Online auction

[Gordon Maney]

I have a subscriber who wants to auction off a Danbury Mint Power Wagon model. It is a beauty. Remarkably, he wants to then donate the proceeds to the Power Wagon Advertiser forums. For the time being I will not identify him.

This is timely because I have pondered how we could try some auctions for trucks or parts here. My interest in this moment is to kick around some ideas on how this could be done.

A first thought is that, as is the case with ebay auctions, the bidders may want to be anonymous. What are your thoughts on that? Is that desirable here, or would forum users be happy to bid with posts in an auction thread?

I think a fixed time period would be needed, but likely longer than a week, which I think is what Ebay uses. Perhaps three weeks would be good, in the interests of getting good exposure.

As an aside, if we have some other folks want to try an online auction [....and I am not meaning to give the forum the money, I am meaning to sell an item themselves], it may be they would like to choose a time, perhaps even longer.

I am not an ebay person, so I can't imagine all of the appropriate questions.

Discuss....

[JStinson]

I would not mind bidding openly in a thread. But that's just me.

[Gordon Maney]

One other aspect not yet addressed is payment. Again, I am broadening this beyond this initial, described item to the possibility of other individuals occasionally choosing to sell items that way.

I am imagining payment to be done in the same ways it is done when people list items for sale and reach an agreement. I have no wish to handle finances for people and don't want the risks associated with doing so.

It would be nice, assuming an effective method/mechanism for auctioning Dodge items and trucks could evolve, if the sellers found sufficient benefit in it to offer a gratuity in support of the forums.

[JStinson]

When someone sells something on ebay, the seller pays a percentage of the selling price to ebay. Also, the seller has to pay a small fee to list an item for sale.

It would be really interesting for this forum, instead of having a "parts for sale" section, we could have a "parts for auction" section as well. Sellers could pay a small fee to the PWA to list an item and a percentage of the purchase price as well.

Unfortunately, I do not know what kind of system could be used. If there is a program or subscription to a service that would run a small auction like this one, it would likely be too expensive to justify using it in such a low volume setting. Such a service would be necessary, however, to keep your hands out of the process as much as possible.

Maybe there is a proxy service that could be used, with credit for sales going to PWA Forums.

A google search turned up this:http://www.rainworx.com/

Might be worth looking into.

[Gordon Maney]

Interesting. Pretty expensive, though.

[TommyDodge]

I would be interested in an auction being added to the forum, I would only participate if paypal was not required. I have been limited by ebay's insistance on using paypal, which I consider a restraint of free trade. Their excuse of money orders being "less secure than paypal" is nothing but an excuse for a money grab. I am of the opinion that "security" is the most over-used, and most abused word in the English language since 9/11/01. I know many of you don't mind doing your business online, but I don't and also don't have an ATM or debit card either, another chance for problems that I can live without

[KRB64]

... I would only participate if paypal was not required. I have been limited by ebay's insistance on using paypal, which I consider a restraint of free trade...

And I was just fixing to suggest PayPal. No idea how it "works", I just know that I use it for the occasional time I make an ebay purchase. Seems simple enough to me but I've never been on the selling end of it either.

[JStinson]

Ebay & Paypal

I might be done with ebay. I don't use it often, and I might quit it altogether (for selling). I just sold an item on there for 229 bucks, the fee that ebay will take is 9%. That amounts to $20! That doesn't include the fee that paypal charges to accept the payment or the fees that are associated with listing the item on ebay.

Ebay has no real competitor so it can charge these absurd fees. What we need is a viable competitor to rein in the competition.

[KRB64]

So what does paypal charge you?

Commpetition is good.

[JStinson]

So what does paypal charge you?

Commpetition is good.

Paypal is about 3%.

So, that's 12% paypal and ebay combined. That still doesn't include the costs associated with listing the item on ebay. Those costs are fairly reasonable, I'll admit. 12% of the final cost, however, is not.

[Gordon Maney]

Can we think through a way for payment that would be like whatever methods individuals use in private sales?

When you folks buy and sell, how do you pay or receive?

Discuss methods, risk, advantages, thoughts....

[712edf]

When I buy & pay using Paypal for Ebay stuff, it doesn't cost me a thing. But I sold some parts to Scott over on Sweptline.org & he used Paypal, which charged me a fee. It was similar to transfering funds from his Paypal acct to mine.

Most of my online sales involve money orders & cashiers or bank checks. I have bought & sold several things over the past 4 yrs. Never lost a dime or been cheated.

Bucky

[KRB64]

Real life auctions charge a % too, after all, thats their income. Some now charge a buyers premium, which tees most folks off.

On forums like this that are like a community, I have bought and sold and just sent checks and packages with nothing more than our word. I've even given stuff away only to get a check later to cover shipping or as a token of thanks.

Probably wouldn't feel comfortable doing that with a newer member or a large chunk of money though.

If the seller misrepresents or the buyer stiffs the other party what can be done other than public humiliation on the forum?

[712edf]

Exactly KRB64

I usually ship parts first & wait for confirmation from buyer that it arrived & is in satisfactory condition before depositing any moneys. Never had any problems. Some pay more prompt then others but it has always worked out for both parties.

Bucky

[Kevin in Ohio]

I might be done with ebay. I don't use it often, and I might quit it altogether (for selling). I just sold an item on there for 229 bucks, the fee that ebay will take is 9%. That amounts to $20! That doesn't include the fee that paypal charges to accept the payment or the fees that are associated with listing the item on ebay.

Ebay has no real competitor so it can charge these absurd fees. What we need is a viable competitor to rein in the competition.

Ebay now also charges 9% on the shipping costs as well. They "claim" they did this in response to sellers listing buy it nows, for say, $20.00 with $500.00 for shipping on a $500.00 item. I asked the Ebay rep why didn't they just suspend the accounts of the people who were doing it and it was silence on her end. She ended up telling me to put a "handling fee" on the shipping to make it up. Just another ploy to raise their profits.

If you sell a heavy item with a low opening bid you can actually have more in fees than your sale price. Thanks Ebay!

Some of our local industrial auctioneers are getting steep as well. Used to be it was 10% charge to sell on final bid and 10% to seller on final bid. Now some are going to 20%. When you have a GM plant go out and they sell large CNC machines , at the 10%/10% ratio that is $20,000.00 for every million in sales. I remember one here locally that had 6 million in total bids. With 4 guys working that's pretty good wages for a 2 day sale!

I think it's s great idea as I think we are a close enough group that self policing would be all right. I'd be leary about allowing non subscribers to sell as it could become a scammers pit.