Having run auctions (and still running auctions) on various sites, this one has something that no other has - auctions end 10 hours after the last bid. No sniping. This means that there is no reason for a buyer to wait until the last minute to place a bid. In a way this is beneficial to a seller as you don;t have to wait until evenings to post your lots. On other sites I schedule auctions to end at night figuring that there is the potential of last minute bidders, and unless you are paying for sniping service (I do) then you can't place last minute bids from work (usually). That being said, I don;t worry about my auctions ending mid day on a Saturday as a person who wants the stamp will probably have their bid in long before that. There is an excellent tutorial on the auctions here
Greg
"auctions end 10 hours after the last bid"
"I get an initial flurry of activity then nothing for the last 7-8 days"
example two is not quite correct; the extension is for 9 hours, not 10, because the system is designed to have everyone have an opportunity to win it with 10 hours to go. If, in example 2, the second bidder had done it with 3 hours remaining, the auction would have been extended by 7 hours.
David, yes, you are correct. The extension is 10 hours from the time that the new high bid is placed. That clears up a little bit of confusion that I have had about this.
Case in point is this closing information from a lot that I just became the high bidder on.
Current Time: Fri 8th April 2016 12:33:40
Closing Time:
All times are in USA Eastern Time Fri 8th April 2016 22:33:37
(Extended from Fri 8th April 2016 16:54:06 due to last bid within 10 hours of closing)
The original closing time was today at 16:54:06
My bid, which became the new high bid within ten hours of the lot's closing, was placed at 12:33:40, with the new lot closing time ten hours from the time of the bid 22:33:37.
Thanks for the clarification.
Does anyone know if a referrer log is available
I have looked at the auctions a number of times but haven't bought anything. I am a big eBay buyer, and had been a successful seller there for a number of years in other collectibles categories.
First, I don't think we have enough traffic to actually have auctions. The sniping argument is mute because there is no spirited competition. Lots are lucky to get a single bid.
I was looking at the auctions a few evenings ago and made a few notes. First, I like covers so I looked at those first. Then I went to the USA category and realized that the same items were repeated here. So I made a note never to go back to the cover category since everything is double posted, just a lot more for a buyer to sort through.
Next I noticed that one seller represented better than 40% of the items in the USA category. Mostly full sheets at rather optimistic prices considering that most US sheets can be bought at a discount off face for postage. I noticed that these auctions were all ending in the next day or so and out of 369 (out of 960 in the entire category) only 3 had bids. So people are wading through all of this. I know I can eliminate a seller from my view, but it doesn't seem a lot of folks are all that savvy on board functions (look at the thread where nobody saw the "jump" button on auction pages).
So did all these auctions run their course and disappear?? Noooo, they all been relisted, as well as a bunch of other sellers lots I noticed expiring the other evening. It's like watching the luggage carousel at the airport.
Last time I looked this seller had 369 of the 960 auctions that were running at the time. That meant there were only 591 auctions being run by all the other sellers.
Today same seller has 418 of 988 auctions. Although there are more auctions, they are all his, with only 570 being run by all the other sellers.
Suggestions I can make? 1. Limit the number of auctions one person can run at a time to 100 2. Limit lots to one category.
I get that this is supposed to be a collector to collector forum. I get that it's all volunteer labor. Just expressing why I don't bother with the auctions here and win several lots a week on eBay
"nobody saw the "jump" button on auction pages"
"Today same seller has 418 of 988 auctions. Although there are more auctions, they are all his, with only 570 being run by all the other sellers."
"Limit lots to one category."
"Limit the number of auctions one person can run at a time to 100"
"Does anyone know if a referrer log is available"
Hey Michael,
A referrer log is a server log that contains urls that were clicked and where it took them.
Like someone can click a country url and the landing page entry will show what was clicked to get them to the list of items page.
When I started this thread, that is what I was looking for because of how my items were getting bids.
Russ
Ah, okay, Russ. I don't know about that.
Not to worry, just a thought
"I have looked at the auctions a number of times but haven't bought anything. I am a big eBay buyer, and had been a successful seller there for a number of years in other collectibles categories.
First, I don't think we have enough traffic to actually have auctions. The sniping argument is mute because there is no spirited competition. Lots are lucky to get a single bid."
"Similarly we should take another look at plain vanilla Auctions to serve needs not currently served in commercial sites or here. We should be offering a unique approach..not just a "me too" Auction platform. This could be a goal we set ourselves to accomplish, and I think it can be done! "
I agree, there are always opportunities to improve any auction site but I disagree that Stamporama's auction experience for sellers is futile. I believe it's how you organize your auctions. Single stamp auctions generally belong in the approval book section with the exception being specialty stamps or higher value stamps. Groups of stamps organized by country, topic or region where the customer is getting many stamps has done really well for me. Lately I tried single stamp auctions but had only limited success. I made a couple of approval books with those same stamps and initially have had good success. The approval books take quite a bit of time to create but offer quick sales and are unique to Stamporama (to my limited knowledge). This is a great cite for both sellers and buyers and information and the moderators do a great job.
"You cant buy a Rolls Royce for the price of a Volkswagen"
"Those people currently "complaining" about having to go through so many lots fail to realise that an increase in membership will undoubtably bring an increase in lots!!"
"There will be complaints that this is actually a "store", (heaven forbid!!!!)"
Does anyone know how a buyer navigates through the site.
I have all my lots listed by country and category and they all end on the same date (14 days).
I get an initial flurry of activity then nothing for the last 7-8 days
Where are they viewing the lots from?
Thanks for you help!
Russromei
re: Buyer Site Navigation
Having run auctions (and still running auctions) on various sites, this one has something that no other has - auctions end 10 hours after the last bid. No sniping. This means that there is no reason for a buyer to wait until the last minute to place a bid. In a way this is beneficial to a seller as you don;t have to wait until evenings to post your lots. On other sites I schedule auctions to end at night figuring that there is the potential of last minute bidders, and unless you are paying for sniping service (I do) then you can't place last minute bids from work (usually). That being said, I don;t worry about my auctions ending mid day on a Saturday as a person who wants the stamp will probably have their bid in long before that. There is an excellent tutorial on the auctions here
Greg
re: Buyer Site Navigation
"auctions end 10 hours after the last bid"
re: Buyer Site Navigation
"I get an initial flurry of activity then nothing for the last 7-8 days"
re: Buyer Site Navigation
example two is not quite correct; the extension is for 9 hours, not 10, because the system is designed to have everyone have an opportunity to win it with 10 hours to go. If, in example 2, the second bidder had done it with 3 hours remaining, the auction would have been extended by 7 hours.
re: Buyer Site Navigation
David, yes, you are correct. The extension is 10 hours from the time that the new high bid is placed. That clears up a little bit of confusion that I have had about this.
Case in point is this closing information from a lot that I just became the high bidder on.
Current Time: Fri 8th April 2016 12:33:40
Closing Time:
All times are in USA Eastern Time Fri 8th April 2016 22:33:37
(Extended from Fri 8th April 2016 16:54:06 due to last bid within 10 hours of closing)
The original closing time was today at 16:54:06
My bid, which became the new high bid within ten hours of the lot's closing, was placed at 12:33:40, with the new lot closing time ten hours from the time of the bid 22:33:37.
Thanks for the clarification.
re: Buyer Site Navigation
Does anyone know if a referrer log is available
re: Buyer Site Navigation
I have looked at the auctions a number of times but haven't bought anything. I am a big eBay buyer, and had been a successful seller there for a number of years in other collectibles categories.
First, I don't think we have enough traffic to actually have auctions. The sniping argument is mute because there is no spirited competition. Lots are lucky to get a single bid.
I was looking at the auctions a few evenings ago and made a few notes. First, I like covers so I looked at those first. Then I went to the USA category and realized that the same items were repeated here. So I made a note never to go back to the cover category since everything is double posted, just a lot more for a buyer to sort through.
Next I noticed that one seller represented better than 40% of the items in the USA category. Mostly full sheets at rather optimistic prices considering that most US sheets can be bought at a discount off face for postage. I noticed that these auctions were all ending in the next day or so and out of 369 (out of 960 in the entire category) only 3 had bids. So people are wading through all of this. I know I can eliminate a seller from my view, but it doesn't seem a lot of folks are all that savvy on board functions (look at the thread where nobody saw the "jump" button on auction pages).
So did all these auctions run their course and disappear?? Noooo, they all been relisted, as well as a bunch of other sellers lots I noticed expiring the other evening. It's like watching the luggage carousel at the airport.
Last time I looked this seller had 369 of the 960 auctions that were running at the time. That meant there were only 591 auctions being run by all the other sellers.
Today same seller has 418 of 988 auctions. Although there are more auctions, they are all his, with only 570 being run by all the other sellers.
Suggestions I can make? 1. Limit the number of auctions one person can run at a time to 100 2. Limit lots to one category.
I get that this is supposed to be a collector to collector forum. I get that it's all volunteer labor. Just expressing why I don't bother with the auctions here and win several lots a week on eBay
re: Buyer Site Navigation
"nobody saw the "jump" button on auction pages"
"Today same seller has 418 of 988 auctions. Although there are more auctions, they are all his, with only 570 being run by all the other sellers."
"Limit lots to one category."
"Limit the number of auctions one person can run at a time to 100"
"Does anyone know if a referrer log is available"
re: Buyer Site Navigation
Hey Michael,
A referrer log is a server log that contains urls that were clicked and where it took them.
Like someone can click a country url and the landing page entry will show what was clicked to get them to the list of items page.
When I started this thread, that is what I was looking for because of how my items were getting bids.
Russ
re: Buyer Site Navigation
Ah, okay, Russ. I don't know about that.
re: Buyer Site Navigation
Not to worry, just a thought
re: Buyer Site Navigation
"I have looked at the auctions a number of times but haven't bought anything. I am a big eBay buyer, and had been a successful seller there for a number of years in other collectibles categories.
First, I don't think we have enough traffic to actually have auctions. The sniping argument is mute because there is no spirited competition. Lots are lucky to get a single bid."
re: Buyer Site Navigation
"Similarly we should take another look at plain vanilla Auctions to serve needs not currently served in commercial sites or here. We should be offering a unique approach..not just a "me too" Auction platform. This could be a goal we set ourselves to accomplish, and I think it can be done! "
re: Buyer Site Navigation
I agree, there are always opportunities to improve any auction site but I disagree that Stamporama's auction experience for sellers is futile. I believe it's how you organize your auctions. Single stamp auctions generally belong in the approval book section with the exception being specialty stamps or higher value stamps. Groups of stamps organized by country, topic or region where the customer is getting many stamps has done really well for me. Lately I tried single stamp auctions but had only limited success. I made a couple of approval books with those same stamps and initially have had good success. The approval books take quite a bit of time to create but offer quick sales and are unique to Stamporama (to my limited knowledge). This is a great cite for both sellers and buyers and information and the moderators do a great job.
re: Buyer Site Navigation
"You cant buy a Rolls Royce for the price of a Volkswagen"
re: Buyer Site Navigation
"Those people currently "complaining" about having to go through so many lots fail to realise that an increase in membership will undoubtably bring an increase in lots!!"
"There will be complaints that this is actually a "store", (heaven forbid!!!!)"