The Twitter Effect...except for on-line auction sites!

I recently heard about how the so-called "Twitter Effect" basically killed the movie "Bruno" with almost immediate negative reviews posted and circulated like wildfire within hours of its opening.

So I wondered...how big is Twitter with the big auction sites and on-line stores like eBay and Amazon.

Well, let's look.

Here is a quick list of some of the bigger (and lesser-known) names in the field.

Company (twitterid) #followers
Amazon (amazon) 5,278
Amazon Gold Box (amazondeals) 14,452
Amazon mp3 (amazonmp3) 816,910
eBay (ebay) 1,685
eBid - no presence
ecrater (ecrater) 180
bonanzle (bonanzle) 561
CQout (CQout) 2
blujay (blujaydotcom) 51
OnlineAuction - no presence
Atomic Mall (atomicmall) 17



I only included twitter IDs that were the "official" ones, skipping the rest (such as fan sites and personal pick sites), and I also skipped some of the more technical IDs of these sites (such as Amazon's Kindle news and updates ID).

OK, now I have to admit that the # of followers for these sites may not be a great indication of their popularity, but I think it is rather telling about the demographics of Twitter and the demographics of the sites mentioned above.

For example, can I assume from these numbers that...

1. Amazon didn't just jump the bandwagon, they have the lead float in the parade. They obviously have embraced this technology and they know that younger people + mp3's + music downloads = a potentially profitable source of sales.

2. eBay has not quite fully embraced Twitter. Griff is on twitter as well (ID: ebayjimgriffith) with a not-to-impressive 281 followers.

3. Scrappy upstarts ecrater and bonanzle are getting their presence known, but slowly.

4. The rest? I think I can assume most of their sellers, if asked about twitter, would say don't need it/it's not for me/it won't help my sales/it's just a waste of time/etc.

Agree? Disagree? Think I'm nuts for spending any time at all on this?

Let me know what you think.

Bonanzle: another basket for my eggs

Right now, there is a struggle between ecrater and bonanzle for the coveted #2 spot in the list of on-line sites, with ebay and ebid being #1 and #2 respectively.

I already mentioned about the folly of putting all your eggs in one basket, but I have come to the business decision of dedicating more of my time to bonanzle.

Why?

• The people. The forums are more active, friendlier, more helpful, and I just get the feeling that the sellers are not all just a bunch of disgruntled former ebayers, but a group (dare I say "team") of people who want to succeed and who want bonanzle to succeed...almost a grass roots movement.

• The site. It's clean, simple to navigate, and looks professional. The crater always had a kind of cheesy feeling to me, like its pages were just kind of thrown together. It just doesn't look cool.

• The products. This I believe is why I think bonanzle is going to be the next big thing. Antiques, cool used stuff, new stuff...it has everything. And everything is easy to find. The dreaded "best match" search algorithm used by ebay isn't on bonanzle...and that's a good thing!

• The press. I did a search of bonanzle references (trying to skip the "items for sale" links) and found plenty of great press out there for the site. So far, few disgruntled buyers.

So I am spending quite a bit more time with bonanzle. I have about 60 items listed, and I could easily get a couple of hundred out there. I will probably soon pull my ecrater listings and put them on "the ranch" instead.

So...where do you get your stuff? The Classic Version

In our last show, we discussed the wonders wholesalers can bring to your bottom line, but I kind of left you on the edge regarding how to find them.

Well...stay on that edge. I'm gonna get to that eventually, but not now.

This "Classic Version" is a bit of help for those who want to find those wonderful (and valuable) antiques and collectibles that still bring in decent money on auction sites (usually eBay).

Now, by "collectible" I am not talking about those Franklin Mint thingies your granny has hanging up in her kitchen. If the item has the word "collectible" on the box, that probably means a lot of people collect them (or are gonna collect them because of that word on the box) and therefore are usually not of significant value.

"Collectible" for us can mean anything from Fenton glass pieces to monaural amps.

OK, now the fun part...sources.

1. Garage sales. At one point, these were my sole source for items. Then ebay started being used by garage sale holders to price their items...and garage sale finds (worth buying) nosedived. But they are coming back in line, especially in this economy when families are doing what they can to make a buck.

Hitting garage sales takes planning, and empty vehicle and a full tank of gas. Oh, and lots of singles and quarters. I personally don't try to barter prices; it takes too long and wastes valuable time hitting other sales.

2. House sales. These are the like garage sales, but usually have a lot more stuff...like entire households. These are usually listed separately from garage sales. Be warned, though: some people call their dinky garage sale a "house sale" to bring in the dealers (like you).

3. estate sales. Sometime called tag sales here in the Cleveland area. No difference really. These used to be fantastic ways to get items, albeit at somewhat higher prices (but also somewhat higher quality).

These have recently, though, become a bit of a scam. For example: I hold a tag sale and price the good stuff kind of high. I sell some (but not a lot) and then offer the people I'm holding the sale for some amount of money to take the rest of the stuff off their hands. I then turn around and sell it myself in some antique or resale shop I often do business with. Most people don't realize that crappy toybox in the attic is worth hundreds and their precious collection of fake Hummels (which they think are worth a fortune) is worth about a buck 25. So it's easy to fool them. Sad...but that's reality.

4. auctions. Ah...the gods smiled down with happiness when they created auctions. I have been to a couple of hundred auctions and never ONCE left without at least one thing that made the trip worthwhile. NEVER.

5. Personal ads. these are the "items for sale" listings in your paper. I have had about zero luck with these. They usually want to much and are selling stuff not worth much anyway. Or (usuallt the case) they bought something they can't return and want to try to get most or all of their money back. I don't recommend these unless you REALLY know what you are buying.

Maybe I'll get some time to concentrate on each individual one and give a few pointers on each.

Or maybe I'll just go to sleep. Eh....who knows.

Bonanzle....MAYBE an ebay alternative

In the past few weeks I've spent some time listing some things on Bonanzle.

OK...I can hear most of you ask..."what's bonanzle?"

Imagine ebay listings, but without all the clutter. Better search results. Great prices. Big selection of unique things. Easy navigation. Happy sellers. In other words, just about everything that made ebay what it was just seconds before it hit "the big time".

Getting the picture?

Don't consider Bonanzle as an ebay alternative yet. As of today, ebay has about 27 million listings. Bonanzle has a bit over 2 million. But then again, it's only been around since 2008.

But what Bonanzle lacks in listings, it makes up easily in the happy, positive, gung-ho attitude of its sellers (versus the depressing, "why can't they fix Best Match" 'tude at the bay).

Bonanzle may not replace ebay, but they are a serious contender for fixed price listings of lots of nice items, both new and old.

Give it a quick look. Just about all the sellers are great people and willing to help whenever they can.

One big Ecrater plus...free google feed...usually

I have a few items listed on ecrater under my funkybydesign id. Not a lot, just a few items to test the waters.

The biggest thing about ecrater is that they are free/free/free. As in:

• no fees to join
• no fees to list
• no fees if you sell something.

You get a free domain (mine's funkybydesign.ecrater.com). You get a little bit of customization for your own "storefront", but it will still look like everyone else's there...except perhaps for your logo if you upload one.

One powerful tool they have is an automatic upload of your products to google. Google has pretty much become the place to find products. And they know it. That's why they usually have their shopping results at the top, that's why they have so much invested in ad research. That's why their search engine just plain rocks!

But there's a catch...actually more like do's and don'ts. I don't have an exhaustive list, but here are a couple of items I've read about that you may want to avoid.

• Skip the "all caps" product titles. Some people have had their products not included in google's search just because they capitalize all the words in the title.
• Don't include "free shipping" as part of the title or description. If you want it in your desc., put it WAY at the end.
• Include as many importatnt descriptive words as possible in the title. Size? Color? Make? Model? Yep...good stuff. L@@K? NICE? NEW? fuggetaboutit.

If I come across any more little gems, I'll be sure to try to remember to remind myself that I have a blog. Then maybe I'll remember to list them here.

ebid, wagglepop, blah blah blah

So...who's in competition with ebay?

Well, nobody, really.

Huh?

Well, there are sites out there that let you auction off your grandma's old knick-knacks, but they are all pretty bad. Bad as in not known, not a lot of listings, sometimes just plain ugly.

There's ebid, for example. Hate it. Sorry to be so blunt. Looks confusing. Not really a great selection. Horribly policed. Looked under collectible lamps and found 2 cheap new radios...both with no pics!!

There's wagglepop. Oh, wait. No there isn't. Wagglepop is going under on 6/30/09. Some would say good riddance. They came storming out of the gate with their "we're gonna beat ebay attitude" and prompty ticked off their new-found customer base with poor support and no advertising for the site.

There's CQout. Decent site, but the prices are all in pounds, even when I change to the US listings. Decent # of listings, but not much impressive stuff.

There's blujay, whose home page has a showcase of items hovering around $3 each. I did find some decent, impressive items, but not lots. Besides, they don't do auctions.

So in general there is no "next ebay" on the horizon.

But don't fret. There are some decent alternatives slowly rising.

So....seriously...is ebay going bye-bye?

Ummm.....no.

ebay going under is like GM going.....no...ummm, like Chrysler going under....no....ummm.

Let's start again.

ebay going under ain't gonna happen for many moons. It's still making oodles of money on those really cheap hdmi cables I mentioned a while ago. It has like 20 MILLION listings and people are still selling on there.

But of those still selling, the ultra-mega-super sellers are making a fortune. The little guys aren't (for the most part).

Remember, though, that the auction model (I think at least as far as ebay thinks) is dead. People don't want to wait 7 days to win something, only to have someone snipe in the last 2 seconds (which by the way was THE MOST FUN you could have on ebay in the first place!).

Personally, I disagree. The auction format is alive and well (there are about 40 live local auctions going on this Saturday ALONE just within 30 miles of my house).

But it took ebay years to become known. Other sites will take even longer, since they have two battles:

1. Getting their name known/reputation established
2. Fighting the current "I hate getting stuff on ebay" mentality.

So...who's in the running?

See my next post.

So...seriously...what's up with ebay?

I love this topic!!!

You'll get so many answers on this, you'll end up not knowing what to think.

So please...allow me to add to the confusion.

In a nutshell:

ebay built its rep on the auction format, selling everything from Jesus toast to plain used household goods.

Then it got big...REAL big. It still sold used toasters, but now it's selling $800 vintage stereos, $500 lamps, and it became a kind of antique mall. All with auctions.

Then it wanted to get bigger. So it let sellers open stores. So all sorts of antique "stores" and new goods "stores" opened up.

Does anyone know about the standard curve EVERY business goes through? Infancy/growth/maturity/death...or something like that. ebay started to mature...not a bad thing...and it could have stayed a successful, mature company. Just not as much stellar growth.

Sorry...not good enough. Hence...ebay canada, ebay spain, ebay china, ebay togo, ebay everywhere. Too many ebays.

And...too many sellers. Too many people selling the same thing (look up "6 foot hdmi cable" to see what I mean).

So it got too big and too large to manage.

"hey, I got an idea. what if we got rid of the gazillion small sellers and get in a small handful of BIG sellers! We can have billions of listings with just a thousand or so sellers to worry about."

So it decided to not just change a bit, but overhaul itself in the eyes of the public...ebay was to become (cue horns that play when the king arrives): THE NEXT AMAZON.

Of course, their first try at this (ebay express) failed horribly.

But try again they did.

And it's not working either.

So...NOW...they want to be (cue them horns again): THE NEXT OVERSTOCK.

Yes..it's true. They wanted to be another AZ. Now they want to be the next OS. For real. Not kidding.


And all the little sellers can say is "Can we have the OLD ebay back?"

Yes, of course you can.

It just won't be called ebay.


More.......................later.....................