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

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

The first contest was a success, Icarus Moonsight won the NES!

Now, the next contest is going on! Become a verified seller and you are entered for a chance to win a game of your choice for any current generation system! ($60 Value!).

Don't forget about the great referral system either! Refer a friend and add credit to your sellers account, when people you refer sell something you get a cash bonus! Get to $50 and get a check in the mail or a paypal direct deposit!

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

Ok Guys and Gals... if you are a member of GameGavel, you got this in your email! If you aren't yet.... prepare to be excited!

GameGavel.com is proud to announce it’s new fee structure to make it the number one choice for online video game auctions. After careful consideration, research, and discussions we have decided to remove ALL fees for basic auction listings at GameGavel.com. As you already know, there were no insertion fees for your auctions which gave you a leg up on eBay and other auction sites. Now, we are happy to tell you that we are no longer charging ANY final value fees either! Your auctions are now completely free. If you wish to make your auctions stand out more than others, you can add upgrade options for a nominal but low fee still. These upgrades include: bolded items, highlighted items, category featured items, and home page featured items.

How are we doing this? You may notice the small ads on the right side of the main site. They are there to help ensure that GameGavel.com remains a free service to the video game community but supplementing the cost to run the site and make improvements! If you appreciate the freedom to sell without fees, please visit the sponsors by clicking their ads.

Do you want to have a store at GameGavel.com? Well, that is available too! For a new low price of only $5/month you can have your very own online store! Your store will benefit from no insertion or final value fees, customization potential, and 1000 items at a time that can be listed as auctions and store items, or store only items!

Start selling today by signing in and verifying your account if you haven’t already! There is no reason to not sell on GameGavel.com any more!

Please remember on May 1, 2008 the second contest at GameGavel.com will close and the winner will be announced via YouTube video on the front page again. Here is a reminder of the rules: Verify Your account before May 1 and you will be entered to win a new game of your choice for any current generation console! A $60 value.... Free!

I also want to take the time to announce the biggest event at GameGavel.com or any online auction site as well: You can win $500 by being a verified seller! That’s right... $500 cash in your pocket! When GameGavel.com reaches its 1000 verified user benchmark, we will put all of the names in a hat (or bag, which ever will fit all of the names easiest) and draw ONE out. That lucky person will receive $500 from GameGavel.com.

There hasn’t been a better time to join the fun at GameGavel.com. In order for the site to be a success we need all of your help. Tell your friends, family, and anyone who will listen about GameGavel.com! The more people that sign up the better the community will become and the closer we will be to the big drawing for $500!

Thanks!

Jasen Hicks
Owner, GameGavel.com

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

Just a couple days left for this months contest... visit the site today to register and verify to be eligible to win!

www.gamegavel.com

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

Just a heads up. The second contest at GameGavel.com is closing for eligibility tomorrow! By verifying your sellers account, you are entered for a chance to win a game of your choice for a current generation console of your choice. A $60 Value Free! You will also be automatically entered in the $500 contest as well. When we get to 1000 verified sellers at GameGavel.com I will be giving $500 to one of them!

Let the Gavel Fall!

Jasen

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

This month's contest, where you could win a new game of your choice, for any next generation console ($60 value) went very well! There was a last push of new users duing the last few days to get the number of verified sellers up, and there were 47 eligible users when I drew the name.

Without further ado, I am happy to announce "bangtango" as the winner of this month's contest! He won any game of his choice for any next-generation console of his choice! Everyone give him a big round of applause!


With the end of this contest, I have to announce the next contest! This one will be called the 5-5-5 contest where you can be entered up to three times to win! All you have to do is complete, any or all of the following to be eligible:

1. Refer 5 new users

2. Sell 5 items

3. Buy 5 items

All within the May-June 2008 timeframe! If you do one, you are entered once! If you complete 2, you are entered twice! And if you complete all three.... you guessed it! You are entered Three times to win! The next lucky winner will receive a brand new Nintendo DS! Perfect for the beach, pool, or those long summer road trips!


Finally, don't forget about the $500 contest. When we have 1000 verified users at GameGavel.com I will give one of them $500! To get to that benchmark, I need all of your help though! Make sure you buy, sell, and visit often! The more traffic the better resource GameGavel.com becomes!

Just a couple of new features for April:

1. Added Feedback Sections: Shumps, 2D Gaming, Goozex, and a unlabled "Other"

2. Bulk Listing Software for the folks with a lot to sell!

3. No more Final Value Fees!

4. Weekly Newsletters for Featured Auctions and those ending soon!

5. Better Safari Compatibility!

Thank you for your continued support of GameGavel.com! Let the Gavel Fall!

www.gamegavel.com

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

It sure has been busy this weekend at GameGavel.com!

We have added quite a few new features that will make everyone's experience that much better when using this FREE video game auction site!

1. Categories, Categories, Categories! Thats right, we added a lot. There are a heck of a lot of gaming systems out there.

2. Listing Designer! Make your auctions stand out, and be FUN! Add a creative theme to your auction and impress potential buyers!

3. Watchers Anyone? Now you can see exactly how many people are watching your auctions within your Members Area! See how many people are waiting to get into a last minute bidding war!

4. Weekly Auction Newsletters! Every week, GameGavel.com will be sending a newsletter out to its users to inform them of the Featured Auctions and those ending soon! This will help maximize your coverage.

Stay tuned, we are adding new features all the time. Committing ourselves to excellent features, going above and beyond!

Let the Gavel Fall!

Jasen

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

I must sincerely apologize, for the lack of keeping everyone updated regarding GameGavel.com over the past 2 weeks. I have been playing globetrotter going between Italy, and the UK for work.

Did you know that GameGavel.com gives you a lifetime membership for selling your auctions FREE, for a small one-time $1 verification fee?

Did you know that we are running a contest where you can win a Nintendo DS by simply using GameGavel.com and by referring your friends?

Did you know that we are going to give away $500 to one of our lucky verified sellers the day we reach 1000 verified sellers at GameGavel.com?

Did you know we have already given out prizes worth over $150 to our members?

How do we do this? It's simple, a TRUE alternative to ebay has to offer you something that eBay doesn't... and plainly put, that is NO FEEs to list and sell your items. I am able to do this, because I am willing to make the personal investment for the betterment of the community with a little help from simple, clean, relevant ads on the home page and soon within the Auction Update Emails that you get! No gimmicks, nothing more than simple hardwork and a great feel for the community.

There are no ambitions to get rich at GameGavel.com, that's one reason I went the route of having free auctions. The other reason is, we are all tired of paying fees to sell our stuff! It is that simple!

The reality of the situation is this, in the past Game Auction sites didn't survive. The history is available within this very thread to prove it. That is of course, until now. I have learned that their mistakes have been my learning points on how to make GameGavel.com the most successful Gaming Auciton Site on the Internet.

GameGavel

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

In honor of Memorial Day, I have increased the Sign Up Bonus to $20. This will run until Tuesday, May 27.

If the site is free to use, why have money in an account? To feature your auctions on the front page, and bump them up to the top of the Categories of course! Great auctions deserve the most coverage, and you can ensure that by using a very modestly priced Feature Option. Everything is free at GameGavel except the Featuring Options, so why not give it a try! With the extra Sign Up Bonus.. you can feature more than ever... now for FREE!

www.gamegavel.com

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

Over the past few weeks I have been diligently working on a new theme for GameGavel.com. Today I finally felt it was ready to launch. I hope you all enjoy, you can see the new layout and perhaps join GameGavel here:

www.gamegavel.com

Don't forget about our 5-5-5 Contest, where when you buy 5 items, sell 5 items, or even refer 5 friends to GameGavel.com between now and July 1 you can win a Brand New Nintendo DS!

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

The following words seem to be infamous...

In Keeping with the latest Trends...

Game Gavel is happy to announce its Preferred Seller Program, which is the fruition of an idea by one DP's own members! For $25 you can have all of the upgrade fees and store fee's wiped from the face of the earth for as long as you use GameGavel.com!

Here is the listing:

http://www.gamegavel.com/GameGavels-Preferred-Seller-Status,name,101995,auction_id,auction_details

Since GameGavel.com provides free Auctions for its users, we rely on simple gaming ads (Yes, we now have a few paid ads! No more Google Ads!) And programs like this and auction upgrade fees and store fees. Now you can cut all of those fees and ensure GameGavel.com's place in all of your digital hearts!

Thank you for your support so far in all of this. We are on the verge of hitting 300 members, I can almost feel it!

[Lochlan]

The site is still extremely hard to navigate.  Trying to find your trading rating page was labyrinthine in its difficulty.  I wish you would work on improving the user experience more

This website might help: http://www.useit.com/

The phrase of the day for you is "information scent".

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

Lochlan, are you referring to reputation pages? Its an entire tab in the members area, and if you are looking at other peoples ratings you can easily see it in the members list or right their on the auction listing.

I guess i don't understand exactly what you are referring to.

[Lochlan]

Lochlan, are you referring to reputation pages? Its an entire tab in the members area, and if you are looking at other peoples ratings you can easily see it in the members list or right their on the auction listing.

I guess i don't understand exactly what you are referring to.

Maybe that's what I mean?  I'm not sure what you mean now .  Sorry, I should have been more clear; I meant this page:
http://www.gamegavel.com/user_reputation.php?user_id=100001

It took me forever to find.  I eventually found it by going to a completed auction page, where the link is featured prominantly as a number representing the net feedback.

My point here is: why can't I access this page from every place that your user name is output by the gamegavel site engine (like you can on eBay, for example)?

For instance:





My larger point, which I snarkily encoded into that link (which you should really check out, by the way -- TONS of great information about web usability from arguably the leading expert on the subject) is that the gamegavel UI is not user-friendly and does not use information scent well, in that it misleads the user into going to an incorrect page that does not feature what they're looking for.  For most users, if they can't find something virtually immediately, they decide that 1) it doesn't exist or 2) it's not worth their time to look further.

The abstraction you've chosen for the site's hierarchy is overly-complicated and requires too much navigation to complete most tasks (and I say this as someone who is reasonably adept at using gamegavel).

If *I* (a web developer and student in both computer science and electrical engineering) have problems with user-interface limitations, you can bet your bottom dollar that the so-called "average" user is going to have that bad a time or worse.

(Consider this: regardless of the problems eBay has in terms of its marketplace, you can not deny that it is easy to use)

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

Lochlan,

I appreciate the amount of thought you have put into presenting your idea. I really like it, and will definitely start coding away to make those things happen. Now that you pointed out what you meant, it is far easier to understand and makes a heck of a lot of sense. (Why didn't I think of this?! D'Oh!)

Shoot me an email, you have it still I presume, I want to discuss this further, but I think it's better to do offline or via IM... easier to do.

In the end, I will do WHATEVER I NEED TOO to get the site running efficiently and smoothly with as little thinking involved as possible.

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

I'd like to thank Lochlan for helping the site grow and provide valuable inputs. He could have passed on and say, eh.. but he knows the value in GameGavel and has helped me out, which means it helps the community. Thanks! I appreciate it, and I am working to get some of those suggestions going!

There was new and important change to GameGavel's Verification Process for selling items. We are going to change it up a bit, and remove the restriction to verify your account before selling. For the most part, this won’t affect many of sellers, and your account will continue to show that you are verified. This helps potential customers know that you indeed not a “bum” seller and have gone through the small process in ensuring we know you are legitimate at GameGavel!

This change mostly affects the buyers out there and their decision to purchase from a particular seller and if the verified account matters or no. So, if you have been on the fence when it comes to selling or listing some items, now you can absolutely free! Just make sure you link your other feedback to ensure people know they are dealing with good people

Here are some fun facts about GameGavel right now:

412 Current Live Auctions!

2058 Auctions Listed at GameGavel since Launch!

317 USERS, Which is up 115 from 3 weeks ago!

24,000 Unique Page Views

Over 7 Mins of average browsing time per person!

WWW.GAMEGAVEL.COM