Market Feedback Auctions in marketplace ?

Should there be an option for auctioning on marketplace?

  • Total voters
    114
  • Poll closed .
honest1

honest1

Herald
I am sure this must have been thought before but not sure what was the outcome but can we rethink on it again !
Many times the sellers are not sure about the price and many times the product remains unsold due to mismatch in price expectations!
I know that there will be immense work to be done before it can be introduced but I am sure it worth the efforts!

What you guys say? Any thoughts ?
 
I was thinking exactly the same yesterday. I have tons of crap from years back that I threw yesterday. I was thinking I am sure someone would have needed it but I was too lazy to make a thread, price it and then start bargaining/negatiations, it was too much and instantly I thought what if someone gives the price and other compete and eventually the deal becomes easy for the seller.

I hope mods think abt this.
 
honest1 said:
I am sure this must have been thought before but not sure what was the outcome but can we rethink on it again !
Many times the sellers are not sure about the price and many times the product remains unsold due to mismatch in price expectations!
I know that there will be immense work to be done before it can be introduced but I am sure it worth the efforts!

What you guys say? Any thoughts ?
Click to expand...
This was indeed discussed in quite some detail previously and the understanding was that this is not first and foremost a market place. It will ask a lot more from volunteers and also traditional forum software is designed for discussions, rather than auctions.

You would basically be recreating eBay and it would be relatively easy to create a separate turnkey solution based on WordPress, though profitability is questionable.
 
honest1 said:
I am sure this must have been thought before but not sure what was the outcome but can we rethink on it again !
Many times the sellers are not sure about the price and many times the product remains unsold due to mismatch in price expectations!
I know that there will be immense work to be done before it can be introduced but I am sure it worth the efforts!

What you guys say? Any thoughts ?
Click to expand...
I wholeheartedly support this. Have soooo many things lying around which were either impulse buy, lucrative price, got bored of it or some other reasons. Also not sure how to price them.

TE Marketplace rules can apply to this auction thread also.

A workaround may be, create a FS thread with a price of 100 times of your buying price and ask for offers and mention OBO (or best offer).
 
prime said:
I wholeheartedly support this. Have soooo many things lying around which were either impulse buy, lucrative price, got bored of it or some other reasons. Also not sure how to price them.

TE Marketplace rules can apply to this auction thread also.

A workaround may be, create a FS thread with a price of 100 times of your buying price and ask for offers and mention OBO (or best offer).
Click to expand...
Not sure if it needs a solution the way you put it. You can always start with listing something at little less than the purchase price and then negotiate over DM.

Trying to replicate an auction site on a forum seems too much of a sidetrack, as it will just entertain a lot of frivolous bids that will require policing and put further strain on the moderators.
 
I had created the exact same thread less than 24 hours ago in the staff section. For the same reasons as cited above, we all have so much junk lying around and too lazy to find the price and list it. Not all of us are on the same page. But here is what I thought. @puns and @SunnyBoi you may pitch in with your views.

A subsection of "user to user" listing.
All market rules apply, except price is not mentioned.
The thread remains closed for comments, only original sale post.
Interested buyers can contact with DM.
Seller decides who to sell it to.
Thread auto closed after 2 weeks.

The only problem with this model is. I suspect all sale threads will get created in that section only.

Lets discuss the pros and cons in details and maybe we can take a decision by next month end.
 
Renegade said:
I had created the exact same thread less than 24 hours ago in the staff section. For the same reasons as cited above, we all have so much junk lying around and too lazy to find the price and list it. Not all of us are on the same page. But here is what I thought. @puns and @SunnyBoi you may pitch in with your views.

A subsection of "user to user" listing.
All market rules apply, except price is not mentioned.
The thread remains closed for comments, only original sale post.
Interested buyers can contact with DM.
Seller decides who to sell it to.
Thread auto closed after 2 weeks.

The only problem with this model is. I suspect all sale threads will get created in that section only.

Lets discuss the pros and cons in details and maybe we can take a decision by next month end.
Click to expand...
If it is going to be happen over DM anyway, then why would anyone put a price on any marketplace thread?

Sellers would prefer having their posts locked for comments as most point out issues with the pricing, so I don't see anyone pricing anything.
 
As much as I adore Storage Wars and Baggage Battle, I don't think auctions would work.

I'd expect users of a reputed techforum to know and list their items reasonably. Comments on the listing work well for ironing out any mismatched expections and catering doubts.
Auctions seem redundant in idea and, as t3chg33k pointed out, hard to implement.
 
Renegade said:
I had created the exact same thread less than 24 hours ago in the staff section. For the same reasons as cited above, we all have so much junk lying around and too lazy to find the price and list it. Not all of us are on the same page. But here is what I thought. @puns and @SunnyBoi you may pitch in with your views.

A subsection of "user to user" listing.
All market rules apply, except price is not mentioned.
The thread remains closed for comments, only original sale post.
Interested buyers can contact with DM.
Seller decides who to sell it to.
Thread auto closed after 2 weeks.

The only problem with this model is. I suspect all sale threads will get created in that section only.

Lets discuss the pros and cons in details and maybe we can take a decision by next month end.
Click to expand...
How about people post in the thread how much they want to buy it for and restrict DM's, that way it the word auction will be justified
 
If auctions are to be replicated, then the best way to do it without changing much is to allow only numbers to be posted as a reply and then auto-close the thread after a set time, so the highest number wins.

Of course, I still think a base price might be necessary.
 
In my understanding , another problem with auctions is enforcement. Say, someone wants to derail the bidding for blocking it for themselves, they will simply bid an absurd amount and then back out. Now seller will have to create another listing.

Even say, someone impulsively wants to bid for something but feels buyer’s remorse after doing so and decides to back out then how will that be enforced?

Moreover, almost every sale thread will be created in the auction section, which in itself is an issue, where the work for mods will increase, as bidding wars can get messy.

The forum is doing fine as is.

I don’t favour adding auctions to this forum.
 
Introducing : Enclave Plus Pro

Unlock Market Place Access to Auction Section in addition to Enclave Plus privileges.
Allows you to make auction threads and place bids on others auctions.

*Your privileges may be revoked if you misuse the Auction process or violate any rules
 
A good idea. But, implementation can be chaotic for all the reasons stated above.

I believe current system is perfect for our Peer to Peer trust network format.

There may be an alternative, Can a section in classifieds be created for listings on other platforms? (There is still risk of all sale threads adopting it and purpose of our forum being lost).
 
Renegade said:
Lets discuss the pros and cons in details and maybe we can take a decision by next month end.
Click to expand...
1st - How will others know at what price the item sold at? In regular auctions, people can see the final price and buyer at which the item sold at. It's a transparent process.
2nd - How will ratings work if everything is in dm's? 2+ people can group up to buy sell through dm's and game rating system in their favour. I think a user was banned since he was buying/selling exclusively to only one person. My honest opinion - DM only route is not very good for transparency and it is opposite of selling point of auctions where you know what price something can get sold at.
3rd - A seller or buyer can fake the price at which their item sold or never sold at if going through dm route only.
 
What better than testing the feasibility than just implementing and see how things turn out. Sometimes, the discussions are way off than reality and some problems solves itself.
 
To make it transparent the bid price should be posted openly and the seller reserve the right to sell to anyone he seems comfortable with but there is a problem in this system, few notorious members can bid low price making it look that the current value is in specif range which will influence others not to bid higher. Instead price check thread should be reopened so we can get an idea and then normal sale thread.

Anyone making a deal before posting a sale thread or without making a thread altogether MUST not get any support from TE staff
 
Didn't Ebay solve this conundrum years ago? One can create a sale thread with a 'Buy Now' price, wherein a buyer can buy it without any auction at that price. But if buyers find it too high, they can send in their offers. I believe this is how most deals currently work in TE. What Ebay does different is they show the current ongoing bid on the listing page. This would be tricky to adapt.

Blind bids where you don't know what others are bidding is a way to help sellers get the best out of their wares. Open bidding in contrast helps buyers snag a good deal and speed up some old sale threads to clear out. I favour the more transparent system rather than closed bidding.

Some of us who don't like the entire auction idea, fair enough. But no one is forcing it on anyone. One can steer clear of it and just use the other sections as usual. Our experience outside of it is not going to change. What will change is extra duties for mods, and thus, they should be the ones to make the call whether it is worthwhile to have it or not. We know that there is a demand for it (I wish ebay.in was never bought off by flopkart), so the question is how to implement it. Is there a way to show current open bid on the listing page and also punish those who outbid others and then back out?
 
Auction has its pros and cons as others suggested.
Otoh, any thread where someone can get suggestions on what to price the item (price suggestions through dm only) would be useful.
Or can we just put a placeholder price in sale thread and then seek suggestions in the dm?
 
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