quote:Originally posted by Capt. Binghamton:
*sigh* It must just be fear that keeps all the competition from doing the same thing.
CB
"...when you wish upon a star-r-r-r..."
Fear or lack of creativity. This is a new approach. Supplying a service and charging a fee for it is the traditional way of doing business. Then along comes - Auctiva.
Which isn't to say they won't make money via U-Pic, Sellathon among others and also begin charging a service fee from their customers. Hey, why not, when they have some people willing to 'pay' them for their 'free' service.
Like I said, some people think small, myself included. If they earn $1.00 and up per each insurance purchase (I'm sure it's much more) because I earn this and I have a high rate -- that's not too shabby times a lot of Auctiva users.
I have no idea what type of deal they have worked out with Sellathon as I've never used their product. I'm sure it's a decent enough slice of the pie to make it worth their efforts.
How is it I can get a gigabyte of picture storage using Photobucket for $25 per year but someone like SpareDollar has to increase their fees to $8.95 per month? As far as 'space' goes, space is space.
Then there's the servers, the auction management program and people to manage the business. A well written program requires 'tweeking' to keep up with changes at eBay and within the auction management community. A poorly written program is in trouble 'prior' to changes from eBay. These companies are hanging from a cliff by their hangnails when eBay makes changes.
If you're in this business then it is expected that you keep up with every stupid change eBay makes because that's the nature of the beast.
Personally, I think eBay would love to corner the market on auction management as well. I'm sure they don't make things 'easy' for these businesses. Slowly we see, eBay introducing, Blackthorne products, picture hosting (at crazy prices) and post auction management tools.
Anyway, I have no idea what Auctiva is thinking about. It seems to me they're being 'sassy innovative', lol. Why not do it the way they're doing it? Um, because it takes creative thinking and balls to break out into something new -- that's why.
Much easier to charge a monthly rate or a monthly rate and a percentage of sales. Heck, look at all of the people who use Vendio? I loved using Vendio -- it is a superior product. With that being said, they need to change their names to Greedio. Why spend $75 per month or more for auction management? These companies will get away with whatever the market base is willing to pay. If Auctiva wants to market themselves as being 'free' and then get paid in a 'creative' way, I say good for them and good for me. By the way, I love the guitar solo from the song, Time.
