When RD, an online art dealer known to haunt New York area auctions, tried selling on Yahoo last summer, he was encouraged by a small flurry of winning bids on smaller, minor works. So, he decided to list an "important" painting.
"These two guys drove up the price against one another," RD recalled. The winning bid? $10,000.
"I never saw a dime of it," he said. "We contacted both bidders, got some Er, Uh excuses, then never heard back."
RD now almost exclusively sells on eBay. He's not the only one. Comments by eBay sellers on Yahoo sales run the gamut from "Poor" and "Non-Existent," to "It's all the eBay rejects" and "There's no serious money there."
But, why?
Yahoo Auctions have a lot going for them: site traffic on the largest and most popular Internet directory, free listings, and a host of other features that "the big boy," eBay, doesn't, such as choosing the precise day and time for a seller to end an auction. What it doesn't have, according to some hard-core eBayers, is serious bidders.
"Two buyers of the first three auctions I put up disappeared and never paid," said Angela R., an eBay seller dealing in jewelry. "My results on Yahoo have been very poor when compared to Ebay."
However, Yahoo-ers beg to differ.
"Yahoo is the best auction site on the web," according to Steve B., a postcard and collectibles dealer, who added, "eBay is a joke!"
Steve has been on both sides of the fence. He was an eBay user for about a year, he said, but jumped over to Yahoo and is "glad" he did. He cited Yahoo's free listings and image-hosting services among the reasons. So did a host of other online auction users, including Carol Ann E., another eBay refugee and, now, very busy dealer on Yahoo.
"In December, my Yahoo auctions grossed $5,232.74," Carol Ann said. "In the previous year where I had used almost only eBay, my total sales were only $3,114.19."
Carol Ann added that she had listed more items on Yahoo in December 1999 than on eBay for the same month in 1998. But, her costs at Yahoo? "Nothing," she said, point-blank. "[During December of] the previous year, I paid eBay $432.02 to sell on their site." She said her January, 2000 results on Yahoo were just as encouraging, if not more.
- Others also have jumped the fence
- or simply never went into eBay's backyard -- for similar reasons, including Cyndie , a one-year veteran on Yahoo.
"I am homebound and needed money for med[ication] that insurance doesn't cover," she said. "I helps a little bit, and sometimes it helps a lot. I haven't sold on other sites due to cost," she added, citing Yahoo's free listings.
But "free" brings with it negative connotations, according to some.
"I tried to buy and questioned several [Yahoo] sellers about their items and never got my questions answered," eBayer Angela said. "It seems that Yahoo buyers and sellers don't take the auctions as seriously as they do on eBay."
RD echoed Angela's comments, saying, "I've just seen thrill-bidders. Rarely anyone serious."
But Cyndie, who takes both buying and selling quite seriously, believes other Yahoo-ers do, too. "Most people are honest with their products and bidding," she said. It's a business, and "in any business, you treat your customers like you want to be treated."
Rich L., a six-month Yahoo seller with more than a year of eBay experience believes that, over all, most bidders intend to pay and eventually do.
"There is that little percent of them that don't pay for one reason or another, but it happens in any business," Rich said. "I would say about 3 percent don't pay but usually I can get that number to drop with a second e-mail reminder. I would say eBay has about the same numbers."
And Steve wouldn't sell any other way. "Why people would use eBay is beyond me! Yahoo is the best!"
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