Items for sale at the Marketplace

[mbbrutman]

http://marketplace.vintage-computer.com/​

In the interest of cleaning out my basement and generate some more interest in the VC Marketplace, I listed about 20 new items in the past two days. Come marvel at my extremely beautiful photographs, loving descriptions, impossible disclaimers, and reasonable pricing. (And if you think I'm out of line, feel free to haggle me down by email .. I need the space not the money!)

And a quick reminder - you can use the marketplace too! No fees! And if you sell enough stuff, Erik gives you fabulous prizes! ( http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?21795-VCGM-Promotional-items-and-contest )


-Mike

 

[PeterNY]

And a quick reminder - you can use the marketplace too! No fees!

I tried and listed a fair number of items there a while ago but none sold. I do not believe the marketplace really generates sufficient traffic.

 

[mbbrutman]

I think that has been true in the past, but if you look at the statistics from it's home page right now you will see:

• 979 registered users (And you don't have to be registered to browse)
• 148 open auctions at the moment. (I don't think this counts items listed in stores.")
• 11 online users looking around right now!

Listing is easy and free. Relisting is easier too. So there isn't much too lose.

I'd encourage you and anybody else to list their spare stuff - you never know what somebody is looking for.

 

[PeterNY]

I think that has been true in the past, but if you look at the statistics from it's home page right now you will see:

• 979 registered users (And you don't have to be registered to browse)
• 148 open auctions at the moment. (I don't think this counts items listed in stores.")
• 11 online users looking around right now!

Listing is easy and free. Relisting is easier too. So there isn't much too lose.

I'd encourage you and anybody else to list their spare stuff - you never know what somebody is looking for.

Great! How about actual statistics on sold items? Many forums have thousands of registrations but few active posters. I also tried www.bonanza.com and did not sell a single item over 2 months there. Craigslist is not any better. The only site that works so far is eBay unfortunately.

 

[mbbrutman]

Great! How about actual statistics on sold items? Many forums have thousands of registrations but few active posters. I also tried www.bonanza.com and did not sell a single item over 2 months there. Craigslist is not any better. The only site that works so far is eBay unfortunately.

Hi Peter,

Sorry - I don't have those statistics. The statistics that I quoted came right from the front page. I'm just a regular user in the marketplace, not an admin or anything, so I have no more information than anybody else.

Besides, I've already acknowledged that it's been slow and we are trying to jump-start it. So have a little faith and support what you use. If we all sit around complaining about the lack of traffic it will never go anywhere.


Mike
(40 items now posted)

 

[PeterNY]

If we all sit around complaining about the lack of traffic it will never go anywhere.

I posted a bunch of items! :D

May I suggest the marketplace is enhanced to incorporate many more categories than it does now? It does not facilitate granular searches at current.

 

[Soupwizard]

May I suggest the marketplace is enhanced to incorporate many more categories than it does now? It does not facilitate granular searches at current.

Seconded, even adding a few new categories would help make the marketplace much easier to browse - even just splitting "Vintage Computers" into "Vintage Computers - Hardware" and "Vintage Computers - Software".

 

[PeterNY]

Seconded, even adding a few new categories would help make the marketplace much easier to browse - even just splitting "Vintage Computers" into "Vintage Computers - Hardware" and "Vintage Computers - Software".

Correct! :D

Also, instead of allowing people to sell through the forum I would strongly recommend selling through the marketplace only.

 

[Stone]

Also, instead of allowing people to sell through the forum I would strongly recommend selling through the marketplace only.

I don't like that idea at all! If that were to be implemented I would never buy or sell anything here again. Instead i would only use eBay. That's my sentiment as I find the marketplace completely cumbersome and unmanageable.

 

[mbbrutman]

I don't think we'll ever ban selling here in the forum - a quick thread works for 'one-shot' sellers.

On the other hand, having listed over 40 things in the marketplace, how is it "completely cumbersome and unmanageable" ? It requires more effort than posting a single thread, but that's not a fair comparison. The benefits are that you can set your time frame, starting price, "buy-out" price, list it as just a for-sale item with a single price, pick your payment methods, post up to 8 pictures fairly easily, etc. And it's a good format for sellers to browse items in instead of having to point and click their way through multiple threads and replies.

 

[Stone]

OK, I've looked at it twice but I'm willing to take another look and see if I can do something with it. It just wasn't at all to my liking whenever I checked it out before. You know how it is when a routine just lacks that... 'feel' that you are comfortable with. A prime example of this is when Netscape 4.x bit the dust years ago. Sure, I used IE as well as Netscape but Netscape was hands down my browser of choice at that time. It just had all the right features -- at least for my purposes. And, when all the subsequent (6, 7, 8...) releases never measured up I was left with IE since at least it was adequate (for me). FWIW, IE still has the WORST bookmarks/favorites system I have ever run across. It just sucks out loud! LOL

 

[carlsson]

Perhaps the marketplace would need another automatic (optional!) mail function: send out a message every time a new item has been listed! Many of us forget to check it, which leads to sellers get less exposure than even the forum has. Thus they don't list any new items so even less reason for buyers to check it out. I think that is referred in modern literature to as a Catch 22.

Ideally the forum function "What's New?" should have the option to briefly list newly posted items in the marketplace next to the new forum posts. However I realize those are two separate pieces of software and Erik may not have the time or ability to merge them.

But well, good luck to Mike and his sales. As far as I can tell, 2 out of 108 items ended in 2011 have been sold. We surely can do better than 1.8% successful sales?

 

[Erik]

And a quick reminder - you can use the marketplace too! No fees! And if you sell enough stuff, Erik gives you fabulous prizes! ( http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?21795-VCGM-Promotional-items-and-contest )

Thanks for the plug, Mike!

I tried and listed a fair number of items there a while ago but none sold. I do not believe the marketplace really generates sufficient traffic.

That represents sort of a catch-22. Traffic comes from people seeing items to buy, listing items is encouraged by greater traffic.

Interest has been growing, albeit slowly...

More stuff for sale will bring more buyers which will, I hope, bring more sellers and so on.

Great! How about actual statistics on sold items?

It's not easy, but the numbers are there. Click on Advanced Search at the top and view results by "closed auctions only" You'll see that a lot closed with no bids, but a lot closed with 1 or more. You should be able to do the tally from that. I've personally sold well over 100 items including a couple I shipped out earlier this week.

May I suggest the marketplace is enhanced to incorporate many more categories than it does now? It does not facilitate granular searches at current.

I set it up with a small set of broader categories but I'd be happy to add more. Feel free to make suggestions in-thread or via PM or email.

Perhaps the marketplace would need another automatic (optional!) mail function: send out a message every time a new item has been listed!

I get one (as the admin) but I'm not sure how I'd be able to disseminate that automatically...

Ideally the forum function "What's New?" should have the option to briefly list newly posted items in the marketplace next to the new forum posts.

That'd be nice, but isn't likely.

As far as I can tell, 2 out of 108 items ended in 2011 have been sold. We surely can do better than 1.8% successful sales?

I've sold at least a dozen items so far this year so I think that number is off.


Thanks!

 

[carlsson]

Aha, items won with "buy out" are listed as having 0 bids which means you would have to click on each item to count how many were sold in one way or another. Some items even ended on odd timestamps without bids or being bought out, which I take as the seller ended the auction early for one reason or another.

Case in point these two PC games Erik sold in December 2010:
http://marketplace.vintage-computer...name=Doom-II-and-DZone-2-PC&auction_id=108858

 

[PeterNY]

I set it up with a small set of broader categories but I'd be happy to add more. Feel free to make suggestions in-thread or via PM or email.

First of all the VCM is really impressive!

Regarding categories:
- Software
- PC games
- PC operating systems
- PC other software
(continue this for other platforms such as Apple, Commodore et cetera)
- Hardware
- PC complete systems
- PC parts
(continue this for other platforms such as Apple, Commodore et cetera)
- Manuals
- PC manuals
- Apple manuals
(continue this for other platforms such as Apple, Commodore et cetera)

That would be a good start I believe.

It appears I sold something through VCM but the buyer lives in South Korea so I guess that is a fluke.