Auctions 2 2

[Bryce61]

wow, what reading. I am the guy Mike was talking about here. I used to run the auctions in R.A.C.M.

 

I ran them for about three years. I really enjoyed doing it before the EBAY days. I still have plenty of books to run them again.

 

 

You guys brought back alot of memories for me.

[Architecht]

Discuss:

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=3539621#Post3539621

 

 

[Snake Eyes]

That listing caught my eye earlier today. I like the idea of trying something new to add to the marketplace...several thoughts on this (in no order of importance)

 

1. Nice to see somebody try to add something new...

 

2. I would prefer not to give my email with my bid and keep all board transactions to my pm box here to keep everything in one place and my email to my email account... (not a deal breaker but this is a minor inconvenience for me).

 

3. To be in the spirit of what I read the marketplace rules to be, each listing should have a buy it now...some price with which the seller will end the auction and the boardie wins the book (this seems to be the case in the listing linked above).

 

4. Similar to number three, only board members would be allowed to bid (the exclusive offering rule). I believe this again is the case here as he mentioned the auction was developed specifically for the marketplace threads.

 

Overall, I would probably give placing a bid it a try if it winds up being permissable from the mods point of view...

[shortstack comics]

I actually really dig the idea of auctions here. To many books just sitting not selling. I think Snake Eyes has some really good points though. I agree very strongly with his 2nd and 4th points.

[Snake Eyes]

Hey there Jason...how's life been treating you?

[Comicopolis]

I'm all for auctions on here - please, now that Ebay has finally shot itself in the foot.

 

Not to replace the current format in the sales threads but to co-exist with it.

[Bosco685]

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!

 

Let's try the auction model. eBay just doesn't work anymore, and especially now with the approach of forcing sellers to insure everything.

[Count]

Seems cool. How would this work??? It's an iframe that's linked to a blog... a blog with an auction add-on. What happens after the auction is over? is the OP edited to show the auction results thus removing the iframe?

 

 

[Subliminal]

Great work.

I would like to add that if bidder ID is based are on their forum ID that each person who starts an auction should be allowed to set a minimum postcount threshold per auction for bidders to prevent newly created shill IDs from ruining auctions.

[AJD]

I think this is a good innovation - for all of the reasons others have outlined. The one query I have is regarding reserves - I assume that the opening bid (in this case 20c) is the 'reserve' and highest bidder thereafter wins? I wouldn't want to see hidden reserve prices on these.

[Point Five]

Auctions here are always fun; I'd love to see them take off.

 

That said, realistically it can be pretty tough for a book to generate enough "heat" for an auction, unless it's a red hot book to begin with. Generally speaking, I think the folks that tried auctions here (not counting the recent charity auctions) got results on the weak side, and weren't in a big hurry to do them again. Just my .

[Architecht]

Also note, this is a format that:

 

1) Is controlled by someone other than the collectors society - i.e. welcome to their mailing list most likely. This is not an entirely altruistic move. You may (or may not) think of it as a win-win, but consider the issues.

 

2) This particular implementation is not restricted to the boards. It's possible to find that auction web site outside of the post it was framed in. The "intent" of the tool is boards only for comicwiz, but the reality is that it's not boards-only in point of fact. Given that fact alone (going counter to the not entirely altruistic goal of building and maintaining traffic on this web site) it may be disallowed.

 

3) This could lead to a proliferation of multiple people each hosting their own auction style format like this.

 

Personally, I'm still mulling it over. I'm also considering the fact that CCG may simply want to limit the sophistication of the marketplace to keep it swap-meet oriented. There are other venues for full on commerce.

[Point Five]

No offense to comicwiz, who seems like a good guy, but I kind of agree. It seems like there's a lot of potential problems with integrating your own technology into the forums, impressive as it may be. I think the low-tech, post-in-the-thread auctions are probably still the best way to go here.

[shortstack comics]

Personally, I'm still mulling it over. I'm also considering the fact that CCG may simply want to limit the sophistication of the marketplace to keep it swap-meet oriented. There are other venues for full on commerce.

 

I'm not really worried about CCG... but I wouldn't be for it unless it was approved by the powers that be at CGC.

 

 

I had to be a dork and go for it.... It's really just the jealousy of custom titles

Edited October 27, 2009 by shortstack comics

[Architecht]

Personally, I'm still mulling it over. I'm also considering the fact that CCG may simply want to limit the sophistication of the marketplace to keep it swap-meet oriented. There are other venues for full on commerce.

 

I'm not really worried about CCG... but I wouldn't be for it unless it was approved by the powers that be at CGC.

 

 

I had to be a dork and go for it.... It's really just the jealousy of custom titles

 

CCG is the parent company.

[slym2none]

Personally, I'm still mulling it over. I'm also considering the fact that CCG may simply want to limit the sophistication of the marketplace to keep it swap-meet oriented. There are other venues for full on commerce.

 

I'm not really worried about CCG... but I wouldn't be for it unless it was approved by the powers that be at CGC.

 

 

I had to be a dork and go for it.... It's really just the jealousy of custom titles

 

CCG is the parent company.

 

"I had to be a dork and go for it" is still a great candidate for a custom title...

 

 

 

 

-slym

[shortstack comics]

Personally, I'm still mulling it over. I'm also considering the fact that CCG may simply want to limit the sophistication of the marketplace to keep it swap-meet oriented. There are other venues for full on commerce.

 

I'm not really worried about CCG... but I wouldn't be for it unless it was approved by the powers that be at CGC.

 

 

I had to be a dork and go for it.... It's really just the jealousy of custom titles

 

CCG is the parent company.

 

Like I said... I'm a dork.

[comicwiz]

Good points by Artchitect and point five. I think technology aspects are extremely pertinent in such discussions. Trouble arises when we use technology as the "magic trick" where we want people to keep their eye on the ball, and not watch what is going on with the hands. This said, if we always treated technology with the same level of suspicion and distrust, we wouldn't be where we are today in this hobby.

 

Take for example one of the most important aspects of person-to-person trading in our community - scans. Something as simple as a scan of a comic has many technological aspects that could be distorted and manipulated, and over time we've all learned to pick apart those "tricks" that make a comic book appear to be better than it actually is. This form of collector awareness (and important requirement to stimulate trade) has forced onto sellers the need to provide high-quality, high-resolution images so as to allow as close to real-time viewing over the Web. The CGC boards will not allow an image over 200K so anyone wanting to share or sell goods in the marketplace must seek out a hosting alternative. A high percentage of people choose free image hosting services like Photobucket, though plenty opt for the hosting service of their choice.

 

When we rely on external technologies we do it to stimulate commerce, and no matter how low on the sophistication scale you may think a regular sales thread is in comparison to an auction widget such as the one I posted, technology will always be the enabler to any swap or trade venue. To decide on technological acceptance is one thing, but to base it on feature or scale is fraught with far too many problems, and we could pick apart any of the technologies we currently use in the marketplace in such a way as to make even external image hosting an issue.

 

Ultimately, it comes down to who we are dealing with and the community here is the most important part of the equation. Transparency is also an important piece to the "trust" factor and I've PM'd Architect explaining all the technical aspects of the technology I've used. We have a probation thread for a reason, and IMHO this is the best way to vet irregularities and transgressions in trade, because as we all know very well through our experiences on eBay or maybe even with bad dealings that have taken place in other parts of the interweb, even the lowest scale technology could be abused and misused.

[comicwiz]

Auctions here are always fun; I'd love to see them take off.

 

That said, realistically it can be pretty tough for a book to generate enough "heat" for an auction, unless it's a red hot book to begin with. Generally speaking, I think the folks that tried auctions here (not counting the recent charity auctions) got results on the weak side, and weren't in a big hurry to do them again. Just my .

 

The "fun" and excitement part is what motivated me to get something together.

 

On the point about auction interest, this is a dilemma with any competing service to eBay. However, as is, the format in the marketplace has its own set of interest issues. We have people who start out using a fixed price format in the sales threads, and turn them into reverse auctions with daily and sometimes hourly discounts and price dropping conventions.

 

If I had a choice, I would have wanted to introduce the auction widget when this place was hopping, because there are currently plenty of books in the sales thread which are not moving due to the tough economy. My point here is that there are many factors in understanding interest in a fickle market like comic collecting and format can help, but lack of interest doesn't make it exclusively an issue with the format.

 

Matter of fact, I have a problem with a fixed price format with certain books I want to sell because I'm not sure whether I am pricing them too low or too high in the current market. As many would agree, freshness factor is key, so to have to relist something at a lower price because you've been told you were "high" means its likely hurt your chances of selling the book here.

 

I respect Architects choice to mull it over and at this point all I can say is if the auction widget is accepted on these boards, I wouldn't have any problem putting up books I have been apprehensive about listing as I believe the best way to determine value is to let the crowds and a hammer price dictate it. More to the point, with a "Buy It Now" and minimum starting bid options available in an auction format, this solves the dilemma on whether you are pricing too high/low and IMHO its a win-win for the buyer and seller.

 

I understand familiarity has much to do with participating with anything new, so all I ask is we give it a chance in this regard and to allow an auction element to evolve in the marketplace and if we see things we like/dislike, we use the feedback constructively to make it better for everyone. But to say no because of distrust alone is counter-intuitive to the progress we've made as hobbyists thus far.

[comicwiz]

Seems cool. How would this work??? It's an iframe that's linked to a blog... a blog with an auction add-on. What happens after the auction is over? is the OP edited to show the auction results thus removing the iframe?

 

 

Great question. I've thought a little about this aspect, and the main imperative would be to offload bandwidth on both my server and the boards on an expired listing. I opted for a 1-day auction specifically because I could go back and edit the post and remove the iframe, but what I'm thinking would meet the question you raised is to take a screenshot of the final bid price and post that as a record of auction results to offset the bandwidth concern. Just a thought.