GameGavel.com: Video Gaming Auciton site Alternative to eBay!

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

So I started this over at DP as well, but want as wide an audience as possible!

So for the past few months I have been toying around with my new website: www.chaoticconsoles.com.

Originally, the idea was to have a all encompassing site that had a wiki, photo albums, forums, etc. Let's just say that its up, but I kind of lost interest in it because the DP site is pretty good for being a forum based site, and do we really need another gaming site for discussions? I am a member of only 3 and its a pain sometimes (too much acttivity, idiot moderators, or too little activity... not all of these apply to every site by the way.)

With eBay fees going up, crazy requirements for feedbacks etc, crazy selling prices, masses amounts of folks setting up shop selling everything... I have given some thought to purchasing some auction house software and installing it and setting up a Video Gaming Auction House... low fees, only low insertion fees (flat rate), etc.

I am curious what kind of feedback I can get about this idea from you all. For me, its a great project that I can do while I am stationed here in Italy and can keep my programming skills up/web building skills sharp.

What do you think?

[Michael Helgeson]

If you do it make  a personal note to be watchful of half the major posters on the Neo forums. Rade,another member  there admits to shill bidding their ebay auctions.

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

Yeah, I saw that. I am very open to ideas on the rule set and fees etc to charge.

I am not really wanting to become a millionare, nor do I expect to.... i would be just happy to break even and have a lot of folks use the site!

[nodtveidt]

The idea of doing an auction site has been on my mind for a couple of years now, but I've lacked the time to pull it off.

[Michael Helgeson]

Rules and guide lines:

1. Fees. 75 cents for initial fee. No final value fee aka No double dipping.
2. Pics. Sellers find  away to get their own pics hosted.
3. Non paying bidders. A person should only be allowed to get 2 non-paying bidder strikes before their account becomes subject of being removed. The seller on the second non-paying transaction on up should have the final say,not the auction house. This way if there was special circumstances the seller can make  a judgment call and let the person stay but still leave feedback for the buyer.

If a non paying bidder can maintain 20 deals in a positive manner payment wise 1 non-paying strike should then be removed. This should happen for every 20 deals they can manage fine.

4. Non-shipping sellers. If a seller has 2 instanced of not shipping a item in a 9 month rolling period that should be immediate grounds for termination of their account.

Feedback wise:
1. If  a buyer doesn't pay,he cant leave feedback. There should be no mutual feedback withdrawals. He get s a automatic negative feedback.
2. If  a buyer left a valid feedback against a seller and the seller leaves seemingly retaliatory feedback it should be reviewed to make sure it is,by giving the seller  a chance to give  a explanation. If the explanation is not good enough/not a valid reason then the feedback they left should be removed.

Proof of shipping being required:
All items sold and paid for should require proof of shipping to be provided at all times. Delivery confirmation and insurance both,regardless of end item amount. The amount to cover this will be provided for in the shipping fee the buyer pays.


Layout.

Should have categories listed by gaming generations then with sub categories for each system.
We should also have  a category for current and vintage computers,parts and software,and arcade equipment,and video game memorabilia.


There should be  a main map at the front of the site for easy point and click to categories with out having to scroll through nonsense to get there.

All ideas here are trademarked and copyrighted by Time Bomb,do you have one?

[guyjin]

Feedback wise:
1. If  a buyer doesn't pay,he cant leave feedback. There should be no mutual feedback withdrawals. He get s a automatic negative feedback.
2. If  a buyer left a valid feedback against a seller and the seller leaves seemingly retaliatory feedback it should be reviewed to make sure it is,by giving the seller  a chance to give  a explanation. If the explanation is not good enough/not a valid reason then the feedback they left should be removed.

With the provisions you've already listed (2 strikes for nonpayment, can't leave feedback without payment) there really shouldn't be a reason for sellers to leave feedback on buyers. Buyers should be able to know if sellers have strikes (and how old), how many successful transactions have occurred, and how long they've been around; with that info, ratings for buyers really aren't necessary.

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

This is where a longer amount of characters are required for feedback. Too many times I want to leave feedback in detail why I left a neutral or negitive and cant... not enough space!

[nodtveidt]

Yeah, there was never enough space on evilbay. I really had to cram in my feedback sometimes.

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

I think that has valuable merit. Thanks for your insight. The only thing is the $.75 insert fee. It may be kind of high. I agree with the no double dipping rule though.

I have been thinking about what would be the best way to do it... one upfront fee or a small (~3%) Final Value Fee with no insertion fee. That way it doesnt hurt to list something up, if it doesnt sell it didnt cost you anything! Plus it helps out those who sell lower priced / lower final cost items. It would really suck to sell SMB for $1 to have had to pay .$75 to list it!

Another idea is a subscription of $10 per month to allow unlimited sales with no other fees! (Imagine 100 items sold, and all it cost was $10!).

Jasen

[nodtveidt]

You could experiment with all kinds of fee schedules. I kind of favor the percentage method personally, but others might disagree. A flat rate listing fee would be great if all the items were high-priced, but it would really hurt someone who sold items cheaply. I propose a 2.5% final value fee applied across the board (aka never changes regardless of the final value of the item; evilbay screwed with the percentage depending on the final value)

[MissaFX]

To get a site like this going you are going to have to have very low fees, at least for the first year to get people interested in it and to get people to be willing to take a risk selling something there.  However, too cheap and people will get really pissed if you ever raise it to a price that can sustain the website.  I would highly suggest having something like ebay stores if you can, I suggest a payment plan like:

-Store -

$2.50 setup fee, no monthly fee.  (the fee is mostly to keep people from making hundreds of accounts for whatever reason)
$1.00 listing fee for the first 5 items, once you have 5 items for sale, the listing fee vanishes, as long as you have at least 5 items for sale.
1% final value fee.

- Non-Store -
$0.50 listing fee for items which finish/bought out under $20.01
$1.00 listing fee for items $20.02 --> $100.01
$1.50 listing fee over $100.02
$2.00 listing fee over $300.01
1.5% final value fee.


While this is not a perfect plan, it would allow people have a store if they sell a lot of used games and it would encourage people to have more stuff for sale, which will increase the inventory of the whole auction system.  People who do not have a store could still sell loose carts though for 50 cents, which while it might be a high %, it's a perfectly reasonable amount of money to pay to list something.

I just don't know how you would draw enough people to the site without having a "special" for the first 3 months or something which would let people list stuff even cheaper, so that if nobody purchased their item, they wouldn't be out much.

[nodtveidt]

Btw DWJ, if you're dead serious about this, my company might be able to provide some financial backing for this project, provided there was a decent ROI.

[nodtveidt]

I have one suggestion for this kind of site, something I wanted to implement into my own site...anti-snipe measures. If someone bids in the last minutes of the auction, the auction time is automatically extended to give others a chance to bid again.

[guyjin]

I have one suggestion for this kind of site, something I wanted to implement into my own site...anti-snipe measures. If someone bids in the last minutes of the auction, the auction time is automatically extended to give others a chance to bid again.

I'm not sure that's a good idea. Someone could, theoretically, greif someone else by posting last minute bids on someone else's auctions without ever intending to pay, thereby preventing paying customers from getting the goods.

I think there should be anti-sniping measures too, but There should be a better way to go about it.

[nectarsis]

^ I have wished for that for years on Evilbay Rover....I hate losing by 10 cents to soem person that has nothing better to do than wait until the last second (oh the days of dial up).