrong shop.
Well, it's not my bloody fault you don't know how to sell an elephant!