Market Feedback Auctions in marketplace ?

[honest1]

We can complicate it to a level where we end up making another ebay but to keep things simple, the seller can mention the following things, if he is open for auction:
1. Base price
2. Bidding end date and time.

Again to keep things simple, the potential buyers need to mention their price in the thread itself and any other conversation can be done through DM. This will keep the thread clean and clear.
Further, only reputed buyers should be able to participate and the existing tier system can be used.

Also, I know that this is a discussion platform but I see that many people are here just to get good deals on tech products and if its coulped with auction system, I think its going to take TE to the next level !!

A small fee can also be charged from the sellers to compensate for the efforts by Mods/admin team.

 

[6pack]

What is the use of an auction if the selling price is not known to anyone outside the dm? There's no difference between what is happening in current system other than the name.

 

[mayank11280]

What is the use of an auction if the selling price is not known to anyone outside the dm? There's no difference between what is happening in current system other than the name.

Similarly, if there is a “buy now” price ceiling then that’s no different than the current mechanism where the seller sets their best price and the buyer negotiates a lower price in DM.

 

[roadrash99]

I feel the reason for items going unsold is simply the small userbase of this forum. You will often see very low price steal deals unsold because there is simply no one who needs that item. So an auction system might not do anything in that situation. What I think will happen is that sellers will put a high base price (which will be their desired sale price) and no one will bother to bid.

In cases where there are enough interested buyers, being able to reduce prices and DM negotiations are offering enough flexibility.

 

[mayank11280]

I have a suggestion. There is a merit in having an auction section for antiques.

If an “Auction” section has to be created, following can be done:

1. Cutoff period: there should be a cut off period for products, i.e. products bought recently, say in the last 10 years, may not be allowed to be sold in that section. An invoice can help substantiate antiquity. In likely absence of invoice, mods may be asked to approve the thread.

2. Fixed duration: of auction with sharp shut down, say one week from the moment of creation of sale thread.

3. Bidding in the comment section: openly visible to all to maintain transparency and fairness.

4. Retraction: may be possible by the mods upon request by the bidder before the shut down of bidding. Multiple retractions by the same bidder, say three retractions, should result in the person being excluded from participating in “Auction” section. (Don’t know how to implement this)

5. Failure to buy: bidder may be banned upon failure to buy after a successful bid. (Reported by the seller)

6. Base price: can be there but no need for a ceiling price.

 

[t3chg33k]

I have a suggestion. There is a merit in having an auction section for antiques.

If an “Auction” section has to be created, following can be done:

1. Cutoff period: there should be a cut off period for products, i.e. products bought recently, say in the last 10 years, may not be allowed to be sold in that section. An invoice can help substantiate antiquity. In likely absence of invoice, mods may be asked to approve the thread.

2. Fixed duration: of auction with sharp shut down, say one week from the moment of creation of sale thread.

3. Bidding in the comment section: openly visible to all to maintain transparency and fairness.

4. Retraction: may be possible by the mods upon request by the bidder before the shut down of bidding. Multiple retractions by the same bidder, say three retractions, should result in the person being excluded from participating in “Auction” section. (Don’t know how to implement this)

5. Failure to buy: bidder may be banned upon failure to buy after a successful bid. (Reported by the seller)

6. Base price: can be there but no need for a ceiling price.

There would be a lot of cases where the product itself may be an old one but purchased not too long ago. Don't think the invoice route is practical or also putting more workload on the mods.

Personal opinion is that auctions wouldn't do much other than bring in some transparency and cut down on lowball offers and DMs, which is a good thing. Most will likely close without offers, as the marketplace is not large or diverse enough. Auctions generally need a large audience to be competitive, which was the case with eBay.

Also, items should be put up for auction only if they are not being sold elsewhere, so I would say that even a single retraction shouldn't be allowed unless it is clear that the product condition changed and the base price has to honoured if even a single bid matches it (even though it defeats the purpose of price discovery mentioned in this thread). Same applies to the buyer as the lock-in period, even if it is a week, is significant for the seller.

 

[anilk47]

Price discovery, it will only help stickiness of group. Seller and buyers both will get the appropriate value.
How to do is all depends on the consideration such as should it be only subscription based services.

 

[Futureized]

I find no issues with same.
Novice sellers get best pricing.

Members who are only on TE for buying/selling should be restricted to use this system so that no mess happens.

Even if to try, this system should be used as beta festure and only a trusted group of members should be allowed to post initially (bidding can be done by all)

This will give a clear idea, if you want to keep this system or not.

 

[asheet]

I loved an old website called bazee.com which used to have only auctions for products. I got some great deals on their website before it was sold. So no harm in trying it out in this forum too

 

[Slayer88]

Stating what has already been said, but If auctionion is to succeed without compromise to the security one (in most scenarios) gets on TE, a lot of governance needs to be put in place (e.g. background checks and mod involvement, change on rules, accountability)

 

[PunkX 75]

There may be a potential downside for the buyer (not the seller) with an auction system:

Say the seller lists something. A buyer is ready to buy it, and bids via DM (with a more than reasonable offer). The seller may get greedy/abuse the system by keeping the buyer hanging, citing waiting for a potentially (much) better offer. While that is fine, as everybody wants the most for their wares, it may be frustrating for a buyer who just wants a straightforward deal.

A counter-argument may be made that the regular marketplace will still have regular listings, but there is always a risk that sellers will bypass the regular classfields and always auction, instead. A solution to this would be to maybe cap the number of times a particular user can list auctions within a particular time frame?

Also, if the comment section is closed, and the seller pulls a scam/fast one, it'll take much longer for it to be exposed, and for everybody to see. In the meantime, the scammer can scam other users, as well, as the ban won't be quick enough. It'll just increase back-end work.

 

[Afxal]

Bid rigging is a big problem generally in auctions. It is very hard to recognise in the first place.
Suppose 'A' puts up an item for auction where he gets few genuine bids, now he asks his friend B to put up a bid with a slight increase. Now the genuine buyer has to put up a new bid surpassing the fake bid by B. Even if the genuine buyer backs out, B doesn't have to really buy the item from A, while they may show it as a concluded deal on the TE.
Funny thing would be seeing a new auction/sale thread being put up by B for the same item some time after.

 

[Renegade]

So while the thread mentions auction, it doesnt have to be a typical auction which has several shortcomings and is difficult to enforce. We should not be looking to become another ebay.

The key problem to address here is the inability to price items correctly. There is no need for price war, fake bids, cross bids etc. A seller can list an item without a price. Everyone gets only one shot at making a proposal and in private through DM (as they do right now as well), the seller picks the one they think is the best if they want to sell. There is no artificially inflating prices.

If we look at it objectively, the only change is that the price isnt listed and there is no moral obligation to sell to the first bidder, or anyone at all.

As suggested in the thread, maybe we can also restrict it to x running threads per user, keep it limited to say users with x number of posts/age on forum.

 

[salian]

TE's current marketplace is perhaps exactly what older members prefer, but I believe a working auction model would be a useful service for price discovery.

 

[calvin1719]

Do we really have FS threads for such rare or hard to get stuff that auctions make sense? Common electronics, electricals, the occasional car and bike.
IMO it would only benefit the for profit flippers, who buy lower elsewhere and sell here. This group has no regard for the forum aspect at all and members shouldn't make any decisions with this group's interests in mind.

There is still risk of all sale threads adopting it and purpose of our forum being lost

Not sure if you misspoke here, but the purpose of the forum is not the classifieds and FS threads.

 

[BIKeINSTEIN]

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.

1. NO auction. Scammers auction stuff IMHO. Don't sully TE rep.
Seller can post whatever price they want.
Members can make offer via DM and seller can be shady about whom they sell to. I dont think this is new.
Only few old TE retards still follow FCFS principle and stick to quoted price maybe.

2. Bring back 'How much can I sell this for?' thread. Or something like that.
It worked very well for me and others too I guess.
Some started sale threads sincerely, some didnt start sale thread and finalised all in DM/WA now, some finalised in DM but started sale thread only for final step.
People will always operate as per their sense of morals.

I have a whole room full of old/unused stuff in old house that I have no idea if anyone wants.
If I know someone wants/is interested. only then it will be worth the effort to travel there just to take pics and post a sale thread.

3. Merge 'Want To Buy' and 'Classifieds', no one checks WTB before starting sale thread maybe.
WTBer will miss deals in Classifieds unless market lurker or alerted by some helpful member.

TBC ...

 

[Renegade]

it’s inevitable that old culture will not remain forever. Still remember selling stuff FCFS even though the one later quoted slightly higher price.

@BIKeINSTEIN your post triggered another thought.

• close WTB if it’s not serving any useful purpose.
• Create a new what can I sell for forum, instead of a thread, under marketplace section. Every member creates a new thread for their item.
• Other Members can discuss price and sale interest in the thread itself. No moderation needed. No complains of price policing since you yourself asked for a price publicly.
• That also discourages everyone from going that route instead of user to user listing.
• We still have to post two pictures to discourage fraud.

 

[honest1]

I think the best is to start and see how it goes, keeping things as simple as possible. There will surely be nuisances along the route but it can be taken care once the journey has started.
I am imclined towards auction route as there is no platform which is available right now in domestic market and TE can surely take benefit of this vacuum.
As I mentioned, restrict it to top tier members initially and then start buiding the platform as per the feedback.
Also, a small fee will help the forum to sustain itself and also be a motivating factor for mods.

(Another thought, can we simplify the member level structure a bit? The current system feels overly complicated and makes it hard to figure out who’s at what level. A straightforward L0 to L10 system would be much clearer and more intuitive. If we want to add fancy designations for flair, that's fine, but having the L0-L10 prefix would make everything easier to understand at a glance.)

 

[rahuljawale]

I loved an old website called bazee.com which used to have only auctions for products. I got some great deals on their website before it was sold. So no harm in trying it out in this forum too

Bazee.com was acquired by eBay to launch eBay.in.

 

[Kevin Lane]

it’s inevitable that old culture will not remain forever. Still remember selling stuff FCFS even though the one later quoted slightly higher price.

@BIKeINSTEIN your post triggered another thought.

• close WTB if it’s not serving any useful purpose.
• Create a new what can I sell for forum, instead of a thread, under marketplace section. Every member creates a new thread for their item.
• Other Members can discuss price and sale interest in the thread itself. No moderation needed. No complains of price policing since you yourself asked for a price publicly.
• That also discourages everyone from going that route instead of user to user listing.
• We still have to post two pictures to discourage fraud.

No need to scrap WTB.

Bringing back 'How much can I sell this for?' would be sufficient and really useful.

Not sure if you misspoke here, but the purpose of the forum is not the classifieds and FS threads.

What I am talking about is core of TE is "Trust based Peer to Peer network" whether it is original tech discussions or ancillary classifieds section.